Traveller Mk III: An Editorial by, well, YOU know.

The following is the opinion of one (albeit listened-to) member of
the Traveller Mailing List, and does not reflect the opinions of
the List's membership or of the poor sod who's forced to run it
(hi, James). It will prove offensive to a lot of you people, and
the author doesn't give a fuck. Okay?

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------


So they're at it again. "Star Viking." "Traveller-- the Revision."

*sigh*

I would very much like to determine whether or not this is a hoax, a
cruel joke, or-- Lord help me-- the truth. Especially since any TMLer
who bothers to read .signature files will have noted by now that the
Chuck Gannon mentioned in Mac's latest insider report is a member of
the TML. For the nonce, let us assume, with some skepticism, that the
report is in fact true in extent and content, and go from there.

Knowing comparatively little about the rules system base that the rev 2
Twilight rules use, I'll refrain from making specific comments about
the company's decision to force us all to learn Yet Another System. I
will also refrain from making value judgements as to which system will
be "more realistic," "more playable," or (pfagh!) "better." I merely
wish to comment on the more global aspects of what this change will mean
to us as Traveller players.

First off: Marketing. GDW, unless they have finally learned something
from West End and FASA, are going to finally succeed in blowing their
own brains out on this one. Traveller did great for ten years on a
basic rules system that STILL works better than all the revisions, in
a lot of areas. MegaTraveller has been out for less than half that time,
and has been a colossal flop in terms of sales and generated interest.
It changed too much, and did so in an unappealing package with limited
and skewed scope (we have an entire book on airplanes-- AIRPLANES?!--
and we still don't know squat about Dulinor?). The result was a rules
system that generated very little loyalty. Bad move. GDW had better
be ready to accept the fact that yet another revision is going to piss
off a lot of people in a big way, and that's REGARDLESS of how good it is.
And if they go it alone, without DGP's continuity and gaming aplomb to
back them up, they're in double trouble. Dark Conspiracy is too little
too late on the creepycrawly trend, Space:1889 was a criminal case of
misguessing the public's tastes, and Twilight/Merc/2300 seem to be
keeping the company afloat on merits I personally can't see at all. If
they go out on a limb with this new Traveller rev, they'd better go all
the way-- real artwork, good maps and inserts, a proper typesetting job,
and all the elements that make a game buyer who buys from FASA or TSR
feel like he's getting (at least in layout) a quality product.

"But," I hear the munchkins in the front row bleat, "What about CONTENT?"

PISS on content!

Yeah! Piss on content. Content doesn't sell games-- packaging does. We can
be as altruistic as we want to be, but we are NOT going to keep a company the
size of GDW in business in today's market. A game like Traveller Classic,
as phenomenally successful as it was in 1977, would put GDW into Chapter 11
in no time nowadays. We don't need to impress the seasoned gamers and pros
out there-- they HAVE their systems, and like them. We need to prise open
the sweaty little stubby fists of the whining pimply preteens as they wander
through the game stores looking for newer and better misogyny to hide their
lack of social skills and pull out the crumpled wads of scrimped paper-route
cash and gifts from Mommy and Daddy before it can get spent on Shardowrun,
or Torg, or Cyberpunk, or GURPS, or whatever. Flashy artwork. Bloodshed.
Bigger guns and brighter fireworks. Flashier vehicles and slicker machismo.
And above all, SEX. SEX SEX SEX! Women, reduced to meat on the hoof for
the prurient edification of slimeballs of all ages who'd never dream of
trying to kiss a *real* girl themselves. Tighter costumes! Narrower waists!
And BREASTS. Human women with breasts the size of canteloupes! Aslan women
with breasts the size of honeydew melons! Vargr women with breasts the size
of nectarines! ("Nectarines?" "Yeah, but there are SIX of them, man!") More
makeup, more skin, body tattoos, the works-- if MegaTraveller's Player
Handbook had had a cover with a bim like the one on the original 2300 rules,
they'd have done a lot better in the sales department. SELL MORE GAMES!

That having been said, and the basic problem of keeping the company alive
having been addressed, let me now turn to minutiae that won't make any
difference in the long run to anyone except people like us, people with
slightly DIFFERENT fetishes. Hey, kid! Yeah, you in the front row! Get
yer hand outa yer pants and stop thinking about the honeydew melons for
a second! Remember what you were yelling about a minute ago? Huh?

"Oh, yeah. CONTENT."

These are the areas which will matter most in the long run, but unfortunately
games are published for the short run. It's doubtful that we can do anything
about the marketing and packaging end of things, so we may as well focus on
the things we CAN change, and hope that we can make Chuck Gannon, and GDW,
listen. Any author who thinks he can publish a rules system in a vacuum, with
no input from outside critics, is living in a dreamworld. On the other hand,
as TDR will gleefully demonstrate, if critics with opposing viewpoints lock
horns with no way to break the deadlock, nothing gets done, good or bad.
The middle ground is for an author or team of authors to have a clear and
persistent vision of the world they are trying to bring to life, combined
with a willingness to sweat the small details out with the help of the best
possible critics and playtesters, changing ruthlessly whatever needs to be
changed to improve the game, and rejecting ruthlessly any attempts to sway
him from his vision.

Well, folks, if Chuck Gannon's the author, can YOU think of a good test group?
*I* sure can.

Let's face it. MegaTraveller was BROKEN. Broken broken broken. We did our
damnedest to fix it, and nobody listened. Now we have a real opportunity
to fix the broken parts before Traveller becomes even more of a public
laughing stock than it is already! Next August isn't a long time to write
a game, but a good testing process can and MUST be included in that time.
The MegaTraveller rules were obviously NOT playtested properly, proofread
and doublechecked carefully, or assembled with any eye to real game-universe
continuity. And the rules that followed were often worse. I call upon the
experts in this group, whose combined knowledge of science, military
matters, economics, sociology and history outweighs that of any single man
out there, to volunteer their aid in the testing and revision of these new
rules. And I call upon the people at GDW to get their heads out of their
asses and stop relying on inbred apologists to test their games. Nobody,
not even Marc Miller or Joe Fugate, can claim to love Traveller MORE than
I do. And I'm willing to do my part to assure that the new game that comes
out next GenCon is the best it can possibly be.

How about it?

metlay				| The good news is that he desires nothing
xpander-loving old curmudgeon   | more for his music 'rep' than a cameo in
                                | SAVAGE HENRY COMICS.
[email removed]              	| The bad news is, he's likely to make it.