Sorry, I'm thread-crashing a tad here but:
"MISSION
This obvious point doesn’t warrant much space, even though it sometimes eludes authors of ublished game settings.
You must know, and clearly communicate, what it is that the PCs are expected to do."
I suggest that Traveller does fail on selling the idea of its purpose to its characters(/players).
I would suggest:
CT. No mission other than travel and have fun in the far future. Players and adventures end up with all those slightly-break-the-law, be-a-bit-dodgy adventures because players wanted to be Han Solo not Luke. That was down to the times and DIY nature of RPGs at the time. OTU was just emerging.
MT. A big exciting backdrop breaks out. But it's too large scale to give individual characters any way to be part of the Rebellion mision. I would argue, still no mission inherent in the game. Being a spectator isn't a good adventure-game plot BTW.
TNE: Destroys a lot of the backdrop and cmapaign setting that players know how to deal with
[See Robin Laws:
Fluff ain’t so fluffy as it looks.
If you are using an established setting, I strongly recommend that you allow your players to read any available supplements for it. Adventures you plan to use, or cannibalize, are obvious exceptions. But if you know you’ll never use a particular adventure, try to get your players to read that, too. The more the players know and feel about their imaginary world, the better.
Do this even when a setting tells you not to. It’s easier to get people to distinguish between player knowledge and character knowledge than it is to get them emotionally invested in an imaginary world.]
So, TNE sacrificed a well-known shared imaginary background that involved players in order to have MISSSION.
MISSION:Make a difference!
From my reading it seems that it was the TNE mission that really fired MJD on Traveller. We shouldn't underestimate it.
So, back to:
I think we, as a community, generally liked Firefly because it was a set of characters bumming about in a ship. That spoke the tone or feel of Traveller to us.
But, the mission of Firefly was the big story-arc that was only just coming into focus. And ... I've seen comments from Trav people that they didn't really like that part.
So, 5 rules sets or 1 rule set. Unless you just want to attract the power gamers and rules lawyers to the game, you need mission. What is the essence of Traveller - to sell to a TV producer - or more to the point to a new player browsing a book in a store?
PS. I know someone will reply saying: "Ah but, the OT Universe is your oyster. You can do anything." While this might be true
It's only as true as it is for any other game. My point is about clearly defined selling points for Traveller.
I've just been reading the excellent "Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering". He makes the comment about how to set up camaigns that they need:Originally posted by ravs:
:Edit: What we need is a big buget film or TV series in a Traveller setting to inject new members.
"MISSION
This obvious point doesn’t warrant much space, even though it sometimes eludes authors of ublished game settings.
You must know, and clearly communicate, what it is that the PCs are expected to do."
I suggest that Traveller does fail on selling the idea of its purpose to its characters(/players).
I would suggest:
CT. No mission other than travel and have fun in the far future. Players and adventures end up with all those slightly-break-the-law, be-a-bit-dodgy adventures because players wanted to be Han Solo not Luke. That was down to the times and DIY nature of RPGs at the time. OTU was just emerging.
MT. A big exciting backdrop breaks out. But it's too large scale to give individual characters any way to be part of the Rebellion mision. I would argue, still no mission inherent in the game. Being a spectator isn't a good adventure-game plot BTW.
TNE: Destroys a lot of the backdrop and cmapaign setting that players know how to deal with
[See Robin Laws:
Fluff ain’t so fluffy as it looks.
If you are using an established setting, I strongly recommend that you allow your players to read any available supplements for it. Adventures you plan to use, or cannibalize, are obvious exceptions. But if you know you’ll never use a particular adventure, try to get your players to read that, too. The more the players know and feel about their imaginary world, the better.
Do this even when a setting tells you not to. It’s easier to get people to distinguish between player knowledge and character knowledge than it is to get them emotionally invested in an imaginary world.]
So, TNE sacrificed a well-known shared imaginary background that involved players in order to have MISSSION.
MISSION:Make a difference!
From my reading it seems that it was the TNE mission that really fired MJD on Traveller. We shouldn't underestimate it.
So, back to:
Yes, but what would the Traveler TV series be about?Originally posted by ravs:
:Edit: What we need is a big buget film or TV series in a Traveller setting to inject new members.
I think we, as a community, generally liked Firefly because it was a set of characters bumming about in a ship. That spoke the tone or feel of Traveller to us.
But, the mission of Firefly was the big story-arc that was only just coming into focus. And ... I've seen comments from Trav people that they didn't really like that part.
So, 5 rules sets or 1 rule set. Unless you just want to attract the power gamers and rules lawyers to the game, you need mission. What is the essence of Traveller - to sell to a TV producer - or more to the point to a new player browsing a book in a store?
PS. I know someone will reply saying: "Ah but, the OT Universe is your oyster. You can do anything." While this might be true