How many people think GURPS Traveller is canon?

[snrdg121408]

Evening all,

GT, in my opinion anyway, is as canon as any of the other Traveller variants published to date.

GT, like Mongoose Traveller, MT, TNE, T4 T20, and T5, has added to the basics laid out by CT. MT is the what if CT had a rebellion that ushered in another collapse and TNE is the struggle to recreate what was lost. T4 was an attempt to show the path that was taken to what would become the Third Imperium. GT, as mentioned, is the what if the MT Rebellion never happened version. T20 and MgT are, in my opinion, variants of the CT timeline. T5 I haven't looked at yet but from what I've gleamed from other Traveller forums is also a variant of CT.

 

[EDG]

I too like the GT books a lot but can live without the Spacemaster races.

They're very much optional IMO. Some of them are OK, the Tezcat originally were actually pretty interesting in Spacemaster IMO but they got somewhat butchered in the GT version, and the art for them was terrible there too. Most of them probably would have been better off in GURPS Aliens rather than GURPS Traveller though.

 

[Custodian]

With CT, I only own a small fraction of what is available. With MGT, I only own 2 items so far. I don't buy most additional items since I still have fun playing the game without having to invest additional money.

This is pretty much the reason I brought this up. We should remember that this forum should be supporting people like CosmicGamer, who are mainly getting into Traveller via Mongoose's books.

Wandering off into the realms of GURPS is something I feel we should avoid on this list in order to consider people who want to work from a coherent Mongoose Traveller baseline for bot settings and rules.

There must be be plenty of non Mongoose spaces for discussion of things derived from GURPS Space and cross-system Traveller. I recommend BITS (British Isles Traveller Society) for people who want to spread their wings further.

We should mainly be speaking Mongoose here, I believe, bearing in mind their cannon first when dealing with queries from their books.

 

[walkir]

As I first heard of Traveller via GURPS (which means I don't really care for canon anyway - if I had time to play it, it would be the alternate GUPRS universe), what aliens where "copied" from spacemaster or other systems?
And how usable are the texts of the official races (at least the major ones) for MGT in general?

As I'm already asking questions: What's the problem with interstellar wars?

 

[EDG]

We should mainly be speaking Mongoose here, I believe, bearing in mind their cannon first when dealing with queries from their books.

I agree. But then... we were doing that anyway until you asked about GURPS specifically (and why single out GURPS? CT, MT, TNE, T4 and T5 should also be discussed less here too if you really want to follow your logic).

 

[Custodian]

We should mainly be speaking Mongoose here, I believe, bearing in mind their cannon first when dealing with queries from their books.

I agree. But then... we were doing that anyway until you asked about GURPS specifically (and why single out GURPS? CT, MT, TNE, T4 and T5 should also be discussed less here too if you really want to follow your logic).

Because people were discussing a lot of GURPS Traveller here before I asked.

Due to MGT being clearly derived from CT this is probably the most respectable non-Mongoose system to draw from.

However we each can still continue to draw from anywhere personally, of course, but sometimes we might need to answer MGT questions from a MGT perspective.

An advantage of MGT is that you don't need too many books to get a playable game - you can just use the Core Rules. If we keep pointing people elsewhere, as a first call, MGT looses that advantage.

 

[GypsyComet]

We should mainly be speaking Mongoose here, I believe, bearing in mind their cannon first when dealing with queries from their books.

As recent topics have developed, several of us old hands are trying to follow that path, with the caveat that if a question is asked that is outside of the answers Mongoose provides, we try to *inform* our answers with prior editions (or real life) but couch the answers in Mongoose terms. This is probably the best way to go about it on this board. Give the questioner an answer they can use without external references (unless they ask about external references to begin with) even if the answer came from, for example, TNE or T4, or even CT. None of those can be assumed to be in the possession of the questioner, some of them need extensive filtering, and frankly, there's a whole lot of stuff out there that even the completists can miss.

 

[Custodian]

We should mainly be speaking Mongoose here, I believe, bearing in mind their cannon first when dealing with queries from their books.

As recent topics have developed, several of us old hands are trying to follow that path, with the caveat that if a question is asked that is outside of the answers Mongoose provides, we try to *inform* our answers with prior editions (or real life) but couch the answers in Mongoose terms. This is probably the best way to go about it on this board. Give the questioner an answer they can use without external references (unless they ask about external references to begin with) even if the answer came from, for example, TNE or T4, or even CT. None of those can be assumed to be in the possession of the questioner, some of them need extensive filtering, and frankly, there's a whole lot of stuff out there that even the completists can miss.

This is the right attitude to take IMHO.

The right way to handle "cannon" is to be aware of the baseline, to be able to speak in Mongoose terms.

 

[Allensh]

another proper way to handle canon is not to spell it "cannon".

I'm sorry but I have finally cracked; this drives me nuts.

"Cannon" is a large freakin' weapon. Canon is only a large freakin' weapon when someone tries to beat you over the head with it in a Traveller discussion.

Allen

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Their they're Allen, calm down.... :twisted:

 

[Gaidheal]

Canon = the body of scripture which the orhtodoxy recognizes as such, therefore those who endlessly go on about it are quite rightly perceived as zealots. :¬)

 

[cbrunish]

I have bought into MGT. It is a pretty good continuation of CT. But GURPS had a few good items out their. Their Spinward Marches book was excellent and is a nice fluff to MGT Spinward Marches. But I wasn't a fan of the different stats for worlds (Tech Level and Starport). The Solomani Rim book had an expanded history of the Terran-Vilani War which was nice. And I was never a fan of the Rebellion. So I used the new GURPS history for my MT campaign. The Nobles book was really a nice addition!

But it has been pointed out many times, is that as a GM you take what you want and discard the rest. As long as your players agree it does not really matter what is canon. The only problem is if you take you favorite character from a non-canon campaign to another campaign. The new GM might not like some of the changes that the old GM did.

Unfortunatly not a problem in my little part of PA. There isn't many people that role play around here anymore.

 

[cbrunish]

And on a side note, I bought into MGT so much that earlier in the day I ordered a new copy of the Core rules and Fighting ships. Looking forward to these items.

 

[Anonymous]

Canon is simple - dont worry about it and play YOUR own game.

Canon is only important if your a Traveller publisher, end of really....

 

[kafka]

Most of GURPS, I found simply re-wrote large sections of CT. Clarified the language and tried to paper over some of the DGP references by providing its own explaination for things. I rather like what Loren did to the Imperium but at the same time certian things simply were not CT inspired. So, my answer would be certain things are canon in GT but not all. Use Traveller canon as a work like a panarama canvas, you cannot take it all in but detail the universe from what you do see. Ultimately, it is your universe.

 

[Gaidheal]

And on a side note, I bought into MGT so much that earlier in the day I ordered a new copy of the Core rules and Fighting ships. Looking forward to these items.

Heh! In a similar vein, this morning I got my copies of Pocket Traveller, Mercenary, High Guard, Scout, 760 Patrons, Traders and Gunboats & Fighting Ships. :¬)

My friend can have his main rulebook and copy of Mercenary back now.