Who here has bought Transhuman Space?

[Ace]

Now that all the supplements for Transhuman Space are sold at $9.95 per book, I was wondering who has taken the opportunity to complete the line... or who here already has bought some of the books before that.

Transhuman Space might not be d20, but in my not so humble opinion it has a brilliance that transcends systems.

I have THS and plan to complete the line sooner or later

That being said I find the setting dstopic, bleak and mostly unplayable -- it is brilliant however and worth the money

 

[Nikosandros]

That being said I find the setting dstopic, bleak and mostly unplayable -- it is brilliant however and worth the money

I actually find it to be a rather optmistic setting...

But I agree that it is brilliant.

 

[Professor Phobos]

Had the complete set back when they were at full price, and I don't regret it at all.

Wonderful setting. A bit tough to do anything with it, but that is what I suppose the GM's guide will be for, if it truly exists.

 

[WayneLigon]

Dang, I was hoping you meant the main book was $10.00. Bummer. I'd get it if it was. I'd love to own the setting but no-one but me would put in the world of learning the setting, so... it would be another game that sits on my shelf gathering dust.

 

[twofalls]

I took the opportunity to not only purchase all the other Transhuman Space books (I owned the core book), but to pick up all the WW2 books, all the Traveller books, and about six other books I've wanted but have held back on. It was a couple of hundred dollars plus change, but its probably half a year of reading, and countless hours of roleplaying.

The Transhuman space series is brilliant, with excellent use of extrapolations on current technologies. I recommend them just as reading material.

I doubt I will get to play Traveller again any time soon, but I've wanted the books for nostalgia reasons, I loved the older game.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I have THS and plan to complete the line sooner or later

That being said I find the setting dstopic, bleak and mostly unplayable -- it is brilliant however and worth the money

I think it is one of the most optimistic SF settings around - sure, there are a few problems, but all in all, most of humanity is doing much better than today.

And regarding the "unplayable" thing... A Game Master's Guide for Transhuman Space is currently in the works, and will supposedly be released early next year in PDF form.

 

[Nikosandros]

And regarding the "unplayable" thing... A Game Master's Guide for Transhuman Space is currently in the works, and will supposedly be released early next year in PDF form.

While I don't agree with the unplayable definition, it is for sure a difficult setting to "get right". I'm waiting for great interest for this PDF... I don't remebre now... is Phil Masters writing it?

 

[ForceUser]

Another question:

Who of those reading this doesn't know what Transhuman Space is?

Guilty.

 

[qstor]

Heh. I know - I am the proud owner of 22 new GURPS books...

I have none of the THS books but I have 47 old GURPS books.

It looks really interesting, I just couldn't let myself and my wallet get a bunch more GURPS books when Ive been playing 3.x mostly.

Mike

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Guilty.

Quite possibly the best hard SF setting out there.

There is no Faster-Than-Light space flight - but the vast reaches of the solar system form a new frontier for the human species and its various offspring. From the busy Earth-Lunar space and its great Lagrange colonies to the anti-matter factories of Mercury, from Chinese Mars to the US He-3 mining concerns around Saturn, from the homesteaders of the Main Belt to the Gypsy Angel comet herders of the Oort cloud, all are a grand testament to the adaptivity of the human spirit - and form.

No one has encountered any sapient alien species - but humanity has started creating new species of its own. Human genetic engineering has revolutionized the way we look at our own species - from slight "upgrades" that only make the children a bit healthier than their parents to radical parahuman designs that adapt humans to different environments, like the artic wastes, the oceans - or space itself. There are sapient "uplifts" of various animal species. There are "bioroids", artificial humanoid androids constructed for specific purposes. There are artificial intelligences, some of them sapient. There are "ghosts", humans who have destructively uploaded their brains and now continue to exist as sapient pieces of software - effectively immortal as long as they can be restored from backups. And many of these entities are far more alien than most "rubber mask" aliens commonly seen in science fiction.

Technology has progressed rapidly. Care was taken not to violate realism when creating the technology for the setting, which means that there is no "miracle tech" - but the technology that exists has been exploited by society in ways never dreamed of by the science fiction writers of old. Everyone and everything is connected to computers all the time, and every device has a dedicated computer on its own. An exta layer of "Augmented Reality" is put over the world we see to provide additional information. 3D printers can quickly create almost any device you might need. Unobtrusive and ubiquietous surveillance can make a country almost free of violent crime - or a oppressive hellhole in ways not even Orwell could have conceived.

Three Great Powers powers - China, the European Union, and the USA - vie for influence, while other up-and-comers - India, the South African Union, the Pacific Rim Coalition, the Islamic Caliphate and the Transpacific Socialist Alliance - try to carve their niche in geopolitics. But in the end, the future of humankind will likely determined in space...