Drinax campaign and Paal and other low tech planets

[Dagrill]

After entering in over half a dozens sectors worth of planets, I've gotten the impression that standing armies (...and navies) in the Traveller universe are as prohibitively expensive in that world as in ours. Only the major powers (...and thus, major races) can really afford to have serious standing armies. Many of the planets in the feudal confederation of the Third Imperium simply don't have the resources, organization or wherewithal to put together more than a token system defense force.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Armies (and wet navies) are expensive, but space ships are too affordable. Even only allocating 10% of the military budget to Space defence of Torpol and Clarke they have 5 or 6 antique SDB's and 200+ TL8 through 11 Fighters
(just using the ships from Traders & Gunboats), which is more than enough to stop the Pirate attack in the first adventure.

The main problem is all the class A and B starports.

Kind regards

David

 

[simonh]

So obviously these worlds don't have local space defence forces because we want to have our Pirates of Drinax campaign be possible, so the question becomes why don't they have them?

One is that they weren't allowed to have them because someone else wouldn't let them. Suppose 5 or 6 years ago a mercenary space force, pirate band or the space navy of a rogue government obtained space superiority over the region. They essentialy set up a protection racket on local trade, and destroyed any local space forces as being a 'threat to interstellar trade and free movement'. Then a year ago they got taken out. Either they annoyed the Aslan or Imeprials and got Pearl Harboured, or internal dissention caused a civil war that wiped them out and the remnants fled off stage, etc. So in this scenarion now there's a power vacuum the players are trying to fill, along with some other opportunists.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Dagrill]

So obviously these worlds don't have local space defence forces because we want to have our Pirates of Drinax campaign be possible, so the question becomes why don't they have them?

One is that they weren't allowed to have them because someone else wouldn't let them. Suppose 5 or 6 years ago a mercenary space force, pirate band or the space navy of a rogue government obtained space superiority over the region. They essentialy set up a protection racket on local trade, and destroyed any local space forces as being a 'threat to interstellar trade and free movement'. Then a year ago they got taken out. Either they annoyed the Aslan or Imeprials and got Pearl Harboured, or internal dissention caused a civil war that wiped them out and the remnants fled off stage, etc. So in this scenarion now there's a power vacuum the players are trying to fill, along with some other opportunists.

Simon Hibbs

That's a possibility, Starmercs would be in high demand in the Reach and it's easy to see them trying to take over a sub-sector. (sort of high tech Saxon invasion of Britain scenario).

Kind regards

David