Out of the Darkness - Discussion thread
- Thread starter jfetters
- Start date
I have not read this book. 
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Or if you like...
M. Genghis waves tentacled hand-stalk at General JR and manipulates him with Hiver-mumbo-jumbo!
Worth your time, either way
M. Genghis waves tentacled hand-stalk at General JR and manipulates him with Hiver-mumbo-jumbo!
Worth your time, either way
I have placed links in both the Stellar Reaches website and my own personal blog, as well as adding it to my sig here. Doing my part to get the word out!
I am so thankful that this has been officially released. Finally, the OTU is no longer stuck in some decrepit time loop in a history that's already been written. It can move forward. The worlds of Charted Space are devastated but recovering, and I imagine that in another 120 years or so, many of the great negative influences of the Virus Era will have passed. Now is a period that gives the best of both worlds (CT and TNE), all in one package. The campaign I've been running in the Fourth Imperium has been a blast, and I'm looking forward to seeing the setting continue to develop.
Keep It Up, Avenger,
Flynn
I am so thankful that this has been officially released. Finally, the OTU is no longer stuck in some decrepit time loop in a history that's already been written. It can move forward. The worlds of Charted Space are devastated but recovering, and I imagine that in another 120 years or so, many of the great negative influences of the Virus Era will have passed. Now is a period that gives the best of both worlds (CT and TNE), all in one package. The campaign I've been running in the Fourth Imperium has been a blast, and I'm looking forward to seeing the setting continue to develop.
Keep It Up, Avenger,
Flynn
M
Malenfant
Guest
Amen to that!
I dunno actually... I think the events from 1200-1248 were pretty darn devastating. While things may have quietened down a bit now, the impression *I* get is that civilisation barely survived by the skin of its teeth. True, things are more hopeful now, and the worst is hopefully over, but I think the future is going to be totally unlike what has come before. After the madness of the past few decades (not to mention the civil war before that), things will have changed irrevocably.
That's just how I see it anyway
. Either way, though, I like it 
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I like the potential the new setting offers as an adventurer's playground.
I'm having a hard time coming up with an adventure that wouldn't fit into the setting somehow.
It also offers the chance to update the sci-fi a little bit with the lid being liftef on cybernetics and sentient machines.
Think of the fun you could have as a Star Viking team on a sentient ship - especially if it has an avatar like Rommie
I'm having a hard time coming up with an adventure that wouldn't fit into the setting somehow.
It also offers the chance to update the sci-fi a little bit with the lid being liftef on cybernetics and sentient machines.
Think of the fun you could have as a Star Viking team on a sentient ship - especially if it has an avatar like Rommie
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
I toss my hat into the ring as well...
It indeed (kicks the Hiver off stage)propels the TU timeline ahead where you can no longer have to fret in darkness (or in daylight-savings time). Like Flynn, our Tne-set traveller campaign finds this an exciting time of opportunity, adventure, and of rebuilding.
And there's all sorts of room to wiggle and finagle your GM inspired evil..I mean <ahem> storyline weaving into the fabric of this background for your player's enjoyment.
I step away from the podium to go set fire to something new, today!
It indeed (kicks the Hiver off stage)propels the TU timeline ahead where you can no longer have to fret in darkness (or in daylight-savings time). Like Flynn, our Tne-set traveller campaign finds this an exciting time of opportunity, adventure, and of rebuilding.
And there's all sorts of room to wiggle and finagle your GM inspired evil..I mean <ahem> storyline weaving into the fabric of this background for your player's enjoyment.
I step away from the podium to go set fire to something new, today!
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Shhhhhhhh! They'll think I was manipulated Big G!
Still only skimming...have to wait to print it out somewhere to savour it...
Very comprehensive in terms of the Traveller Universe. Once it goes deadtree, I would flush out a little more of the history. Taking a closer look at Clay Bush's article might help. Furthermore, what I liked alot about TNE was that there were characters that people could relate to that were helping narrate the action in italics. It would be nice to see some of them again or brand new characters.
I found that I was wanting more information still on the Dominate and I really would want to make them scarier. My thoughts of a Biotech Virus K'kree Union was not fully realized in what I have read so far.
Kinda disappointed in the choice of the Emperor kinda would have liked the symbol of the vacant throne for many pretenders to rise to the occasion.
It would benefit from a good index at the back.
I guess due to budgetary constraints is the reason why there was not more art. Being a big art fan, I would like to have seen much more. Hopefully, new artists will be attracted to the story and give visual life.
Very comprehensive in terms of the Traveller Universe. Once it goes deadtree, I would flush out a little more of the history. Taking a closer look at Clay Bush's article might help. Furthermore, what I liked alot about TNE was that there were characters that people could relate to that were helping narrate the action in italics. It would be nice to see some of them again or brand new characters.
I found that I was wanting more information still on the Dominate and I really would want to make them scarier. My thoughts of a Biotech Virus K'kree Union was not fully realized in what I have read so far.
Kinda disappointed in the choice of the Emperor kinda would have liked the symbol of the vacant throne for many pretenders to rise to the occasion.
It would benefit from a good index at the back.
I guess due to budgetary constraints is the reason why there was not more art. Being a big art fan, I would like to have seen much more. Hopefully, new artists will be attracted to the story and give visual life.
M
Malenfant
Guest
What I love about OotD is that roughly the first half of it is filled with all sorts of very nifty historical details that cover pretty much all of Charted Space from the end of the Rebellion up to 1248. It fills in so many gaps in the timeline, it really allows you to play in any sector at any year during that vast period of time.
Plus it's got writeups of all the races and major polities, sections about Virus and what it's like in 1248, and the empress wave is explained finally! All those nasty dangly threads from TNE are nicely tied up. Plus there's some predictions on where things might go.
This is far, far beyond a book that is just about the 1248 era - it's phenomentally useful for everyone playing from the MT era onwards. If you're interested in any of that then you need to get this.
(the only thing it lacks right now is a table of contents (at least, my copy hasn't got one), but hopefully that will be rectified soon)
Plus it's got writeups of all the races and major polities, sections about Virus and what it's like in 1248, and the empress wave is explained finally! All those nasty dangly threads from TNE are nicely tied up. Plus there's some predictions on where things might go.
This is far, far beyond a book that is just about the 1248 era - it's phenomentally useful for everyone playing from the MT era onwards. If you're interested in any of that then you need to get this.
(the only thing it lacks right now is a table of contents (at least, my copy hasn't got one), but hopefully that will be rectified soon)
jfetters
SOC-14 1K
Mal's hit it right on the head here, I think.
It's a great historical summary of the OTU, nice to give to a newbie who wants to figure out what is going on (or more accurately, what has happened).
It also does a better job of "wiping the slate clean" than TNE did as you can quite literally adventure in any kind of setting, whether that is a specific era in the past or in the present. 1248 lets you play just about any type of setting.
It's a great historical summary of the OTU, nice to give to a newbie who wants to figure out what is going on (or more accurately, what has happened).
It also does a better job of "wiping the slate clean" than TNE did as you can quite literally adventure in any kind of setting, whether that is a specific era in the past or in the present. 1248 lets you play just about any type of setting.
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
Mals' copy doesn't have a table of contents just to tease him. everyone else's does. --MJD
Boss,
now that's a not so subtle manipulation! trying to Keep Gruffty's Hiver offstage still..
Boss,
now that's a not so subtle manipulation! trying to Keep Gruffty's Hiver offstage still..
M
Malenfant
Guest
I knew it. It's a conspiracy!
Scott Martin
SOC-13
*COMPLAINT WARNING*
I note that the only Traveller universe that was specifically "little ship centric" catapulted from that into massive battles between cap ships. Some of the "background" was also a bit troubling in the context of TNE (Ships venting their jump fuel so that can't retreat = ships that can't maneuver)
A good effort, and one that ties up a lot of loose ends, but one of the attractions to me was that the facilities to build monster fleets *anywhere* had been reduced to rubble, and it would be a long time before they were an issue again. That left a large "window of opportunity" for small (player character scale) ships to change the course of history, an opportunity that (IMO) has now been lost in 1248 unless you want to play Star Vikings working their way to the core on a rescue mission.
While this will probably make 1248 more palitable to CT and MT fans, it loses a lot of what made the TNE setting interesting to play in: the feeling that players could make a difference.
Scott Martin
I note that the only Traveller universe that was specifically "little ship centric" catapulted from that into massive battles between cap ships. Some of the "background" was also a bit troubling in the context of TNE (Ships venting their jump fuel so that can't retreat = ships that can't maneuver)
A good effort, and one that ties up a lot of loose ends, but one of the attractions to me was that the facilities to build monster fleets *anywhere* had been reduced to rubble, and it would be a long time before they were an issue again. That left a large "window of opportunity" for small (player character scale) ships to change the course of history, an opportunity that (IMO) has now been lost in 1248 unless you want to play Star Vikings working their way to the core on a rescue mission.
While this will probably make 1248 more palitable to CT and MT fans, it loses a lot of what made the TNE setting interesting to play in: the feeling that players could make a difference.
Scott Martin
M
Malenfant
Guest
I don't think that's entirely true - there's still a lot to do in the Wilds after all. You may not be able to do the same thing under the auspices of the Star Vikings anymore, but there are still a lot of places that need help coming out of the darkness.
The good thing about the 1248 setting is that the 'safe zones' are bigger so that people who want a nice safe life can do that, but there's still a lot of danger out there and exploration to do if you head beyond the borders.
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
I quit trying to stuff the Hiver into the waiting Grav-taxi backstage in alley with Gruffty.Originally posted by Malenfant:
I knew it. It's a conspiracy!
Dang! He saw us! Act natural...
