'Understanding Traveller' release from GDW

  I stopped by the local gaming shop today and found a GDW
handout about Traveller: The New Era.  It's called
`Understanding T:TNE'.  It has the standard cover art on the
front that we've been seeing for months in Challenge magazine.
The two inside pages is broken up into four sections:

        1. The Thousand-year Imperium is Dead!

        2. The Dawn of a New Era

        3. The Hard Edges of Space

        4. A Different game for a different era

  More on these in a bit.



  The back page lists products for T:TNE.  Besides the Core rule
book (due in April according to GDW on the phone last week &
listing for $25 according to the new distributor catalog at the
dealers), GDW has two rule books and two background books in the
works.  Add to this 25mm miniatures from RAFM, `detailed
Traveller starships' as well.  There will be a Traveller novel
put out by GDW also.

  There is one rule book for expanded starship combat.  `useful
for single-ship encounters as well as squadron actions...'.
Don't worry, basic starship rules are in the basic rule book.

   The other rule book is called `The Technical Architecture'.
It will provide a layman's explanation of the real science
behind the numbers.  Topics covered will include:  acceleration,
gravity, power generation and laser light dispersion.  The book
will also give design sequences for systems not normally found
in Traveller (can you say `Stutter-Warp'?).  This will allow you
to use GDW House Rules for just about any SF universe.

   These two books were not in the catalog I saw.  No release
date or price known at this time.



    The first of the background books is called `Survival
Margin'.  It's the crossover product for MegaTraveller and
T:TNE.  Conversion guidelines are in this one.  It was in the
catalog and listed for $10.  I don't remember a release date for
it.

    The other is called `Reavers'.  It's about the Hiver backed
Star Vikings (alternate name: `Reavers').  No date, no price.



     Then they have the boxed set, called `Deluxe Traveller'.
Core rules, Technical Architecture and `a variety of playing
aids.'  Again, no further details.



        Getting back to the four inside sections...

 1. The Thousand-year Imperium is dead!

    Nothing new here.  The text blurb is the story from the
character generation rules GDW prereleased on Genie.  The one
with the old guy with the `shiny radiation scars' that `came
flickeringly to life in the dancing firelight.'



 2. The Dawn of a New Era

        "When I hit the Hiver technical curriculum, it was as if Id
come home for the time.  this was where I belonged, and it's
where I would have stayed if the first expeditions into The
Wilds had turned out differently.  But all that came later."

    Reach out into the Wilds and help your fellow humans back
into space, even if you have prove that you have superior
firepower first. :-)

  3.  The Hard Edges of Space.

        "When we found out what happened to the crews of those first
ships we send into The Wilds, it was as if everyone went a
little crazy.  Or maybe we all just grew up.  Maybe there isn't
a lot of difference.  Veronique had been on one of those ships -
sweet, brilliant, gentle Veronique."

   Remember that superior firepower I mentioned?  It is not
pretty out there.

   It goes on to talk about the four regions of T:TNE.

        1.  The Regency:  The old Domain of Deneb.  No deyos here.  Old
Imperium tech that has been hidden behind a strict quarantine for the last
seventy years.



        2.  Pocket Empires:  That's us!  `...isolated islands in a sea
of anarchy.'



        3.  The Rim:  Hiver backed traders who got smeared by
barbarians (i.e. old Imperials and Solmani) the first time out.  Now they
`have begun a more vigorous campaign.'  These are your Reavers or Star
Vikings.


        4.  The Wilds:  The rest of the Old Empire.  GDW sums it up
this way..."ruined worlds struggling in ignorance and barbarism.
 On many of these worlds there remains relics of pre-Collapse
technology, and these are used by small ruling elites to force
absolute obedience from the masses of the population, medieval
subsistence agriculture existing side-by-side with grav tanks
and battledress-equipped feudal overlords."



  4. A Different Game for a Different Era

        A bit of copy that reads like H. Beam Piper describing a Space
Viking raid on a planet of the old Terran Federation.  Right down to
mentioning chicken stealing.

    It then goes on to tell us that GDW House Rules are much
better than old MT rules and is compatible with TW2K, Dark Con
and the ever popular Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Hey, I got my
copy!  Never know when I'll need the stats for a T-Rex :-}).
Another plug for the `Traveller Technical Architecture' book.
Here they mention by name -- stutterwarp, star gates and matter
tranmitters.



   That's all I have.  Has anyone seen the advance release `Demo
Team' rules yet?

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Urbin  Racal-Interlan   Boxborough, MA  These opinions are mine.
"Justice Department studies show that armed citizens are much less likely to
suffer losses or personal injury from thieves" -- Washington Post 1/7/92
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