[This came to [email removed] - please use [email removed]
in the future. I also added GENIE on the subject line -- James]
Good folks,
I have read with some interest all the various comments from people
regarding GDW's proposed moves to redesign Traveller and thought I would
throw my hat in the ring.
Like a good many other correspondents to this thread, I first encountered
Classic Traveller in the early eighties, laying my hands on virtually
everything that GDW put out - the "Little Black" Boxed Set, the reworked
Big Boxed Set with the improved artwork, various Traveller-associated games
(Snapshot, Mayday and Invasion Earth), a host of Traveller Books and
Supplements, the GDW-produced Adventures and Double Adventures and numerous
copies of JTAS. Even Referees Screens and Traveller posters didn't escape
my notice. In short, GDW produced it, I mostly bought it.
I took part in various adventures - Leviathan, Twilight's Peak (IMHO the
best there was) and various custom adventures to boot. When I wasn't
adventuring, I was using most (not all) of my Traveller gear to design new
worlds, ships, peoples etc., modifying those rules I didn't like, couldn't
work with, or thought were "just plain dumb".
So why the dedication to the Classic Traveller game and game materials ?
Am I one of those "anally retentive" types that psychologists sometimes
speak of, who collect anything from cigarette cards to Faberge eggs ?
No, not at all. Classic Traveller was compact, had a rules system which,
once understood in broad terms, would allow your average user to start
playing/designing fairly quickly. I liked the modularity of the game :
You want Mercenaries - buy Book 4. You don't, don't. You need more info
on the Spinward Marches ? Well, here it is ... and so on (I think Rob
Dean made this point earlier this month). Even the GDW Adventures were, on
the whole, well thought out. They meshed in with the already published
materials whilst, at the same time, allowing the GM a certain latitude in
adding new twists to the adventures.
So why then didn't I move to MegaTraveller or T2K2 or whatever ? Simply
put, none of it added any value at all to the work I had put in using
Classic Traveller. I smelt a marketing rat back then which, to be honest,
I can smell again.
My belief is that GDW's current moves are influenced by little more than a
need for quick revenues, and they view a rewrite of the Traveller rules
(because, all said and done, that's what it is) as the most expedient way
to do this. IMHO, in this they are mistaken. GDW could quite easily put
most of their resources into bringing out some high quality, *well-proofed*
adventures, supplements whatever, in the same format as they used to be. A
new JTAS, new supporting materials, more software ... all these are
options which they should consider. (I would be interested to know where
most of TSR's revenues are derived. New players ? Supplements ?
Adventures ? Can someone please shed some light on this ?)
I also feel (but am willing to be proved wrong) that GDW will have extreme
difficulty winning the hearts, minds and (most importantly to GDW) the
wallets of new gamers when there are so many competitive products out there
(Star Wars, GURPS etc.). If they want to compete with these people, the
materials should be just as glitzy, *better proofed* and easily played.
The last point here is crucial : I find it hard to believe that people
want to read through tomes of rules to resolve game situations ("OK, you're
wearing Cloth when you're suddenly hit by a blast from a FGMP at medium
range. Now if we could just turn to page 18 ... or is that 23 ? Aaah,
but it's London and it's raining, so for weather effects I think we'll turn
to ..." and so on). You see, there has to be this constant trade-off
between realism and playability - a very fine line to tread, and one which,
up until now, GDW have abjectly failed to negotiate.
My parting shot for all you GDW-type folks reading this : if MegaTraveller
was an admission that Classic Traveller was wrong, and MegaTraveller is (by
GDW's admission) also flawed, what confidence can I have as a mere customer
that Traveller - The Next Generation, won't also be brain-dead ruleswise ?
When can I expect the next rules change after that ? Can GDW assure me
that this is the last rules change they will make and that this will really
be IT ? I await a reply.
Oh, and *please*, GDW, don't expect me to believe that you have my best
interests at heart because you are gamers. Just because you do for a
living what you do as a pastime does not necessarily instil me with
confidence. A friend of mine is a brain surgeon, but he isn't a better one
because he talks brain surgery or lobotomises his cat come the weekend.
BTW, I know it sounds like a flame, GDW, but it ain't. More of an unlit
Molotov Cocktail. Now if you'd care to bring some matches next time ...
All the best everyone,
Hugh.
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