There's no such thing as a naive question. According to the dictionary
there is, but not in the sense you should feel "less" for asking it.
>
> Dave,First, I really appreciate you taking your time to respond to my
> naive question. I'm finding the insight into the process of a
> professional game designer fascinating. I've never had to worry about
> publishing costs or time tables/deadlines for new products, and honestly
> had never even thought about how that influences what a game company gets
> to market or DOESN'T get to market.
One thing that strikes me periodically is that no one seems to mention, in
terms of GDW product output, that going from LBBs to 8.5x11 more than
doubled the amount of content, and therefore effort expended, to put one
out. GDW was having to do pre-electronic typesetting early on, but
electronic typesetting also brought higher presentation standards as well.
But leaving out typesetting, the design, development, and editing required
was more than doubled per "page."
> One reason I chose New Era as the background for this new campaign was
> because the players could possibly be movers and shakers if they wanted
> to go that route. In the established Third Imperium, well, there's not
> much a group of players can do to really change things on the broad
> campaign level. The group seems to be enjoying the âfrom the ashesâ
> vibe of the campaign so far, and Iâm enjoying see a new group exposed
> to Traveller.
I'm glad they like that, that was the idea that Traveller had been trying
to work toward since 1987. Some might say TNE didn't get it there either,
but it was another honest effort.
> Also, thank you for the insight into the RC. I detested the RC when I was
> first reading the New Era background info, they seemed nothing but the
> worst sort of bullies and opportunists. But seeing your explanations of
> the whys and hows makes them much more human to me, even if they are
> deeply flawed.
That's interesting, and not invalid, that you saw them that way. One of
the things about writing for different books, different groups in those
books, is that in writing for a group you would naturally become somewhat
biased toward them, in the meaning of taking on their POV, and the sense,
"yeah, we ARE the heroes of this story." Obviously the RC was supposed to
be some of the good guys, and in order to convey the swagger of a "Hammer"
Lathrop you had to put on some of that yourself. A lot of that came
straight out of T2K, but with the stronger addition, "we are not only
fighting for our own survival, we are fighting for a better world."
Sometimes that came across in T2K, but for a lot of players it didn't.
> Regards,
> Tim aka bardbear
>
>
there is, but not in the sense you should feel "less" for asking it.
>
> Dave,First, I really appreciate you taking your time to respond to my
> naive question. I'm finding the insight into the process of a
> professional game designer fascinating. I've never had to worry about
> publishing costs or time tables/deadlines for new products, and honestly
> had never even thought about how that influences what a game company gets
> to market or DOESN'T get to market.
One thing that strikes me periodically is that no one seems to mention, in
terms of GDW product output, that going from LBBs to 8.5x11 more than
doubled the amount of content, and therefore effort expended, to put one
out. GDW was having to do pre-electronic typesetting early on, but
electronic typesetting also brought higher presentation standards as well.
But leaving out typesetting, the design, development, and editing required
was more than doubled per "page."
> One reason I chose New Era as the background for this new campaign was
> because the players could possibly be movers and shakers if they wanted
> to go that route. In the established Third Imperium, well, there's not
> much a group of players can do to really change things on the broad
> campaign level. The group seems to be enjoying the âfrom the ashesâ
> vibe of the campaign so far, and Iâm enjoying see a new group exposed
> to Traveller.
I'm glad they like that, that was the idea that Traveller had been trying
to work toward since 1987. Some might say TNE didn't get it there either,
but it was another honest effort.
> Also, thank you for the insight into the RC. I detested the RC when I was
> first reading the New Era background info, they seemed nothing but the
> worst sort of bullies and opportunists. But seeing your explanations of
> the whys and hows makes them much more human to me, even if they are
> deeply flawed.
That's interesting, and not invalid, that you saw them that way. One of
the things about writing for different books, different groups in those
books, is that in writing for a group you would naturally become somewhat
biased toward them, in the meaning of taking on their POV, and the sense,
"yeah, we ARE the heroes of this story." Obviously the RC was supposed to
be some of the good guys, and in order to convey the swagger of a "Hammer"
Lathrop you had to put on some of that yourself. A lot of that came
straight out of T2K, but with the stronger addition, "we are not only
fighting for our own survival, we are fighting for a better world."
Sometimes that came across in T2K, but for a lot of players it didn't.
> Regards,
> Tim aka bardbear
>
>