charles
Yeah, it was in the pipeline for a LONG time. Not sure why it took so long. I have the 3e version, somewhere. I haven't compared the two. I know they took out the horror campaign world and are releasing it as a much smaller e23 ebook. I don't know what else changed.
My understanding is the goal is to seperate mechanics from signistats/monsters/etc so you can mix and match a little easier. It likely means more books to buy to get started but if you play multiple generas maybe a savings in the long run.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/horror/
GURPS Horror is out in PDF and is due out in print in the near future.
Now I'm missing RPGs and horror gaming. Again.
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As I recal Horror played well with smaller groups so we have enough people. The one thing I love about borad games is the show up and play aspect of it. Right now I am busy as hell (what's new) but assuming things don't change too much I should have more time come late July after I finish studying for my CISSP. Before that I can take a day but not really dedicte the time beyond that.
This looks like fun. I will say all things equal I would rather wait for the printed copy. Given my choice I would much rather read 176 printed pages instead of an equal PDF. I do find it interesting that SJG has not yet started doing ePub. PDF is nice and portable and works on most ereaders but ePub is much nicer if you are going to read it on a dedicated device. Although now that I think about it their books ar 8.5x11 so maybe they don't want peopel to try to read them on a small screen and expect people to read on a laptop or print. I'm also a little surprised they have not moved to print on demand. I get the impression (just an impression) that they started the PDF thing because their line is so wide that keeping everythng printed in stock was no longer viable but with print on demand it is. I wish I knew the sales folks over in out print on demand devision I'd try to get them to make the cold call :).
ePub doesn't work all that well with layouts that include side-bars, tables, images, etc. since the format cannot assume a standard font or screen size. Though if you have any epub files laying around, you can open them in 7zip and see the contents. The epub format is a container for html, image, and in some cases sound files. While html isn't the best thing in the world for set layouts, it can at least handle tables, etc to some extent. It can also have internal URLs for indexing and cross-referencing. I suspect that the text would work wonderfully via epub, but that they would lose all their fancy layouts and set page numbers. And those numbers are fairly important when referring between sources.
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I have been scratching my roleplaying itch by novelizing our Gurps Steampunk campaign we played. Its still in the draft form and I am only to about chapter 7 but perhaps it will one day be something worth reading. I haven't been able to work on it for several months now since I'm moving. Maybe I'll get some time to get back to that, and gaming, and boardgaming once I learn the ropes at my new job.
The layout is somehting I had not considered. RPG games tend to be unique layout element heavy. When I looked at the short sample on the SJG web site it reminded me how dense those books are.
Page numbers are indeed important.
I guess it's just a mater of my really hating to read long form on a computer screen and I am not thrilled with PDF on my tablet or Vandy's e-reader but honestly I have not played books on either enough to know for sure it isn't just that I prefer paper.
Yeah. I've looked at the GURPS core PDFs on my NookColor. Its readable, but not pretty. I suppose it would be okay for straight-through reading, but without imbedded URLs for page references, it wouldn't be very helpful at the game table, "wait, let me tap the screen 200+ times to get to that page!" The nook has persistent book marks, so if you're really anal, you could go through and mark the most likely pages you'd need, but even that's going to be clunky.
At least on a laptop, you can have Acrobat reader go to a specific page. In some of the PDFs, that's the actual page number. In others, you have to add a few pages for the cover and title page, etc. to get to the desired page number. That plus text search plus bigger screens makes it more practical than via an ereader.
I don't much enjoy long reading on a screen either. I get computer ADD and start alt-tabing to other pages or checking email or whatever. Cannot stay focused.
I suspect there are plenty of niche-market / self-publish RPGs available via epub formats. They are probably not bad as far as the format. Though I suspect their amateur status shows in editing and such, even if the mechanics are awesome. (Same as the various web RPG supplements I've read "here's how to play star wars in gurps!" the rules aren't horrible, but the descriptions usually are lacking. Kind of reminds me of that Cranial Herbs gaming company that floated around for a while back when....)
While I MUCH prefer RPGs via paper, the cost difference between paper and PDF makes the PDFs attractive, especially given how seldom I game (it's been what, a year? two? since we did any RPGs?).
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You know text search is one item I did not think about but that does add significant value to the PDF version. Syngress used to (may still) allow you to d/l the PDF version of their books when you purchased the deda tree version. I prefer paper for straight reading but PDF is much better for reference. It would be nice if more publishers offered the PDF as a free or cheap addon. I think O'Reilly does the PDF upgrade as a cheap option but by the time you pay full price instead of Amazon it's almost as expensive asbuying the PDF and the paper book seperate but you get multiple formats. I have seen a couple of other tech publishers that are somewhere in the middle on cost of the PDF version so I think a bindled or cheap PDF version is a way they are going and possibly a good way for bigger publishers to push buyers to buy direct.
There is a reason that editors and copy righters exist. Having the ID is 50% of problem. Getting the idea across to the end user can be much harder. Believe me I know there are pieces that my boss and I may pass back and forth half a dozen times to get just right and then a week later I'll still see something that's not quite perfect.
The PDF discount on RPG books is compelling. Unlike ebooks that tend to coast as much as a discounted hardback RPG PDFs really are discounted but I think part of that is the fact that RPGs don't typically get the 35-40% discount from Amazon you get on novels so a 30% disoucnt on the PDF seems more significant when you are paying MSRP or MSRP-10% on the paper version. I've seen a few ebook versions of novels on Amazon that were more expensive than the paper version. Something is very wrong with that model but t will work itself out.
The D&D 4.0 release promised online editions (epub? pdf? web-only? can't remember) via a code in each book. I haven't looked to see if that's still happening or not. That code also supposedly unlocked that book's features for online character creation, etc. too. Or at least, that's what their articles/website promised right around the time 4.0 / Dragon Magazine online came out.
Yeah, searchable PDF is VERY useful when trying to put stuff together for a game. I actually found the 3.x SRD online editions much easier to use than the hard backs, back when we played D&D. The web versions I had were meticulously cross-referenced (gotta love anal retentive fanboys), and those links were VERY useful compared to trying to hunt down the rules behind keyword X when fleshing out a monster or PC.
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I thought that was online only and a teaser followed by a monthly fee but
GURPS horror has a 1.5 page improvised weapons table. Now there are damage codes for flares, pool cues, tire irons, boards with nails, pitchforks, and post-hole diggers. Bring on the pain!
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That is one thing I love about modern games you have rules for everything as a weapon.
So should I take it you purchased Horror? What do you think of it?
I did. I've only given it a brief skim; haven't tried to actually read it yet. But it looks quite solid. 172 pages of content not counting the index. I like how it's organized around fears and how the main sections are titled:
Just a quick skim through shows that it's not too heavy on mechanics; focuses more on textual stuff. Even if you weren't running GURPS, it looks like there'd be a lot of useful content here. But the mechanics are fairly solid, too. For example, the Zombie has a standard stat block (it's -111 character points). Then they provide fast zombie, slow zombie, B-movie variants (greater appetites and able to corrupt the living so more ghoul-like), and voodoo zombies. They also have a 1/2 page Zombie Mob discussion.
The vampire block spends a page discussing how to modify the Basic rules vampire stats to fit different myths in generic way. It then goes on to provide some specific variants. They have the romantic vampire, the nosferatu, the Mexican cihuateteo, the Chinese jiangshi or stiff corpse (it moves by hopping!), the Romanian moroi, psychic vampire, Serbian upurina, Vampire Lord (more powerful Stoker-style), and the Hindu vetala.
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Sounds solid and based on the index it looks well organized.
This is interesting there is a forum post (linked below) from Dec of 2008 stating that the uppdate from 3e was starting. That's a long time to get this done.
Do you have a copy of 3e to assess whether it really is that similar? I would think in 2.5 years they would have time for more changes.
Yeah, it was in the pipeline for a LONG time. Not sure why it took so long. I have the 3e version, somewhere. I haven't compared the two. I know they took out the horror campaign world and are releasing it as a much smaller e23 ebook. I don't know what else changed.
I think it went into playtesting sometime around Halloween of 2009? It was when we were still RPGing about 2-4 times a year. I don't know if the book had that much wrong with it in playtest, or if the writers/editors were just too busy with day-job/other projects?
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