Quote from: rcsampleNone of these are really complaints...just personal bug-a-boo's, immersion benders, if you will... I was bothered more by the small amount of programs computers of the future (according to Traveller) could hold in their "RAM" or "hard drive" than the size of the computer. This may bother me due to my profession (a software engineer) more than it may bother others.

In case it slipped by, I'm a software engineer who works on real time and industrial systems. I work on a real time system that has the dozens or hundreds of small applications that exist on many UNIX-ish systems. But the system I is dedicated to running one major application (well, technically, it's mutliple applications that talk to each other to do one job, BID), and it consumes most available resources on that system.

I don't think you should take "programs" as meaning all the little things like vi or ps or notepad or gcc when thinking about these "programs". You should be thinking about the major application that does the system's job.

Quote from: jrientsMe, I am one of the few New Classic Guys, who became a fan of the original game when the reprints started rolling out.

New Classic guys...I guess I'm one, too, 'cept I clued in 'round 2002 or so, ten whole damn years after my buddy Kyle gave me the LBBs as a graduation present.

Ten years.  'The hell's wrong with me?

But, yeah, I loves me some Traveller.  Classic with a dash of Mega, hold the Virus, thanks.

You know, there ARE ways for an intelligent, creative GM to spin the traveller BG to make it a little less implausible.

For example, nanotech. What if early in the traveller setting some nanotech got out of control and wiped out a whole planet via the dreaded 'grey goo" scenario? That might put the kabosh on nanotech R&D for a while.....

As for AI, what if you had a frankenstein/skynet situation arise and one of the damn things nearly wiped out humanity, or humaniti? Again, it could discourage that sort of technology real quick.

As to labor, maybe having billions of peeps laying aroung with no jobs is, I dunno, maybe a badthing for society, y'know, and maybe laws regulate automation to keep most peeps employed and feeling useful?

S. John Ross' arrival of the board reminded me of what I was going to post in this thread:  

Travelling Light:  A Risus Conversion For Traveller.  

Fun stuff.

Burnt the heretic!

Thou shalt not dilute Marc's Gospel by setting HIS word betwixt rules like these!

Roll up a sector immedeately to repent!

Quote from: SettembriniBurnt the heretic!

Thou shalt not dilute Marc's Gospel by setting HIS word betwixt rules like these!

Roll up a sector immedeately to repent!

I'm already excommunicated from the High Guard--er, Church.  Do yer worst.

Seriously, I like Traveller in Risus.  It's good for getting in a little Traveller fix, especially for limited arcs or one-shots.

Quote from: Dominus NoxAs for AI, what if you had a frankenstein/skynet situation arise and one of the damn things nearly wiped out humanity, or humaniti? Again, it could discourage that sort of technology real quick.

AI is sort of a sticky wicket for me, conceptually. It seems like so many dangerous jobs (that adventurer PC types would have) would fall into the province of AIs, which sort of robs typical space opera heroes of the glory.

I guess one solution is to make a game where the PCs are all AIs.

How soon will we realistically be able to create a true AI, anyway?  It's been "ten years down the road" for decades now.  I assume that it's pretty much the same in Traveller: replicating the nonlinear, associative thought and learning processes of the brain is several orders of magnitude more difficult than anyone imagined.  There are computers that can crunch huge amounts of data and make forecasts or basic decisions based on that, but they're not quite "intelligent."

As for nanotech, I'm assuming that it's present everywhere, but such a commonplace thing that no one notices anymore.

With regard to labor, I like the psychological approach mentioned by Dominus Nox.  Maybe automation has made their work easier (four-hour workday? and rioting in the streets when the government extends it to six!), but the people need work to keep them from feeling restless, nurturing revolutionary thoughts!

Quote from: Dominus NoxAs for AI, what if you had a frankenstein/skynet situation arise and one of the damn things nearly wiped out humanity, or humaniti? Again, it could discourage that sort of technology real quick.

There is actually something that could be used as a starting point for this in early Traveller canon. SPOILERS AHEAD:

In the Kinunir, the first Traveller adventure, the experimental computer system in the titular ship pulled a HAL 9000 and killed its crew. If the ship is salvaged, perhaps it could infect any computer system it comes in contact with - with itself. That is, in the third (pretty bad) Terminator movie, Skynet turned out to be software rather than a mainframe, which proceeded to replicate itself in just about every computer in the country. Perhaps the Kinunir's AI could do the same.

Signal GK also presents a pretty neat idea - a self-aware computer chip, derived from a silicon-based lifeform whcih was pretty similar to living computer chips. Perhaps they would want to replicate themselves and create a society of living machines - to do so, they'd have to gain control of (that is, be installed in) the machines of humaniti.