Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:
"So why was this book released at the *end* of the MT line?! It's like you're getting all the useful metaplot info for the game when the line is finished!"
Dr. Thomas,
I'm glad to read you're enjoying SM so much. It is my favorite RPG supplement, regardless of system, genre or topic.
Why was 'Survival Margin' released at the end of MT's run? Because the entire implausible Rebellion Era needed to be wrapped up and set aside in order for TNE to be released. Simply put, the wreckage and rubble needed to be cleared. SM is the 'tip', the 'dumpster', that MT was swept up into before being trucked off to the Traveller landfill.
You mention how the last MT 'product', SM, finally pulls all the bits of the Rebellion Era together, how the whole story is finally laid bare. Why wasn't it done earlier? Would you be surprised to learn that all of it was finally published at the end because *none* of it was known at the beginning! Incrediable as it seems, they kicked off the Rebellion without any idea of where it would go or what it would do. Most of the information presented in SM simply didn't exist when MT was launched!
The intention was good; replace a static setting; the 1000 year-old Imperium, with more dynamic one, one that would contain more adventure and campaign possibilities. As good as the idea was, the execution of that idea was, to put it charitably, extremely poor. Contrary to any method of story telling, they actually *began* the Rebellion with no idea of how it could or should end. As any writer can tell you, you always start with the ending and then work your way backwards from there.
Because the story of the Rebellion wasn't decided upon *before* it was begun, the Rebellion soon became little more than a collection of loose ends. The story rolled on and on towards no goal, towards no ending. The CT setting may have been one static order, but the MT setting was one of static *disorder*. Fleets died, worlds died, subsectors died, but nothing *changed*.
It was only towards the end of MT's`run that attempts were made to correct this central error. An unfolding plot or story arc finally began to appear. Beforehand, the MT story only contained those pieces that were neccessary to create the endless Rebellion; the carefully balanced factions, the wildly silly Alien Incursions, and so forth. In 'Arrival Vengence' and 'Assignment: Vigilante' we finally see people begin to look beyond the Rebellion, to begin to plan for what might come after the Rebellion ends. Before that, none of the charecters in MT's story had been shown looking ahead, they all lived for the eternal Rebellion.
When MT first revealed the Assassination, Strephon *was* killed and not his clone. Strephon was not away visiting Long Bow on a secret mission because Long Bow did not exist. Originally, the 'Real Strephon Faction' was created to provide yet another middling sized player in the Rebellion, a coreward Daibei as it were. The idea that the 'Real Strephon' was the *real* Strephon; as revealed in 'AV', came much later. It was *not* part of what little there was in the way of an MT story. That bit, and plenty of others, were added well after the fact.
That is why 'SM' came at the end of MT's run. The form, the framework, the behind-the-scenes information of the Rebellion that 'SM' provides didn't actually exist until the end of MT's run. MT's creators carefully set up the astrographic, sociological, and political requirements of an enternal Rebellion, a Rebellion in which no one faction could gain the upper hand. Then, having deliberately set up the conditions for static *disorder*, they sat back to see what 'may happen', even though they had stacked the deck against anything being able to happen! They completely forgot that a story needs someone to tell it.
To badly misquote and misapply a great man's words, MT was "a tale told by an idiot; full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". The 'Survival Margin' was an extremely belated, and altogether successful, attempt to bring some form to the MT story prior to its burial. 'SM' is an eulogy, for the Third Imperium and MT, and that's what makes it so powerful.
Sincerely,
Larsen
