p. 52 Yitlians. Right justify the point level. JES 8/30/2019

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, August 30, 2019 - 01:09 pm: Edit

p. 47 Arcturians. Add: Advantages: Night Vision 5 [5]. Change point total to 40. JES 8/30/2019

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, August 30, 2019 - 01:28 pm: Edit

p. 46 Note that the Mynieni cost is correct here. GURPS Feds is incorrect. Advantages: Extra Arms 10 (Short, No physical
attack) [20] is correct.
10*10=100
-50%+-50% becomes -80% by the modifiers limit.
JES 8/30/2018

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, August 30, 2019 - 01:35 pm: Edit

p. 51 Hilidarians. Put disadvantages in alphabetical order. JES 8/30/2019

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 01:12 am: Edit

p. 20 As the UFP had no hostile neighbors in the coreward direction, it began a massive program of exploration in that region in Y125. Furthermore, although most of the millions of stars within the territorial borders of the UFP had been surveyed, only a handful had received detailed exploration and study, and UFP also began more intense efforts to map out its own “internal” territories.

This could be clearer. The part from "d UFP also began more intense efforts to map out its own “internal” territories." reads awarkdly. Maybe replace "UFP also began" with "a", end the sentance with "began"

Ryan J Opel. 8/31/2019

EDITED: Furthermore, although most of the millions of stars within the territorial borders of the UFP had been surveyed, only a handful had received detailed exploration and study. Thus the UFP also began more intense efforts to map out its own “internal” territories.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 01:39 am: Edit

P. 25 Top of column 2 "As pilot characters are still limited to the standard number of points for your campaign (e.g., 125), the" seems to belong after the 3rd line in the 1st column. Right after (See Chapter 8.)

Ryan J Opel. 8/31/2019

EDIT: Somehow the text had gotten corrupted. That paragraph is fixed.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 02:13 am: Edit

P 26 The last line of the damage table bled over to page 27.

Ryan J Opel. 8/31/2019

EDITED: Fixed. An extra carriage return crept in much earlier. And it was tricky with boxed text leading off the page.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 03:16 am: Edit

p. 43 2nd column, 1st para, that end has an extra carriage return, splitting the sentance.

Ryan J Opel. 8/31/2019

EDITED: Fixed.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Reported elsewhere: p. 325 Correct GURPS Starships to be GURPS Spaceships. 8/31/2019 Tom Vallejos

FIXED.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Saturday, August 31, 2019 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Everything to this point has been fixed.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, September 02, 2019 - 02:24 pm: Edit

p. 3 Using SFB and FC for Space Combat in Table of Contents page is incorrect. Says pg 291 but should be 299. Edward Pellaeon 9/2/2019

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, September 02, 2019 - 03:53 pm: Edit

p. 254. The reference to GURPS TL15 should be TL9^. From the SJG Forum 9/2/2019

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Tuesday, September 03, 2019 - 04:25 pm: Edit

p. 296. Precise distance is on p. 297 not 287.

p. 299. The chart referred to under Weapons Officer is on p. 300, not p. 290

Throughout the book references in the text to anything higher than p. 253 are 10 pages short.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 02:11 pm: Edit

After some discussion on the SJG forums about the damage caused by phasers and about stunning not really working, this is what was decided

I cannot change the actual damage done as that must remain comparable to the disruptors. The heavier phasers are the ones that actually have a chance of really doing damage. I don't want the lowest settings to kill the character immediately and then have the heavier weapons make him "more deader."

However, I have talked to SVC and have explained the problem with stunning not really working. I think I can fix it with saying that the phaser hits and then the stun is a Follow-Up (ignoring DR that way). That should mean that stunning works the way it was intended.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 04:29 pm: Edit

After a bit of a rocky start, things appear to be going well there now.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 04:38 pm: Edit

When I'm writing fiction, I use the terms "hand phaser" for what the TV show called the Type-1 and "phaser pistol" for the Type-2 (see the Horta episode).

I haven't used it in any story, but there can be a case made that the Type-2 is actually a frame and larger power supply to snap a Type-1 on. If you had to, you could remove the phaser part from the pistol and use it as a hand phaser.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Furthermore, although most of the millions of stars within the territorial borders of the UFP had been surveyed, only a handful had received detailed exploration and study. Thus the UFP also began more intense efforts to map out its own “internal” territories."

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 05:29 pm: Edit

Phaser Stun: Phaser weapons can be set to stun. This is treated as an Affliction with Unconsciousness (p. 82) and Follow-Up (p. 112), as modified:

When a person is hit by a phaser stun attack, he must make an HT roll with a penalty based on the stun setting; for example, a phaser set on Stun-1 requires a HT-1 roll, Stun-2 a HT-2 roll, etc. If a person is hit by more than one phaser stun attack, then increase the penalty to the HT roll by 2 per additional hit taken. Ignore any DR for the HT roll; however, the person gets a bonus (or penalty) based on his Size Modifier.

+++

I think this works because a glancing shot may not be enough to stun the person and the roll reflects that maybe they caught your foot as you dove around the corner. "You feel a tingling in your foot and know that you were grazed by a phaser on stun."

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 06:04 pm: Edit

I just read the SJG forums. I love how they say "phasers are too weak", but when asked for numbers, nobody suggests any. {sigh} Also, a couple people got laser-focused on the TV show in which targets were almost always vaporized, except when Kirk ordered "Phasers to stun."


Garth L. Getgen

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 10:13 pm: Edit

In fairness to the SJGames Forums, they have specific issues, with examples.

This is the basic example in plain language, assuming you do not understand GURPS jargon.

First a damage rating of 4d(3) per shot for the Dsint-1 setting means 4d6 points of damage with an armor divisor of 3. A standard uniform has a DR (Damage Resistance) of 8, this would take 2 points of damage off of every shot. During the time period that ToS uses, Light combat armor has a DR40, Medium DR62, and Heavy has a DR85. The armor divisor does not apply to your hit points.

To make an average human with 10 hit points turn white and disappear, as they do several times in TOS, you need to hit them with 100 points of damage, to automatically kill them you would need 50 points. The average damage on the Type II phaser pistol is 16 points, max is 24, if you manage to hit with all of the 3 shots per turn (RoF 3) on the same target, not automatic, nor even easy depending on circumstance, you will average 48 points, or max at 72 points of damage. The Type II phaser cannot do something it is shown repeatedly doing on screen.

Even the heavy duty repeating and pulse phasers average only 28 points of damage on their max setting, with max damage being 48 per shot. The Rate of Fire of 8, does give them a decent chance to make something go away, but even it is not one shot, one kill.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 11:50 pm: Edit

And I have pointed out that TOS phasers are like the guns in 1960s Westerns -- they kill instantly and neatly. Furthermore, we really haven't seen in TOS a light phaser used against battle armor.

If I make the light phaser do what it does in TOS, there is no reason to have bigger, more powerful phasers. Dead, deader, more deader, deadest, and most deadest are sort of useless for gaming.

The solution I presented above should work. An automatic stun isn't in the works, leaving characters to live longer. (Why disintegrate anyone when you stun everyone and cut their throats?) And remember that what is good for the killing villains is also good for killing the player characters.

It isn't easy to balance playability and accurate weapon progression. I do try to do a good job, but I know I am not perfect.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Friday, September 06, 2019 - 12:35 am: Edit

Which is a good way to do it, in no way did I intend this to be any form of compliant with your solution.

I was merely outlining their concerns in not GURPS jargon. Like this Board with the various SFU games, a lot of short hand is used there that those unfamiliar with it may miss.

By Jeffrey George Anderson (Jeff) on Friday, September 06, 2019 - 07:51 pm: Edit

Would this be a good place to remind everyone (myself included) that the ADB, Inc. SFU is NOT Star Trek?

In a number of Trek episodes, the phasers were fired as continuous streams (at ground targets), something they DON'T do in the SFU.

In the dogfight in "Journey to Babel," when Sulu fired on the Orion ship with the phasers, he MISSED with every shot. Again, not something in SFU.

Further, when the Orion was lured in, it took just one shot to cripple it SO badly that they chose to self-destruct.

In "Balance of Terror," the phasers fired off "Depth Charge" blasts.

While the game(s) we love were based loosely on the Franz Joseph Technical Manual, there is SO much about the universe that has deviated far from the television series.

For that reason, I'd be much happier if the developers don't have the SFU hand phasers work the way the TV ones do; it'd be annoying to have a character get auto-killed by a single shot that way.