The IMTU crowd is sort of a mystery. Aside from the handful who maintain websites or speak up in one of the fora they are a silent group. This is almost certainly due to the prevalence of the OTU in visible fan coverage, which conveys a "don't bother" message to the homebrew crowd.
The OTU is both intimidating in its hugeness and seductive in the way all published settings are. That the OTU leans heavily on a large number of old SF tropes just makes it that much more seductive. It has most of the elements a potential homebrewer would include already in place. Why do all that work when you can pick a corner of this huge shared experience and have a big block of the work already done.
The Pseudo-OGL approach Mongoose is taking has probably drawn a few more homebrewers out and given them new versions of the tools to work with. Since CT those tools have been present but often sat neglected because, well, THIRD IMPERIUM. The Mongoose decision to leave setting out of the core rulebook was vilified by a certain crowd, but it does keep those setting essays that MT and TNE were known for from whispering in the ear of the homebrewer. The setting books came along soon enough (for most people) while the career books have been cheerfully expanding the horizons of both the OTU and the homebrewers.
--- In , dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
> Given the fact that Traveller fans are probably the most constitutionally
> inclined to discard the setting ("IMTU", all of the Grognards), removing
> campaigns from the setting is practically a given.
>
> > Depends on the definition of "serious flaw" I suppose.
> >
> > To me, a serious flaw would be something that was both difficult to ignore
> > or remove from the setting AND prevented the setting from telling the
> > sorts of stories/sessions/campaigns that the game is intended to tell.
> >
>
The OTU is both intimidating in its hugeness and seductive in the way all published settings are. That the OTU leans heavily on a large number of old SF tropes just makes it that much more seductive. It has most of the elements a potential homebrewer would include already in place. Why do all that work when you can pick a corner of this huge shared experience and have a big block of the work already done.
The Pseudo-OGL approach Mongoose is taking has probably drawn a few more homebrewers out and given them new versions of the tools to work with. Since CT those tools have been present but often sat neglected because, well, THIRD IMPERIUM. The Mongoose decision to leave setting out of the core rulebook was vilified by a certain crowd, but it does keep those setting essays that MT and TNE were known for from whispering in the ear of the homebrewer. The setting books came along soon enough (for most people) while the career books have been cheerfully expanding the horizons of both the OTU and the homebrewers.
--- In , dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
> Given the fact that Traveller fans are probably the most constitutionally
> inclined to discard the setting ("IMTU", all of the Grognards), removing
> campaigns from the setting is practically a given.
>
> > Depends on the definition of "serious flaw" I suppose.
> >
> > To me, a serious flaw would be something that was both difficult to ignore
> > or remove from the setting AND prevented the setting from telling the
> > sorts of stories/sessions/campaigns that the game is intended to tell.
> >
>