Yay! I finally got TE!

[BobGreenwade]

My copy of Terran Empire finally arrived in the mail today! :D

Now I can start making devious plans for my Embassy to Mon'da campaign (no doubt further complicated by the contents of The Spacer's Toolkit once I have a hard copy of that).

[Monolith]

Congrats!

Now you are ready to tear up the space lanes with the rest of us. I will meet you somewhere around Adamant. :)

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Monolith
Congrats!

Now you are ready to tear up the space lanes with the rest of us. I will meet you somewhere around Adamant. :) Assuming, of course, that the Ambassador wants to take a trip out there (or maybe if you want to meet on the last stop in Imperial space before the Expanse).

Now I just have to figure out who would be responsible for guarding the Ambassador. The ISP? The TSS? The TDC's own bodyguard corps? Private guards hired by the Ambassador himself? (The latter two would require a GM-built Package Deal for the PCs, and I'd rather not do that for this particular game.)

Steve, James, somebody give me a clue! :eek:

[Monolith]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Assuming, of course, that the Ambassador wants to take a trip out there (or maybe if you want to meet on the last stop in Imperial space before the Expanse).
I will be waiting out there somewhere. I have a full supply of querasa ales, wines, and tequilas to go around too. :)


Now I just have to figure out who would be responsible for guarding the Ambassador. The ISP? The TSS? The TDC's own bodyguard corps? Private guards hired by the Ambassador himself?
That is a real good question. My guess would be that the Ambassador would supply his own guards (using the Senatorial Guard Package) and then the TDC would supply some token security (ISP package) when the Ambassador what out and about.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Monolith
My guess would be that the Ambassador would supply his own guards (using the Senatorial Guard Package) and then the TDC would supply some token security (ISP package) when the Ambassador what out and about. For lack of anything more "official," I think I'll go with this in principle, but using the TSS package for the TDC guys (since these will be the PCs, and I want them to be a sort of "elite of the elite" types given the relatively high lawlessness and potential for things to get screwy).

[BobGreenwade]

I just wanted to add one more thing.

Two weeks later, this book is in horribly dog-eared condition. If it wasn't for the obviously high-quality work of the printer, I'd probably be losing pages out of it already.

The only books to ever get this kind of treatment this quickly in my hands have been Fourth Edition Champions (all three copies) and San Angelo: City of Heroes.

James Cambias, wherever you are, you've struck gold in my book. :D

[Lisa Nadazdy]

I finally feel like I've joined an elite crew. I bought my copy yesterday, and already thirsting to make a campaign a go.

[BobGreenwade]

That's exactly what's so beautiful about this book. Any other SFRPG book you buy and read because you want to run a SF game. This is the first SFRPG book I've encountered where you buy the book first just out of interest, and then you want to run the game. (Admittedly, I did want to run the game first and then bought the book; but my interest in running a TE game came from what I'd heard about the book, and I really got excited about it after I got it. Heck, it's good enough to convince me to switch from Champions, so you have to know it's good.)

[Lisa Nadazdy]

What's great about this book, is all the little details, such as the charts which tell you when certain technologies were introduced, and the considerable space spent on a large number of alien species, or that they give you lots of detail, and yet, a lot of elbow room to customize the setting as you see fit.

For instance, I dislike the FTL communications, so ZAP, I eliminate it, and make the Empire more decentralized, and instead, I put in regional governers with Imperial authority to run things. This changes the tone of things, but not the history. Communication accross vast distances are now done with a Hyperspace "Pony Express".

IMNSHO, the best sci-fi setting I've seen to date.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Lisa Nadazdy
For instance, I dislike the FTL communications, so ZAP, I eliminate it, and make the Empire more decentralized, and instead, I put in regional governers with Imperial authority to run things. This changes the tone of things, but not the history. Communication accross vast distances are now done with a Hyperspace "Pony Express".
I am not the GM of our TE game, but I think if I were going to run a game I would probably have more than 98 Senatorial ruled worlds. I would have 90% of the worlds ruled by Senatorial Governers. I would also limit Hyperdrives to Class Beta and then look at putting in Displacer "Jump" Gates every 1000 LY (I always liked the concepts of Jump Gates from B5). Displacer Gates seem slightly more low-tech; ships could then introduce Displacer Drives as the period advances to the Galactic Federation era.


IMNSHO, the best sci-fi setting I've seen to date.
I agree. I was 9 months into a GURPS Traveller campaign when I started the playtest for TE. I have not looked back since. :)

[Balok]

I was very impressed with the quality and scope of this book. I sure hope enough other people were to make the line flourish.

I've played an enjoyable GURPS Traveller campaign (currently on hiatus); when the GM comes back to it, I'm going to try to convince him to go Star Hero instead.

Must ... resist ... urge ... to ... look in ... GM's ... vault. (Actually, in his case it wouldn't matter, since he and I are from the same school: we assume the players have read the *entire* book and change things "just in case").

[Nightfly]

I particularly enjoyed the additional races in TE.

Having got UV, (and even the Spacers Toolkit) before I could find TE, I must admit to being seriously impressed :)

I knew it would be good, but this good (Wow)!!

Other than the big black FREd book, I'd say TE is my next most favorite!!

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Nightfly
Other than the big black FREd book, I'd say TE is my next most favorite!!
I am a huge Champions fan, and I am really enjoying running my Millennium City game, but I have to admit that Terran Empire has struck a cord with me. It just seems like a perfect fit to my scifi gaming ideologies. I could not imagine playing in a TE game. It is hella-good! :)

[Al_Beddow]

I have been converting all my classic Traveller material over to FREd (and loving it). The TE stuff gives me a guideline for weapons and stuff. In fact, If the weapon exists in the TE book I just use those stats instead. So far it's worked well.

[Hermit]

I finally got my hands on Terran Empire. Really, I had some concerns, particularly since my players are very into Champions, but not so interested in Star Hero. I figured that I would at least get a chance to use the "official" races in my current Champs setting so got it anyways. MAYBE I could talk them into gaming a sci fi game as well...but I was still worried this would be a 'novelty' at best.

Now that it is in my hand, the effect is not unlike reaching into a box of crackerjacks HOPING for maybe a neat plastic ring, and finding a gold nugget! I find myself quite taken by the setting, which manages to incorporate classic elements without getting cliche' about it. It has so many hooks, options, and information that I am now much more certain I CAN hook my players... and what's more, they'll thank me for it.