HELP...

[Kentares]

... before I tear off my hair...

I started to play Traveller: New Era when GWD went down (I already played Twilight: 2000) and thought at the time "the end".

So I diverged to other RPG´s and to cut a long story short now when I got a renewed interest in the game (there´s nothing like moving to a new home to clean the dust of old books) I see there is a "renewed" interest in the game - D20, etc...

So, can someone explain to me what the hell is going on (both on products as in story - starting with the last page of history of the TNE rulebook).

Thanks

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kentares:
So, can someone explain to me what the hell is going on (both on products as in story - starting with the last page of history of the TNE rulebook).

Thanks<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh man where to begin.

After the demise of GDW the rights to Traveller reverted to Marc Miller. He licenced them out to Imperium Games (owned by the same guy who did the DnD movie) They produced Marc Millers Traveller (commonly refered to as T4) There were issues with a general lack of quality with the IG materials and the upshot of it all is that IG is also out of business and T4 is out of print. The T4 materials were set around the founding of the Third Imperium (known as Milieu 0.)

Steve Jackson Games then aquired a licence to produce a version of Traveller for the GURPS line. This is set in an alternate time line where the Emperor Strephon was not assassinated hence there was no Rebelion and in all probability no Virus (hence no TNE.) Mr. Miller has also begun selling reprints of the original Classic Traveller books that started it all back in the mid seventies. Both of these lines are in current production.

Soon to be released is T20 (Traveller with D20 rules) which is discussed in detail elsewhere on this forum. This will also go for a historical background about 100 years before the CT setting.

As far as continuing the TNE story line Martin Dougherty has plans to write a systemless source book that advances the plotline.

HTH



------------------
I am increasingly of the opinion that RPGs are by the nature of their creation subjective phenomenon. due to the interaction between game designers, game masters, and game players all definitions, rules, settings, and adventures are mutable in acordance with the uncertainty principle as expounded by Heisenburg. This is of course merely my point of view.

David Shayne

 

[Kentares]

Much thanks for your reply.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DaveShayne:
...The T4 materials were set around the founding of the Third Imperium (known as Milieu 0.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

So a sort of flashback or back to the "beginning" ?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>...Traveller for the GURPS line. This is set in an alternate time line...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I dont like GURPS very much (sorry) neither alternate timelines (specially one without Virus) so nuff said!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>...Mr. Miller has also begun selling reprints of the original Classic...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What can I say... good for him and for those who like classic (I never played classic and I started playing Traveller when GWD got that story arc with the Virus - I thought it was a good entry point for a new gamer - like me at the time - no need to catch all that existed before and besides I found an excellent concept).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>...released is T20 (Traveller with D20 rules) which is discussed in detail elsewhere on this forum. This will also go for a historical background about 100 years before the CT setting.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Again !? Oh boy!? Why go back when you have an excellent chance with the TNE setting ???
I play D&D and Star Wars D20 and I´ll support Traveller but why go back in the story (thats beyond my understanding) ???

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>...continuing the TNE story line Martin Dougherty has plans to write a systemless source book that advances the plotline. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Excellent! I will buy this book! (although systemless... I think it will be at a serious disadvantage)

As you can see from above I never "messed" in Traveller before TNE because I found it too overwhelming (storywise). I´m a GM and I like to "know it all" before I plan a campaign for my players/friends. With the TNE I found an excellent oportunity to catch a moving train (and like I wrote above, being a computer geek, I found the concept of the Virus... excellent).

Thanks once again and comments are welcomed

 

[Kentares]

BTW do you know where I can buy Fire, Fusion & Steel ???

Thats the only book I dont have published by GDW for TNE.

Thanks

[This message has been edited by Kentares (edited 30 January 2002).]

 

[mjwest]

How ironic. Most "computer geeks" find the idea of Virus idiotic.

T4 is set in the period around Year 0. All of the adventuring takes place in that time period. (However, unlike the GURPS stuff, it does not change the "future", it just adventures in the "past".)

As for FFS, none of the web-stores I know have it right now, and it is not currently listed on eBay. However, it does frequently come up on eBay. Also, you can email the web-stores to see if they can get it. Most of the ones I dealt with have been very nice and helpful.

Good luck.

 

[Kentares]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mjwest:
How ironic. Most "computer geeks" find the idea of Virus idiotic.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Really !?!? I found it a excellent idea (this is a game not real world and from what I know from Traveller it is quite acceptable).
Why they find the idea of Virus idiotic ?

How would those who didnt like the Virus idea propose to change the story ?

(like I wrote in another post if they didnt do that I would never got into Traveller at the time).

 

[Anthony]

Mostly because Virus has a variety of properties that are flatly impossible for a computer virus, such as the fact that it can infect dedicated systems which one would expect not to be reprogrammable.

Of course, Virus isn't a computer virus anyway, given that it's based on the Cymbeline entity it's some form of lifeform that happens to be able to grow on computer chips, possibly with a psionic ability that lets it teleport seeds of itself

 

[kafka47]

TNE: Fire, Fusion, & Steel

My local FGLS is selling a used copy. Contact me off list and we can discuss the details.

kafka47@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by kafka47 (edited 31 January 2002).]

 

[Kentares]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kafka47:
Contact me off list and we can discuss the details.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

How ??? Whats your e-mail ???

 

[rancke]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kentares:


Why go back when you have an excellent chance with the TNE setting ??? I play D&D and Star Wars D20 and I´ll support Traveller but why go back in the story (thats beyond my understanding) ???<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why play any historical game? Yet some people like to play in Ancient Rome or 17th Century France or the Old West, etc. Some people like the idea of exploring the imperium's past. I look forward to T20 and earnestly hope the publishers will take good care to intergrate it with canonical history.


Hans

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kentares:
Really !?!? I found it a excellent idea (this is a game not real world and from what I know from Traveller it is quite acceptable).
Why they find the idea of Virus idiotic ?

How would those who didnt like the Virus idea propose to change the story ?

(like I wrote in another post if they didnt do that I would never got into Traveller at the time).

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why?
1) hardware independant code (Meaning either virtual machine executeable, or multi-kernel)
2) reliant upon an almost unknown trivial bit of CT canon, plus an apparently unpublished switch to a new trandpoder system based upon that trivial bit of canon.
3) The ability to remote rewrite any computer system with telecom (Sorry, but this is the biggest cause of incredulity for me and most of my friends... and is why we decded virus MUST BE psionic.)
4) encapsulation into small devices (The Egg stage).
5) Virus was an excuse to "Wipe the slate clean" according to LKW. MWM said similar. Some of us didn't want a "Clean Slate"; Hard times was enough of a wipe.
6) The rules material contradicted the color text in many places by many persons opinions, including my own, WRT virus.

How would I see things develop sans virus:
1) Dulionor wipes out Lucan, claims the throne.
2) Strephon, real or not, gets coerced into endorsing Dulinor as the "One True Emperor", if only for the good of the Imperium. (In my campaign, this occurred due to a PC psionicist...)
3) Vland shores up, and holds out
4) The solomani retake the occupied parts of the sphere.
5)Brzrk eventually shore up, and rejoins (By force or politics, don't care)
6) Margaret holds out, and sooner or later, she'll be absorbed into one or another, or amalgamate rising pockets.
7) Norris & the DD: drop the RQS, and let it happen. The calibration points reconnect it much sooner (pre democratic reforms completion).
8) hard times: Taken for what they do, virus was unneeded, except to collapse the safes.

lots of pockets to be recaptured, or coalesce into larger polities. Realistically, any empire larger than 6 months rount trip info time is unstable; the 3I had some reaches with 6 months one way! A post shatter, short night scenario is ideal for roleplay, wargame, and novel background. With at least 4 major powerblocks/settings, it could be a wonderful "New Era" wwithout virus: The Solomani, The "Central 3I" (Dulinor, Strephon and Lucan's areas, about 2.5 domains), The Ziru Sirkaa (Restored Vilani Empire - about 1 domain), and the Domain of Deneb. Plus whatever happens in Antares and Gateway.

T4, was, acording to MWM, effectively "TNE sans Virus".

------------------
-aramis
=============================================
Smith & Wesson: The Original Point and Click interface!