I would like for the following to be sent to GEnie; I am also open to
commentary from the TML.
metlay
------------ snip -------------
Lester:
Some comments on your last GEnie letter, if you don't mind....
1. You want more Traveller? Great, so do we. I don't know if what you're
proposing qualifies just yet.
2. To quote you, loosely: "If the products are good, we make a living; if
the products are bad, we'll change careers." This is bilge, and you know
it. If the products SELL, you'll make a living, and if they DON'T sell,
you'll change careers. Quality and salability are unrelated except in
the most nebulous terms, even in the supposedly demanding game industry.
The fact that T2k, a morally reprehensible and utterly ridiculous post-
holocaust scenario, outsells MT by a factor of four is a perfect example
of this. You'll make your living if the new rules set is glitzy, well-
produced, readable, and chock-full of good art. The rules are secondary,
except to the people who read these bulletin boards-- and we seem to be
a sort of 'lunatic fringe' to you guys, so why should our opinions matter?
You claim your company cares about our opinions. So far you have not
demonstrated this at all. Between the lack of support given MT and the
refusal to budge on the single most important issue raised by the people
whose opinions you crave, the new rules system basis, you have only
shown a willingness to SAY you're listening.
3. Revisions are worthwhile. What you're planning to do to Traveller
isn't a revision, any more than hitting someone with an axe is surgery.
A jump of eighty years of timeline is a barely tolerable patch to the
previous system's continuity, but I could think of a lot of others that
would work better. This appeal to the younger, less sophisticated gamer
(less intrigue and reading, more killing and mayhem) will probably sell
a fair number of games, but will sour older gamers on what used to be
a very interesting universe. But then, we're just the lunatic fringe,
and our opinions hardly matter.
4. I'll believe your megavirus idea isn't idiotic when I hear it. You claim
that you have a computer scientist who backs you up on it. Big deal, I can
give you the name and address of an accredited physicist who wants to blow
up the Moon and drop a chunk in the Pacific to turn the Earth into a tropical
paradise. Your audience on the TML, and to a lesser extent on GEnie, are
the cream of the computer science world. If there are holes in your argument,
they'll find them, and FAST.
5. My argument with Star Viking is with the background, not the game. I won't
pass judgement on it until I see it. (See more on this matter below.)
6. Oh, so they're NOT reavers, they're explorers and merchants, eh? Then why
the heck are you calling them Star Vikings?
7. Now we reach the meat of the matter: you're asking us to trust you.
Yeah, right. Uh-huh.
Let me explain my position very clearly here, so I won't be misunderstood.
I have been gaming for sixteen years, and have played Traveller since it
was invented. I have played and run games and campaigns in at least twenty
different rules systems, from AD&D to Bunnies and Burrows. I am always,
always, ALWAYS on the lookout for new game systems that do what I want to
do in a game in a better fashion: faster, more playable, more realistic.
When a rules system falls short, I don't just whine, I fix it. Trav Classic
had problems with personal combat and skill use, which I fixed. MT had
problems with the task system and starship combat, which I tried to fix
and (in the ship combat case) failed, going back to the Trav Classic system
which was long in the tooth but still usable. The TDR project was the latest
in a series of attempts to patch MT so it worked as easily as it should have.
I stopped trusting game companies in 1979, when an article I submitted to
the JTAS for publication was removed from the To Be Published file by a GDW
staffer (I won't say whom here) and LOST. It was a lousy article, actually,
but the incident taught me once and for all that game companies are
fallible. It remained for the invention of Email, though, for me to open a
dialogue with them and try to get them to listen to my suggestions. Their
record, to date, has been less than stellar, and I DON'T think it's because
my opinions are poorly formed and without popular support.
So, in a nutshell, I DON'T trust you. The proof of the pudding is in the
tasting. And you can bet that I'll be at the head of the line, with a
BIG motherhumping spoon in my hand....
metlay
- ---------
Loren:
You claim that nobody's actually volunteered to step forward and test the
new rules. Well, you may well be right. Please allow me to rectify that
right now. I would be a worse-than-useless windbag if I were to rail at you
for what you're trying to accomplish, without offering anything constructive
in return; therefore I hereby volunteer myself and my current Traveller
party as playtesters for any and all aspects of the new rules. My group
includes people who have published articles and rules supplements for GDW,
TSR, Chaosium and Steve Jackson, and who have a median age of thirty-one
and a median gaming experience of eleven years per capita. We play many
different rules systems, and enjoy them all to some extent or another.
I have a great deal of loyalty to the old Traveller universe, and a modicum
of loyalty to the old rules system (Classic, not MT). BUT any rules system
that is clear, logical, realistic and easy to learn and master will always
win my loyalty, no matter how much I play and love older systems. IF this
new rules system of yours is a substantial improvement over what has gone
before, I give you my word as a scientist and as a gamer that I will loudly
and vociferously support it, and GDW, against all comers. If there are
places in it that are NOT workable, however, I would request as a matter
of common courtesy that my suggestions be considered, particularly if they
take the form of quantitative suggestions like "Replace such-and-such with
such-and-such, as it makes things flow more smoothly without impairing
realism" rather than flames like "The combat system sucks, throw it out."
I eagerly await your response.
Traveller Est!
metlay
- -----------
Jay:
How much Traveller and MegaTraveller have you played and refereed, if you
don't mind my asking? Just curious.
metlay
- ----------
Here's a question for all the GEnie readers interested in Traveller: are
you intimidated by the presence of GDW and/or DGP on GEnie? If so, please
feel free to post publically and indignantly that you're not, and send
private mail to Rob Dean, who'll forward it to me. One of the more interesting
metatopics on the TML these days is whether or not we benefit or suffer more
from having no direct link to the game companies-- Rob has received private]
mail from at least one GEnie reader who has said, "I agree with you in your
criticisms, but I can't say that on GEnie or GDW won't publish my work."
Comments?
metlay
PS. If I appear to be a thorn in anyone's (or everyone's!) side, please
understand that I mean no personal offense. But dialogue and exchange
of information must be done between equals, and a situation where the
companies are regarded as somehow "superior" is unacceptable. And you
may as well get used to having me around... it's not nice of me to force
poor Rob to post all my messages and serve as a buffer between me and
all the GDW-supporting munchkins out there who want to slip me a Dagger
(250 grams, not counted against personal weight penalty) between the
short ribs, so I'm getting myself a GEnie account.
See you on the Net, folx. *nasty grin*