So here’s my point of view.
Since we have started playing Traveller less than 20 years ago (which makes me a youngster in Traveller community), our main concern was the overwhelming depth of materials published for Traveller over the previous 15 years. TNE gave new players a great opportunity to jump right into this game without the need to look for hundreds of supplements. You could just start an RC campaign with your character’s knowledge very similar to your knowledge of what’s happening outside.
Also, I have always envisioned RC setting as very similar to T:2000. There’s been a war, you have no idea who’s still out there and who’s not, and you’re pretty much on your own. (As a side note I should point out, that in T2k we didn’t play the American remnants of the 5th Div, but chose Polish 1st Free Legion from Leszno, which is 50 km (30mi) from where I actually live now. Their main goal was to survive first, and after that you can try to rebuild some sort of civilization – sounds familiar?)
For those who longed and pined for the Imperium there was always Regency. So when we finally got our hands on some Traveller resources from previous editions, we started a Regency campaign.
What could you do with MT? Over the years I’ve heard that all materials for MT where in desperate need of errata, so, from publishing point of view I think, that a fresh start was something that was needed.
Probably the most controversial issue was the Virus, but you already know this from the wars on the Internet and names you’ve been called by some people. To me Virus is not as inconceivable as some say. Given the data you had on Cymbeline chips, the need for a force that could put an end to the war (in one way or the other) is plausible at least. Besides, knowing how technology and computers have changed over the past 20 years I say you were right. And all those people who couldn’t suspend their disbelief for Virus, yet still believed in Cat-samurai, psionics and wolfs in space can go f…ishing.
As stated in PoT, the Virus is not what runs the Traveller Universe. “Finally, and most importantly, avoid filling your campaign with Virus. The effects of Virus are omnipresent, but the actual reality of Virus should be very rare…” PoT p.143
The “Shower incident” is what GT did to Traveller. If I were an MT player or referee I would most probably feel at least a little offended if you said: “Hey guys, you remember the last couple of years worth of books? Well, it didn’t happen.”
All in all, you made a good and reasonable decision to move Traveller forwards.
p.s. I also had great fun reading H&I. It helped me to understand the manipulative nature of the evil starfish, and San*klaas is definitely one of my favorites.
Cheers,
Blase
From: [] On Behalf Of
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2012 7:03 AM
To:
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] Question for the group
Here's something I've often wondered over the years.
The argument has been made that one of the flaws of TNE is that it ruined
the Imperium. (A subset of that is that is was okay to ruin the Imperium,
but Virus was the wrong choice. We'll save that for a different
discussion.)
What do you think, or what do you think other Traveller players in 1993
think we should have done instead?
And I'll start with why we went the way we did.
For my money, we had no choice. When I sat down my first day at GDW, I was
presented with the finished maps of the "Hard Times" maps of the Imperium
spiralling down the toilet. Hard Times was already on the schedule, the
cover had already been printed, and 5000 copies of it were sitting in the
warehouse, and by the way, the book was due to the printers THE DAY AFTER
my first day. Obviously it wasn't going to make it, but just as obviously,
"Hard Times" was going to go out pretty close to the way it already was.
To me, it was not intellectually, emotionally, or ethically honest to
claim that somehow a Miracle Happens and it could be pulled back together.
More logically, the act had been done when MT was launched, and the Hi-Pop
worlds were being raped, and there would be no happy ending. So we had to
let man's foolishness run its course and then start again with a bunch of
plucky souls determined to build a better world. People accused that of
being a "dark setting," but again, I always felt like I had inherited a
"dark setting" and I had to figure out what to do with it. (And yes, as an
aside, Frank had already floated ideas of a computer virus and Star
Vikings, which is whence came DGP's theatrical announcement that they were
leaving. But for the moment, let's assume those were not givens.)
Short of the "shower scene" resolution, which we published in Challenge 59
1/2, and which SJG appropriated for GT, what is another way that we could
have, or should have moved forward? Because to me, the editions of
Traveller which keep moving into the past don't make a whole lot of sense.
The historicity is all wrong. How can characters "change the world" in a
history that is already written?
But that's my analysis, which I applied 20 years ago. What other good
options would you have liked to see, or do you think others would have
preferred?
Dave