History of Traveller, cont'd.
The MegaTraveller Period (1987-92)
MegaTraveller -- the first major revision of the Traveller system in its ten year history, MegaTraveller was distinct from the decade of development which had preceded it in 3 (really 4) ways:
- <LI>cohesion: MT combined all of Traveller's rule developments into one location -- rules from all of the books, games, supplements, adventures, JTAS and TD articles were combined into a single, coherent whole. On the plus side, this made keeping track of all the various rules easier and more convenient, but on the minus side, it made the system much more complex, as in all cases MT prefered complex supplementary systems to their simpler Book 1-3 precursors. <LI>Task System: The UTP which DGP had developed in The Travellers' Digest (and which had also appeared, in an earlier version, in Traveller: 2300) was fully integrated into the rules. In place of CT's ad-hoc system of determining rolls, the UTP provided a single systematic procedue that could be used for virtually any in-game activity. On the plus side this made GMing much easier; on the minus, it steepend the learning curve as you had to learn the UTP format before being able to do anything else in the game. <LI>The Rebellion: MT distinguished its setting from the standard Imperium of CT by creating the Rebellion -- the Emperor is assassinated by one of the High Nobles, causing a Civil War between numerous rival claimants to the throne and incursions from the newly-emboldened enemies of the Imperium. The intention was to add a new level of drama and excitement to the occasionally staid and static Imperium setting, as well as bringing the wealth of historical and background development more into the forefront of the game. On the minus side, the factions were so evenly matched that it was obvious no faction could ever win, and the entire setting devolved into a giant-scale neverending wargame exercise. <LI>Errata: alas, the MT rules were also terribly edited, with mangled formats, occasional crucial tables and/or blocks of text completely missing, as well as lack of clear examples and generally poor organization that made making sense of the rules a daunting chore for anyone not already familiar with its CT antecedents.
For other impressions of MT (especially as compared to CT) see also
here and
here.
HIWG (The History of the Imperium Working Group) -- a fan organization formed around the release of MT, dedicated to detailing the history and culture of the Imperium (and, eventually, the Traveller Universe as a whole). Although massive amounts of material was generated by various HIWG members and sub-groups, lack of organization and political infighting (some of which is alluded to
here) kept them from ever truly achieving most of their goals. (Note: the HIWG still has a website
www.downport.com/hiwg/ and may even still be active; also note that I was never an HIWG member, and the above is all second hand at best).
GDW MT support -- a history neglect; from 1988-1991 GDW only produced 1-2 MT products a year, and some of those were of dubious quality (particularly
Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium (1990), a collection of nothing but gigantic warship stats, most/all of which were significantly broken under the MT craft design rules). GDW at the time were largely preoccupied with their various other product lines, and had made the conscious decision to leave Traveller largely in the hands of DGP.
DGP MT support -- Luckily, DGP were largely able to make up for GDW's slack. In addition to coverage in
The Travellers' Digest (which, upon the release of MT, expanded its focus to also include MT adventures, background, rules additions, and tips), DGP also produced several major MT supplements, including
Starship Operator's Manual, vol. 1 (1988) which offered detailed pseudo-scientific explanations on how the various starship systems actually work,
World Builder's Handbook (1989), a revision of their CT supplements
Grand Survey and
Grand Census including greatly enhanced details for world design, and the
MegaTraveller Alien series (
Vilani & Vargr (1990), and
Solomani & Aslan (1991)) which revised and greatly expanded upon the material in the original CT alien modules. In fact, some claim that DGP gave
too much information, allowing quantity to outstrip quality in an attempt to detail
everything about the Official Traveller Universe.
Hard Times (1991) -- this GDW supplement marked a distinct shift in the tone and focus of the MT line, moving the timeline forward several years (from 1120 to 1125-8) to a point where the Rebellion had stagnated and large portions of the Imperium were beginning a slide into isolation and barbarism, with the PCs in the Dominic Flandry-esque role of lighting a candle against the impending darkness.
Arrival Vengeance (1992) -- written by David Nilsen, GDW's new Traveller line editor, this was their farewell to the MT era, an adventure in which the PCs travel to meet most of the major factional leaders and learn that the Imperium is truly gone forever. The emphasis on dramatic storytelling and characters was largely new to Traveller, and would be further emphasized in the TNE line, which Dave Nilsen was the guiding force behind (Marc Miller, Traveller's original designer, at some point (and for reasons I don't know) having stepped aside to no longer be actively involved in Traveller).
The End of DGP -- By the time
Hard Times was released, DGP had stepped back from their position as the guiding force of Traveller. The
MegaTraveller Journal (their new magazine, launched in 1990 after TD finished its 21-issue tour) shifted from being a quarterly magazine to an annual supplement, they were no longer detailing or developing the Rebellion as a whole, and had announced that they were working on a new, non-Traveller rpg system called
A.I. (not technology and magic, but technology AS magic!). MTJ #4 (1993) was their final Traveller product, consisting of
Lords of Thunder by William H. Keith, a full-length campaign equal in scale and quality to
The Traveller Adventure, and a collection of internal DGP memos describing various Traveller plots and projects that never made it into print (most notably (and controversially) a large scale meta-storyline about the 'Baddies from the Core,' a race of super-psionic space-snails who were scheduled to invade Charted Space and raise tremendous havoc (possibly helping to bring the Rebellion to an end)).
Alas,
A.I. was never published, and MTJ4 was DGP's swansong. A man named Roger Sanger eventually acquired the DGP copyrights and became involved in a longstanding disagreement with Marc Miller the result of which is that DGP's Traveller products remain permanently out-of-print (and much sought-after on ebay), and are considered 'forbidden canon' to those developing new Traveller material -- they are not allowed to reference or borrow from DGP materials in any way (disclaimer: this is also all second or third hand; I've never personally spoken with Marc Miller or Roger Sanger about any of this).
(Note: I'm trying to remain neutral and unbiased here, but if anyone wants to dispute anything, please feel free)
