Traveller 2300 was only distantly related to classic Traveller: they both shared the Traveller name, and were both published by GDW.Otherwise, they differed significantly from each other, in nearly every facet of their game design.
For example, while the Traveller star-map was hex-based and the game used jump-drive technology, the 2300 Universe had a real near-space map, and a "stutter-warp drive" technology that limited per-trip travel to a maximum of roughly 7 light-years.
What I loved about 2300 was that near-star map. I had always wanted to play a sci-fi rpg that used actual starmaps. I remember spending countless hours poring over the star-data spreadsheets that accompanied the near-star map, and built my own stutterwarp route map.
I noticed that Far Future Enterprises / Quiklink Interactive announce that they are developing 2320, which is a sequel to 2300. I don't see a lot of evidence that the game or support materials are available yet, though.
Did you ever have/play SPI's Universe RPG? That also had a killer "neighborhood" map, 3D and 40 light years.
ReplyDelete@Paladin: Back in the late 70s I had thought about doing a star map with routes for a game that some friends and I were working on. We were not necessarily thinking RPG...I think we were thinking more along the lines of Acquire, Diplomacy, Risk, and Third Reich in space. In the end, D&D and girlfriends consumed our free time and we never did more than talk about it.
ReplyDelete@RSJ: Never played it. I did play Space Opera, and there was another game, the name escapes me now, that just had a single booklet. I may still have that, and may post it on my blog, it was a strange little sci-fi game. I do recall playing something that had maps with xyz axis locations, but I can't recall what that was (most of my collection of old games went up in smoke, so much of my comments here are hazy reminiscences)
ReplyDelete@Rusty: that sounds like something we would have done as well, then our hormones kicked in, and girls got a whole lot more interesting. I think Starfire III and Space Empires tried to do this.
Space Opera, I thought I was the only one. A perfect example of an "old school" game that was most definitely not rules-lite. Our GM, who was an early computer prodigy, wrote a chargen program to speed up the process. It still took a few hours to roll up a complete party. I loved my ursoid with a dally gun.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that the indie games that are being produced now are no less innovative (or flawed) than those early games. Perhaps I'm overstating that, as designers tend to be more thorough now, but the modern innovation is still there, there's just more to sort out to find it now.
ReplyDeleteYes, using those old computers to do the number crunching for us, that sounds terribly familiar!
for sure this is a classic, with only read the name is enought to know this, and is my imagination or there's a generic viagra logo in the ship?
ReplyDelete