Along the lines of the current revision discussion, confidence in GDW,
hopes for the future, and so forth....
No offense, but a friend of mine and I have been saying for years that
GDW should do something drastic about their proofing / editing department.
They've been having troubles since late Classic Traveller with basic
typographic problems -- missing tables, paragraphs, scrambled or obviously
missing words, etc. For instance, the amusing bit in _Secret of the
Ancients_ where the last sentence in one of the paragraphs just breaks
off, or the famed "Dulinor was appointed in the year 0000" line in the
Rebellion Sourcebook, or any number of other memorable mistakes. Even
my circa 1977 black books were better proofed than some of this new stuff.
It would improve confidence greatly if we didn't have to be continually
trying to get errata to the errata to fix this sort of thing!
Right now, and correct me if I'm mistaken, most players seem to play
Traveller because of the *SETTING* and not the rules. I agree, I only
use the rules as a marginal guideline, but the rich and varied setting
has great potential as it stands. I'm concerned about any massive
changes in the setting because it risks destroying the game. Rules
changes, while of concern, are a bit more flexible for me.
The idea of a "light behind the claw" and a Shattered Imperium of several
interstellar states of various sizes from tiny to huge might make a good
compromise. Most of the "old-timers" are very familiar with the Marches,
making the area ideal for "Classic Traveller". I'll still miss the old
empire though. Before, the fringe areas were usually just fine for the
sort of thing "Star Viking" sounds like to me. The clash of the
superpowers and the cosmopolitan scope of the empire were a lot of fun,
and have become so hard to arrange now....
- --Steve