Some questions have been raised about the relationship between TDR and
the companies publishing MegaTraveller; I think these should be answered
clearly before we finish anything concrete.
I should soften my statement that we are going to avoid mingling TDR with
involvement from GDW (unlikely at best) or DGP (somewhat more possible)
"at all costs." Obviously this can't be done; the gaming community is a
small one, and word gets around. So the policy I'd like to adopt is one
of careful distancing from the "official line" until we have something
to show for our efforts. Remember-- we're doing these rules because we've
seen several areas of Traveller, which is overall a wonderful game, that
are, well, BROKEN. And we want to fix them, basically. So what we're
doing here is creating OUR vision of a repaired MT rules system: Traveller
Done Right. This defines the parameters of TDR as a product: we are not
licensed by GDW to sell it, therefore we cannot, so it MUST be made
available for free, and we cannot represent it as anything remotely
resembling officialdom. Recall DGP's efforts to "fix" Traveller resulted
in MegaTraveller, a major overhaul whose improvements have often been
ignored in the light of some of the bigger gaffes. We're taking the next
step with TDR, but somehow I doubt that either GDW or DGP is willing to
consider Traveller rev 3.0 just yet. So we need to get our ideas out there
and have them playtested and beaten upon for a while, resulting in updates
and improvements once in a while and in the end, a system that maybe,
POSSIBLY, might get looked at by GDW and DGP as a worthwhile variant or
addition to the MT rules. This will take years, and as long as copyright
is retained we will always have the option of licensing, but as of now
any involvement with DGP or GDW on an official level is out of the question.
That having been said, let me second Mark's motion and say, get the rules
in BEFORE we try to decide how to distribute them; stop talking and start
doing, folx. (And lest ye point at me, I have a few things of my own on
the way: with Dow, a fixed trade/commerce system, and on my own, an
expanded skill list and the beginnings of a TON of equipment and weapons
data.)
metlay