Well, I got a good deal on GURPS Prime Directive (GPD) 3rd ed. at my favorite out-of-town game store. I couldn't resist, so I bought it to get a little preview of what Prime Directive d20 (PD20) might look like. I haven't read too much of it so far, but what I have read looks good.
First, it is apparent to me that the people at ADB have developed (and possibly inherited) a great history of game development of the Star Fleet Universe (SFU) through the Star Fleet Battles (SFB) game. GPD includes a page of publisher information that gives some of the history. I found it a very nice touch.
The look of the GPD book itself is great. I showed it to a friend who had only heard me talk of it. His response was, "This is Star Trek!" The cover is very evocative of the original series--a bonus or him if not completely for me. I do think it looks great. The interior layout is a very classic style of RPG books that I've been reading for the past 25 years, which I find appropriate since the same store had the new SFB Silver Anniversary rules on sale. The interior pages are white with black text in a good font and density. The illustrations are classic B&W, too.
The book opens with a short story. I find this a great touch. It recounts the tale of a group of characters as they assemble and go through the introductory adventure delineated in the last chapter. It was a fun read. Hopefully, the adventure plays as well.
I'm just getting into the rest of the book. Much of it is GURPS rules, so I'm skipping a lot of it. I'm really only reading the flavor text. I played GURPS a couple times in the past and more recently bought (and resold) the GURPS Hellboy book--I just don't get it enough to warrant reading a bunch of rules. So, GPD probably won't be the game for me, but it does make PD20 look even more promising. GPD has a short SFB chapter, so it might be worthwhile to get a little exposure to that game. I'm also looking forward to reading the chapter on SFU; it has a galaxy hex map.
