No, I can't agree with this. Most of them were pretty hardcore engineering types, or at least very harcore number-crunchin' table referencing reference checking range measuring old school wargamers......that isn't "no science"; it's "lets ignore the basic theory and just describe what happens consistently- the rest can be filled in or ignored as needed".
Hmm, sometimes, maybe, and at other times they just handwaved their way through it with little more than a cursory nod to science OR consistency.
BAH ! Not if it's fun ! Which is really what this aspect of traveller is all about: theoretical traveller roleplay; considering puzzles, conundrums, etc. There are those of us who actually enjoy talmudic style studies -and enjoy not having real life consequences for being wrong -failing tenure, for instance. So, really, its role playing academics in the traveller universe; which is, understandably significantly less than fun for most humans....
And its pretty unique in roleplaying, from what I've seen.
It's nerdy, it's grognardy, and it's what we do when we're not playing a game which was meant to be played.
That said, I'm also trying to sew up Holy War topics to some level beyond "no explanation at all".
I agree. I play the same game - to a point. However, I draw the line at making sure that what happens is consistent, and try not to look too closely at
how it happens. I'm happy to leave Jump Drive as 'some form of macroscopic quantum tunnelling effect'. The effect is consistent, it has a blanket 'black box' explanation, and I don't need to open the black box to see exactly how it works. That black box has 'Pandora' stencilled on the side. Whatever explanation you come up with will be bull, and somebody with a bit more science know-how than you will pull it apart.
eg, IMHO the official explanation of a jump grid raised far more problems than it solved, as did jump masking. Should have left well alone.
My take on it is 'if it obeys the laws of physics, don't mess with it, and if it doesn't obey the laws of physics, only mess with it until it does.'
I doubt if you'll succeed, Robject. These things are holy war topics precisely because everybody has their own pet ideas and guards them jealously. If they were going to agree to somebody else's solution, there wouldn't be a holy war.
