Traveller on the Brain
A propos of nothing (really!) except maybe that I have too much time on my hands and should probably be doing something more productive, I have come up with the definitive list of what makes Traveller the game it is and why it succeeded so brilliantly as the definitive SF RPG, despite numerous setting and rules changes. Anyone wishing to seize the Iridium Throne for themselves would be wise to heed these words.
1. The field of play is LARGE, very large. Nothing less than 100s, preferably 1000s, of planets is needed to convey the appropriate feel of interstellar immensity.
1b. The speed of travel between said planets is slow, measured in weeks, probably longer for very great distances.
1c. There is no interstellar communication except via the aforementioned slow travel between planets.
1d. The primary interstellar government is thus necessarily laissez-faire in all areas that do not impinge upon its central claim to authority, namely the maintenance of interstellar trade on which many worlds depend for their very survival. Said government can be seen as "good" or "evil" as your political sensibilities so incline you, but such judgments are generally beside the point, with "aloof" and/or "distant" being more generally appropriate. Naturally, local representatives of said government can be (and are) as just or venal as you wish.
1e. There are a handful of organs of interstellar governance, primarily military and/or pertinent to the maintanence of trade and communications. Otherwise, most organizations are more local in origin.
1f. Technology and economics exist in such a state as to provide a justification for interstellar trade and, therefore, government (and, of course, player character employment).
2. Humanity (humaniti, if you prefer) is the dominant species in charted space.
2a. Said dominant species is not, despite however many years it exists in our future, noticeably different from 21st century people, either physically, psychologically, or even culturally. Consequently, their behavior and motivations are thus completely comprehensible to your average gamer.
2b. If aliens exist, they may be as alien as human comprehensibility and a limited special effects budget allows, which is to say, they may be the Mexican non-union equivalents of genuinely alien beings, but they cannot truly be so alien that they cannot be meaningfully interacted with or played by a guy in a suit or what cable TV series computer graphics can manage.
2c. Any truly alien aliens are safely extinct, preferably leaving behind lots of wacky artifacts to be found by bad guys, used in government black ops programs, or generally used as maguffins in adventures.
3. Technology is first and foremost a prop. It can be shiny or grimy as you wish, but it should never get in the way of a good rollicking adventure, an interesting planetary culture, or otherwise circumvent any of the enumerated principles above.
4. If you saw it in a SF movie or TV show or read it in a SF book, it should be possible to include it in the game, even if in a (heavily) modified form.
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