>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.
I can vouch for that! (hehehe)
>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!
Is it just my imagination, or haven't GDW and DGP been promising to do this
for years now? Steve makes an excellent point. Sure, the fact that in the
_Spinward Marches Campaign_ [sic], there is no way for diplomats to get liason
skill or rogues to get streetwise is amusing to those of us who already
possessed _Citizens of the Imperium_, but what of the newcomers? Sad as it
seems, it appears to me as though the games houses don't really care what they
put into print anymore. (Although Steve and I both agree that DGP has done a
better job than GDW... by far.)
>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.
Gosh, sounds like another convert to my Romantics of Traveller movement. ;)
>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....
Funny how Traveller lasted for fifteen years and developed a large
following... until GDW got all caught up with a _Perestroika_ of their own.
Let face it: The game is better when there are lots of "villains" (?) for the
characters to match wits against. The Zhos felt an aweful lot like the
Communists, while the Solomani (*my* personal favorites) were ruthless hoards
of Nazi, KKK, David Duke, Afrikaner fascists. (You just can't make a better
villain!) I mean, heck, they even wear armbands and talk about the purity of
the race! The endless intrigues for Terra and along the border were always
fertile ground for adventure. Now, it seems, either the Solomani will get
back their sphere, checked only by Daibei and Margret, or will be beaten back
by who knows what? And if they're beaten back, will it be by a bunch of "Star
Vikings"?! Sure, this New World Order does mean lots of little states, but as
anyone who studies the international scene can attest, it just isn't the same
as having a conflict between Great Powers. In the real world, the collapse of
the Cold War is great. In a game world, however, the loss in tention and fear
is less positive.
The current state of affairs of Traveller, MT, et al. is enough to make someone
who grew up on Classic Traveller cry.
I wonder, is it really any coincidence that Marc Miller is leaving GDW??? It
sounds like the Gygax coup all over again.
:I assume that some kindly soul will forward this to GDW.
:
:Mike Metlay expresses my feelings about New Traveller perfectly.
:By all means fix the bits of MegaTraveller that needs fixing,
:but leave the background alone. Throwing out 15 years of
:acumulated background material is a really really bad idea.
Here, here!
>- --Steve
: Hans Rancke
RHA
Founder,
RoT (Romantics of Traveller)