I think each new version of the backdrop is interesting, but I for one have treated it more as lore than history etched on a holographic cube.
I may as well expand on my 0.2 creds with then. I tend to use it as history more than lore. But with a some clarification and caveats...
The CT/MT traveler set the environment for about 30 years game time - from 1100 to 1130, the major events were set out with some minor sinews attached (minor events during the 4th & 5th wars, etc) via TAS articles and the odd non-specific module. The major events were known in advance - yes the Zhodani would lose the war, Strephon got his brains blown out, but they were major events - checkpoints if you will - which the PC's could not effect in anyway at all. But IMHO far from constricting PC’s, it made the ride more enjoyable and gave the GM a lot more possibilities.
This isn't a game of D&D were players stride across the universe as demi-gods and they ARE the checkpoints, but in the Trav universe “Checkpoints check you!” But just because there are set checkpoints it doesn’t mean the journey is a straight line between them. Now this is where I squeeze the players in. Just because they can’t discuss imperial policy with the Emperor over tea and scones, or personally smite the entire Zhodani fleet with the ship they stole from Grandfather doesn’t mean there can’t be far reaching consequences to their actions. In fact knowing in advance what happens makes it all the easier to keep your world in line with the OTU and yet still remain personalised.
<<Anecdotal tale – ignore if you like>>
As an example from years ago my group was hired to find a missing daughter (Vera). And eventually they found her in the clutches of an evil villain, and rescued her. Standard cliché crap? Not quite.
The lesser noble was ‘fond of children’ and had quite a few in his ‘care’. The locals had made numerous complaints about him but the investigations were always ‘inconclusive’ or ‘not worth pursuing’ as he was being covered by his relative who was a Duke. The PC’s when they found out during the rescue blew his brains out. The action was popular with the locals, but one doesn’t shoot nobles. When dragged to trail the PC’s ranted and raved about how the system had failed ‘Vera’, showed graphic images, the nobility was corrupt and had turned a blind eye out of expediency, etc etc. They knew they were screwed anyway so go out with a bang so to speak. The stony faced arbiter seemed shaken but still pronounced the death sentence – but they manage to escape with the help of the locals.
So what’s the point already you ask?
A few months game time later the PC’s get the news of the assassination. Watching the video feed they suddenly realize the arbiter they had mouthed off to was Archduke Dulinor. And during his speech of why he shot Strephon, he held up a holo of Vera and said she had been saved because a group of good people had stood up to the rot infecting the Imperium and did what was necessary no matter the cost. And now it was he who had to stand up and do what was necessary. So the PC’s are watching this feed and thinking ‘Oh f**k, we gave him the idea to blow Strephon away…oh man…oh crap…we are so screwed…”. The PC’s changed the course of the Imperium (and trillions of people) in a roundabout way, and in my opinion a much more satisfying than simply splatting Teddys and getting saving the Universe (again) before breakfast. And this could not have been done without a skeleton to work with. Dulion would shoot Strephon but the actual reasons were always a bit vague beyond 'for the masses'. I used that grey zone between the checkpoints to entertain the PC's in the game and to give them a sens of accomplishment (unwanted as it was at the time).
To paraphrase the Gman from halflife - "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world", but without a framework the GM can't know when the 'wrong place' is.
<<Anecdotes off - resume normal rambling>>
And this is where I have a bit of a problem with the newer products. Striking out on their own gives them new options but no framework – a skeleton of jelly rather than a solid structure, while linking them back into OTU unless done well makes them stand out as ‘add ons’ like the proverbial Vargr balls which brings down _both_ products.
TNE tried to break away with a new setting, and it could have worked, but instead of gradually bending people into the campaign it basically said ‘the universe blows up’ and its now 70 years later, the framework (such as the RCES’s 5 year plan) was sketchy at best and with no link back to the previous frameworks to support it, so it collapsed in a heap. I can’t say a lot about GURPS Trav (I don’t have it), but the TNS at SJ-JTAS reads like someone twittering a news feed – 118 “Strephon took a dump, said he was satisfied”, 123: “Princesses starship refuels yet again”, 245: “New paint dries on the grand palace”. While there is the odd interesting one such as some events going on in the Confederation, it never seems to be followed up. They have a skeleton, but it is starting to fray at the edges a bit. Compare the last few (game) years of SJ-TNS to a same time frame TNS collection in Survival margin.
Other peoples play/GM style may differ – and I expect they do and they may say that I am full of it. But a framework gives the GM something to work with as a coherent whole for a long term campaign as opposed to a series of one offs with no connection whatsoever - freestyle can only work so long before it trips over its own feet. So if someone wants to build a “new traveler universe” more power to them – but the caveat is that the OUT exists whether they like it or not, and they either have to ignore it completely (in which case why call it traveler?) or they have to work with it and the people who like the OTU. And from a purely practical standpoint - if the product is a coherent whole which adds to the OTU instead of subverts it, more product is sold (and the old farts are usually the ones with the money to blow
).
Sure, they could wait until the “old farts” drop dead but that may take some time (and by the time they do the so called new blood are the new old farts), but the old farts also contain a vast amount of information on the “older traveler” and where the problems turn up which saves the company from re-inventing the wheel for the umpteenth time. Youth and exuberance may move things forward, but its age and experience which points out the foolishness and traps.
And for the record while I could technically be ‘old guard’ (using CT/MT), I wouldn’t put myself there. I’d put myself as the guy having a smoke and a beer while watching the fights. Still I have to admit some of the 'active' old guard have a nasty swing to their canes at times.
Well, enough from me - I'll shut up now as I've probably annyoed both old guard and new blood alike. (crawls back under rock)
That's pretty harsh. Possibly darn right abuse and harassment.
