OTU Origins

[ovka]

I was doing some research on gaming magazines from the 80's (specifically ones with Traveller articles), and ran across this:

Different Worlds #9
Aug/Sep 1980

Among the article listings is:

"Different Worlds Presents: The Imperium - A Traveller Campaign" by Marc W. Miller and Frank Chadwick

So, is this the origin of the OTU (at least in published format)? Has anyone seen this article? Would it be safe to say that anything prior to this is considered proto-Traveller, and that most of the things published after it are OTU? (I say most because there may have been some things "in the pipleline" prior to this article that were published after it.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[creativehum]

You can find a description of the contents of the article in the first post of this thread from a couple of years ago.

Issue #4 of the JTAS includes a list of the "Emperors of the Third Imperium" -- so 1980 is around the time, as far as I've been able to tell, that the Third Imperium as a specific entity starts becoming a thing people might bump into in RPG magazines.

 

[ovka]

Many thanks for that. I never seem to be find anything when I try to search.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[creativehum]

You're welcome!

 

[GypsyComet]

Has anyone seen this article?

I was one of those kids looking for more Traveller material who stumbled over this issue of Different Worlds and bought it new. Several pages of what would now be considered introductory/summary level information. While it gets the gist established, a couple details in this article would prove to be a little "off" as further development took place.

As an aside, most of the Traveller articles in Different Worlds were quite good.

 

[mike wightman]

Adventure 1 Kinunir was 1979 and details the Imperium:

This adventure takes place in the Regina subsector, located on the far
spinward edge of the Imperium, about 44 weeks by express boat from the ruling
core, and more than three years out by ordinary transport. The lmperium itself is a
far-flung empire of 281 subsectors and over 11000 worlds.

There is a bit more in the library data.

This is a year before the DW article.

 

[ovka]

Adventure 1 Kinunir was 1979 and details the Imperium:

There is a bit more in the library data.

This is a year before the DW article.

Isn't this one of the books generally considered to be proto-Traveller, though?

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[aramis]

Isn't this one of the books generally considered to be proto-Traveller, though?

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

Generally..., yes.

It's also got prototype elements from High Guard that don't quite mesh with the published HG 79 nor HG 80....

And it's take on the imperium is rather dark ...

 

[mike wightman]

I am a card carrying member of the proto-Traveller fan club lol.

Adventure 1 is still where the Imperial setting starts to get fleshed out.

There is the Regina subsector, library data mentions Imperial ministries and core worlds etc.

The library data in the next two adventures - Research Station Gamma and Twilight's Peak - continued to build the Third Imperium as a setting.

Some of it was changed quite radically when the Library Data Supplement books overwrote the early stuff.

 

[creativehum]

Mike is right! (As he often is!) I forgot about Adventure 1 coming out in '79. Sorry about that.

As far as I can tell, the "facts" of the Third Imperium, crept their way forward in different publications, taking on more concrete form with each iteration, overwriting and changing certain elements of what came before.

I imagine, and this is only a guess from reading the material and how it was released, that the 3I was a constant work in progress over at the GDW offices. The Kinunir had the information required to provide the context for that adventure. And then for Different Worlds #9 they provided "A Campaign" (an example, it seems, from the title) of how to expand notes they had for a larger setting.

But every publication changed things slightly (and contradicted previous publications slightly) as the setting took more concrete shape in their heads.

My point is: It was all "proto" for a while. But some of us see a sharp turn in tone and feel for the setting elements at a certain point. The stuff before that turn is called "proto-Traveller." But it ultimately is an arbitrary point based on taste. Not one I'm knocking! I agree with it! I, too, am a card carrying member of the proto-Traveller fan club!

 

[ovka]

I'm not knocking proto-Traveller either. I remember reading Adventure 1 and thinking that it had the same "against the evil Empire" feel as Star Wars.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka