Re: Goodbye

Subject: Goodbye
From: [email removed]

Bart, just yesterday, you wrote:
> When the president of a company *publicly* threatens
> to sue one of the company's own customers, who has voluntarily
> contributed a great deal to the company's product, it *doesn't
> matter* whether the man has a legitimate gripe or not -- I'm
> going to stay as far away from that company as possible.

Personally, *IF* Frank Chadwick had had a legitimate complaint, then I
for one (and probably many others) would feel differently.  As it was,
Scott Kellogg was being slightly hot-headed; while Frank Chadwick's
response was completely uncalled-for.  However, this does not seem
a serious enough offense to warrant a complete boycott.


> Second, and perhaps more importantly, "Traveller" is unplayable
> by novices such as myself.
> The result of all this richness of rules and settings
> is, for me at least, a system into which it is impossible to
> bootstrap myself without a *massive* investment of time and
> energy.
> Consider that the only Traveller I've ever played was original
> Traveller in the pre-Imperium setting 10 years ago.  Imagine my
> shock when, 6 years later, I decided to buy, read, and
> understand enough source materials to run a Traveller
> campaign.

Traveller is indeed an unplayable game, and it has been ever since
MegaTraveller was published (Classic Traveller is unplayable because it
is out of print, and MegaTraveller because it is a complete mess).  TNE
may fix this, although I have some considerable doubts.

Whether or not you could collect enough of the Classic Traveller
materials to play a campaign, I'm not sure.  The list below describes
the materials I would recommend for someone like you:

The Traveller Book [preferred] or Books 1-3 [which you may have]
The Classic Traveller basic rules.  Copies of The Traveller Book
may still be available from some stores (Crazy Igors, or A
Wargamers' Depot, amoung others).  If you have Books 1-3 from
Basic Traveller or Deluxe Traveller, you can use them, but The
Traveller Book is a better editing job, and easier to read.

The Traveller Adventure
This is a complete campaign for Classic Traveller.  Much of the
background data you want is included in this book; I also
know for a fact that copies are still available from some
stores (A Wargamers' Depot has several copies of the softbound
version in stock).  Even if you decide not to run the campaign,
there are many adventure ideas contained in here, and a lot of
background material is presented in a rather painless way.

These two books were designed to work together, as a coherent set, and
were probably the closest GDW ever got to presenting a cohesive,
canonical Traveller.  They probably contain over 70% of the  body of
knowledge that makes up "Classic Traveller".

If at all possible, pick up copies of Book 4 and Book 5; these provide
more detailed Army and Navy characters, and are Classic Traveller
staples.  Book 6 and Book 7 do the same for Scout and Merchant
characters, but these were written relatively late in the Classic
Traveller period, and have had much less influence.  Another possibility
would be to use the character generation section of the MegaTraveller
Players' Handbook, which seems to be substantially unchanged from the
final systems used by Classic Traveller (save for the addition of
typographical errors which were not present in the earlier versions).

I would also try to locate copies of the following suppliments: The
Spinward Marches, and the two Library Data suppliments.  With a few
exceptions, most of my Traveller playing and refereeing was done with
not much more material than what I describe above (the exceptions being
Citizens of The Imperium, 76 Patrons, Animal Encounters, and the Journal
of the Travellers' Aid Society).  While a goodly amount of material came
from the Journal, much of it made its way into the Best of The Journal
volumes (which may also be available at some stores).  The other three
are contained to a greater or lesser degree in The Traveller Book, or
can be re-created with not too much referee effort.

One of the best parts about buying second-hand or out-of-print books
(other than being able to get them for much less money than new
material) is that GDW has already been paid for them, usually a long
time ago.  GDW neither knows nor cares that you are purchasing Classic
Traveller materials.

> It's a wonderful universe, but *all the important bits need to
> be in one self-contained book*.  I really don't care if that
> book is actually 3 volumes of 500 pages each, and costs $150.

I agree with you.  Unfortunately, it's not going to happen; Classic
Traveller is dead at GDW (save for those who want to revise and retcon
it out of existance).

> So in all sadness and dismay, I must sign off.  I will
> certainly miss the intelligent discussion, the lighthearted
> fun, and the passionate commitment to FRP gaming expressed by
> most members of this list, but I'm going to go look for some
> more viable sci-fi game to run.  Thanks to most all of you for
> your help and support!

I for one am sorry to see you go, and sad that you feel this way.
However, it is your decision to make and your game to referee.

You may want to take a look at Steve Jackson's GURPS, and take a good
hard look at BTRC's TimeLords/WarpWorld/SpaceTime games.

Whatever you decide to do, fare thee well!

[email removed]
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                         in the Far Future