Jo Jaquinta writes;
"One minor bitch I've always had about Traveller (Classic,
Mega or New Era) what that space is two-dimensional. You can lay out
the map of the Spinward Marches flat on your table. They don't
even try to rationalise it anywhere. (The best rationalisation I've
heard is that the 2D map represents what is close to what in jump-space
and does not necessarily relate to real-space)"
First of all, I agree completely, space IS Three-dimensional, and a game like
traveller which seems at times to jump through hoops to make its rules
conform to "reality" should really treat this subject likewise.
I remember reading somewhere (sorry no ref, I'm at work and refs are at home)
that part of the reasoning behind the two-d maps is that although space is
not flat, the galaxy, to some extent, is. This argument falls apart rather
quickly when you start looking at a 3-D map of our nearest neighboring stars.
Doesn't Traveller 2300 use a 3D representation? As I recall it puts each star
on a sort of 'Z coordinate scale' so that each star depicted on a flat map is
either small, medium, or large depending on how 'close' to the viewer it is.
That gives at least some third dimension, doesn't it?
My objection to using three-d star maps is that (without having tried it yet)
it seems like many of the historical facts of the traveller universe would need
to be reinterpreted. If, as Jo says, everything is closer together in terms
of flight time, the length of time for news, cultural influence, disease
(the Virus?) reaching other, further planets is greatly reduced. The likelyhood
of there being a substantial rift (like that dividing the Domain of Deneb from
the rest of the imperium) would decrease drastically.
(GM-"you come to a great rift."
PLAYER-"ok, we go over it!"
GM- "uh, oh, ok." [so much for my quest for a jump-5 ship])
I am, of course, oversimplifying. But I'd like to hear about the effects on
Imperial politics (or anyone elses politics for that matter) and history before
adopting a three-dimensional universe (besides, what do I do with all these
blank subsector maps?).
- -Pete
"The opinions expressed certainly have nothing whatever to do with
the University of Chicago or the Department of Biochemistry (I just
work there and use their toys)."