Foreven was meant to be defined by the end user...
Vargas,
Yes, Foreven was meant to be defined by the end user.
Then the
Imperiallines fanzine showed up with it's dot map and polity borders to put an end to many users' versions of Foreven.
... so it seems antithetical to call for it to be “fixed”, which implies that there must be some set of parameters which everyone must stay within.
By "fixed" I am proposing that we remove the parameters put in place by the
Imperiallines fanzine. I want to "fix" - as in to repair or mend - Foreven by removing the "fix' - as in to settle definitely or put into permanent form -
Imperiallines imposed.
I want Foreven to return to it's protean state. I want the only parameters set down officially for Foreven to be the borders of the sector itself.
Does this mean that Mongoose can't provide materials set in the Foreven Sector? Not in the slightest. All that is required is a little sleight of hand and creativity.
Mongoose can set materials in Foreven in the same manner hundreds of swashbuckling, pulp, and other adventures were regularly set in the Balkans, Africa, or South America. They can easily describe adventures set in pocket empires, lost worlds, small wars, revolutions, coups, espionage, and all the rest if they remember to think small and remain geographically vague.
Thinking small isn't a matter of scaling back the fun and consequences faced by the players. It's more a matter of not always roping in the Zhodani, Imperium, Heirate, Droyne, and all the other major players at the drop of a hat. Far too many adventures are designed to "Shake the foundations of the Fill-In-The-Blank Empire" or to "Have Dire Galactic Consequences". Both are nothing but lazy writing. You can challenge the players without putting the survival of the Third Imperium at stake every single time and far too many RPG writers never truly understand that.
A certain vagueness of location is easily achieved too and can be done without spoiling an adventure one whit. We all know that Ruritania and Graustark are somewhere in the Balkans or eastern Europe, but we don't need to know their longitude and latitude to enjoy the many adventures set there. Similarly, we all know King Soloman's Mines and Kukuanaland is somewhere north of the Kalukawe River in Rhodesia, but again we don't need GPS readings to follow Umbopa's trek to claim his rightful throne.
Mongoose can easily set their Ruritanias, Graustarks, Kukuanalands, Klopstokias, and so on
IN Foreven without actually stating
WHERE EXACTLY IN Foreven they all happen to be. In this manner, Mongoose would add to the thirty-plus year old kaleidoscope that is the Hobby's myriad versions of Foreven without
destroying those same versions.
As a GM, I can easily set down a small, geographically vague adventure published for Foreven in
MTU's Foreven and, because I can do so easily, I'll be more likely to buy and use such an adventure too.
Here's a rough analogy of what I'm driving at. There are two ways you can cover a wall; with a tapestry or a coat of paint. Far too few
Traveller authors - or RPG authors for that matter - are content to add a thread to a tapestry. They rather just pull out the paint gun and spray a fresh coat over anything and everything.
This is where the expediency and the egotism I wrote about earlier come into play. It's easier and faster just to slosh paint over the whole thing and, when you're the one choosing the paint, you usually think it looks better no matter what you've managed to destroy.
So, again, we've a unique chance to "unfix" Foreven and actually do the sector right. Whether we as a Hobby grasp this chance, or just follow the same old path of expedience and egotism, remains to be seen.
Regards,
Bill
