Sorry to have been away for so long. Herewith replies and
comments to a backlog of messages:
Re: Ine Givar
We deliberately kept information on the Ine Givar vague. Make
them whatever your particular campaign needs them to be.
Ralph:
> Starship rules are conspicuous in their almost absence...this
is just so that they
> can sell us another box set of course....
The starship design and combat sequence was separated out
because we did not want to make the rules book too large (a $45
rules book meets considerable sales resistance) and (believe it
or not) not everybody wants starship combat and generation rules
(albeit those who do seem to be in the majority on the TML).
> Black Curtain
No comment. More news on this as it breaks...
> Survival Margin...just start with new characters.....
A fair number of Traveller players (judging from our calls and
letters) wanted to be able transfer old characters to the new
setting, so we allowed for them to do so.
M. Samuels
> The Imperial Sunburst has finaly sputtered and gone out.
No it hasn't. Anyone who wants to use the pre-Rebellion
background (or any other background) can still do so using the
new rules. I'm sorry you feel that we've let you down
somehow...could you Email me privately with what it is you find
so grossly offensive about the new system, other than the fact
that it isn't Classic Traveller?
Dane:
> Well, I've managed to unearth a copy of Space:1889...Any
thoughts
> on why it never caught on?
Space: 1889 sold very well for about 18 months. Then, everyone
who wanted a copy of the rules had bought one, and sales tapered
off to a fairly low level. Sales of supporting materials
(adventures, and the like) were never as high as the rules. It is
impossible to sustain a game line
on just a rules book...a company MUST sell additional supporting
material -- and Space: 1889 supporting material didn't sell well
enough to support itself.
IMHO, the following principles are at work:
-- A Space: 1889 player is born, not made. The existing players
and referees are _VERY_ enthusiastic (I like the background a
great deal myself, although I think the mechanics are a little
simplistic), but you cannot convert someone to the game if they
are not interested in the milieu.
-- Space: 1889 referees didn't buy adventures and supplements
because they didn't need them. They found ample adventuring ideas
(and still do...the game _still_ has a following, and we still
sell a few rules books from time to time) in the aformentioned
literary base (Verne, Burroughs, Haggard, et al.).
Gregg Giles:
>I *loved* the original Traveller system before MegaTraveller
You are not alone. I did too.
> When MegaTraveller came out, I lost interest...(T)oo many
rules, and complicated ones at that.
No one at GDW ever completely understood every facet of
MegaTraveller's rules, and (IMHO) no one at Digest Group did
either. I found the task system needlessly complicated, and most
rules mechanics overladen with unnecessary details. The New Era
rules are an outgrowth of the mechanics of Twilight: 2000, which
were an evolutionary development on the original (Classic)
Traveller mechanics combined with new systems.
>What about international intrigue (espionage)? What about
mercenary missions along the frontiers of a powerful nation?
Adventures of this sort are still possible.
> Loren, I know you're on the list. I've been out of the
Traveller loop for some time. The above
> are my impressions and feelings about the matter, but if you
know, I'd appreciate
> knowing what GDW's thinking behind TNE was.
Here they are, from my viewpoint (others may differ slightly):
We talk with our consumers as much as we can, and we try to
stay in touch with as many of them as we can, through letters,
electronic forums such as Internet, GEnie, and AOL, and face-to-
face. We also solicit feedback from storeowners, distributors,
and others in the sales and distribution network. Out of all the
feedback we got, three clear messages emerged about
MegaTraveller:
1) People were no longer playing it in the numbers they once
had, i.e., long-time players were giving it up.
2) New gamers were not joining existing groups, and new groups
were not forming.
3) Store owners and distributors were experiencing declining
sales of new products. This meant that the game would eventually
die out (except for a small group of die-hards), and the world
would lose the best SF RPG ever created.
One of the problems with MegaTraveller seemed to be that the
amount of material that a new gamer had to absorb in order to be
able to play the game was gigantic and growing. Everybody had to
be up to speed on the Rebellion, all of the factions, and needed
to know a massive amount of game "history" in order to be able to
enjoy the game. We heard this hundreds of times, from store
owners, referees, and players. More importantly, we heard it from
former players and former referees, in response to our "what made
you quit?" queries.
Another factor in our decision was the increasingly difficult
task of producing material for MegaTraveller. A game will not
sell unless a company supports it with adventures, sourcebooks,
and the like, and no one at GDW (not Frank, not Marc, not me, not
Dave when he came aboard) understood how the rules worked...not
completely. This meant that we couldn't design material for our
own game...not good material anyway, and that is a situation that
could not be allowed to continue if the game was to live.
We had a choice: do something or stand by and watch 15 years of
work go down the drain. We chose to do something.
First, we decided to make the mechanics those of Twilight:
2000. We were all familiar with that system, and we all felt
comfortable with it.
Second, we decided to make it so that no new player needed to
absorb the complete history of the Imperium in order to be able
to enjoy playing. The added background for the new era does that.
Notice I did not say NEW background...it merely adds to the
history, it does not completely invalidate what came before. Long-
time referees can set their campaign anywhere they want to, but
new campaigns can start without absorbing a mountain of
background.
That's it in a nutshell. Did we make the right decision? Time
will tell, but initial sales of TNE have been VERY high, and
reception has been almost uniformly positive...we have received
many letters beginning with words to the effect of: "I had
stopped playing Traveller years ago, but TNE has made me start
again." Another widespread sentiment is that we have recaptured
the feel of the Classic Traveller...a sentiment which some on the
TML have expressed.
> I'd like to know what the current plan's for Traveller's
future are. Are there new books
> in the works?
Yep. Brilliant Lances just went off to the printer, and it'll
be in the warehouse being packed and shipped by 15 August. Fire,
Fusion and Steel (the technical architecture book) will be
available in November, as will the Deluxe (boxed) Traveller Set
(which will simply be the Basic book plus FF&S and some other
goodies TBA -- and before someone else asks, yes, you will be
able to buy the parts separately).
Adventures (as yet unnamed) are being written. You'll even see
my name on Traveller products again, something that hasn't
happened since the Classic days. I'm even doing some starships,
which I NEVER did before...the new design system has inspired me!
> Will old books be rereleased to fit with the new environment?
Not in the forseeable future. We will be releasing Striker II
in 1994, but we will be concentrating on RCES/Regency adventure
material and equipment sourcebooks for a while. We haven't
decided exactly how best to do aliens material yet. Anybody have
any suggestions as to how we should present the alien races, and
in what order?
FLYNN:
> what symbol is The Regency using?
The Regency uses Norris' Pegasus over an Imperial star.
> It is still possible to play Traveller anyway you desire
including a blending of all of the elements.
Here! Here!
Rob Dean
> Now if only they would get around to acknowledging that I
should be credited in A:V,
> I'd be happy...
Belated congratulations to you and yours, Rob.
I was under the impression you were satisfied with the
correction we published ca. issue #63. You should speak up more
about these things, especially if there are hard feelings. What
exactly would you like us to say?
Matthew Goldman (re Space 1889):
>Such a fun game. It had the bad luck to come out as most of
the gaming wenies
> wanted DARK FUTURE, CYBERTRASH games. You can see how this
boring
> trend has destroyed the Third Imperium.
See above.
>I don't really agree with that. In many ways Space:1889 is
much
>closer to Classic Traveller than T:TNE. Just look at it:
>
> Traveller Space:1889
> ========= ==========
> Emperor Strephon Queen Elizabeth
That's Queen _Victoria_...Elizabeth I died in 1603,, and 1889
is a little before Elizabeth II's time.
Martin Snow:
> I think the reason that Space:1889 wasn't popular is because
it's a fantasy game in a
> science-fiction setting.
Actually, it's a science fiction game where the science is pre-
quantum mechanics. Ever consider the possibilities inherent in a
purely Newtonian universe? None of that messy stuff to get in the
way of good solid cannonball-out-the-window physics.
> (A)re there any female characters allowed in Space:1889? If
there are, there shouldn't
> be (for internal consistency)
Internal consistency with what? With the notion that Victorian
women were frail, timid creatures who never did anything exciting
or remotely dangerous? This was a common notion among middle-
class Victorian men, but the reality is more complex than myth
(ain't it usually?). I suggest that you look into the careers of
Mary Kingsley, Ethel St Clair Grimmond, Lizzie Hessel, Frances
"Fanny" Dubberly, and Elizabeth "Nelly Bly" Cochrane for 19th
century female adventurer prototypes (don't bother with General
Evelyn Wood...he wasn't a woman). I'll admit there WAS a tendency
for women to wear skirts in steaming jungles, but not everyone
can escape the shackles of their time.
Adrian Hurt:
>The trick with having a female character was to stay out of
the fighting and manipulate
> all the males instead
I played in a game with two women playing female characters. By
the end of it, the Martians came to believe that Earth was a
matriarchy because 1) the women seemed to be the most competent
characters around (all of the men in the campaign were buffoons,
myself excepted), and 2) Victoria ruled the British Empire. My
character was a German officer on an espionage mission, and I had
to think fast to keep out of trouble (claiming that the German
Emperor was Victoria nephew helped considerably).
My favorite character had to be Cameron, a very proper British
butler, and his associated NPC, Colonel Sir Jarvis Paget-Newton-
Chandos-Forbes-Ditherby-Stoat. ("Perhaps the Colonel would care
to remove the tentacles from his legs with this machete whilst I
reload his shotgun.").
Larry Smith:
> Space:1889 was not intended to be "mature" - far from it. It
was intended to
> simulate Victorian-era heroic fiction, and it does a pretty
good job of it.
So it does...so it does.
Leonard.Erickson:
> There's a *reason* why stuff like Burroughs and Wells is
getting harder to find.
As Matt Goldman has pointed out, its not hard to find at all.
Most good bookstores carry it, as does every library worthy of
the name. Burroughs, Wells, Verne, are all there, and Kline,
Haggard and the others can be found with only a little more
effort.
> It's in the Public domain
Some of it is, some of it isn't. The Burrough's estate managed
to keep copyright control of some of E. R.'s stuff, I do believe.
Just because someone has OCR-ed it and uploaded it doesn't meant
the copyright has run out.
Re: FTL:2448/Fringeworthy:
Fringeworthy is a neat idea for a game. I was working on
something like it at one time, but it never panned out.
> Didn't GDW have a game called "Dinosaurs and Cadillacs", or
something similar? If so,
> it is probably about to get re-launched in the wake of
"Jurassic Park". :-)
Actually, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs is being re-issued in November,
to coincide with the animated television series of the same name
(on CBS, for us yanks).
[email removed]:
>OK, OK, I _Finally_ settled down with the MT Ref's manual and
looked at the
> ship-design rules in detail...
> I only have one question (and I know it's been asked
before...) How the
> H*** did this manage to get published in such a state?!?
No comment. I wasn't involved in that project.
Mike Basinger
> Does anybody have a list of future Traveller and
Traveller:TNE releases.
Yes.
Oh...you want to see one...OK
1993:
Brilliant Lances August 93 Starship Combat
Fire, Fusion, and Steel November 93 Technical
Architecture
Deluxe Traveller (boxed set) November 93 Includes basic
rules, FF&S book, and
some other goodies.
Traveller Referee's Screen October 93 What is says.
Traveller Player's Forms October 93 A collection
of handy forms and
play aids to help minimize
bookkeeping. This one
is optional.
1994:
Smash and Grab1st Quarter 94
Star Viking Sourcebook (title uncertain) 1st Quarter 94
Striker II 1994, release date uncertain
Ship Books 1994, release date uncertain.
These will be some
books of deck plans and data,
written from
the internal fiction that they are
orientation
manuals for new ship's crew. I'm co-
writing
the first one of these, about the
Aurora-class
clippers used by the RCES.
A Weapons Compendium, title uncertain. 1994
A Vehicle Compendium, Ditto 1994
Sundry Adventure booklets 1994
Other products in not yet firmed up. 1994