On 21/5/20 6:06 am, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> I really enjoyed reading that.
>
> I'd love to see the background history of your setting. It seems quite
> interesting, being at least somewhat Terra centric and not at all 3I.
> It reminds me a bit of some of the 2300 AD stuff.
>
> Also, it reminded me that Australians, Kiwis, Yanks, Scots, English,
> Canadians, and likely some other English-first-language types share a
> commonality: We are all separated by a common language! (and some
> not-in-common cultural references)
>
> I could infer what 'Lobbing' was (not showing up), but lobbing in
> parlance here would be an arcing throw (like a slow, arcing pitch when
> you want someone to have a swat at it).
>
> It's like listening to my Scots cousin. I am sure he thinks he speaks
> English (at least it isn't the Scots of Robbie Burns), but he sure
> uses a lot of slang that I dinna ken.
>
> One imagines Anglic or any other major language is equally troublesome
> over the whole sweep of a large Empire.
>
> My biggest 'connection' issue with any character is this:
> Characters have different career lengths and if you want, for
> instance, all the team to have been on a ship or in a unit together in
> a war, if you are trying to map to a short war in a timeline, you need
> to break normal generation for that. Old war buddies in a unit would
> do the same sort of assignments (as their unit deployed places).
> That's one thing not so simple to do in the Traveller way.
>
> One thing original 2300 AD (or as I knew it: Traveller 2300 in its
> earliest incarnation) did was have a die roll for term length before a
> 'turning point'. So you could hit a turning point in 1 year or 10, but
> average was about 5.5 (D10 roll). You accrued skills by time in a term
> and spent them on things related to what you did that term. That
> seemed a good way, but it still had issues with synchronizing
> characters to a timeline event/period.
>
> Tom B
>
>
>

Tom,

I did mention that in an earlier email - this is very early Interstellar
Wars era, where the United Nations is an interstellar government - the
Terran Confederation does not yet exist.

I'm taking the GT: Interstellar Wars book, and winding the clock back
from 2170 AD to 2124 AD.  The Shoeing of 2113 and the other events of
Interstellar War 1 have happened, the crash program to raise Terra's TL
has happened, but Interstellar War 2: Electric Boogaloo hasn't cooked
off yet, although tensions are building (before we add the effects of
this boatload of lunatics).

I have previously tried a game set in the 3I golden age with most of
this mob, but slammed into the uncanny-valley culture shock I mentioned
earlier to Tim Collinson.

As for peoples divided by a common language, yes, that's true.  I, and
all of my mob except Easy Frag (follicularly-challenged Pom, thus also
called "Mullet"), are Australian.'

I didn't even think of trying to synchronise all characters to a common
point in their mutual history - I let the dice fall where they will and
hooked things together afterwards.  Having a lot of characters be
veterans of components of the UN Naval Forces helped here.

Alex

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