Consty pretty much said what I just said: "If you don't intend it to mean
anything, then why say it?"
No one will ding you for saying, "Hey, I'm just space opera." But if you
make the claim to be more than that, and don't bother, then there is a
legitimate case that you have misrepresented yourself.
At one point early in TNE I had hoped to mesh the 2300 system into
Traveller to make it easier, but as soon as I opened the books, realized
that it was impossible. Every garden and furnace and whatever else world
in 2300 all fell into UPP 777XXX, plus or minus 2 in each digit, or
something close to that. And the real irony there is that 2300, which
billed itself as even more up-to-date and scientifically accurate than
Traveller had actually taken a giant step back to Star Wars, simply
changing the names. Garden planet = Forest Moon of Endor. Tatooine, Desert
Planet = something else. Hoth, Ice Planet = something else.
While practical in game/generation/design terms, it was oddly disconcerting.
> That's what I usually hear in response. I don't really think that's a good
> excuse/explanation for the issues though.
>
> For one thing, "Space Opera" doesn't need any worldgen, period. You just
> have your "desert planet" or "forest planet" or whatever. In fact, most of
> the time the planets and stars aren't even a factor in the story in Space
> Opera. I don't even really agree that Traveller is a system that is
> exclusively Space Opera because of this (if it was, what was the need of
> presenting those rules in the first place?).
>
> IMO it's more a case of "if you're going to present rules to create
> worlds, then at least make a decent effort to get it right". I accept that
> they tried with book 6 (they got it wrong, but it was an effort at least),
> but the flaws and errors have just been propagated without much effort to
> fix them through the subsequent decades.
>
> But more to the point, it creates a universe that just makes no damned
> sense, which is deeply unsatisfying.
>
>
> --- In , Charles Popp wrote:
>>
>> I know I am gonna get flamed or it but:Dude,it is just a game not a
>> simulation.
>> It is Space Opera,you know the stuff you read as a kid and saw on the
>> big
>> screen.
>
>
>
>
anything, then why say it?"
No one will ding you for saying, "Hey, I'm just space opera." But if you
make the claim to be more than that, and don't bother, then there is a
legitimate case that you have misrepresented yourself.
At one point early in TNE I had hoped to mesh the 2300 system into
Traveller to make it easier, but as soon as I opened the books, realized
that it was impossible. Every garden and furnace and whatever else world
in 2300 all fell into UPP 777XXX, plus or minus 2 in each digit, or
something close to that. And the real irony there is that 2300, which
billed itself as even more up-to-date and scientifically accurate than
Traveller had actually taken a giant step back to Star Wars, simply
changing the names. Garden planet = Forest Moon of Endor. Tatooine, Desert
Planet = something else. Hoth, Ice Planet = something else.
While practical in game/generation/design terms, it was oddly disconcerting.
> That's what I usually hear in response. I don't really think that's a good
> excuse/explanation for the issues though.
>
> For one thing, "Space Opera" doesn't need any worldgen, period. You just
> have your "desert planet" or "forest planet" or whatever. In fact, most of
> the time the planets and stars aren't even a factor in the story in Space
> Opera. I don't even really agree that Traveller is a system that is
> exclusively Space Opera because of this (if it was, what was the need of
> presenting those rules in the first place?).
>
> IMO it's more a case of "if you're going to present rules to create
> worlds, then at least make a decent effort to get it right". I accept that
> they tried with book 6 (they got it wrong, but it was an effort at least),
> but the flaws and errors have just been propagated without much effort to
> fix them through the subsequent decades.
>
> But more to the point, it creates a universe that just makes no damned
> sense, which is deeply unsatisfying.
>
>
> --- In , Charles Popp wrote:
>>
>> I know I am gonna get flamed or it but:Dude,it is just a game not a
>> simulation.
>> It is Space Opera,you know the stuff you read as a kid and saw on the
>> big
>> screen.
>
>
>
>