tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334560358125302549.post553523437375768901..comments2023-10-10T11:56:42.659-04:00Comments on Dice Of Doom: It Takes Place in the Far Future, But Somehow the 1970'spulcheriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207082495103904470noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334560358125302549.post-2613532016616992302011-02-17T18:47:15.459-05:002011-02-17T18:47:15.459-05:00This is a common problem with RPG's and SF in ...This is a common problem with RPG's and SF in general. It helps to remember that these games were developed by game designers who work for publication companys. These designers are not Nostradamus (nor have they ever claimed to be), they use their imaginations to create a universe that appeals to as many of the paying public as possible, Creating their world in a near future helps makes it easier for gamers to relate, and this translates into $ sales $. The unfortunate part is that because they often use current technologies as a bench mark, games become dated. Traveller is a great game, and when I played I always tried to ignore the real world and accept that fantasy universe, in the spirit in which it was created. I found this easier to digest without having to rewrite rules or answer fictious techno questions. (I wish some Trekkies would figure this out and just enjoy the story rather than analize everything)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334560358125302549.post-89143220012869181102011-02-15T17:31:56.378-05:002011-02-15T17:31:56.378-05:00This makes for a good lesson about connecting the ...This makes for a good lesson about connecting the current day with far future settings. DON'T. Give yourself a good century or two of a "long night" so that real life has a nice blank slate to work with.<br /><br />And why care that I can't step out my front door and catch the grav-bus to the moon? In my mind, the Traveller universe still looks like a Ridley Scott movie or a <a href="http://www.2000ad.org/markus/travellers/" rel="nofollow">Mark Harrison comic</a>, regardless of all the Blackberries and iPads around me.<br /><br />Of course, near future settings are fated to become zeerust in short order. Max Headroom, 20 minutes into the future? Didn't even last that long.Glenn Jupphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14980873468634108886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334560358125302549.post-78283415170960209732011-02-15T06:55:03.212-05:002011-02-15T06:55:03.212-05:00Sorry, but I thought the alternate universe idea s...Sorry, but I thought the alternate universe idea should be obvious, in ANY fictional future setting. The game universe is an alternate one from our own, where things, including technology, developed differently. Simple as that. <br /><br />Reminds me of how they tried to explain away the Eugenics Wars as "secret" in Star Trek novels, so that they could have happened in our real timeline, even though it would have been the 1990's and devastated much of the world. The Federation was supposed to have come about only because it was a sort of rennaissance age after this near destruction of humanity.<br /><br />Anyhow...<br /><br />Whenever RPG publishers try to "correct" their game to make it include the latest real-world information the original charm and identity of the setting begins to bleed away. Witness the newest editions of Shadowrun where they changed and removed iconic elements such as the Deckers. If they wanted a different game based on Shadowrun, why not create it and name it something else instead of ruin Shadowrun?<br /><br />My motto and advice is: let alternate futures be what they were designed to be!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334560358125302549.post-24050433693499122432011-02-14T19:55:54.102-05:002011-02-14T19:55:54.102-05:00I recall the GURPS Lensman soucebook positing some...I recall the GURPS Lensman soucebook positing something similar, with the Arisians indirectly interfering with the invention of transistors and microchips, thus ensuring that vac-tubes and slide rules would continue to be the jut-jawed future science warrior's tools of choice.Jaysonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03652611193354218021noreply@blogger.com