Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8373283" data-attributes="member: 82106">Traveller is in a sort of a weird place. Suppose a player says &quot;My PC sits down at the computer, starts the library program and does a search for a world in this sector that...&quot; I mean, particularly in our modern Internet Age, such an action seems pretty fundamental, how could you NOT have that capability? Sure, some facts may be hidden, but STARS and PLANETS are not hidden! (certainly not normally, you might use that as a plot device once). So, what happens when the player does that in a game run Pemerton's way? Well, obviously there's no objective answer. Traveller seems to WANT one, at times certainly, but yet doesn't give us a mechanism for it (how could it). I guess you could just always answer &quot;well, the next planet over, UPP&lt;whatever&gt; is called Drexel and it...&quot; Perhaps some pre-established fiction or background will provide an answer, etc. Fantasy games don't really have this issue, though it will show up in most 'realistic' milieu that are modern. Seems like a BW-like approach, or a DW-like approach would differ a bit, wouldn't they? DW lets the player answer (the GM should ask them) and OTOH BW goes right to mechanics, and whether or not the player gets to invent some answer or not. Either way you would seem to need 'maps with blanks'. Seems like it is a pretty universally useful approach outside of strict OSR-like paradigms where you're in 'exploration mode' (but remember, 1e still has random generators, they still work).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8373283, member: 82106"] Traveller is in a sort of a weird place. Suppose a player says "My PC sits down at the computer, starts the library program and does a search for a world in this sector that..." I mean, particularly in our modern Internet Age, such an action seems pretty fundamental, how could you NOT have that capability? Sure, some facts may be hidden, but STARS and PLANETS are not hidden! (certainly not normally, you might use that as a plot device once). So, what happens when the player does that in a game run Pemerton's way? Well, obviously there's no objective answer. Traveller seems to WANT one, at times certainly, but yet doesn't give us a mechanism for it (how could it). I guess you could just always answer "well, the next planet over, UPP<whatever> is called Drexel and it..." Perhaps some pre-established fiction or background will provide an answer, etc. Fantasy games don't really have this issue, though it will show up in most 'realistic' milieu that are modern. Seems like a BW-like approach, or a DW-like approach would differ a bit, wouldn't they? DW lets the player answer (the GM should ask them) and OTOH BW goes right to mechanics, and whether or not the player gets to invent some answer or not. Either way you would seem to need 'maps with blanks'. Seems like it is a pretty universally useful approach outside of strict OSR-like paradigms where you're in 'exploration mode' (but remember, 1e still has random generators, they still work). [/QUOTE]

Verification