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From: steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Flaws in Traveller
Message-ID: <625@qubix.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Nov-83 19:09:51 EST
Article-I.D.: qubix.625
Posted: Thu Nov  3 19:09:51 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Nov-83 21:30:51 EST
References: <96@astrovax.UUCP>
Organization: Qubix Graphic Systems, Saratoga, CA
Lines: 116


    When Ed wrote his original article asking for problems that people
have encountered with Traveller, I replied with an answer which he
disagrees with:  Traveller is, at best, an unrealistic, unmanageable
game.   My "indictments" against the game Ed has chosen to attack (in
defense of Traveller), so I feel it necessary to explain in more detail
my exact feelings on the matter.

>>  1) Steven correctly notes that the Traveller standard universe does 
>>  not satisfactorily incorporate *all* of the complex technologies which 
>>  can be extrapolated for an interstellar society many thousands of 
>>  years beyond ours. 
>>                         ....................
>>  This is a failing not only of Traveller but also of science fiction 
>>  and futurology of all types generally.  I would be quite interested if 
>>  anyone could point out a good science fiction novel which adequately 
>>  treats a large number of novel technologies such as those mentioned in 
>>  the quote.  Really this is just a failing of human ability to predict 
>>  or imagine the future; in any absolute sense we are hopeless at it, 
>>  and the best (even very creative) people can do is to concentrate on one 
>>  or a few possibilities.  Thus, I do not think it fair to blame 
>>  Traveller for not having come up with a truly plausible and detailed 
>>  future.  Anyone bothered excessively by this probably isn't going to 
>>  go for any SF FRP game (or fiction?). 
 
>>  What Traveller does provide is a plausible and playable world based on a
>>  *minimal* technology for an interstellar society.  Ideally, this leaves the
>>  GM enough time, energy, attention, etc. to explore a *few* other advanced
>>  technologies when desired.  Alternate (parallel) Universes and Intelligent
>>  Computers have played a role in some games I have run.

    What Traveller also ignores is PRESENT DAY technology, in favor of a
romanticized version of the "future".  Where else would space-ship officers
carry swords, when our own US Navy junked them for all but decorative
purposes 100 years ago?   Piloting, Navigation, and Gunnery skills are ALREADY
being replaced by hyper-sophisticated computers, which reduce targetting,
location, and evasion to normal features of the craft, constantly in action.
Highjacking?? Don't make me laugh; we already have sophisticated metal detectors
which can detect tooth-fillings - and new "unfoolable" fuse detectors are said
to detect even purely plastic explosives.  Piracy depends upon a ship being able
to disguise itself, when it gets into port - not likely, given that we already
have enough databases on this planet to register every conceivable ship in the
Imperium.  Soldier/Naval losses of 20-60% are very unlikely, given the fact
that machines are doing more and more fighting for us.  ETC, Etc, etc.

    The problem is that Traveller is not based upon any reasonable form of
Science Fiction, but rather upon the 1950's Space Opera.  Instead of portraying
the future, a sort of "futuristic medievalism" pervades the game.  Sword
wielding nobility, fly around in spaceships battling pirates on the high space.
Teenage youth are pressed by the man-hungry services to learn how to fire
space cannonry, as spaceships of yore try to take down each others space drives.
Prepare for boarders!!, your captain yells as space-marines swarm abord your
craft.  You repel them, thanking god you are a part of the Imperial realm
and serve such a wonderful emporer.  You trade trinkets to savages and aliens,
as you visit their foreign planets.  If some cocky young buck at the spaceport
bar picks a fight, why you'll show him what you're made of!! (the colonial
starport police turn a blind eye to roughhousing and murder).

    I can see why such fantisies appeal to a large number of people.
They might even appeal to me if I could find some way of justifying them.
Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of mind -- my tendency is to follow
things to their logical conclusion.  Traveller has so many blaring
inconsistancies, I wonder if it was thought about at all...


>>  2) Steven's most severe complaint is that the Traveller universe is to 
>>  large for a GM to fill in the details with any reasonable amount
>>  of work.
>>       	    .......................
>>  Here again there is a real problem which often crops up in SF literature as
>>  well as in Traveller.  In fact, any GM must constantly trade off the size
>>  and scope of his world against the level of detail with which it is 
>>  presented; there are advantages to both.  Traveller probably tends to push
>>  the GM toward the size and scope extreme more than some other game systems,
>>  but I do not consider this terribly serious.  In some ways it can even be
>>  an advantage by giving the GM a more challenging and enjoyable "real time"
>>  role while playing.  In other words it encourages the GM to create at least
>>  the details of the game environment as play proceeds rather than in advance.
>>  I have found this less difficult than it sounds (and more fun) if I have
>>  the general outlines of the game world and the rules clearly in mind.

    Certainly anyone can make up an "Impromptu" run.  I almost always do it
myself.  However, any campaign must have a set up background from which the
referee gets ideas to run a game -- in D&D this is the "Dungeon", in Runequest
this is "Glorontha", in Chivalry & Sorcery this is "Medeval Europe".  In
Traveller, the background is the "Ship", and the "Generic Planet".  Due to
the size of the campaign, almost all the planets end up being the same.
When was the last time you heard in a traveller game a recognizable
foreign accent??  In a real "Imperium", almost everybody would have an
entirely different way of speaking... but of course the referee has to worry
about a lot more important things about Starsystem "AH273JOB" than that;
The style of play suggested in Traveller makes the players uninterested in
anything but the "class" of starport, gas giants, and the gun-control laws.

    All this detracts from the actual game.  Traveller universes I have been
in are far less imaginative than all FRP games (with the exception of D&D
hack and slash).


>>  The majority of Steven's complaints and all four of my original ones 
>>  can and should be fixed up by the GM (as Steven readily admits); indeed 
>>  that was the point of my first article.

    As a final note, I might point out that there comes a point where a
referee modifies a system so much, that he is not playing the same game
anymore.  This leads to all sorts of problems, like character portability,
but it also leads to a more fundimental question:  If you are not playing
the game, why did you buy it?   I certainly don't object to people playing
their own variants, I do it myself when I referee RuneQuest.  However, if
a game system is so buggy that it forces the referee to make major rules
and worldview modifications, then there is really no point in saying that
you play it.

Steven Maurer