06-07-2018, 10:48 AM | #81 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: THS 2120!
Quote:
So it's not a blank slate for the imagination.
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Fred Brackin |
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06-21-2018, 04:46 PM | #82 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In the UFO
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Re: THS 2120!
Quote:
Other than that, my goal while writing it was to have it reflect a combination of many of the visions of space advocates and transhumanists (hence the title). I was not consciously trying to be optimistic or pessimistic, however the combination of the desire to see transhumanistic tropes like uploading or AI plus space colonization tropes with my other decision to retain continuity of present institutions such as nation states and a sizable "baseline" human population naturally limited the amount of dystopia that could be introduced. The other major factor was that SJ Games did not want to trust an outsider to act as a full line developer. As such, while I came up with the outlines, titles, and concepts for all books in the line, after they were handed over to their authors I was not given the same level of editorial control. This meant that the authors of individual books were generally free to go their own way. Examples of key changes from my original concepts included: * the strong US element and accelerated timeline on Mars, whose population and level of development became much higher than the Chinese-dominated frontier on a partly-terraformed world I had been envisioning * the greatly increased number and population of O'Neil-style space colonies <partly the result of the decision to make it a multi-author book: everyone wanted to add their own big thing!> * a less detailed focus on Earth's fifth wave societies than I had initially expected (mostly because Fifth Wave changed from being "the book about how to run living and adventuring in 5W worlds" to "the book about Earth"). To accommodate this I then had to rewrite portions of the core book based on early material that was submitted. The result was in many ways a much richer, denser, more detailed, and more unpredictable setting thanks to the many contributions from individual authors, but the final result also skewed from my original concepts in several areas.
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Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast? Last edited by David L Pulver; 06-21-2018 at 04:52 PM. |
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06-21-2018, 06:07 PM | #83 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: THS 2120!
It's still, even with my criticism, very good. They're pretty much the only setting books I love reading through even now sans gaming group.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
06-22-2018, 10:59 AM | #84 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In the UFO
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Re: THS 2120!
Thanks - glad you enjoy them!
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Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast? |
06-22-2018, 11:01 AM | #85 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: THS 2120!
Did you ever look at GURPS Terradyne as a starting point?
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06-22-2018, 02:08 PM | #86 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: THS 2120!
It's less where that book starts than its failure to end up. Still, it makes an interesting alternate world for a THS/IW crossover game.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
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