Mike--
Interesting. Even though both posts came from the same account
(), the earlier one put the alias "Caddocourt" in the
"From" column, but this most recent one put "Mike West."
Ah, the secret lives of electrons.
I assume that's you as daryen over on the Mongoose lists. I was trying to
remember what kind of ship was Sandman in Vampire Fleets, and Googling it
took me all over the place. Never did find out what type ship it was,
either. Don't remember what you said, all those aliases blur together. I
did recognize Gypsy Comet as Jim Kundert, though.
I've read some reviews of RSB that slam me for the small point size. In
terms of "pretty presentation" vs. "more information," I never see any
contest. Do you buy books for information, or for some meaningless
experience that is easy on your eyes? That's what I thought. I wasn't
allowed to up the page count, so that's what I ended up doing. Ideally, we
would have upped the page count and increased the price to cover it.
Probably the ordering solicitations had already gone out so we were locked
in at a guaranteed price.
Thanks again for the RSB compliments, I truly appreciate them. You
mentioned some of those before, and the reason you know that I am not
scolding you for repeating yourself is because I am the God of Repeating
Himself. Frank used to get on me sometimes that I was "too subtle." Odd
that I could be both that and also have a writing style that torqued off
so many people. I figure I'm about as subtle as a hammer, but it probably
also depended on what voice I was trying to write in.
I saw a review of RSB on Amazon that loved the poem in there about keeping
the flame, said it was very evocative, and set the feel of the setting
very well. Whenever I did stuff like that I felt some people might hate
the departure from the traditional Traveller Joe Friday voice, but I also
felt that we're trying to write about a future world with real people in
it, and people in that world would do things like wrote poetry, so I gave
it a try. I'm reminded of P.T. Barnum and how they extended that thought
at MST3K: "We don't worry about who will get the joke, we know the right
people will get the joke." I look at lots of stuff I did, from TNE to
Phase Line Smash, and I see that there are lots of people who really "get
it," and others who don't. Would I trade that for a product that would
make 100% of people go, "meh?" Someone could make the point, and I would
take it seriously, that if my writing in a different way could have made
TNE more successful and saved GDW then I should have. Well, I'm not sure
what that way is, in general one can only do what one can in the moment
with the wits one has, and that's past changing anyway.
I assume, for example, that part of the reason MJD was taken with TNE was
the way it was written. Water several times over the dam, anyway.
Also, I like the wild Hiver idea as well. One question, though: when you
say, "when they were found a century later it was quite a shock," do you
mean by other Hivers, or humans? Also, and I think this is what you were
getting at, did the larvae grow up without adult Hivers to teach them
Hiver culture, i.e., the adults died or went away and the larval Hivers
evolved their own new Hiver society? If so, what did you have in mind?
> Yes that was me. Depending on the forum or list, I am called either
>
> "daryen", "caddocourt", or "Mike West". I dunno how exactly that
>
> "caddocourt" gets in there, but, whatever.
>
>
>
> I worked with Martin on the 1248 stuff, particularly on the Spinward
>
> States. He even let me help direct what happened there. (No spoilers
>
> here.) It was pretty cool.
>
>
>
> In order to work on the Spinward States, I had to study the Regency
>
> Source Book thoroughly. The more I read it, the more impressed I
>
> became. Not only did you pack in the information (to the point where
>
> some pages had reduced font sizes to make it fit!), but you packed
>
> in a whole lot of stuff *between* the lines. That was impressive. I
>
> know I misread some of that "between the lines" stuff, but even so
>
> the fact that it was there to be read (or misread) was really
impressive.
>
>
>
> My favorite "between the lines" was Norris and his personal life. It
>
> is explicitly stated that he "never found love", but, in fact, most
definitely
>
> did! I am still trying to learn how to write things that well.
>
>
>
> In addition, you set up a lot of loose threads that I had fun drawing
>
> out and expanding. In particular, I had fun taking the Kiskii incident
>
> and turning that ultimate tragedy into a long term benefit for the Regency.
>
> Trin did not die in vain!
>
>
>
> Thank you for making a book that I had to read over and over worth
>
> the effort to do so.
>
>
>
> Mike West
>
>
>
>
>
> From:
[]
> On Behalf Of
> Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2014 5:38 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Dawn League naivete, or, sorry for all the
posts but...
>
>
>
>
>
> Caddocourt--
>
> (I'm doing really well on the whole, "that's the last of me for today"
thing.)
>
> I apologize, but it's hard for me to keep names straight over the long
periods of time on this list with e-mail addresses that don't
necessarily
> show them (mine doesn't either). Are you they guy who threw himself in
front of me saying, "Dave don't listen, you don't want to hear this"?
That
> was very considerate of you, and I recall it fondly.
>
>> "I have always wanted to finish them and put them out there, but just
> never got the chance."
>
> I would say, "my former life in a nutshell," but that would be
incomplete.
> To make it complete, I have to add, "my ex-wife remarried and they live
across the street from Marc Miller." THAT completes my former life in a
nutshell.
>
> And speaking of, "just never got the chance" if I were as smart as I
like
> to believe I am, after all this time I would admit that none of that TNE
stuff is ever going to happen, erase those brain cells, and use them for
something else. I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm just too fond of
all of the little unwritten stories.
>
>> Back when I did the Spinward States sourcebook for 1248, I had
> desperately
>> want to make an otherwise barren garden world the surprise home of some
> mutant Hivers. They would have been the result of the crash of a wide
ranging Embassy ship that got stranded by the Civil War. The survivors,
not understanding either the ecology of the world they were on or the
interstellar situation just waited for rescue. By the time reality set
in,
>> they were already doomed, but they had already made lots of
> 'handshaking'.
>> With no (or not effective enough) predators on the world, the 'babies'
> went on to run wild. The survivors never knew what they had unleashed.
>> And when these 'wild Hivers' we're found over a century later, it was
> quit
>> he shock.
>> Unfortunately, I just couldn't get them to fit in, so left them out. I
> have always wanted to finish them and put them out there, but just never
got the chance.
>> Sent from my iPad
>>> On Mar 23, 2014, at 4:22 PM, Master Uxi <> wrote:
I did have an idea for a colony of Hivers that were evangelized and
formed human style nuclear-esque families near Turin.
>
>
>
>
Interesting. Even though both posts came from the same account
(), the earlier one put the alias "Caddocourt" in the
"From" column, but this most recent one put "Mike West."
Ah, the secret lives of electrons.
I assume that's you as daryen over on the Mongoose lists. I was trying to
remember what kind of ship was Sandman in Vampire Fleets, and Googling it
took me all over the place. Never did find out what type ship it was,
either. Don't remember what you said, all those aliases blur together. I
did recognize Gypsy Comet as Jim Kundert, though.
I've read some reviews of RSB that slam me for the small point size. In
terms of "pretty presentation" vs. "more information," I never see any
contest. Do you buy books for information, or for some meaningless
experience that is easy on your eyes? That's what I thought. I wasn't
allowed to up the page count, so that's what I ended up doing. Ideally, we
would have upped the page count and increased the price to cover it.
Probably the ordering solicitations had already gone out so we were locked
in at a guaranteed price.
Thanks again for the RSB compliments, I truly appreciate them. You
mentioned some of those before, and the reason you know that I am not
scolding you for repeating yourself is because I am the God of Repeating
Himself. Frank used to get on me sometimes that I was "too subtle." Odd
that I could be both that and also have a writing style that torqued off
so many people. I figure I'm about as subtle as a hammer, but it probably
also depended on what voice I was trying to write in.
I saw a review of RSB on Amazon that loved the poem in there about keeping
the flame, said it was very evocative, and set the feel of the setting
very well. Whenever I did stuff like that I felt some people might hate
the departure from the traditional Traveller Joe Friday voice, but I also
felt that we're trying to write about a future world with real people in
it, and people in that world would do things like wrote poetry, so I gave
it a try. I'm reminded of P.T. Barnum and how they extended that thought
at MST3K: "We don't worry about who will get the joke, we know the right
people will get the joke." I look at lots of stuff I did, from TNE to
Phase Line Smash, and I see that there are lots of people who really "get
it," and others who don't. Would I trade that for a product that would
make 100% of people go, "meh?" Someone could make the point, and I would
take it seriously, that if my writing in a different way could have made
TNE more successful and saved GDW then I should have. Well, I'm not sure
what that way is, in general one can only do what one can in the moment
with the wits one has, and that's past changing anyway.
I assume, for example, that part of the reason MJD was taken with TNE was
the way it was written. Water several times over the dam, anyway.
Also, I like the wild Hiver idea as well. One question, though: when you
say, "when they were found a century later it was quite a shock," do you
mean by other Hivers, or humans? Also, and I think this is what you were
getting at, did the larvae grow up without adult Hivers to teach them
Hiver culture, i.e., the adults died or went away and the larval Hivers
evolved their own new Hiver society? If so, what did you have in mind?
> Yes that was me. Depending on the forum or list, I am called either
>
> "daryen", "caddocourt", or "Mike West". I dunno how exactly that
>
> "caddocourt" gets in there, but, whatever.
>
>
>
> I worked with Martin on the 1248 stuff, particularly on the Spinward
>
> States. He even let me help direct what happened there. (No spoilers
>
> here.) It was pretty cool.
>
>
>
> In order to work on the Spinward States, I had to study the Regency
>
> Source Book thoroughly. The more I read it, the more impressed I
>
> became. Not only did you pack in the information (to the point where
>
> some pages had reduced font sizes to make it fit!), but you packed
>
> in a whole lot of stuff *between* the lines. That was impressive. I
>
> know I misread some of that "between the lines" stuff, but even so
>
> the fact that it was there to be read (or misread) was really
impressive.
>
>
>
> My favorite "between the lines" was Norris and his personal life. It
>
> is explicitly stated that he "never found love", but, in fact, most
definitely
>
> did! I am still trying to learn how to write things that well.
>
>
>
> In addition, you set up a lot of loose threads that I had fun drawing
>
> out and expanding. In particular, I had fun taking the Kiskii incident
>
> and turning that ultimate tragedy into a long term benefit for the Regency.
>
> Trin did not die in vain!
>
>
>
> Thank you for making a book that I had to read over and over worth
>
> the effort to do so.
>
>
>
> Mike West
>
>
>
>
>
> From:
[]
> On Behalf Of
> Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2014 5:38 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Dawn League naivete, or, sorry for all the
posts but...
>
>
>
>
>
> Caddocourt--
>
> (I'm doing really well on the whole, "that's the last of me for today"
thing.)
>
> I apologize, but it's hard for me to keep names straight over the long
periods of time on this list with e-mail addresses that don't
necessarily
> show them (mine doesn't either). Are you they guy who threw himself in
front of me saying, "Dave don't listen, you don't want to hear this"?
That
> was very considerate of you, and I recall it fondly.
>
>> "I have always wanted to finish them and put them out there, but just
> never got the chance."
>
> I would say, "my former life in a nutshell," but that would be
incomplete.
> To make it complete, I have to add, "my ex-wife remarried and they live
across the street from Marc Miller." THAT completes my former life in a
nutshell.
>
> And speaking of, "just never got the chance" if I were as smart as I
like
> to believe I am, after all this time I would admit that none of that TNE
stuff is ever going to happen, erase those brain cells, and use them for
something else. I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm just too fond of
all of the little unwritten stories.
>
>> Back when I did the Spinward States sourcebook for 1248, I had
> desperately
>> want to make an otherwise barren garden world the surprise home of some
> mutant Hivers. They would have been the result of the crash of a wide
ranging Embassy ship that got stranded by the Civil War. The survivors,
not understanding either the ecology of the world they were on or the
interstellar situation just waited for rescue. By the time reality set
in,
>> they were already doomed, but they had already made lots of
> 'handshaking'.
>> With no (or not effective enough) predators on the world, the 'babies'
> went on to run wild. The survivors never knew what they had unleashed.
>> And when these 'wild Hivers' we're found over a century later, it was
> quit
>> he shock.
>> Unfortunately, I just couldn't get them to fit in, so left them out. I
> have always wanted to finish them and put them out there, but just never
got the chance.
>> Sent from my iPad
>>> On Mar 23, 2014, at 4:22 PM, Master Uxi <> wrote:
I did have an idea for a colony of Hivers that were evangelized and
formed human style nuclear-esque families near Turin.
>
>
>
>