Spirit of 1977
Cosmic Mongoose
This one is never explicitly stated (until recently), but is positively everywhere in the rules. And it seems clear that many people have noticed this over the years and have changed many rules to make space travel less unpleasant. But make no mistake: Marc Miller straight up states in T5 that travellers are unusual, and that most sophonts never leave their home world.
1) Travel is crazy expensive: Look over the average prices for most goods and services, and notice that Cr10000 for High Passage is an enormous sum. Even Cr1000 for Low Passage is a lot of money in Traveller, and you risk not surviving the trip. Needless to say, the rules have made Low Passage less deadly over time in various ways.
2) Travel is uncomfortable: Staterooms are tiny, and in the beginning there was little to do onboard. This again has changed over time, but in T5 Miller again asserts this, making the average stateroom even smaller than before! Clearly, making starships more comfortable and interesting has been a big priority over the various rules sets, so this seems to be an initial premise that many have discarded.
3) Travel is complicated: Originally, the rules made it clear that not every desired trip is easy or even possible. Jump-1 ships can't go every place. It take ingenuity to figure out how to set up fuel caches in space to arduously cross interstellar rifts. Again, as some recent threads have shown, some people really don't like this and have embraced recent official rules that make travel easier. I can understand the feeling, but it is a major subversion of the original premise.
4) Most worlds are not Earth-like: One of the biggest aversions in Speculative Fiction, to the point where you can see more recent rule sets trying to eliminate some of the weird worlds the base rules can generate. I can understand the desire not to have to think about protective gear, in the same way modern fantasy RPGers don't like to think about encumbrance.
As I hope is clear, I'm not making the case that Traveller should not change. In particular, if a majority of players think something is not fun, that should probably be addressed. But I am interested in how some of you 1) recognize the above points and either accept or reject them, and 2) what does you setting look like based upon these decisions.
For example, along with Most Worlds are Unimportant (coming soon), my setting has most worlds very disconnected from one another, even within Star Empires, and so when there ARE world alliances, that tends to be important and interesting. I embrace the "Empire Exists in Space" concept that GURPS made more clear, with the consequence that travellers are "weirdos" to the majority of sophonts who never set foot anywhere but their home world. But I admit, this is unusual compared to many popular franchises.
1) Travel is crazy expensive: Look over the average prices for most goods and services, and notice that Cr10000 for High Passage is an enormous sum. Even Cr1000 for Low Passage is a lot of money in Traveller, and you risk not surviving the trip. Needless to say, the rules have made Low Passage less deadly over time in various ways.
2) Travel is uncomfortable: Staterooms are tiny, and in the beginning there was little to do onboard. This again has changed over time, but in T5 Miller again asserts this, making the average stateroom even smaller than before! Clearly, making starships more comfortable and interesting has been a big priority over the various rules sets, so this seems to be an initial premise that many have discarded.
3) Travel is complicated: Originally, the rules made it clear that not every desired trip is easy or even possible. Jump-1 ships can't go every place. It take ingenuity to figure out how to set up fuel caches in space to arduously cross interstellar rifts. Again, as some recent threads have shown, some people really don't like this and have embraced recent official rules that make travel easier. I can understand the feeling, but it is a major subversion of the original premise.
4) Most worlds are not Earth-like: One of the biggest aversions in Speculative Fiction, to the point where you can see more recent rule sets trying to eliminate some of the weird worlds the base rules can generate. I can understand the desire not to have to think about protective gear, in the same way modern fantasy RPGers don't like to think about encumbrance.
As I hope is clear, I'm not making the case that Traveller should not change. In particular, if a majority of players think something is not fun, that should probably be addressed. But I am interested in how some of you 1) recognize the above points and either accept or reject them, and 2) what does you setting look like based upon these decisions.
For example, along with Most Worlds are Unimportant (coming soon), my setting has most worlds very disconnected from one another, even within Star Empires, and so when there ARE world alliances, that tends to be important and interesting. I embrace the "Empire Exists in Space" concept that GURPS made more clear, with the consequence that travellers are "weirdos" to the majority of sophonts who never set foot anywhere but their home world. But I admit, this is unusual compared to many popular franchises.
