An Eulogy for Metlay

"A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping...she is
weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are no more."

	A bell tolls, ringing in a New Era, a Next Generation, but ask,
be sure to ask, for whom the bell tolls. Does it toll for you? Metlay,
having the benefit of the first supplement of TNE (it will get to
Ireland some year) has heard the tolling for some time and with many
mixed feelings lifted the lid of the coffin to view his own face.
	I can say that at the very start, when GDW first announced
that they were scrapping the wonderful MegaTraveller rules, I felt
the distant echoes of that bell tolling through my heart. My brooding
has not been the sudden post-natal depression but rather the growing
forboding of a good friend slowly growing away from you.
	Alas, Metlay, the future is not ours. The wheel has turned
and gaming isn't what it once was. I have seen the targeted
audience of Role Playing Games move slowly downward, seen the
cycle of a generation change. The clientel for the gaming industry
is different now. Is it surprising that we no longer find it
attractive?
	When we reach the point where after making some off-handed
comment at a convention about rolling on some table to be turned to
and have sneered at me "Dice? We don't need no stinking dice!"
(and *they* were playing Paranoia). This is the age of Angst and
Cathartic role-playing.
	Most new players of RPGs today were still in diapers when
Star Wars was first released. They are barely aware of a Star Trek
before the Next Generation. They watch Forbidden Planet and laugh
at the special effects.
	It's not for us they write anymore.

	But what to do?
	The temptation is to close the coffin, join the funeral
dirge and pass on. Just like all our friends who used to role-play.
Maybe our kids will understand.
	But it is people like you and me, Rob Dean and company that
have resisted the pull of Old Age and kept gaming. Who were sneered
at by their elders and betters for playing make-believe and told
"you'll grow out of it". We who swore a vow that well keep gaming
till he have grandchildren. Can we give up now?
	I never liked the Rebellion. Not three months ago did I find
all the Classic Traveller books on sale and buy them all. Hell, I still
prefer 1st Edition AD&D. When 2nd Edition AD&D came out I was very
dissapointed. A great opportunity had been missed. Of the new released
products I found fewer and fewer usable (and fewer and fewer affordable).
	But then, with 10 years of inertia behind my campaign I
was writing most of my own material anyway. Given the derath of support
for Traveller over the years by GDW/Digest can you honestly say that
you have been relying on their supplements for the continuation of
your own campaign? Do you not have enough experience to move from 90%
of your own work to 100%? Where is the courage of your own convictions?
	I really began to understand the generation gap two weeks ago.
A new fellow in the campaign expressed suprise that I had something that
would play "vinals" attached to my stereo system. He brought some of his
parent's collection over to hear. He didn't know how to work it. He didn't
know about wiping the record when you put it on. He didn't know what to
do when it skipped. He didn't even know that you could tell where each
track started by the gap on the record.
	Our age, and the age we started playing these games at makes
us Dinosaurs. There will always be more people who don't understand us
at games conventions than who do. But with the experience of the hobby
we have there is no reason we can't just keep going. My own campaign
spans the age groups from 14 to 28. The younger ones know my style is
not like any of their friends but they see that there is equal merit
there.
	Keep going.

	Being only distantly informed of The New Era setting, I too, agree
in that it seems rather boring. Or rather, interesting if you are into
that, and only that, sort of thing. However, I would offer a partial
solution. One that allows you to keep your 3rd imperium and all its
interest but still gives you an excuse to buy the new material and get
something out of it.
	In playing with the AD&D rules I devised a wonderful variant
that got rid of classes and levels. I thought it was great but I knew
it would be totally impratical to change all the inertia already built
up in my campaign. My solution was to have the rules apply to a certain
point earlier in the history of my campaign universe.
	The Long Night happened once. The Rebellion was supposed to be
a prelude to a second Long Night. Are the specifics that different so
that you couldn't run The New Era material set in the original Long Night?
How dependant is the new setting on the events leading to the arrivial
of the setting or how depenant is it on the existance of widespread
barbarism itself?
	If a particularly interesting supplement for TNE comes out
why not run it as a break for your players. If your 3rd Imperium characters
are dealing with adventures relating to The Long Night, possibily in an
archeological sense, it might make for interesting tie-ins. More blantant
plot-devices are Long Night characters getting trapped in an Ancient's
statis field and being brought to adventure in the 3rd Imperium once
The Long Night got boring. Rather more blantant is some 3rd Imperium characters
finding a time-gate back to The Long Night (I find backwards time travel
distasteful, though).
	It could be a really interesting once-off convention adventure
having one table playing a TNE/Long Night adventure involving the recovery
of an ancient artifact that suddenly energises, and another table playing
a 3rd Imperium adventure on an archeological dig around the same
artifact. Suddenly the two adventures are joined ending up in either
time-line. THAT would be an adventure worthy of Classic Traveller.

	Keep positive.
	Keep thinking.
	Keep gaming.
					Jo