Just to add here (broken record time); our groups put down Traveller more than once due to some game mechanic issues, but it had the allure in that it had solid "build your own starship and setting" rules, and the combat system was pretty straight forward.
Now, that aside, the GURPS like feel and promise that was grandfathered out, and yet stuck around with all the groups I was ever in, tended to compete or nudge the OTU during sessions. That is the Vargr were there as aliens, but the FFW wasnt'. The Droyne were, but how come they aren't involved in that war that's only loosely referred to?
So, to me at least, this is the thing about this game as a hobby, and that is as you try go navigate its setting for the purpose of adding onto it, things gel and just become a lot more clearer. Back in the day, from 80 up through 95 or thereabouts, and again in 2007 to 2009 I think, there's a kind of murkiness in terms of what's actually going on in the Marches between 1100 and 1113 (or whenever the war ended).
So, one of my aims is to try and clear up that shapeless background. If there's a war on, then how come the players don't experience more battles, or stumble across fleets duking it out? If it's space opera, then, well, where's the opera part?
I mean, after three decades of toying with the system, I understand it a lot better than ever I did as a pre-teen. But even that understanding gets curve tossed at it, ergo I'm more or less trying to sweep out the cob webs of ignorance.
With Gamma World, Blue Planet, Jovian Chronicles, or even SJGames various GURPS books and HERO, there's a form there. Blue Planet is about swimming around on a water world with things like uplifted Orcas, pirates, subs, all that jazz. Jovian Chronicles skews mech-like with shades of various Japanese anime space opera fare. GURPS, for all of its chameleon like forms because it's one basic system with a lot of iterations for specific settings, there's a feel for what it is when you sit down to either just read the supps, or actually play a session. Even HERO has a kind of superhero setting unto itself that's unique and apart from DC or Marvel.
But Traveller, to me, is a little tainted by Keith's sketches, in the back of the 76 patrons and 1001 character LBBs alludes to how you can emulate various characters and settings, but then says there an official OTU. Well, okay, but what does that look like? GURPS added some much needed texture to Traveller, but it still felt nebulous to me, ergo when I wanted to write for it in the early 2000s, about the time I joined the forum, and talked with Hunter about it, I just couldn't wrap my skull around the setting.
Upon reflection a lot of that was intentional, and not just to keep the game detached so that people could use it for whatever kind of gaming session they wanted, but perhaps also to keep it from being too tied to one face or type of presentation. And when you have that, from a writer's standpoint, it's tough to grapple with.
So, that's all a long headed way of me re-stating that I'm just sharing my vision of how the OTU might look and operate. And for all the bad prose I posted, it's actually been kind of a fun process. I've got oodles more stories for Aston and Vash (possible spoiler; at some point Vash was going to age faster than Aston, but I'm not sure I want to do that), but I've got other worlds to explore.
I've stated this in other posts, and I already know the answer and have had it addressed by both the staff here, mister Miller, and just my own genuine "Ah-ha!" moments of realization, but, before I had all that, I was baffled as to why other sub-genres of the scifi genre weren't addressed, and so in this way this is kind of my not-so-sneaky way of shoving in stuff like Dragons or cybogs and whatever else. I mean, it's all fan fiction for a game that has a certain bent to it. As such I feel freer now to play with it as a piece of clay to mold, than I ever did as a Ref running a session for my friends.
Phew! I had to get that out.
This has been an amazing experience. I'll keep writing for Aston and Vash for a while, and maybe toss in a Droyne or a Darrien at some point.
The short version; this has been a very liberating experience. It's all fan fic done in good fun. Thanks for the comments Pakkrat.
I may toss in Hunter Gordon as a character. I really miss that guy.