Sadly, the edition wars continue. TNE and the cluster-go-round that was T4 attract the most derision from others, but T20 attracts a fair amount as well. Each gets slammed for different reasons, though. Despite having helped playtest/write T20 (Doc Skull and I are at the top of the playtesters list on the credits page for a reason), I fully appreciate the reasons why people dislike it.
I have a CotI account and wander in occasionally, but when several of the "Traveller is its setting" fanatics lit into Mongoose for their rules/setting split scheme with a heat I have not seen since the launch of TNE, and chose to do so on CotI, I abandoned it as my central point of Traveller discussion. Most of my post count there comes from the T20 playtest days.
The "we support all versions" failure is not the fault of the forum's creator, though initially Hunter was just as edition-blind to anything past early MT as any TNE denier. Compared to the two other dominant Traveller fora at the time (TML and the SJG board), Hunter was open-minded about finding solutions in editions beyond his direct experience, and he set up CotI on that basis. That the user base he attracted contained edition-blind fanatics as well as reasonable-appearing closet TNE haters is hardly his fault.
The Traveller fanbase as a whole is now nearly impossible to consider as a whole. It split with TNE's release, which led to a CT/MT split that SJG exploited, creating a GURPS/everyone else split in the process. The editions of the Long Night, including T20 and T4, have their followings, but Mongoose was the next big edition. This naturally led to it splitting the fanbase, though it brought a significant number of people back into Traveller from long absences.
Watching all of this over the last 20+ years, as well as the edition neutral noodling that the TML occupies its time with these days. leads me to think that the idea of a grand unified Traveller is unattainable. Ask any ten Traveller fans what Traveller is to them and you get twelve answers, at least four of which define the answers of everyone else as heretical. the divides are over rules both general and specific, the timeline of the setting, and even things like page layout and publication choices. These are rifts that are not ever going away.
--- In , Richard Crowley wrote:
>
>  I would have said that CoTI is the place for T20 and and SciFi20. Isn't it funny how sites that claim "We support all versions of Traveller" often only support one--and religiously so? --- On Sat, 1/26/13, dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
>
> From: dcndcn13@...
> Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: COTI
> To:
> Date: Saturday, January 26, 2013, 5:17 PM
>
>
>
> Â
>
>
>
> Hmmm. I have no direct experience of post-GDW Traveller politics, so even
> when people tell me about it I can hardly remember which one is which.
>
> Actually at one point I think I confused Hunter with EDG/Consty, probably
> because they had each run a Traveller-oriented board. I know my saying
> that must be galling to Consty, but it's simply my utter lack of knowledge
> of the post-1995 terrain that allows me the luxury of my ignorance.
>
> Perhaps I ought not to be dabbling in the dark COTI arts. I know I was
> wearied by the widespread anti-TNE sentiment there years ago, so had no
> presence there since my 2004 letter-from-exile.
>
> > --- In , "DED" wrote:
> >>
> >> I should've been more specific. It isn't T20 the Trav version that
> >> annoyed me so much as the company that put out the product, QuikLink
> >> Interactive. There were issues regarding money and product which I'd
> >> rather not go into. Suffice it to say, it's done, but the experience
> >> soured me on them.
> >
> > Same here... Hunter did some things involving money, business and the
> > politics of the community that IMO aren't really forgiveable. I think COTI
> > also has an overblown sense of its own importance - Mongoose is where
> > Traveller is at now, while CotI just caters for people who like CT and T5.
> >
> >
>
I have a CotI account and wander in occasionally, but when several of the "Traveller is its setting" fanatics lit into Mongoose for their rules/setting split scheme with a heat I have not seen since the launch of TNE, and chose to do so on CotI, I abandoned it as my central point of Traveller discussion. Most of my post count there comes from the T20 playtest days.
The "we support all versions" failure is not the fault of the forum's creator, though initially Hunter was just as edition-blind to anything past early MT as any TNE denier. Compared to the two other dominant Traveller fora at the time (TML and the SJG board), Hunter was open-minded about finding solutions in editions beyond his direct experience, and he set up CotI on that basis. That the user base he attracted contained edition-blind fanatics as well as reasonable-appearing closet TNE haters is hardly his fault.
The Traveller fanbase as a whole is now nearly impossible to consider as a whole. It split with TNE's release, which led to a CT/MT split that SJG exploited, creating a GURPS/everyone else split in the process. The editions of the Long Night, including T20 and T4, have their followings, but Mongoose was the next big edition. This naturally led to it splitting the fanbase, though it brought a significant number of people back into Traveller from long absences.
Watching all of this over the last 20+ years, as well as the edition neutral noodling that the TML occupies its time with these days. leads me to think that the idea of a grand unified Traveller is unattainable. Ask any ten Traveller fans what Traveller is to them and you get twelve answers, at least four of which define the answers of everyone else as heretical. the divides are over rules both general and specific, the timeline of the setting, and even things like page layout and publication choices. These are rifts that are not ever going away.
--- In , Richard Crowley wrote:
>
>  I would have said that CoTI is the place for T20 and and SciFi20. Isn't it funny how sites that claim "We support all versions of Traveller" often only support one--and religiously so? --- On Sat, 1/26/13, dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
>
> From: dcndcn13@...
> Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: COTI
> To:
> Date: Saturday, January 26, 2013, 5:17 PM
>
>
>
> Â
>
>
>
> Hmmm. I have no direct experience of post-GDW Traveller politics, so even
> when people tell me about it I can hardly remember which one is which.
>
> Actually at one point I think I confused Hunter with EDG/Consty, probably
> because they had each run a Traveller-oriented board. I know my saying
> that must be galling to Consty, but it's simply my utter lack of knowledge
> of the post-1995 terrain that allows me the luxury of my ignorance.
>
> Perhaps I ought not to be dabbling in the dark COTI arts. I know I was
> wearied by the widespread anti-TNE sentiment there years ago, so had no
> presence there since my 2004 letter-from-exile.
>
> > --- In , "DED" wrote:
> >>
> >> I should've been more specific. It isn't T20 the Trav version that
> >> annoyed me so much as the company that put out the product, QuikLink
> >> Interactive. There were issues regarding money and product which I'd
> >> rather not go into. Suffice it to say, it's done, but the experience
> >> soured me on them.
> >
> > Same here... Hunter did some things involving money, business and the
> > politics of the community that IMO aren't really forgiveable. I think COTI
> > also has an overblown sense of its own importance - Mongoose is where
> > Traveller is at now, while CotI just caters for people who like CT and T5.
> >
> >
>