OTU Only: OTU Setting, Defined

[robject]

My latest poll attempt is for getting a bead on what published works are the most useful for defining the Charted Space setting.

I'm looking for a minimal but complete set. Actually I'm looking for opinions about which printed sources are most valuable for determining this minimal but complete set.

So, what publications help draw the best boundaries?

I've only got 20 options(!) so I may group things together. Ha.


I'm open to more sources. For example, I'm SUPER WEAK on TNE and Lorenverse material.

 

[infojunky]

T5 needs Splat books! Otherwise all it's setting is implied.

CT and Gurps, do a much better of fleshing out the setting.

 

[robject]

T5 needs Splat books!

Totally agree.

Looking up Splat Book now on Google...

Splatbooks are sourcebooks devoted to a particular facet, character class, or fictional faction in a role-playing game, providing additional background details and rules options. For example, a "swords and sorcery" fantasy game might offer splatbooks for each of the races in the setting: humans, dwarves, elves, and others.

Yes, you're right, and in fact I've started gathering data tactically:

* Done: M1900 Library Data (6 pages), sketching worlds, corporations, and topics in and around the Republic of Regina.

* Done: Sharik's 1105 Library Data Appendix: A document that only contains "edge data": miscellaneous material that's setting-worthy, but not found in IE and RC. It is 14 pages long, and contains 18 entries.

* Handling a second phase of CT world and starship data would take another 14+ pages.

* By comparison, to replace IE and RC would take on the order of 70 pages.

* I have the CT/MT sophont text, but no clear vision for it yet.

 

[infojunky]

Also the Players book, or the Starter Traveller equivalent is needed for T5.

Honestly the core book for T4 would be a good model.

 

[robject]

Also the Players book, or the Starter Traveller equivalent is needed for T5.

That's actually got some traction. A proof of concept was completed this summer, by me, in order to spur Marc on. 156 pages of text, 6" x 9" format.

 

[Enoki]

If you look at the Traveller Map and Wiki sites, it is obvious that there's so much there that most of it, the vast bulk of it, will never get official treatment. I'd say the best way to move that forward and create a detailed universe is to crowd source it. Do like one of those mass human research projects where thousands of people do something like review galaxies and classify them.

All that needs be set to do that are the rules setting boundaries for additions.

 

[Timerover51]

I pretty much voted for what I have a good knowledge of. I have never really looked at the Spinward Marches Campaign, but using a board game as a basis for the Official Traveller Universe, the RPG game, strikes me as a bit questionable. I will have to look over the rules, as I have them to see if that changes my view.

As for MegaTraveller, blowing up your universe does not strike me as a good way to establish an OTU. However, COACC, which I have in both hard and digital format, does not so much establish the setting of the OTU, but more provides a basic design sequence, which does have its problems, for aircraft.

As for Lorenverse, I have never seen any material. The New Era I view as an aberration with respect to an official universe. How can you turn a devastated area into an OTU?

I have not seen any of the 1248 material.

Traveller 5 does need supplemental material to flesh out what is in the rules.,

 

[mike wightman]

Marc has to decide this stuff, not us.

CT material is mutually contradictory for the setting - so while some of the setting can be implied from the rules there are major disconnects eg the setting using the HG TL for drives rather than the letter drives of CT1-3 (but then retaining the letter drives for CT material that defines the OTU eg Alien modules and TTA).

MT ties the setting and the rules completely together, but re-wrote the technology and many of the setting details.

TNE flattened the setting and revised the technology yet again.

T4 made an attempt to reconcile CT with MT/TNE developments tech wise, but I have to wonder about the canonicity of some setting details - how much of the setting was written by third party authors and then given the nod by Marc and how much was Marc himself - because once again there are issues with CT era canon.

T5 and AotI give us the most up to date view of how MWM sees things - but it once again contradicts what has gone before.

My solution to the OTU issue is - reboot and go back to basics. Don't try to fill in all the details, give the referee and players the tools they need to bring their setting to life (whether home brew , OTU or ATU).

 

[mike wightman]

My latest poll attempt is for getting a bead on what published works are the most useful for defining the Charted Space setting.

For which era?
For ISW, M:O, pre-Rebellion, Rebellion, TNE, 1248?

The setting changes as the rules change, with different tech standards and TL progression in each era.

I'm looking for a minimal but complete set. Actually I'm looking for opinions about which printed sources are most valuable for determining this minimal but complete set.

To fully understand it you need the lot, then you can remove the rules specific changes keeping only the fluff that isn't affected by changing the game engine and tech paradigm.

So, what publications help draw the best boundaries?
I've only got 20 options(!) so I may group things together. Ha.
I'm open to more sources. For example, I'm SUPER WEAK on TNE and Lorenverse material.

TNE is part of OTU canon until MWM removes it, the Lorenverse is not OTU canon, with the possible exception of GT:ISW.

 

[mike wightman]

At the front of T5 - unless removed for the latest secret edition - is a section on the eras of the OTU.
Note that T5 is written to facilitate playing in the OTU with very little to say on making your own setting.
Each of those eras, if canon, are best described by the Traveller line books at the time they were written, but there are issues with respect to consistency.

Solution - T5 splat books for each era.

Another question - where does MgT 3I material fit in terms of canon? It's not included in your poll and yet MgT is producing re-imaged 3I era material that stomps all over CT canon.

 

[mike wightman]

Thinking about this a bit more, stripping away the game engine and technology paradigm inconsistencies:

1105 3I was defined by the early supplements, adventures, double adventures and JTAS articles, it was then re-defined by HG, the Alien modules, and the Library Data supplements.

The one book that shows it off is The Traveller Adventure.

MegaTraveller is easy - Rebellion Sourcebook and Imperial Encyclopedia cover the setting, throw in Hard Times for a completist view of the era.

TNE has several important books to understand the setting - Path of Tears, Vampire Fleets, Regency Sourcebook and Aliens of the Rim.

 

[The Pakkrat]

M1900 and Looking Back

I'd enjoy sitting in M1900 and looking back through time and into the OTU via an unreliable narrator such as the Galaxiad and cherry-picking what it reported what happened or stories told in any given year and region of Charted Space. That way, it is up to the subscriber to decide if it truly happened or not. This concept frees us from comparing Editions, sourcebooks, flavor texts, novels, board games and everything anyone has contributed.

Looking at Charted Space after the fact from the M1900 point of view, I believe we can enjoy any Traveller Universe contributed.

 

[BRJN]

Another option is needed in the poll: the Library Data LBBs.

IMHO, a Library supplement(s) would be the best place to describe the OTU. (And the web version will become the Ziru Sirka AAB.)

The basic rules (as LBB1-3 or The Traveller Book) allow a GM to create MTUs.

 

[Timerover51]

The real bottom line is that the OTU is defined by each individual game master for his or her games. Some of them may be quite similar and others quite different, depending on what sources they are using. From looking at the poll so far, there is a break with MegaTraveller.

Marc may wish to define the OTU, but in reality, that is being done by the game masters, and what basic material they are using.

Again, looking at the poll, T5 needs some fleshing out.

 

[McPerth]

Just one question: one of the options talks about "CT Alien Modules (versus MT or JTAS profiles)". Yet, those MT or JTAS profiles are not in the list, i ncase one believes they are better defined thatn in CT:AMs...

So, I'd suggest you to add MT:AMs (or specify in which MT option are they) and JTAS, that not only talks about Aliens, but also has plethora of otehr setting information (though some may not really be OTU...).

 

[robject]

Another option is needed in the poll: the Library Data LBBs.

They're actually subsumed and superseded by later material -- especially MegaTraveller's Imperial Encyclopedia, which is very nearly a corrected verbatim of the Library Data LBBs.

 

[mike wightman]

The real bottom line is that the OTU is defined by each individual game master for his or her games.

Yes and no, the OTU is determined by the IP holder for Traveller, one MWM.
Individual referees get to decide how close their TU is to the OTU, but they do not define the OTU.
The OTU effectively ceases to exist once you add players and a referee, since what they do is going to be different for every group.

Some of them may be quite similar and others quite different, depending on what sources they are using. From looking at the poll so far, there is a break with MegaTraveller.

I get the feeling that is more to do with what most people think the OTU is. They are fixated on the 1105 to 1116 setting and ignore that the OTU goes from the Ancients era - possibly earlier - to the heat death of the universe and includes the Rebellion, TNE and 1248

Marc may wish to define the OTU, but in reality, that is being done by the game masters, and what basic material they are using.

Marc does define what is the OTU, referees then get to use what they which how they wish - it is even possible to play science fiction rpg settings with the Traveller rules that are not connected to the OTU in anyway - Mindjammer, Clement Sector, Hostile/Zaibatsu...

Again, looking at the poll, T5 needs some fleshing out.

Completely agree.

 

[mike wightman]

Just one question: one of the options talks about "CT Alien Modules (versus MT or JTAS profiles)". Yet, those MT or JTAS profiles are not in the list, i ncase one believes they are better defined thatn in CT:AMs...

So, I'd suggest you to add MT:AMs (or specify in which MT option are they) and JTAS, that not only talks about Aliens, but also has plethora of otehr setting information (though some may not really be OTU...).

How many people have access to the MT Alien modules to make a decision?

 

[mike wightman]

They're actually subsumed and superseded by later material -- especially MegaTraveller's Imperial Encyclopedia, which is very nearly a corrected verbatim of the Library Data LBBs.

Trouble with MT IE library data is that it has DGP spin to it, the CT library data Supplements are a better source for pre-Rebellion canon.

 

[mike wightman]

I'd enjoy sitting in M1900 and looking back through time and into the OTU via an unreliable narrator such as the Galaxiad and cherry-picking what it reported what happened or stories told in any given year and region of Charted Space.

That's my preferred way to reconcile the OTU eras with T5.

That way, it is up to the subscriber to decide if it truly happened or not. This concept frees us from comparing Editions, sourcebooks, flavor texts, novels, board games and everything anyone has contributed.

There is even the possibility of reality manipulation technology in T5 explaining some of the 'wake up in the shower' moments

Looking at Charted Space after the fact from the M1900 point of view, I believe we can enjoy any Traveller Universe contributed.

I wonder if the Galaxiad will be published any time soon?