Oh, and while I am talking about the RSB, I do want to make mention
of what you did with Norris. I thought it was brilliant. In a nutshell,
you took everything you did to and with the Star Vikings and compressed
it into a single individual.
Norris was a man with a good heart and strong character who was destined
for greatness even though he never sought it. But to accomplish those
great things he had to make some horrible and compromising choices. While
he did not have to endure the public flogging that the Star Vikings did,
he still knew the terrible compromises he made and had to live with them
until the day he died.
>From founding his leadership on a lie, to potentially condemning billions
to probable death outside his arbitrary border, to forcing the love of
his life to keep their relationship a secret, to forcing his daughter
to marry someone she considered a son, he truly did some terrible things.
But even so, he was still always a good man trying his hardest to do the
most good he could regardless of the costs to himself or anyone else.
To me, Norris is the most realized character in all of Traveller. And,
like you did with the Hivers, you took the established history, spun it
around, and gave it much more depth than it ever had prior.
Mike West