Fool's Errand: The Compleat OTU

[robject]

In our minds there's a Picture of the OTU by which we rate publications. It's how we decide how likely a new publication is potentially "canonical".

I think that Picture, however imperfect in our heads, is a picture of Canon. (Invoke Plato's parable of The Cave if you like).

Thoughts?


EXAMPLE 1. GURPS: Sword Worlds builds exactly on canonical data about the Swordies. It doesn't change who they are in its expansions: it feels right, nicely consistent, carefully built to preserve the OTU while also improving on it. The conclusion is that it's obviously clearly canon.

Why was it so easy to decide that? There's new material there. Well... It's how the book treated the extant OTU material, and how it seems to grow organically and carefully from it. It meshes, seamlessly. It reflects deep knowledge of the OTU. It's like Hans really wanted to keep true to the material -- which is of course the case.

 

[mike wightman]

And yet it has been overwritten by the MgT Sword Worlds...

Mongoose appears to be able to overwrite existing canon at whim.

 

[daryen]

Tell me about it. Mongoose tried to give the Darrians a secret cabal of space nazis. Who were the real power in the Confederation. Who occasionally murdered their own people.

It is what it is at this point.

 

[Condottiere]

Darrians are human.

I bet they're countered by an illuminated financially inclined faction.

 

[Mår Ekkertsen]

It is certain the Picture in my mind and the Picture in your mind are different. Our canons are different. Plato imagined the forms more real than the images upon the wall. I have no doubt that we read the same words, interpreted by our experience, and we fill in everything we find missing with some creation of our imagination. We are but sub-creators of another sub-creator. (See http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sub-creation) What's more, our creations morph as we encounter each other's ideas, as we respond to new canonical publications, and as our experience of our sub-creation expands with our further exploration of that sub-creation.

Thank you Marquis Robject for the question.

 

[Fovean]

What is canon that is ever-changing since its inception?

What is canon when canon says “You may decide” or when it contradicts itself?

This canon is a process. The process is a product. The product keeps canon alive.

Canon is dead! Long live canon!

 

[Vargr Breath]

Canon is what Marc says it is.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Canon is what Marc says it is.

Marc: I am bound by canon.
Canon: I am bound by Marc.

Tautology is a tautological science that is sometimes taught by tots.

 

[whartung]

Tautology is a tautological science that is sometimes taught by tots.

As manifest by Dr. Tater.

His classes are often referred to as "Taters taughts".

 

[RandyB]

As manifest by Dr. Tater.

His classes are often referred to as "Taters taughts".

"You caught me. You caught the Tater." - Ron White

 

[robject]

And I rethought and rethought what canon is today.

I dug through the TML archives. Originally, it was the term used by grognards to beat down others' ideas. Hans had the first known use, in 1991. A handful of uses by grognards showed up in 1992-1993. It had caught on by 1994 and 1995. Then it became a menace.

By 1996, we had three pushes:

1. "Canon" was used to drive discussion about Sunbane and GEniE faulty sector data, and

2. Don McKinney started creating a timeline. And he realized he needed a priority order in which to search out entries. How to decide one entry was "better" than another. And:

3. Canon was the driver in the Holy Wars, where people took sides based on the publisher and ruleset they followed. Note that the Xboat Mailing List (Classic Traveller) was folded into the TML (TNE) in 1996. No coincidence that.


Then Traveller4 came along -- an attempt to integrate, to "learn from the last 20 years of Traveller". And from the self-immolation of T4, canon came to mean a set of core concepts by which publishers should adhere, for mutual benefit and the benefit of Traveller in general.

Canon is what Marc says it is.

Marc: I am bound by canon.
Canon: I am bound by Marc.

Those core concepts are nascent in classic Traveller, but as theories developed and diverged, the concepts needed refinement. By 2007 or so, Marc was deciding on what those refinements were.


The OTU is more difficult of a problem, actually, for the reasons we see: any history can be rewritten.

 

[Spinward Flow]

any history can be rewritten.

And in some cases (Empress Wave, Virus Unlimited™) not only should be rewritten, they absolutely deserve to be rewritten and retconned into the rubbish heap of "fair idea that got WAY out of hand" and deserving of a rewrite to clean up the Deus ex Lobotoma so integrated into them by past publications.

 

[robject]

Tricky Bits of the OTU

That's the phrase where Marc says he is "bound by canon". There are some things he wants to work into his own plans. The Wave and Virus are two of them... I don't think he ever wanted to get rid of them. However, the Wave is quite different than it originally was -- actually I think Marc has done it justice. I didn't like the TNE version of it. I like this one.

Traveller Canon

Based on "The Foundations of the Traveller Universe" essay, I see elements which guide canon generally in the "how things work" department. And Marc's written essays on how things work (ship systems, starports, etc), which he's also included in T5 as well as other places I think. So we have "Traveller" canon surrounded reasonably well. Not perfect, but good enough.

OTU Canon

But... things in the OTU are much more difficult. It requires a deep understanding to not overwrite the Aslan or K'kree, not to mention smaller players like the Darrians, Sword Worlders, or Shriekers. It's almost a given that each new treatment will be different.

The Timeline and Second Survey

ON THE OTHER HAND, we have a TIMELINE for the OTU, and OFFICIAL STAR DATA, and they're both convenient. Marc can ship it to Mongoose, and they can keep themselves in line with it well enough.

===> Note that the sector data got cleaned up JUST BEFORE Mongoose started working on Traveller. And the timeline didn't get finalized for the Golden Era until maybe 2015... about the time Mongoose decided it could start working in the timeline. Convenient and helpful. Be thankful for those.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Marc: I am bound by canon.
Canon: I am bound by Marc.

Tautology is a tautological science that is sometimes taught by tots.

XKCD #703

Alt Text: "Hey, why do YOU get to be the president of Tautology Clu-- wait, I can guess."

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Canon is what Marc says it is.

Yes, indeed. He explained how he is bound by canon in the podcast link in my signature. He even gave a few specific examples of things he is keeping as canon even though on reconsideration he would not have now.

 

[whartung]

However, the Wave is quite different than it originally was -- actually I think Marc has done it justice. I didn't like the TNE version of it. I like this one.

Why?

I mean, what do I know, but from what I've seen of it represented here, it's Yet Another civilization destroying finger of God, the lasting impact of which can be whatever is made up in the heads of Those Who Make Things Up. At least most of what happened post-Rebellion and Virus made some kind of sense given the personalities (as portrayed more or less earlier) involved.

Is that, story wise, what the galaxy really needs? Another complete reset like this?

 

[Grav_Moped]

Is that, story wise, what the galaxy really needs? Another complete reset like this?

The charitable take is that it's something to knock down the Zhodani and Vargr to keep the playing field level after canon wrecks the Imperium. Otherwise, they walk right in and take over, and it becomes awkward to construct a post-imperial Very Far Future (to enable common TLs above 15) that isn't Zhodani-dominated (and because of that, harder for players to identify with).

On the other hand, most of what you could want from a post-Imperial setting can be found during the Long Night, so it's not narratively necessary to have wrecked the Third Imperium again -- just set up a campaign background for that era and call it good. The only issue is that it limits available tech.

 

[Spinward Flow]

The only issue is that it limits available tech.

Playing at Maximum Tech Levels isn't always satisfying (except to Munchkins, of course).

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The charitable take is that it's something to knock down the Zhodani...

Good guess.

Yes, indeed. He explained how he is bound by canon in the podcast link in my signature. He even gave a few specific examples of things he is keeping as canon even though on reconsideration he would not have now.

The Zhodani and psionics are one of those things Marc said he does not like as much as he used to. In the recording from Gamercon in my sig, he has gone on to explain that he is not a big fan of psionics. He put it in because of the time (1977, Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons) Traveller was released and that there were sci-fi stories with psi being a big element, it seemed ok at the time to introduce this sort of "magic", but made it depowered and difficult to acquire/learn/use so it is just another tool and did not become the focus of the game.

Then he went on to explain just how inimically evil the Consulate is to Imperial citizen's privacy, initiative, etc. Probably why wrote the Zhodani as particularly evil schemers in the one chapter of Agent of the Imperium.

 

[daryen]

Then he went on to explain just how inimically evil the Consulate is to Imperial citizen's privacy, initiative, etc. Probably why wrote the Zhodani as particularly evil schemers in the one chapter of Agent of the Imperium.

The real reason the Zhodani Consulate is evil is not because of what they do to Imperial citizens. They are evil because of what they do to their own people.

Something I wrote about the Zhodani 15 years (or so) ago. I think I'll just leave it lying here ...

The Zhodani nobility guarantee status for themselves regardless of ability. Any highly capable recruits are kept in a non-noble subclass, despite being more capable than the vast majority of the nobility. They also prevent any kind of ability for non-recruits to get psionic training.

Proles have no political rights. They cannot vote. They have no input into their governing systems. They have no ability to raise their class (their kid might, but not them). They are not citizens, they are subjects. They are servants to the system, to be used and discarded as necessary. They are brainwashed and conditioned to accept the status quo. They are "happy" because they have no choice.

The Zhodani love to crow about how the "sanctity of the mind" as practiced by the Imperium is so evil. How their system removes that nonsense and allows the citizens to be happy. What they don't tell you is that every single noble practices "sanctity of the mind". Only the Proles have to submit. Zhodani nobles are every bit as private and subject to every single vice that afflicts the Imperium.

While they do an excellent job of hiding it, the Consulate is a corrupt society that disenfranchises the vast majority of its population and brainwashes them into accepting it. Zhodani nobles are the ultimate hypocrites that force their subject to live by one standard, while they live to a completely different standard. The Zhodani are, quite simply, intellectually dishonest. The truly sad part is they probably believe their own lies.