OTU Only: OTU Setting, Defined

[Ulsyus]

The lack of an official universe as an official setting was a feature as much as a bug.

Was the lack of an OTU by design in order to encourage people to play in their favourite settings? From what's written above it seems that it was more a matter of them not having written the material for it at that point and were still pulling the setting together.

While Timer's got a point about the lack of an OTU offering greenfiled opportunities to establish one's own setting, that's a ton of work and from my observations often not one sought by refs who may be time-poor and need somewhere to run their scenarios.

That said, having just re-read Space Vikings, that background was sufficiently vague as to leave anyone playing in that setting seeking much more info than is available in the story.

 

[mike wightman]

By the time the 1979 material was being released the broad nature of the OTU must have existed for quite some time.

The library data and rumours in A:1 are setting specific, so the setting has to have been outlined before work on A:1 could begin, even if they were developed at the same time that still rolls the date of the OTU back to early 1979, late 1978.

JTAS 1 mentions many worlds in the Spinward Marches (best not read too much into Rescue on Ruie since it contradicts the later version of the Spinward Marches) so the Spinward Marches had to exist in outline before JTAS 1 adventures could be written.

The tickets in LBB:4 also mention worlds and megacorporations in the Spinward Marches so that backdates a nascent OTU to 1978.

 

[creativehum]

Was the lack of an OTU by design in order to encourage people to play in their favourite settings? From what's written above it seems that it was more a matter of them not having written the material for it at that point and were still pulling the setting together.

In every interview Marc Miller has given, he has made it clear there was no setting planned for the Traveller rules when the game was written and even when the game went to market.

From the interview I posted upthread:

Originally Traveller was meant to have no official setting at all. "I envisioned a generic rules set that would enable any science-fiction situation, from space opera to serious drama. One of the first reviews of the game said something like 'I won't play a roleplaying game that doesn't provide background and adventures,' and the editor interjected, 'And I won't play a game that constrains me like that.'

"I'll confess that was an awakening for me, and I realized I couldn't make this game all things to all players; I had to choose. Our reasoned corporate choice was to provide background and adventures for those who lacked the spare time to make up their own."

Both Gygax and Miller assumed anyone buying their respective games would be making their own settings. When the game shipped, Miller has said, he assumed that would be pretty much the end of it from GDW's end. After all, the game can be played successfully without another item or book published ever.

The fact that there was a market for pre-generated material was the surprise in the early years of the hobby.

 

[creativehum]

By the time the 1979 material was being released the the broad nature of the OTU must have existed for quite some time.

The tickets in LBB:4 also mention worlds and megacorporations in the Spinward Marches so that backdates a nascent OTU to 1978.

I'm going to disagree with you here Mike (a rarity!) -- depending on how you mean "broad."

The information in LBB:4 is so generic and vague that it could have been sketched out by the person typing it as they typed it.

There's an imperium. There are megacorporations. There are minerals.

There is nothing to suggest -- to me at least -- the broad nature of anything had been developed yet. What I see is writers putting elements together on the fly, with a concern for nailing the specifics a Referee might need to insprire a session. As the setting grew, the next writer would look at what had been written previously and think, "Okay, imperium, megacorporatins, got it..." and keep building from that.

The fact that so much material for the setting ends up beind willy-nilly and not always fitting together very well only supports this point of view. It was a setting being constructed as it was published. Theres a lot of fun rumors in A1 that suggest a setting. How much of the sensibility of those rumors last more than two or three years in the setting?

 

[mike wightman]

I mean broad in the sense that they already knew, by the time they were writing LBB4, that they would also be releasing other supplemental material and this would be framed within their interpretation of a setting. I doubt if all the library data or setting fluff that would make it into A1 had yet been completely decided, but there are definitely element in LBB4 that would become setting material.

When I read the sample tickets every world is a world we would later find included in the Spinward Marches and the megacorporations Ling Standard Products and Sternmetal Horizons also get a nod.
It is the first ticket that leads me to the conclusion that the folks at GDW had already begun filling in details of their soon to be official setting:

Marastan (planetary characteristics - D8687715) has for over a century classified as an lmperial Reservation...
The empire relented and set a formal entry date of Marastan to full member status in the Imperium. On that date, an lmperial survey ship will arrive and determine the governmental type or types that will control the surface of the world, based on actual existence and ownership of territory at that time. The official entry date is set at three months hence, and on Marastan the scramble for the mineral riches begins...
A force much in excess of a battalion, however, would probably trigger lmperial enforcement of the reservation laws, and perhaps significantly delay entry into the Imperium.

 

[creativehum]

I mean broad in the sense that they already knew, by the time they were writing LBB4, that they would also be releasing other supplemental material and this would be framed within their interpretation of a setting. I doubt if all the library data or setting fluff that would make it into A1 had yet been completely decided, but there are definitely element in LBB4 that would become setting material.

When I read the sample tickets every world is a world we would later find included in the Spinward Marches and the megacorporations Ling Standard Products and Sternmetal Horizons also get a nod.
It is the first ticket that leads me to the conclusion that the folks at GDW had already begun filling in details of their soon to be official setting:

Sure. Or... these specific details, created on the fly and not part of any larger outline, will later be incorporated into the broader setting is grown.

I suspect this is the case.

I refer everyone to Ulysses' post above about Space Vikings. Piper wrote a whole novel, creating details as needed, and in doing so barely scratched the surface of expalingi the setting to the reader. I would suspect that Piper didn't know much more of the setting eaither. More... but not much more... because he didn't need it to tell the story.

I suspect the writer of those Merc Tickets was working the same way.

 

[Ulsyus]

Sure. Or... these specific details, created on the fly and not part of any larger outline, will later be incorporated into the broader setting is grown.

I suspect this is the case.

I refer everyone to Ulysses' post above about Space Vikings. Piper wrote a whole novel, creating details as needed, and in doing so barely scratched the surface of expalingi the setting to the reader. I would suspect that Piper didn't know much more of the setting eaither. More... but not much more... because he didn't need it to tell the story.

I suspect the writer of those Merc Tickets was working the same way.

I think it's interesting that some game supplements provide a plethora of information, fair amounts of detail, which are nice for refs to not have to develop a lot of colour themselves and it nails down cannon. However, cannonical debates can then rage. Maybe just giving the information needed to run a scenario is enough, leaving information gaps that, while frustrating to some, allows plenty of creativity for refs to be able to decide what YTU is going to be.

The discussions about 3I culture are a good example. There's cannon on it scattered all through various volumes, maybe concentrated in GT and T4 but elsewhere nonetheless. However it's still vague at times and that makes it easier for refs to say how nobles in the 3I interact, engage up and across and down the social spectrum, and what opportunities that consequently gives PCs.

For me the only thing worse than a cannon-gap (no, not the sort found in Vauban fortification walls) is cannon detail that seems wrong, stifling or just not synchronised with other material (thus requiring ret-conning later on: see IRIS...)

PS: Ulysses was Mycenaean, Ulsyus was Melnibonean and later Darrian...