Government and Law Level for Population 0 worlds

[whulorigan]

MgT can no longer be considered canonical for anything but Mongooses settings IMHO

Here are a couple of changes they have made to their ATU
personal energy shields at TL15, with vehicle and ship screens at lower TLs
conscious entities are necessary on jump ships or there is a greater risk of misjump
tachyon canon, ion canon (a direct Star Wars rip off)

Yes, but some of those things I think are detailed there as part of the "generic" Traveller ruleset, and not as 3I setting canon. MgT is still trying to do Traveller as CT was originally intended as a generic SF ruleset that is setting agnostic. What I would prefer they had done would be to have clearly marked some of these things as alternate setting technology.

• Keep the Vehicle and Ship Shields and Screens (since they are common tropes), but note them as not available in the 3I setting;
• Put the Tachyon Cannon and Ion Cannon (and perhaps Meson Guns/Screens) in an alternate technology section, noting what settings they properly belong to or are representative of);
• Same structure for Central Supply Catalogue;
• etc.

 

[mike wightman]

No, all of them are in the Mongoose Third Imperium - most are in their Third Imperium book.

I don't mind Mongoose including every technology imaginable so that I can pick and choose, but they need authors that know what is in Third Imperium canon and what can never be.

Another example - agent like wafer tech has been mentioned, unfortunately they base it all on the destructive experimental tech used on Bland and ignore what is written in T5, The Red Ships and Names.

I agree with Aramis - Mongoose is intent on turning the Third Imperium into Star Wars science fantasy.

 

[whulorigan]

No, all of them are in the Mongoose Third Imperium.

Other than the TL-15 Personal Shield, is there a reference where the other items (Ion Canon, Tachyon Canon, Neutron Laser, etc) are actually used in a 3I sourcebook or adventure?

 

[mike wightman]

Ion weapons are in the Third Imperium sourcebook.

 

[kilemall]

I was under the impression most outposts would be Captive government of the star nation that runs them.

 

[RogerD]

I was under the impression most outposts would be Captive government of the star nation that runs them.

This is a reasonable interpretation, though another might be that the government is the same as the parent government and another would be that the government matches the parent organization’s government - so could be a corporate government or a military one for example.

LBB6 has a population code of 0 equal to 0-9 inhabitants it's hidden in the text rather than the cut and paste (and now incorrect) table.

I actually saw that but went with the table. It is certainly ambiguous or inconsistent. It is interesting though that LBB6 zeroes out government and law level for pop 0 bodies that aren‘t the main world. I don’t think they meant every body has 1-9 anarchic, lawless inhabitants.

 

[atpollard]

I don’t think they meant every body has 1-9 anarchic, lawless inhabitants.

Not until they published Hard Times.

 

[frankm]

For a mainworld, I don't have a problem with Pop 0 meaning 0-9 or 1-9, it's all the other planets and moons in a system that are much more likely to be completely unoccupied.

I think it's a little bit interesting that Pocket Empires has a low effort colony (the smallest possible) start at Pop 3.

The government and law level of an outpost in the 10's or even 100's feels like it might be some kind of special case and perhaps the generation rules should take that into account (but mostly they don't)

If you think about genetic diversity, a minimum population of 3 isn't unreasonable. Small populations that dip into double figures often leave behind significant inbreeding effects. I did some reading on theoretical population sizes and came back with numbers anywhere between a few hundred and a several thousand for a healthy minimum size. Small populations with space level tech that have contact with larger groups are easy to maintain because they can receive colonists and import many items small population can't make. Lower tech planets will have a much harder go of things if they lack countacts on other worlds. Given the number of TL3/4 colonies that failed in the Americas one way or another, I would think thousands of people are a minimum and even they would be one disaster away from collapse.

 

[Krikkitone]

I think pop 0 (and 1,2 as well) are necessarily outposts, ie
they are not sustainable.*
The “permanent”population probably is just on a several year cycle of residency, serving the institution that keeps them there.

*1-2 could be the initial stages of developing a sustainable colony if on a habitable world.