I'm on the digest so my replies are slow. But everyone else has covered
this topic pretty well so I won't rehash stuff.
*Dan Burns: *My memory got foggy. I knew of the sub-100 jump capable
vessel in /Regency Sourcebook/ so I didn't bother going back to look for
specific chapter and verse in either the main TNE book or FF&S to find
it. I assumed it had to have been written elsewhere. My bad.
I haven't tried to reverse engineer the Jboat to figure out how much of
the extra 25 tons is jump drive. I've compared it to the Ship's Boat
listed in the main TNE book but there are so many differences between
the two that it's almost apples and oranges at this point.
However, I still don't see why a TL restriction couldn't have been put
in place to accommodate it. Make it a TL-16 requirement (there are scant
few of those worlds around) that's only available in the post-1130
Traveller settings. After all, with Mongoose the setting's reverted back
to a CT-ish time period (I don't recall the exact year).
But if inflexibility is the order of the day, then there's no point.
*Eamon: *Eliminating the JBoat does impact the TNE setting, specifically
the XWeb in the Regency. But I suppose that the attempts to democratize
the dissemination of information throughout the Regency would be
handwaved away somehow. "No need for the JBoats to supplement the
Xboats. We've got this under control. Move along." Or something to that
effect.
I'm with you, but I guess I'm not surprised regarding the rising dogma.
There's been a "my version of Traveller, right or wrong" attitude with
regards to the official setting out there for several years. Anyone who
kept up on the old TAS boards knows what I'm talking about.
As Dom says, "It's not like someone's going to come to your house and
kick you if you continue
using small jump drives." If the powers that be want to drive away a
faction of old fans, well, that's their loss. Now that MJD is gone, I'm
pretty sure I've bought my last Traveller product anyway.
\_/
DED