New themes in Science Fiction and T5

[ACK!!]

Is there going to be any effort to incorporate some of the newer themes in Science Fiction writing and Sci-Fi RPGs into T5?

Will there be any adjustment or expansion on rules concerning computers that would reflect a more Gibsonian or cyberpunk vision of computer usage?

What about themes or rules dealing with bioware, or genetic engineering topics?

CT was on target dealing with some possible drugs in the future will there be any expansion of common drugs taken to jack up the abilities of players?

Finally, will there by a continuation of the canon prohibition of cybernetics and will there be any rules or background material for that line of play?

Finally, what will the coverage on psionics? I may be missing this in other threads but had to ask.

Before, anyone can reply, I do NOT want to turn Traveller into Cyberpunk or a Shadowrun style of RPG. Not at all.

However, there is the opportunity to incorporate new themes into classic Sci-Fi play that could be fun if not focused on to the point of overwhelming the rest of gameplay.

In fact, I have been searching (as a sidenote) for a traditional style science fiction novel placed in the far future that takes the newer themes of cyberpunk genre author into their writing. Any suggestions?

 

[lucasdigital]

I agree that traveller needs a touch of revision in order for it to catch up with contempory SF.

I am playing around with a role playing game concept of my own and aimed to create a background that is bang upto date in SF thinking.

The problem is that Traveller is space opera, its not ABOUT the technology or the concepts. Its a vehicle for telling dramatic stories. In which case it pays to travel light with regard to high concepts. The more high concepts and complex new SF ideas make it harder to play, as you have to think so much differently and handle the many consequences that these concepts bring.

A Traveller game that deals with the mastery biotechnology,virtual reality,cybernetics will change its flavor so that it will no longer be traveller....

Cheers

Mark


This is just my take


------------------
Mark Lucas
Lucas-digital.com

 

[Gatsby]

WELL>>>>>>>>>

Here is one that occurred to me today. My PCs are going to have to smuggle some fuel of a non-friendly Spacestation in a system with no water or gas giants, so their 'silent running' ship in space can get enough to jump one parsec. To complicate things, I thought there might be a dangerous third party (also running silent in surrounding space) hitting incoming transports - including re-fuel ships - (they'd have about two weeks before in-coming transports could be notified of the danger and authorities could act.) how would the station be acting under a "low hydrogen" situation?
Then I thought about all the other worlds...how many ships per year over all the years of the Imperium, scooping out hydrogen from popular ports and using it up in fusion re-actions? Gas Giants are big, but still - 500 tons there, 1000 there.... might start to worry the systems...especially if they have no Gas Giant.
Am I WAY off scientifically, here?

Gats'

 

[BitKnot]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gatsby:
... Then I thought about all the other worlds...how many ships per year over all the years of the Imperium, scooping out hydrogen from popular ports and using it up in fusion re-actions? Gas Giants are big, but still - 500 tons there, 1000 there.... might start to worry the systems...especially if they have no Gas Giant.
Am I WAY off scientifically, here?

Gats'<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

WELL... The simple answer is that the Jupiter's Great Red Spot could swallow two Earths whole!

The slightly more complex answer is:

14 cubic meters per ton =>71,428,571 per cubic km
Or about 71,429 1000 ton fuel loads per cubic km

Jupiter is 142,796 km in diameter, with a 1000 km cloud deck of 90% H (and 25,000 km of liquid molecular H and then 31,000 km of liquid metallic H - but gets a little hot and heavy down there!)

Only counting the gaseous atmosphere this yeilds 6.4x10^13 cubic km of 90% H.

In other words - greater than 4x10^18 1000 ton fuel loads of pure H!

In English that's Four Billion Billion (Carl Sagan does this better) thousand ton refuelings!

Keep On Travell'n!

(P.S. I've been off the net most of this week - spent two days helping my brother drop an engine and tran (we started with just the engine mounts) - but this weekend will upload a world viewer demo on my new web site. I'm also hot-n-heavy into my new deckplan maker and ship viewer!)

 

[Gatsby]

Allrighty! That's more gas then a Shriner's convention in a TexMex hotel....

Fuel gauges decidely not on 'E'...we keep travelling!

Gats'

 

[BitKnot]

Finally updated web site and put up a little demo (planet effects):
http://www.geocities.com/bitknot/

 

[aglashier]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ACK!!:
In fact, I have been searching (as a sidenote) for a traditional style science fiction novel placed in the far future that takes the newer themes of cyberpunk genre author into their writing. Any suggestions?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Traveller probably has too much canon baggage to successfully handle a cyberpunk transformation. This might be what you're looking for:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/transhuman/