Traveller and I

Since I'll be devoting more posts to classic Traveller over the next little while, I thought it might be useful to talk a bit about my own history with the game, if only to help readers understand where I'm coming from. Very little of what follows is probably new – I'm pretty sure I've touched on this before – but I'm not certain I've ever collected it all in one place. Even if I have, a refresher for the benefit of those who don't want to trawl through the 4000+ posts in the blog's archive is probably valuable.

Since I was a small child, I've always been more of a science fiction than a fantasy guy. Some of that no doubt is a consequence of my growing up in the 1970s, when the Apollo Program still loomed large and the promise of manned spaceflight and the eventual colonization of the solar system were not yet dreams too big to imagine being fulfilled in my lifetime. And, of course, there was Star Trek, whose Original Series was during this time well on its way to becoming a worldwide pop cultural phenomenon, thanks to the success of its syndication. Under the tutelage of my aunt, who was a teenager when Star Trek first aired in the late '60s, I became a huge fan of Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Dr McCoy, and the crew of the starship Enterprise and, because of that, a huge fan of sci-fi in general.

During the '70s, I watched every science fiction movie or TV show I could, no matter how bad – and many of them were very bad indeed. I also read as much SF literature as I could, aided by the spinner racks at my local public library, some of which featured the works of authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, among many more. In combination, these fed my sense of what science fiction was and could be, so much so that, even today, nearly a half-century later, they continue to shape my imagination on an almost instinctual level. I suppose it's little wonder, then, my conception of sci-fi is general somewhat "old fashioned," born out of works created in the '50s, '60s, and '70s rather than more contemporary visions of the future.

I first encountered Dungeons & Dragons in late 1979, a discovery that would change my life forever. From that point on, roleplaying, in one form or another, would become my primary pastime and creative outlet. Initially, my focus was, naturally, on fantasy roleplaying games, but it didn't take long before I'd learn of the existence of Gamma World, a post-apocalyptic RPG that included a fair number of science fictional trappings, like laser weapons and robots. Unsurprisingly, I was a very enthusiastic Gamma World fan, which whetted my appetite for the possibility of a "real" sci-fi RPG, something that I wouldn't have the chance to play for a few more years yet. In the meantime, I'd have to content myself with brief forays into the genre, like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. 

Unlike my discovery of D&D, which I can recall vividly, my discovery of Traveller is a bit hazier. I tend to associate it with 1982's The Traveller Book, because that's the first Traveller product I ever owned. However, I'm almost certain I started playing the game before I owned a copy of the rules, probably with a childhood friend's older brother, from whom I learned a lot in the first few years after I started roleplaying. Likewise, I had already been playing Traveller for some time before the release of FASA's Star Trek RPG, which also came out in '82. So, if I had to guess, I probably began playing Traveller in 1981 or very early 1982, but, as I said, my memories are hazy and I can't swear that.

Regardless, Traveller quickly rose in my affections, easily displacing D&D, even if I still played it far less than Dungeons & Dragons. That's more a function of the interests of my friends than of any lack of devotion on my part. They, like most roleplayers I've known over the decades, preferred fantasy to science fiction, so, if I wanted to game, that meant playing a fantasy RPG rather than a sci-fi one. That was fine – I didn't (and don't) dislike fantasy – though, if given the chance, I'll always choose science fiction. Whenever I could, I ran Traveller or Star Frontiers or Star Trek instead of D&D, though those opportunities weren't as great as I would have liked.

Even so, I was quite thoroughly devoted to Traveller, dutifully picking up as many supplements and adventures for it as I could find. I read them all voraciously and committed the details of the evolving Third Imperium to my memory to the point where I now consider it my favorite fictional setting, beating out even Tékumel, in which I've been refereeing a campaign for just shy of a decade now. When I went away to college, I had slightly better luck with enticing people to play Traveller, which made me happy, as did my discovery of Traveller's fan scene through The Travellers' Digest and, later, the History of the Imperium Working Group (HIWG), a fan organization dedicated to fleshing out aspects of MegaTraveller's Rebellion. 

My encounter with Traveller's fan scene was truly transformative for me. Because of it, I attended Origins for the first (and so far only) time, meeting Marc Miller and some of the folks at Digest Group Publications. I also connected with many Traveller fans across the world, some of whom are now among my oldest and dearest friends. Further, my work in HIWG paved the way for my involvement with Traveller in a professional capacity, penning articles in Challenge that would eventually bring me to the attention of GDW, who asked me to write one of the introductory adventures for Traveller: The New Era (and later GURPS: Traveller).

Despite – or perhaps because of – my intense affection for Traveller as both a player/referee and as a writer, I've fallen in and out of love with it several times over the years, but I always come back to it. I regularly joke that, while D&D is my first love, Traveller is my true love. The reason for this is twofold. First, Traveller was my first "real" science fiction RPG. Second, Traveller's inspirations closely matched many of my own; the game seemed almost perfectly tailored to a kid who'd read the books I had. Taken together, Traveller has imprinted itself on me in ways I can probably never fully shake, nor would I want to, if I'm being honest.

That said, I have tried. I wrote Thousand Suns as an homage to everything I loved about Traveller, while trying to improve upon it where I could. I'll leave it to others to judge whether I succeeded, but I still consider Thousand Suns one of the few things I've created about which my feelings are largely unconflicted. My only real regret is that, as Grognardia grew, I devoted less energy to developing Thousand Suns than I had originally planned. I may have to change that, if time permits, because it's a good game that I think still has unrealized potential. If only I weren't so easily distracted ...

And there you have it: my history with Traveller, albeit in abbreviated form. I hope this will provide some additional context to my upcoming posts about the game and its history. I feel that it's an overlooked and underappreciated roleplaying game, one deserving of much greater attention and appreciation than it typically receives. I hope, as I write more about it, more readers will agree.

When Greatness By Right Is Thrust Upon You ...

Whenever TSR released a new campaign setting for AD&D during the Second Edition era, Dragon magazine would include a special section advertising it. Issue #219 (July 1995) included one for Birthright, which featured the following pages:

Cambion

January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961

I am that spawn of witch and demon

By time's mad prophets long foretold:

The unnamed fear of king and freeman,

I roam the lawless outland wold,

Couching amid the weeds and mould

With dire Alecto for my leman.

I am that hidden piper, playing

The Pan-like strains of malefice

That lure the lonely traveller, straying

Upon the crumbling precipice:

To filmed morass or blind abyss

His feet must follow, never staying.

I am that swart, unseen pursuer

Whose lust begets a changeling breed:

All women know me for their wooer:

Mine is the whisper the maidens heed

At twilight; mine the spells that lead

The matron to the nighted moor.

I am that messenger whose call

Convenes dark mage and banished lord

And branded witch and whip-flayed thrall,

To plot, amid the madness poured

On the black Sabbat's frothing horde,

The bale of realms, the planet's fall.

Retrospective: Birthright Campaign Setting

By now, it's pretty widely recognized that Dungeons & Dragons and, by extension, all roleplaying games ultimately descend from miniatures wargaming. After all, the subtitle of OD&D is "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniatures Figures." Yet, fairly quickly, this descent had become obscured, if not outright forgotten. The first version of D&D I owned, Holmes Basic, was first published in 1977, just three years after the release of OD&D and, by that point the game's subtitle had already been changed to "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Role Playing Adventure Game campaigns" (italics mine). The explicit connection to miniatures wargaming had been severed.

However, many implicit connections remained, most importantly in the way that most character classes, as they advanced in level, gained followers – sometimes a lot of them. High-level characters can also establish strongholds and rules over a territory, collecting taxes from the inhabitants. These and similar aspects of the game reveal, I think, that D&D never completely broke free of the bonds of miniatures wargaming, where free-wheeling campaigns driven by the machinations of players were common. D&D is very much an outgrowth of that style of play, even if most of the new generation of gamers, like myself, had little or no understanding of this fact. And, to be fair, TSR itself did very little to promote this style of play, aside from half-measures like the D&D Companion Set in 1984. 

TSR tried again a little more than a decade later with the release of the Birthright Campaign Setting in 1995. Created by Rich Baker and Colin McComb, Birthright was another example of the many impressive boxed sets released during the Bronze Age of D&D. The set consisted of three softcover books (a 32-page Atlas of Cerilia, describing the game's history and geography; a 96-page Rulebook that detailed changes to the AD&D 2e rules; and a 96-page Ruins of Empire book that detailed all the kingdoms of the setting), a couple of large poster maps, a battle mat, 112 cards with the stats for various military units, a DM screen, and a collection of reference sheets. It was, as I said, a very impressive package. The box was filled to the top with lots of stuff – a hallmark of the era.

One of the central features of Birthright that distinguished it from other D&D settings at the time was that it focused on rulership, whether of a kingdom (or smaller governmental unit) or an organization, like a guild, merchant company, or temple. Most player characters are assumed to be scions, possessors of ancient divine bloodlines that grant them a variety of supernatural abilities. These bloodlines stretch back to the gods themselves, who sacrificed their very essences in order to save the mortal races of Cerilia from the evil god Azrai. When a character is generated, the strength and type of his bloodline is determined randomly. However, through play, the bloodline can be strengthed or weakened, depending on his success or failures in defeating other scions. 

Bloodlines and their powers play a significant role in Birthright. Scions are, by their nature, no ordinary mortals. Their powers enable them to rise to prominent positions in Cerilian society, such as great military commanders, merchant princes, high priests, and, of course, the rulers of domains. Success in Birthright's domain management system depends, to a great degree, on the ruler's use of his bloodline strength and powers, though luck and good judgment play a role as well. It's an interesting conceit and, in my opinion, a rather clever one for a leveled game like AD&D. Since even 1st-level Birthright characters possess bloodline powers, albeit weak ones, they can jump right into the action by governing small territories or organizations, with the hope that, as they advance in influence and power, they can expand the holdings they govern as well.

Domains are governed according to a three-month "domain turn" during which a ruling scion (or regent) makes decisions about how he wishes to govern. These decisions involve taxation, maintenance, warfare, diplomacy, and more. There are also tables for handling random events that might occur during a turn. Of course, characters can also – and indeed are expected to – engage in adventuring during these turns, too, since defeating other scions and stealing their divine power is an important way to increase their own. Birthright regents don't just sit on their thrones and let others do the dirty work for them! It's probably not "realistic," but it's fun, in much the same way that a Star Trek captain's leaving his bridge to beam down to a hostile planet is. After, Birthright is still D&D.

Speaking of its being "still D&D," the Birthright campaign setting doesn't deviate too much from the defaults of Second Edition. All the expected character classes are there and any changes to them are minor at best. The same is true of the standard demihuman races, though elves have a slightly more sinister, or at least distrusted, character to them. The setting does make a distinction between wizards, who cast both "true magic" and realm magic, and magicians, who are specialists in illusion and enchantment. Only scions can become wizards, since both true and realm magic require the divine power of a bloodline to operate. Other than this, Birthright doesn't differ all that much, rules-wise, from AD&D 2e as it existed in 1995.

Though the setting assumes that most player characters will be scions, it's not mandatory. Characters lacking a bloodline are possible, though I'm honestly not sure why anyone would play one. They lack both the extra abilities that bloodlines provided and the hit point boost (+10) that comes with them. Non-scion characters get a +10% XP bonus on top of any other bonus they might qualify for, but that's the only benefit to not having a bloodline. I suppose another perk is that you're not as likely to be a target for ambitious scions hoping to empower themselves by killing you.

Like a lot of AD&D 2e settings, Birthright was very well supported by TSR, with a large number of supplements and adventures being published for it over a very short period of time. I never owned anything more than the original boxed set, so I can't really comment on how useful these were. I get the impression that, as one might expect, they were a mixed bag – some were excellent and added a lot to the setting, while others were less so. For myself, I felt that Birthright was complex enough as it was and can't imagine wanting to add more complexity. The domain management system, while compelling, required a lot of bookkeeping, for example, and the mass combat rules, though simpler than a full-on miniatures wargame, nevertheless required a lot of attention.

The Birthright campaign setting is one that greatly interested me at the time of its release. Unfortunately, that time also corresponded to when my interest in Dungeons & Dragons was rapidly fading. As I said, I bought the initial boxed set and read it with enjoyment. However, that never translated into making use of it. Instead, it languished on a shelf for years, until I finally sold it to someone who'd better appreciate it. Now, I regret that a tiny bit, since I think I now have a better handle on the kind of "movers and shakers" political campaign that the rules were designed to handle. Were I to referee such a campaign, though, I doubt I'd use AD&D, so it's a moot point anyway. 

If anyone reading this made good use of Birthright to run a campaign, I'd love to hear how it went.

REPOST: The Articles of Dragon: "Who Get the First Swing?"

There's that word again -- "realism." As I've noted before, it (and variations on it) were a commonplace of Dragon articles after 1983 or thereabouts. This instance of it appears as part of the subtitle to the article "Who Gets the First Swing?" which appeared in issue #71 (March 1983). The article, by Ronald Hall, is an attempt to produce a "simple yet realistic" alternative to the convoluted and much misunderstood initiative system presented in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. I think almost anyone who ever attempted to run combat in AD&D by the book would have been sympathetic to Hall's intention.

Initiative in AD&D, particularly when combined with the equally obscure rules regarding surprise, was one of those areas where, in my experience, most players back in the day simply ignored the official rules and adopted a variety of house rules. I know I did. My system was a variation on rolling 1d6 per side with modifiers and a dash of common sense. D&D's combat has always been pretty abstract, so it never made much sense to me to fixate on making one of its aspects more "realistic." Unfortunately, in this period of D&D's history, that opinion wasn't held by all, least of all those who wrote articles for Dragon. "Realism" was all the rage.

Hall introduces an attack priority system that makes good use of weapon speed factors -- another aspect of AD&D many gamers dropped -- in order to model advantage such "faster" weapons have in combat. His system is an individual initiative system rather than a group initiative one, which, right there, means it's going to be much more complex than the commonest house rules used at the time. Add to this that there many, many modifiers to a character's attack priority, such as weapon length, dexterity, size, hit dice, among others, and you have a recipe for a system that, despite its claims does require "more work." The other issue is that, like many such systems, Hall distinguishes between manufactured and natural weapons, which necessitates that there be seven pages of supplementary stats to cover the modifiers for all the creatures in the Monster Manual. What one is to do with the Fiend Folio monsters is never addressed.

Articles like this were no doubt extremely well-intentioned, but, even at my most obsessive, I never felt the desire to use them. I understood the logic that leads to creating an individualized initiative system with lots of modifiers and special cases, but, at the end of the day, the result always seems like more work than is necessary for a combat system as abstract as D&D's. I'll readily grant that AD&D is a mess when it comes to initiative and the other complexities it bolted on to OD&D's "alternative combat system." However, articles like this strike me as cures worse than the disease.

The Wiseman's Gap Subsector

As I've been delving into Traveller, I've also been working on a little bit of whimsy: a Riphaeus sector booklet on the model of GDW's The Spinward Marches and The Solomani Rim supplements. I say whimsy both because I'm not sure how useful this project will be and because I'm making an effort to reproduce, to the best of my limited abilities, the formatting and layout of the originals. For example, here's the draft page accompanying the map to the Wiseman's Gap subsector.

I'm not very skilled at most technical skills, so it's not been easy to copy the GDW house style as I had hoped. I'm still plugging away at it, in between other projects. My hope is get the thing done sometime this month and release it through Mongoose's Classic Travellers' Aid Society third party license. As I said, this is mostly for my own enjoyment (and perhaps the enjoyment of the players in my old Riphaeus sector campaign), but I also find it helpful to complete a simple, straightforward project as a way to jumpstart other, bigger projects (of which I have many).

Speechless (Again)

Once more, J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday is upon us and I am ill prepared to say anything to mark the occasion. Much like Dungeons & Dragons, I'm not certain I have anything left to say that I haven't already said on numerous occasions beforehand – or that others more eloquent than I haven't said better. Therefore, I will simply remind everyone of the date and bid you all to commemorate this auspicious date in whatever way seems appropriate to you. I'll be re-reading some of my favorite sections of The Hobbit, like riddles in the dark or the meeting with Elrond. Those scenes (and many others besides) remind of why Tolkien is still remembered and celebrated to this day.

Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien!

In Case of Fire, Break Glass

Nearly everyone who's read the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide remembers Will McLean's delightful comics that poked gentle fun at many of the conventions of fantasy roleplaying. Traveller had a few examples of its own, my favorite being this one which appeared in The Traveller Book by Loren Wiseman and John M. Morrison. 

Modifications to Traveller (Part II)

Wiseman continues: 

The most common change will probably be in the available weapons. Any additions to the weapons should be especially well thought out and rationally based. Science fiction literature contains many more weapons than could be described in the basic rules. Many of these have only the flimsiest of scientific justifications, if they are justified at all. In television and movies, weapons are often created for the visual effect they have and are not usually very well thought.

A couple of points. First, we again see a reference to "science fiction literature" as the first source of inspiration for Traveller, which shouldn't be surprising. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of E.C. Tubb and H. Beam Piper – the two most influential authors on Traveller – can easily see where the game came from. That said, sci-fi TV and movies are mentioned, albeit unflatteringly. Second, it's very clear that Wiseman at least considered Traveller to be an attempt at a "serious" game grounded in real world science. He doesn't see it as a game of swashbuckling space opera. I'm OK with that, though I know plenty of people aren't.

In addition, all ramifications of the weapon must be considered. For example, any major change in lethality of hand-carried weapons is likely to have profound effects on military tactics, at least eventually (the military is sometimes a little slow to catch on).

This is a fair point. For the most part, Traveller's weapons – at least those readily available to player characters – are all on a fairly similar plane in terms of lethality. There are differences, obviously, but, aside from some of the stuff introduced in Mercenary, they're all of a piece. 

A few question to ask might be: is this weapon really required by my universe? What is the principle of its operation? (If the weapon is taken from literature, the principle of operation may be described or well-established.) Is the principle of operation a reasonable one? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this particular weapon, and why would it be used in place of more conventional weapon systems?

All reasonable questions, so I don't have much to add. I will note, however, that a common complaint about Traveller is that it includes too many "archaic" weapons among its firearms, like shotguns and submachine guns. This has never much bothered me, perhaps because of a comment in Book 1 of Traveller that seemingly addresses this point: "the surest way to injure or kill an adversary will be to subject him to a large dose of kinetic energy, and a simple way, easy way to administer that energy is by bullet impact."

Adaptations to the jump and maneuver drive systems and to our concept of jump space should be made only with care and consideration. The effects of modifications to these areas are wide-ranging and touch almost every rule in one form or another. In designing our interstellar drive system, we tried to come up with one which fitted in with the other aspects of our proposed mythos and which was reasonably close to the literature we drew it from. It was assumed, however, that some referees would not be satisfied, whatever system we devised. It was further assumed that any referee who felt strongly enough about the matter would change what displeased him.

This section might be one of the more controversial ones, because I know that many people both dislike Traveller's jump drive and believe that the game is perfectly playable without it. Wiseman acknowledges this above. For myself, I'm a big fan of the way jump drive works, because, when coupled with the lack of any form of FTL communications, it creates a setting that's somewhat akin to the Age of Sail, at least as far as the dissemination of information. That opens up a lot of possibilities for adventures both large and small. 

We do not recommend major revisions of the trade and commerce section without considerable thought. Minor deviations from the trade and speculation table, or reclassification of certain world types are acceptable; indeed, in most cases, some deviation from the letter of these rules is desirable, but the spirit (i.e. the general system) should be preserved.

As to how integral the speculative trade system is to Traveller, I'm not sure. I'll only say that I very much love the system, not because it's a good simulator of interstellar commerce – it's not – but because it provides a terrific campaign framework and a reason for characters to travel from world to world. I'll talk more about this in a future post.

Referees are cautioned against making psionic powers too common. Players will often urge that psionics become more widespread, but this is often only because they want to have every possible advantage without drawbacks. Powerful psionic abilities would soon dominate all aspects of play and most of the excitement of Traveller (the advanced technologies) will lapse into disuse, or at least be relegated to a secondary role. 

I can't really disagree with this section, but I've also never been a huge booster of psionics in Traveller (aside from when I've used the Zhodani), so my opinion is perspective is perhaps skewed.

The cautions which apply to major revisions apply to a lesser extent to expansions of existing rules. Many referees find certain rules do not go into enough detail to suit them. Examine the manner in which Book 4, Mercenary, expands upon the army and marines, or Book 5, High Guard, expands upon the navy for general guidelines on technique. You need not (and probably should not) duplicate the systems in these two books exactly, but they will prove a source of inspiration for your own efforts.

Even as someone with a decidedly mixed opinion about Traveller Books after 3, I agree with Wiseman here. Most of the later books do provide good models for those who wish to add more detail to their adventures and campaigns, even if I've rarely felt the need to do so myself. I prefer a simpler, less baroque version of Traveller, but I understand not everyone feels this way, especially in a game that's much more laser focused on a particular style of play.

Wiseman offers up a lot of food for thought in this section of Book 0. In future posts, I'll be returning to a few of them. Stay tuned.

Looking Ahead

Judging from my past attempts to do so, I am a very poor prognosticator of the future. Therefore, I am going to refrain, on this first day of 2025, from making any predictions about the next twelve months. If the last few years are any guide, the only thing one can safely predict about the coming year is its unpredictability. With luck, that unpredictability will work in our favor from time to time.

I am likewise not a maker of resolutions. My ability to follow through with almost any project I undertake is spotty at best, as anyone who's paid any attention to my creative output over the years can tell you. The only project that I can (almost) guarantee you'll see this year is this blog, which, for better or worse, I've still managed to keep writing, though there are plenty of days when I wonder how long I'll be able to continue to do so. 

That said, there are a few things I feel reasonably safe to state about 2025 and Grognardia's place within it. First, there will be a rise in the number of posts dedicated to Traveller, at least for the foreseeable future. I started down this path toward the end of last month, so that should be no surprise. Traveller remains my favorite roleplaying game, so this shift in focus was perhaps inevitable. However, I cannot promise it'll be a permanent shift, as one can sometimes grow tired of even one's most cherished interests.

Relatedly, I will probably also post a bit more about Thousand Suns, the science fiction RPG I wrote as my love letter to Traveller. It's a game with which I'm very pleased and that I've enjoyed playing over the years. It's also a game I haven't put any further development into in many years, for multiple reasons. Despite this, I am regularly asked about the game and whether or not I have any future plans for it. Those are all fruitful topics for discussion, especially as an adjunct to the increase Traveller posts here.

Second, there will be more posts about Secrets of sha-Arthan, the science fantasy roleplaying game I've been creating, on and off, for the last three and a half years. I've made a lot of progress in that time, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to personal projects like this. I've written and rewritten, abandoned and returned to numerous drafts of the game rules multiple times now – so many, in fact, that I often despair of ever settling on one that I like enough to playtest widely. I'm hoping that will change this year. Even if it doesn't, I still plan to share more about the sha-Arthan setting, which I think is pretty cool.

Third, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Empire of the Petal Throne. And while my House of Worms campaign is very likely coming to its end within the next few weeks (just shy of its 10-year anniversary), my interest in Tékumel remains. Plus, I did such a poor job of commemorating the semicentennial year of Dungeons & Dragons last year that I feel an obligation to do better with EPT, a game that deserves to be better known and appreciated. 

Fourth, I will definitely post more about the other campaigns which I'm refereeing or playing. In particular, the Barrett's Raiders Twilight: 2000 campaign deserves greater coverage. That campaign has been going for the last three years and it's now entering a new phase, as the characters are in the midst of evacuating the war-torn Poland of September 2000 and returning home to the USA. I think this new phase will be quite interesting, both to play and to write about, so expect more T2K posts throughout the year. 

Fifth, expect some more interviews with notable figures from the history of the hobby. Interviews used to be one the major features of this blog in its early days. I've not done quite as many of these since I return to it in 2020. I intend to change that this year, if only because I think it's very important that we preserve the thoughts, memories, and experiences of the pioneers of this amazing hobby we all share. Being keenly aware of my own mortality these days, I don't want us to lose any more of our founders before they've had a chance to tell their stories. Interviews are one small way that might be able to happen, hence why Grognardia needs to post more of them this year.

Naturally, I have other hopes and intentions for 2025, but I've probably already tempted Fate by publicly mentioning the five I have, so I'll keep the others to myself for now. In the meantime, I want to wish all of my readers a Happy New Year and to thank you all for your continued interest and support. That means a lot to me.