[Sotff] Harder sf fate

[Brad Murray]

On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 4:02 AM, Alan Barclay <nitrosyncretic at gmail.com> wrote:
> You might want to question whether you want the game to be hard SF. Hard SF
> tries to be scientifically accurate and explore questions essentially of
> engineering or empiricism.
>
> On the other hand, Traveller was heavily influenced by Asimov's Foundation
> and Empire and stories like it. While these have some element of scientific
> accuracy, they are really vehicles for exploring human questions -- how do
> people respond to living in weird environments, how do different ideologies
> clash -- planets as fictional glimpses of other ways people might live,
> other ways of thinking, and/or the consequences of applying technology in a
> certain way.

Honestly I think this cake is edible. This is certainly NOT going to
be a game about engineering -- but it will try to avoid glaring
inaccuracies. As we begin with an assumption of FTL, we're already not
all that "hard". :D I would say that from the moment you start
building systems in a cluster, the latter stories start to emerge much
as they did with Traveller.

It's important to me, though, that it be very distinct FROM Traveller
-- not for legal reasons (that's why we're NOT proceeding with SotFF,
not why we ARE proceeeding with Diaspora), but because I think there
are enough Travellers now.

So with Diaspora an Imperium-like structure might be a logical result
of the initial cluster-building but it also might not. Systems
terrified of advancing technology from outside might block up their
jump points and become insular and radicalised. Horrors might be
unleashed by systems that push the boundaries of technology. Or,
possibly, a link to a new cluster -- humans separated by ten thousand
years of isolated history -- might come to be. That's me having my
cake and eating it right there. :D

-- 
Brad Murray (halfjack)

All the money's gone -- nowhere to go.
But oh that magic feeling -- nowhere to go.