December 25, 2023: The Curious Countdown: Number 5 – The Future, In More Ways Than One!

We're here, once again, with the curious countdown; we're in installment #6, which means that we're looking at number 5, and it's at this point that I'm realizing that having two number streams counting in opposite directions might have been a mistake. Oh, well! Fortune favors the foolhardy or whatever. (And if you're new to this series, check out the first post.)

So, let's talk about Transhuman Space: Fifth Wave, which is a fun book on its own merits. It's a supplement that focuses on Earth in the optimistic future universe that is Transhuman Space. Transhuman Space – set in the not-too-distant future of 2100 (which is getting closer every day) – has had a long life, with Transhuman Space: Changing Times bringing the setting to GURPS Fourth Edition.

Fifth Wave is also interesting (to me) because it's part of our incredibly popular On Demand program. This service has kept huge swaths of the GURPS library in print. So the book is "futuristic" in another way!

However, it's possible that folks might consider this Transhuman Space supplement to be a "GURPS" supplement, as far as the "curious countdown" challenge goes. Even though Transhuman Space is somewhat its own product line, I understand the reasoning, especially since I used the opportunity to plug GURPS. So, hey! What about the FnordCon 5 USB Flash Drive?! It's cool, it's futuristic, it's loaded with lots of awesome digital files, and it's got a "5" in its title.

-- Steven Marsh