IC: GURPS Campaign

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Which would you find more interesting?

You may select 1 option.

  • ISWAT
  • Shadows of New Orleans
  • Riverworld
  • Final Frontier
Nov 7, 2025 4:45 am
I'm toying with the idea of running a GURPS campaign on Gamer's Plane. If I were to do this (and I must point out that it would likely be sometime next year if I decide to do it), which of the following would be most interesting to you?

ISWAT
The good news is, there are other Earths. Maybe an infinite number. The bad news is, someone out there doesn't like us. Thirty years ago, a physicist named Paul Van Zandt invented a panachronic projector, a machine that could send matter into another dimension. He discovered that there exist multiple Earths, some much like our own, but others that are very different. You are members of Infinity Unlimited, an organization that explores, catalogs, and protects these other Earths. But not everyone in the multiverse is friendly. There exist other organizations devoted to corrupting or conquering these other Earths. You are members of ISWAT (Interworld Special Weapons & Tactics), an agency within Infinity that doesn't officially exist. Your job is to go into troublesome situations and resolve them, by whatever means necessary. Characters would begin at 300 points, and need not necessarily be from this Earth, or even human!

SHADOWS OF NEW ORLEANS
The world is full of strangeness, and much of it goes unseen. But you've seen the strangeness that no one else can see. You've been recruited by an agency so secret that even the government doesn't know that they exist, dedicated to protecting the public from the forces of Shadow and to keeping the Veil intact. See, if the public knew that that big ugly thug was really an ogre, there would be a panic. Your job is to prevent that, while protecting the public from that which is unseen. Characters would begin at 200 points.

RIVERWORLD
You have died. You remember your death, but when you awaken once more, you are on the banks of a great river. Around you are thousands of other human beings, naked and hairless. In fact, anyone who has ever lived on Earth is resurrected on the banks of an immense river. But how, and more importantly, why? Who is responsible? Characters would be either real or fictional historical personages, based on 150 points.

FINAL FRONTIER
You are members of a starship crew in a setting that we would work together to create in our Session Zero.
Nov 7, 2025 6:20 am
I'd like ISWAT or Final Frontier the most, because of classical SF. Riverworld I'd be spoiled because of the books, Orleans sounds like Urban Fantasy/Magical Realism.
Nov 7, 2025 8:53 am
I find Shadows of New Orleans or ISWAT the most interesting. Though the Final Frontier sounds fun as well.
Nov 7, 2025 9:21 am
WhtKnt says:
FINAL FRONTIER
You are members of a starship crew in a setting that we would work together to create in our Session Zero.
This one has the fewest stuff defined, but also seems like it has a chance for being something I'd be interested in. Some variations that might be of some interest (i.e. idea suggestions):

  • Wormhole Engineers. Loosely inspired by Peter Watts' Sunflower cycle (Freeze-Frame Revolution and all the *quels), focusing on the themes of timeless isolation, in-crew dynamics, the differences and difficulties between baseline human, modified human, and AI characters, and professional drama.
  • Andromeda Initiative. Think Babylon 5 meets Mass Effect Andromeda: an alliance of multiple interstellar civilisations of different origins assembling a fleet of ships to explore and settle a faraway galaxy, perhaps as a contingency plan out of concerns about a galactic-scale cataclysm that the original galaxy's civilisation may or may not be able to handle in the future. Unlike in MEA, the fleet contains hundreds of non-sleeping crewmembers of all species (i.e. it's not just Krogans who opted to stay awake), so there's a lot more inter-civilisational interaction aboard the ship as it crosses the intergalactic void in the span of decades or more.
  • Jupiter or Bust. Something inspired by the Von Braun project (the one about making a trip to Jupiter and the accompanying moons) from Planetes could be cool, especially if it's set in the earlier years of THS or an analogue. An international crew with mixed loyalties and cutting-edge augmentations; a project made by a motley of corporations, governments, and NGOs, correspondingly indecisive between different priorities; collaboration and rivalries, professional and interpersonal drama aboard a ship that is meant to change the situation for the solar system.
  • Towards Horai of the Skies. A self-sufficient ship of a mostly-human civilisation is undergoing a long trip across the galaxy in pursuit of some semi-mythic locale in the hopes of obtaining a very important plot token (such as a cure for some plague, or maybe an anomalous material that will dramatically accelerate research in some field like FTL, energy production, or biotech), and meeting friends and enemies along the way. Think Battleship Yamato, new Battlestar Galactica and a touch of Homeworld sprinkled with something spicy like Lexx.
Last edited November 7, 2025 9:39 am
Nov 7, 2025 12:50 pm
Those all sound like fun. My preferences, from most to least interested are:
1. ISWAT
2. New Orleans
3. Final Frontier
4. Riverworld
Nov 7, 2025 3:21 pm
I was once preparing a game for option #1 that finally never saw the light, so colour me interested if you finally end up with that option. :-)

I even had a poster ready for the recruitment thread:
[ +- ] Click to open poster
Nov 8, 2025 4:29 pm
I like ISWAT because I'm familiar for the setting and have had fun games with it in the past. Shadows of New Orleans and Final Frontier also sound like a ton of fun and are tied for second choice. Riverworld, I probably wouldn't even apply for, I'm not familiar with the source material, and the description doesn't grab me at all.

Thrilled to see an interest check for a GURPS game here, finally.
Last edited November 8, 2025 4:29 pm

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