Judges Guild stuff any good??

[nats]

Ive been looking at some of the Judges Guild stuff on ebay and thinking of getting some but it looks a bit naff so im not sure.

Can anyone tell me whats worth getting and what isnt -

The ones I am thinking about are :

50 Starbases (cover looks rubbish is it any good inside - I mean are the maps worth it or could you do better yourself?),
Doom of the Singing Star (cover looks rubbish whats the stuff like inside? - I like the idea of playing a game on a Liner),
Astrogators Chartbook (just a load of grids is it?),
Traveller Logbook (not sure what it is - is it any use?)
Simba Safari (I like safaris)

 

[Supplement Four]

50 Starbases (cover looks rubbish is it any good inside - I mean are the maps worth it or could you do better yourself?),

If you consider just the first part of the book, it's probably the best CT source on starports. The majority of the book (the maps) aren't worth the paper they're printed on (which ain't much :lol: ).

But, the first 17-19 pages of this book are gold for CT players. That's why this book usually has a fairly high price.

I have the other JG products you mention, but its been ages since I looked at them. So, I'll refrain from commenting on them except to say that I'd skip the chart book. And, JG's adventures are usually pretty good, if you can get past the elementary school art and cheap newsprint paper. Just take the words for themselves and forget illustrations and maps. The JG adventures are more like early D&D "dungeons". They're usually well scripted with stats for bad guys and descriptions of each room (which is unlike what GDW did with CT adventures--which were more sandboxes for the GM to develop and customize for his gaming group).

 

[far-trader]

If you're interested the Judges Guild stuff (and more) is coming soon (Nov 11) on CD-ROM as PDF scans from Far Future Enterprises/Marc Miller:

http://www.farfuture.net/AP2%20Contents.pdf

(order from http://www.farfuture.net/ probably $35 or so, might be cheaper than collecting hard copies if electronic copies works for you)

And there is a free sample ( Starships and Spacecraft ) to preview:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/shopping_cart.php?products_id=84075&discounts_id=76893

 

[Treebore]

If you want great, top notch production values, never buy Judges Guild material. If you want stuff full of ideas to spur your own creativity, they are well worth getting.

 

[DFW]

Overall, JG was one of the best 3rd party sources for CT material.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

If you want great, top notch production values, never buy Judges Guild material. If you want stuff full of ideas to spur your own creativity, they are well worth getting.

Quoted for truth.

I like their material, but there production values (and artwork) were very sub-standard. I think the biggest problem with the illustrations is the low resolution. Look at the covers, that is what the inside is like as well.

But they had some good ideas. I like many of their ideas for the Glimmerdrift Reaches better than what QLI came up with in their Gateway Domain stuff. Not all of course, but some.

 

[Dave Chase]

I concure with Rikki Tikki Traveller and Treebore.

The artwork was not (and in todays market) the best to be had. It got the concept and locations (maps/deckplans) there so you could see them but that was about the extent of it.

Most of the scenario/adventures were good. Many of the charts and tables were good references.

The sectors were nice to have if you didn't have any time to develop your own.

I am not puting down the work that JG did. I am very pleased with what they accomplished for the time that they were producing product.

Dave Chase

 

[BenTOGS]

You should always remember that the majority of Judges Guild items were done in the late seventies & early eighties. PRE computer graphics.

And all hand layout, probably graph paper designs for the starhips. and written on a typewriter. If you do not know what a typewriter is, look it up in archeological review, I'm sure that they have a few tintype hotos.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Lots of the JG products also have large parts as blank pages. This is so you can make notes and keep stats in the books. Now this is just waist paper, back then it seemed like a good thing, although I have never come across a JG product with these filled in.

JG stuff is only really good for idea mining, IMO. The really really low budget production quality gets me every time. They really are bad. The artwork, layout, style use, printing quality and printing materials are just rubish. And I have real difficulty seeing past this to find any good stuff in the products themselves. I have dificulty in just finishing reading them.

If you can pick them up cheep then I'd say pick them up, but if you are paying more than a couple of $ a book then don't bother. Just IMO of course.

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[kristof65]

If you want great, top notch production values, never buy Judges Guild material. If you want stuff full of ideas to spur your own creativity, they are well worth getting.

Quoted for truth.

Ditto.

One of the major things that annoyed me with the JG Starports book was that most of the star ports were drawn using architectural and drafting templates. So when you look at certain maps and think to yourself - "you know, those two buildings together kind of look like a toilet" - you can rest assured that is because they were drawn from the toilet section of an architectural template. I was an architecture and drafting student when the product came out, and I found that I could literally line up my templates with many of the drawings on the maps. Toilets, Sinks, etc, someone at JG figured they'd be a quick way to draw maps.

Compared to the great Village, Castles, Islands, etc books that JG put out for fantasy RPGs, the Starport maps were a joke. I'm pretty sure that Starports was the last JG product I ever bought, I was so disappointed at the quality.

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

If you want great, top notch production values, never buy Judges Guild material. If you want stuff full of ideas to spur your own creativity, they are well worth getting.

QFT. That's the deal.