No. It started with the inane "Go Duke" post. I mean, C'mon. Do we really have to spread that NCAA nonsense here? It's not like there aren't a thousand other message boards and media outlets dedicated to drooling over the country's obsession with March Madness.
But I let it go because it ran its course in just a few emails. And someone swung the conversation back to Traveller with a reference to sports in Traveller and another went with collegiate alliances compared to MT tribalism or some such.
But then the conversation exploded into other outside topics. And I let it go because someone was always steering it back to Traveller. But then it didn't. And after a week, I felt it was time to step in.
References to other sci-fi books, films, and TV shows are fine, if how it relates to Traveller is the subject of the discussion. Talk about how Traveller borrows/steals/or was inspired by this thing from that book or TV show. Or how you'd like to introduce some element from some book into the TU but aren't sure how to build it using FF&S. That's all fine because Traveller remains the focal point. But when you start debating the merits of this plot contrivance from a TV show or the screw ups of a particular director of a film, I have to draw the line. We're NOT going to have that here! There are a thousand different message boards and fan forums where people do that every hour of every day. How many message boards do you have to talk about TNE? Of those, how many are troll-free? I'm not going to have this forum drown in giant sci-fi franchise chatter.
If you guys really want to do it, set up a YahooGroup called "TNE Fans Talk About Stuff". I'll even capture the group's membership in a spreadsheet and gladly send it to whomever starts it up so that he/she can send out the invitations. It's the least I can do for being such a killjoy.
\_/
DED
TNE @ Yahoo ml Admin
---In , <> wrote :
I'm probably at least partially if not wholly to blame for that, with the
"Star Trek had good visualizations for different alien races' starship
designs." Where that related to Traveller was my wish to do more along
those lines. Since Traveller had common starship design rules it was
harder to say "Federation uses phasers, Klingons use disruptors, Romulans
use plasma weapons," so any differences had to be a lot less
deterministic.
I made the Hiver ships shoeboxes because it was a clear way of saying,
"we're not going down there, we're sending bots and Ithklur." Most of
everything else was just artistic embellishment of common forms, Aslan
being swoopy, Vargr being spiky, etc.
And then there was the clear violation of "what it would really be." With
everything beyond a certain level covered with stealthy EM emissions
management there would be no such thing as ship markings or paint schemes,
except that was no fun. People like Osprey books with color profiles and
there's no way to do that when a ship could be an "Eat at Joe's" marquee
one second, a countershaded starfield the next, and the family coat of
arms after that. Since saying "ships have paint schemes" was more fun and
Traveller had already said things like there being traditional pirate
color schemes, we stuck with something that made no sense and tried not to
talk about it.
> I've indulged you guys long enough. Please stop with all of the Star Wars,
> Star Trek, Hollywood, this director sucks, this movie was great but that
> one sucks, etc. etc. stuff. Please take it off-list. I believe that you
> all have your each other's emails by now.
>
> \_/
> DED
> TNE @ Yahoo ml Admin
>
>
>
But I let it go because it ran its course in just a few emails. And someone swung the conversation back to Traveller with a reference to sports in Traveller and another went with collegiate alliances compared to MT tribalism or some such.
But then the conversation exploded into other outside topics. And I let it go because someone was always steering it back to Traveller. But then it didn't. And after a week, I felt it was time to step in.
References to other sci-fi books, films, and TV shows are fine, if how it relates to Traveller is the subject of the discussion. Talk about how Traveller borrows/steals/or was inspired by this thing from that book or TV show. Or how you'd like to introduce some element from some book into the TU but aren't sure how to build it using FF&S. That's all fine because Traveller remains the focal point. But when you start debating the merits of this plot contrivance from a TV show or the screw ups of a particular director of a film, I have to draw the line. We're NOT going to have that here! There are a thousand different message boards and fan forums where people do that every hour of every day. How many message boards do you have to talk about TNE? Of those, how many are troll-free? I'm not going to have this forum drown in giant sci-fi franchise chatter.
If you guys really want to do it, set up a YahooGroup called "TNE Fans Talk About Stuff". I'll even capture the group's membership in a spreadsheet and gladly send it to whomever starts it up so that he/she can send out the invitations. It's the least I can do for being such a killjoy.
\_/
DED
TNE @ Yahoo ml Admin
---In , <> wrote :
I'm probably at least partially if not wholly to blame for that, with the
"Star Trek had good visualizations for different alien races' starship
designs." Where that related to Traveller was my wish to do more along
those lines. Since Traveller had common starship design rules it was
harder to say "Federation uses phasers, Klingons use disruptors, Romulans
use plasma weapons," so any differences had to be a lot less
deterministic.
I made the Hiver ships shoeboxes because it was a clear way of saying,
"we're not going down there, we're sending bots and Ithklur." Most of
everything else was just artistic embellishment of common forms, Aslan
being swoopy, Vargr being spiky, etc.
And then there was the clear violation of "what it would really be." With
everything beyond a certain level covered with stealthy EM emissions
management there would be no such thing as ship markings or paint schemes,
except that was no fun. People like Osprey books with color profiles and
there's no way to do that when a ship could be an "Eat at Joe's" marquee
one second, a countershaded starfield the next, and the family coat of
arms after that. Since saying "ships have paint schemes" was more fun and
Traveller had already said things like there being traditional pirate
color schemes, we stuck with something that made no sense and tried not to
talk about it.
> I've indulged you guys long enough. Please stop with all of the Star Wars,
> Star Trek, Hollywood, this director sucks, this movie was great but that
> one sucks, etc. etc. stuff. Please take it off-list. I believe that you
> all have your each other's emails by now.
>
> \_/
> DED
> TNE @ Yahoo ml Admin
>
>
>