I am working on the GURPS Prime Directive revision. I am creating a list of technologies that each empire has and a section explaining the technology and listing the skill you must have to work it. An example from the list and the section:

Technology Availability by Empire
Andromedan: Displacement devices, maulers, phaser-2s, phaser-3s, power-absorber panels, shuttlecraft (only ones they captured; they never built their own), and tractor-repulsors.
Carnivon: Death bolts, disruptor cannons, phaser-1s, phaser-2s, phaser-3s, and shuttlecraft.

SHIPBOARD EQUIPMENT
Death Bolts
Death bolts are a type of large drone used only by the Carnivons. You must have Artillery (Guided Missile) at TL9 or later to fire death bolts.

Displacement Devices
This Andromedan-only device is based on technologies which other Alpha Quadrant empires cannot begin to understand, even after examining captured examples. The device affects the fabric of space itself, and is related to the Andromedan ability to move rapidly between previously built bases. The device limits the number of ships (fitted with the device) that can operate a device in one area to a maximum of two ships. The targeted ship simply disappears from its original location and reappears in the new location without having traveled between the two hexes (at least not in this dimension). Ships displaced might cross a web or other terrain feature without interaction with that feature. No player character can operate this device; Andromedan robots that need this skill are assumed to have some form of Electronics Operation, but no one is sure.

Is this useful to you as a player and GM? What do you think of it?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 11:02 am: Edit

Looks like it would make for an interesting set of additions to the ruleset.


The Carnivons might have use for heel nippers (as well as anti-drones, for the "lost empire" Carnivons in SFB Module C6), along with the technologies listed above.

As for death bolts, might it be worth adding a note about the manual requirements needed to actually operate each death bolt, over and above those needed to handle drones? (In SFB terms, each death bolt must be prepared via a deck crew action prior to launch.) Also, as "warp-seeking" weapons, might death bolts require TL 10 and above to operate? (It's not yet clear in SFB terms what, if any, kind of seeking weapon was used by the TL 9 Carnivon fleet.)

And on a broader note, is the intent to present the Carnivons (and, for that matter, the Paravians) as they historically existed in the Alpha Octant - in the sense that they would only be present for campaigns set in the Early Years - or would their respective entries be written in the core rulebook revision with the "modern" data from Module C6 in mind?


As for the Andromedans, would Andromedan batteries be worth noting as an additional technology? (The increased capacity of Andro batteries relative to non-X batteries used by other empires, and how this ties in to their use of power absorber panels, are key elements of how their power management dynamics operate.)

So far as displacement devices go, it might be worth noting that an Andro base with its positional stabilizers active may use its own disdevs, over and above the two-ship limit.

Also, should "Alpha Quadrant" be "Alpha Octant", so as to fit SFU terminology? (Of course, technically speaking the Andromedans are not quite an "Alpha Octant" empire in and of themselves.)

On a side note, if there were to be any RPG elements considered for the proposed "dark future" product, perhaps a note could be added over there regarding the Dissection Beam encountered in the Darwin's alternate timeline.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 01:16 pm: Edit

Gary, I included the Carnivons and Paravians up until they were declared extinct. I am not including X-technology or most Early Years technology.

I'm not really getting into Andro technology that much as they are not player characters. I want the GM to have enough information to say to the players, "No, you cannot take the displacement device you found, take out the cloaking device you have in your pirate ship, and put the displacement device there."

The book has grown enough with what absolutely had to be added to add might have beens or other octants. Thanks though for the "Quadrant" catch. That is being fixed.

By Steve Zamboni (Szamboni) on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 01:58 pm: Edit

"Yes, you can take the displacement device you found, take out the cloaking device you have in your pirate ship, and put the displacement device there..."

*one very intense game session later*

"Now that most of the fires are out and you've plugged the hole where the warp engine used to be..."

(It's the Philadelphia Experiment...in Space! Now the Crime Team has to solve the mystery of the Freeze to find and rescue the missing crew - the ones not stuck in the bulkheads, that is.)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Jean:

Thanks for the update.

I have no problem with seeing the topic of what (if anything) to do with the Module C6 material deferred until, or unless, either Prime Directive: Gorns or Prime Directive: Feline Empires were to be worked on.

I look forward to seeing what else may be in store for this latest GPD revision.

By Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Monday, July 02, 2018 - 09:37 pm: Edit

I like this...

By John Williams (Johndw) on Thursday, October 04, 2018 - 10:10 pm: Edit

Got Gurps Federation recently, really enjoying all the background information and whatnot that was included. May get klingon/romulan in the near-ish future too. Kinda sad that Gurps Gorn has't happened yet.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, October 05, 2018 - 12:52 am: Edit

I'm glad you liked it!

By jim howard (Noseybonk) on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 01:12 pm: Edit

on that front if/when a Hydran sourcebook appears you have a least one sale