Cheerio!
I (and the rest of GDW) have spent the last two weeks
in "convention mode," and the next few days in "recovering
from convention mode" and the last couple of days in
"catching up." This is a large message to take care of
a lot of comments.
------------------------------
FLASH!
Brilliant Lances is out! $30.00 plus $3 P&H (overseas
postage will be more).
The design booklet can be had as a replacement component
for $6 plus $1 P&H (overseas postage will be more), but
bear in mind that it was not intended to be a stand-alone
product, and will be a little confusing if you haven't
seen the combat rules).
The first six of the RAFM starship miniatures for use
with BL are also out. They come in packages of two and are
priced between $5 and $6. Check the miniatures dealer near you.
------------------------------
To Anthony Neal:
Could you resend your land mail address to me? I have
lost it. To make up for this, I propose to send the photocopies
to you at no charge.
------------------------------
Zhodani:
All I will say about the Zhodani discussion is that we
intended for the Joes to be complex, multi-faceted
characters, not cardboard cutout villains that twisted
their mustaches and cackled maniacally. I have not read
Scott's 4.5th Frontier War stuff, so I cannot comment on
how closely he reflects our thinking on the Zhodani.
------------------------------
I have nothing to add to the "Low-Tech moonshot" discussion.
------------------------------
> Bruce ([email removed]):
A few answers to your post "a few questions to GDW" (Note:
these answers represent a rare posting by David Nilsen.
LKW's comments (if any) are set off _Thusly_):
> 1. Do you have the future history of TNE universe
> mapped out for the next 50-200 years?
We are not running a master game, no. We have some concepts,
goals, and ideas of where we're going, but the details and
timing are always negotiable.
>2. Do you have specific psychological models for the
> currently unpublished alien societies? ie how individuals
> in the societies behave to each other and to outsiders; how
> the government and traders relate to external groups,
> empires, consortiums, etc.
Do you mean currently unpublished in TNE or are you referring
more to minor races, e.g. Vegans, that have never been
published? If former, depends upon how much detail you're
talking about. What are the Aslan up to in general, we know
that. How do the Aslan feel about Letterman going to CBS? We
don't know yet.
>3. Have you justified logicly to youselves the various
social and military interactions of the various alien
societies in your universe. Why 5 wars with the Zhodani
> and now suddenly peace? Why hasn't the Imperium trashed
> the SWORD WORLDS and gotten rid of that annoying group.
This seems like a loaded question. Our answer is yes, but
you don't seem to agree. With regards to the Zhodani issue,
I don't see any problem. Why don't you like the poor Sword
Worlders?
> 4. Are we (the GMs and players of TNE) being treated as
> if we were simply moving through a planned TNE timeline
> and we're only being fed information like "this
> is the news today" and that's really all we should
> know. If this is the case then give us some more news!
No, and/but we will.
> 5. Are there groups around the world who are privy to the
> details of the TNE future history and possibly helping to
> design it.
Yes, and the illuminati tri-lateral commission is going
to get you for blabbing. : )
Beyond GDW, there is no such official master cabal HIWG
group, but everyone who writes a TNE adventure is helping
design the future history.
> 6. What's on the otherside of the empires surrounding
the Imperium?
Star systems, people, aliens, lots of stuff.
> Have you mapped these regions out? In great detail or
> just 'other empire' borders or is it unplayable so it's
> treated as not being there?
We've mapped some of the areas, but I would not say most of
it. If the campaign starts heading in those directions,
we'll detail them, but we already have plenty of area to
cover without doing so.
> 7. While I'm not keen on rolling lots of dice in combat
> I find the armour penetration rules a bit too black and
> white. Oh you've got that gun and I've got this armour so
> you can't hurt me. In a lot of cases I would like to
> do away with the straight subtraction of damage dice and
> simply roll them all and have the defender roll what dice
> would have been subtracted and then subtract the two sums.
> There are cases where you will inflict damage where
> previously it was impossible. How do you feel about
> this variation?
I kind of like that variation, but the House System is
pretty set the way it is, so we will not be able to
consider such a change. _ Blunt Trauma can be significant
in some cases, even where a weapon does not penetrate. _
> 8. I find it very difficult to get exceptional
> successes with most average characters unless they are
> 'super' at a skill and the 10 point range is a very
> large single step. Have you looked at 5 point steps
with 5-9 giving a 1 point defenders armour reduction,
> 10-14 giving the 5-9 bonus plus double damage, 15-19
> giving the double damage bonus plus a 2
> point reduction in the defenders armour rating?
No we have not, and that system would only apply to
combat. We prefer a simpler system with fewer exceptions
and special cases that works for all task resolutions,
combat and non-combat. You are free to do what you please
with your games, however.
> 9. The fact that TNE combat does very little damage
> can mean that combats run on for long periods. In the
> case of the head and chest rule of saving throws
> for death by NPCs it goes to the other extreme with
> one shot kills for NPCs but players dragging on until
> all their blood has drained away. There must be
> some middle ground where realism can at least share
> the lime light with playability. What combat mods
> are people implementing along these lines?
If you feel that characters have too many hit points,
we suggest rolling 1D10 for damage instead of 1D6. This
is the simplest system for speeding up killing, and we
suggest it for those groups who want that change. This
is not, however, a system change or errata. Its just a
recommended variant for people who don't like heroic-style
combat and don't mind creating new PCs all the time.
> 10. We converted our characters to TNE and found
> the 'feel' of the game to have been totally changed.
> Preferred weapons now don't penetrate and don't have
> anywhere near the knock down ability they had before.
> To fix the laser weapon fall from grace our GM simply
> added "1-" to them and the universe has shifted part
> way back again. There seems to be a number of misprints
> in the weapons tables .... do you have an errata for
> them yet?
Yes, there are some errata on the weapons table, and
these have been posted, and we will post additions if
and when they are necessary. However, the laser issue is
not a misprint. The rules as written are the way we intend
for lasers to work against metallic/ceramic armor. We suggest
the following fix for laser damage: All non-metallic,
non-ceramic armor, in other words, kevlar, ballistic cloth,
ballistic weave, animal armor consisting of shells, scales,
or thick hide, etc., is treated as no armor when hit by a
laser. Armor consisting of metallic or ceramic plates
uses the rules as they now read. This is an official
fix, and will be published as such.
_Email me a land address, and I will send a copy of the
current errata sheet. _
> 11. The move to T:2000 in-house game system is a good
> rationalisation for GDW but I feel that the equipment
> stats for HIGHER TECH equipment has been fudged rather
> badly. Sure, if I have a TL-10 pistol and we upgrade
> it to TL-12 we don't JUST want a copy made. What you
> need is a branching of capabilities not a straight
line "this is now this". The TL-12 pistol would
> have several variants. One identical to the original
> for direct sale to TL-10 worlds at cheaper than TL-10
> can produce it, one with better range but with
> less penetration, one with better penetration but
> with less range, one with better penetration at close
> range but worse penetration at longer ranges
> but still has the longer range ability. There
> doesn't appear to be enough variation for players to role
> play around ... "Damn he's just out of range,
> should have bought the other model gun" OR "I always
> carry two pistols, one for close in people stopping
> and one for long range". Do you have plans
> for some trade manuals so we can "go shopping"?
> It would be nice to front up at a shop and have the GM
> say "Some binoculars? Oh well if you look on page
> 24 you find variants 1-5 and 11 which are available
> over the counter and he can order in variants 19-24
> in 2 weeks or a 25 will take a month. What
> would you like?". Look around today, want to buy
> a TV; how many variants can you get?
There are only so many weapons and items of equipment
that we could rate for the TNE book, and we certainly
intended to make many more detailed variants available
later on. Even God took six days. The Technical Architecture
book (Fire, Fusion and Steel) which will release in November
includes rules for designing (among other things) small arms
of all kinds from the ground up. With this system Traveller
players can create more weapons detail than perhaps anyone
will ever need (or maybe even want), and we will publish
many new, more detailed designs. This design system
was not complete in time for it to be used to design the
TNE weapons, so naturally we had to use less detailed "translations."
_This ends the material written by Dave. All comments are now Loren's_
------------------------------
Scott Kellogg
(anybody remember the "Kay EE double Ell, owe Double Good"
slogan for Kellogg's cereal commercials? or does that reveal too
much about my age)
> BTW, Loren? Is GDW interested in people writing novels or
> short stories for TNE?
Perhaps. Send an outline and a sample chapter to David C.
Nilsen, C/O GDW. We'll talk.
------------------------------
> Anthony Neal [email removed]
> Equipment and alternatives
See Dave's answers to Bruce, above..
------------------------------
John H Bogan [email removed]
> Maybe they just wanted to make things a little more complex
> than EVIL ZHO'S.
Precisely!
------------------------------
Dane ([email removed])
Subject: Mercenary Cruisers...
The Jump 1/Man 1 Broadswords got into Mega somehow. That
was a mistake (but not _my_ mistake). When I translated
the ships over for TNE, I didn't notice. That was a
mistake (and _was_ my mistake...Mea culpa).
The J3 Man 3 ratings are corrected in Brilliant Lances
(see announcement above).
------------------------------
> Phil Pugliese:
>How come no one complains about psionics when it's just as
> much magic as 'thruster plates etc '? I always figured
> GDW threw it in originally because everyone "knew" you
> couldn't publish an rpg profitably w/o emulating
> TSR's 'magic' & 'wizards' in (A)D&D. Ergo psionics!
Actually, we included psi powers because they were a
well-established concept in the body of of SF literature
that Marc used as partial inspiration for the game.
Personally, I think ESP/etc. is a load of bunk, but its
addition makes for a better game, in my opinion. Besides,
if we hadn't put Psi powers in, how could people argue
for weeks over the Zhodani? : )
We have published several RPGs without using 'magic' &
'wizards' as you put it.
------------------------------
> Does anybody know if a complete Traveller product list
> has been compiled?
I believe Ed Edwards or Mike Mikesh of HIWG is in charge
of such a list. All we keep track of is our own stuff.
------------------------------
From: "DAVE HEIL" [email removed]
> Can someone out there tell me what manuals I would need
> to play and eventually run games?
Dave,
Matt's answer to you was incomplete. Matt does not
consider the present incarnation of Traveller
(Traveller : The New Era, also known on the TML as TNE,
The new Error, and other epithets I won't go into) to
be "real" Traveller, and the information he gave to you
referred to the old, now-out of print Traveller books
he prefers to the new edition.
If you are interested in finding out about the newest
edition of Traveller, call or write GDW (address and
phone # included somewhere in this message) and ask for
a catalog. Tell Lori I sent you.
------------------------------
------------------------------
Chris Bray [email removed]:
> What I really want to know is if DGP ever published
> their game AI:
To the best of my knowledge, A.I. is not out yet. I have
heard a rumor that DGP's Joe Fugate has had some
non-business problems that are taking up most of his personal
and financial energy, but I have no details.
------------------------------
Matthew Goldman E-mail: [email removed] Work:
> You'll need to look around since the silly people at GDW
> stopped printing them.
We stopped printing them because people stopped buying
them. Why does trying to stay in business make us silly, if I may ask?
> P.S. anyone remember off hand when copyrights run out?
I'm not well acquainted with copyright law (not being
a law-critter), but I believe that they run 28 years with
an option for a second 28 under certain conditions.
------------------------------
ANTHONY KAY BAGGALEY
> (it's Fire Fusion and Steel now isn't it? sounds better
for the SpaceOrk geeks I suppose).
Technical architecture was the working title. We made it
FF&S because it sounded better to _US_
> I was just wondering how many people have actually changed
> over to the TNE rules (or even background)
Judging from our mail and customer responses at the summer
conventions, a great many people are using the new rules
with their present background.
------------------------------
> joe ([email removed]):
> So at least one of us has gone on ahead and followed
> GDW to see where it goes...
And you are not alone...
------------------------------
For those who want /need our snail mail adress or phone
numbers:
GDW
[address removed]
Voice: [phone removed]
FAX: [phone removed]
Loren K. Wiseman
(and David C. Nilsen)
for GDW, Inc.
I don't use sigs, but if I did, I'd use this in one
sometimes:
"If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man
who has so much as to be out of danger?"
--- Thomas Huxley