GURPS: Space (GURPS, Steve Jackson Games, 1990) | Retro RPG

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Description: "Roleplaying in the Worlds of Tomorrow."
The Future Is Yours!
At last... the star-spanning sourcebook for the Generic Universal RolePlaying System. In the 128 pages of GURPS Space, you'll find:
Detailed, scientifically correct rules for creating star systems and planets... either randomly, or to fit a specific campaign.
21 character types, with new advantages, disadvantages and skills for a future campaign.
Three variant human races - heavy-worlders, light-worlders and Spacers - and guidelines for creating other forms.
Four alien races. Meet the savage, near-human Gormelites; the graceful, aggressive Sparrials; the weird, sex-changing Pachekki; and the powerful, half-plant Treefolk.
Science-fiction gadgets, weapons, and medical technology.
Starship construction rules from TL8 (just around the corner) to TL15+ (science fantasy).
Quick but detailed abstract ship combat rules - no ship counters, just roleplaying - for a quick determination of fleet damage, individual ship damage, and injury to characters.
GURPS Space doesn't tie your game to a single background. Rather, it is designed for the creative GM who wants to develop his own universe! This book presents a wide variety of choices and background information to let you recreate your favorite science-fiction background - or build your own.
Years in the making, GURPS Space is a survey of the whole space-adventure genre as it related to roleplaying. If you're ready to create your own future... it's yours.
#rpg #gurps

[@vincentcleaver1925]

Fond memories of this edition

[@RPGGamer]

It's a lovely book, as most of the GURPS books were.

[@jamesmansson4757]

Looking at my copy of this, the copyright dates are 1988, 1990, 1993, which I guess dates the science fiction. Also, I suppose that the authors would have grown up with older science fiction, which would explain the 1970s (and earlier) influences.

[@RPGGamer]

I kind of wish the game was a totally retro sf book, as that was the time I was growing up, and would love to run games in that type of setting, I recently picked up the Starblazer RPG with that in mind.

[@allluckyseven]

Yeah, that's some pretty basic stuff. But I guess they have other books to further expand on those concepts if gamers are interested. Things like Gurps Aliens, Bio-tech, Robots, Transhuman Space... That's for 3rd edition, though. For 4th edition they have included a bunch of newer stuff, including, yes, Wormhole drives. And also Probability drives...

[@RPGGamer]

That's cool, I'm glad they continued expanding the book and not just updating it.

[@pauldemelto6650]

It got votes because GURPS is much better than you're giving it credit for here. That's an early edition of a book (There's a later one) for an earlier edition of the game (There's also a 4th editiin Space book) The reason it seems to rely on skills from other books is because you need the 3rd Edition Basic Set book to use this, a fact i don't think you even mentioned. It has skills appropriate for a sci fi game to start with. Any skills fit for sci fi from other 3rd edition books can be ported in without mods. Also... there's not only a later 3rd edition sci fi book with an updated cover art, and some newer interior art, but there are also several other sci fi settings and splat books (another commenter named several) that would be grear for sci fi.... so the comparison with d6 Space may seem apt because it's a generic sci fi game, and it may seem cooler because it has wormholes, but its also a COMPLETELY different animal than GURPS, another fact that would have been worth mentioning. There's actually far more material, rules, ideas, and additions for a GURPS sci fi game than d6 even came close to. (As cool as d6 Space is) d6 Space is more of a rules-light, all in one book, simple toolbox whereas GURPS 3E SPACE is more like an expansion for the Basic Set. GURPS 4e Space is widely heralded as one of the best rpg sci fi supplements ever, and it is. Another excellent, and comparable product for you to review would be the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition Sci Fi Supplement. I think it would suit your taste more in terms of currency and popular themes, but again, you need to let people know they need that SW Explorer book to play it! Thanks for the reviews... i didn't feel you quite get GURPS, but i love your channel!

[@RPGGamer]

A lot here to unpack and I think you've misread what I've meant. For example, I never questioned why GURPS got a lot of votes. I questioned whether I'd been unfair in putting a single GURPS book up against 3 different Rifts books, thereby giving fans of Rifts three ways to split their vote. But then I point out that even adding all the Rifts votes together, they still come out 10% behind GURPS, so it was a fair win. I didn't mention the core rulebook for GURPS, as I wasn't looking at it in this video, just as in my videos for Shadowrun sourcebooks, or D&D sourcebooks I don't mention their rulebooks either. Where I mention D6 Space, it's to say that it has a wider variety of technologies in it. But I do mention that this book is from 1990, and D6 Space is from the early 2000's, so loads of scifi had become popular introducing many ideas which weren't so well known back in the 90's. Which leaves this particular edition seemingly missing a lot of things which seem so much part of SF now. I love GURPS, it's a fantastic toolbox of ideas to put together, it's a game where the different sourcebooks give you so much to build your own universes (Arabian Adventures + Space are two of the books I own, and I definitely think you could do a science fiction version of Arabian Adventures which would be fantastic., Romans + Cyberpunk, etc, etc). As for Savage Worlds, I had a look and didn't like it as a generic rule set. For Deadlands the rules make so much sense, a cowboy RPG where you use Dice, Playing Cards and Poker Chips, really adds to the experience, but for non-wild west games, it felt ill-suited.

[@pauldemelto6650]

@RPGGamer I wasn't referring to the Savage World's system. I never used it. I was just talking about the science fiction supplement from the Explorer's Edition was a great book. I was just saying that it would be helpful to mention where the rest of the skulls could be located. Just like with the GURPS book. I probably didn't get into Savage Worlds for some of the same reasons. True20 was much better during that era IMHO.

[@pauldemelto6650]

@@RPGGamer Also, if you want something as retro as Flash Gordon, maybe try Planet Patrol. It's neat, but the presentation is a bit plain, lol.

[@richmcgee434]

Quite a bit of the art here is recycled from The Space Gamer magazine, so mostly late 1970s and 1980s era. Hell, most of the alien species are from an old TSG article where they were originally statted for Traveller. That said, I have no idea what you think "Seventies scifi" is supposed to look like or why it would be an issue to use it. You going to bitch about Star Wars looking like it can from the 70s? 'Cause it did, and it still looks it. And you know full well that no one in 1990 was using the term "gender" correctly by 2023 standards. Heck, I don't think you're even using it correctly here and you don't have the excuse of being 30+ years in the past the book does. Every place they use the word here they really mean biological sex, and while just having two on many species is a little narrow, it's hardly unusual in scifi unless the point of the story is exploring how reproduction works with more than two sexes involved and what (if any) cultural effects that might produce. That could make for an interesting story in lit or RP, but it seems a bit specialized for this very generic splatbook.

[@RPGGamer]

Okay difficult to defend a particular statement I made many months ago, but artwork definitely changes dependent on the decade it was done it. As 70's futurism is different to 80's futurism (which tends to have bigger shoulderpads and loads of neon). While a game can definitely try to be from an era (Starblazer RPG for example is pure 70's even though it wasn't published until 2008), I found it odd that GURPs space looked to be retro, when it was published in 1990, especially when usually GURPs so reliably tries to be era independent. As for gender, it doesn't seem much to say for example, a species has 3 sexes, a male, female and egg carrier. The Egg Carriers are rarer, and not seen off world, forcing the others to return home to breed? A species has 4 genders, male, female, drone and soldier, but as they got more advanced, they basically abort the soldiers as they're not much use in a modern society, and only the male and female are required for breeding. Etc, etc. GURPs books are usually so full of ideas and imagination, the sparking point of so many campaigns and adventures, but in this area every alien just being male or female doesn't spark anything.