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<blockquote data-quote="Wofano Wotanto" data-source="post: 9266117" data-attributes="member: 7044704">Very true.&nbsp; The &quot;Traveller as toolbox&quot; argument always stumbles over the number of setting assumptions the rules use - although usually it's the (frankly bizarre) fuel-intensive FTL system, lack of FTL, casual STL drives and absence of FTL comms that does that more so than the lack of a good system generator.[SPOILER=&quot;More OT chatter&quot;]That said, 3PP were carrying a lot of weight for GDW in pretty short order, with Paranoia Press doing books for both merchants and scouts (bundled with assassins, of all things - there's some espionage/tough diplomacy for you) by 1981 and some mags and zines running their own ideas even earlier.&nbsp; The first eight years or so of its existence were the Golden Age for Traveller articles in non-GDW mags, that's for sure.&nbsp; Can't recall the first time I saw a variant world generator in some periodical but it was certainly in the Seventies.&nbsp; Lot of GMs didn't randomize anything anyway, they just wrote up what they wanted, often happily cribbing from popular scifi of the era.&nbsp; I know I've been to thinly disguised versions of Tran-Ky-Ky in at least three old campaigns...&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Of course, none of that stuff had the same impact as official GDW books, even when they were more-or-less tacitly approved like FASA's output was.&nbsp; Having three or four scout and planet generation variants scattered around as many mags and publishers meant less than the single GDW LBB in 1983.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wofano Wotanto, post: 9266117, member: 7044704"] Very true. The "Traveller as toolbox" argument always stumbles over the number of setting assumptions the rules use - although usually it's the (frankly bizarre) fuel-intensive FTL system, lack of FTL, casual STL drives and absence of FTL comms that does that more so than the lack of a good system generator. [SPOILER="More OT chatter"] That said, 3PP were carrying a lot of weight for GDW in pretty short order, with Paranoia Press doing books for both merchants and scouts (bundled with assassins, of all things - there's some espionage/tough diplomacy for you) by 1981 and some mags and zines running their own ideas even earlier. The first eight years or so of its existence were the Golden Age for Traveller articles in non-GDW mags, that's for sure. Can't recall the first time I saw a variant world generator in some periodical but it was certainly in the Seventies. Lot of GMs didn't randomize anything anyway, they just wrote up what they wanted, often happily cribbing from popular scifi of the era. I know I've been to thinly disguised versions of Tran-Ky-Ky in at least three old campaigns... :) Of course, none of that stuff had the same impact as official GDW books, even when they were more-or-less tacitly approved like FASA's output was. Having three or four scout and planet generation variants scattered around as many mags and publishers meant less than the single GDW LBB in 1983. [/SPOILER] [/QUOTE]

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