When I first decided to buy TNE (around late August or so) it took me three
weeks to get it; the distributor kept running out. Since I bought it and have
been running it, three others in my gaming group have also done so. One of them
is a Traveller fan from the early days; he owns mint condition copies of allof
GDW's products for the original game. He refused to buy MegaTraveller because
he was mad that they killed Strephon. He likes the background ideas behind TNE
and really likes the new rules system.
> I know A LOT of people dislike T: TNE. Is it due to the system or the world?
First, it seems that a lot of people ON THE TML don't like TNE. The TML is a
small sample compared to the total number of Traveller fans in the world. We
don't know how many of them like or dislike TNE.
From what I've been able to tell, most people that dislike TNE seem to do so
because of the changes made in the background of the Traveller universe. There
are those who don't like the new system, of course; there are some things about
the new system that I don't care for. There were MORE things about the older
system that I didn't care for, so I feel the new rules are an improvement.
(More on that later). Unless they're too complex or unplayable, rules systems
don't mean that much to me. Background is much more important.
A fair number of people here seem to dislike TNE because of the death of the
Third Imperium. Interesting, since it wasn't the Virus which killed the 3I; it
was the Rebellion. Hard Times and the Arrival Vengeance adventure make it
pretty clear that the Imperium was dead. Lucan's Imperium wasn't legitimate;
he kept the Moot from meeting to confirm him (which they would not have) and
killed his own brother to get the throne! When he did that, the Third Imperium
as such ceased to exist. The Domain of Deneb, in attitude at least, might be
the last remnant of the Imperium and it still exists.
Changes in technology bother some people. They point to the removal of the
Thruster Plates and the alterations in space missles as being "not Traveller as
we knew it". That's right I suppose. And I agree that the changes were probably
unneccesary, at least from the missles standpoint. I myself don't care about
such details. Having played BRILLIANT LANCES many times now, I can testify that
ships still get hurt real bad when "hit" by a missle. HEPlar drives cause a bit
more concern to some of my players; they're worried about running out of fuel
during a battle. In 12 games of BL this has not happened yet.
>What would people change in the current Traveller version?
I would alter the hit point formulas; characters can take WAY too much damage
for a game that's supposed to be at least somewhat realistic. (My players, by
the way, disagree with this, And we DID have a fatality in our last session...)
I would give lasers a 1-2-3 penetration rating and forget about "realistic"
lasers; this is science FICTION, after all. People have certain expectations
about SF, and one of them is that lasers are effective weapons. I would fix the
rules for autofire weapons; Impossible difficulty at all ranges really annoys
me. Almost every other game I've ever seen with autofire weapons allows you to
direct shorter bursts at a single target,and this often IMPROVES your chance to
hit. This may not be realistic, but it again falls under the heading of
expectations.
And finally, if I were in charge at GDW, I would give SERIOUS thought to
putting a Third Imperium sourcebook on the schedule for fourth quarter 1994
or early 1995, and/or a Regency sourcebook. This would help out those who still
want to play their Traveller in a large empire setting. GDW does not have to
support an Imperium sourcebook; this can be done in Challenge or even in other
gaming magazines if need be (unless GDW turns into Palladium, which I don't see
happening). But it would be helpful to older players who wish to keep playing
in the old universe, and to new ones who don't know the rich history which the
new game is built on.
All oif this is my opinion, of course.
Allen Shock