I hope you will all pardon me if this message gets a little messy--I'm home
with the C-64 after having been downtown at Origins most of the day. The con
looks pretty disorganized at the moment, and lots of grumbling was heard (which
is why they call us 'grognards' (-8 ).
I was pleased to see that there was a Traveller Q&A today (though less so
when I got there at 10 and it was at 3--not much to do in between).
I'll post more on this later next week, but I should mention that there is
another on Saturday, and I expect I'll have the chance to read my mail Saturday
morning before I go. If you have any <silly> questions you want relayed,
send them to me by private email to avoid cluttering the list.
Panel members were Tom Peters, Charles E. Gannon (introduced as Challenge
MT coordinator), and Marc Miller. They mentioned that GDW is pledged to
increase MT support in the near future (a little infighting there?), and the
projected products include an Equipment Guide, something called Hard Times,
which will discuss the technicalities of the decay, Diaspora (modern equivalent
of an old style sector sourcbook), and
Star Viking. This last is apparently
almost intended to be a separate game,
and its theme should be clear to any
reader of Piper's _Space Viking_.
Miller comments noted: DGP and MTJ are gospel, Challenge is 'sort of
unofficial unless collected elsewhere'. Piper was indeed a primary inspiration
for all of Traveller---so read anything of his you can find for the 'authentic
look and feel' of Traveller. Aslan
can sublimate their desire for land pretty well, so airless rockballs
aren't safe. (-8 The shattering is
permanent for the forseeable future.
Traveller has definitely evolved in concept--as I suspected the Kinunir
was a battle cruiser (1250t) because
that was a reasonable name for something that size when 5000t was maximum.
That's all for now...
Rob Dean