Discussion of some licensing stuff in the works for GR led to hours of heavy game design talk instead of actually gaming last night. At one point Tim brought up Traveller and soon I was hauling down a copy of Traveller: The New Era from my office for reference. It reminded me of an incident from almost 10 years ago that I had almost completely forgotten about.

I had just moved to Seattle and I was trying to get by as a full time freelancer (note: do not try this at home). I was in contact with Last Unicorn Games because I was going to do a bit of work on the Star Trek: Next Generation RPG. One day Christian Moore called me and asked me if I’d be interested in moving to LA and taking a job as a line developer. He went on to tell me that they were negotiating a deal to take over the Traveller RPG. There was supposedly a TV show in the works (through the same guy who did the horrible D&D; movies) and they were going to take on the line and revitalize it. I would shepherd the line and to keep costs down I’d have to write six books a year. I told him I was potentially interested and we left it at that until such a time that deals were signed.

A couple of months went by and I waffled back and forth on whether taking the job would be a good idea if it was offered. Moving again didn’t thrill me, particularly to LA, and it would complicate things with Nicole. It had taken a lot of doing just to get us in the same city as it was. Ultimately, I never had to make the choice because two things happened. First, I applied and got hired at WoTC. Second, the whole Traveller deal with LUG fizzled and there never was any formal offer. It is one of those interesting “roads not taken” moments though. What would have happened had I moved to LA? Would Nik and I have gotten married? Would I have ended up back in Seattle when WotC bought out Last Unicorn? Knowing what I know now though, I’m damn glad I stayed in Seattle.