Building the Imperium
- Thread starter Thanos
- Start date
That depends upon how you look at it. The overview of the imperium is in Library Data (S8 & S11) along with a lot of OTU specific answers to many questions. Those two are the "OTU in a Nutshell".... They really provide the bulk of the OTU information.
Bk 1-4 don't explicitly go OTU. Bk5-8 are explicitly including OTU material.
S1:1001 Ch, S2: AnEnc, S6:76Pat, and S13:Vets are not OTU specific
S3:SpMar & S10:SolRim are exclusively OTU material - sector books
S4:COTI, S7:T&G, and S12:F&C are OTU included, but provide lots of useful stuff for Non-OTU games, too.
S5:LCC and S9:FS are OTU only ship books; one details a class out, and the other provides sketches of the varius ships
A1 & A4 are pretty vaguely OTU from before the OTU was really firm in the game. A5:TCS isn't really an adventure, is technically OTU, but has issues. The rest are OTU specific, and all but A12:SotI are useful outside the OTU as well.
DA1-DA7 are OTU specific, but like most adventures, can easily be used outside the OTU.
AM1-8 are OTU specific.
JTAS 1-24 includes a lot of OTU stuff.
Dribs and drabs in different books.
What do you mean as why? Most stories, games have a setting.
Max_Writer
SOC-11
I have a copy of the Atlas of the Imperium. That was later, though.
http://www.trollandtoad.com/p156507.html
http://www.trollandtoad.com/p156507.html
They do now but not so much in '77. Also Traveller was pitched as just a rules set for YOUR setting. I was just wondering why they decided to add one.
Trying to get a feel for the history of the game. The eveolution of the 3I setting.
It's important to note that, by 1981, the 3I was well envisaged. Everything after that is pretty strongly OTU compatible. The board games had some information about the Imperium, as well. It really looks that the 3I came to exist in 1977, in MWM's mind, based upon his 1974 Imperium game, and advancing a good way forward. By 1979, it was clear the game was going somewhere with different ships than CT Bks 1-3... Bk5 was published, and B5-1979 makes reference to the Imperium in passing.
A1 & A4 (Leviathan and Kinunir) were not written by GDW, but by Games Workshop. A2 and A3 seem pretty much aimed at the OTU.
1984's Atlas provides maps... not the underlying UWPs, just the maps. From that point on, it seems everything Traveller was fixated on being also OTU.
I bought the box set in '81, it did have somewhat of a setting, but most games did, star frontiers, space opera, gamma world and whatever. Space opera the least Traveller the most, in '77 there was nothing (Star Wars was a big influence though). Though it provided a backdrop for the adventures and such, I can't really see it without a setting. The game is generic enough to not need it, ship types would be really weird, so also all the aliens.
hunter
Ancient - Absent Friend
The setting already existed to a degree in the Imperium board game released about the same time as CT was.
There has never been a single OTU "bible", the setting grew (and continues to grow) almost organically in various books. You'll find bits here there and everywhere.
Pretty much because not everyone can or wants to make one up on their own. GDW wanted to serve that constituency and found people wanted more.
Imperium was not Traveller originally.
It was a good game with its own story, but it was glommed into the Traveller setting retroactively. (I don't think the original edition of the came explained anything about Vilani and so forth... it was just this generic empire of bureaucrats.)
It was a good game with its own story, but it was glommed into the Traveller setting retroactively. (I don't think the original edition of the came explained anything about Vilani and so forth... it was just this generic empire of bureaucrats.)
The oldest editions I've seen have the setting book. It's vague, but it's clearly the same Vilani as the later 3I descriptions. Newer editions have a different setting book, with more details.
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saundby
SOC-14 1K
I think that when the game came out, it wasn't a sure thing the buyers would want settings so much as additional game mechanics--new technology, careers, etc. As time went on, editorials in JTAS and other comments seemed to say that there were plenty of players asking for a setting as well as generic material. So they did what good businessmen do, give the customer what they want.
Personally I'd been turned off to anything outside LBBs 1-3, so I had a negative view of the setting along with the "overpowered" characters from the later books. I (stubbornly) used my own settings, for all my games. RQ was a bit of a challenge to run without Glorantha, but my friend Steve Henderson did it, so I figured I could, too.
Personally I'd been turned off to anything outside LBBs 1-3, so I had a negative view of the setting along with the "overpowered" characters from the later books. I (stubbornly) used my own settings, for all my games. RQ was a bit of a challenge to run without Glorantha, but my friend Steve Henderson did it, so I figured I could, too.
