So, Did the Spinward Traveller Debut Happen at Gencon?

[martletsquire]

Blue Ghost,

The D&D movie... Oh, gods, the D&D movie.

Well, imagine if a bunch of script-writers, knowing that teens liked playing D&D, and knowing nothing else, take a crappy movie script out of someone's armpit and sprinkle some terms and names and add in even more crappy costuming and worse special effects...

"H&R Puffinstuff" was high production in comparison. That stupid purple/green dinosaur show was high production in comparison.

And it sucked so much they made a sequel, and, after that dog's breakfast, a tv series that sucked maggots out of moldy corpses.


And as to the whole Traveller movie thingy, not enough people out there know our game exists, let alone what it is all about, and have no idea over the commentary wars over all the little things that make Traveller, well, Traveller.

So, basically, one could skin Traveller and wear it as a suit, but that would be unfortunate. It would be so nice if the actual Traveller version of Traveller (whether Classical or Mongeesish, though I am a classisist, myself) was used as a basis, but well, probably more suited to a mini-series or a net show than a movie due to background, too much background.

Witness "The Orville." Supposedly no background, but within the first 10 seconds you go, "there's Star Trek music here..." And it is based off of ST and STNG (not the new movies, the series.)

Traveller is so different in it's initial presentation, that of frontier worlds under a benevolent (or not, hmmm) Imperial system, more British Empire and it's colonies and holdings than anything USA based (so not like Firefly. More like Space "Kipling" and "Dickens." (or as I see it, and remember the feeling that oozed out of the box so many years ago...))

And the focus on 'real science' with only some 'handwavium' (jump drive, really, that and maybe some other stuff, but mostly jump drive) makes it harder for normals to see, as they are used to seeing ships go swooshy like planes rather than having to do vector analysis.

Probably the same reasons that killed the "Honor Harrington" tv series that never got off the ground.

 

[Blue Ghost]

*nodding vigorously*

You know dude, everything you say is so right. Back in the day when we were pre-teens / teens I had my doubts that Traveller would take off like D&D. I say that because the Starter Edition seemed to be the only sleek version of the game (at that time) that was out there.

Here we are thirty plus years later, and I'm still waiting for the game to take off :rofl:

But I can see a CGI motion capture Vargr character, some NBA types playing Zhodani, regular Han Solo-ish dudes and dudettes for the main characters ... mostly scouts, but maybe a token army, navy and and/or marine tossed in there, and ... I dunno, make it pay homage to Outland and Aliens kind of thing, with a dash of classic Trek tossed in there.

That's what I would produce.

If I understand from Aramis correctly, Marc Miller has been energetic in keeping Traveller G/PG territory in terms of violence and romance, ergo if it ever came to pass, in spite of things like FGMP-15s, VRF Gauss Guns and grav tanks tearing up the place, the action would be more A-Team like ... which I think is too bad, but I'd respect it as either as Joe Sixpack in front of the TV or a production team member.

You know ... I wonder if the Judge's Guild modules are still leaving a mild stain on our passion. :rant:

 

[kilemall]

The brutality of the combat systems belie a PG rating, other then no not going into grisly detail like I have IMTU.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I have always wondered about the hardware and other instruments of violence verse the ethic the powers that be want to keep for the game. It'll be interesting to see what finally manifests on the screen.

 

[Condottiere]

Good story and characters matter more than the setting.

 

[Barsanuphius]

Yep. I agree. Yet the setting is a story and a character of its own. Say what is Star Wars without the Evil Empire? What is would the Matrix have been like in Tokyo as compared to Modern US City ( as it was generic but easily supposed to be LA)? Or if it were in Moscow or Johannesburg, South Africa? Each setting is a different character and story, Different rules, and maybe a different game played out before us. The setting is just as important. :coffeesip:

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Blue Ghost]

.... Back when Traveller hit the store shelves, the scifi genre was defined as anything dealing with space and monsters that weren't supernatural. Traveller comes from that era, and as such the backdrop that's evolved from it, for my money, is still fairly nebulous despite stuff like T20 and GT from SJGames.

Personally, I think of the setting as a amalgam of Blade Runner and Star Wars.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Good story and characters matter more than the setting.

[opinion=mine]

A character-driven plot is ideal, since it results in a story that twists and turns on the whims of the characters involved - “Characters causing change”, as real people in similar situation would.

Plot-driven characters are the worst; because, when you get right down to it, there is really only one story of this sort - “Characters reacting to change”, as if they were mere puppets putting on a show.

It can be argued that Science-Fiction is not only a genre, but it is also a backdrop against which all other genres may be projected. Imagine Agatha Christie’s “10 Little Indians” taking place during jump ... or a 2-week misjump. Or maybe “Murder On The Spinward Express”?

Then there’s the issue of “hard” vs “soft” Science Fiction. Traveller has FTL travel, making it less than absolutely “hard”. Adding psionics makes it “softer”. Throw in transporters, light sabers, ascended energy beings, and time travel, and the story lurches ever more into “softness” until the story may as well include wizards, magic, demons, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!

[/opinion]

But I digress. Good acting may not help a lousy plot, but poor acting can close “MacBeth” on opening night.

 

[jcrocker]

Epic fail example: Dungeons & Dragons, the movie.

True.

But.

I saw it in a second-run theatre, it was like $1.25 or $2 or something. It still stank, but the scene in the final battle where Jeremy Irons is overacting as if his life depended upon it? Well worth the price of admission* right there.

*Well, the one I paid, anyway. Still wouldn't have minded an hour or so of time back.

 

[Fovean]

This wasn't always the case. If you look at pre-70s films you'll note a small degree of that, but it was more prosaic and directly looking at the issue of the day/week without trying to disguise it. During and after the 70s the effort intensified or became more formulaic and streamlined.

Do you think because of Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces? I can see where that era really embraced that story structure and it opened up blockbuster filmmaking in the US (of course, it's predated by Propp's Morphology of the Folktale), which eventually got us to 'cinematic' style and themes in modern television.

But I think there's a lot of films and television shows that challenge social 'norms' and mores and push audiences to really think and pay attention. Comics as well (well, graphic novels at least, I'm not a big comics guy). And that's been happening for quite some time.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Jeremy Irons was in it? Wow. He must've been slumming it at that time.

 

[Fovean]

The beauty of a setting like Traveller is that race and gender play no part in casting. With 11,000 worlds to call home, every stereotype can be had and cancel one another out.

 

[jcrocker]

Jeremy Irons was in it? Wow. He must've been slumming it at that time.

At the time, some paper or other awarded him the 'biggest prostitution of talent`award.

I`m not likely to bump into him on the street, but if I do, I`ll genuinely thank him for his efforts.

 

[Condottiere]

Wild Wild West was a Will Smith vehicle, and I think was the movie that proved he can't carry it on his own.

Since it was steampunk, you could overlook the racial issue; but as the story was mediocre, it doesn't matter anyway.

As for Dungeons and Dragons, it seems pretty much a cheap attempt to cash in on Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy; though there appears to be a serious attempt at a reboot to be premiered in Twenty Twenty One. It might have been more successful as a Three Musketeers type spoof.

 

[Blue Ghost]

The beauty of a setting like Traveller is that race and gender play no part in casting. With 11,000 worlds to call home, every stereotype can be had and cancel one another out.

Quite so.

 

[aramis]

[m;]4 posts hidden for political content, feeding the troll, and trolling.[/m;]

When a post triggers a desire to post a reply that includes real world post-Apollo program politics, the only appropriate ways to proceed are:

• Walk away without responding
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• As a staff member to create the thread for you.
• Report it for trolling for a political response.

 

[mike wightman]

As for Dungeons and Dragons, it seems pretty much a cheap attempt to cash in on Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy; though there appears to be a serious attempt at a reboot to be premiered in Twenty Twenty One. It might have been more successful as a Three Musketeers type spoof.

The D&D film predates the Fellowship of the Ring, so trying to cash in a year earlier than the film that would make records is a bit silly, not to mention requiring psionics...

While a fan of D&D I have zero interest in a film version. How can they make a film of my D&D world?
Put another way - there are several official D&D settings, how do you choose which one to base your film around? Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Grayhawk, and Mystara are the only official worlds I have used as written.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I feel I should apologize. I'll stick with the Traveller TV series to be.

I am curious as to what kind of stories the show will focus on. Will or would the series skew towards real science minus jump drives, and focus on interstellar empire space opera stuff, or might there be monster / strange phenomena kinds of stories?

Trek did it all. The SW Rebels CGI toon does "fight the Empire" kind of stories. BSG was all about running from the Cylons. Buck Rogers was high adventure. A Traveller series would seem to lean towards Buck's derring do, but with firearms instead of "blasters" .... and probably no dog fights in space, or not aerial combat at least.

 

[Blue Ghost]

The D&D film predates the Fellowship of the Ring, so trying to cash in a year earlier than the film that would make records is a bit silly, not to mention requiring psionics...

While a fan of D&D I have zero interest in a film version. How can they make a film of my D&D world?
Put another way - there are several official D&D settings, how do you choose which one to base your film around? Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Grayhawk, and Mystara are the only official worlds I have used as written.

I think the difference between a Traveller film/TV show and D&D is that Traveller shed it's GURPS like skin ages ago in spite of the write ups in the old CT books. D&D straddles all kinds of fantasy; from Conan the Barbarian kind of stuff to Classic Greek / Roman age material, to high middle ages just before the Renaissance. Meaning that a D&D flick, in spite of its grounding with colored player maps, detailed DM maps, screens, charcoal sketches for interior art, and ornate oils for the covers (at least for classic D&D), it's still fairly nebulous even though it has its own default "Imperium" (name escapes me ... Raven Hawk? Blackhawk? I can't remember).

Just my take. I think at its core D&D is about marauding tomes and killing to make money. Traveller has an element of that, but focuses on tech, and gaming out plots.