Quote:
Originally Posted by helbent4
Kato,
I couldn't agree more, and you can do this while remaining true to canon. In life we have to take the good with the bad, and that's a part of TMP as well (at least with regards to equipment if not faulty rules). It's part of what makes it feel "real" and not just some survivalist fantasy.
Heh, well spoken, but I think your namesake would label this statement as "sophistry". 
Mainly because this is demonstrably untrue. How many groups demand serious and significant changes to Star Wars or Star Trek to suit them or, gosh darn it, they just won't have fun? I think all groups (including TMP) are similar in one important respect: they want to have fun.
Most changes to TMP do not alter that in any way or add to the "fun" factor. They just reflect the personal likes, dislikes, preferences and prejudices of the PD, and most of these changes are actually kind of pointless.
That said, problem-solving should always be a primary focus of TMP. Firepower and equipment use frequently take the place of brains and imagination, placing some kind of reasonable boundaries can foster creativity when players are forced to improvise.
Tony |
Some people like the restrictions of canon and some do not.
Personally I see a ton of flaws in logic in the project as written. The people I game with are very detail oriented individuals (a forensic account, a CTO, a human resources director, a Math professor, a doctor, and a couple of programmers) and flaws in the logic of the project would distract them.
Trust me I have gone to movies with all of them and in this group suspension of disbelief is sometimes a hard thing to for them to achieve. They are generally a group of nitpickers. They are a fun, intelligent group, but they some times complain endlessly about very minor things. Con Air and Die Hard 2 come instantly to mind.
You are right they don't complain as much about fantasy films. Star Trek and Star Wars exist in their own universe. You can easily explain away inconsistencies, just the same way you can say the 100 bugbears' food source is "magical" in D&D. Morrow (IMO) needs to more closely follow the rules of our world as it has 95% commonality during the planning stages.
For me the project expecting someone to give up the current lives and all their connections to it and then to give them only the canon equipment is almost criminal. If it costs some huge amount of dollars to find a person, recruit them and freeze them, I don't see why equipping them with anything other than everything reasonable, makes any sense. Even if that would "enhance" game play.
My players understand the limits of bureaucracy and would accept that things are never going to be even close perfect, but if the project does not have a coherent plan (after working on it for 40 years), IMO people are not going to sign up in the numbers needed.
For example, if a canon team wakes up a year after the war (by accident) and 4 years before the majority of the project assets are activated, they would almost assuredly be dead. That is why I give them access to nearly a full year of food (with pitfalls potentially blocking access of course). You may think this is "pointless" to do this, but the same way that combat veterans will tweak the combat portion of games, my administrative "veterans" appreciate when I do the same to the Project's back end logistics.
As a PD I can remove any equipment I want if I want to get it closer to the canon lists. Spoilage, seepage, bureaucratic oversight, plundered caches, irradiation, are just some of the tools I can use. However I like to start with a more logical starting point than the canon modules do in regards to project logistics.
Note all of the above is my opinion and I would never say that what I think trumps others.