Dr. Metlay [], replying to Mike Mikesh []> (and trimmed -- don't panic guys)
===============================================================================
[]> GDW admits they did not support MEGATRAVELLER (MT) adequately.
No kidding. I always felt Trav should have stayed with GDW rather then
farming it out to DGP.
[]> TNE will come as two books. The first will have only the rules.
[]>The second will contain the Imperium background. The aim is to give
[]>players the option to adopt other science fiction universes for their
[]>campaigns. GDW is even seriously considering a 2300 AD Sourcebook,
[]>restoring support for 2300 AD as a subset of TRAVELLER.
[]
[]Interesting. I don't know how the 2300AD purists would swallow it, but
Well, I liked the 2300ad background, mostly because the tech seemed a little
easier to swallow then some of the classic Trav stuff.
[]> Three versions of faster-than-light drives will be presented in
[]>the rules, jump drive (TRAVELLER), stutterwarp (2300 AD), and star
[]>gates (resembling Pournelle's MOTE IN GOD'S EYE universe).
Personally, I find the "steady power" system more believeable then the
"build up one humongous charge" system. Besides, with the stutterwarp, or
with the stargates/tramlines/Alderson points, you get, *gasp* travel routes
like in ol' suppliment 3, except that EVERYONE has to use them, not just poor
shmoes with Jump-2 or less. Makes the Spinward main mean something.
[]I've had star gates as
[]Ancient artifacts in my Trav games for over thirteen years,
I actually had a few, A-la "Buck Rodgers" in hos old Trav game. Ancients stuff.
[]>A vector combat system
[]>will probably not appear if GDW uses instead the stutterwarp combat
[]>system (see later).
A delta-V system is more realistic, but sometimes a reall pain, especially at high velocities.
[]> The world generation system will remain as it is with one minor
[]>exception. The stars a system will be a factor of the kind of main
[]>world generated. Its too difficult rationalizing the large number of
[]>hospitable worlds circling stars of types unlikely to have anything
So? So what if most systems are garbage, with mining outposts at best on
them? This isn't "Lost in Space" or "Star Trek", where every world's
habitable. Personally, I want Science fiction in my Trav, not Science Fantasy.
And for god sake, tie population to world quality! If a system is garbage and
not worth mining, keep it empty of people. Perhaps a monitor station at best.
[]> The New Era will be an age of discovery. Explorers (Star Vikings)
[]>from the pocket empires will go out and recontact worlds in a fashion
[]>loosely resembling what we see in STAR TREK.
Actually, it sounds more like the "Stainless Steel Rat" universe, with the
emerging government trying to contact the worlds lost in the big crash.
[]> Deneb survives, thanks in part to an impassioned appeal by Chuck
[]>Kallenbach (Paranoia Press; HIWG). Vargr activity across the Corridor
If we keep the Imperial background, then I'm glad Deneb is staying. However,
switching to stutterwarp will seriously retcon the marches.
[]>STAR VIKINGS
[]Dumb name. Sorry, guys, but you've gotta do better than this. The rest
[]of it is great, though; a typical Manipulation, just on a grander scale.
I agree. That name is just too cheesy.
[]> The 'long ship' is a class of starship apparently unique to the
[]>Star Vikings.
Again, taking the anology too far. Do their Vacc suit helmets have horns
on them as well? And the engineer's name is always Sven. :)
If you have to use a term, it can be "barbarian states" or Pirates, or Reavers
or something. Vikings, as in Norse "Yo, Thor!" types is at best a Solomani
Term, if it still exists
[]> TRAVELLER is not a dark future game and TNE will not be either.
Good. Trav wasn't, and TNE shouldn't be. However, the idea of the Lone
peice of the Imperium, adrift with a sea of barbarian to Core, rim and
trailing (Assume the Zho's just sit there -- they are bigger now), sounds good.
You want "stability", stay in marches or Deneb. Aye, but the big bucks and
high risks lie outside the borders of the "civilized" worlds.
[]> GDW will return to being vague about technology. From the
[]
[]Wise move. But that's still not going to save you if what you DO talk
[]about is bad science.
Thinking back to my old ref, back in '80, he didn't give too much worrk about
tech strangities, as long as it was consistant. If the science is strange,
fine, as long as it fits with everything else. The plates were a crock
because they were not consistant with newtonian physics. But you can fudge
stutterwarp or jump physics, as long as you are consistant within that frame.
[]> GDW is seriously considering including TWO faster-than-light star
[]>drives in the Imperial setting, traditional jump drive and stutterwarp
[]>from 2300 AD. Frank Chadwick and Lester Smith favor this because
[]>stutterwarp makes for a very interesting space combat system.
I dunno. I can live with umpteen different ways to shuttle around a system,
be it orion systems, Fusion torches or Ion rockets, but I think the means to
pierce the 'c' boundry should have a single basic form, with other systems
being variants of that. Look at normal maneuver drives -- Be it Fusion, Ion
or Nuke bomb, it's all "action<->reaction". It's that same idea, just with
variant ways of doing it. The same should be with the star travel.
(Actually, musing along the lines of stutterwarp, it sounds a lot like
Saberhagen's C-Plus drive)
So while race A uses a system of stutterwarp that is very efficient, but
has a greatly reduced range before dischcharge (Very fast ships, but their
range is pretty poor, limiting their "known space"), while Race C has the
"Ion drive" of stutterwarps (Shit poor speed, but a very good range before
needing a discharge, resulting in a flung out empire with poor response times
to external threat), you get your "drive" differences.
[](And invest in some real artists, for heaven's sake! Use Dave Dietrick,
[]Liz Danforth, Mike Vilardi, and people of that calibre exclusively--
[]go to the level of Crompton only in a pinch, and punt anyone less
[]talented than that. Good art sells games, and bad art keeps them from
[]being sold.)
Agreed. Cheesy art is a real turn off.
===============================================================================
[] / \ Postscript or BIOS, Burton Choinski, QA Engineer []
[] (( )) we'll spark new life [email removed] []
[] ( \ / ) into your system and []
[] ( \^/ ) make it fly! []
[] (( )) []
[] )^( Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. Cambridge, MA. []
===============================================================================