Re: Background? was Re: SGII Newbie Question

>Also, in general, great books do not necessarily make great
games.	I think most
>people would agree that Weber's Honor Harrington series is
a great pseudo-hard
>science fiction series, but if a game was marketed based on
that system how
>playable would it be?	The Manties have an advantage on
almost every scale
>except quantity, which the PNS can't bring to bear
effectively due to having to
>police their rear-areas.  So you have a game where one side
has better ships,
>better crew, and better weapons.  The other side has more
ships.	In a one off
>or pickup game the Mantie is almost always going to win
unless there is a fairly
>big quantitative edge given to the PNS.

So design the game that way.  Quantity vs quality is always
fun.

> Also, you have the problem of who is
>going to _want_ to play the PNS?  Playing a repressive,
dictatorial government
>doesn't sell very well in the egalitarian society we
generally enjoy.

You mean I should send back my Avalon Hill Russian Campaign
(Hitler vs Stalin)?

>It may seem odd to some people (myself included) that
people don't want to
>create their own storylines, backgrounds, and history, but
the fact of the
>matter is, they don't.

I think you're overgeneralizing here.  _Some_ people don't
want to--so they buy GW.  Then there are the GZG listers,
who are busily designing their own planets, star systems,
societies, etc etc.  See the GZGPedia for details.  St^3 Jon
has provided a framework but it's not really necessary, just
convenient.  I grant you, creativity flourishes more within
a framework than without it; and is fostered by discussion.
I don't know that I'd have done all the work I have, if i
didn't expect someone to read it.