{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1271", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1271, "subject": "TWERPS New Sun", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1998-11-24T02:25:00+00:00", "last": "1998-11-24T08:42:35+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1998-11-24T02:25:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) TWERPS New Sun", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ack! I should've know that Paul Duggan would be the one to know\n\"Fading Suns\"!\n\nGood points, too, btw. But under \"active interstellar empire\" we should\nlist the qualifiers: \"Urth\" [sic] is not the capital of this nation,\nsome place called Byzantium Secundus (hmmm) is; and while yes, all the\nstars are fading, when the new emperor gained the throne a new star\nappeared .\n\nI'm sure the same was said for every Roman Emperor!\n\n(There does seem to be some sort of Yesodic government of Briah, but\nwould that be an Empire, if it even exists? If it doesn't exist, if\nall of the galaxy is in anarchy, then that puts a bit more weight on\nthe whole \"black hole in Old Sun keeps Urth and Empire down\" thing.)\n\nThe jumpgates and the lack of time-travel are probably just nods to\ngaming reality--it is simply too hard to factor in STL travel and the\npassage of time for rpgs (imagine all the worlds of the Traveller\nimperium being just sequential iterations of two dozen planets within\nforty lightyears of Urth). That planets and towns will change so much\nbetween interstellar visits appears to be too much work for the game\nmaster--lovingly crafted societies vanish after one visit--all visits\nare one-shots. If it weren't the case, then maybe there would be more\nmultiversal games like the few tried by Chaosium based upon Moorcock's\nwork (Hawkmoon, Elric). Same's true with time traveling--the small\nnumber of time travel games revolve around \"Time Tunnel\" type\nset-ups, rather than having time travel as just another feature for\nall games, another mode of travel, like horseback riding.\n\nWshoo--good thing \"Fading Suns\" didn't cross that bobbit line\n(\"hobbit\" being owned by Estate Tolkien like \"Tarzan\" is owned by\nEstate ERB)! (Like how \"Arduin\" escaped being a \"D&D\" clone? Legally\nspeaking.) And sure, it's pretty much \"goths in space.\" If they\ndid have a bibliography, somewhere (one of the suppliments?), it\nwould be neat to see them list Silverberg's NIGHTWING, Beckford's\nVATHEK (\"so beautiful in the original French\"), and \"everything by\nChip Delany.\" Or whatever it is that inspired them.\n\nStill, I didn't know that the suns were fading due to some spiritual\ncrisis--was that mentioned in the core rule or in one of the numerous\nsuppliments?\n\nAh, Scott Haring was hired back? As editor of the now-only-online\nmagazine? Well, good for him, I guess. It must have been hard after\nhe moved out of the house on Steve's property . . . or maybe I've got\nthat part wrong, too. I'm still more concerned about the downsized\nemployee on maternity leave--any word on her? Well, maybe she can go\nwork for Origins.\n\nSo Paul, when are =you= going to do some game design? (Egad,\nlook--now I've probably done it--it will turn out that you are the\ncreator of one of those fabulously popular \"German\" games!)\n\nAs for Sarcos, well, at the moment I'm a tad more burned out than\nusual, and Project Sarcos is currently one of the cinders. You can\nsee this, no doubt!\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Stephenson", "address": "pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it" }, "date": "1998-11-24T08:42:35+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) TWERPS New Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "m.driussi at genie.com wrote:\n... and while yes, all the\nstars are fading, when the new emperor gained the throne a new star\nappeared .\n\nI'm sure the same was said for every Roman Emperor!" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " When beggars die, there are no comets seen;\n The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.\n\n Julius Caesar, II.ii.\n\nok, it doesn't quite work." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Peter Stephenson Tel: +39 050 844536\nWWW: http://www.ifh.de/~pws/\nDipartimento di Fisica, Via Buonarroti 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy" } ] } ] }