On 17 February 2016 at 11:08, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 6:52 PM, Greg Chalik <mrg3105@gmail.com> wrote:
Richard, if you want me to unsubscribe from TML, just say that.

If this is not what your every other reply is suggesting, then DON'T SAY ANYTHING THAT ISN'T CONTRIBUITING TO THE DISCUSSION.

Are you receiving this message clearly?

And are you receiving the message clearly that arguing for high-enough tech being able to fix everything perfectly (thus removing broken/inadequate tech as a possible adventuring problem for the players) is not generally considered to be in the spirit of the Traveller rules?

No, I don't get that message, because it actually contradicts the original intent of Traveller as designed.

Moreover, its not a Traveller issue.

It is a STUPID DESIGN of any system that can't function in the environment it is designed to function in.

This isn't "fix everything perfectly", but "fix everything so it works as advertised"!

Would anyone buy a car from a company that came with a warning "BREAKS TEND TO FAIL UNPREDICTABLY DURING 1 IN 100,000 TRIPS"?

So Earth population take a lot of trips in their cars annually, but no one can register their vehicle as roadworthy unless it has been certified to be SAFE by an authorised inspection service. The next thing I get is insurance based on results of the inspection. No inspection, and no insurance, and I get to walk, a lot.

I don't see TL15 spaceships to be much different in principle of use.

If MM failed to realise this basic failure in 40 years, it is surely up to the Traveller community to fix it rather than chant "the spirit of Traveller".

However, here are a few stanzas from that 'chant', the opening sentences from the last page of Traveller Book 3 (1981) under the heading A Final Word:

Traveller is necessarily a framework describing the barest of essentials for an infinite universe; obviously rules which could cover every aspect of every possible action would be far larger than these three booklets. A group involved in playing a scenario or campaign can make their adventures more elaborate, more detailed, more interesting, with the input of a great deal of imagination.

The greatest burden, of course, falls on the referee, who must create entire worlds and societies through which the players will roam. One very interesting source of assistance for this task is the existing science-fiction literature. Virtually anything mentioned in a story or article can be transferred to the Traveller environment. Orbital cities, nuclear war, alien societies, puzzles, enigmas, absolutely anything can occur, with imagination being the only limit.

And, this observation from Geoffrey McKinney in a post at the Lamentations of the Flame Princess site.

Ever since the 1970s, people have typically failed to distinguish between A) the D&D game and B) the sample playing pieces included with the game. Just about every D&D product is full of monsters from the standard lists, magic items from the standard lists, spells from the standard lists, and etc. I think that shows a reticence to really unleash the imagination.

Greg

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.
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