General How do planetary populations view Travellers?

[Marchand]

I am thinking of how Travellers are viewed by the residents of planets they visit.

The classic era 3rd Imperium seemed to get more cosmopolitan as it went on. If, as the Traveller Book says, interstellar travel is as common as air travel today, then Travellers won't generally command too much attention, unless they venture out into the sticks.

What about in a small ship universe where travel is dangerous and rarer? This seems to be the assumption of the LBBs, particularly the 1977 versions where it's more expensive and difficult to travel off the established jump lanes. A post-Collapse or Milieu Zero/Long Night setting will feel similar.

If a world sees a ship every six months or once a year, it seems to me Travellers are going to be pretty much planetary celebrities. (Assuming the general population gets to find out about their visit, of course.)

This makes me think of the Ultras in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series, for those who know it. The Ultras are the interstellar travellers. When one of their ships turns up at a backwater colony, it's a major event. World leaders on hand to greet the visitors from deep space.

Doesn't quite seem to be a situation the average PC crew could fit into. But it would certainly increase the importance of having somebody with higher SOC in the party.

Have you ever played it that way in your games?

 

[mike wightman]

There is a setting within a setting for the Third Imperium.

First there is the frontier setting where the Imperium is a distant power that allows extensive home rule due to being two years away by fast civilian transport. The proto-Spinward Marches are the example. Travel between worlds is rare and dangerous for the average citizen of the frontier worlds, as per CT 77 and 81.

The core worlds of the Imperium, however, are where the Imperium enjoys direct rule, populations and TLs are higher as are standards of living and space travel is as common as air travel today as per TTB.


On the frontier Travellers may well be treated with a bit of distrust, while in the core worlds they are much more common and treated more as a matter of fact.

 

[GypsyComet]

Taking a cue from the original rules about being exposed as a Psion, I'd say every world will fall somewhere on a spectrum of disinterest to strong interest (whether negative or positive). While you might generally index that to factors like starport class and tech level, it makes just as much sense to make it up as you go along. Just take notes.

 

[Timerover51]

One big factor would be the difference in Tech Levels between the Traveller and the planet being visited. If the Traveller is from a considerably higher Tech Level, he is likely to drive the locals to distraction demanding all of the services that he takes for granted that do not exist on the planet. Imagine someone used to total cell phone coverage in the middle of the Solomon Islands or in the Philippines or New Guinea, and suddenly, no cell phone. Then there will be the problem of the Traveller sort of speaks the language, but has no idea of local customs and norms, along with slang. At best, viewed as an annoyance, at worse, someone to get rid of as soon as possible. Basically, the classic "Ugly American".

Edit Note: I think that at 8,000 to 10,000 Credits a pop, interstellar travel is not going to be anywhere close to as common as air travel is today, unless you assume a very high per capita income in the Imperium. I think that it would be much closer to first-class ocean travel in the mid to late 1800s, with only the upper crust of society able to afford passage. In Victorian England, 30 Shillings a week (1 Pound 10 Shillings) was a typical wage, while in the US, $30 to $50 a month was about normal. First and even second class travel was beyond the reach of a large majority of the population. Their option was steerage, which would equate to Low Berth in Traveller, but that was not for simply traveling, that was for emigration. I will see about posting some representative incomes later tonight verses travel costs.

 

[Enoki]

I'd say there are a number of things influencing how a local world reacts to the arrival of a "foreign" starship.

The first two that I look at are government and law level. Governments that are more likely to be open or at least open to trade will have populations and authorities that are more accepting of a ship's arrival. Ones that are dictatorships or theocracies are more likely to be suspicious of a "foreign" ship.

The next is law level. As this goes up, particularly past 9, the likelihood is that showing up and not being on the "guest list" so-to-speak is not taken well by the authorities.

I've had ships and crews find themselves quarantined, held in the "starport" (even where there really isn't one because of rating and / or TL), inundated by the local media / press, scrutinized by customs, and even refused permission to land on the planet.

Part of that can also be created by how you shape the local government. For example, you have a world where the TL is kept low because the government absolutely refuses to allow any imported technology they can't produce and compete with locally. Such a government might see a starship landing as a legal violation of that idea. They could refuse the ship permission to land or might let it only under strict quarantine.

As part of this you also have to consider the question How long is it between ships showing up on this world? If it's a real backwater it could be months or even years between ships arriving. It could also make a difference what kind of ship you show up in. A scout or a small trade ship might be not a big deal but showing up in one that's say 1000 tons + is. A warship versus a civilian ship would make a difference too.

Then there's potentially racial issues. That's a :CoW: in itself.

Population is another item to consider. A landing by a ship is probably big news on a planet with a few hundred or thousand people living on it where it is not even news worthy on one that has billions.

Then there's politics. Your ship is from polity X and you are in polity Y. How do these two get along politically? If the governments of both are in some sort of conflict it might not be the welcome wagon you expected when you land...

This is really a case where a referee has to look at all this beforehand and figure out what might be the case with a system and the ship the players are using.

 

[GypsyComet]

This is really a case where a referee has to look at all this beforehand and figure out what might be the case with a system and the ship the players are using.

Agreed. A lot of the process isn't actually a process.

That said, the cultural extensions in T5 can add to the mix. Homogeneity, Acceptance, Strangeness, and Symbols (HASS) can all become, if not factors, then certainly color. Homogeneity and Acceptance may make that open hail, or the first steps out of the ship, either much easier or much harder, and may also influence how the opening greetings affect the rest of their time on a world. Strangeness and Symbols go both directions when understanding is required, and a great deal of literary and television SF has been created on those two topics.

Star Trek (TOS, TNG, Voyager, and some of DS9, at the least) for example, is practically a weekly clinic in varying the four HASS values and seeing what happens. So is a lot of Poul Anderson's work, particularly the two series that influenced Traveller. You can add Laumer's Retief, Norton's Solar Queen, Chandler's Grimes, and many others lost along with the era of the cheap paperback.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Have you ever played it that way in your games?

Anything can happen in a sandbox game where various tribes/cultures will exist. Even if only using one world for a game.

 

[whartung]

Edit Note: I think that at 8,000 to 10,000 Credits a pop, interstellar travel is not going to be anywhere close to as common as air travel is today, unless you assume a very high per capita income in the Imperium. I think that it would be much closer to first-class ocean travel in the mid to late 1800s, with only the upper crust of society able to afford passage. In Victorian England, 30 Shillings a week (1 Pound 10 Shillings) was a typical wage, while in the US, $30 to $50 a month was about normal. First and even second class travel was beyond the reach of a large majority of the population. Their option was steerage, which would equate to Low Berth in Traveller, but that was not for simply traveling, that was for emigration. I will see about posting some representative incomes later tonight verses travel costs.

You have to combine those ratios with population densities, though.

I don't know what percentage of folks traveled from Europe to the US via ship. Apparently Europe had about 300m people in 1900.

That's just one continent. Contrast that to the vast array of planets with billions of people.

I imaging the passenger travel is going to be quite robust, even if it is expensive.

 

[atpollard]

I think it is pretty obvious that Travellers are 'naer-do-well' carpet-baggers coming in like they are all special snowflakes. They ignore local laws and customs ... "we don't CARE how you do it back home!" ... but you can't say anything to them because they are always armed and looking for a reason to start trouble.

When they aren't starting trouble, they think that whatever crap they brought to sell is made of Gold and they expect the 'primitive locals' to rush forward and fall at their feet begging to pay 4 times the market value. Then once they have squeezed every last credit out of the local economy with their blood-sucking carpet-bagger broker that cares about nothing except getting his cut off the top, they are ready to strong arm the people they made desperate into selling to them at a fraction of what their goods are worth.

What do we think of Travellers? [spits on the ground] Filthy parasites, the lot of them. :rant:

 

[McPerth]

One factor that the MT:WBH included in the detailed description of societies was precisely interstellar view, ranging from xenophilic to xenophobic. I guess this would be a decisive factor on this (as well as the interstellar trade/tourism share of its economy).

 

[Tiikeri]

I think it is pretty obvious that Travellers are 'naer-do-well' carpet-baggers coming in like they are all special snowflakes. They ignore local laws and customs ... "we don't CARE how you do it back home!" ... but you can't say anything to them because they are always armed and looking for a reason to start trouble.

When they aren't starting trouble, they think that whatever crap they brought to sell is made of Gold and they expect the 'primitive locals' to rush forward and fall at their feet begging to pay 4 times the market value. Then once they have squeezed every last credit out of the local economy with their blood-sucking carpet-bagger broker that cares about nothing except getting his cut off the top, they are ready to strong arm the people they made desperate into selling to them at a fraction of what their goods are worth.

What do we think of Travellers? [spits on the ground] Filthy parasites, the lot of them. :rant:

Slamdunk.

Given that most travellers are there to sell stuff or blow the heck out of the place, one would think the locals would close their bonded super dense shutters and put out the locals only signs as soon as a ship crew crossed the extrality line, aka the Point of No Return by the starport marines, seeing as so many travellers get stabbed or shot before their first night in startown is over.

The only people who would want to see travellers are those who want to exploit them, like local merchants selling their own junk, saloon owners, hospitality hostesses, and robbers. Local security forces might like to see travellers, since they are prime targets for extorting fines for fictional violations.

Think about it this way. Travellers are like freighter crewmen. They work hard, they play hard, and normal people don't think they're anything special. They're tolerated as long as they stay near the port at the establishments that cater to them. If the crewmen make the effort to dress somewhat in local fashion, travel away from the port, and comport themselves politely according to local culture, then people might be interested in where they're from and what they've experienced. Celebrities? No. Local leaders coming to greet them? Maybe the local chamber of commerce or government connected broker. People are low tech on many worlds, but they're not ignorant. Theres a starport on their planet, and they have an imperial noble assigned to them, who isn't going to interrupt his golf game before some debt laden free trader captain managed to land with his crew of violent ne'er so wells.

 

[Spartan159]

Not everyone plays as a Murder-Hobo.

 

[Enoki]

Travellers are mostly the equivalent of sailors. The only person looking out for them in a port is God, and as Eda of the Ripoff Church in the anime Black Lagoon (a perfect Traveller parallel if there is one) would say... "Unless you got $300, god's not home."

 

[GypsyComet]

Worlds with big Port districts and moderate to large populations are likely to see a lot of travellers come and go, and will likely view them more as tourists than just rail meat, but the most accepting worlds are likely to be those that are themselves diverse, whether through native multiculturalism or the long term mixing at a commerce hub.

Subsector and sector capitals are, by definition, involved with the worlds around them and probably see a lot of visitors. In such places you may see preferential treatment based on a visitor's homeworld, though things might get awkward if the waiters think you are from the wrong place that never tips, can't aim right in the loo, and has no concept of indoor voice.

 

[sudnadja]

This makes me think of the Ultras in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series, for those who know it. The Ultras are the interstellar travellers. When one of their ships turns up at a backwater colony, it's a major event. World leaders on hand to greet the visitors from deep space.

Revelation Space is almost diametrically opposed to Traveller. Faster than light travel appears to be impossible in that universe (despite some hints to that effect in Redemption Ark), and it can often be 80+ years of rest-frame time for any given starship to revisit a system. No one is going to take a vacation to another star system in Revelation Space, aside from the epic sabbatical-like events where you're expecting to spend a lifetime away from home.

The starships are also enormous, in relative terms - 200,000,000 DTon for a fairly typical example - that's a lot of potential cargo capacity for a world to trade with, relative to a Traveller PC's ~160 DTon available cargo space.

 

[Marchand]

Revelation Space is almost diametrically opposed to Traveller. Faster than light travel appears to be impossible in that universe (despite some hints to that effect in Redemption Ark), and it can often be 80+ years of rest-frame time for any given starship to revisit a system. No one is going to take a vacation to another star system in Revelation Space, aside from the epic sabbatical-like events where you're expecting to spend a lifetime away from home.

The starships are also enormous, in relative terms - 200,000,000 DTon for a fairly typical example - that's a lot of potential cargo capacity for a world to trade with, relative to a Traveller PC's ~160 DTon available cargo space.

I think you're right about the contrast, in terms of the cosmopolitan, space travel is like modern day international air travel world of The Traveller Book / developed 3rd imperium. But what I'm more interested in, as I said in my opening post, is the implications of a rare-travel setting.

Like others, I had the cliche'd view of PCs being treated along the lines of sailors on shore leave. Towards the sleazier / less reputable end of that scale.

But if we think about a world that gets one ship every 6 months, the 4 or 5 crew who emerge from a Type A are going to be global celebrities.

I think it would be a really fun twist to throw this at the players.

 

[willtron3030]

Dumarest perspective

I'm only starting book 19, but so far I see some implicit distinction between Spacers, Mercenaries, and Travellers.

On the planets that don't see a lot of traffic, Spacers have a ship affiliation, and represent a connection to the other worlds. They're tolerated: sometimes feted by locals on arrival; sometimes disdained. Some worlds would like to never be visited by outworlders at all, but that genie is already out of the bottle. Space trade can be a valued source of weatlh and resources, and act as a safety valve to expel malcontents and nere-do-wells.

Other than a few distinct characters, Mercenaries in the Dumarest series so far are cannon fodder.

Traveller is a label that may overlap the other two at times; they're outworlders without a long-term crew berth, roaming world-to-world, for reasons of their own. To some, they have a certain mystique. To others, they're prototypical murderhobos... or prey. Travellers are often scraping by, managing to subsist until they can afford the next passage to another world, until they accomplish their personal goals, find that big score that will set them up in comfort for the rest of their lives, or just settle down somewhere.

Locals consider Travellers as a renewable, exploitable resource for whatever credits they have, cheap labor, entertainment, and violence. Mercenaries and Spacers will exploit Travellers for this as well. In extreme cases, down-on-their-luck Travellers are self-propelled units of raw materials, be it fertilizer or pet food.

Hey, bio-available phosphorus and nitrogen is hard to come by on some worlds.

 

[Tiikeri]

Not everyone plays as a Murder-Hobo.

A lot if people do, sadly, and published adventures often involve violent action. To the characters, they're there to do their job and leave. To the local people, they're more foreign mercenaries and roughnecks.

Regarding travelling being more like contemporary air travel, I think it would be more like 1920s sea travel.

The shortest journey is a week, you get a stateroom not just a seat, and it's much more expensive, 2000cr round trip in a low berth to go to a world 1 jump away?? Seems like only rich people or people travelling for work. I'm sure the ports are more like airports, with supporting hotels and so on.

I don't imagine people would be inclined to think travellers are a big deal, since they speak a common language, they primarily consider themselves imperial, and even low tech world's will know about the galaxy they live in, since there's a starport with imperial marines and an imperial noble. Travellers might be interesting for a while to isolated populations, but I doubt they'd drop everything because a ship landed.

I think only planets that are so isolated that they forgot their history over 1000 years would have a big reaction. All the conspiracy theorists on planetbook would be yelling see were not alone! I told you the imperium was real! The government is hiding our history!

 

[Tiikeri]

It reminds me of that jtas adventure in which the party goes to recover a wreck carrying the imperial payroll on an uncontacted planet embroiled in its own cold war.

 

[JimMarn]

Travellers are mostly the equivalent of sailors. The only person looking out for them in a port is God, and as Eda of the Ripoff Church in the anime Black Lagoon (a perfect Traveller parallel if there is one) would say... "Unless you got $300, god's not home."

Ah yes. Black Lagoon. My impression of it is more Port Royale in the Carribean Sea before the earthquake. Home of pirates, etc.