"Marching In Place?" or "Wither the GT ATU?"

[Britti_Lover]

GT Adventures

"So what's missing at this point is adventures. There's no GURPS Secret of the Ancients or GURPS Annic Nova or GURPS Shadows or... GURPS The Traveller Adventure... GURPS Hard Times... etc..."

Gurps Traveller is still GURPS and the closest GT got to a true adventure was these series of books:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/planetarysurvey1/

'Adventure seeds for Kamsii as written, and alternate versions you can customize for your own campaign.'

I'm a Gurps vet, and this is how they do it most of the time. GT is a fine version of the game, but still Gurps. Most of the time in each Gurps book you get adventure seeds which the GM uses as the adventure material.

I've ran all of the Gurps Traveller Planetary Survey books and they are ready to use adventure material for Gurps Traveller - as good as any Traveler adventure out there in my opinion.

Of course, Pyramid had adventures for Gurps Traveller also:

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1132

But those followed the same format.

 

[Easterner9504]

Latest TNS

System defence forces were scrambled today at the emergence of an unidentified vessel from jump. The vessel was later identified as the Terran Confederation battlecruiser Ark Royal, lost over 3,000 years ago. Officials later issued a brief statement that ship was in naval hands and an investigation was underway.


So moribund 3000 year old ghost ships are in town tonight. But just a one off. Can't imagine any adventure here.

 

[AndreaV]

Latest TNS

System defence forces were scrambled today at the emergence of an unidentified vessel from jump. The vessel was later identified as the Terran Confederation battlecruiser Ark Royal, lost over 3,000 years ago. Officials later issued a brief statement that ship was in naval hands and an investigation was underway.

So moribund 3000 year old ghost ships are in town tonight. But just a one off. Can't imagine any adventure here.

Mmmmm, I might disagree on that, a ship emerging from jump 3000 years late, kind of odd. Are the crew still alive? Is it some kind of Terran Philadelphia experiment? Is it actually a one off? Does this tie in with the Jeffrey Long plot? I'm sure I could come up with a few more

 

[Easterner9504]

Correct, however the point of this thread is great nuggets like this come out....then nothing or a lame follow up.

That is the pudding with out proof to mangle a metaphor.

 

[MCEvans]

Possible POD - CT:GT

A possible POD was set up in Challange 33 with IRIS. Not doing the psionic pre-screaning it activated 'sleepers' in various nobles retinue to do the 'pre-screaning' coordinated the each domains senior regent. Thus Dulinor's demise was the final act of IRIS in protecting the Emperor and the Imperium.

IRIS's next move establish a stable pro-Imperium Confederation, with the help of SolSec.

 

[rancke]

A possible POD was set up in Challange 33 with IRIS. Not doing the psionic pre-screaning it activated 'sleepers' in various nobles retinue to do the 'pre-screaning' coordinated the each domains senior regent. Thus Dulinor's demise was the final act of IRIS in protecting the Emperor and the Imperium.

IRIS's next move establish a stable pro-Imperium Confederation, with the help of SolSec.

That's a possible alternate Traveller setting, but it's not a possible POD from the OTU, since IRIS did not exist in the OTU. (The article was a variant and Strephon had never heard about them; IIRC, their appearance in TNS newsbriefs was the work of a rogue Imperial intelligence wienie who later wound up working for Margaret.)

Well, I suppose the creation of IRIS long time ago is a possible POD, but in that case I'd expect the alternate timeline to diverge long before Dulinor and anyone else from the Classic Era would be born.


Hans

 

[MCEvans]

That's a possible alternate Traveller setting, but it's not a possible POD from the OTU, since IRIS did not exist in the OTU. (The article was a variant and Strephon had never heard about them; IIRC, their appearance in TNS newsbriefs was the work of a rogue Imperial intelligence wienie who later wound up working for Margaret.)

Well, I suppose the creation of IRIS long time ago is a possible POD, but in that case I'd expect the alternate timeline to diverge long before Dulinor and anyone else from the Classic Era would be born.


Hans

Not necessarily. But it's an idea for why GT timeline.
IMTU IRIS lives, Order of the White Star has been reestablished, Psionics is regulated/licensed but above board and a few other things.

 

[rancke]

Not necessarily.

IMO, yes, necessarily. An institution like the IRIS would butterfly the history of a timeline where it existed to a fare-thee-well compared to a timeline where it didn't exist. It'd be like those alternate worlds where the change point is multiple generations in the past and yet Adolf Hitler and Churchill are both there, leading Germany and Britain in WWII.


Hans

 

[MCEvans]

Oh, Poop.

IMO, yes, necessarily. An institution like the IRIS would butterfly the history of a timeline where it existed to a fare-thee-well compared to a timeline where it didn't exist. It'd be like those alternate worlds where the change point is multiple generations in the past and yet Adolf Hitler and Churchill are both there, leading Germany and Britain in WWII.


Hans

BTW this sounds like political double talk. It can't happen but can if far enough back.

Remember ...... peanut Gallery.

 

[rancke]

BTW this sounds like political double talk. It can't happen but can if far enough back.

I'm almost certain you've misunderstood me somehow, but since I can't actually understand what you're trying to say, I can't be sure.

Have a virtual peanut.


Hans

 

[aramis]

Oh, Poop.



BTW this sounds like political double talk. It can't happen but can if far enough back.

Remember ...... peanut Gallery.

It's not. But I agree, Hans didn't state it clearly.

IRIS either existed the whole time or IRIS didn't exist prior to 1111 (until Post-CT).

If it didn't exist until post 1111, then it's brand new, and has had no prior impact.

If it did exist, since there was no change noted elsewhere, it had to have been present from the beginning and kept itself quiet; perhaps it might have come in during the reign of the Regent at the end of the Civil War.

Any other point, and it should have been noted in canon.

Personally, I prefer it to be self-creating in the confusion of the 2nd Civil War...

 

[AndreaV]

It's not. But I agree, Hans didn't state it clearly.

IRIS either existed the whole time or IRIS didn't exist prior to 1111 (until Post-CT).

If it didn't exist until post 1111, then it's brand new, and has had no prior impact.

If it did exist, since there was no change noted elsewhere, it had to have been present from the beginning and kept itself quiet; perhaps it might have come in during the reign of the Regent at the end of the Civil War.

Any other point, and it should have been noted in canon.

Personally, I prefer it to be self-creating in the confusion of the 2nd Civil War...

IIRC IRIS was originally variant that whoever was writing the TNS decided to use like canon, that somebody higher up the management ladder later decided should have stayed variant and retconed it out of canon. Personally I agree with the retcon, but that's just me.

My fav for the POD is timetravelling adventurers from the MT timeline. Either that or the Tavrchedle or SolSec stumbled on the plot and tipped off Imperial Intelligence.

 

[MCEvans]

FYI: IRIS as variant it was created by Arbellatra on her coronation day in 622.
(Challenge 33 pg. 53)

 

[LeperColony]

Strephon mentions not ever having heard of IRIS though, in Survival Margin (pg. 28). So if they existed all along, why didn't he know about them? Unless they were so secret that even he wasn't cleared. But that solution has a host of other problems. We may not know what the US Continuity of Operations plan is, but we all know there is one. IRIS seems to pop into existence out of nowhere.

 

[DonM]

Strephon mentions not ever having heard of IRIS though, in Survival Margin (pg. 28). So if they existed all along, why didn't he know about them? Unless they were so secret that even he wasn't cleared. But that solution has a host of other problems. We may not know what the US Continuity of Operations plan is, but we all know there is one. IRIS seems to pop into existence out of nowhere.

Meh. Strephon says that after he's polymorphed from "man of action" to "man of inaction".

Personally, IRIS already came to him, and he made the decision not to let anyone else die in his name, ending his reign as Emperor. The man in Survival Margin isn't Emperor, or even Archduke of Sylea. He's a haunted shade waiting for an enemy fleet to end the facade. Because of IRIS.

YMMV.

 

[AndreaV]

Meh. Strephon says that after he's polymorphed from "man of action" to "man of inaction".

Personally, IRIS already came to him, and he made the decision not to let anyone else die in his name, ending his reign as Emperor. The man in Survival Margin isn't Emperor, or even Archduke of Sylea. He's a haunted shade waiting for an enemy fleet to end the facade. Because of IRIS.

YMMV.

Strephon as revealed in the MT/TNE timeline is a good fair-weather Emperor but a lousy stormy one. The chips down; his double, wife and daughter dead and the Imperium is about to fall apart at the seems. So he goes into shock, pulls the covers over his head and lets his aides take him to safety. All in all a fairly mediocre Emperor. Certainly no Cleon I, Artemsus, Arbelleta or Zharkirov.

YMMV

 

[rancke]

Meh. Strephon says that after he's polymorphed from "man of action" to "man of inaction".

Strephon says that in his personal diary. Could one explain that away if one was determined to have an IRIS? Yes. Is there any real reason to doubt him? No, the story that IRIS, an organization that no one has even heard about before, did not, in fact, exist before is a perfectly plausible explanation of all known facts.

And on a meta-level, it's also perfectly believable that the article was originally labeled as a variant because TPTB at the time decided that it did not apply to the OTU, that the author started using it when he was in charge, and that the next PTB decided to debunk it when he was no longer in charge.

Since Strephon's words are the last official ones on the subject, they would seem to be the current truth. Subject to retcon at the whim of later PTB, but at the moment IRIS in the OTU was the brain-child of a bunch of opportunistic intelligence wienies.

Personally, IRIS already came to him, and he made the decision not to let anyone else die in his name, ending his reign as Emperor. The man in Survival Margin isn't Emperor, or even Archduke of Sylea. He's a haunted shade waiting for an enemy fleet to end the facade. Because of IRIS.

Not unless you believe that his diary is a complete fabrication. He writes "Who are these people?" when he first hears about them and then later decides to make use of them.


Hans

 

[AndreaV]

Strephon says that in his personal diary. Could one explain that away if one was determined to have an IRIS? Yes. Is there any real reason to doubt him? No, the story that IRIS, an organization that no one has even heard about before, did not, in fact, exist before is a perfectly plausible explanation of all known facts.

And on a meta-level, it's also perfectly believable that the article was originally labeled as a variant because TPTB at the time decided that it did not apply to the OTU, that the author started using it when he was in charge, and that the next PTB decided to debunk it when he was no longer in charge.

Since Strephon's words are the last official ones on the subject, they would seem to be the current truth. Subject to retcon at the whim of later PTB, but at the moment IRIS in the OTU was the brain-child of a bunch of opportunistic intelligence wienies.


Not unless you believe that his diary is a complete fabrication. He writes "Who are these people?" when he first hears about them and then later decides to make use of them.

Hans

Checking, the IRIS article was in Challenge 33 clearly labeled as variant, IRIS starts cropping up in the TNS in Challenge 49. Looks very much a variant that slipped into canon and was later retconed out again. Mind you, I never liked IRIS, filled it under the heading of "silly" (in a psionophobic Imperium, having psionics probing palace staff is akin to having the Secret Service using pedophiles to frisk children.) As stated in Survival Margin "that's what the Moot is for."

 

[mike wightman]

IRIS became canonical when the author took the helm for developing MT IIRC. Let's face it, it's no worse than the rest of the fan based stuff (i.e. DGP) that became part of MT canon.

TNE sort of retconned it away - but then TNE also retconned that all Traveller ships had always been equipped with HEPlaR drives rather than fusion rockets (HG1) or thruster plates (MT).

So choose your retcons with care...

 

[kafka47]

IRIS, I repeat, is a Conspiracy of several High Nobles (which may or may not have included the Emperor), as such as has a very nebulous structure. There are all sorts of policies enacted in States that may have been the diktat or perceived diktat of one Head of State and can go on for many years without review or scrutiny.

So, indeed Stephon may have not been aware when he was spending 20 billion credits in retrofitting Naval fresher covers that he was contributing to the Black Budget of IRIS Naval wing. Stephon may be the ultimate Enigma (to use CT's words) but there is always an inner wheel. Simply, because Dave Nilsen did not want IRIS being the phoenix that would raise the whole bloody thing (3I) from the dead does not prevent Keepers from using IRIS in their TNE campaigns. Similarly, wondrous tech aka spyware and spy traps may be just there for taking or pitfalls.

Immediately, there are tons of hooks that one can think of - should IRIS be canonized or partially canonized in this manner ranging from the Morrow Project to a perfect Pocket Empire that duplicates the 3I clustered around Easter. (NB: when I say perfect think of all the best or better worst features of the 3I).

Personally, I think there is more to gain by partially canonizing IRIS than to follow Dave's lead. One can still respect Dave's wishes by keeping it as a nebulous network - think of it as the Al-Qaeda of Chartered Space. Virus of human beings - so either antibodies - which might neutralize machine Virus or proliferate too much and become a more fatal disease and without a coordinating intelligence centre trying to reproduce the Imperium only ends up in disaster after disaster.

For instance, seeing the democratic reforms in the Regency decide on a policy of targeted assassination to elevate the older Nobility clustered around Mora to gain ascendancy. This in turn, provokes the Norrisites which effectively disenfranchise the whole nobility. And, because this all cloak and dagger stuff done hundreds of parsecs from home base and without direction and the Wilds in between - field officers make a fatal mistake. In the other direction, agents dispatched to the RC see promise in the democratic reforms in creating a new Moot, encouraging the growth of democratic practices with the aim of creating a planetary structure responsive to local needs yet still creating a political class of professional politicans thus laying the basis for a new nobility.