On 21 November 2015 at 22:30, Jim Vassilakos <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

Tim,

I agree with you that the sheer amount of detail comprising the OTU is amazing. For myself, a big part of the draw of roleplaying is the discovery of game settings, and perhaps that's why some of my favorite RPG supplements have been setttings (Library Data A-M & N-Z, World of Greyhawk, etc). However, the existence of professionally published D&D worlds [Mystara, Oerth (greyhawk), Faerun (forgotten realms), Golarion, Eberron, etc.] hasn't prevented individual fantasy gamers from creating their own. Almost every GM worth his (or her) salt has at least taken a stab at doing so. So why should the existence of the OTU prevent Traveller players from doing likewise, not merely creating individual worlds to plop into the OTU, but starting fresh with top-down setting design? I can remember doing some of this back in the day (by which I mean the 1980s). It was fun, and I got to run a few campaigns in this alternate setting. But it seems to me that I was the only one doing this. Everybody else just gravitated to the OTU, and I'm not 100% sure why.

Ummm, are you aware of just how many *published* alternate universes there are for Traveller? Not to mention all the homebrew ones that have never had a formal imprint that are sculling around on the web.

I wonder if a little chart I put together for a (large) (new) section of my Bibliography would help:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzJCXv3_vmyPdGV5X3phd3FMc3M/view?usp=sharing

Which gives something of an idea.

BTW, the idea is that as well as the x axis going through time, the y axis is supposed to represent a degree of "how close the setting feels to the OTU". This is of course highly subjective and if anyone can help:

a) come up with a more formal way of measuring this

b) redesigning the whole chart to look nicer (for a credit in the 3rd edition of course)

I'd really appreciate it.

BTW, this evening's task has been to amalgamate all the 2nd edition entries with all the new entries. The text now stands at over 120,000 words! Still some work to do though. But rest assured that the number of entries has (I think) tripled. I must count up one day.

In any case, thanks for bringing up the question that allowed me to unload a bit of baggage on this topic. As for being brave, I think we've got a pretty polite list given that fact that I wasn't tarred and feathered. :-)

Phew! I'd feel responsible otherwise!

cheers