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Bundle: 556
Archive-Message-Number: 6998
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 01:06:00 -0800
From: Dane Johnson [-- REDACTED --]
Subject: Ye Gods!


Re: TML of 3/17...
Now that is what I call venting your spleen!

Several points in no particular order:

1)  The New Era has added no real frontier to Traveller.  Instead, it
has reduced a well populated and civilized area to relative barbarism.
The Imperium was spread over a few thousand star systems.  There are
*trillions* of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.  Traveller's Known Space
is pathetically small.  All that was necessary to add new frontier was
some 'beyond the Imperium' source ideas, as was already pointed out by
someone else...  There was no lack of frontier, just a lack of people
generating their own sectors away from the main action.

2)  The New Era has less diversity than CT/MT.  Tech levels are more
uniform (and lower).  More worlds are balkanized.  Most have lower law
levels.  Many are now unpopulated.  In general, a subsector's worth of
New Era planets offers less diversity than an equal volume of CT/MT
worlds.

3)  The New Era or some other collapse-oriented scenario was hardly an
inevitable outcome of the Rebellion.  Did the US fall into a Dark Age
after the Civil War or the Assasination of Kennedy?  I, personally, was
looking forward to a 'balkanized' Imperium, with Deneb, Antares, the
Vilani, the Solomani, et al becoming small, soveriegn, human-dominated
nations.  Many other outcomes were possible, none inevitable.

4)  Rules & Realism vs. 'True' Role Playing -- This topic is a real candidate
for a flamewar, but I think that both sides are nearly equally important
to a good RPG.  Traveller has 'limped' along for many years with, in
many ways, a very small rules set.  Although the design sequences for
Starships in High Guard may take a half-an-hour, combat can be picked up
in about a minute and the number of rules for design and combat
combined take up a 52 page book (with half-sized pages!).  Profit seems
to be the primary motive for the current volume of rules, although a sheer
love of tables and charts on the part of the writing staff undoubtedly
contributes.  I like a reasonably complex rules system.  Not overly
simplified, nor overly complex.  Likewise, I like a reasonably detailed
background, but not to the point that I have no room for personal
innovation.  Traveller, IMHO, has historically been good at providing
these qualities.  Simple, modularly expandable rules, with the large
political and historical details worked out.  A planet here or there
described in detail and the rest left up to the players.  I do not feel
that the current GDW products are providing the same sort of balance.

In conclusion, I quote the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
The Imperium was not broken.  At worst, it needed some tuning.  It is
now dead, and it deserved far better treatment from the GDW game design
group.  When Traveller was 'handed' to them, so was a certain amount of
trust, which I feel has been betrayed.  Traveller:TNE seems much more a
hybrid of Twilight:2000 and 2300AD than it does a refurbished Traveller.
Making it Traveller instead of 2300AD:TNE or Twilight:5700 seems to have
gained GDW mostly the ill will of many established and dyed in the wool
Traveller afficionados.  The new people attracted to the game do not
appreciate the past history of the Imperium and would not miss it if it
were not there, while those of us who liked the Imperium feel it's loss
keenly.

Strephon Lives,

Dane "Antares Veen" Johnson
[-- REDACTED --]   [-- REDACTED --]

TNS Stringer ------ Terra/Solomani Rim (1827 G867975-8)
"My opinions are those of my fuzz-brained, cat-sniffing Norwegian Elkhound."

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