Some background: I am recently getting interested in CT again after years away. I basically own Books 1-3 and Striker, and want to keep things pretty simple. I don't know much about the OFU in any of the versions (CT,MT,TNE,T4,GT or T20) and I'm not terribly interested in it. I wanted to share a few thoughts I've been having as I develop MTU, and invite anyone to comment or share their own ideas.
0) Star systems. I've always been interested in world-building, so I will strive to make my systems realistic. Habitable (to Humans without extensive protection) worlds around F5 to M0 stars only. O, B, A and early F are too young for planets to accrete, or for multicellular life to evolve on. M3+, any planets in the HZ are tidally locked to the star (still possibly habitable given the right atmosphere, but not too likely). Most stars are M's, so systems with populations of any size may be few and far between, or clustered (a bunch of K or G stars of similar age and size form out of the same nebula, any or all could be candidates for habitable worlds.) My point is: No more Size 7, Atm 6 worlds orbiting A5 stars with Pop A and TL 7. Oh, and a class B starport.
1) The Imperium. I like the idea of the Third Imperium. I picture it as being fairly large, but probably not nearly as big in the OTU. A core of long-established, high-pop, high-tech worlds with extensive trade and communications routes, surrounded by regions (roughly concentric) of younger colonies, and ultimately an Imperial Fringe of recently colonized or contacted worlds that are in various stages of integration with the Imperium. There will be pockets of older colonies, some that may have regressed to low tech, etc. (the usual mix of interesting civilizations.) Systems are largely responsible for their own affairs, but it is the Imperium's job to maintain the space lanes of trade and commerce. Starports (especially A and B) are extraterritorial, or may even be directly governed by the Imperium. The farther from Core you go, the less Imperial control exists. This brings me to...
2)Revenue. What keeps the Imperium going? Member systems owe taxes to the Imperium for it's role in fostering and protecting interstellar trade and communications. BIG QUESTION: How does credit work in an Imperium where travel times are so long, and instantaneous communication is impossible? Where local booms or busts could ravish an economy and ruin a person's credit locally, but news of the event could take months to reach another world where his credit is still good? With a fast enough ship, he could get there ahead of the news and pull out money that he no longer has. Relativistic finance? How closely does this parallel 16-17th century Earth? (I plan on reading Neil Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which supposedly deals with monetary issues of that time period in the second, recently-released book.)
My answer is to assume that credit only exists reliably in the Core, where communication between the worlds is so regular and reliable that finacial markets can exist. On the fringe, you need trade goods. The currency on one world, even Imperial credits, could be worthless two parsecs away. Travellers better have a few tons of molybdynum in their holds if they want to buy fuel on Rigel 6.
One important task of the Imperium, as new worlds are admitted, is to try to integrate them into the Imperial financial system. Sorry, after 365-1105, your Marks need to be traded in for Imperios, at a ratio of 10:1. Interstellar "armored cars" need to transfer specie to the colonies to fuel their economies, and branches of the Imperial Reserve Bank need to open up to regulate the flow of credits in new territories.
3) The Imperial Navy. The workhorse of the Imperium, particularly on the Fringe. Piracy patrol, showing the flag, monitoring freedom of access to space lanes, escorting revenue agents heading to or from the Core, and hundreds of other tasks are handed to the Navy. Sure, the Scouts survey new worlds and run the Xboat system, but it's a very small service and the Navy does everything else. 200-1000 dT Patrol ships of every variety would be relatively common sights in the Fringe, gathering intelligence (interservice rivalry prevents the Scouts from directly sharing with the Navy) and handling routine emergencies with a great deal of autonomy. A newly-commisioned Navy Lt. might be asked to act with great initiative in command of a 400 dT corvette in the rough-and-tumble Bokhara Reaches.
My campaign idea (similar to a recent topic in this forum) is to center on the patrols of a small Navy vessel and it's crew on the Imperial fringe. PT109 in the 43rd century.
To bring this rant to a close, I guess I love Traveller for the atmosphere (and early 80's nostalgia), but I find it's background assumptions a bit haphazard. I'm trying to rationalize the bakground a bit, if that's possible with a Sci Fi RPG. And I'm dying to play space battles with Harpoon (modern naval miniatures game) where energy weapons are only good for point defense, and the real fighting is with long range, multi-warhead nukes and tons of decoys, ecm and chaff!!!
Thanks for reading, or not, as the case may be
Scott
0) Star systems. I've always been interested in world-building, so I will strive to make my systems realistic. Habitable (to Humans without extensive protection) worlds around F5 to M0 stars only. O, B, A and early F are too young for planets to accrete, or for multicellular life to evolve on. M3+, any planets in the HZ are tidally locked to the star (still possibly habitable given the right atmosphere, but not too likely). Most stars are M's, so systems with populations of any size may be few and far between, or clustered (a bunch of K or G stars of similar age and size form out of the same nebula, any or all could be candidates for habitable worlds.) My point is: No more Size 7, Atm 6 worlds orbiting A5 stars with Pop A and TL 7. Oh, and a class B starport.
1) The Imperium. I like the idea of the Third Imperium. I picture it as being fairly large, but probably not nearly as big in the OTU. A core of long-established, high-pop, high-tech worlds with extensive trade and communications routes, surrounded by regions (roughly concentric) of younger colonies, and ultimately an Imperial Fringe of recently colonized or contacted worlds that are in various stages of integration with the Imperium. There will be pockets of older colonies, some that may have regressed to low tech, etc. (the usual mix of interesting civilizations.) Systems are largely responsible for their own affairs, but it is the Imperium's job to maintain the space lanes of trade and commerce. Starports (especially A and B) are extraterritorial, or may even be directly governed by the Imperium. The farther from Core you go, the less Imperial control exists. This brings me to...
2)Revenue. What keeps the Imperium going? Member systems owe taxes to the Imperium for it's role in fostering and protecting interstellar trade and communications. BIG QUESTION: How does credit work in an Imperium where travel times are so long, and instantaneous communication is impossible? Where local booms or busts could ravish an economy and ruin a person's credit locally, but news of the event could take months to reach another world where his credit is still good? With a fast enough ship, he could get there ahead of the news and pull out money that he no longer has. Relativistic finance? How closely does this parallel 16-17th century Earth? (I plan on reading Neil Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which supposedly deals with monetary issues of that time period in the second, recently-released book.)
My answer is to assume that credit only exists reliably in the Core, where communication between the worlds is so regular and reliable that finacial markets can exist. On the fringe, you need trade goods. The currency on one world, even Imperial credits, could be worthless two parsecs away. Travellers better have a few tons of molybdynum in their holds if they want to buy fuel on Rigel 6.
One important task of the Imperium, as new worlds are admitted, is to try to integrate them into the Imperial financial system. Sorry, after 365-1105, your Marks need to be traded in for Imperios, at a ratio of 10:1. Interstellar "armored cars" need to transfer specie to the colonies to fuel their economies, and branches of the Imperial Reserve Bank need to open up to regulate the flow of credits in new territories.
3) The Imperial Navy. The workhorse of the Imperium, particularly on the Fringe. Piracy patrol, showing the flag, monitoring freedom of access to space lanes, escorting revenue agents heading to or from the Core, and hundreds of other tasks are handed to the Navy. Sure, the Scouts survey new worlds and run the Xboat system, but it's a very small service and the Navy does everything else. 200-1000 dT Patrol ships of every variety would be relatively common sights in the Fringe, gathering intelligence (interservice rivalry prevents the Scouts from directly sharing with the Navy) and handling routine emergencies with a great deal of autonomy. A newly-commisioned Navy Lt. might be asked to act with great initiative in command of a 400 dT corvette in the rough-and-tumble Bokhara Reaches.
My campaign idea (similar to a recent topic in this forum) is to center on the patrols of a small Navy vessel and it's crew on the Imperial fringe. PT109 in the 43rd century.
To bring this rant to a close, I guess I love Traveller for the atmosphere (and early 80's nostalgia), but I find it's background assumptions a bit haphazard. I'm trying to rationalize the bakground a bit, if that's possible with a Sci Fi RPG. And I'm dying to play space battles with Harpoon (modern naval miniatures game) where energy weapons are only good for point defense, and the real fighting is with long range, multi-warhead nukes and tons of decoys, ecm and chaff!!!
Thanks for reading, or not, as the case may be
Scott