ShapeShifter
SOC-13
Getting back to my earlier question:
How hard/easy would it be to convert GURPS Starports to CT?
How hard/easy would it be to convert GURPS Starports to CT?
[CT-JG] Review Request
- Thread starter ShapeShifter
- Start date
ShapeShifter,
Very hard, sadly, because Starports is a wonderful book.
Starports relies very heavily on the GT economic system and that system is very different from the economic system in CT. Starports also uses G:T's vehicle construction system which is also different from CT.
When using Starports, you first determine the amount of trade entering in and passing through the system in order to "size" the port itself. While the starport's rating will require certain capabilities be built, most of the physical size of the port is determined by the amount of traffic the system sees. So, once you know how much traffic the port must handle and what services the port provides, you build all the various "modules" required within a budget that the traffic produces.
As I wrote earlier, it's a wonderful book. I just don't see how it can be used easily outside the framework of GT.
Regards,
Bill
E.D.Quibell
SOC-13
Personally I don't see the issue with working out the trade and passenger volumes of a world by converting the UPP to GURPS (quite easy) and working through far trader (in fact this has already been done for the OTU), and then building a starport using the rules in starports.
While this isn't CT compatible it is descriptive compatible. It will tell you the trade volumes, which give you an indication of just how many ships will be in the system, and it lets you know how big and what components are used in how the starport is built.
If I was playing CT I would then just ignore the GURPS economics completely for the players and use CT's.
This way you get all the descriptive bits from GURPS, and you play using the CT economic rules.
It's not conversion through.
Regards,
Ewan
While this isn't CT compatible it is descriptive compatible. It will tell you the trade volumes, which give you an indication of just how many ships will be in the system, and it lets you know how big and what components are used in how the starport is built.
If I was playing CT I would then just ignore the GURPS economics completely for the players and use CT's.
This way you get all the descriptive bits from GURPS, and you play using the CT economic rules.
It's not conversion through.
Regards,
Ewan
The GURPS Traveller universe assumes the big ship universe as well. I've got the Far Trader & Starports books, and both are full of useful ideas & descriptions.
It is not an easy conversion to CT, and if you assume a small ship universe it won't work at all. But if you have a big ship universe with a lot of trade & do all the math to get to the numbers (tonnages shipped daily/weekly/monthly) you can build starports based on that. The Starports book goes into a LOT of details, probably more than you want/need unless you are playing a starport administrator (which they give examples of, along with several other starport-based adventure ideas).
But as to how useful it is for actual game play: it depends on how much you use starports. If just as a gas station, it is overkill. If you use starports as some people use ships (almost characters) then they could be very useful if you give it enough time to read through the books. It does give a lot of advice for building the character of a 'port (old, new, facilities, etc) so that people may remember a system not for the main planet but for the starport.
There is also an article in the Traveller Freeport site that does some starport extensions that is more immediately useful and directly apply to CT.
It is not an easy conversion to CT, and if you assume a small ship universe it won't work at all. But if you have a big ship universe with a lot of trade & do all the math to get to the numbers (tonnages shipped daily/weekly/monthly) you can build starports based on that. The Starports book goes into a LOT of details, probably more than you want/need unless you are playing a starport administrator (which they give examples of, along with several other starport-based adventure ideas).
But as to how useful it is for actual game play: it depends on how much you use starports. If just as a gas station, it is overkill. If you use starports as some people use ships (almost characters) then they could be very useful if you give it enough time to read through the books. It does give a lot of advice for building the character of a 'port (old, new, facilities, etc) so that people may remember a system not for the main planet but for the starport.
There is also an article in the Traveller Freeport site that does some starport extensions that is more immediately useful and directly apply to CT.
ShapeShifter
SOC-13
I finally got my hands on a bunch of 3rd party CT stuff, including, 50 Starbases, which I have finished just yesterday evening. The first 17 pages are packed with some great, thought-provoking material. Now it's on to the others... 
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I finally got my hands on a bunch of 3rd party CT stuff, including, 50 Starbases, which I have finished just yesterday evening. The first 17 pages are packed with some great, thought-provoking material. Now it's on to the others...
Yeah, the starport maps are next to worthless. You may use one or two in a game, but that's not what you paid for. In published CT, those 17 pages are gold. They're the most detailed Starport descriptions in all of CT (among the "official" publishings). Consider those 17 pages as you would a special supplement (like Special Supplement 3: Missiles, which is worth its weight in gold, if you like missiles in your Book 2 space combat).
Combine those 17 pages with the Starports!! download/Thread in this CT forum, and you have THE best material ever written on CT starports.
People can say what they want to about JG materials. The info in the first 17 pages of JG's 50 Starports is some really, really good stuff (once you dig into it and read it).
