I feel tired and dizzy, it's late, and tomorrow is election day. Please
pardon me if this posting is stranger than most ...
Theresa Verity [email removed] writes:
> Howz about this: Talk about things you WANT to see in the newer
> evolution of the Traveller line...
Hear, hear! Now that someone from GDW actually reads TML, we may
have slightly better than the proverbial snowball's chance of being
heard. Wish list from Wildstar coming up as soon as I clear out some of
the other Traveller-related things I have to do ...
> If I work on a new computer system, and it works, would any-
> body want it (I mean to read and re-playtest)? I plan to do this re-
> gardless if I playtest TNE or not...
By all means, post it to TML; I for one am always glad to see things
like this! I am looking forward to seeing it!
[email removed] () writes:
> [about my classic traveller materials]
Gee, I just said I had some Traveller-related things I have to do ...
this is one of them! I am going through my files now, and will be
posting things to TML as I discover them.
> [TNE wish list for GDW]
> If I buy the TNE rules + TNE Imperium sourcebook combination I would
> like to be able to start play as soon as possible. Having to stop to
> design starships, ground vehicles etc is the last thing I want to do.
I like to see a decent selection of vehicles included with the game, but
I am a designer at heart. One of my favorite solataire activities with
Classic Traveller was designing ships for many and varied purposes.
> Rather than full detailed design rules on how to start from scratch,
> rules on options for varying the standard designs might be a better way
> to go in the basic rules. This would allow even more vehicles to be
> easily constructed from the standards presented.
This might be a good idea for the basic rulebook. However, I would want
the ability to design vehicles from "scratch". This capability is very
important to me, and I would be willing to spend additional money (over
and above the basic rules set) to get it. This is indeed what I had to
do in Classic Traveller (I purcased Striker for the design system alone;
I have never played it as a wargame or as part of a rpg campaign, except
as a demonstration of miniatures combat).
If such an "add-on" design system is selected, I strongly suggest that
it be designed and playtested at the same time as the basic rules. The
reason for this is so that the two fit seamlessly together, and so that
the "simplified" system presented in the basic rules is compatible with
the advanced "add-on" system purchased separately.
> If these design rules for vehicles, robots etc were _all_ together, tested
> and workable, this would save hunting through basic rules, supplements etc
> whenever you wanted to design something, or check something in the design
> rules. Another advantage of this approach is that you would have room to
> go into the detail that some people appreciate, in a separate volume that
> only these people need buy.
Yes; I whole-heartedly agree with this. I would much rather get all of
the design rules in one suppliment for an additional price than to have
some of them included for "free" in the basic game, and then have the
rest spread out over half a dozen suppliments and sourcebooks.
> It would be nice if you could include some ideas on how economics is sup-
> posed to work too, as background to the trade rules. I am not asking for
> a treatise on economics - just some guidelines to help when trading comes
> up in a game.
The economic background bears a little extra thought. One of the
recurring and recent topics on TML is the economics of Traveller. About
the only consensus we have ever reached is that the available
information is too inconsistent and fragmentary to draw any rock-solid
conclusions from.
By one set of calculations, the amount of trade in the Third Imperium
was such a small portion of the Gross Imperial Product that no-one would
have noticed the onset of Hard Times: the economic impact of the loss of
a sector of the economy responsible for a less than 0.1% of an average
planet's economy is ... well negligible.
By another set of calculations, the Imperial Navy budget was large
enough to easily afford complete protection (in terms of a globe of
warships with weapon and sensor ranges out to 100 diameters) from piracy
for every one of the 11,000 worlds of the Third Imperium ... with plenty
of money left over for a subsector and reserve fleet.
Admittedly, these are two extremes, but this does give an idea of the
magnitude of the uncertainty!
Since one of the features of the New Era is supposed to be a period of
trade expansion and exploration, the economic benefits driving this
expansion could use some explanation.
> I have no objection to this - I would *like* to see some variety. Jump,
> Gate, and [Stutter]Warp systems seem as good a start as any.
The only problem I see is ensuring that one drive technology does not
"overpower" the others, by being superior in every way. That is the
danger with the stutterwarp proposal.
> Both these approaches are better for -roleplaying- ship to ship combats
> than High Guard - at least in my humble opinion.
A good point here, in my opinion. Most of my players did not like
miniatures combat - either for starships or for personal combat. While
we improvised abstract systems, an official abstract combat system,
especially for space combat, would be a good feature.
> I like their approach of having rules for trade, ship combat,
> world design etc biased toward either being easy to ROLEPLAY with, or
> provide opportunities for roleplaying. This is what I would like to see
> with TNE. I think it is what the original Traveller had, despite its
> warts, that Megatraveller doesn't.
The name of the game is science-fiction roleplaying. The idea is for
the referee and players to co-operatively tell a story. One for which
everyone involved is willing to suspend disbelief. When this happens,
you can really become your character, and role-playing begins. If this
does not happen, then all you are doing is rolling dice and pushing
pencils. Game rules which do not further roleplaying are part of the
problem; game rules which provide opportunities for roleplaying are part
of the solution.
In Classic Traveller, this suspension of disbelief happened; for us, the
best role-playing was done without reference to any rulebook, and without
rolling any dice. We "got into our character's heads" and what followed
was as close as we could come to the world of the far future.
In MegaTraveller, the typoes, errata, inconsistancies, and the dizzying
swirl of Rebellion-era events got in the way far too often. This is not
to say that the magic never happened, but that it was all too
infrequent, and usually ended with puzzled looks as we stumbled over
some new impossibility.
(I feel as if I have wandered away from my more usual facts and
considered opinions into a nebulous area of philosophy. Chalk it
up to the late hour, and if you disagree, flame me in the morning).
a slightly dazed ...
[email removed]
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Science-Fiction Adventure
in the Far Future