My thoughts on the matter is... It is hard to write for an audience and easy to write for yourself. If you worry about getting into a rut, then the issue is identifying what rut you think you're in.
I've never run a World War II campaign, but have a strong interest in the vehicles of World War II. I picked up two volumes of statistics on armor thickness, gear ratios, cruising speed, etc - of the various tanks that were captured (the book was printed after the war). That having been said, if someone asked me "hey, could you make a <insert tank name here>"? I'd say "I can give it a try!". If I were to try and build vehicles today for a campaign, it would be for something like a CYBERPUNK 2020 port over to GURPS or maybe try to replicate the feel of BLADERUNNER style vehicles. Imagine trying to do up something akin to the 5th ELEMENT vehicles *amused grin*. In all? I've enjoyed playing with GURPS VEHICLES for historical vehicles/vessels - and am mildly disappointed with VEHICLES 2nd edition when it comes to creating analogs of 1800's age of sail ships. I am even more disappointed to the point of almost ANGER, and the new concepts for vehicles in GURPS 4e. When vessels can go nearly yardarm to yardarm and survive a pounding for hours at a time, so much so that a single ship was known to have pulled out 200 cannonballs from its hull and was operational again within a fortnight. In all fairness, it is possible that some of the attempts to simulate real life vehicles is going to run into issues, not because of bad research per se, but for rules that just don't mesh well with the reality that is involved. None the less, being able to design vehicles for campaigns, and being able to determine what is or is not possible within the game construct itself, is fun. I'd have more fun working on building near future space craft and launch systems - and then build a space colony based on the limitations of said vehicles - to be MORE fun than just pulling numbers out of thin air and moving a story along by fiat. Why? Because it forces the players (and GM!) to work within a frame work and apply ingenuity for problem solving rather than just tossing numbers and concepts together in what amounts to a tossed salad approach. What is perhaps important in all of this, is showing examples of what can be done so that someone tries to do the same thing later on for their specific needs, and find the whole process to be an exercise in frustration. And while you attempt to keep the vehicles campaign neutral - my suggestion is to create a key of sorts, and then outline a campaign. For example? Take a look at the FUTURE ARMADA series of starships being produced by Ki Ryn Studios. It is maddening to see nice designs that are visually appealing, but not be able to stat it out for use with GURPS for a GURPS campaign. The design system seems to be geared towards a D&D space design system than anything else, and I don't own that material to where I can make educated guesses about those ships designs. On the other hand? I can attempt to determine the volume of the ship design, and then import the GURPS VEHICLES rules in to add more details should I desire it. In short? I would say that you might want to create a series of standards for the "Mythical" game world, then work off of that world as you design vehicles for it. Who needs a cab? No one until they spot that the cab is already done and available ;) As for myself? I recall the fun that I had building the Ianic Refueling Corporation for use with my GURPS TRAVELLER campaign. I recall trying to determine the ship traffic rules based on GURPS FAR TRADER rules, and then trying to determine just how much fuel is required. Then I designed Fuel scooping shuttles that dove into the Jovian atmosphere, gathered up fuel, and then deposited the fuel in a nearby station whose only task was to hold the fuel until the ferrying ships (oilers?) would arrive, unload the gathered raw fuel, and then head for the game world. Since the time to reach the world was measured in days, I determined that these "tankers" were also moving refineries as well - capable of maneuvering at 3G's in order to achieve their rapid turnaround required. Then? I looked at what was required for the Ianic Refueling Corporation to service star ships on the planet's ground. This level of detail is not something ANYONE really wants to spend the time on if they're busy with work or life in general, but is happy to look over and then usurp for their own campaigns. So, my advice if you're worried that you're in a rut - start out by asking for a shared concensus on building a "near future" earth based on GURPS 3e tech levels instead of 4e tech levels. Then, figure out what would be the more pressing needs for a campaign moderator describing such a world. Now, you know what makes me laugh? Just recently, I saw an online reference to an experiment involving artificial muscles that potentially are capable of handling roughly 1,000 times the load that organic muscles handle. First thing I thought of was Battle Tech. That rig used to handle a mini-gun in PREDATOR was fabricated by some fellas in the military, and now there is a harness being tested to do just what was done in the movie - act as a stable platform for a guy wielding a chain gun right down to handling the belt feed for it. So - would I be happy trying to simulate some of the weapons from ALIENS the movie? Heck yeah! Would I like to be able to construct vehicles that do what is done in sci-fi movies, stories, or even role playing games elsewhere? Eyup. One thing I'd do is make battery powered vehicles much more expensive simply because batteries in GURPS VEHICLES seem to be a bit over optimistic. That however, is the joy of being a GM. You can pick the rules of the universe you're designing for, and then go with the flow. So Onno - what Game UNIVERSE do you have in mind? _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
