Wardsman Posted November 4, 2016 Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 Think Orion's Arm or the Culture sprinkled into traveller. Has anyone done this? First decision whether to allow Jump and Wormholes or just pick one FTL tech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted November 4, 2016 Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 Traveller is a pretty poor match with the Culture. The Orion's Arm link left me with a vague sense of "why bother?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardsman Posted November 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 Traveller is a pretty poor match with the Culture. The Orion's Arm link left me with a vague sense of "why bother?" Respectfully disagree. Orion's Arm is one the richests setting out there. But it takes a while to digest. Though I not a fan of the Current landing page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardsman Posted November 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-intro What is "Orion's Arm" you might ask? That is an excellent question, and in a nutshell here is your answer: Orion's Arm is: The next step in the evolution of science-fiction A collective hard science fiction world building endeavor A space opera A communal background for science fiction stories A universe ready to be brought to life through illustration A forum for cutting edge science A roleplaying setting A transhumanist projection of what the future might look like A bunch of semi-sane sentients having fun together Why are we here? The answer to that question can be found in our Statement of Purpose: STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:Our purpose is to inspire writers, artists and thinkers. To create a vision of the future that is plausible at every level, internally consistent and abides by the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. We embrace speculative ideas like Drexlerian assemblers, mind uploading, posthuman intelligence, magnetic monopoles, wormholes and the technologies, and developments that will make all this possible. To quote Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law: The only way to explore the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Our task is to create an ever evolving universe that is interesting, inspiring and provocative - to theorize on a future that may, or may not, come to be. Our purpose is to inspire writers, artists and thinkers. To create a vision of the future that is plausible at every level, internally consistent and abides by the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. We embrace speculative ideas like Drexlerian assemblers, mind uploading, posthuman intelligence, magnetic monopoles, wormholes and the technologies, and developments that will make all this possible. To quote Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law: The only way to explore the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Our task is to create an ever evolving universe that is interesting, inspiring and provocative - to theorize on a future that may, or may not, come to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted November 4, 2016 Report Share Posted November 4, 2016 Well, I ran a Traveller story arc dealing with contact with a lost colony that had gone in big for genetic transhumanism. I could post some bits if anyone wants. I'll warn you, though, it was for a Traveller campaign that friends of mine ran since high school and was well into its third decade -- and they never paid attention to any official publications after the 1st ed. booklets. By the time I came along, their setting did't look very much like "official" Traveller anymore. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted November 5, 2016 Report Share Posted November 5, 2016 My question would be "why Traveller"? I'm assuming you're using Hero for the game system, since you're asking here. For me, though, setting aside the system, the implications of Traveller's J-Drive, both in how they affect the day to day lives of the characters and the consequences of wider stellapolitics are central to the setting, so if it's the setting you're keen on, you just "have" to choose J-drive over wormholes, unless the same constraints apply to wormholes as do to J-Drive, at which point it's just terminology... So, if your answer to "Why Traveller? Other elements of transhumanism fit more readily into the milieu than a different way of getting about the "terrain". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardsman Posted November 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2016 My question would be "why Traveller"? I'm assuming you're using Hero for the game system, since you're asking here. For me, though, setting aside the system, the implications of Traveller's J-Drive, both in how they affect the day to day lives of the characters and the consequences of wider stellapolitics are central to the setting, so if it's the setting you're keen on, you just "have" to choose J-drive over wormholes, unless the same constraints apply to wormholes as do to J-Drive, at which point it's just terminology... So, if your answer to "Why Traveller? Other elements of transhumanism fit more readily into the milieu than a different way of getting about the "terrain". Very good point. It also begs what makes traveller what is too you. One thing I never got about Traveller is how you could misjunp farther than you normally move.I remember a tournament where we misjumped our way through the scenario. Traveller at the basic level looks like baselines or NEBs of the fringe of Architect territory. It also brings how to model higher sophic beings in Hero. People who can predict your reactions like you can predict a child's. It It occurs to me I might need speedzone rules for those faster thinking Transapients.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNaga Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Makes me think of my posthuman character I made for Champions. This character is a posthuman from the 23rd century with technopathic abilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Maybe the definition of space opera has changed since the early days of the Lensman books (or even the more recent Star Wars era), but to my mind there is nothing "hard science fiction" about space opera... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Modern Space Opera is Sense Of Wonder sci-fi written by physics PhDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 I am totally for transhuman traveller. As to the question "What makes traveller" to me the one thing you can't change is the travel and communication rules. Traveller has a pretty fast FTL engine, the jump drive but no FTL communications. This makes it necessary to travel to communicate and it means at a minimum it takes 2 weeks to send a message to another system and get a reply. It can take months for information to reach the capitol of a large interstellar polity and the same time for a reaction to reach the border. This mandates a decentralized government with a lot of variability in different parts of it. You end up with a distant central government that maybe takes a limited role in most matters and focuses on the military as in maintaining a defense force in case of a hostile Alien race being encountered. It might maintain standards in certain things like disease control to keep plagues from spreading to world to world, first contact protocols and other things that could affect the human race as a whole but beyond that leave a lot of things to local custom, authority and so on. So you get wildly varied cultures and societies as only things that can affect humanity as a whole are subject to the central government. Barring super nanotech and matter replication or synthesis trade becomes vital. Some systems may be better suited to one thing, like industry or agriculture, than others so trade occurs. What may be legal in one system may be illegal in others, so a black market may exist. As long as it's a local matter it's up to local governments which could be nearly any type imaginable. That is pretty much what you can't change about traveller and still have traveller. Some worlds may opt to go totally transhumanist, some worlds may ban transhumans. So adding transhumans to traveller is ok with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 Yes, very reminiscent of 18th century European empires and the communications/logistics issues they faced. For all the super-high technology in Traveller, it is...um...interesting how they managed to make certain aspects of the game feel trapped in a far more primitive era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted July 24, 2017 Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 Well, we have no idea how a FTL drive would work if at all, so the jump drive in traveller is no less valid than any other. And yes it was meant to mandate a decentralized government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted July 24, 2017 Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 It doesn't just decentralize governmental control. It slows down the pace of any and all large-scale activity to pre-20th century standards. If it takes two months to get new orders out to your generals on the front lines of an invasion, it doesn't really matter whether it's a courier on horseback or a messenger in a starship. Two months is two months, and for players living in a (21st century) society who are used to nearly instantaneous communication to/from everywhere that matters, Traveller surely feels more like it takes place in our (somewhat) distant past, not our far future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted July 24, 2017 Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 A yep. It does that. It also makes the players on the frontier cut off from "central authority" and unable to call in aid or call for orders even if they wanted to. So it essentially leaves them in a position where they have to act on their own. Almost....almost like, the game was set up, deliberately, to make a group of explorers or other adventurous types act on it's own. Not just giving them the option of taking action on their own but making it an essential part of the universe. Damn, that Marc Miller sure is smart... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted July 25, 2017 Report Share Posted July 25, 2017 things change and tech evolves... Traveller celebrated its 40th anniversary in publication on saturday Traveller hasnt evolved as well as it could have... but what really has the ideas of trans-human traveller definately intrigues me... and adapting to Star Hero/Traveller Hero should certainly be doable what can I do to help? Traveller Hero is still kinda my baby, along with Eodin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted July 25, 2017 Report Share Posted July 25, 2017 A yep. It does that. It also makes the players on the frontier cut off from "central authority" and unable to call in aid or call for orders even if they wanted to. So it essentially leaves them in a position where they have to act on their own. Almost....almost like, the game was set up, deliberately, to make a group of explorers or other adventurous types act on it's own. Not just giving them the option of taking action on their own but making it an essential part of the universe. Damn, that Marc Miller sure is smart... It's the same model Gene Roddenberry used for Star Trek. While most current incarnations seems to have instantaneous FTL communication, the original Trek often had the Enterprise far enough from Starfleet HQ that it could take days or weeks or more for a message to be sent and a response received. This was, as with Traveller, intentional, so that Kirk had to be given the authority (and responsibility) to make big decisions. No passing the buck up the chain of command. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted July 26, 2017 Report Share Posted July 26, 2017 Another comparison of traveller and star trek is that both have been successful and enduring. And both have had multiple versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted July 26, 2017 Report Share Posted July 26, 2017 It feels quite realistic for communication and travel to take meaningful amounts of time (i.e., not be instantaneous irrespective of distance). After all, the same notion holds true for us today on our little blue planet. It is what we're used to and I think players can relate to that. However, what does not resonate with anyone today is the idea that communication takes as long as physical travel. You can certainly try to justify it on the grounds of some esoteric design goal, but it will still feel wrong for adventure in the far future where ultra-tech exists (e.g., FTL). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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