Well, who decides that?
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- Thread starter MongooseMatt
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Well, who decides that?
And I thought we had decided it was because Traveller is not automatically the OTU
Matt,
Not exactly.
Your version of Traveller is not automatically the OTU and that's a good thing too because it gives us a ready made excuse to explain all the screw ups.
Of course, your version can be used to play in the OTU just as it can used to play in B5, Drake's Slammers, Judge Dred, and other settings.
I suppose this means the various non-OTU aspects we've already found in the 8 page preview for your Aslan are going to have to be added to the document Ty Beard is working on. You know, the one that will show people how to use your version of Traveller to play the OTU version of Traveller?
Regards,
Bill
What changes to make, you do. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have the opinion that your decisions are wrong.
Did you have to mention 1st Imperium scouts exploring an area 50 parsecs beyond the official border in Corridor? Especially since they didn't explore even 3 parsecs beyond the official border in the Solomani Rim? You did not. Was it a good idea? Not in my opinion.
Did you have to mention official 2nd Imperium colonization efforts in an areas 50 parsecs beyond the border in Corridor? Especially since we have canonical statements about refugee expeditions settling in the Trojan Reach to provide all the settlers anyone could ever need? You did not. Was it a good idea? Not in my opinion.
Did you have to change the nature of Aslan psionic abilities? Did you have to make them look even more like uplifted lions than previous artwork (OK, some previous artwork
)?Did you have to have Vargr colonists migrating to the Trojan Reach millenia ago, when they didn't begin to encroach on Aramis subsector until 500? You did not. Was it a good idea? Well, the Kitchen Sink approach to setting building says it's good to add as many options as possible to a setting (What? No Hivers or K'kree?
), so having some Vargr settlements around in 1100 isn't bad. But what's wrong with making them a few centuries old, rather than millenia old?Oh, and one change you didn't make: Back when Traveller was new and the setting that was to become the OTU hadn't firmed up yet, Leviathan portrayed the region just rimwards of District 268 and Glisten as an unknown and unexplored region. Later we learned that this supposedly unexplored region had been lying next door to settled Imperial worlds for seven centuries, that traders had been traversing the region for almost as long, and that Imperial Scouts were nosing around in the Trojan Reach even before the First Survey. Couldn't you have dropped the silly[*] notion that the Trojan Reach hasn't been explored backwards and forwards for centuries by now (1100)?
And finally, just to show I don't disapprove of everything in the preview, kudos on the additional information about Aslan eating habits
. Hans
[*] Note to Bob McWilliams, should he chance to read this: Silly now, not silly back when it was written. I actually think it is a wonderful setting. It just needs to be retconned back to the 5th Century.
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I am afraid that books marked as being part of the Third Imperium line (the OTU) _are_ canon, and will remain so for at least the next ten years.
But the Trojan Reach is supposed to be, isn't it? Or are you officially declaring the existence of a Mongoose Traveller Universe parallel to the OTU and the GTU?And I thought we had decided it was because Traveller is not automatically the OTU
Hans
Of course you do - but remember these are Marc's decisions too. Mongoose proposes, Marc disposes.
And he really _is_ going through our OTU material with a fine toothcomb. Plenty of changes were made to our original Aslan manuscript - what is left is what Marc wants in.
Not at all. MTU = OTU
I see. So you pointed out to him that previously published material indicated that the Siru Zirka had a policy of staying inside its official border, but you wanted to change that and have them send scouts to the Trojan Reach, and he agreed?
Not that this would explain why you decided you wanted to make the change in the first place. Marc has every legal right to change anything he wants about the OTU. No one disputes that, any more than we dispute that he has delegated that right to you. It doesn't affect whether a change is a good idea or not one little bit.
Any chance you might deign to explain the reasoning behind these apparently very deliberate changes? I'd be fascinated to know why you chose state in the text that Aslans weren't really all that lion-like and then decided to portray them as very lion-like in the illustrations. Seeing as this apparently was a deliberate choice and not just a silly mistake.
Hans
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
If I needed another reason to dislike that MGT thingy, this book would deliver in spades.
+ The art is horrible. Sorry but this has as much to do with Aslans as Homo Erectus with modern man
+ The unneeded changes (Psionics, Way the 2nd Empire died etc.)
+ The diet stuff
Marc Miller might approve it. Guess he knows who writes his paycheck and as Berthold Brecht said "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral"
Another reason to be happy that MGTs mostly a non-starter in Germany.
+ The art is horrible. Sorry but this has as much to do with Aslans as Homo Erectus with modern man
+ The unneeded changes (Psionics, Way the 2nd Empire died etc.)
+ The diet stuff
Marc Miller might approve it. Guess he knows who writes his paycheck and as Berthold Brecht said "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral"
Another reason to be happy that MGTs mostly a non-starter in Germany.
That's not fair. It's not fair to expect Marc Miller to have everything that has ever been written about the OTU at his fingertip touch. He has to rely on the people who write these things for him.
I remember that I once made a silly mistake in one of the articles I submitted to JTAS. When I noticed it and wrote a mea culpa on the GT boards, Loren Wiseman remarked that he hadn't caught the mistake because he tended to trust me to know what I was writing. Pretty nasty dig
(Just kidding; but it did give me an extra twinge in my concience and a resolve to final-check my submissions twice rather than once).Hans
You have no idea how many thousands of Traveller books are being sold in Germany. . .
You see lions, I see feline-like aliens. You picked the most subjective point to contend.
It is also comments like this that make these forums a thoroughly nasty place.
MongooseFordy
SOC-9
The section in question refers as much to behaviour, habits and traditions as it does to appearance. I think the rest of the paragraph explains this. And yes, the look has changed to be more leonine, though some of the artists have represented this to a greater degree than others.
I picked half a dozen points to contend. You've picked the most subjective one to respond to.
Hans
So why did you think it was a good idea to change the look of this alien race from being somewhat reminiscent of lions to being more leonine?
Hans
MongooseFordy
SOC-9
We wanted a more distinctive look, and consequently had a series of concept sketches drawn up to demonstrate where we wanted to go with it. Frankly, we preferred the more leonine style our concept artist came up with to the old look, and upon approval, that's what we went for.
It is also worth pointing out, and we have said this before, that _all_ the alien races are going to be subject to scrutiny in terms of appearence. While we have no firm plans for a miniatures game based on Traveller, it is always a possibility, and the old designs used in the OTU simply would nto make for good miniatures.
The designs we are using have the possibility of being developed further into a healthy miniatures line.
The designs we are using have the possibility of being developed further into a healthy miniatures line.
IMHO, some of the points are valid, and haven't actually been addressed.
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