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Thursday, September 19, 2013

On Traveller Prime Directive and the Past and the Future

Jean Sexton writes:

One of the most anticipated RPGs that we've worked on is Traveller Prime Directive. We thought it could be done while I lived in North Carolina, far from the computer files for the product. We were wrong. No one already in Amarillo really had the spare time to work on layout, to fix the fiddly bits, and to make the book come together. It had to wait until I moved to Amarillo. Now I can work on layout, fix the fiddly bits, and work with people to make the book be a reality.

What we've done in the past is simply swap out RPG System 1 for RPG System 2 when we did the books. We left out some of the various species when we went from GURPS to the various d20 versions and we've never heard the end of it. The players felt cheated, but we made sure that they were all included in the "sourcebooks" for empires -- and we intend to make sure they are part of the systems' next non-empire-specific book. We learn from the past and we will try hard to not make those mistakes again.

What does the future hold? Traveller Prime Directive, for sure. It may have a different organization -- I want to learn from people experienced in RPGs, not just go on what I think, what I like, what I feel. I want the Traveller players to have the feel of holding a well-edited Traveller supplement that covers the Star Fleet Universe. I want them to have some facts they may never have had about alien species before. It seems that so much of Traveller universe takes place in such a small area that the humans haven't encountered many aliens. One thing is certain about the SFU and that is we have aliens: lots and lots of aliens. I want the players to be able to be the bridge crew on a starship if that's what they want. I want them to be able to be traders to the stars if that's what they want to be. Spies? Sure! Who knows what secrets (and skills) that lovely Orion dancing girl has? Maybe you are Chantelle Kambanga, known throughout the Alpha Octant as the best person to explore ancient civilizations -- you and your team have actually lived through two other excavations!

What we want is to learn from our past and in the future bring you the best Traveller Prime Directive that we can. It's going to be a great book and RPG.