Hello, Mike's mail regarding 1632 got me thinking. A big part of the story is how 20th century people with a limited amount of (civilian) 20th century technology adapt it to fight a war in the 17th century.
Two big problems are the need to build the tools to build the tools and the fact that a modern technical education takes so many tools for granted. Compared to that, the lack of blueprints for modern AFVs is a trivial problem :-) The difference to a classic post-apocalyptic setting is mostly the amount of trash for salvage and the attitude of the castaways. Also compare low-tech worlds in Traveller. The GURPS Traveller setting assumes that there is some trade, and that the primitives will be able to import at least a few radios, a few GPS receivers, a few encyclopedias, unless the world has been red-zoned. But the exchange rates mean they won't have much technology. I was thinking of two different 'scenarios' here. For castaways in time, combine the components of a TL7 truck and any amount of TL4 stuff into an effective vehicle. For Traveller primitives, select imports up to one ton and 5,000 Imperial Credits, plus any amount of lower-TL gear, and build an effective vehicle. The difference is that the castaways start up with a specific set of equipment, while the Traveller primitives can go shopping with a limited budget. An alternative would be to start the Traveller junkyard competition with a worn-out air/raft. I've written some vehicles with similar restrictions before. For a TL5 ship, a GPS, a radio, a battery, and a solar panel can be a real lifesaver. If you build it in from the beginning, a sonar depth finder would be nice, too. For a TL6 tank, again the radio and GPS, plus light amplification and a laser rangefinder. And so on. I'm wondering if that will yield interesting vehicle concepts, and how they will work out with the old 3E rules. Any comments? Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
