Quote from: estar;443884? GURPS went off the rails with 1st edition Space?

Yeah, around then, there was a shift in focus and rules approach around that time that was the start of the long slow slide that led to things like GURPS Vehicles.  Aliens was a bit later and you got things like claws that are only as good as a short sword costing 15 points (same as being wealthy) being entrenched in the rules for the next twenty years.

It's when GURPS went from being simpler than HERO to far more detail oriented and complex.  IRRC the new autofire rules with the four round burst table first appeared in Space.  Autoduel was still doing 3 rolls to hit and Space was only three or four years later.

Space also revisited the GURPS Humanx approach to starships and ship to ship combat which I've always thought was a terrible cop out.  I wanted tactical ship to ship combat though in hindsight the best thing that could have been in there is the Space Opera Combat System from GURPS Lensman and GURPS Compendium 2.

It's the period where the range of skills and advantages expanded to the point where the stat to points balance got screwy and you suddenly had to have Legal Enforcement Powers for 15 points to play a knight.

Mind you, in spite of having started at least a dozen campaigns and giving away around 24 basic sets I never managed to get a GURPS third edition campaign to last more than three or four sessions.  First edition was cleaner, clearer, and tighter and while some good things have been added many other things were simply a mess.

I've pretty much given up on any retroclones and went back to the source:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5f4mztgpverxt94

or

http://blog.retroroleplaying.com/2009/09/grey-book-od-compiled.html

Are they canon/in print/the gospel? No, and I no longer care about any of that. Makes life easier...

EDIT: sorry...Steven J. Ege's The Gray Book in the second link now points to a dead link.  I'm sure there are other methods of finding it.  Read the comment from "Traveller" down the page.

The second link was taken down (the Gray Book link).

Quote from: kregmosier;443958I've pretty much given up on any retroclones and went back to the source:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5f4mztgpverxt94

or

http://blog.retroroleplaying.com/2009/09/grey-book-od-compiled.html

Are they canon/in print/the gospel? No, and I no longer care about any of that. Makes life easier...

EDIT: sorry...Steven J. Ege's The Gray Book in the second link now points to a dead link.  I'm sure there are other methods of finding it.  Read the comment from "Traveller" down the page.