Retrospective: Library Data

My enduring affection for GDW's science fiction roleplaying game Traveller is a recurring topic of discussion on this blog, as is my similar affection for its Third Imperium setting. No matter how often I've felt that I was ready to "move on" from Traveller, I've never done so for long – and indeed often came back to the game and its setting with renewed enthusiasm. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, but the primary one, I think, is how well I know both the game's rules and its official setting.

That extensive knowledge comes after decades of playing and refereeing, as well as reading and writing about Traveller. I know a great deal about Traveller and can, if given the opportunity, talk at length about its minutiae. In fact, I very much enjoy doing so, since it's a science fiction setting that tickles all my particular fancies, some of which no doubt exist precisely because I've been a fan of Traveller for so long.
Ironically, this extensive knowledge is also why I have in the past attempted to leave Traveller behind. After more than forty-years, the game has acquired an immense collection of facts and details about its Third Imperium setting, facts and details that, within the game, are sometimes called library data. As presented in the game's earliest supplements and scenarios, library data were supposed to be bits of information the player characters could obtain through research, the knowledge of which might aid them in the course of their adventures. 
Over time, though, library data became much more than that, as evidenced by a pair of supplements released in 1981 and 1982. Supplement 8: Library Data (A–M) and Supplement 11: Library Data (N–Z) together formed what might be considered the first encyclopedia of the Third Imperium setting. Both of these 48-page booklets contained reams of information about the history, worlds, species, cultures, and technology of the 57th century. While some of this information was simply collected from earlier sources, such as adventures or the pages of The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, much of it was entirely new or at least expanded upon information we'd seen previously. The end result was the presentation of an immense, coherent, and very specific far future setting for use with Traveller.
I adored these supplements when they were first released and, for a long time, considered them among the best things every produced for Traveller. What's not to love? Not only did it include a chronology starting 300,000 years in the past, but it also included entries on important historical events within the setting, key worlds within and without the Imperium, all its emperors and empresses, and so much more. For someone like myself, who's always been obsessed with setting detail, the two Library Data supplements were like catnip. I cannot begin to count the hours I spent reading and re-reading them, committing all their entries to memory, to the point that I suspect I know some aspects of the Third Imperium setting better than I do their equivalents in the real world.
Such knowledge proved very useful to me over the years. My command of this information has certainly made my Traveller sessions more immersive, if my players over the years are to be believed. They also aided me in getting my start as a professional writer of RPG material. My first published works were in the pages of GDW's Challenge magazine, thanks in large part to my ability to spin library data information into Traveller scenarios. This was, after all, the original purpose of library data.
Yet, library data was also a great temptation – at least to someone of my particular bent. It was very easy to turn the creation and study of setting-based trivia into an end in itself rather than an aid to play. During the 1990s, when I was most active in Traveller fandom, I detected a very strong tendency among Traveller's most ardent fans to obsess over library data almost to the exclusion of all other forms of engagement with the game, including play. This is not a behavior exclusive to Traveller fans; I have observed it in Tékumel fans too and have been told by others that it's prevalent elsewhere. 
Now, there is nothing wrong with having a game whose setting is rich in detail. As I know only too well, such details can be used to heighten immersion and inspire adventures and those are very good things indeed. They can also displace actual play and discourage newcomers from ever taking an interest in the setting. Recognizing this is one of the reasons why I've frequently abandoned Traveller. I often got the sense that its most fervent fans never really played the game but were only interested in it as a purely intellectual exercise. Even as someone who appreciated the joy that can come from such activity, this repulsed me. A roleplaying game setting – especially one with lots of interesting details – is only good to the extent that it's being used for roleplaying.
This is why I have such mixed feelings about those Library Data supplements. The world building details they contain thrilled me as a younger person and inspired lots of great gaming that I still remember to this day. They're also a trap, one that has too often led me away from actually playing Traveller and down a dead end of simply fixating on its trivia. Older and perhaps a little wiser, I understand this, but I nevertheless remain wary of them and other RPG supplements of a similar sort.