There was a Youtube video I watched recently where Traveller was discussed, and especially the feeling of "this being real" versus something that did not. I am still searching for that and will post it if I find it.
I found it interesting because they said they played Traveller before and it felt like a surface experience, where they were not really involved in the game. The parts looked cool, they could run through the rules and put together a game - but something was missing.
The person's favorite game was GURPS, so when they played GURPS Traveller, they all of a sudden felt like they were in the world - that this was real - and things took on an entirely new perspective. This could happen with any game, and I admit it happened to us when we started using Aftermath for a lot of our campaigns growing up, even D&D games. For different people this happens with different games, and in different ways.
It was fun listening to their description of being inside a Scout-Courier, like this was somehow all of a sudden a first-person perspective in a 3d game, like the world went from a 2d top down view of a triangle to a fully detailed starship cockpit in a 3d VR game. Can you do that same intimate feeling it Traveller? I suppose they could, but since they knew GURPS, and they felt that game was somehow more 'real' - the feeling transposed itself on the new setting and changed their view of it.
Granted, the GURPS Space rules are wonderful, even on their own, and make a great addition as a toolkit piece in any sci-fi game. I would even use the book creating planets and star systems in a B/X or Alien game, and they would fit in perfectly. It would change the nature of the system, all of a sudden the star systems would open up and become incredibly detailed, but that is a good thing if you are shooting for that realism. Even better if you are invested in GURPS and love that hyperrealism.
We also played Battletech using Aftermath rules and had that same feeling happen, like all of a sudden, the mechs got a whole lot more massive and cantankerous, and lower-level combat became more important and gritty. The mechs in a way became less important, which may be a bad thing, but the focus on characters grew to an incredible level and we had some great adventures in that universe using the Aftermath rules. Everything got bigger, more immediate, and more personal. It felt real.
To others they would probably play Aftermath with GURPS rules and say the same thing, that the base rules felt shallow while the system that they know and love expands the world for them and puts them in the universe in a way other games and experiences can't. So this is not a "one game fits all" thing, this is a very personal thing that deals with our upbringings, experiences, and view of the world in a more personal sense. Different people can see the same game and have a completely different view of it. Someone who played D&D all their life gets Traveller and sees it as the most realistic and detailed sci-fi game ever, and then someone else could take Traveller and use GURPS to play it and see it in an entirely different way.
It is an interesting experience with perspective and the investment it gives to you when playing, and also changes the focus of the game and how you see the pieces inside of it. It is a fascinating thing to see happening and it changes your perspective on games and worlds through a different light.
A perspective you are not used to, and one outside your experience.
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