> From: [email removed]
> Subject: (2720) Re: Metaphysics
(There should probably be a ^L to protect the young and innocent from reading
stuff about Ancients here.)
^L
> "How many ancients can dance on the head of a pin?"
>
> Bertil writes: "That depends on if the pin is made of monadium, and on how
> many ancients there are left that are able to dance, and on if the coyns
> say that dancing is a good idea."
>
> WRONG! The Droyne use coyns. The ancients didn't use them. They are a
> recent development, handed out to the Droyne by Grandfather long after
> the ancients died out.
If I'm not totally mistaken, the Imperial Encyclopedia lists coyns as one type
of common artifacts in the entry on artifacts. I agree that it might seem hard
to reconcile this with the "Coyns was introduced by Grandfather", and the fact
that some major races that hadn't appeared on the stellar stage appear on coyns.
My suggestion for a solution of this is to assume that since Droyne lived on
worlds with ruins from the Ancients last war, some coyns might have happend to
end up in those ruins not long after the war, when Grandfather introduced them.
Then we have the two-line comment in 'Secret of the Ancients' that Grandfather
had ventured forth several times after the end of the war and destroyed
ancient worlds where the destruction was not yet complete. I used this for an
adventure where the engima was that the Final War still goes on...
> And what makes you so sure the Droyne are the ancients? Who says so?
> GDW? Yeah, they also printed Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium!
I usually rate GDW products as being Pre- or Post-MegaTraveller:)
> Scott
>
> Actually, I think it was a BIG mistake to say that the Droyne are the
> ancients. The explanation took all the mystery out of it. Now when
> players come accross an ancient artifact, they just say "Oh it's some
> old Droyne stuff."
In my current campaign(s) I keep the question open. When one of the players
said something like "Well, I *know* that they were Droyne because 'Secret of
the Ancients' says so." I answered "If I could get away with the 6th Frontier
War (1114-1116) I'm sure I can get away with making the Ancients human or vargr
or whatever:)"
As for Artifacts, They are still hideously expensive and hideously
unpredictable. And what PC would say 'well, just some old Droyne stuff' when
facing a Roth Thokken Vargr that's wearing two nano-tech level psionic
amplifyers that looks like two large diamonds in his empty eye-balls?
(I refer to 'Vilani and Vargr' for all talk about Roth Thokken and empty
eye-balls:)
- - -bertil-
- - --
"Med en sjyst artefakt sla^r man imperiet med ha"pnad!":)