Daring To Change: Innovation In The Third Imperium

[alex_greene]

According to MWM, pbuh, in Classic Traveller there is no such thing as FTL communications, Jump speeds higher than 6, or anything more powerful and lasting in effect than monthly anagathics to stave off inevitable death. And for close to forty years, the game has chuntered on with those basic assumptions holding things back.

Any time someone came up and said "What if someone invents, say, a wormhole drive?" or "Hey, did you know that this Warp Drive thing allows one to travel in real space at speeds of X parsecs per hour?" and followed it up with "Wouldn't it be neat if ...?" there were the inevitable shoutdowns. "No, because MWM, pbuh, said so!" or "What about war? What about trade?" or the old standby, "But it wouldn't be the Third Imperium any more! It would all fall down and go boom!"

Here's the thing. What if your Travellers, in your game, break - not bend, but completely break - one of these taboos, and then make it public knowledge, such that the revelation changes the whole setting?

The Age of Sail came to an end due to improvements in weapons technology (shells replacing powder and cannon balls, improved sighting technology and understanding of ballistics), hull design (ironclad ships replacing wooden hulls), propulsion technology (internal combustion engines replacing sails) and communications technology (wireless radio, underwater telephonic cables), so what's stopping you, as referee, from ushering in technologies which ultimately render the existing Traveller tech obsolete?

Short answer: nothing. You can do what you like.

Consider the aim of your campaign as not to save the Third Imperium, but to change it, having established a baseline of what people think they can do, and then establishing the Travellers as the pioneers - the Chuck Yeagers, the Marconis, the Teslas, the Alexander Flemings - who completely change things by breaking barriers nobody even realised were there.

Imagine the fun you could have as you bring the Traveller Age of Sail, or Age of the Jump Ship, crashing down around everybody's ears ...

 

[Sigtrygg]

Alternatively just run Mindjammer Traveller.

The point of the OTU is that it is a common stating point for referees and authors.

An individual referee can do what they wish with TTU, but to be OTU it has to be authorised by MWM - he owns it. Mongoose doesn't.

T5 has introduced new technologies that are not in the 3I setting, to use them MWM is writing a continuation of the OTU picking up in the 1900s where all the new toys can now be used.

As an author, if you want to have it published and accepted as OTU canon it has to be authorised by MWM.

You want subspace radio in your game - go for it.

You want warp drive as an alternative to jump or a replacement - go for it.

You want wormholes or jump gates - they already exist in T4 canon

 

[Condottiere]

Universes tend to need boundaries to maintain coherency.

I remember trying to get through the first hundred books of Perry Rhodan, and most technological breakthroughs seemed more like convenient plot devices.

 

[alex_greene]

Universes tend to need boundaries to maintain coherency.

I remember trying to get through the first hundred books of Perry Rhodan, and most technological breakthroughs seemed more like convenient plot devices.

Consider Stargate SG-1, and the differences between early season 1 and late season 8, or even late season 10.

At the start of season 1, the team was barely surviving; by the end of the series, they had ships capable of visiting the Pegasus Galaxy, beam weapons capable of destroying Wraith hive ships and Ori motherships, Sodan and Ancient cloaking devices, and Asgard beaming tech - oh, and they'd blown up a star and seven eighths of a solar system.

In each case, as they acquired or invented technology and made it their own, they would put their own stamp on it and enact changes which even began to be felt in the mundane world. And even at the end of Stargate Continuum, the setting had remained the same, true to itself at the end of the show as much as at the start: a mixed bunch of Air Force types, an alien and a supergenius linguist, travelling from planet to planet through big glowing portals.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Universes tend to need boundaries to maintain coherency.

I remember trying to get through the first hundred books of Perry Rhodan, and most technological breakthroughs seemed more like convenient plot devices.

Consider Stargate SG-1, and the differences between early season 1 and late season 8, or even late season 10.

At the start of season 1, the team was barely surviving; by the end of the series, they had ships capable of visiting the Pegasus Galaxy, beam weapons capable of destroying Wraith hive ships and Ori motherships, Sodan and Ancient cloaking devices, and Asgard beaming tech - oh, and they'd blown up a star and seven eighths of a solar system.

In each case, as they acquired or invented technology and made it their own, they would put their own stamp on it and enact changes which even began to be felt in the mundane world. And even at the end of Stargate Continuum, the setting had remained the same, true to itself at the end of the show as much as at the start: a mixed bunch of Air Force types, an alien and a supergenius linguist, travelling from planet to planet through big glowing portals.

its kind of hard to believe that the US Government would be building starships while continuing to operate the Space Shuttle and doing useless things in low orbit for public consumption as a cover. Some of the alien cultures contacted through the stargate probably began to wonder how the US government keeps everything a secret when stargate travel is common knowledge to their society. That is the unbelievable part of it all.

In order to maintain a recognizable modern society, everything SG1 does and acquires is stamped "Top Secret" and "hush hush!" Really now, isn't that stretching it rather thin? Past a certain point all of this stuff has to come out in the open, the public will have to be informed about what their government is doing with these alien artifacts.

 

[Condottiere]

While a colleague had a room mate that was a die-hard fan, and I liked the original movie, catching episodes while he was hogging the television made me dismiss, if not really dislike the franchise, so it's hard to comment on this. Also didn't like Babylon Five either, after the first season, it just got weird, and never developed any empathy with the characters, though seeing Chekov was great and surprisingly, Gilbert.

Even in Star Wars, we'll swallow a lot of things, including instant communications, though I believe midichlorians crossed the line, and what appears to be a rather bad character development of Darth Binks.

 

[alex_greene]

Its kind of hard to believe that the US Government would be building starships while continuing to operate the Space Shuttle and doing useless things in low orbit for public consumption as a cover. Some of the alien cultures contacted through the stargate probably began to wonder how the US government keeps everything a secret when stargate travel is common knowledge to their society. That is the unbelievable part of it all.

In order to maintain a recognizable modern society, everything SG1 does and acquires is stamped "Top Secret" and "hush hush!" Really now, isn't that stretching it rather thin? Past a certain point all of this stuff has to come out in the open, the public will have to be informed about what their government is doing with these alien artifacts.

Plausible deniability, combined with a healthy dose of solid disinformation.

Obscure the trail with an endless stream of X-Files malarchy, all Greys, alien abduction stories, the Black Knight, nazi bases on the Moon, mind control lasers, MK-Ultra, Majestic-12, triangular (pyramidal?) ships hovering over Area 51 ... I'm sure you catch my drift ...

 

[Reynard]

It seems that bending and breaking the rules in Traveller has been done for forty years. One thing that's been 'canon', here's the basics for Traveller. Now run it as you like. I've done it in some degree over the years but to me Traveller is Traveller as the authors envision it. If the Traveller rules were too 'wrong' then I would have gone for another game system OR developed my own game that followed my better vision. Of course that would mean there would be people who would demand I incorporate their better ideas as canon.

And Traveller has progressed since Classic. Even Mongoose Traveller that has it's roots in Classic is not a clone. There's a lot that's not Classic and much to make the game more flexible such as non-Jump tech. T5 is introducing elements expanding the past and the future and even the galaxy of the present far beyond the boundaries of the Six Major Races so it's not limited or stagnant. It's even a multiverse of other peoples' My Traveller Universes including many that never had an Imperium or the same races. Actually Classic Traveller would be a parallel Traveller Universe as would be MegaTraveller and T4 which both have introduced techs not in the original but with similar histories past and future. T5 and Mongoose is the new standard Universe with similar timelines to the others but new tech not seen elsewhere.

So yeah, go have 4-6 people shatter the Empire of 11,000 worlds and change history. It's Your Traveller Universe.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

As to the Stargate SG1 example, what would happen if the government had not kept it secret? Suppose NASA announced that is was canceling the Shuttle as it was not needed anymore, that they could build starships instead, and it revealed the existence of stargates. This is a parallel world obviously, but what would this world look like? How would it affect the modern timeline if such a discovery were announced rather that kept secret? How would other nations react? This would require a whole lot of imagination for this to be let out instead of kept under wraps. Imagine the military suddenly gets an upgrade in its equipment from all the tech that was gathered and examined from all the SG! missions. If one were to figure out a reason why this would be kept secret, one has to imagine the consequences if it were not. There would be a competition between various powers to find stargates, and there would be spies trying to steal the secret of the hyperdrive so they could build starships as well. It would make an interesting traveller scenario, not the standard setting of course.

 

[Reynard]

Best guess would be world wide panic, social and economic collapse and... maybe a war or too especially as NO ONE will ever trust the US and Russia.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Best guess would be world wide panic, social and economic collapse and... maybe a war or too especially as NO ONE will ever trust the US and Russia.

What's the worst that can happen? Its not like the rest of the World can do anything about it.

 

[alex_greene]

This has strayed off tangent a little bit.

Let's go back to the Third Imperium, shall we? And by that, I mean ... let's go and visit 1800s America as the century changed to the 1900s and we went up a TL.

When the railroads came to the Western towns, they brought with them people from Back East; they connected the coasts, allowed people to travel across the land, brought in newspapers with actual news from abroad, and most of all they brought in the telegraph with its ability to communicate across the North American continent, so people could continue to conduct their business Back East with minimal lag.

And it brought changes in fashions, as chaps and Stetsons gradually gave way to Derby hats and business suits, then trilbys and macs. Women went from gingham and too much foofaraw to slinky dresses with short skirts. Saloons gradually became hotels; there were For Sale signs; realtors began plying their trade where once all you had to do was just plant a sign in the ground to claim virgin territory as yours.

Like I said ... innovation brings change.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The 3I is not the US of A in space.

Innovation and technological progression has brought change to the 3I. It just hasn't brought FTL comms because it is not possible in the Official setting.

There have been cultural shifts eg psionic supressions, the shift away from 'solomani' dominance etc.

The setting has also changed metagame-wise as underlying rules systems and tech paradigms have changed and the setting altered to accommodate them.

How 'you' choose to develop the 3I - either its historical development or its future history is up to the individual referee.

The OTU only changes when its owner authorises a change.

 

[Condottiere]

You can have variants to achieve the same thing, specifically hyperspace travel, though with specific and balanced advantages and drawbacks.

You could reintroduce grids, or vary the size of the bubble, but the grid requires a constant supply of energy, though much less per turn, while the smaller bubble has less fuel requirements, but is more prone to misjumps.

 

[alex_greene]

I keep imagining MWM, pbuh, waking up on Christmas morning to a terrible clattering as the ghosts of Traveller Past, Present and Far Future gather at the foot of his bed.

"Terrible tidings!" wails the Ghost of Traveller Past. "We think somebody in South Carolina has begun playing a version of Traveller where the ships can do Jump-7!"

"Woeful news!" moans the Ghost of Traveller Present. "Warfare has been affected! Trade has been affected! Everything has been turned upside down!"

"Miserable Calamity!" seethes the Ghost of Traveller Future. "Some players halfway across the world have played a game that is not canon, and it's altered your canon and now everybody else's game is ruined forever!"

On the other hand, I think he's going to sleep soundly in bed and wake up to a ton of Christmas presents under the tree, safe in the knowledge that whatever game you play, wherever you are, it's not going to be ruining Sigtrygg's game. Ine Givar terrorists and the Zhodani fleet aren't going to be descending on Capital tomorrow morning with ships armed with quad turrets bearing particle beams, bioreactive future hull armour and hyperdrives capable of crossing space at a speed of 80 parsecs per hour.

But what the hey - maybe yours might, and your characters can sit back and eat popcorn while they watch the devastation live over Ansible TV. And watch everybody else's game, all over the world, turned upside down by your decision not to play by the rules.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Odd you should say that - I once had a PC group of Ine Givar rebels make the trip to Capital/Core to assassinate the evil Emperor.

 

[alex_greene]

Odd you should say that - I once had a PC group of Ine Givar rebels make the trip to Capital/Core to assassinate the evil Emperor.

Totally worth those psi points to read your surface thoughts there ...

Merry Christmas, Trygg!

 

[Sigtrygg]

Merry Christmas Alex

 

[hivemindx]

It seems like you want a constantly evolving game and you are not happy with just doing that yourself, you want this to be 'official'.

Other games have done this, for example White Wolf with Vampire. Things changed the background as they produced new books and while that was interesting it also had big problems. You couldn't just run any published book you want because in this one clan X was wiped out and the Camarilla is in civil war, but you never did those things in your game. Your game might revolve around clan X with all the players belonging to it, but good look getting new material if the evolving background goes a different way.

Personally I like Traveller the way it is. It absolutely does not need to be constantly evolving. That's a choice and there are reasons for and against doing so. TNE was an effort to do this and it didn't do particularly well. Perhaps it was released at a bad time and it wasn't just the background changes that harmed it. I'd certainly be willing to try out a new game which was set 1000 years later, with all those changes in technology some people seem to want and well worked out political and social changes which would have resulted from them. I don't feel the need to move on from Traveller to do that, not when, even after many years, I haven't fully explored the existing source material.

 

[alex_greene]

It seems like you want a constantly evolving game and you are not happy with just doing that yourself, you want this to be 'official'.

What Psionics Institute trained you? Don't pay them a single credit.