Traveller Trouble

Okay, here's one specific of things that don't make any sense within the context of G:Traveller. There six paragraphs in the main book that serve merely to say "Agents of the Emperor are occasionally empowered to work outside normal proceedures." Obviously this whole buisness of Imperial Warrants and Imperial Edict 97 means something important, but there's not any indication of *why* it merits more than that one sentence summary. It's frustrating.

And then there are things that may or may not be important, but get a lot of play, and not knowing if they are important is irritating. Is Kamsii an important world? How the hell should I know? It's important enough to merit a small 32-page book -- while Capital apparently is not.

If the Pleasure Planet isn't vital, and its book doesn't give it any indication it is, then the priorites in producing info for G:Trav are majorly screwed up. Where is the text explaining why Imperial Warrants are worth six paragraphs? Why are there detailed descriptions of a bunch of worlds, but not of, y'know, the world that hosts the government that RULES THE WHOLE IMPERIUM? Imperial politics is left almost completely blank. How extradition, or anything else that migh affect PCs, works between two planets? Blank. How worlds with multiple local governments -- heck, how just about any world government -- interacts with the Imperium? Blank. What're the diplomatic reelations between the Imperium and the Hive Federation? Blank.

What the hell is going on?

Oh, well. I'm supposed to ignore all the incongruities and puzzling gaps, and just be happy that there's more info given than for, say, Transhuman Space. Well, hello, Transhuman Space actually makes sense. If there's six paragaphs detailing how something works, it's pretty obvious why the effort was spent. And, y'know, I don't have to ask what the major political movements are, or how China and the U.S. get along; it's already been told to me. The big, broad strokes are laid in first, and the details second; G:Trav is almost working the oposite way.

So, I'm sticking by my position. G:Trav is not complete enough to be anything but frustrating. Accordingly, I'm not buying any more at least until the writer docs no longer have the "The author of this book should be familiar not only with GURPS Traveller, but also the original Classic Traveller source material" comments. Because that'll indicate when I can read the G:Trav stuff and not go, "Hunh? What the hell does that mean?"

The Puzzle Analogy

Upon reflection, perhaps the problem is people didn't grasp the puzzle analogy. It was that the experience of completing a thousand-piece puzzle and the experience of completing the bottom half of a 2000-piece puzzle were qualitatively different, even though in each case you completed a whole thousand-piece puzzle.

Apparently, people didn't get it. I did not understand it fully consciously, but it was so obvios, like a bolt of lightning, that I was unreasonably frustrated by the lack of comprehension by others. Anyway . . .

The thousand-piece puzzle has no gaps, no missing pieces; it may be a fairly undetailed picture, but you're not seeing the table through it. All the pieces are integrated together coherently. It is a whole.

The same is true of the bottom half of the 2,000-piece puzzle. It has no gaps, no missing pieces, and all the pieces are nothing missing -- it looks complete. All the pieces are integrated together coherently.

Except that the first puzzle has a complete picture, while in the second, there's a row at the top where no straight pieces are, making it obvious that something else is supposed to be added. It is not a whole; there are other things that are supposed to be integrated with it.

Remember losing a tooth as a kid, and how the open spot was tender but drew your tounge to it anyway? That's what things like the two entrries and six paragraphs dealing with Imperial Warrants are like to me. I've got pieces that link to the other half of the puzzle, but I can't connect them. They drive me nuts.