Canon Timeline?

[Nathan Brazil]

Remember, each and everyone of these products was official at the time they were published. The OTU Timeline looks like this(?):
The OTU
GURPS 4th Edition: Interstellar Wars (Years around -2200)
Marc Miller's Traveller (Years around 0 to 200)
Agent of the Imperium novel (Years around 400 to 800)
Traveller 20 (D20 version) (Years around 1000 or so)
Classic Traveller and Mongoose Traveller (Years around 1105 to 1115)
MegaTraveller (Years around 1115-1124 Rebellion occurred)
MegaTraveller - Hard Times (1128 - 1130 The end of Rebellion, one way or another)
Traveller: 1248 (1130-1195, descriptions of what happened to the Rebellion Factions )
Traveller: The New Era (1195-1209)
Traveller: 1248 (1209-1248)
Travveller 5th Edition (1902)

Still, George Lucas says Han did not shoot first. And now Disney says the Extended Universe (Yuuzhan Vong, Chewie dying) does not exist.

 

[fusor]

So the ATU is like this
GURPS 4th Edition: Interstellar Wars (Years around -2200)
Marc Miller's Traveller (Years around 0 to 200)
Agent of the Imperium novel (Years around 400 to 800)
Traveller 20 (D20 version) (Years around 1000 or so)
Classic Traveller and Mongoose Traveller (Years around 1105 to 1115
GURP 3rd Edition Traveller (Years around 1115 to 1130 - The Rebellion NEVER happened)

Interstellar Wars, T4 and T20 aren't really "Alternate" here. Those events did happen in canon and they're part of the official history of the setting (even if the rules implementation is different).

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Exactly, I point these out as MY acknowledgement/viewpoint that these are Canon. Most agree that this occurred. It is the later ones where contention occurs. Remember the First is/isnot is Rebellion. No Rebellion is the Alternate. I am trying to be complete here.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Agent of the Imperium is considered canon by we grognards (I am 51) as it is written by Marc Miller, the Intellectual Property Holder of Traveller. Or as we grognards say, "Whatever Marc says is Traveller, is Traveller, until he says it's not."

 

[FentonGib]

To the OP: :roll: :lol: You missed all the flamewars of the '90s concerning the versions of Traveller.

lol I'm sure it was an interesting time to live through! Thanks for taking the time to put the things into order for the OTU and ATU. As I've said before, this is our first time with the Third Imperium setting, and not sure how fast we're gonna go through the years, or how far, so just getting a feel for important events coming up.

Whenever we do a game I like to have things as sandbox-y as possible for my players, but with metaplot/subplot elements... ie let the players decide what they do and how, but I know how the universe is changing, what's happening and the players have to react to that. As you say, Strephon's assassination is the point where things really diverse. If the players are enjoying the trading/adventuring element, then I might go through the ATU and let them enjoy the golden age. But if they end up enjoying more the subplot/metaplot elements and get more involved with Imperial Intelligence and the likes, then I may stick to the OTU. I don't mind Strephon's assassination and - as pointed out to me on another thread - as my players are in the Solomani Rim it would take nearly 2 years for news of his assassination to reach them... so I figure that the economic problems and disruptions caused by the rebellion would have little to no effect on the Solomani Rim until 1120+. It's the Virus storyline that I really don't like... but that's far enough away to not likely affect the players.

Atm I see me likely to stick to the OTU up to the virus part, but then instead of having that, have the civil war ground to a halt and Norris help start what becomes the 4th Imperium. Ie what happens, but just leave out the bit about virus.

Just feels a bit iffy to me to sell a lot of products revolving around the 3rd imperium setting, but only have that setting last 10 years in a game that seems will cover a month game-time per session/story (assuming 1-2 jumps per story). But again, I guess I'll find out how this'll work in practice when the game starts. My group and I have never been keen on games that assume you play for a while, and eventually restart with new, low-level characters and reset the timeline to the start. We prefer to have the world/setting change around the events the players do. In this case admittedly very little effect on the setting as it's so huge - but I think they're likely to eventually decide to stick to an area, get involved with groups and stuff and thus may end up e.g. helping sort out issues on a planet, making government allies/enemies, etc... and it's nice to see the results of those actions - better or worse - and reap the rewards/consequences. Help a planet's King defend against a coup attempt, and as a result get trade benefits and every time they're on-planet have a feast held in their honour, maybe given some land as a reward ("home"), etc...