Re: You are invited to a wake.....

I stack up a week's worth of TML because I don't have time to read it
(my players just unexpectedly(*) misjumped 22 parsecs from outside the
Imperium to near Attica/Querion, so I have to rush up some extra
background details for the Zhodani border), and somebody takes an axe
to my favourite soapbox... :-)

>[...] You wasted your life, instead of fighting and dying in the 5th
>Frontier war [...]

Um.  5th Frontier war?  What's that, pray tell, science fiction?
There has been no Fifth Frontier War, there has been no Rebellion --
we have always been as we are.

I think a lot of people are confusing a rules system with a campaign.
I have never used the Rebellion background, but almost everything I
have spent on MT material has paid off (or will pay off) in my
campaign, set as it is on the borders of a strong and thriving
Imperium exploring a new era of peace with the Zhodani.  I've even
used 2300AD material in the game.
    What makes a campaign successful is not the rules system, although
the rules must not be allowed to intrude, but the *feel*.  With a
consistent well thought out background, a good group of players, and
enough flexibility to take the universe where it wants to go, it
doesn't really matter what rules system is being used.  GDW's decision
to bring out a new rules system should not affect existing campaigns
- -- you can use the old rules, the new rules, and any mixture of
background you choose that blends into *your* game.  We freed
ourselves from strict adherence to the Party Line when we learnt to
say "Gygax is an insufferable moron" and reject the "If you don't use
these exact rules, I won't let you play" attitude (in the days when it
was IMHO true, not sure how Mr. Gygax's work is doing these days).
That was when, 10, 15 years ago?  I remember it well.
    I have not consciously decided whether to buy TNE.  I probably
will, and if a non-Rebellion sourcebook is added I certainly will.
GDW has usually produced stuff I find useful, and I don't expect them
to go downhill now.  How much of it I actually use verbatim depends on
how much fits in with my game.
    Whatever, GDW is *not* screwing our current campaigns.  There is
absolutely no reason why they cannot continue as they are now.  Any
campaign sufficiently well established that the GM feels irritated by
the new rules and/or background should be able to carry on by its own
momentum and the creative forces it generates within itself.
    What GDW is doing is what TSR did with AD&D -- attempting to make
a new "done right" rules set which still retains the character of the
original game.  To carry the analogy further: last time I ran a D&D
variant, I used some AD&D rules with a heavily modified magic system,
but still referred frequently to _Greyhawk_, _Blackmoor_, and
_Eldritch Wizardry_ (anyone remember those?).  When _Unearthed Arcana_
came out, and 2ed to follow that, I adapted the parts that fit and
ignored the rest.  I currently run a fairly straight MT campaign, with
increasingly modified space combat rules (personal combat I run mostly
by feel, on the rare occasions it's necessary(**)), and I expect to
take the best parts of TNE and bring them in.  If the _We Have Always
Been As We Are_ sourcebook is good enough, I may even retcon my
universe to match it more closely.  Whatever, the mere fact that GDW
is publishing new rules does *not* threaten my game, and I refuse to
get upset about it.
    Not singling anyone out, but I think several people are taking
this too personally.  Nothing wrong with criticism, of course, but I
detect a sense that some people feel screwed by TNE, and I think
they're over-reacting.  Methinks the lady doth protest too much, as it
were.


(*) somewhat unexpected.  The annual maintenance on the TL17 jump
drive was due almost a year ago, and they're having trouble finding
suitable shipyard facilities. :-)

(**) the last thing shot was the communicator in Sick Bay (the
equipment, not a person).  I didn't feel the need to refer to the
rules for that. :-)

Martyn
- --------------sasmjw@unx.sas.com----(Martyn Wheeler)----DoD #293--------------
SAS Institute, Inc: [phone removed]            H: [phone removed] (Raleigh, NC)
    "Anyone who gets to Admiral in the Imperial Navy is pretty
obnoxious."
    "I resemble that remark." -- Grand Admiral Sir Bridgehead MD (Retd.)