Will the "real" Spinward Marches please stand up?

[Timerover51]

I have Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches in at least two hard copies and a digital version. I do not have and likely never will have the Spinward Marches Campaign, it did come out in 1985. I do have the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia somewhere in my basement, but I do prefer Classic over that version. Nor do I have or plan to get the Regency Sourcebook, which is based on The New Era.

I suspect that which version of the Spinward Marches a player uses depends on what version of the game he/she likes and is using for play.

 

[mike wightman]

The original CT Spinward Marches supplement is the only one I will ever use.

 

[flykiller]

The original CT Spinward Marches supplement is the only one I will ever use.

'swhat I used for my map of the spinward marches. a few errors and alterations maybe ....

 

[flykiller]

Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches may not be “canon,” but it is leading in this poll by a wide margin.

more specifically, while supp 3 has a strong plurality, a large majority use something else.

don't matter. "trav'ler players, pick your game and now play ...."

 

[flykiller]

As to writing for fun, of course you can. And you can publish it as fan stuff under the fair use policy etc.

well I was thinking of you yourself. maybe you could write a short story the way you want and post it here.

 

[MJD]

I write for a living, so I only tend to do stuff that pays the bills.

 

[robject]

It's not just about the canon content, the contradictions and interpretations, there's also style and tone to consider, and the implications of apparently quite little things.

Style and tone... definitely. Thankfully, Martin, I've always enjoyed your writing style, and frankly I think the perhaps somewhat similar tone of military fiction (SF and otherwise) works well for Traveller.

 

[flykiller]

I write for a living, so I only tend to do stuff that pays the bills.

well hopefully someday you can tell your own stories instead of somebody else's. that way when people send you hate mail you won't have to say, "they made me do it", instead you'll be able to say, "it's MY story I'll tell it the way I WANT."

 

[robject]

You could pitch Translight to Matt...?

 

[Timerover51]

I write for a living, so I only tend to do stuff that pays the bills.

You sound like a wish and more than a bit experienced writer.

 

[MJD]

You could pitch Translight to Matt...?

I could, but that would not change the fact that when writing for Traveller's OTU the author has to deal with the strictures I mentioned.

 

[maksimsmelchak]

Hi MJD,

During the time I've been writing for Traveller (Starting in 1994, I think) I've seen various authors come and go. How many have published more than one product? Some, true, but not many.

Very few. Some of that is one them and some of it is not. As you mentioned, the rules are many, a regular 3I bureaucracy... Lots of digging to find a nugget.

It can be hard enough to find anyone able to write even just one. When I used to be Line Editor at QLI I got a lot of mails from people who had this huge fantastic epic idea that they wanted to tell me about. A couple even got as far as the broad outline stage.

I hope that some of those get dug out and completed.

Point is, finding writers is difficult. It was announced on these boards some years ago that 'The (T5) sourcebooks are just waiting to be written!' which I have always found a rather odd statement. Yet it expresses part of the problem - there are good ideas and exciting concepts just waiting for someone to write them down, but a dearth of people who can actually do that.

Yes. Can't please everyone. And hard to please just anyone.

The Traveller brand is littered with part-written sourcebooks that never got finished, big ideas that never got past the talking-about-it stage, various flavours of vapourware and the like.

Yes.

A guide to writing for the OTU would be helpful in remedying this situation, I think, and might help more of these projects come to fruition.

For what it's worth, I have been developing the wiki with that goal in mind. The references are starting to become more detailed and while it's decidedly imperfect, it's turning into one hell of a resource.

Don's timeline will be completed one way or another, which will also help in that regard.

Thanks for your service to the Imperium.

Maybe I'm the only guy out there that doesn't really have a problem with any of it. I understand the complaints about various products, books, storylines, etc. but I'm just glad to see a little more Traveller...

Shalom
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[Spenser TR]

Thanks for your service to the Imperium.

Maybe I'm the only guy out there that doesn't really have a problem with any of it. I understand the complaints about various products, books, storylines, etc. but I'm just glad to see a little more Traveller...

Seconded. Loudly.

It was your material that brought me back into Traveller, fully invested me as a fan and lifelong ref/player/writer/tinkerer. This was true before I knew who "MJD" was as an author, and as I go forward to explore the richness of what you've contributed with a growing knowledge of all the meta surrounding this thing we enjoy so much, I also count all the coulda-beens and creations that died at the bar napkin stage with a little sadness.

 

[flykiller]

there are good ideas and exciting concepts just waiting for someone to write them down, but a dearth of people who can actually do that.

perhaps you mean people who can write something they think is exciting that will come across as exciting to others? exciting enough to sell? to even be used?

 

[Redcap]

MJD -

Thanks for your service to the Imperium.

Maybe I'm the only guy out there that doesn't really have a problem with any of it. I understand the complaints about various products, books, storylines, etc. but I'm just glad to see a little more Traveller...

Shalom
Maksim-Smelchak.

Seconded. Loudly.

It was your material that brought me back into Traveller, fully invested me as a fan and lifelong ref/player/writer/tinkerer. This was true before I knew who "MJD" was as an author, and as I go forward to explore the richness of what you've contributed with a growing knowledge of all the meta surrounding this thing we enjoy so much, I also count all the coulda-beens and creations that died at the bar napkin stage with a little sadness.

I don't know which is your material (to my embarrassment, I never actually LOOKED at the flyleaves, something I'll now go back and remedy whenever I look at a source book. I stand humbly corrected!), but I'll echo the folks above: Thank you for your Service to the 3i. I hope to see you in the Imperial New Years Honours list very soon again

As to which SM I use; I first played the game with the CT rules and setting. That obviously coloured my later impressions of the game to a large degree.

I never liked the setting idea of the rebellion, but I loved, and still do love, the DGP rule set variation, included in the MT books. It seemed to me to be a cleaner, more streamlined and low-drag system, somehow.

I detest, with a passion, T5 (Don't know why, I just hate it).

GT is alright, and at least kept to the original backstory (and the "Lorenverse" continuation of the original 3i).

I've not touched T4 or T20; I saw no need to do so, frankly: What I had seemed fine to me.

So, CT, maybe SMC (have to dig it out of the digital collection and have another dekko), but I've found that the CT Supp #3 SM LBB to be easy to fling at players (I use the word "fling" metaphorically, naturally :smirk: ), and let them get on with planning their route, while I, from behind my GM shield, plan unspeakably evil BOHICAs to lob over the parapet at them :devil:

Oh, and a bit more on canon. FWIW, my 'take' on canon is that you can take it or leave it, at your discretion, as a GM. If you're writing something for the game, for others to use, then yeah, you have to give it a LOT of credence, but when all is said and done, as a GM, it is up to you, and you alone, to take from the published material what you want, and add to it as you see fit, if you want to do that. Canon is a guide, in my view. It's nice, but it's not set in stone. Make of that what you will, I'll go back and lurk behind my (cardboard) parapets

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

These days, I have all the books. But I use the more current published one from Mongoose.

 

[hiro]

I don't know about "real", that term is somewhat weighted...

I've been using www.travellermap.com and am very happy with it.

I own the 1e Mongoose book and somewhere I probably have a CT or such SM but I haven't looked at it for donkeys...

 

[Redcap]

The only problem that I have with the map, is that it's using the T5 rules, which make some worlds red zones, others amber where, using the CT and MT rules sets, they're just normal systems. Makes for confusion, that. I wonder if there is a way, when using the 1105 setting, to use the CT/MT zoning rules?

 

[hiro]

The only problem that I have with the map, is that it's using the T5 rules, which make some worlds red zones, others amber where, using the CT and MT rules sets, they're just normal systems. Makes for confusion, that. I wonder if there is a way, when using the 1105 setting, to use the CT/MT zoning rules?

If I understood T5 I might be quite happy, especially as MgT moves closer to T5 and we're closer to getting a consistent setting. From the Mongoose Traveller forums I read that the new version of POD uses the Traveller Map as it's base. I'm guessing their new Reft/Rift Sector books will also use it be default.

I am really liking the options you can turn on and off in the settings. Perhaps we can ask for an option that allows trade descriptions/zones to be turned off?

 

[Redcap]

I somehow suspect we're asking for things that might be difficult to implement, somehow. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained