Reimagine the OTU!

[Woas]

Wow, a lot of the suggestions I'm reading here are aspects that I built into MTU. From the get go when I first learned about Traveller and started to peer into it's 'official' universe I was turned off by it's grandness and... sort of cheesey-ness too (please don't hurt me! Just opinion from a latecomer )

So when developing MTU (which is, honestly a work still in progress even as we play week to week, as I feel one can only do so much in their head before they need the events of an actual game to drive the creative forces) a lot of these issues came up.

So it is certainly interesting to see how we all sort of clamor for the same. For example in MTU I totally went for:

a) Smaller ships. I'm not a huge fan of Mega-Ultra-Victory-Happy Pants-Star Destroyer Class ships. A 1,000 Dt ship compared to the PC's 200 Dt is scary enough. 50,000 Dt ships are just mind boggling.

b) Threw out the Imperium all together. Instead I have a very loosely organized Confederation of Systems and other smaller polities.

c) Shrunk the timescale. MTU takes place in 2300 AD. Not like 5000 AD (or whatever the equivalent in Imperial Years is).

d) I hate green men from Cheese Planet. I ditched all the aliens. Droyne, the various 'humans from other planet', the furries.... MTU is 100% human. There are aliens, but they are Alien aliens... the kind you kill cause they eat your face... and spit acid.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I would do two things (which I am doing in my campaign)

1. Update the technology to a believable level

2. Dump the nobility/empire as currently depicted and rebuild it as a technocracy with titles being merely political titles or just honorary.

I would go with something like a cross between this and what Colin says - better tech overall (and that updated using more modern sensibilities, with computers being more powerful) and with the Imperium having an outlet for expansion instead of being hemmed in. I would also reduce/alter the tech level required for certain items (i.e. battledress would be TL-12, while gauss rifles and pistols would be TL-11 or even TL-10). Bioengineering would be more common too.

Also, rewrite many worlds so that low-atmo or no-atmo worlds have smaller populations, and Earth-like worlds have higher, with vacuum or asteroid systems having a minimum of TL-9 automatically.

 

[captainjack23]

Two comments:

1. It's cool to see that despite disagreements about the OTU, people still generate a wide variety of settings with the basic rules. For us "inside the OTU" refs, its a nice reminder that that lots of settings fit under CT and MGT. Lots of them. For myself, I wonder if that wasn't the failure of Megatraveller to rope me in....it chaged the setting and opened it up, but only relative to the OTU - for other situations, it really felt more constricted.

2. I think I'm going to have to admit to myself that I'm a member of the "small ship" universe clan. Not only have I never really used the biggies in a game, but I've had Mongoose HG since it's been out, and I haven't even once designed a capital ship. Probably part of why I like a smaller Imperium -while the Tigress classes do work for huge settings, cloud and clouts of ships topping out at under 10,000 tons doesn;t work either for a standard imperium. Size creep will always keep hull size growing up to the economic limits, as far as I can see. So, a smaller imperium seems to fit smaller ships better.

If there was an arbitrary upper limit to jump ships, perhaps.....but even then, SDBs could make interstaellar attacks impossible, as they could grow as big as wanted.

Ah heck. Looking at my wish list, what I want, and know that I want, is a campaign set in the Terran Wars period !

Thats how Id reimagine it......and its been written. For GURPS, granted.



*well, that and Grad School, possibly.

 

[Gee4orce]

I like EDG's take, although I would add the twist that the Zhodani are the ones closest to living in Utopia, and all the propaganda about them being mind-bending control freaks is just that - propaganda. The Zho's would be the most enlightened and technologically advanced civilisation, but to the average imperial citizen they are the embodiment of evil.

I'd make space more realistic - 3D for a start, although I have no idea how to make a 3D star map that's workable. I'd put more buffer space between empires.

I personally like the idea of huuuuge starships - not necessarily as front-line combat units, but more as a mobile city that projects the power of the imperium. The Emperor himself probably permanently tours the Empire in one of these super ships, along this it's attendant fleet of battleships. A bit like a GSV of Iain Banks' Culture.

I'd up the tech level a bit - at least in terms of AI, nanotech, genetic engineering, etc., and I'd make energy weapons the de-facto choice, because - hell - it's Sci Fi right !?

I'd change Jump drive to not require masses of fuel, but impose some other restriction (heat ?) that prevents jumping any more frequently than currently. I'd allow short jumps in fast ships to take less time than the standard 1 week though. I'd also add jumpgates or somesuch which linked together in a network and allowed a single jump from anywhere in the network to anywhere else (gotta find a use for those X-Boat lines on the map). Want a campaign that incorporates the Vargr extents and the Solomani Rim ? Well, now you can do it in less than 2 years of game time....

I'd also add some really fracking alien aliens - like the Pattern Weavers of Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space, or Greg Bear's Jarts. I like the idea of the Droyne being just remnants of a slave race of the Ancients. I'd add a 'mystery race' that's occasionally been spotted on the fringes of space - a new threat or opportunity to explore. A bit like the Kafers are at the start of the 2300AD campaign. Nothing more than strange traces on sensor scans that show an unknown type of vessel appearing in the remotest systems, then jumping away from civilised space....

I'd make the Ancients more like the Cthulu Mythos - unkownably alien and unimaginably ancient. Just encountering a lost fragment of their being risks you loosing your mind....

 

[Mithras]

a) Smaller ships. I'm not a huge fan of Mega-Ultra-Victory-Happy Pants-Star Destroyer Class ships. A 1,000 Dt ship compared to the PC's 200 Dt is scary enough. 50,000 Dt ships are just mind boggling.

Check!

Cut out the Imperium all together. Instead I have a very loosely organized Confederation of Systems and other smaller polities.

Check! I have the Hyades cluster, a 17 world federation that has just been cut off from some larger 'Terran Alliance' for some undetermined reason.

Shrunk the timescale. MTU takes place in 2300 AD. Not like 5000 AD (or whatever the equivalent in Imperial Years is).

Check! I set mine in 2800.

I hate green men from Cheese Planet. I ditched all the aliens. Droyne, the various 'humans from other planet', the furries.... MTU is 100% human. There are aliens, but they are Alien aliens... the kind you kill cause they eat your face... and spit acid.

Check! No aliens! When they turn up it will be scary....or mysterious ... or both.

That is eerie, we do both clamour for that same small universe, from a refs perspective it allows me to have more control, and for the players to build up a more indepth understanding of their universe.

 

[GypsyComet]

I like the idea of the Droyne being just remnants of a slave race of the Ancients.

Not that this is all that different from the OTU...

 

[simonh]

I think a lot of these ideas are violating the intent of the thread - at least as I understand it.

To re-imagine something, the new version needs to remain at least moderately recognisable. Otherwise you're not re-imagining but just creating something new.

Throw out the Empire, and it's nolonger recognisable as the OTU. You can change the organisation and function of the Empire, but you still need to have one just like you still need a Spinward Marches.

Simon Hibbs

 

[GypsyComet]

I think a lot of these ideas are violating the intent of the thread - at least as I understand it.

To re-imagine something, the new version needs to remain at least moderately recognisable. Otherwise you're not re-imagining but just creating something new.

Throw out the Empire, and it's nolonger recognisable as the OTU. You can change the organisation and function of the Empire, but you still need to have one just like you still need a Spinward Marches.

And at some point, grousing about it here becomes pointless. The OTU is the OTU. Cross too many lines of change and you really should consider looking at the terms of the OGL instead. Make a little beer money on your grousing; it's the ultimate form of geek cred.

 

[rust]

And at some point, grousing about it here becomes pointless. The OTU is the OTU.

Remember, it is just a game, and we can do with our versions of the
OTU whatever we like, even change it completely, or blow it up, or
change it into a theme park - and still call it the OTU. :lol:

There is no "Official Traveller Universe Office" with a "canon enforce-
ment force" to hinder us from playing around with the OTU, and no
"OTU High Court" to define what is still OTU and what is no longer OTU.
In the end, "my" OTU is what I decide to call OTU - and your OTU will
doubtlessly vary (a lot). :wink:

 

[EDG]

The intent was to just reimagine the OTU, which means (as I said) "sticking with what worked and tossing out the rest".

The inspiration for the question was the new Battlestar Galactica (in fact, the "stick with what worked..." logic was described in the Big Frakkin' Special that they showed around the series finale last week as what they went by as they were reimagining the series). nBSG has some elements that are recognisable from old BSG - centurions, raiders, vipers, basestars, battlestars, the 12 colonies, a cylon holocaust, a rag-tag fugitive fleet, Pegasus, Kobol, strong mystic/religious elements - but it also had a lot that was wildly different (both in the general feel and in the setting itself).

What I was asking was to do something similar to the OTU. Changing the tech may seem a bit wild, but when you consider that nBSG got away with introducing a very strong biotech angle that wasn't even remotely in the original, maybe it's not so crazy. So if you want to add AI or ditch the Imperium for your reimagining, go right ahead. All that matters is that there are some commonalities between the original and reimagined versions - if the Imperium is one of the elements that you find lacking, then go right ahead and toss it out.

I'd rather not get into discussions about MTU, ATU, OTU, OGLs or whatever. The intent is to take the OTU, and reimagine it here on this thread, so licenses don't matter. Doing so may technically make it an ATU, but the point is to take what is currently "Official" as a baseline. It's a thought exercise, that's all.

 

[captainjack23]

I would do two things (which I am doing in my campaign)

1. Update the technology to a believable level

The challange to upping the tech is to not descend into quantum crunchiness. Also without starting an argument, the cutting edge of tech always has believability problems.

That said, some obvious areas where the traveller tech could be augmented seems to include: AI, Biotech, computing, transhumanism, cyberpunk. What else ?

2. Dump the nobility/empire as currently depicted and rebuild it as a technocracy with titles being merely political titles or just honorary.

Given how titles have shifted and been coopted iby the real world in the last 1500 years , this is no problem at all looking forward to how they are used 3000 years from now. heck, general corporate ranks could be feudal based, and be just as meaningful as "team leader" (changes to knight or baronette) or "assistant Sr. vice president of...." (viscount ?)

Heh. I rather like the idea of "Marquis, Informatics " as a job title.

 

[rust]

That said, some obvious areas where the traveller tech could be augmented seems to include: AI, Biotech, computing, transhumanism, cyberpunk. What else ?

Taking a look at my setting and some of the technology I have introduced
there, I would add materials, a little nanotechnology, bionics (unless you
consider it a part of biotechnology), and medical technology and drugs.

 

[Dave Chase]

Hmm,

I still would basically like to see

other FTL besides the 1 week Jump
3D star maps with some more realistic system maps and planets
More imagery behind the words (pictures, drawings, etc)
Some more mega politic structure/background including Mega Corps, Pocket Empires and the monster ?Imperium? if it really exists

And things that build upon not make dramatic or handwave changes to what exists.

(after reading EDG last post, I have modified the wants to the above )

Dave Chase

 

[alex_greene]

I'd like to see an adaptation of James H Schmitz' Hub series, featuring the Psion Telzey Amberdon and general adventurer Trigger Argee.

That, and an adaptation of the Family d'Alembert series by E E "Doc" Smith.

 

[Gee4orce]

I like the idea of the Droyne being just remnants of a slave race of the Ancients.

Not that this is all that different from the OTU...

Then I must have misread it then, because from what I understood the Droyne essentially ARE the Ancients, degenerated.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I like the idea of the Droyne being just remnants of a slave race of the Ancients.

Not that this is all that different from the OTU...

Then I must have misread it then, because from what I understood the Droyne essentially ARE the Ancients, degenerated.

True, but in the OFFICIAL history, they were also slaves to Grandfather and his Children.

Grandfather basically enslaved his own race and then went out into the Galaxy. So, the Droyne are both the Ancients and the slaves of the Ancients.

 

[captainjack23]

I'd like to see an adaptation of James H Schmitz' Hub series, featuring the Psion Telzey Amberdon and general adventurer Trigger Argee.

That, and an adaptation of the Family d'Alembert series by E E "Doc" Smith.

Details man, details ! Not all of us are as well read as you imagine us to be !

 

[EDG]

I'd like to see an adaptation of James H Schmitz' Hub series, featuring the Psion Telzey Amberdon and general adventurer Trigger Argee.

That, and an adaptation of the Family d'Alembert series by E E "Doc" Smith.

Did you misunderstand the question, or post this to the wrong thread? My question was "how would you reimagine the OTU?", but your answer seems to be to the question of "what literary work would you like to see adapted to Traveller?"

 

[simonh]

I'm going to attach this from the opposite angle a bit more thoroughly than I did in my last post, what can't you change because to do so would make it unrecognisable.

There is an Empire bordered by the Zhodani, Solomani, Hivers, Aslan, etc.
The Zhodani are psionic, psionics is suppressed in the Empire.
The border between the Empire and Zhos is called the Spinward Marches.
There is no FTL radio - not sure if I'm married to this one though.
FTL travel uses something called a Jump Drive.
The Type-S and Free and Far traders are iconic designs.
Transhumanist and singularity type tech is out.

Actually, that's about it. Even the mapping system, gross geography of the setting, details of the jump drive and fuel tankage, and much else could be modified. I think radical transhumanism would change the nature of the setting too much, as would pervasive free-will AI, though both could exist as rare outliers. I'd keep the general nature of the aliens, the Alsan would be feline for example but I'd beef them up a lot physically.

Simon Hibbs

 

[GypsyComet]

I'd keep the general nature of the aliens, the Aslan would be feline for example but I'd beef them up a lot physically.

They're already seven feet tall not-quite-lions in humanoid form. The stat bump they already get is not insignificant, either. Much taller and you need to jigger parts of starship construction.

Changing the mapping paradigm potentially changes a lot of the setting and play style in response. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of, certainly.