THE TAKEOUT MENU: Flyaway Missives from T Bone's Games Diner
#001, November 17 2006

Good day, intrepid subscribers. Allow me target your mailbox with this blast (ROF 1, Acc 0, Affliction: Sleepiness) from the GURPS Diner. Thank you for having signed up.

May this not be mailed out in error while I write the draft and test the newsletter system. I apologize for the HTML-formatted mail; the plain text version is formatting all wrong. I hope to get it right next time.

This issue: A few news items, a little musing on updating old material, and then some requests for your help.

===SITE NEWS===

The newsletter's name comes courtesy of a suggestion by Matt M. Thank you, Matt! My own Dinerettes are heading your way right now with a giant novelty check, made out for the amount of a typical day's sales at the Diner. I think you know how much that is. : /

On to news. I recently announced the reborn site on the SJG forums. There, that's done.

There's one big new feature article:The article "European Martial Arts in Role-Playing: Where are they?", by von Loringen, has generated a fair thread of comments. No surprise there; it's always a good discussion-fodder topic.
http://www.gamesdiner.com/euro_martial_arts

New blog postings of any note include:

"Poll updates"
http://www.gamesdiner.com/polls_update_061111

"Game design musing: It's About Time (Part I)": A good old-fashioned, dry musing on geek topics. Part II coming soon.
http://www.gamesdiner.com/about_time_part1

"GURPS House Rules Best Left Homeless": A snarky look at some oft-proposed rules ideas. (Someone must have been cranky that day.)
http://www.gamesdiner.com/unfortunate_house_rules

===BRINGING OLD GURPS DINER CONTENT UP TO DATE===

Woo-hoo, GURPS Diner content finally makes its debut on the new site. Unfortunately, that refers to only two items, both requiring zero actual renewal of content: "Ingredients for a Better GURPS" and "The New GURPS Delivers... Or Does It?". You can find 'em both at http://www.gamesdiner.com/content_type/rules – though if you've seen the old articles, you've seen the new.

(Hello, Laziness [-10]! Let's watch TV together.)

But now it's time for a small step upward on the effort scale. I've got a new draft of a GURPS Diner article requiring a wee bit of updating: a 4e-ready revision of my ancient Star Frontiers -> GURPS conversion article. An aperitif, if you will, to warm the upgrader's palate.

The draft's looking good to me, but my oh my, those new 4e books sure are *big*. Who knows what yet-unread changes hide between the shiny-slick pages. I'm sure my draft can use some 4e polish.

That's a cue to finally put the forum to work. The article's sitting at this forum address:
http://www.gamesdiner.com/node/79

If you'd like to lend a hand (and eye), please critique. In particular, I'm looking for areas where a racial write-up uses outdated 3e goods, or gets something 4e-ish all wrong. Intimate knowledge of Star Frontiers isn't needed.

If you have comments or corrections, please post in the same forum thread. (There are notes on using the forum at http://www.gamesdiner.com/about_these_forums .)

After a round of improvements, I'll put up the article for the general public. My thanks in advance for any kind help.

===OTHER UPDATE PROJECTS===

I'm itching to get on top of updating GLAIVE and COSH. Some notes on those:

=GLAIVE=

I think an ideal reworked GLAIVE would have the following components:

1) A super-simple "X lbs. = +Y damage" quickie system, per what's currently in GLAIVE. Little change is needed.

2) A simple system for building larger or smaller versions of existing weapons, plus other mods to existing weapons not already covered by current rules. This is not part of GLAIVE now. I know at least one home-brew system already exists: http://www.brainpuke.com/gaming/gurps/s_minst.html . GLAIVE should naturally only address the topic if it has something new to add.

3) A detailed system for building weapons from scratch. This is the current core of GLAIVE; it needs updating for 4e plus miscellaneous improvements.

4) Something new again: armor rules. Perhaps it'd make sense to fold some sort of armor construction rules (including weight and cost mods for character size) into GLAIVE, along with options such as the Edge Defense rules found here: http://www.gamesdiner.com/gurps/armor.htm#ep

An updated GLAIVE (with armor rules) could even have a new name. I think I've toyed with the names GREAVE or GUARD for armor rules. (These are, respectively, acronyms for GURPS Realistic Armor V... V... uh... <ahem> and GURPS Armor D... er... <cough> Obviously, I'm open to better suggestions. : ) Just plain GLAIVE is fine too.

=COSH=

I've received some helpful comments in the past, and keep those on a roll of finest vellum, tightly scrunched in hand. 4e does bring several needed changes to the table. There are new skills, modified skills, and deleted skills (like Fencing, which didn't quite fit COSH anyway).

BUT, all that said, I think GLAIVE and COSH both need to wait for one thing: the release of Martial Arts for 4e. That's going to be the definitive book on GURPS combat, and I don't see much point in releasing combat system add-ons without first having the whole official picture in hand.

So what's there to do in the meantime? How about this:

=GULLIVER Mini Mini=

"Mini Mini"? Well, here's the thinking:

1) There's nothing wrong with the massive extent of GULLIVER's coverage, but I don't think having all that range under one title has been a hit with readers. No matter how often I explain otherwise, there are people who think it's necessary to read all of it – or even use all of it – in order to benefit. The individual Books of the work really are stand-alone supplements (and each is generally composed of many stand-alone parts), but I think the monolithic GULLIVER name obscures that.

The upshot: GULLIVER may be best broken up into several clearly separate works.

2) The project is so big that I have no reasonable estimate for how much I'll ever update, and when. Best to start small (something made much easier under the above breakup).

3) The part that's likely of greatest interest to gamers is the part that would reasonably inherit the GULLIVER name: basic scaling rules. That's Book 1 of GULLIVER, and it's actually a very small portion of the overall work. Half of that shortish Book is taken up by Appendix options and notes; the "meat" is really a short piece of work.

Basic scaling rules really don't require much space at all: as I'm fond of pointing out, fairly complete GURPS scaling rules – with table, extra options, and superfluous clip art – take up only one page in GULLIVER LITE.

3) In order to get something fun and useful shipped in short order, how about taking a hint from the above: one-page scaling rules for 4e. That'd be GULLIVER Mini. (The name leaves room later for a regular non-mini GULLIVER, covering scaling-related topics in more detail. But as pointed out above, even the full Monty wouldn't be a huge amount of content.)

4) One page? Make that half a page. 4e already takes us part of the way to proper handling of odd-sized creatures; a new GULLIVER doesn't need to wrangle ST into shape, or rework the Size and Speed/Range Table, or hack out a new treatment of HP and DR. Why not set a half page as the goal? That's Mini Mini. Bold!

(So, what to do with the remaining half page? Leave it blank, or fill it with purely optional subject matter; I don't know.)

This could be a fun project with a nicely attainable deadline. What's actually needed as content? That's where I'll take things to the forums. If you'd like to toss about ideas, head to http://www.gamesdiner.com/node/80 ; there's a super-short idea list awaiting.

===FINAL NOTES===

The site forums haven't been rigorously tested. I think they're up to a little collaborative effort with a handful of people. Or maybe the first post will bring the Internet down. (Cool.)

This newsletter itself appears online: http://www.gamesdiner.com/node/68/ . Comments left on that page are appreciated.

Next missive: A real oddball request for assistance on a wholly different project. But before that, I hope to hear from you online. Thanks for listening.

T Bone
tbone@gamesdiner.com
Visit the once-again NEW T Bone's Games Diner!
http://www.gamesdiner.com