Re: DGW and Yet Another Traveller

> From: Richard Johnson [email removed]
> Subject: (2901) Re: DGW and Yet Another Traveller
>
> I assert that GDW (and TSR and FASA and Steve Jackson) only
> pursue nostalgia when ther introduce Yet Another RPG based
> on a simple abstract rules system.  Hence, using Twilight
> 2000 rules as a "house" system will eventually spell their
> doom.   UNLESS (and here is where TDR and CAT were on the
> right track) the game houses (or someone) manages to begin
> to properly meld 21st-century habits and technology with the
> entertainment world, and start building (granted, primitive)
> virtual reality enhancements to RPG's.

  I suspect that you are referring to a multimedia approach, ie 'MegaTraveller
the RPG, MegaTraveller the Computergame, MegaTraveller the Movie,
MegaTraveller the Online-MUD, MegaTraveller the Boardgame, MegaTraveller the
Novel and so on?

  I agree in that, for example, Novels and computer games generate interest in
a game system and leads the 'newbies' to that system if they have a positive
initial contact. A negative initial contact, on the other hand, will be very
damaging to the system, so quality in this is extremely important.

  When it comes to the MUD type of virtual reality enhancements I see their
purpose as creating interest, because they cannot, at present, emulate the
flexibility of a human referee. Computer games like MegaTraveller II and Pool
of Radiance and all that are very far from MegaT and AD&D, but they don't claim
to be anything they are not. A TravellerMud would be a different beast from
both real Traveller and a computer game version, and it would be non-smart of
it to claim that it was *real* Traveller.
  Any advanced powerglove/glasses scheme must build upon existing technology,
since the development costs to do it from scratch probably will be large.

  The other ways a system could use electronic resources are PBEM/FRP and
communications and I'm not sure that a PBEM/FRP could be run on a commercial
basis. If the workload the referee handles was handled by a salaried operator,
the per turn cost would be rather prohibitive. (Interpret this as: "You're
doing a great job, Richard!" :)

  Communications on the other hand, is very useful, and many companies have
already started their BBS-es and areas on commercial services. In some companies
this seem to be something that the design crew and managers (if those groups
are different people, the company is too large:) do if they are interested on
their spare time and in others this has been formalized as a part of the
normal operation of the company. Steve Jackson Games seems to be an example on
the latter, and I think this is the way to go.

> Richard Johnson     [email removed]          [email removed]
> Pax Electronica.                                         Propogate.

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