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On Sat, 11/21/15, Jim Vassilakos <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Five Absurdities of the Official Traveller Universe
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Saturday, November 21, 2015, 3:30 PM

 Tim,
 I agree
 with you that the sheer amount of detail comprising the OTU
 is amazing. For myself, a big part of the draw of
 roleplaying is the discovery of game settings, and perhaps
 that's why some of my favorite RPG supplements have been
 setttings (Library Data A-M & N-Z, World of Greyhawk,
 etc). However, the existence of professionally published
 D&D worlds [Mystara, Oerth (greyhawk), Faerun (forgotten
 realms), Golarion, Eberron, etc.] hasn't prevented
 individual fantasy gamers from creating their own. Almost
 every GM worth his (or her) salt has at least taken a stab
 at doing so. So why should the existence of the OTU prevent
 Traveller players from doing likewise, not merely creating
 individual worlds to plop into the OTU, but starting fresh
 with top-down setting design? I can remember doing some of
 this back in the day (by which I mean the 1980s). It was
 fun, and I got to run a few campaigns in this alternate
 setting. But it seems to me that I was the only one doing
 this. Everybody else just gravitated to the OTU, and I'm
 not 100% sure why.
 In any case, thanks for
 bringing up the question that allowed me to unload a bit of
 baggage on this topic. As for being brave, I think we've
 got a pretty polite list given that fact that I wasn't
 tarred and feathered. :-)

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I agree on both counts!

As far as the OTU is concerned there is so much space left 'undetailed' w/i this galaxy that I never had much trouble reconciling 'homespun' worlds, subsectors, sectors, empires, whatever, into the so-called OTU, which has morphed quite a bit  itself.

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