Tottenberg: Just The Facts, Ma'am

Real versus Realistic

Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 12:29 PM

Ignatz,

"What a long, strange trip it's been."

And it's not over yet!

The weapon pods look fabulous! Honestly, I think you've hit the sweet spot. Size, location, and utility are all quite excellent.

Regarding drone placement on the boxes, I'd imagine there would be a variety of approaches, depending upon the exact weapon systems involved (no two Tottenbergs necessarily need to have the same weapons; different systems and circumstances would warrant different equipment), crew preferences, company policies, local laws, and the needs of the cruise.

Yeah, the kit-bashing they rather pioneered with Star Wars was groundbreaking, adding "realism" to the ships, even if almost none of it had any in-story basis in reality. If you get into the Star Wars RPG community, you'll find people who have come up with explanations for nearly every doodad and gadget on nearly every ship. The original designers don't ever seem to care about that stuff; or, at least, it doesn't matter more than the look of the ship. Which is, of course, true: who doesn't love the ships in Star Wars? Beyond being iconic, they just look so cool!

Yeah, I suppose, at some point, we might ask ourselves if THIS level of in-game logical design thinking makes sense. If we were getting paid for this, and had a tight deadline, I'd have to say that it wouldn't make sense at all. It's very enjoyable, to me, to be part of something like this, which has a lot of design consideration behind it.

I often talk about the difference between "real" and "realistic" in fiction. To me, "real" refers to something that is factual; "realistic" refers to something we pretend is factual. The easier it is to pretend, the more "realistic" it is. By that definition, this ship is VERY realistic.

Regarding the shout-out on the podcast, I'd love to give you the kind of credit you deserve. Am I wrong in thinking you'd still prefer to remain anonymous? I have no problem with that, but one of my game players said to me yesterday that he'd be very willing to chip in for new software (or whatever) for this project. He's enthusiastic, to say the least, but I think there are others who feel the same way.

I've only shared a couple of the image files you've sent with one guy: the fellow who is helping me with the web stuff for the rule book. His first comment was, "I want to 3D print that, and put it on my shelf." In fact, that seems to be a common response, as I've heard it from others, too, who haven't even seen it yet!

Anyway, talk to you later,

-David