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- Thread starter MJD
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TimberWolf
SOC-1
I still have all the books and loved the system.
When T4 (eek) came out I started converting the history and a few odds-ends over.
We still game on the weekends ( on Friday nights we use PRGOnline ) using TNE background but use another system.
When T4 (eek) came out I started converting the history and a few odds-ends over.
We still game on the weekends ( on Friday nights we use PRGOnline ) using TNE background but use another system.
solar_shipping
SOC-9
TNE was a good idea, possably before its time, but woefully executed.
Given the joy of watching "Andromida" which is SO traveller it is scarry, a collapse storyline would be something I would sersiously look at after years of hatred for the background.
All I have to do is get rid of the Virus....
Darryl.
PS Have Dave Nielson ever explained the Empress Wave...the stuff I heard made TNE look like a transitory setting at most, with a PSIONIC Jedi Knight feel campaign after the wave hits...
------------------
SOLSEC makes Echelon look like a joke!
Given the joy of watching "Andromida" which is SO traveller it is scarry, a collapse storyline would be something I would sersiously look at after years of hatred for the background.
All I have to do is get rid of the Virus....
Darryl.
PS Have Dave Nielson ever explained the Empress Wave...the stuff I heard made TNE look like a transitory setting at most, with a PSIONIC Jedi Knight feel campaign after the wave hits...
------------------
SOLSEC makes Echelon look like a joke!
TimberWolf
SOC-1
Nice to meet you both
I recall a long chat about the Empress Wave on a TNE mailing list.
-David
I recall a long chat about the Empress Wave on a TNE mailing list.
-David
I didn't like the TNE rules at all; I had (and still have) serious issues with Dave Nilsen's writing style and apparent attitudes, but I also believe that for better or worse the TNE setting/timeline represents 'the future' of the OTU, and we should move forward from there. GT's "just kidding" approach is a lame cop out (well, let me revise that, it's fine as an alternate/variant Universe, but to make GT the 'official line' and de-canonize MT & TNE would be a lame cop out) and the 'historical future' approach that MWM has been following for the last few years is also deeply unsatisfying (at least to me). Therefore, I'll happily discuss the TNE setting and its implications for the future shape of the OTU (and I'll try real hard not to get distracted into anti-Nilsen rhetoric this time
).
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MJD:
How would you feel about a non-rules-specific TNE supplement that moved the timeline forward say 50 years?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Second only to the T^5 core ruleset (including all/only those rule-changes I'm personally in favor of, of course) that is almost certainly the single Traveller product I would most like to see produced.
It probably goes without saying that I'd also be very willing to work on the development, if such an opportunity arises.
How would you feel about a non-rules-specific TNE supplement that moved the timeline forward say 50 years?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Second only to the T^5 core ruleset (including all/only those rule-changes I'm personally in favor of, of course) that is almost certainly the single Traveller product I would most like to see produced.
It probably goes without saying that I'd also be very willing to work on the development, if such an opportunity arises.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Hmm.
At 50 years you'd better have ALL the answers, or at least a different set of questions...
The Empress Wave will be a third of the way through the Marches, assuming it's a lightspeed phenomenon and far enough along to be a straight line.
Keeping in mind the direct effects, there are also the less obvious side effects. At 50 years the Corridor run is entirely behind the Wave. Same with 98% of the Zhodani Consulate (what's left of it anyway...). The Wave is also starting to hit the Black Curtain...
Sounds like a prime time for adventure...
At 50 years you'd better have ALL the answers, or at least a different set of questions...
The Empress Wave will be a third of the way through the Marches, assuming it's a lightspeed phenomenon and far enough along to be a straight line.
Keeping in mind the direct effects, there are also the less obvious side effects. At 50 years the Corridor run is entirely behind the Wave. Same with 98% of the Zhodani Consulate (what's left of it anyway...). The Wave is also starting to hit the Black Curtain...
Sounds like a prime time for adventure...
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by T. Foster:
I didn't like the TNE rules at all; I had (and still have) serious issues with Dave Nilsen's writing style and apparent attitudes...
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Given the equally roughshod ride that his predecessor gave the OTU, Dave's desire to hit the big red reset button was understandable...
I didn't like the TNE rules at all; I had (and still have) serious issues with Dave Nilsen's writing style and apparent attitudes...
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Given the equally roughshod ride that his predecessor gave the OTU, Dave's desire to hit the big red reset button was understandable...
When TNE arrived we expected to have no interest. But we played and it turned into a regular campaign. We still played in the MT system still but found we were surprised by TNE.
NightrimTNE
SOC-2
Have to admit that I rather liked the demise of the CT universe, I found it bold and something that no one would have expected and it took a fair amount of gaul to pull this kind of an action off.
I have my own personal pet theories on the Emperess Wave and what it does, I have a theory on what its origins are that is my campaign specific.
Virus interests me and I'm willing to take the leap of faith necessary to incorporate it into my universe. Virus has never been something that I would throw into a game on a daily basis. Virus IMO should be something special, carefully planned out and something very very frightening or nerve wracking.
I realize that many people have problems with the science end of Virus I say all it is is a plot device, a suspension of our own personal disbelief. Hell we can accept, contra-grav, jump-drives and other such science fiction notions in our game, why not a sentient computer with malevolent intentions?
As for the Rebellion, it had to end the way it ended. It is a factional universe where the good guys always triumph over evil in the end. Why? Don't ask that's just the way it works, bittersweet endings don't go over well here in North America. To that end we have to look at our contenders for the throne.
The Solomani = racists / facists (no good can't be allowed to win)
Lucan = Lead by a mad man who more than likely murdered his brother to assend to the throne (read Stalin) (Again no good can't win)
Margaret = Genocidal woman with eyes for the throne only when the snakes whisper their promises in her ear. (Can't have her she's a weak willed nutcase)
Dulinor = Murderer of the pervious head of state and while his intentions were honorable his deed was unacceptable (He's out)
Norris = Trapped behind the claw Norris has declared neutrality to preserve his people and eventually back the throne when a winner appears. (Honorable intents backing his people but he's still a fence sitter)
Strephon = Quitter. His policies got us in this mess in the first place.
Craig = Abandons the Imperium to protect his people. Honorable motivations but just doesn't have the man power to do the job.
In the final analysis with the exception of Norris and Craig no one is worthy of winning the throne and neither of them are interested in it.
(I'm babbling aren't I?)
My game is as some of you likely know set in Reavers Deep / Daibei in 1200. I'm a fan of the Star Viking timeline as the universe is small enough IMO that the players actions are of consequence and what better way to involve players in a game than to make it painfully obvious that failure of a mission carries serious future reprocutions and not just the loss of the contract.
In the Star Vikings timeline the players failure of one mission could very well deny the coalition of a forward base on a hospitable planet thus slowing down their operations in that subsector for years to come. This is the kind of roleplaying I like, in CT the players actions were inconsequential, if they players buggered something up there was a whole Imperium to make it right, in TNE that's gone.
Oh well I've rambled long enough for now.
If you're interested in my campaign it's all here at my site, the game is played on line via IRC and *most* of the game logs are available on the website. The address follows.
http://members.home.net/nightrim/Home.html
I have my own personal pet theories on the Emperess Wave and what it does, I have a theory on what its origins are that is my campaign specific.
Virus interests me and I'm willing to take the leap of faith necessary to incorporate it into my universe. Virus has never been something that I would throw into a game on a daily basis. Virus IMO should be something special, carefully planned out and something very very frightening or nerve wracking.
I realize that many people have problems with the science end of Virus I say all it is is a plot device, a suspension of our own personal disbelief. Hell we can accept, contra-grav, jump-drives and other such science fiction notions in our game, why not a sentient computer with malevolent intentions?
As for the Rebellion, it had to end the way it ended. It is a factional universe where the good guys always triumph over evil in the end. Why? Don't ask that's just the way it works, bittersweet endings don't go over well here in North America. To that end we have to look at our contenders for the throne.
The Solomani = racists / facists (no good can't be allowed to win)
Lucan = Lead by a mad man who more than likely murdered his brother to assend to the throne (read Stalin) (Again no good can't win)
Margaret = Genocidal woman with eyes for the throne only when the snakes whisper their promises in her ear. (Can't have her she's a weak willed nutcase)
Dulinor = Murderer of the pervious head of state and while his intentions were honorable his deed was unacceptable (He's out)
Norris = Trapped behind the claw Norris has declared neutrality to preserve his people and eventually back the throne when a winner appears. (Honorable intents backing his people but he's still a fence sitter)
Strephon = Quitter. His policies got us in this mess in the first place.
Craig = Abandons the Imperium to protect his people. Honorable motivations but just doesn't have the man power to do the job.
In the final analysis with the exception of Norris and Craig no one is worthy of winning the throne and neither of them are interested in it.
(I'm babbling aren't I?)
My game is as some of you likely know set in Reavers Deep / Daibei in 1200. I'm a fan of the Star Viking timeline as the universe is small enough IMO that the players actions are of consequence and what better way to involve players in a game than to make it painfully obvious that failure of a mission carries serious future reprocutions and not just the loss of the contract.
In the Star Vikings timeline the players failure of one mission could very well deny the coalition of a forward base on a hospitable planet thus slowing down their operations in that subsector for years to come. This is the kind of roleplaying I like, in CT the players actions were inconsequential, if they players buggered something up there was a whole Imperium to make it right, in TNE that's gone.
Oh well I've rambled long enough for now.
If you're interested in my campaign it's all here at my site, the game is played on line via IRC and *most* of the game logs are available on the website. The address follows.
http://members.home.net/nightrim/Home.html
I'm not quite sure, are we discussing the future of the TNE system or a progression of the TNE timeline, or both. I don't mind I can discuss both for hours at a time. TNE is the only version of Traveller played in my local gaming groups here (Perth WA). I also have the start of a TNE Pocket Empire campaign, which some of you may have seen (Based in the Banners sector) at www.users.bigpond.com/Skaran
lucasdigital
SOC-12
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by NightrimTNE:
(I'm babbling aren't I?)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not at all NightrimTNE!
You brought up some interesting observations that I had never considered.
I don't think I ever analysed the moral value of the factional leaders.
I am very glad to see TNE get its own forum. It was my coming-of-age Traveller where the young sprat roleplayer became a man. Along with mature sensibilities and greater awareness of how to articulate the drama.
No wonder I remember my TNE campaign with the greatest effection. I was also unemployed for the greater period of my TNE gaming, fording me a lot of time to develop material.
For me the background was flavoursome. CT was pure vanilla, you could eat it forever, you could add lots of different stuff. With TNE you either liked the flavour or didn't.
I loved it. I thought Nilson hit upon some unique and important observations about the nature of mystery in an RPG.
No other game for me generated so much discussion and speculation about the nature if it's mysteries. The empress wave, the primordeals, what was 'driving' the virus.
GDW did the same with the Kafer Alien race in 2300 a.d.
(I'm babbling aren't I?)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not at all NightrimTNE!
You brought up some interesting observations that I had never considered.
I don't think I ever analysed the moral value of the factional leaders.
I am very glad to see TNE get its own forum. It was my coming-of-age Traveller where the young sprat roleplayer became a man. Along with mature sensibilities and greater awareness of how to articulate the drama.
No wonder I remember my TNE campaign with the greatest effection. I was also unemployed for the greater period of my TNE gaming, fording me a lot of time to develop material.
For me the background was flavoursome. CT was pure vanilla, you could eat it forever, you could add lots of different stuff. With TNE you either liked the flavour or didn't.
I loved it. I thought Nilson hit upon some unique and important observations about the nature of mystery in an RPG.
No other game for me generated so much discussion and speculation about the nature if it's mysteries. The empress wave, the primordeals, what was 'driving' the virus.
GDW did the same with the Kafer Alien race in 2300 a.d.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by NightrimTNE:
I'm a fan of the Star Viking timeline as the universe is small enough IMO that the players actions are of consequence and what better way to involve players in a game than to make it painfully obvious that failure of a mission carries serious future reprocutions and not just the loss of the contract. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The 'small universe phenomenon' in TNE was something I never liked, as I felt like it denied too much of the idividual GMs' role in creating their own campaigns. Unlike CT, where say 10-15% of the campaign was 'pre-defined' by the source material (the polities/histories, the Major Races, and, post-AotI, the star-charts), in TNE (especially in RC-based games) it was much higher -- 80%? (specific worlds, specific ships & equipment, specific personalities, specific missions, etc.).
If a GM wanted to run a game in the 'OTU' where Virus wasn't involved he had basically one choice -- the Regency -- and even there the GM's creative freedom was pretty tightly hedged by other 'omni-narrative' boundaries -- EW most obviously, but also the entire structure of the 'new' Regency as spelled out in RSB.
I don't object to overarching narrative threads and seeing Big Themes played out across the source material (and I think the apparent lack of such in GT and T4 is a big key to their relative lack of interest for me), but I also want those Big Stories to be optional -- that the Universe be big enough that I can use the OTU setting and not be 'forced' to send my campaign in any particular directions.
Take the Fifth Frontier War as an example: over the course of 4+ years realtime we were able to watch this conflict develop and play out, and use the evolving background to enrich our games, and yet no campaign was 'forced' to involve the war at all -- over in Gateway Quadrant they probably didn't even know it was happening!
The themes in TNE were Too Big and consequently the 'universe' was Too Small -- it was too hard to play a game without addressing the GDW-dictated plot-themes; I was having too much of my campaign directed by external sources.
(straw man: "if you don't like the TNE setting, then don't use it" -- true enough, and what I (and many others) eventually ended up doing, but nonetheless while TNE was in-print, the post-Collapse Virus/EW/RCES/Regency/etc. setting was the only thing being supported -- the concept of 'multiple official milieux' didn't come about until after GDW had closed its doors.)
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>In the Star Vikings timeline the players failure of one mission could very well deny the coalition of a forward base on a hospitable planet thus slowing down their operations in that subsector for years to come. This is the kind of roleplaying I like, in CT the players actions were inconsequential, if they players buggered something up there was a whole Imperium to make it right, in TNE that's gone.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hmm, really? I'm not sure I buy this. After all, the meta-narrative (or, to use the term I coined above 'omni-narrative') being scripted by GDW was going to carry on as planned regardless of the developments in your campaign. Sure your players might blow a mission and deny the RC that forward base and slow down their operations IN YOUR CAMPAIGN, but when GDW came out with a new supplement 3 months later building on the assumption that the soi-disant mission had been a success and the storyline was moving forward from there, you would've been stuck having to a) explain how someone else accomplished an equivalent mission (i.e. take the players out of the equation after all, just what you didn't like about CT), b) gloss over the matter and throw out your campaign's continuity (is this a solution?), or c) begin branching your campaign ever-so-slightly away from GDW's 'official' timeline, thus potentially limiting the usefulness of all further 'official' material in your campaign in unforseeable ways (since, due to GDW's policy of keeping GMs in the dark about the secrets and mysteries of the unfolding plot, you'd have no way of guessing up-front what seemingly insignificant elements might gain importance later in the 'story'). I daresay the GMs of 'canonical' TNE campaigns were actually lucky that GDW folded and the official timeline froze before they were faced with too many of these decisions...
I'm a fan of the Star Viking timeline as the universe is small enough IMO that the players actions are of consequence and what better way to involve players in a game than to make it painfully obvious that failure of a mission carries serious future reprocutions and not just the loss of the contract. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The 'small universe phenomenon' in TNE was something I never liked, as I felt like it denied too much of the idividual GMs' role in creating their own campaigns. Unlike CT, where say 10-15% of the campaign was 'pre-defined' by the source material (the polities/histories, the Major Races, and, post-AotI, the star-charts), in TNE (especially in RC-based games) it was much higher -- 80%? (specific worlds, specific ships & equipment, specific personalities, specific missions, etc.).
If a GM wanted to run a game in the 'OTU' where Virus wasn't involved he had basically one choice -- the Regency -- and even there the GM's creative freedom was pretty tightly hedged by other 'omni-narrative' boundaries -- EW most obviously, but also the entire structure of the 'new' Regency as spelled out in RSB.
I don't object to overarching narrative threads and seeing Big Themes played out across the source material (and I think the apparent lack of such in GT and T4 is a big key to their relative lack of interest for me), but I also want those Big Stories to be optional -- that the Universe be big enough that I can use the OTU setting and not be 'forced' to send my campaign in any particular directions.
Take the Fifth Frontier War as an example: over the course of 4+ years realtime we were able to watch this conflict develop and play out, and use the evolving background to enrich our games, and yet no campaign was 'forced' to involve the war at all -- over in Gateway Quadrant they probably didn't even know it was happening!
The themes in TNE were Too Big and consequently the 'universe' was Too Small -- it was too hard to play a game without addressing the GDW-dictated plot-themes; I was having too much of my campaign directed by external sources.
(straw man: "if you don't like the TNE setting, then don't use it" -- true enough, and what I (and many others) eventually ended up doing, but nonetheless while TNE was in-print, the post-Collapse Virus/EW/RCES/Regency/etc. setting was the only thing being supported -- the concept of 'multiple official milieux' didn't come about until after GDW had closed its doors.)
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>In the Star Vikings timeline the players failure of one mission could very well deny the coalition of a forward base on a hospitable planet thus slowing down their operations in that subsector for years to come. This is the kind of roleplaying I like, in CT the players actions were inconsequential, if they players buggered something up there was a whole Imperium to make it right, in TNE that's gone.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hmm, really? I'm not sure I buy this. After all, the meta-narrative (or, to use the term I coined above 'omni-narrative') being scripted by GDW was going to carry on as planned regardless of the developments in your campaign. Sure your players might blow a mission and deny the RC that forward base and slow down their operations IN YOUR CAMPAIGN, but when GDW came out with a new supplement 3 months later building on the assumption that the soi-disant mission had been a success and the storyline was moving forward from there, you would've been stuck having to a) explain how someone else accomplished an equivalent mission (i.e. take the players out of the equation after all, just what you didn't like about CT), b) gloss over the matter and throw out your campaign's continuity (is this a solution?), or c) begin branching your campaign ever-so-slightly away from GDW's 'official' timeline, thus potentially limiting the usefulness of all further 'official' material in your campaign in unforseeable ways (since, due to GDW's policy of keeping GMs in the dark about the secrets and mysteries of the unfolding plot, you'd have no way of guessing up-front what seemingly insignificant elements might gain importance later in the 'story'). I daresay the GMs of 'canonical' TNE campaigns were actually lucky that GDW folded and the official timeline froze before they were faced with too many of these decisions...
NightrimTNE
SOC-2
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Hmm, really? I'm not sure I buy this. After all, the meta-narrative (or, to use the term I coined above 'omni-narrative') being scripted by GDW was going to carry on as planned regardless of the developments in your campaign<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I agree here, but I never allowed the canon events to influnce events which we'd already laid out as having gone awry the first time thanks to the players interaction. Plus, lets face it the same was true of CT and MT. If your people were in 1234 Diaspora at date X and they blew something up that in your universe changed the whole ballance of power and suddenlty two weeks later a challange magazine came out with Infonet reports that contridicted what you'd already laid out did you simply go back and say to your characters. "No, that didn't happen the way we played it out, apparenlty the Solomani nerve gassed the whole planet and you're all dead. Time to re roll characters." I think not.
Classic Traveller had a storyline, Megatraveller had a storyline, and everyone elses game has a storyline. Just because the events in your story line don't match exactly what's going on the the mega storyline does that mean that you have to trash your campaign? Hell no, adapt the events as they appear and make them fit your universe after all once you start rolling the dice it's your universe not Marc Millers, not GDW's, not FarFuture Enterprises or SJG's. It's yours and what makes it in and what ends up on the cutting room floor is ultimately your decision.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Sure your players might blow a mission and deny the RC that forward base and slow down their operations IN YOUR CAMPAIGN, but when GDW came out with a new supplement 3 months later building on the assumption that the soi-disant mission had been a success and the storyline was moving forward from there, you would've been stuck having to a) explain how someone else accomplished an equivalent mission (i.e. take the players out of the equation after all, just what you didn't like about CT), b) gloss over the matter and throw out your campaign's continuity (is this a solution?), or c) begin branching your campaign ever-so-slightly away from GDW's 'official' timeline, thus potentially limiting the usefulness of all further 'official' material in your campaign in unforseeable ways (since, due to GDW's policy of keeping GMs in the dark about the secrets and mysteries of the unfolding plot, you'd have no way of guessing up-front what seemingly insignificant elements might gain importance later in the 'story'). I daresay the GMs of 'canonical' TNE campaigns were actually lucky that GDW folded and the official timeline froze before they were faced with too many of these decisions<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The problem with a game company unfolding the campaign to early is players go out and buy the same things that GM's do which means that essentially nothing is a surprise to the players unless you happen to have that rare individual in the game who actually doesn't rush out and get the sames stuff as his or her GM.
If you let out the plotline to early what's the point in playing the game. If CT came out and say oh by the way in 15 years game time the Emperor will be assassinated and we're going to release a new game at that time and while we're at it here's every major event that's going to occure over those fifteen years. Would you have bothered attempting to create a game with any kind of flavor? Probably not.
If when MegaTraveller came out they told you, oh in thirteen years game time we're going to release a super weapon that's going to destroy they whole Imperium and here's exactly what's going to happen. You probably wouldn't bother buying the game once you heard this.
It'd be like seeing "The Sixth Sence" if someone told you how it ended, (I'm not gonna give it away just in case here) there's no point.
Half the excitement and interest of a good game is the storyline, if you already know the storyline what's the point of playing?
Anyways rambling again.
As you can see from my campaign, those of you who looked at it. Though I like the TNE setting I chose not to use the StarVikings setting. My reasons for this were actually two fold, at the time that I started writing my campaign background I was already involved in a StarVikings campaign and I decided not to work using the same information that my GM was already using. Secondly when I finally started my campaign up my TNE GM had died of lung cancer and I really couldn't bring myself to even attempt to run a Vikings campaign, that was his territory and out of respect for the game that he created I didn't want to infringe on something that I still to this day have very fond memories of.
I never did figure out in that game if I was the original or just one of the clones... *sigh* Sadly we'd planned to run our next session that saturday and sunday and he passed away on the thurday before.
Anyway. I'm off topic again and feeling somewhat heavy hearted.
I agree with you though, the possibility for confict with the offical storyline is much more likely the smaller your universe. That's a risk that I feel is worth taking because of the amount of story depth and background colour that you can work in with a smaller universe.
Hmm, really? I'm not sure I buy this. After all, the meta-narrative (or, to use the term I coined above 'omni-narrative') being scripted by GDW was going to carry on as planned regardless of the developments in your campaign<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I agree here, but I never allowed the canon events to influnce events which we'd already laid out as having gone awry the first time thanks to the players interaction. Plus, lets face it the same was true of CT and MT. If your people were in 1234 Diaspora at date X and they blew something up that in your universe changed the whole ballance of power and suddenlty two weeks later a challange magazine came out with Infonet reports that contridicted what you'd already laid out did you simply go back and say to your characters. "No, that didn't happen the way we played it out, apparenlty the Solomani nerve gassed the whole planet and you're all dead. Time to re roll characters." I think not.
Classic Traveller had a storyline, Megatraveller had a storyline, and everyone elses game has a storyline. Just because the events in your story line don't match exactly what's going on the the mega storyline does that mean that you have to trash your campaign? Hell no, adapt the events as they appear and make them fit your universe after all once you start rolling the dice it's your universe not Marc Millers, not GDW's, not FarFuture Enterprises or SJG's. It's yours and what makes it in and what ends up on the cutting room floor is ultimately your decision.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Sure your players might blow a mission and deny the RC that forward base and slow down their operations IN YOUR CAMPAIGN, but when GDW came out with a new supplement 3 months later building on the assumption that the soi-disant mission had been a success and the storyline was moving forward from there, you would've been stuck having to a) explain how someone else accomplished an equivalent mission (i.e. take the players out of the equation after all, just what you didn't like about CT), b) gloss over the matter and throw out your campaign's continuity (is this a solution?), or c) begin branching your campaign ever-so-slightly away from GDW's 'official' timeline, thus potentially limiting the usefulness of all further 'official' material in your campaign in unforseeable ways (since, due to GDW's policy of keeping GMs in the dark about the secrets and mysteries of the unfolding plot, you'd have no way of guessing up-front what seemingly insignificant elements might gain importance later in the 'story'). I daresay the GMs of 'canonical' TNE campaigns were actually lucky that GDW folded and the official timeline froze before they were faced with too many of these decisions<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The problem with a game company unfolding the campaign to early is players go out and buy the same things that GM's do which means that essentially nothing is a surprise to the players unless you happen to have that rare individual in the game who actually doesn't rush out and get the sames stuff as his or her GM.
If you let out the plotline to early what's the point in playing the game. If CT came out and say oh by the way in 15 years game time the Emperor will be assassinated and we're going to release a new game at that time and while we're at it here's every major event that's going to occure over those fifteen years. Would you have bothered attempting to create a game with any kind of flavor? Probably not.
If when MegaTraveller came out they told you, oh in thirteen years game time we're going to release a super weapon that's going to destroy they whole Imperium and here's exactly what's going to happen. You probably wouldn't bother buying the game once you heard this.
It'd be like seeing "The Sixth Sence" if someone told you how it ended, (I'm not gonna give it away just in case here) there's no point.
Half the excitement and interest of a good game is the storyline, if you already know the storyline what's the point of playing?
Anyways rambling again.
As you can see from my campaign, those of you who looked at it. Though I like the TNE setting I chose not to use the StarVikings setting. My reasons for this were actually two fold, at the time that I started writing my campaign background I was already involved in a StarVikings campaign and I decided not to work using the same information that my GM was already using. Secondly when I finally started my campaign up my TNE GM had died of lung cancer and I really couldn't bring myself to even attempt to run a Vikings campaign, that was his territory and out of respect for the game that he created I didn't want to infringe on something that I still to this day have very fond memories of.
I never did figure out in that game if I was the original or just one of the clones... *sigh* Sadly we'd planned to run our next session that saturday and sunday and he passed away on the thurday before.
Anyway. I'm off topic again and feeling somewhat heavy hearted.
I agree with you though, the possibility for confict with the offical storyline is much more likely the smaller your universe. That's a risk that I feel is worth taking because of the amount of story depth and background colour that you can work in with a smaller universe.
NightrimTNE
SOC-2
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lucasdigital:
You brought up some interesting observations that I had never considered.
I don't think I ever analysed the moral value of the factional leaders.
No other game for me generated so much discussion and speculation about the nature if it's mysteries. The empress wave, the primordeals, what was 'driving' the virus.
GDW did the same with the Kafer Alien race in 2300 a.d.
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The morality of Craig is what attracted me to Daibei. In my campaign the shadow of Craig and his personality are slowly going to start making their presence felt.
I also felt that the TNE universe sort of forced players to work together more as a team. I always felt in CT that the players were something like strong and weak forces constantly trying to blow the group a part and pull it back together, in TNE the groups never seemed to argue or fight over petty things, money was unimportant their actions servered a higher purpose and for the most part the monetary compensation was unimportant. At least in the games I played.
Virus for me was never really a technological problem, I merely accepted it, it was however a moral problem. Are all viri necessarilly evil and what do you do when you find a viri that doesn't fit the mold and seems to be more helping than harming the locals? Were the instances of crews being grav-ponged to death moments of homicidal mania on the behalf of the viri or were they instances of fear driven self preservation.
As for 2300 I loved the source books in that game. With the exception of the information contained in Path of Tears, quite possibly the most useful sourcebook ever written for a game, the books and information in the 2300 universe was simply amazing and wonderful. The level of information and the quality was something I simply fell in love with.
You brought up some interesting observations that I had never considered.
I don't think I ever analysed the moral value of the factional leaders.
No other game for me generated so much discussion and speculation about the nature if it's mysteries. The empress wave, the primordeals, what was 'driving' the virus.
GDW did the same with the Kafer Alien race in 2300 a.d.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The morality of Craig is what attracted me to Daibei. In my campaign the shadow of Craig and his personality are slowly going to start making their presence felt.
I also felt that the TNE universe sort of forced players to work together more as a team. I always felt in CT that the players were something like strong and weak forces constantly trying to blow the group a part and pull it back together, in TNE the groups never seemed to argue or fight over petty things, money was unimportant their actions servered a higher purpose and for the most part the monetary compensation was unimportant. At least in the games I played.
Virus for me was never really a technological problem, I merely accepted it, it was however a moral problem. Are all viri necessarilly evil and what do you do when you find a viri that doesn't fit the mold and seems to be more helping than harming the locals? Were the instances of crews being grav-ponged to death moments of homicidal mania on the behalf of the viri or were they instances of fear driven self preservation.
As for 2300 I loved the source books in that game. With the exception of the information contained in Path of Tears, quite possibly the most useful sourcebook ever written for a game, the books and information in the 2300 universe was simply amazing and wonderful. The level of information and the quality was something I simply fell in love with.
NightrimTNE
SOC-2
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MJD:
How would you feel about a non-rules-specific TNE supplement that moved the timeline forward say 50 years?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd be muchly interested in something of this type. I've got my own ideas about things that I'd be more than willing to throw into the mix.
I've already developed an idea around the EW and by 50 years the StarVikings (read RCES) as well as virus will be long gone.
How would you feel about a non-rules-specific TNE supplement that moved the timeline forward say 50 years?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd be muchly interested in something of this type. I've got my own ideas about things that I'd be more than willing to throw into the mix.
I've already developed an idea around the EW and by 50 years the StarVikings (read RCES) as well as virus will be long gone.
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