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Which of the following versions of the OTU would you like to play in?

Which of the following versions of the OTU would you like to play in?


  • Total voters
    24
Originally posted by soloprobe:
I see MOST OF US play ,like we've "GOT A PAIR" and opted for the Dark Imperium.....
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Well, you'd need a pair to play around in TNE, too. ;)
 
Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran von Gushiddan:
Sure, we got wars, we got drugs, crime, you name it. But we also beat Polio, went to the moon, and got me mum a new Titanium kneecap. If some jive like the Virus can beat us, then we either had it coming, or were asleep at the switch.

If we as humans in the 57th Century (hypethetically, of course) were to allow that to come about, then the question arises if we even deserve to Rise out of the Ashes.
And that's what makes such a setting interesting.

One fundamental thing about humanity is that it never learns. We keep making the same damn mistakes over and over. We bemoan a war that takes millions of lives, and then we go ahead and have another one 30 years later. It's part of what we are - we are capable of great kindness to our fellow man and also great cruelty.

I don't think that will change in the next few thousand years either. For all the greatness of the fictional Third Imperium, it still was dumb enough to tear itself apart in a gigantic civil war culminating in the accidental release of a technology-destroying weapon before it was ready that brings everything crashing down. That sounds par for the course for humanity really.

You could set the game in the 1400s when everything is rebuilt and "stable", or you could set it in the 1250s when things are just starting to pick themselves up again, but either way the Bad Stuff still happens. So does the Good Stuff too though. The only difference is in how close the setting is in time to all the Bad Stuff.
 
Now, Traveller 1400 or even Traveller 2000, set in the centuries after 1248 and the rebuilding began in earnest, would make an excellent setting, I think. With all the world data available, it would be easy to create somewhat logical polities based on travel distances from High Pop, High TL, Starport A worlds. Limit size by a maximum of six months round trip from polity capital to the border and back (roughly the maximum communication lag our own history has ever maintained for a stable political body in our past), and you get a maximum polity size of 3X3 sectors for a Jump-6 capable polity. (Each Jump rating equals a polity of about one quadrant to a side, so Jump-2 is a full sector, etc.) Large enough to be impressive and/or expansive, small enough to have lots of frontiers and neighbors, that kind of thing.

But that's my own personal dream project. Someday I may even sit down and do it.


Enjoy,
Flynn
 
My "dark Imperium" doesn't have blasted out X ports... those X ports are worlds that are not interstellar for usually other reasons. Stable trade flows are a rarity IMDTU. Mostly because trading is dangerous, in the ideological, physical, and piratical senses. So, since it's high risk, the high returns make up for it... but local bigwigs don't like merchies, since merchies bring unfiltered news, new ideas, and all too often, hope for better lives.

Sure, pirates can be detected... but can they be intercepted? And why is that Pirate flying local navy colors?
 
But that's my own personal dream project. Someday I may even sit down and do it.
My own dream is of a Traveller 5K or 10K. A setting far enough in the future to be completely different yet containing familiar yet subtly changed elements.

I like the idea of a setting full of hope in a bright eyed future and the threats that might undermine it.
 
Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
Without darkness there is no light; without the Sherieff of Nottingham there would be no Robin Hood; without the archvillian there would be no superhero.
Amen.

No Luke without Vader (litteraly
), but Han Solo would get on just fine without the Empire.

edit to add: "several[line-breaks]"



I think the question is only how much contrast you want to have between "evil" and "good" and how personified you want each one of them to be. I sense that the baron does not really want a personified evil for the PCs to fight against. Nor that his PCs only have an agenda set by "good".

If you draw a parallell to our real world and our real history, i think you could find several examples of "evil personified" (even though the henchemen are probably more important to evil-dudes then they get credit for), but you can also see several examples of "evil" being more of an abstract concept or principle. I think it really depends on what setting you want:

WW2 - rescuing shotdown brittish bombcrews through your underground "recistance" in France
or
the Napoleon era - Hunting pirates and slave-traders while smuggling opium yourself of the coast of west Africa.

BTW, I voted for Hard-times.
 
Originally posted by Gnusam Netor:
I think the question is only how much contrast you want to have between "evil" and "good" and how personified you want each one of them to be. I sense that the baron does not really want a personified evil for the PCs to fight against. Nor that his PCs only have an agenda set by "good".
I did not say that I would nescerily use a personified "evil" in my game either, or even that I would put "good" PCs against "evil" opponents in each and every plot -this isn't D&D - but rather that occasional hard choices and moral considerations, as well as the possibility to "do good" if they wish, and to "do evil" if they wish, would give alot of emotional colour to the PCs, as well as to NPCs and to the plot.

Making PCs' actions impact their surroundings for good or worse, even at the planet-wide or system-wide level (or higher) is also an advantage of Hard Times - there isn't a huge interstellar government to clean up your mess after you (or arrest you for creating that mess).
 
Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
I did not say that I would nescerily use a personified "evil" in my game either,
I didn't accuse you of anything, i wrote "amen" (as in I-agree-100%-with-that-I-quoted), then I went on to discuss in general on the subject. However, I see why you might have missinterpreted my post, i'll try to correct that.
 
Originally posted by Gnusam Netor:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
I did not say that I would nescerily use a personified "evil" in my game either,
I didn't accuse you of anything, i wrote "amen" (as in I-agree-100%-with-that-I-quoted), then I went on to discuss in general on the subject. However, I see why you might have missinterpreted my post, i'll try to correct that. </font>[/QUOTE]No, I did not feel accused or offended - I only wanted to clarify what I said earlier. No need to re-edit your post
 
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