Nostalgia: breaking Traveller with hard sci-fi simulationism

[redwalker]

All the Traveller grognards reading this will probably remember the black globe generator -- a force field of black energy which could absorb anything that the Traveller universe could throw at it.

They will also remember that the black globe generator shunted all that absorbed energy into the jump capacitors, which were normally charged from fusion reactors.

And I can't be the only one who said, "Gosh, the black globe generator is vastly better than fusion!  They would be fools not to design vast fleets of starships around it!"

So I did.

That was a good story.  It was hard-sci-fi in its most minimal sense -- someone asking "What if...?" and following the consequences.

Now, of course, the Traveller universe did not include that option as a readily playable and supported option.  Allowing the black globe principle to replace fusion broke the intended feel of the universe.  The universe was *supposed* to be stupid and inefficient.  Starships were *supposed* to run on fusion.  The "black globe generator" was allowed, but no official source (to my knowledge) ever explored the consequences.

Transgressing that game design was the best part about my Traveller experience.  Traveller on its own was someone else's dream.  Traveller with my modifications was not only a good story, it was good hard sci-fi.  Its only beauty was the beauty of its internal consistency.

Real life is not obligated to follow rules, much less comprehensible rules.  Success in real life is not guaranteed even if one follows the best rules of which one knows.  Success in a simulationist game can symbolize faith in the rationality and habitability of the universe.  (But to most people, it probably has no such symbolic import.)

I have a considerable amount of reliance in the social construct called science and its explanations.  I tend to act as if my reliance on science were justifiable.  (Whether or not it can ever be justified is philosophy-of-science and let's not argue it here.)  To maintain emotional investment in that stance, I fill my subconscious mind with images of events which behave according to a comprehensible system of rules.

The resulting emotional ecology motivates me to throw much creative energy into extremely Simulationist role-playing games, without much initial regard for Narrative or Game.  If a story or a game results from my efforts, I tend to judge its worth on its internal consistency -- not its popularity, playability, etc.