JTAS Aug 21

[Drifter]

Lets talk about something alive and current in Traveller.

Overall this is a pretty good issue. Once again its a Mark Gellis show, which is great. Two Campaign settings, and you can always, always, always use campaign settings.

Both are set in Deneb, right next door to each other. Lots of hooks, little details and such you can hang adventures on.

The article on Norg would be controversial since it deals with the issue of very low population but sporting a huge starport. Always good for a flame war on any forum the subject comes up on, I think Mr. Gellis dealt with it in the best way possible, especially if coming at it from a GURPS perspective. If going with the G:T route I would have preferred some trade information out of Far Trader or GT Starports. It is more of a non-system-specific, description, however, fitting more with a CT feel.

A friend of mine recently went to Dubai, and I get the same general feeling of that description and Norg - a gleaming, bustling place, with a few fantastic attractions, out in the middle of what otherwise should be a desert void.

The other, the Sultana system, is deals with the issue of a Navy base in another relativetly low population system. Another sore spote with grognards, he makes the GM pronouncement of 'those are the stats, vs what makes sense, so we do it THIS way'. Not a complaint, in fact I appreciate it, since it just sets aside the problem that can consume so much energy and not go anywhere.

Again, the write up is chock full of adventure hooks and pocket descriptions, letting the GM write up adventures themselves.

Overall I like both articles. My only complaint is that both are very dense and not broken up with sections headings. Or at least only minimmaly, so its a little hard on the eyes. And its a little difficult to go back and pick out a section (say on hydroponic farmers) on a re-read. To me this makes the articles seem longer than they are.

Both give me the feel of the old JTAS articles, if longer and (maybe) more detailed. Not classics like (for example) Azun, to trot out a moldy oldie, but very well worth having around when your group decides to jump left instead of right and you need a good solid system setting fast.