Ugliest Starship

[Condottiere]

If it's gravitics, or some form of field effect, you could be looking at a space going blimp.

 

[fusor]

I'm so relieved you have answers for everything. By the way, the ship travels at the speed of plot.

Why even have a ship at all? Just cut from one scene to the next and be done with it.

Honestly, Shawn, why do you even bother playing a science fiction RPG if you just want to ignore or dismiss anything based on science or reality? People keep going on about how "the fiction in science fiction" is what's important but the thing that actually defines the genre it is the "science" part. Without that, you've just got fiction.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

He’s just mad that I pointed out that the picture he used was directed by an idiot.

 

[Jame Rowe]

He’s just mad that I pointed out that the picture he used was directed by an idiot.

Or maybe it's the WAY you pointed it out. Just remember, disagreement is one thing - but POLITENESS is the way you do so!

 

[Jame Rowe]

All I'll say in that case is that like you, I enjoy the Mercenary Cruiser and like the thought of it landing on planets.

I'm just going by the old B&W drawings from the Traveller mags I looked through back in the day. i didn't know what maneuver drives even were back then. Gravatics was not in my vocabulary yet. Most rocketships I was familiar with were they kinds used in Gerry Anderson TV shows.

Makes sense to me. Traveller, Classic especially, isn't necessarily clear on how its supertech works. (It doesn't need to, really; it's there as a frame to have fun and adventure in. No matter what some think.)

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

He’s just mad that I pointed out that the picture he used was directed by an idiot.

Or maybe it's the WAY you pointed it out. Just remember, disagreement is one thing - but POLITENESS is the way you do so!

By pointing out that the orientation a ship flies in is solely a function of drag?

If refusing to acknowledge how science influences Science Fiction is what passes for “politeness” around here, I’d rather be rude.

 

[Condottiere]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Any technology, regardless of how advanced, is still limited by physical constraints. The only difference is whether or not those constraints are the constraints you expect them to be.

If, as a GM, you want to rule there’s an alternative physical phenomenon at work, that’s fine, but then you’re responsible for keeping that phenomenon consistent enough for it to be discoverable by the players, so that they can then reason about it and interact with it. It’s easier just to not make bull@^*% up.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

If, as a GM, you want to rule there’s an alternative physical phenomenon at work, that’s fine, but then you’re responsible for keeping that phenomenon consistent enough for it to be discoverable by the players, so that they can then reason about it and interact with it. It’s easier just to not make bull@^*% up.

Players don't need to know how something works.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Right; just like they don’t need to have a motivation, or a problem to solve. They just need to sit back, shut up, and let Shawn tell them how the adventure went, since they clearly don’t have anything to contribute to the game, like, say, trying to make a decision about said “magical device”.

In order for players to bother engaging with a world, it has to be engageable. Any “complete handwave” is completely unengageable; you don’t know what it is, you don’t know what it does, and you sure as hell can’t make a reasoned guess about it, because you have no basis with which to do so. At best, such a thing becomes a tool for the GM to lead the players around by the nose. And that is not fun. That’s just a MacGuffin driven railroad. And if you’re just going to railroad somebody, it doesn’t matter what system you’re running.

But maybe that’s where Shawn comes in; the rules don’t matter, because the players never need to make a decision, because the game he runs is his railroad. The realism doesn’t matter, because the players never need to make a decision, because the game he runs is his railroad. What the players want to do doesn’t matter, because the game he runs is his railroad. No one had better dare tamper with his Traveller Universe, because then they’re threatening to allow his players an alternative. For shame!

 

[Jeff Hopper]

ShawnDriscoll, Tenacious-Techhunter, could you two just go get a room please?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

 

[Condottiere]

Planetoids would be considered ugly.

 

[Reynard]

Planetoids have that natural elegance. The ugly ones are drawn with large chunks of ship components sticking out for no reason like fungus on a raisin.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

 

[middenface]

Is that the single deck Scout? The one Judges Guild did?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Is that the single deck Scout? The one Judges Guild did?

It's one I eyeballed from a JTAS front cover art.

 

[Reynard]

With a sunroof in the common area! Scouts get all the luxuries.

 

[Condottiere]

Single storey starships? Surely unsecured shielding.

 

[Reynard]

Shielding? What, fusion the power plant shielding?