Gurps Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Rating:
Summary: Worthless even for background
Review: As a huge fan of both GURPS and Alpha Centari I was really looking forward to this book. I was hoping it would flesh out the world a bit and set up some nice political intrigue. Unfortunately I found the book lacking on all counts. If you've played Alpha Centauri and have the expansion set then you already have all the information you need to set up a great GURPS Alpha Centauri game. If you have the hint book, then you have everything provided in the GURPS book and more. NOTHING is elaborated on and therefore in my opinion nothing is gained in buying this book. Perhaps SJG was bound by contract not to elaborate on anything, and we have Firaxis to blame for this debacle. It's too bad, because this book could have been great, instead of the plagiarized garbage it turned out to be. Don't waste your money.

Rating:
Summary: Gurps, glorious gurps...
Review: Great pictures, lots of info, stats, equipment, possible plots, if you love Alpha take a look at this

Rating:
Summary: Role Playing in a computer game world
Review: GURPS: Alpha Centauri is the best crossover from a computer game to a Role Playing Game available.

About the source material: "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" is a computer game that lets you build entire civilizations. The most original feature of Alpha Centauri is that it takes place after civilization advances to space flight. In Sid Meier's "Civilization" computer game, one way to win was to be the first to have colonists build a spaceship, leave Earth, and travel into space. Alpha Centauri follows that band of colonists from their start on the new world to their end, centuries later. The expansion, Alien Crossfire, adds more factions to the possible colonists, and also adds two alien races wanting to keep the world for themselves. Although based on his Civilization games, Sid Meier created a fresh way to play colonization computer games with this game.

GURPS: Alpha Centauri provides an adaptation of that source material to a role playing game. Both Alpha Centauri game info and Alien Crossfire expansion info were used to create this worldbook. Most of the pictures were taken directly from the computer game, although the selection of pictures and the placement of graphics is one of the major reasons this book did not get a perfect five stars from me.

Chapter 1, the Prologue, gives people unfamiliar with the game a starting point. It contains basic info about the world and what happened to the mission.

Chapter 2, "Planet", gives a capsule look at the new world, and includes some of the native life forms and the things these creatures do. These creatures give players a hint that all is not well on the planet.

Chapter 3, "Factions", provides an in depth look at the various political and social agendas that exist among the colonist's leaders. This section includes profiles of the faction leaders, along with the stats necessary to use them as non-player characters in campaigns. You'll have to hunt for pictures of some of the leaders, as they frequently do not appear on the pages that they should be on. An example: Zakharov's stats are on page 49, but his picture does not appear until page 86. This book would have been much better with a full page of info about each faction leader and making sure the picture of that leader was on that page. One of the better features of this section are the adventure seeds given for each faction.

Chapter 4, "The Road to Transcendence", deals with the advances needed to win the computer game translated into gaming terms. This section is further divided into sub-sections dealing with specific periods of time in the mission. This nice feature gives potential GM's the ability to sort out what they need for campaigns quickly and easily. This is the best section to use when deciding when in planet history you want to set your game.

Chapter 5, "Colonists", contains the info you will need to create characters. Some of these character types are unique to GURPS Alpha Centauri. In this section are some of the Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills players will want to give their characters.

Chapter 6, "Hardware", gives stats for weapons, vehicles, and other tools which characters use to fight the dangers of the new world.

Chapter 7, "Campaigns", gives GM's a way to decide what to include from this game world in their own campaigns.

Appendix A gives some standard GURPS items and info to convert those items into this setting if possible. Appendix B allows people who own a copy of the computer game a chance to convert what they know from playing the game into GURPS game stats and terms. This second appendix will see a lot of use from me.

In 128 pages, Steve Jackson Games manages to convert a great deal of the richness and variety of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri into a hardcover role playing game book. As a GURPS fan and Alpha Centauri player, I was interested in what this union would produce. If anything, I'd say that those who frequently play the computer game will find that this book does not cover all of the various possibilities from the game. Even the book itself admits this in chapter 7, where it says: "The Alpha Centauri setting is almost too rich for role playing, covering centuries of time and a tremendous range of possible themes". Thus this book suffers from being too short. Much more material could have been added, especially in a hardcover. Some GM's may wish to purchase the computer game and try it before attempting a campaign set in this worldbook. This book does a very admirable job at attempting to give people a chance for role playing in the world of Alpha Centauri. I know I'll use this book.

Rating:
Summary: Worthless even for background
Review: GURPS: Alpha Centauri is the best crossover from a computer game to a Role Playing Game available.

About the source material: "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" is a computer game that lets you build entire civilizations. The most original feature of Alpha Centauri is that it takes place after civilization advances to space flight. In Sid Meier's "Civilization" computer game, one way to win was to be the first to have colonists build a spaceship, leave Earth, and travel into space. Alpha Centauri follows that band of colonists from their start on the new world to their end, centuries later. The expansion, Alien Crossfire, adds more factions to the possible colonists, and also adds two alien races wanting to keep the world for themselves. Although based on his Civilization games, Sid Meier created a fresh way to play colonization computer games with this game.

GURPS: Alpha Centauri provides an adaptation of that source material to a role playing game. Both Alpha Centauri game info and Alien Crossfire expansion info were used to create this worldbook. Most of the pictures were taken directly from the computer game, although the selection of pictures and the placement of graphics is one of the major reasons this book did not get a perfect five stars from me.

Chapter 1, the Prologue, gives people unfamiliar with the game a starting point. It contains basic info about the world and what happened to the mission.

Chapter 2, "Planet", gives a capsule look at the new world, and includes some of the native life forms and the things these creatures do. These creatures give players a hint that all is not well on the planet.

Chapter 3, "Factions", provides an in depth look at the various political and social agendas that exist among the colonist's leaders. This section includes profiles of the faction leaders, along with the stats necessary to use them as non-player characters in campaigns. You'll have to hunt for pictures of some of the leaders, as they frequently do not appear on the pages that they should be on. An example: Zakharov's stats are on page 49, but his picture does not appear until page 86. This book would have been much better with a full page of info about each faction leader and making sure the picture of that leader was on that page. One of the better features of this section are the adventure seeds given for each faction.

Chapter 4, "The Road to Transcendence", deals with the advances needed to win the computer game translated into gaming terms. This section is further divided into sub-sections dealing with specific periods of time in the mission. This nice feature gives potential GM's the ability to sort out what they need for campaigns quickly and easily. This is the best section to use when deciding when in planet history you want to set your game.

Chapter 5, "Colonists", contains the info you will need to create characters. Some of these character types are unique to GURPS Alpha Centauri. In this section are some of the Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills players will want to give their characters.

Chapter 6, "Hardware", gives stats for weapons, vehicles, and other tools which characters use to fight the dangers of the new world.

Chapter 7, "Campaigns", gives GM's a way to decide what to include from this game world in their own campaigns.

Appendix A gives some standard GURPS items and info to convert those items into this setting if possible. Appendix B allows people who own a copy of the computer game a chance to convert what they know from playing the game into GURPS game stats and terms. This second appendix will see a lot of use from me.

In 128 pages, Steve Jackson Games manages to convert a great deal of the richness and variety of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri into a hardcover role playing game book. As a GURPS fan and Alpha Centauri player, I was interested in what this union would produce. If anything, I'd say that those who frequently play the computer game will find that this book does not cover all of the various possibilities from the game. Even the book itself admits this in chapter 7, where it says: "The Alpha Centauri setting is almost too rich for role playing, covering centuries of time and a tremendous range of possible themes". Thus this book suffers from being too short. Much more material could have been added, especially in a hardcover. Some GM's may wish to purchase the computer game and try it before attempting a campaign set in this worldbook. This book does a very admirable job at attempting to give people a chance for role playing in the world of Alpha Centauri. I know I'll use this book.