Canon Problems with Traveller5 Core Rules?

[inexorabletash]

Outside of a reality as flimsy as an 80's prime-time soap opera, does Dulinor seem like someone who could have masterminded the assassination plot, given how badly he fumbled the climax and end-game?

Who was really pulling the strings?

 

[kilemall]

Outside of a reality as flimsy as an 80's prime-time soap opera, does Dulinor seem like someone who could have masterminded the assassination plot, given how badly he fumbled the climax and end-game?

Who was really pulling the strings?

Pfft- as if you have to ask....

 

[Vargas]

I fear I get way too meta when it comes to teasing apart whys and wherefores.

The assassination, like Virus, falls apart under examination because it's just a device to bend the setting in a certain direction.

YMWV.

 

[Hal]

Pfft- as if you have to ask....

<snipped image>

I bid 200 quatloos!

I bid 250 quatloos.

300 quatloos!


(why am I minded of THAT particular episode seeing THAT illustration?)

 

[jcrocker]

You see how the one on the left, the one with its back to the INI camera, it holding a fungus-on-rye-hold-the-sea-cucumber sandwich in its left manipulator? Funny thing, some of it fell on a touchpad, and it triggered one of those typos as we saw in Brazil.

Little known fact, Hiver touchpads have a sensor to suppress punctuation, and when Left Hiver meant to type "assassinate Strephon? no, better option!" tragically it came out "assassinate Strephon no better option." It probably had an inappropriate emoticon, too.

 

[Whipsnade]

Dulinor is a BELIEVER, a zealot. He genuinely thought he could pull it off.

And then he failed.

Dulinor was that zealot right up until the instant he botched the murder he'd planned for so very long. Instead of neatly killing Strephon and everyone throwing roses in the air, Dulinor had to shoot Iolanthe, Iphigenia, and the Aslan ambassador too.

He had to watch the four bodies fall, had to hear all the screams, had to see the splatters of blood and brains, had to watch the four new corpses twitch, and had to smell their bowels and bladders empty.

There were no flowers, no neat bullet holes with a single teardrop of blood, no hosannas, no hymns, no heartfelt thanks. Nothing that he had dreamed of for so long happened. Nothing happened but reality and reality is something no zealot every likes being introduced to.

Then all the other bad news came crashing in. Only one Prince was killed, the rest of the Guard didn't meekly surrender, the Moot was in chaos, the Fleet undecided, and no one was handing him the Imperium on an iridium platter like they were supposed to do.

Dulinor the Zealot met reality in the Throne Room that day and, when Dulinor the Uncertain fled, reality won hands down. Strephon, Iolanthe, Iphigenia, and the ambassador weren't the only ones who died. Strephon the Zealot died too.

There is no way he'd surrender.

He surrendered to a piece of farm machinery, Wil, because Dulinor the Zealot surrendered when the events of 132-1116 crammed a big hot steaming Reality Sandwich down his gullet.

He'd never surrender. Not even to save his loved ones, because he genuinely believes his own hype, as savior of the Imperium.

He'd surrender when faced with evidence of his own treason, just like he surrendered in the Throne Room after his plans didn't unfold perfectly.

A sane man would not have started the civil war.

That's true. I'll point out, however, that there is a fine line between zealot and martyr. When the zealot can no longer deny reality, all too often the martyr steps in and takes control.

Dulinor most likely knelt to take a 9mm in the back of the head with the words of Sydney Carton on his lips.

The assassination, like Virus, falls apart under examination because it's just a device to bend the setting in a certain direction.

In the end, that's the real answer.

 

[David Johansen]

While the Hivers claim responsibility that's probably just another manipulation and it's unlikely anyone remembers for sure because there are so many Hiver manipulations going on at any one time without any central oversight.

 

[kilemall]

You see how the one on the left, the one with its back to the INI camera, it holding a fungus-on-rye-hold-the-sea-cucumber sandwich in its left manipulator? Funny thing, some of it fell on a touchpad, and it triggered one of those typos as we saw in Brazil.

Little known fact, Hiver touchpads have a sensor to suppress punctuation, and when Left Hiver meant to type "assassinate Strephon? no, better option!" tragically it came out "assassinate Strephon no better option." It probably had an inappropriate emoticon, too.

God does not roll dice.

I suspect Grandfather does.

 

[Vargas]

God does not roll dice.

I suspect Grandfather does.

Yes, and they're loaded in his favor.

 

[SanDragon]

Yaskoydray not have time for games!

 

[robject]

I want to know for two reasons: (A) I'm insatiably curious

Ah, well yes of course.

As Wil noted [the events of 1116 took *at least* a year to germinate regardless]

All this means that the POD doesn't occur in orbit over Capital at the moment the shuttle explodes and the further back in time the POD occurs the more "side effects" it can create.

And of course he and you are right about germination, but *meh*. Your and his replies help me understand y'all's interest, which I appreciate. My mileage, apparently, varies.