The Third Edition of GURPS Space had several differences from the Fourth Edition book. The biggest difference was the inclusion of a small subset of the GURPS Vehicles rules and some high-tech weaponry. Unlike the above-mentioned GURPS Fantasy's Third Edition analog, it was also a genre toolkit.
Fourth Edition
GURPS Space was released March 2006. It covers the creation of star systems, worlds and alien races, either completely randomly or with any amount of GM intervention during the process. Advice is also provided on planning campaigns and other related material, as is common in other books for fourth edition GURPS. Coverage of spacecraft is aimed at setting level issues such as choosing the technology used by spacecraft in the game. This section does not worry about game mechanics issues, but rather helps players and gamemasters determine the broad capabilities of the vessel in question. In a controversial move, the book breaks with the format of earlier editions and does not contain rules for spaceship design or high tech guns. Those topics will be covered by the forthcoming books GURPS Vehicles and GURPS Ultra-Tech respectively. The rationale for this decision was explained in a series of official statements made on the SJGames forums by and Line EditorSean Punch. GURPS Spaceships, a 4e supplement of rules for spaceship design, is now available through Steve Jackson Games as a digital purchase.
Publication history
GURPS Space was designed by Steve Jackson and William Barton, and published by Steve Jackson Games as a 128-page book. The book features additional material by W. G. Armintrout, Stephen Beeman, Ben Ellinger, John M. Ford, Don Gallagher, J. David George, Mike Hurst, David Ladyman, and Mike Moe, and a cover illustration by Michael Goodwin. GURPS Space was one of the broad genre books that followed the publication of the GURPS Basic Set. This first tier genre book was supported by several second-tier sourcebooks including the GURPS Space Atlases, GURPS Space Bestiary and GURPS Aliens, which helped fill out the GURPS Space world. GURPS Space for 4e was published in 2006, one of several genre books published by Steve Jackson Games for the new edition.
Reception
reviewed the first edition of GURPS Space for Dragonmagazine #141. Bambra comments in his evaluation: "Even if you never intend to play the GURPS game, the GURPS Space game is worth picking up on the basis of its ideas alone. For GMs who enjoy designing unique backgrounds for their players, and for GURPS players everywhere, this book is well worth getting." GURPS Space won the 1988 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement. Second edition reviewed in Games Review vol. 2 #9
