Traveller5 is something like the 7th or 8th iteration of the role playing game Traveller. There are nearly 1000 large format pages of rules. It’s generally felt to be unplayable and unlike other versions it has little support. Even the author, Marc Miller, has apparently admitted to not playing this version.
So what is it if not an RPG? It’s basically a generative grammar for creating entire galaxies. Stars, planets, populations, aliens and their lineages, careers, manufactured goods, just about anything. I’m reminded of Abraham Abulafia explaining the creation of the world through permutations of letters and numbers, or the (fictional) Tibetan monks enumerating all of the names of God. But most of all I think of the languages Umberto Eco describes whose creators attempt to find the perfect representation of the world.
@dpiponi what makes it particularly unplayable? The rules for world generation?
@athas There are rules for everything. Most RPGs have stats for characters, and sometimes NPCs, but T5 has stats for literally everything. QREBS = quality, reliability, ease-of-use, burden, safety. There are rules for creating, using and trading as a function of the stats. When I say “everything” I mean entities from guns to operas. There are complex rules for things like taste, smell, genetics and personal interactions. I’ve attached one table for that among many. But once you get past all of that, there are numerous complaints about the skill system and combat system. So I think players typically play another edition and use T5 as reference to create things on demand or to handle situations not covered by other rules.
@dpiponi @athas Looks like a perfect thing to put in code.
I wonder though, what's missing. I expect if we really do have the AAA title out of it it would be more like the Starfield - lots of "content" of the same flavor that would get bland rather fast.
In a tabletop, the spice would be the GM and the players working together to tell a story. Can a game be adaptable enough? Can a good enough GM be coded too?
@dpwiz @athas The two most well known games with procedurally generated worlds are Elite and No Man's Sky. The former is without a doubt inspired by Traveller version 1 - many similar details. There is a Traveller in the latter which surely is also a reference to the RPG (or maybe EC Tubb who inspired Traveller). Also tempted to code some of this stuff up myself.