That was entirely my fault, then.
You've got a complex, time-consuming, and unpaid job keeping this forum
running, and you do it well. I'll try to do better not making it any
harder.
Thank you, in the meantime, for the nice place the TNE list is.
Dave
> 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
> >
> >
> >
>
>
You've got a complex, time-consuming, and unpaid job keeping this forum
running, and you do it well. I'll try to do better not making it any
harder.
Thank you, in the meantime, for the nice place the TNE list is.
Dave
> 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
> >
> >
> >
>
>