tmh@ihldt.UUCP (10/25/83)
While the Traveller universe does have some major flaws i.e. it
is two dimensional and computers don't work right. It is
nevertheless a very nice game, especially if you use Mercenary,
High Guard, Scouts and Assassin, Merchants and Merchandise, and
the other supplements to generate characters. I find it infinitely
preferable to a very flawed and completely illogical system like
AD&D, Traveller at least tries to mimic real life. It is also an
extremely flexible system, and with a little thought can be
adopted to cover just about any Sci Fi scenario. The two dimensions
in the universe I find are justified as they change the game from
obscene to playable (one subsector is a huge place) and there is
nothing in the rules that would prevent you from stacking
subsectors if you want three dimensions. I have no idea how the
hell you would be able to deal with it, but it could be done.
The game has to be understandable to ten years olds as well as
hackers. Computers suck in the game, but thats life. (P.S. they
aren't that bad if you don't know much about computers). They
needed some arbitrarily simple way of limiting the effect of
computers on combat. As for other objects in the sky and genetic
engineering those can both be easily simulated by the ref (when
you write a set of rules covering something so vast and variable
as the universe you have to draw the line somewhere).
However, as the rules to any frp are guidelines, any ref can
modify and shape them to his/her own perceptions and as I
mentioned earlier Traveller is great for this. I have played
Traveller since before it was published and I know the people at
GDW who wrote it. I still don't agree with much of what Marc (the
main author) has set up. For one thing I think a credit equals
about a quarter, not a dollar as they state. My own subsectors
are not in the traveller universe and I have other things besides
solar systems on my maps. I have found that any role playing game
played strictly by the rules with little or no original thought by
the ref (or the players) is pretty dull (most D&D type games bore
me to death, because there are so few DMs who can make the
situations come alive). Traveller works best if both the players
and the refs work on their characters. I personally have set up,
in both of my subsectors, both the sector politics and the
planetary politics and worked out the relations between each.
I also have created around 10 to 15 native races to inhabit these
planets each with its own characteristics.
The other great thing about Traveller is the ability to play
it through the mail. Traveller lends itself to both solitary
character and group play. In a solitary character mode playing
through the mail is a breeze. It can be alot of fun especially
when player characters meet and don't know each other. I was
playing in a game called Narapoia(the feeling that you're out to
get the universe). My best friend Greg decided to play a female
character (just to be different and because Don (the ref) always
rewarded people for doing unusual characters (I was a Fremen)). At
one point Greg's character(Wyoming Knott), who was very pretty
(unlike Greg), ran into another player character. The person
running the other player character fell in love with Greg's
character. After chasing Wy awhile, the other player decided that
he wanted Don to arrange for him to meet with the person, which he
assumed was a girl, who was running Wy. Don laughingly says he had
obviously lewd intentions. Greg in the meantime was told that
there was this guy who was always hanging around and bothering his
character. Greg was also given a rather unsavory description of
this person and had no desire to even talk with him. This
subsector was also full of planets from several science fiction
books including Gor(nobody ever went there, I wonder Wy?) and
Dorsai(I was there and it was just like the book). This game
was run from Fort Wayne, In. and I didn't even meet the game
master until after I had been playing for over a year. I was told
that players were located all the way from Colorado Springs to the
Appalachians. The reports of this game that got back to GDW were
good enough that they dedicated the game of Snap Shot to the Don.
To sum up. I happen to enjoy Traveller. With the right GM or
players it is a fantastic game limited only by the imagination of
those involved. There are many grey areas, but the universe is a
big place and nobody could write a set of rules to cover it all
(that's why there is a referee). I think as hard science fiction
it rates at about the level of Star Trek. Sometimes the game does
suffer from its designer. For example, the first edition of High
Guard was late and so nobody really had tried to build ships with
Marc's system. It turned out that a 10,000 ton ship with 10
lasers took as much damage to put the lasers out of action as a
1,000 ton ship with 1 laser. This prompted a rules rewrite when
someone mentioned to Marc that in space you can rotate your ship
when some one hit you to bring new weapons to bear or for that
matter all weapons to bear. To paraphrase Spock "Kahn seems to be
thinking in two dimensions."elt@astrovax.UUCP (11/09/83)
It is generally agreed (apparently) that the computers in standard Traveller are ridiculously bulky and impotent. No defense of this aberation has been advanced except that 1) it limits their effect on ship-to-ship combat and 2) it is equally playable for computer illiterates and for hackers. There is a more elegant and realistic solution in my opinion. In Traveller games which I Run, all computers are AI's (=artificial intelligences) and NPC's. This is a much more reasonable extrapolation of computer technology, is easily playable (effortless really), and provides a new, very useful mode of GM - player interaction. The AI computer provides a very natural way for the GM to feed the players information within the context of the game and in role playing mode; it thus avoids the necessity of GM announcements. For example, contrast GM: "You have just noticed two unidentified blips on your radar scope." with Computer: "I am tracking two unidentified ships." The problem of limiting the effect of very advanced computers on combat can be handled by postulating either that the computers are (voluntarily?) subject to Asimov's First Law of Robotics (i.e., are resolute pacifists) or that their electronics are too delicate or easily disrupted (by EMP's?) for use in combat. Neither of these solutions seems very realistic but they are better than tech level C computers with the bulk of MANIAC and the computing power of an Apple ii+. Comments or other suggestions?
tihor@cmcl2.UUCP (11/10/83)
#R:astrovax:-11300:cmcl2:3500001:000:390
cmcl2!tihor Nov 10 01:15:00 1983
Oh, I don't know, I've always had a weak spot for the idea (which I think I first
heard suggested by Mark Swanson at Boskone) that electronics don't quite work
right in hyperspace/EMP shielding isn't effective enough and thus the traveller
computers are:
BABBAGE MACHINES
tons of whirling gears and rods, "quick Scotty we're going into combat put
some more oil in the the computer".
--
Stephen Tihor/CIMS/NYU/251 Mercer St./NY NY 10012
UUCPnet:...!philabs!cmcl2!tihor ARPAnet/CSnet: TIHOR@NYUrigney@uokvax.UUCP (11/16/83)
#R:astrovax:-11300:uokvax:2400014:000:772 uokvax!rigney Nov 14 19:31:00 1983 Babbage machines???!!! Then how about those fiber-optic backups for military craft (in High Guard)!!! On the other hand, the idea that Hyperspace screws up advanced electronics is fun, similar to the Soviets modern-day use of Vacuum Tubes, which are thousands of times more resistant to EMP. But wouldn't this mean that computers built on planets, that would never go through hyperspace, would be immensely powerful and futuristic? If even shipping them through hyperspace destroys them, then the only planets with advanced computers are those with the tech to build their own, with all the associated support industries. Or those patient enough to ship their goodies through normal space, at whatever fraction of c Traveller allows! Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!rigney