Re: Rallying the troops for TNE/TDR II

Scott K. writes about GDW taking up his offer to participate in
the rules design for MegaTraveller: The New Era:

> I'm going on vacation starting tomorrow.  I expect to be back around the
> 17th.  Now, Mark pointed out that perhaps we don't need an coordinator,
> and I am not really fully coordinated enough to take on the task of
> coordinating it ALL.
>                        ........                I feel that a coordinator
> while not absolutely necessary, will certainly help.  The crew of GDW
> is gonna have limited patience listening to 300+ people all giving
> contradictory views on the TML.
>
> What *I* would like to do would be to have folks send their ideas on craft
> design to me.  I'll go through it and pick up the best ideas and try to
> incorporate as many as I can into a coherant write up for them to read.

How much do you plan on changing material we submit?  It's one thing
to act as a reviewer, but I'm not sure I want my material editting
*before* it gets to GDW.  Other than that one quibble, I agree that
there should be only one (or very few, at least) contact with them to
avoid overwhelming them with input.

> Computers:
> One area we all know that is in need of touching up is computers.  Nobody
> has a good answer for what a model 1 computer is.  Nobody knows how a
> robot brain compairs to a Model 1.  That is a big problem with the design
> system.  I however am the original Computer-0 guy.  I think that perhaps
> we should try to hammer together a system to try to equate robot brain
> design to the various Model 1's, 2's, 9's etc.  I would love to hear some
> input from the *REAL* Computer Jocks out there.   (Mark?  James?)

I'm willing to give it a shot.  I'd like to work with James, but unless
his work schedule changes, I suspect there's vanishing small chance he'll
have the time to contribute.  BTW, are we writing from scratch, reviewing
existing drafts, or both?  If working from existing stuff, how do we get
the original material from GDW?

> Since the virus is coming into the game, it will be important that what
> computers that *DO* exist will be usable and realistic.  This also, may
> allow us to introduce some cyber-punkish computer stuff into Trav.  This
> may or may not be desirable.  I don't know, but it is something we might
> look into.

It would be nice to have some direction and guidelines from GDW.  For
example, I'd hate to spend a month developing rules for netrunning only
to discover that they don't want that sort of thing in MT:TNE as it makes
it look too cyberpunkish.  We need a little boundary criteria, don't you
think?

BTW, I'd also like to work on a unified combat system (at *least* personal
and vehicle, but inclusion of air, sea, and space combat would be nice too).

> It seems to me that while I am competant enough to put together a summary
> of craft design stuff, I am not well aquainted enough to go through all
> of traveller and find all the strengths and weaknesses.  I know *ZERO*
> about trade and commerce stuff, while Steve, Hans, Wildstar and others
> really know the stuff.  I suspect there are rather a few of us who could
> take on the task of coming up with a definiteive critique of various
> aspects of Traveller.  Let's play to our strengths:

Since Trade & Commerce is so badly broken in current MT, I think this is
definitely an area the our 'pros' need to concentrate on.  Steve H., Wildstar,
Rob Dean, and Dow Rieder are the first names that come to mind here.  I
notice that only Steve and Rob are in this mail header, so I think Dow
and Derek (what *is* his real name, anyway?) should definitely be asked
to participate.  (I'm including both of them in this shotgun reply, on the
chance that they'll be interested.)

> I would suggest that if someone feels competant enough to coordinate some
> aspect, please volunteer to do so.  Then we can get our best people working
> in their best areas on some tough problems.

With the regular TML PBEM on summer hiatus and other RPG activities
currently in cold-storage, I'll volunteer.

Assuming I get majority approval (and some contact info from Scott), I'll
contact Loren right after I get back from vacation (I should be back on
June 29th)and see if I can get some design guidelines for the new rules.
Most of you know what a stickler for detail I am, so I think I could
organize things reasonably well.  I promise not to stomp anyone's ideas,
as long as they don't conflict with any guidelines set down by GDW.
I promise to pass on only material in a form approved by the original
author, i.e. I'm not going to re-write it after you submit it.  I *will*,
however,do spelling and grammar checking on submitted material and query
the author for corrections before passing any material along, OK?  And
finally, I promise to make sure that GDW gets all the appropriate names
listed in the final product, and SPELLS THEM RIGHT!! :^)

Later,
	- Mark