World Builder's Handbook - Some assembly required?

[jtgibson]

Okay, first off, please tone back the negativism, dude. If I'm wrong, correct me; don't ridicule me. ;-)

Huh? Nice to know you can glean all that from the table of contents. Next time try reading a book first and then comment on what's inside. WTH deals primarily with founding, controlling, and growing small colonies. As for handling crash-landings, I've no idea where that claim comes from.

If you'd like to lend me your copy, I'd love to read it. Otherwise, I'm not shelling out money for products which -- as you point out -- I have no serious idea what's actually inside them. I read the table of contents because that was the best synopsis that anyone has given me thus far. If I drew incorrect conclusions, how does that make me any different than anyone else who can only read a brief picture and a paragraph about a book?

The crash landings idea was derived from the primitive equipment mentioned in the ToC; generally, if players crash land on a world which is less-than-Early-Stellar, they'll have to resort to Pre-Stellar equipment in order to get along. Otherwise they'll be using Avg Stellar+ equipment. Maybe I went a little far beyond Ockham's Razor, but it seemed like a logical conclusion at the time. I tend to associate "taming" with "wilderness" as well, so that also contributed.

Wrong again. GT:FI has latitudinal climate adjustments. I'm looking at the mapping section right now and there is an entire series of examples about how climates changes between the equator and poles, where those latitudes are in relation to hex rows, and other things. The book even discusses latitudinal deserts.

Okay. I was working via Heaven and Earth, whose FI generation system doesn't provide longitudinal adjustments. Apparently H&E isn't complete in that regard.

I like GT:FI and I like WBH too. Sure, First In doesn't have a system to create tiny social 'quirks'; i.e. 'academics eat leftovers', but it does address many other other social issues like xenophobia, pragmatism, and others. Being written later, GT:FI is also more scientifically accurate.

As for details, as a GM, details are my business to create. Using tables to roll-up silly quirks without reference to the larger society invovled is both lazy and produces implausible incongruities. YM obviously Vs.

Well, I could release a 1-page roleplaying game system with the following contents:

"The gamemaster is the arbiter of all of the rules."

Basically, a rulebook is intended to guide the referee moreso than it's intended to provide exacting figures. If a random roll produces a ridiculous cultural quirk, the prudent thing is to ignore the quirk or make a new one, or try to find a way to adapt it if it comes to a place. Sometimes, though, it's good to have the rules to guide your line of thinking. Everyone can probably think up completely unique cultures if they have an afternoon to do it, but the WBH system allows you to come up with a passable culture with unique societal traits in the span of 20 minutes or so, and with an hour of work you can produce completely unique cultures on par with what you'd get if you had to work completely solo.

That's what I figure, anyway. =)

 

[Whipsnade]

The crash landings idea was derived from the primitive equipment mentioned in the ToC; generally, if players crash land on a world which is less-than-Early-Stellar, they'll have to resort to Pre-Stellar equipment in order to get along. Otherwise they'll be using Avg Stellar+ equipment. Maybe I went a little far beyond Ockham's Razor, but it seemed like a logical conclusion at the time. I tend to associate "taming" with "wilderness" as well, so that also contributed.

JT,

WTH is both a rules book and a specific campaign in a specific setting using those rules. That's where your confusion apparently arises.

The campaign is set in TNE and deals with an attempt by some of the smaller RC members to place a small agricultural settlement on a world called 'Poyzen' (It had a tainted atmosphere during the Third Imperium period which has cleared up by 1200.)

The 'low' technology described in the ToC is a result of the effort being colonization being relatively small, being relatively underfunded, and the RC being relatively low tech. WTH's rules however deal with all tech levels.

On the other hand, many sections in the ToC clearly refer to both Poyzen, the RC-TNE setting, and the colony campaign. There's even a section in which archtypical RC colonist types are presented and the methods by which they were recruited. Other sections, including one on potential Vampire attacks, make the campaign setting abundantly clear.

WTH's ToC is a good guide for what is actually inside the book. When you read it, the low tech equipment listed must have stuck in your mind and formed your later opinion of the book.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Fritz_Brown]

As someone who has both, I'd say you only need GT:FI. It's more scientifically accurate than LBB:6 and it covers nearly all of the same things WBH does.

Hmmmm. I just don't want to delve into GURPS... It being heretical and all....

Unless you're a completist, and I suffer from that affliction somewhat, you're really not missing much by not owning WBH.

Well, there is that problem...

 

[Jacqual]

I downloaded a book from a webpage that does not seem to exist for me anymore, I was wondering what is the legal on it the web site is
http://maps.grandsurvey.com/map.html
The File saved itself as Traveller Sector maps.pdf
if the file is copyright infringement let me know so I can delete it it was a free download but I don't wanna have illegal goods if you know what I mean

P.S.
i know what you mean by the Roger Sanger issue I have met the man in the past and was totally confounded by the man's inability to accept that other people may actually have an opinion. He wanted me to make up a rule's set for his game AI and he wouldn't use it because it was not exactly like traveller's rule system. i told him you cannot use someone else's rules cause then they can sue you. Needless to say we didn't see eye to eye and I went my way when he started accusing me of theft.

 

[GypsyComet]

Burning bridges before he has crossed them seems to be a specialty. I'm sorry hear that another has gotten caught on one of those bridges.

I won't even get into the "he paid too much for IP that declines in value with every passing month" or "AI was too wierd (or not wierd enough) when it was announced, and hasn't gotten any better since" rants.

While I do not know his financial specifics, I suspect the "easy" path (of ponying up the license fee and selling the DGP Traveller line as PDFs plus what ever paper stock he acquired) is somehow repugnant to him. Ironic for someone who is trying to continue development of "AI", but so be it.

 

[aramis]

Actually, Jaccqual, you were wrong, there. You can use other people's RULES, just not their wording of them.

Copyright doesn't protect ideas, just the particular expressions of them.

But, yeah, Rodger's a bit of a dunce.

 

[Jacqual]

Well he wanted them to be exactly like traveller right done to the UPP for characteristic's. He wouldn't say it but he wanted AI to be traveller in I think a gamma world setting from what he was trying to describe. Weapons doing same damage, the only thing different was character creation he didn't want terms.

 

[aramis]

And as long as the wording was different, it's perfectly legal.

Unethical, but legal.