() FED and FSpace were developed during a period when I didn't own any commercial RPGs. I deliberately sold all my gear, and then spent some time writing story nuggets in an attempt to formulate a universe.
Once I had a suitable concept, I then crafted some basic rules, and then spent the next several years crafting revised universes and rules, until the FSpaceRPG brand was developed along with universe 4 (about the time I got back into some Traveller work for HIWG NZ as part of the Meshan Sector work). On occasion I did play in a few Classic Traveller games run by one of our members, and contributed to the Yiklerdanzh sector project run by HIWG Australia (int he end a single system).
I had previously been a heavy Traveller Player and GM - having used Classic and Megatraveller versions. However I had also been using games like Star Frontiers, Paranoia, 2300AD, Space Opera, Robotech, Mechanoids, TMNT, Rifts and AD&D/D&D among others. All my past experiences with other games have influenced what FSpace became. Also many TV shows, movies and novels have contributed greatly to the mix. some fairly strong Traveller parallels do exist and are pretty evident in some places.
In a way FSpaceRPG encapsulates what Traveller never achieved as a product for me, both in terms of mechanics and a universe. It is a canvas for me to build a story on, free from the constraints imposed from working within the framework of a system/universe controlled by another party.
Many Traveller users have struggled with the broad canvas Traveller painted, both in terms of all the rules versions and the different time periods. Some have picked rules and time periods to suit themselves, while others have branched off into alternative timelines or locations. I struggled with doing such things in the 1980s, but in the end found it more rewarding to sell off all my RPG material and begin from scratch, then allow myself back in the normal game community after my concept got off the ground.
After creating FED, I did experiment with Traveller as a developer, but kept out of GMing and playing except for playtesting one scenario I wrote, and playing in a few CT games of material written by another author in another part of our developments. During the mid 1990s I did dive back into AD&D for a while and built up the world of Tayana to the point I had a viable world I could turn into it's own RPG using the mechanics from FSpace. I then stopped with that and sold of my material.
In the last 8 years I have not GMed or played in any other commercial game system and have no real intention of getting back into other systems. As a person I've gotten over my need to 'game' and find my self expression in the creative process of building on the work I started.
Porting materials between both systems is possible with a bit of work. I did put together in the early years some basic conversion rules to port my older (pre-FED) MT work across to FED/FSpace so my unique ideas could continue to be used. The outline of those are available elsewhere on this website. In more recent times I developed a framework for crossing over between FED/FSpace and MT as part of our FSpaceLynks idea which was originally a method to form campaign bridges with the older FED universes or the different universe stacks we'd formed for universe 4.
Certainly strong connections exist. FSpace will appeal to a subset of Traveller gamers, as would be expected.
And in recent times we've started to provide our ideas on how our commercial products could be used with Traveller, other RPGs and other scifi franchise universes (which may or may not be used with their licensed RPGs).
We've found a lot of buyers of our products are using them with other games, so I thought it best to support people in those endeavors.
We are committed to continue to develop our own franchises, and while we have an interest in finishing what we started in terms of commercial Traveller products, we feel it's better to keep going with generic RPG products and our own franchises, providing other game support for these via this website.
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