Scouts Hard or Soft

kafka

kafka

Mongoose
There is an endless debate in Traveller...whether it should cling to its Space Opera overtones or aspire to a Hard SF world. No where is this more true than in Planetary & Cultures generation. Therefore, Scouts will be a battleground for these concepts.

Ideally, I would like to see a merger between the two offering optional rules for those who want a Hard SF background and have the good Doctor Constance's write-ups on Brown Dwarfs included beside discussions of Black Holes, Wormholes and other Space Opera tropes. I would like to see cultures also nicely laid out that would include all the major races' government types and rules spelled out...

Am I asking for too much?
 
kafka said:
have the good Doctor Constance's write-ups on Brown Dwarfs included
Click to expand...

And am I asking too much for someone to get my name right for once? ;)

I have no idea what Mongoose has planned for Scouts and haven't been approached by them - that said I doubt that I could be involved in Scouts even if I wanted to (for numerous reasons to complex to get into here), so let's nip that rumour in the bud right there.

My Brown Dwarf stuff is in JTAS Online, and SJG have the rights to that (they paid me for the articles off me after all)... so I doubt that it would appear in Scouts. That said, it's based on realworld science so if anyone else wanted to take a crack at interpreting the papers and codifying them into a RPG worlgen format then there's nothing stopping them.
 
No I do not think you are out of line at all. We know more now than we did when the original books came out so it would be foolish not to to make planet and solar system generation as accurate as possible as long as it does not make generation a nightmare. The problem is we would need an author who knows something of what we speak...

[Edit: a rather important 'not' put in where it was left out]
 
I would very much prefer a "hard" approach, although one where the
science stays in the background, as the base, and perhaps a "soft" op-
tion derived from it.

Currently I am using GURPS Space 4e for the systems, planets and cul-
tures of my setting, and as far as I can tell it produces plausible results,
without forcing me to deal with too much mathematics and tables. And
it produces both "hard" and "soft" versions, depending on which design
options are chosen.

Something similar for Traveller would be nice indeed. :D
 
Scouts is on my 2DO list. Next book for me, as it happens.

As it stands I haven't yet looked at system/planet generation, but I'm aware of the inconsistencies the old CT system could throw-up. However, here are my design goals:

Timely. Reliable. Usable. Complete.

That is - doesn't take an age to generate believable, realistic results.
What you produce is a reliable system/world based on current, real-life science
Usable - the system is flexible enough for hard science and space-opera
And its all there. Complete. Shouldn't need anything else.

Above and beyond this, I've no firm plans as yet. I'll approach that in due course and look at as much that's gone before as I can, so my answer here is deliberately vague 'n' woolly because, well, it has to be.
 
Loz said:
Scouts is on my 2DO list. Next book for me, as it happens.

As it stands I haven't yet looked at system/planet generation, but I'm aware of the inconsistencies the old CT system could throw-up. However, here are my design goals:

Timely. Reliable. Usable. Complete.
Click to expand...
So, unlike what I've heard previously, Scouts WOULD include worldgen and systemgen rules. Great! I'll probably end up buying it... :)
 
Loz said:
Timely. Reliable. Usable. Complete.

That is - doesn't take an age to generate believable, realistic results.
What you produce is a reliable system/world based on current, real-life science
Usable - the system is flexible enough for hard science and space-opera
And its all there. Complete. Shouldn't need anything else.
Click to expand...

Very good news! I want one! :)

/wolf
 
FWIW.

I would like the "worldgen" mechanic to be part of a "systemgen" mechanic. It would be nice to be able to come at it from both a "world first" and a "primary first" perspective, perhaps, so that if you have specific parameters in mind "I need a Red Giant" or "I want a desert planet" you can let the random mechanic generate the rest of the system and it still be largely appropriate.

I think the "clash" between Space Opera and Hard Sci-Fi is largely mythical; each has elements of the other and peoples' boundaries to the definitions vary wildly. When you're dealing with players, I think it's important to be aware beforehand of the framework within which you're working, and the solar system is an important part of that setting.
 
Yes, I don't think there's really much difference between space opera and hard SF world in print. I think the problems with the CT star system generation was down to insufficient checking of results versus observable facts and known theory (even for the time). The mechanics of the system seem to be ok, but the results it produces don't make sense.

So, I hope there will be lots of playtesting, Loz! Someone with excel knowledge (i.e. not me) should be able to whip up a sheet that works up a few hundred systems in a flash to see if you're getting any unwanted drift towards white dwarfs with tiny rockballs with normal atmospheres with 40 billion inhabitants. :wink:
 
By complete...I take it you mean stellar anomaly like Black Holes, Wormholes, Nebulae, Brown Dwarfs, etc. Including fantastic spatial anomalies (http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/index.php/Spatial_anomaly) without directly appropiating too much from Trek.
 
Well, I wouldn't call Brown Dwarfs anomalies. They seem to be pretty common, maybe more common that Yellow Stars (like the Sun).

The system should allow you to create the more common stuff, say down to 2D or 3D resolution, so no Black Holes, no Neutron Stars, and maybe no B or O stars. BUT, there should be provisions for including that sort of thing, ie, give us the stats for them, even if we can't roll them directly.

I don't mind if the system starts assuming you have rolled up a UWP, but that is just me, I have seen plenty of people that want to start with a star and go from there.

Also, it would be nice if it included Barren Stars, stars without planets, as that seems to be quite possible as well. OR, if it doesn't include them, it should explain WHY NOT (just say they are not interesting and not on the maps and we're done).
 
I think I might be tempted to ignore space opera when generating systems and go for as hard and accurate as is consistent with ease of use. If you want fantasy you can just drop it in wherever you want it without being constrained by reality (or at least a best guess impression of it).
 
I should point out that the somewhat inappropriately named "Space Opera" variant of worldgen in the MGT corebook already goes a long way toward making things more realistic.

Once you start adding stars in there though, then you have to be real careful about realism. It is not remotely realistic to put habitable planets around blue stars or supergiants, for example.
 
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