Worlds Apart

Hey Worlds Apart,

You have a very interesting heart and genuinely you are unique. You lovingly translate the classic Traveller milieu and rules system to a fantasy world.

Characters are created with a career path system and you are faithful to the 2d6 stat and skill system. The galaxy creation system has been translated into a conceit called the Endless Sea where clusters of islands are created to sail between. Your lateral imagination is often to be applauded. This is both Traveller implemented with magic and something more open and imaginative that your hard sci-fi inspiration.

The reason I first bought you was that I was intrigued as to what a fantasy trading system might look like. The answer is sadly that it is quite a lot like Traveller with tables to roll on for what kinds of things need to be transported at what price.

All the spreadsheet manipulation of your mother game is still present. Here sometimes it feels the adaptation falters and you are present analogues rather than analogies.

I feel the mathematics of your system means that I don’t really need you in book form, rather it would be better to translate a PDF into some kind of computer program. At that point I wonder, why play a tabletop game like this at all when there are many computer strategy games that would scratch the same itch.

It also feels superficial to draw attention to your looks but you are a dense book. Your ideas, charts and tables all wall-like on the page. It’s hard to digest and you are certainly not light-reading. I’d like to gadfly in an pick up on your best ideas but it’s hard to pull them apart and looking at other mini-system presentations for OSR games I think it is possible to do better.

You successfully translate Traveller to a fantasy background and that’s no mean achievement. You opened my eyes as to what can be done with your basic system but I’m too fairweather a friend to really commit to your fantasy economics. I need something lighter and you need someone more serious and committed to your ideas.