This was intended to be sent out a few days ago, but I have an alibi:
We've just had a 'Kellogg Case' here, involving a train crash and a friend who
didn't think to call when the train just after his crashed and nobody
could reach him.
Anyway: MILWAUKEE AND BLOOMINGTON, THE TML PERSPECTIVE.
Milwaukee: Origins/Gencon: Traveller - The New Era seminar.
Star Viking - Planet Briefing seminar.
Bloomington: GDW Writers Seminar
I've mention in a chat message that I had 75% good news and 25% bad news,
and I still stand by that.
Lets start with the good news:
o The skill system has been fixed so that it now has a good approximation of
the 'feel' of Traveller.
Anybody who remembers mine of all the articles complaining that the very
structure of the skill system made people somewhat proficient in a small
number of areas and totally worthless in everything else, contrary to
Traveller where almost half of the characters were jack-of-all-trades
(even though they might lack that specific skill:) should know that I don't
make this claim just because I was bribed with a pencil marked 'Ramada Inn'
and a piece of candy:)
I noticed that Mike Mikesh didn't go into detail so here it is: v1 was the
T2k1 skill percentage system. v2 was the T2k2 skill system wich had skills
from 1-10, stats from 1-10 and used a d10. v2.5 was the one that appears
in the DarkCon PC booster kit, which used skills 1-20, stats 1-20 and a d20.
The new one (v3) uses skills 1-10, stats 1-10 and a d20. The skill and the
stat are added and this is what you roll against with the d20. If the skill
is zero the difficulty goes up one level. Zero level skills are emulated
with level 1 skills since there won't be any 'max number of skills' limit.
Last Sunday I tried this system out in my Dark Conspiracy campaign...
"ANOTHER system?! But we only used the last one once!"
"Yes, but this one is better"
"That's what you said the last time too!"
"Start by halving all skills and stats"
"Ack! Pht! Att Lampa! Baa baa baa baa baa!"
..and despite the initial reaction, they liked it.
o Deneb is Still There, with Norris and without Virus.
There were some mumblings about that this and the change between v2.5
and v3 was prompted by 'comments from Traveller players'. Since this were
two of the three main points that was pressed by many people on TML, I
like to think that we made a difference and that they infact did listen.
o Better support and proofreading promised.
"Don't tell us it [the MegaTraveller support & proofreading] stinks,
we already know it stinks, we get calls every day telling us it stinks!"
GDW is planning staff increases and (as anybody who reads Challenge have
noticed. I haven't for example seen a writing contest in a major gaming
magazine since extremely early Dragon) increases in the number of
freelancers too.
Their explanation of the non-proofread and unsupported status of MegaT
is that they simply never used MegaT inhouse since it came from an
outside source, this made making and proofreading supplements harder.
(Btw, does anybody know how many of the supplements that was done inhouse
and not by DGP or freelancers? The only one I know about is Shattered
Ships and they admitted that that one wasn't proofread at all)
o Fusion Rockets!
Things are looking good for (reintroduction of) fusion rockets and
vector combat.
o Greater emphasis on ECM in combat.
o The Virus *has* a foundation in Traveller: Cymbeline
I don't remember what they said exactly as Mike Mikesh does:
My recollection is that virus mk1 was the one that would attack a common
component in all computers and destroy them while virus mk2 was a
software version of the Cymbeline chips that would travel on the
transponder signals and spread even to computers without this chip:
Thus everybody (more or less), and not just the Imperium, get hit by it.
o The Metlay school of ship-combat is on the rise.
"Aye, ye landlubbers, grab yer cleavers and storm de subsidized liner!
It will be the plank if ye wreack any spareparts!":)
And the bad news:
o The Virus will stay, and the main 'campaign' will be 70 years into the
future.
o Lots of old, detailed data will become obsolete.
This is the big minus, and it is sort of combined with the Virus.
One thing that might lessen the impact is that the DoD (Domain of Deneb:)
remains more or less as before.
o A certain GURPS-idization.
It can be detected in that TTNE will become a General SFRPG with a main
'campaign' and sourcebooks for other universes (2300) and eras (Siru Zirka
etc, Imperium w/o Rebellion) will come out on the side.
o All those vehicles will become obsolete too.
An intent to keep the results the same even though the mechanics change
has been stated, but that is damned hard to do, so unfortunately I'll have
to see it before I believe it.
o No More Stackpoole.
Nope, Shadowrun will move from Challenge to the new paper aimed at
multigeanre games.
o But we will get stuck with Battletech and Star Trek.
:(
Summary:
On the plus side: Deneb, the Skill system and Support.
On the minus side: Obsoletization of old data.
I'll try to get back to this subject further, but night falls and food
calls:)
- -bertil-
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