OTU Only: Character TL

[aramis]

MT Ref's Manual, page 15 gives the effects of Character TL on tasks.

Meaning, a character's TL is the TL of his Homeworld. TL's are categorized into groups (Early Stellar, Stellar, etc), and when on a world outside of that range, penalties apply to the character's skill level.

I get it, and I like the system.

There should be some minimum's though. If a character's birthworld is TL 4, and that character joins the Imperial Army and serves at the base on that world. Birthworld and Homeworld are the same.

But, obviously, the Imperial Army operates with imported tech--the character's personal TL should be adjusted for that.

MT restricts careers based upon homeworld.

 

[Carlobrand]

...What about a medic trained at TL 4? Would he be able to use the equipment in the sickbay of a TL 13 free trader?

The TL4 medic on a TL13 ship may have one advantage not shared by a TL13 medic in a TL4 setting: a user-friendly computer. With a little luck and practice, he may be able to get the computer to literally talk him through what some of the equipment does and how to use it. I still wouldn't trust him with surgery, but he ought to be able to use some of the diagnostic equipment and possibly some of the medicines so long as the computer can instruct him. If the computer has a medical expert system program, it might be able to guide him to diagnose and in some cases treat the condition he's looking at. It would necessarily be a slow process, not something one could do in an emergency, and he may not be as adept as a TL13 medic of the same skill level but, given time and a decent computer, he would be functioning well above what he perceived as his own accustomed level of skill.

The TL13 doctor on the other hand would be faced with TL4 tools that he might maybe have seen in a museum or a medical history course, and he'd be trying to learn how to make them serve his needs with only whatever knowledgeable human help or books were available. It would be particularly bad with medications, many of which on a TL4 world are likely to be derived from local sources and not familiar to him, and some of which even if familiar to him may be poor substitutes to what he's used to using.

 

[BlackBat242]

I was just reading over THIS REPLY in the Reading a Subsector thread (see my sig for that thread), and it reminds me of an issue I've had with Traveller for a long, long time (but have never settled to my satisfaction).

That is...a character's personal TL.

We have much to-do about TL's in Traveller, but we never (I've never seen an official rule) concern ourselves much with the technological knowledge level of the character.

Take that post I link above. Marchand says:



Pysadi, last time I looked, is a TL 4 world. It's not impossible, but I do think it is a tad bit of a challenge to figure how a person from a world where the tech is that of early WWII would get along on a starship.



How do you address this in your games? Or, do you just ignore it?

Or, do you handwave every instance with explanations of how the TL 4 character was exposed (for years) to TL A+ tech at the local starport...or whatever?

During Chargen I always have the player roll his PC's "original TL" (unless we agree to simply set it for one reason or another).

Then, I determine what TL was predominate during the PC's generation career - as whichever "service" they entered would have retrained them to use its equipment* and general facilities.

This became their "trained TL", and this is what determined success with most tasks - although they could use their "original TL" if that was a better fit for the situation.



* The US military had issues with this in WW2 (and even into the Vietnam era in a small number of cases) when they had to deal with draftees from extremely rural areas (think the back-woods of Appalachia), many of whom grew up without electricity or motor vehicles - or indoor plumbing.

 

[Marchand]

*ahem* stepping in belatedly as I'm partly to blame for this thread (damn useless broadband provider...) with some random thoughts

I've acquired a new saying since I had kids - they aren't stupid, they're just inexperienced. If someone from a TL4 world takes any spacegoing career, they are going to get up to speed as fast as their INT allows.

To give an RL sort-of example, the British Army takes recruits from Nepal for the signals, engineer and logistics outfits of the Brigade of Gurkhas, and trains them to use modern military kit.

But more broadly, I must admit I'm more and more switched off by this level of complication. It's one of the things I find offputting about GURPS, which traces all these fiddly little details.

If the ref feels the PC's background doesn't cover application of the skill, let it be so ruled, and back to the players to think up another solution. Suits me fine.

 

[DonM]

The MT take on this will be borrowed for my T5 games...

 

[Supplement Four]

The MT take on this will be borrowed for my T5 games...

I've got it in my T5 improvement notes that I'll be sending you soon.

 

[Dagrill]

Most doctors today rely quite heavily on thests taht could not be performed at TL 4 (CTs, blood analysis¹, MNR, etc...), and would have difficulty to diagnose without them. I expect this to be even worse at TL13, that's why I said a doctor.

And even if the diagnosis was done, most treatments that we give today are mor emodern thatn TL 4 (while some could probably be obtained at TL4, once they are known to exist). And, as you say, surgery wil lbe the worst case.

But by TL13 my guess is that steem cells, regeneration, etc... would be integral part of medicine, and this could hardly be done atl TL4. If the doctor is used to them, I guess the problems will be serious.

Well said,

I have noticed that various doctors over the last few years are constantly consulting their computers and in one case a locum had to bring in a more experienced doctor to make a diagnosis.

In my wife's case she actually diagnosed herself with Psoriatic Arthritis after consulting the internet, as the doctors were just treating the individual symptoms each time, rather than looking for the overall cause of the problems.

Regards

David

 

[Dagrill]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the TL of a world only apply to what the world can produce. They should be able to buy anything they can pay the transport cost of, as long as the Law Level allows it, I would think.

According to Hard Times it isn't even that as much of the stuff is imported and without interstellar trade the TL will quickly fall off.

I'm not 100% convinced, but I can see TL falling in remote areas.

Regards

David

 

[Marchand]

The MT take on this will be borrowed for my T5 games...

I don't think it works at all. It assumes someone who served 4 terms in the Imperial Navy has only acquired tech knowledge at their homeworld TL. So if you come from Pysadi, that means what - you served in the Spelljammer Corps?

EDIT: I note S4 suggests adjusting if a character's subsequent career would seem to justify it.

OK, but then, what is the point of tracking homeworld TL at all (except for Barbarians)?

Traveller chargen is for generating Travellers - people who move around the spacelanes. With a few exceptions (Barbarians), these people are used to Interstellar-level tech from their previous careers.

At least, that's enough rationalisation to stop me worrying about it!

 

[whulorigan]

EDIT: I note S4 suggests adjusting if a character's subsequent career would seem to justify it.

OK, but then, what is the point of tracking homeworld TL at all (except for Barbarians)?

Traveller chargen is for generating Travellers - people who move around the spacelanes. With a few exceptions (Barbarians), these people are used to Interstellar-level tech from their previous careers.

My thoughts would be:

1) Some "Travellers" are only beginning their career as Travellers when they muster out from CharGen. A Doctor or local Bureaucrat (or even a local System Army or System Navy veteran) may not have done significant traveling prior.

2) NPCs encountered by the PCs are not necessarily Travellers, and would be more familiar with their own local technology.

 

[McPerth]

OK, but then, what is the point of tracking homeworld TL at all (except for Barbarians)?

For the same thing you only have the +1 for MOS skills if your planet is TL HiStellar in MT mercenary CharGen?

Personaly, I've always assumed familiarity with HiStellar TL stuff (and the +1 told above) for those in Imperial services (Navy, Marines, Scouts, etc) and merchants (as I asume most ships being HiStellar TL), but for those into planetary services (most of the rest of them), the TL they are used is the one of their homeworld, as I assume most of their CharGen is spent there.

 

[Hemdian]

Just a thought but you could infer TL knowledge from T5’s World knowledge. If you have knowledge of a world (even at zero) you are familiar with that world’s tech. I’d also include one TL below for commonly encountered ‘legacy’ items.

For example, 44 year old Mishu Agesh was born, raised, and studied for a BA on Vanzeti (DENE 0218) … 22 years. She then studied for her Masters on Deneb (DENE 1925) … 2 years. Then she goes to Mora (SPIN 3124) to be a lawyer … 18 years. Finally she moves to Regina (SPIN 1910) … 2 years.

She has world knowledge of Vanzeti (TL 12), Deneb (TL 12), Mora (TL 15), and Regina (TL 12). This gives her familiarity with TL 11, 12, 14, and 15. Using anything outside that may incur penalties depending on the situation.