If there's anyone out there interested in playing in a one-on-one or
two-on-one play-by-electronic-mail Traveller game, I would enjoy
refereeing one or two scenarios. Players would have to be reasonably
prepared (at least Basic Traveller, advanced rules are fine but not
crucial). If you're curious in what Traveller's like, this could
provide an opportunity to listen in on a game...
CAVEATS/PHILOSOPHY (where I drone on and on):
At the outset I should warn that I do not follow GDW's Imperium campaign
(although my "Imperium" superficially resembles GDW's), and adventures
are set in a freelanced sector. I tend to be a designer/story teller
more than a wargamer, and stress roleplaying/story-weaving far more than
attribute advancement; when it comes to stories I drop my engineer's
gadgeteer hat and set a writer's hat on my head. Furthermore, merchant,
scout, ex-naval, pirate/smuggler, etc. stories are more natural to me
than than army/marines. I'm also bigoted and mostly go for
human/near-human player characters (my designed worlds have all the vices
and blessings of most human habitations); for me they're the more
flexible and most easily deepened characters, unless the player can help
me understand and relate to the alien by painting a picture of the life,
culture, and society of the alien (most advanced players can accomplish
this).
My philosophy to SFRP gaming is that referee and player corroborate to
tell a story, weaving individual twists into a fictional fabric that
grows stronger and more believeable as each person adds detail,
personality, depth, and urgency into characters and settings. If this
sounds almost like soap-opera, that is to a degree what I mean; at least
that all characters and situations are believable. The player does
their best to play a "real" person, while the referee tries to provide a
"real" futuristic society. As such a rules system is a reference to
enhance and guide the storytelling; rules are not the essence of the
game itself. I tend to be very open, reasonable and laid back.
As for combat: combat is a very dangerous situation for players, and
usually is avoided by player characters. When invited, it is typically
because the players know what they are doing and it is the right action
to achieve their goals. Provoking non-player characters has an alarming
tendency to pile revenge and unsavory enemies upon the player character;
but under the right conditions the NPC is powerless and soon left
behind. Those who take out a gun and start shooting madly meet with
real-world problems, just like *you* would if you walked into a
MacDonald's and committed a mass murder.
Also, I do tend to get busy with work (what's that?) at times, so
turnaround would probably be anything from two days to two weeks.
STILL CURIOUS?
If you made it past all the philosophy, congratulations! Sorry about the
boredom, but if you wanna play we gotta know if we're gonna be able to
generate real stories together.
If you want to play, send your name and indicate whether listeners are
okay, and tell me a little about what you're expecting. If it looks
like its a relationship with promise, great! If I get a whole pile of
people I'll have to pick and choose; maybe some of them would want to
referee their own PBM games? I'll act as a clearing house.
If you want to listen, send me your name and I'll put you in a list and
get back to you as soon as a selection is made.
If I don't get any responses, I'll go crawl in a hole, hide my
embarrassed face since I invaded everyone else's personal space with my
own philosophies, put a "Jerk of the Year Award" on my terminal, and
never again post to this list <half-serious :-|>.
Come on, live a little! If you're interested check this out.
_ ___
| | / _ \ James T. Perkins, [email removed], 629-1149
| |__ | |_| | Tektronix Logic Analyzers, DAS System Software, Display
|[address removed]
Killed processes never die... They just go to the big Bit Bicket in the sky.