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<blockquote data-quote="Shades of Green" data-source="post: 2986142" data-attributes="member: 3297"><p>I am sorry for my unclear writing; I did not intend to say that it was like Gygaxian designs, but rather to say that Marc Miller's design philosophy was also focused on imagination and story (sometimes much more dependant on imagination that Gygaxian designs, actually, as some of the early Traveller material was designed to give the "bare bones" of the situation and let the Referee fill in the "meat" or fluff) rather than on complex game mechanics or on non-abstract realism. The main point of similarity between OD&D and Classic Traveller in terms of design philosophy, is of being quite mechanic-light and non-simulationist; simulationism was a later addition to Traveller.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I agree with that; this is not a good place to discuss Miller's design philosophy in details, but feel welcome to hop to <a href="http://traveller.comstar-games.com/" target="_blank">the ComStar/Avenger forums</a> or to <a href="http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi" target="_blank">The Citizens of the Imperium forum</a> to discuss the matter in detail (both are Traveller forums).</p><p></p><p></p><p>Classic Traveller is indeed quite easy to learn to play, though the parts with more complexity of it are mostly Referee-centric, such as world generation, shipbuilding and animal encounter building. But even then it's quite simple; that's what I like about CT as opposed to later editions of Traveller. Rules are light; therefore, you must make heavy use of your imagination. Ofcourse, very early Traveller supplements did make a huge increase in complexity (High Guard/Book 5 especially, and Striker which is an early Traveller wargame and VERY simulationist). However, similarly to OD&D, Classic Traveller lacks a unifying game mechanic; different subjects use different mechanisms to resolve them (e.g. ship combat vs. personal combat). My point was that both were more on the gamist and narrativist sides of the scale rather than on the simulationist one.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Again, I am sorry about not being clear enough; I did not intend to say that artificial gravity, inertialess drives, FTL or even psionics were impossible per se, but are not based on any fully-proven scientific concept (unlike fusion power, which science understands the basic principle of very well, but actually having a controlled fusion reaction that yealds more energy than it recieves ; they might be possible, and they might not. What we disagree on is probably more on the definition of "Hard Science" than on our beliefs of what might or might not be possible.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I've mostly refered to stories such as At the Mountains of Madness, which had a "scientific" feel on it despite being quite fantastic; generally speaking, IMHO the main virtue of Lovecraft is in making horror with a very good suspension of disbelief, which, ofcourse, helps the horror be even more horrifying to the reader.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shades of Green, post: 2986142, member: 3297"] I am sorry for my unclear writing; I did not intend to say that it was like Gygaxian designs, but rather to say that Marc Miller's design philosophy was also focused on imagination and story (sometimes much more dependant on imagination that Gygaxian designs, actually, as some of the early Traveller material was designed to give the "bare bones" of the situation and let the Referee fill in the "meat" or fluff) rather than on complex game mechanics or on non-abstract realism. The main point of similarity between OD&D and Classic Traveller in terms of design philosophy, is of being quite mechanic-light and non-simulationist; simulationism was a later addition to Traveller. I agree with that; this is not a good place to discuss Miller's design philosophy in details, but feel welcome to hop to [URL=http://traveller.comstar-games.com/]the ComStar/Avenger forums[/URL] or to [URL=http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi ]The Citizens of the Imperium forum[/URL] to discuss the matter in detail (both are Traveller forums). Classic Traveller is indeed quite easy to learn to play, though the parts with more complexity of it are mostly Referee-centric, such as world generation, shipbuilding and animal encounter building. But even then it's quite simple; that's what I like about CT as opposed to later editions of Traveller. Rules are light; therefore, you must make heavy use of your imagination. Ofcourse, very early Traveller supplements did make a huge increase in complexity (High Guard/Book 5 especially, and Striker which is an early Traveller wargame and VERY simulationist). However, similarly to OD&D, Classic Traveller lacks a unifying game mechanic; different subjects use different mechanisms to resolve them (e.g. ship combat vs. personal combat). My point was that both were more on the gamist and narrativist sides of the scale rather than on the simulationist one. Again, I am sorry about not being clear enough; I did not intend to say that artificial gravity, inertialess drives, FTL or even psionics were impossible per se, but are not based on any fully-proven scientific concept (unlike fusion power, which science understands the basic principle of very well, but actually having a controlled fusion reaction that yealds more energy than it recieves ; they might be possible, and they might not. What we disagree on is probably more on the definition of "Hard Science" than on our beliefs of what might or might not be possible. I've mostly refered to stories such as At the Mountains of Madness, which had a "scientific" feel on it despite being quite fantastic; generally speaking, IMHO the main virtue of Lovecraft is in making horror with a very good suspension of disbelief, which, ofcourse, helps the horror be even more horrifying to the reader. [/QUOTE]
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