Psi-Wars Report Card: August 2020

So, while the rest of you were distracted by my month of PDF Challenge reviews, I've been busy at work behind the scenes updating quite a bit of the Psi-Wars Wiki and, finally, moving past some big blocks and making some real progress.

A quick look at the highlights:

Traders

Art by Kriz Villacis; property of Daniel Dover

AGES ago, back in Iteration 5, we ran a "create an alien" poll. It was one of my more successful polls, and set a lot of the tone for future polls.  The result of the poll was the "Traders," a race of alien wanderers who live in vast Arks, excel at technology and join the Shinjurai in their love of Neo-Rationalism.

• You can read up on their culture and character information here
• You can read up on their technology here
• You can read up on their Guildfleets here

Maradonian Tech

Because you guys seem unable to get enough of the space nobility, I've created a page that compiles all Maradonian technology into a single page.  This was mostly a "prototype" for "Trader Tech" to see what it would need, but I also used it to showcase a new armor: the Chevalier, a pilot suit for wealthy nobles who like to play at being fighter aces (a highly requested feature during Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt).  You can check out it here.

Yes, I do intend to do that with other culture groups.

The Call to Adventure and Crossing the Threshold

I had been asked by some of my backers to prioritize the "Call to Adventure," or how to get a Psi-Wars adventure started.  I've been building my rules around the concepts outlined in the monomyth, thus these rules focused on: how to start an adventure, and how to actually get to the adventure.

The first isn't so different from what we see in Action, but I've put greater emphasis on "slice of life."  People don't much care about the daily lives of most characters in an Action setting: whether a sniper has a wife and kids is worth, at most, a brief nod, as we can imagine that.  But in a sci-fi setting, we might want to linger on the daily lives of characters: we want to see Luke tend to the Moisture Farm, and we want to see K get home from work and be greeted by his holographic girlfriend.  It helps show us how the setting works and grounds the rest of the story.  You can read up on it here.

Second, another longtime backer complained about his inability to grasp navigation details; he understood what it looked like on "the micro", as in what it took to get from one star to another star, but he had questions about "the macro," what a particular journey might look like and, he correctly pointed out, most journeys across the galaxy will look like "macro" journeys.  I've already hit this with a post, but if you missed it, you can read up on the details here.

Spaceships, Spaceships, Spaceships

The lionshare of the work on Traders focused on spaceships, and while I was there, I thought I might as well get caught up on the starships of the rest of the Galaxy.  I've included all the rest of the Imperial and ARC capital ships and updated a few more Redjack Corvettes (only two remain off the wiki).  You can check out the complete (current) list of vehicles here.

INTO THE FUTURE

I'm beginning to lay the basic groundwork for the next playtest which will focus on Civilian Tech, but in the meantime, I've dropped some polls on what people would like to see me focus on next.  The winners are:

• Orion Tech, the second-rate weaponry of the powers of the Umbral Rim, who pretend to be as effective as the Empire, while using their drugged-up slave-armies to conquer worlds.
• The Frontier Marshal: the break-out winner (and somehow longtime favorite) of our latest Template poll

Further, I'd like to work on the Outcast Lens, and round off some material to get us our fourth Bounty Hunter Lodge, the Manticore Initiative, which involves delving into the complex biomedical world of Xen.  I don't know how far I'll get with all of these, but I've already made some good progress, so with luck we'll have quite some things to show in the coming month.  For Backers, I've created a project report, so you can track the status of smaller elements

• For Subscribers
• For Patrons

GURPS PDF Challenge: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 21: Megadungeons

 So, here we are.  We've made it through the total line up and reached "the cream of the crop," the ultimate release of the PDF Challenge.  Was it worth it?

In short: yes, it's worth your money.  I should clarify up front that at the end of the day, this is a "GM Advice" book more than a resource, though it does include some tables in it. Maybe I'm not the best person to judge a dungeon fantasy book, and I'm not generally a fan of "GM Advice" books, but I legitimately found this useful and it's made me reconsider some of my hesitations towards the genre.  I think if the rest of the DF line began to follow the logic laid out by Dell'Orto, it would only profit from it. That said, I think after you've read it and digested the information within, I doubt you'll read it again (perhaps to use a few of the tables).

GURPS PDF Challenge Reviews: Horror: Beyond the Pale

We're almost done.  This is the penultimate release from the PDF challenge, and it's unique in that it's an adventure that isn't for a framework, but for "vanilla" horror itself.

The executive summary is this: This doesn't work as an adventure.  It's alright as a "Creatures of the Night" entry, though I'm not the biggest fan of the monsters, but as an adventure, the book puts too much attention on the introduction and the resolution, gives you details you don't need, and shrugs at getting the players from point A to point B.

I would skip this one.

GURPS PDF Challenge: Boardoom and Curia: Tomorrow Rides

 We're entering the final stretch.  Only three left to go!  And today, we have the maddest of the bunch: Tomorrow Rides!

The executive summary is this: you can skip this. I like it, but that's more a matter of personal taste.  It's not a bad book, by any stretch, and it's quite a creative work that will interface well with Action 6, but there's nothing in here that you need, and it won't do much for any game but offer a bit of flavor and background on a couple of things.

Psi-Wars Wiki Highlight: Navigation Revised

 A Backer, Mavrick, had many questions and complaints about how Navigation was handled in Psi-Wars.  This might seem like a small complaint, something easily handwaved away... right up until you have those questions! So I've tried to address it in a new update to the wiki, found here.

 EDIT: I've been reorganizing the wiki a bit.  It's actually here now.

If you're a backer, I have a design diary that outlines how I came to the conclusions that I did, including tables and a discussion of outdated, historical hyperdrives.  This is available for Fellow Travelers ($3+) Backers.

• SubscribeStar Link
• Patreon Link
  

GURPS PDF Challenge Review: Action 7: Mercenaries

Mercenaries unlocked ninth in the GURPS PDF Challenge.  This continues the Action series by offering a "campaign lens" to further customize your Action campaign.

My executive summary is: this is good! It wasn't what I expected, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.  It's chock-full of ideas, and if you're at a loss as to what to do with GURPS Action, this makes a great entry-way into a campaign. I would very much welcome a variety of books like this for action, even at this word count.  Like GURPS Action 6: this is a very economical book that squeezes everything it can out of its word count, and at $3, you'll feel like you underpaid for it.

 Have you ever wanted to run the Expendables in GURPS? This is the book for you.

GURPS PDF Challenge Review: Monster Hunters Encounter 1

8th in our series comes a Monster Hunters book, the second most supported series of campaign frameworks.  This is, in essence, an adventure book, but it actually manages to contain not one, but two adventures for the same page count.  How is it able to do this?

My TL;DR summary is: This is fine.  It feels rather by-the-numbers, and I'd end up fleshing them out a lot, but unlike some other works I've panned, the skeleton provided by Rice is actually quite useful.  Of the two, the second is definitely better than the first. The more I work with them and dive in, the more I like them, but neither of them are going to "wow" anyone.  They're work-horse with some decent design.  For $3, you could do worse than this set of adventures, and it's a decent illustration as to how Monster Hunters should work, but I would have preferred the first one to be more innovative.  All that said, this is worth your $3.

GURPS PDF Challenge Review: Reign of Steel: Read the Sky

Next in our series, we come to Reign of Steel: Read the Sky, an adventure for Reign of Steel, a GURPS setting about a post-apocalyptic world conquered by murderous, super-intelligent AI.

The executive summary: this is good.  Very good.  I will definitely use it.  I also think it's the best work to utilize the space given to it out of any of the GURPS PDF Challenge books I've read so far.  It's not great. It won't blow your mind, and it has some issues, but it definitely has a place in your library as a work-a-day adventure for introducing people to Reign of Steel. It also provides some useful ideas for other games (especially GURPS Action).

GURPS PDF Challenge Review: The Broken Clockwork World

Let's do the TL;DR first.  Hey, do you like Isekai anime? Or Stranger Things? Have you considered a story where characters go from our world into another, or things from another world spill into ours? Have you considered making the other world a broken, clockwork, steampunk work with some sumerian elements?

That's it. That's the book. You literally have all the support the game offers you (aside from a couple of steampunk robot-monsters, and a very deep discussion of portals) in the above paragraph.

I'm exaggerating a little, but that was definitely my first impression and it barely got better on a deeper reading. It's not good. It's frustrating because I want it to be good, but it let me down completely.  This book fails as a setting book.  It's passable as a "campaign elevator pitch," which you shouldn't be paying $3 for.  I would give this one a miss.

GURPS PDF Challenge Reviews: How to GM: Ritual Path Magic

 Even before we start, this book comes at two disadvantages.  First, its title starts with the letter "H" rather than "G" which messes with my alphabetical ordering of my folder. Second, I don't use RPM for a variety of reasons. Thus, for me, this was definitely in the camp of "I got it in a bundle" rather than something I would buy if it showed up on Warehouse 23. This will doubtlessly color my review and make it hard for me to objectively judge the quality of this book, but I'll do my best!

The book breaks down into

• Tips, Tricks and More, which covers what you'd actually expect the book to be about
• Ritual Path Magic Ultra-Lite, which was quite a surprise, but not an unwelcome one
• Examples, a list of pre-rendered spells.

Overall, from my biased, uninformed perspective, it looks like a pretty good book.  I  mean, I've looked into RPM, and I had questions and concerns, and this book addressed those.  It didn't make me rethink my position on RPM, but that wasn't its purpose.  So I'd call this work a success: If you actually do want to use RPM, but you find you struggle with it, this may well be a book for you, if you don't mind paying $3 for some GM advice (which, we must admit, is a pretty small asking fee.)

The GURPS PDF Challenge Review: DF Adventures 3: Deep Night and the Star

The fourth PDF to unlock in the GURPS PDF Challenge was Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 3: Deep Night and the Star.

Now, this one leaves me at a disadvantage.  Yes, I've played Dungeon Fantasy, though no more than a few sessions at a time.  While I own most of the books, and I wouldn't hesitate to run it, I'm not the sort of man that runs many adventures out of a book.  I also tend to lean more heavily towards "Tell a heroic narrative" side of the fantasy spectrum than the "kill monsters and take their stuff" side of the spectrum, which means that people like Dell'Orto will probably do a better job of telling you if the adventure is well balanced and such.  Thus, with that caveat, let's explore!

The book is broken up into two chapters (though in practice it feels like three)

• Prologue
• Atoep

In Atoep, they have a final section on "new monsters" which I would have treated as its own (one page) section.

The prologue explains the premise: the stars are misaligned and demons and eldritch things pour out of the darkness.  These come from some eldritch space-think, and the wise old sage has created a portal that allows the heroes to reach it.  They must go there, and kill it by delving into three different living dungeons. That will end the eldritch incursion.

I like the premise of the adventure well enough, but I feel like the execution falls flat and risks being repetitive.  I think it's a good idea, but it feels more like the seed of an adventure than a proper adventure.  Would I recommend it? I'm less confident in it than the others, but for $3, it's hard to say no.  I just wouldn't expect too much out of it.

Wiki Highlight: Maradonian Technology

Psi-Wars has three major branches of humanity.  The branch from whence came the psychic elites and space knight aristocracy were the descendants of the war torn Maradon and their hero, the brutal crusader Alexus Rex, who conquered the galaxy thousands of years ago.

In Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt, we had several space knight pilots who wanted a slim, fitting, fashionable alternative to the generic vacc suit. Thus, I set about creating the Chevalier suit, a cross between a space knight "duelist" armor and a vacc suit.  The result, is a slender, form fitting armor that, I hope, pleases them.

But while working on it, I decided to see if I could pull together a few scattered bits of Maradonian technology I had wanted to do for awhile:

• A tweak to force swords
• The Maradonian Signet
• The ARC pilot suit

And a unified page for everything.  True, you can find their technology on the collected, singular page, but I think some people would like to explore the technology of a single group and look at its implications.  This was inspired by Traders, who have quite some detailed elements that would best be served by having their own page, but if they have one, why not the other cultural groups?

So, today's post is a grab-bag of Maradonian elements. You can find the Maradonian Tech page here.  Enjoy!

GURPS PDF Challenge Reviews: GURPS Template Toolkit 3: Spaceship Crew

Following the unlock order of the PDF challenge, we come now to Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew, which turns out to be exactly what it says on the tin.

The book is split into two parts (nout counting the introduction).

• Job Openings (a list of templates)
• Assembling Crew (suggestions for using the templates)
  

Briefly summarized, this is exactly what you'd think it would be, providing us with several templates for building a spaceship crew. It's also very good, which means that we're batting 3 for 3 with the releases and reviews.

Also, as an side: this is some of the best art I've seen in a PDF.  SJGames invested more than I would have guessed into these PDFs (though you'll see some art re-used as you go through all of the PDFs).

With that, there might not be much more to say about it, but if you know anything about my process, you likely know I find this a very interesting book.  But I think it's more interesting than you likely realize, because of what it signals about the intentions of GURPS.  Why is it a Template Toolkit, and what can you do with it?

The GURPS PDF Challenge Reviews: The Incense Trail

Continuing my reviews of all the GURPS PDF Challenge, we move on to Hot Spots: the Incense Trail.  By Matt Rigsby, one of my readers commented "It's Matt Riggsby, of course it's going to be good," and the executive summary here is that they're right: this is exactly the sort of thing we'd expect from Mr. Riggsby.

The book breaks down into:

• Geography and Land Use
• History
• Economy and Culture
• Gazeteer
• Campaigning 

Ultimately, this is about the pre-Muslim Arabian Peninsula, primarily from roughly 500 BC to 500 AD, which makes it an interesting time period because it isn't covered by most GURPS books (the closest he can get are GURPS Egypt and GURPS Rome, both of which are merely adjacent to the region in question).

The GURPS PDF Challenge Reviews: Tricked Out Rides

So, in the beginning of July, Warehouse 23 ran a Kickstarter, the "2020 PDF Challenge" which included 12 PDFs.  I'm going to try to review all twelve (in the order they were released).  If you missed the challenge and want to pick them up, I think you still can, and I believe the price is around $3 apiece.

The first to drop was Action 6: Tricked-Out Rides.  TL;DR: This is totally worth getting for anyone who follows the Action Line.  It's not GURPS Vehicles by any stretch, but it's more than enough for most action games. It has a few holes (it really should have jump jets for cars), but by and large, it'll let you build almost any car (not motorcycle, tank or fighter jet) that you'd like to see in an Action game.