It's Not Canon!

[Blue Ghost]

On Primordials, Joe was a forum member one time;

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/member.php?u=5625

Any chance of someone asking him about Sparklers?

 

[mike wightman]

Yes, and this is his reply:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showpost.php?p=173024&postcount=78

 

[77topaz]

Wow, that's a weird phpBB failure - his profile states he has 0 posts, even though when you click on "find all posts by jfugatesr" there are 144 posts by him listed.

 

[aramis]

Wow, that's a weird phpBB failure - his profile states he has 0 posts, even though when you click on "find all posts by jfugatesr" there are 144 posts by him listed.

Those posts were imported at a change of software; imported posts don't count, IIRC/IIUC.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yes, and this is his reply:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showpost.php?p=173024&postcount=78

Psionic space barnacles. I can't say I'm into it, but it's interesting all the same.

 

[aramis]

Psionic space barnacles. I can't say I'm into it, but it's interesting all the same.

Psionic space snails, however... almost became canon.

 

[Carlobrand]

Psionic space snails, however... almost became canon.

Well, we got cyberkinetic silicon hover-spiders, so I guess that wouldn't have been too crazy.

 

[AndyW]

I'm in the lightsabre / ansible camp.

I don't hold with finite light beams, laser or otherwise. Perhaps a plasma beam could be controlled like that in some fashion, but then it would be a plasmasabre.

I was like, 'what the hell is an ansible?', so I googled. If that's referring to LeGuin's instantaneous commo tech, then I have to agree. I've not read LeGuin except for Earthsea Trilogy.

Most of the charm of Traveller is in the return to commo being limited to the speed of travel. It harkens back to tall ships on stormy seas. Adventure is facilitated by limits to centralized authority's intelligence gathering ability. Ansible tech would spoil that entirely. Even Star Trek's "subspace" took some time.

 

[mike wightman]

The lightsabre probably is a plasma sabre - but then a tank doesn't hold water

Put another way the plasma sabre gives off a pretty light show so people call them lightsabres because it.

The ansible also crops up in the Enderverse and gets a mention in the MgT version of Secret of the Ancients in the chapter set during the Ancients war.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

"The Ancients used several different communications methods. Even for Grandfather, the speed of light represented an insurmountable barrier for conventional communications. The Ancients had methods of sending energy through jumpspace without needing a ship – the teleport portals use this principle – but this proved ineffective for two-way communication. Over short ranges, the Ancients used mesons, radio and laser comms; for faster-than-light, they relied on quantum entangled ancibles (highly effective but limited by the number of entangled bits) and psionic telepathy." - pg 85

This is canon....

 

[Blue Ghost]

May the Force be with yas

I think light sabers are as canon as anything in the proto-Traveller-verse. In the OTU, and I guess maybe with "thingmaker" in T5, you can cobble one together, but possibly not for strict OTU interpretation.

Again, as per the original premise of and for the game, it was meant to be e generic do-all scifi RPG that could mimic a variety of settings; i.e. season to taste. I think at either that back of 76 Patrons or Citizens of the Imperium there is an example of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader statted out, complete with 4d6 broadswords and broadsword skills as "lightsabers"

… so there.

 

[Bromo33333]

I think light sabers are as canon as anything in the proto-Traveller-verse. In the OTU, and I guess maybe with "thingmaker" in T5, you can cobble one together, but possibly not for strict OTU interpretation.

Again, as per the original premise of and for the game, it was meant to be e generic do-all scifi RPG that could mimic a variety of settings; i.e. season to taste. I think at either that back of 76 Patrons or Citizens of the Imperium there is an example of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader statted out, complete with 4d6 broadswords and broadsword skills as "lightsabers"

… so there.

There was a cutting tool/weapon in Larry Niven's Ringworld that was a flashlight like device and a 1 molecule thick filament with a small ball at the end that could extend out 10m. It would, without much effort, slice through nearly anything. WOuld strike me as TL16 or 17.

 

[Blue Ghost]

There you go.

I think as the game and setting for it have evolved that the OTU has become it's own beast. Trek has Spock and Warpdrive, Wars has Vader and the 'droids, and Trav has grav tanks and Vargr. Things that make then distinguishable.

I think Traveller is sturdy enough to endure light sabers as unofficial or Referee conjured things. I actually asked a lawyer a year or two back about light sabers and knockoffs, and he said the concept of a "laser sword" as a concept and thing in a story, book or some property, is fine because it's not a George Lucas "light saber" / "lightsaber" / "lightsabre" or whatever you want to call it.

So yeah, maybe there is a sword like thing in the Travellerverse that runs on Z-cell batteries of something.

 

[Maksim-Smelchak]

I think Traveller is sturdy enough to endure light sabers as unofficial or Referee conjured things.

It's fine for ATU or IMTU.

It's one of the few things specifically prohibited in the OTU.

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Canon

I actually asked a lawyer a year or two back about light sabers and knockoffs, and he said the concept of a "laser sword" as a concept and thing in a story, book or some property, is fine because it's not a George Lucas "light saber" / "lightsaber" / "lightsabre" or whatever you want to call it.

Yes.

So yeah, maybe there is a sword like thing in the Travellerverse that runs on Z-cell batteries of something.

There are monofilament weapons.

Shalom,
M.

 

[tjoneslo]

There are monofilament weapons.

Or Vibro-swords.

 

[Maksim-Smelchak]

Or Vibro-swords.

Good call, sometimes they are one and the same.

Shalom,
M.

 

[Timerover51]

Canon is important if you are wanting to write Traveller-licensed fiction, it you are not, then canon is what you decide.

 

[CaptRet]

I like the idea of monofilament cutting weapons - makes far more sense, scientifically, than light sabers.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Blue Ghost]

Or Vibro-swords.

I think vibro weapons showed up in the original Han Solo trilogy from way way back in the early 80s. Good reading. Fun books.