August 2, 2010: What Could Have Been, Past And Future

For a week without any time travel, e23 is sure messing with the timeline. Neither Fantasy-Tech 1 nor Space Gamer #32 are historical, and yet they are . . .

GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1 is written by Matt Riggsby, whom you may remember from the recent historical supplement GURPS Hot Spots: Renaissance Florence. In this offering, Matt uses what really happened as a jumping-off point. He includes write-ups for power sources that should have worked (except for those darned laws of physics), radical ideas that everyone at the time "knew" were true, and weapons that never caught on (but everyone loves to imagine they did).

If you'd like to introduce gun-knives, reflective heat rays, or perpetual motion into your campaign, GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1 is just what you were looking for, even if you previously existed in a universe where its existence was prohibited.

On the other end of the spectrum, Space Gamer #32 is a magazine that is literally a piece of history, covering a piece of the future! This issue focuses on Traveller, the now-classic science fiction roleplaying game destined to be adapted to multiple systems (including GURPS!) and remain in print, in one form or another, for decades.

A past that never was, and a past that was detailing a future that never will be . . . and I thought "time is wibbly-wobbly" was tough to get my brain around!

-- Paul Chapman