On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:46:48 -0800, Ethan McKinney
<xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

>The Traveller space combat system(s) just don't work for RCN-universe space
>combat. Of course, time, distance, acceleration, and weapon ranges don't
>seem to work out within the RCN universe.

Well, no, not really, because David Drake, like many writers, will play
"fast and loose" with the Less Important Physics in order to Advance the
Plot and Story.

THIS IS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED A BAD THING. When writing for an audience,
especially a 'popular' audience* rather than an 'in-group', an author MUST
put the plot and story ahead of the physics and technology; stories are
_always_ ultimately about _people_. Even when you think you're writing a
story about the Illudium Q45 Disintegrating Integrator, you're not; you're
writing a story about how people react to the presence/availability/use of
the IQDI.

As long as your 'fast and loose' isn't so blatant as to rub the readers'
noses in it, it's not a problem. And if you carefully don't overspecify how
the IQDI works, you can always psychotechnibabble your way around
inconsistencies that the more nitpicky of your readers may catch and point
out - "Yes, you're right; the IQDI has apparently had a longer range
before, but you don't take into account the variability of the covidium
electrogravitic fluid binding force under variable cosmic
magnetopseudogravity."

Also, very specifically, Mr Drake has attempted to recreate the Age of Sail
with fairly good _social_ accuracy - you'll note, for instance, that
there's no "absolute" navigational references; routes through spongespace
between worlds are on the basis of the "Sailing Directions", which more or
less describe how to set sails after what periods of sailing, and possibly
what a navigator who actually goes out on the hull will 'see' in terms of
the visual characteristics of spongespace in the 'region'.**  Top
navigators, like Leary (and his uncle, 'Stacy'), also intuitively
'interpret' what they see, so that they can take advantage of varying
spongespace conditions to shave time off standard routes, or blaze new
routes.

(* I refuse to use 'hoi polloi' in this context; that common phrase is
generally considered derogatory, and to an author, the readers should never
be looked down on - they're the ultimate source of those very pretty
royalty checks [or cheques, in much of the Anglosphere outside the US].)

(** Although Drake never actually describes it thus, the Sailing Directions
are neither more nor less than a compilation of various captains' rutters
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutter_(nautical)>) and/or peripli
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus>).)

>Navigation skill is extremely important in the RCN universe, since top
>navigators can cut travel times by half, and poor navigators can result in
>the loss of the ship ... Leary if Nav-5 or so.

How you rate a skill in Traveller depends on the version and whether you
play "high skill" or "low skill". I tend to play closer to the low end, so
Leary's uncle above would be the Nav-5; Leary himself would be only Nav-4,
or possibly a high Nav-3, as he acknowledges his uncle as very definitely
the superior navigator.

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