General How do planetary populations view Travellers?

[robject]

I think it is pretty obvious that Travellers are 'naer-do-well' carpet-baggers coming in like they are all special snowflakes. [...]

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. [...]

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

Love this.

My motto is that Travellers are "one in a million"... literally. For every million people, one will have travelled interstellar at least once, whether for business, government, military, or being fabulously wealthy.

So a billion-person world has a thousand people who have been to another star -- split evenly among the various Traveller careers -- at least once in his lifetime.

More to the point, my metro area where I live and work would theoretically have four people who have travelled. Or, if you prefer, four "astronauts", assuming they would still travel after their careers.

 

[Timerover51]

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:

I take it then that you have an extremely low view of your players.

 

[Enoki]

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

In the part of the Traveller universe I like to set things, it's pretty common. You have the Federation of Heron, a polity that is a fig leaf to give an air of legitimacy to pirates, and the Ral Ranta, who are out-and-out criminals and ne'er-do-wells.

That makes for lots of worlds where you can end up in all sorts of mayhem whether you start it or not. :devil:

 

[Timerover51]

A lot of the comments have a negative view of Travellers. For those, I have a single question.

Why do you play the game then if you view your players so negatively?

 

[atpollard]

A lot of the comments have a negative view of Travellers. For those, I have a single question.

Why do you play the game then if you view your players so negatively?

You are answering the wrong question. We were not asked OUR opinion of travelers (and certainly not our opinion of players). The question was ...

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

I have not travelled as extensively as some, but I have lived in a broad enough cross section of America to observe that LOCALS (in any location) are generally either tolerant or annoyed by outsiders arriving to inflict their customs on the community. They are not generally excited at the prospect of outsiders coming in with a lot of wealth and driving change in the way things are.

Have you ever visited a community that could not wait to adopt a foreign culture and loved strangers (and not just their money)? Perhaps my sampling of personal experiences is unfairly colored. I just remember VIVIDLY trying to fit in in rural North Carolina with my wonderful New York/New Jersey accent. You could feel the love every time I opened my mouth.

 

[atpollard]

I take it then that you have an extremely low view of your players.

It was just intended as a humorous look at Travellers by a typical ‘local’. A play on “We don’t care how you did things back home.”

 

[Condottiere]

There's not a large enough migratory tendency in Traveller to affect local customs (or threaten traditions); more likely cultural appropriation.

Canonically, it would appear to only happen with Aslan, which can go either way.

 

[Enoki]

A lot of the comments have a negative view of Travellers. For those, I have a single question.

Why do you play the game then if you view your players so negatively?

I don't have a negative view of them at all. Rather having been to many of the world's $h!+ holes and such courtesy of the US Navy, I tend to use that as a basis for how they end up getting treated.

 

[khadaji2002]

I have not travelled as extensively as some, but I have lived in a broad enough cross section of America to observe that LOCALS (in any location) are generally either tolerant or annoyed by outsiders arriving to inflict their customs on the community. They are not generally excited at the prospect of outsiders coming in with a lot of wealth and driving change in the way things are.

Have you ever visited a community that could not wait to adopt a foreign culture and loved strangers (and not just their money)? Perhaps my sampling of personal experiences is unfairly colored. I just remember VIVIDLY trying to fit in in rural North Carolina with my wonderful New York/New Jersey accent. You could feel the love every time I opened my mouth.

This. The question of how the local populace views Travellers is one that hasn't really gotten enough examination in my opinion. I grew up in the States, spent a fair bit of time in Canada, visited Mexico a few times, and lived near two of the largest seaports on the West Coast. Foreigners are not often welcome, even if their money is. And foreigners who like to play as hard as they work get even less love.

My take is that how Travellers behave makes the difference in how they are treated. Do they stick to the starport? No problems there. They'll be treated like everyone else. Do they hit the local bars just outside the starport? They might face a brawl or two, but again probably nothing too severe. Do they visit the countryside wearing their foreign clothes, speaking in their odd dialect and expect the locals to bend to the Travellers' way of life? They're going to face a lot of resentment and little help from anyone. Do they bother to learn some of the local customs and try their best to follow them? They'll likely get more acceptance as they're at least trying not to be arrogant know-it-alls.

 

[whartung]

A lot of the comments have a negative view of Travellers. For those, I have a single question.

Why do you play the game then if you view your players so negatively?

You also have to distinguish the players and the characters they play.

It's the characters that are the "Murder-hobos", not the players.

When you get an adventure that's essentially a smash and grab, what do you expect?

 

[Timerover51]

You also have to distinguish the players and the characters they play.

It's the characters that are the "Murder-hobos", not the players.

When you get an adventure that's essentially a smash and grab, what do you expect?

If the players turn it into a smash and grab when the adventure was not set up that way, their characters die.

 

[Enoki]

If the players turn it into a smash and grab when the adventure was not set up that way, their characters die.

Seen that.

 

[JimMarn]

The attitudes I've seen while in the US Navy varied over time, even the same port. We went to the Mediterranian Sea and the Carribean Sea.

Some places most people were polite if you were polite to them. Some liked to argue no matter what our attitude was. Since some of the arguers didn't speak much English, we had no clue what upset them. Some spoke better English than most of us.

I found the about 8 hour trips to local archaeology sites, and some stores, to be a good way to learn local history.

 

[whartung]

If the players turn it into a smash and grab when the adventure was not set up that way, their characters die.

Which means you missed the point.

The players orient their characters to what makes the adventure successful. For all sorts of value of "successful".

Han Solo seems like a nice guy, but in fact has no problems killing anybody. He seems to never bat an eye, and the "authorities" don't seem to chase him. Rather, simply bad business deals with sophonts of low character (IMHO) chase after him.

He's a criminal and a murderer. That's the world he lives in.

So, if the adventures and situations given to your characters are of the type that favor and rewards that kind of behavior, guess which kind of characters you get?

 

[Tiikeri]

A lot of the comments have a negative view of Travellers. For those, I have a single question.

Why do you play the game then if you view your players so negatively?

Because traveller is interesting and fun.

The behavior of some players is not interesting or fun. That is why I play Traveller and I don't play anything with players who are a drag. Many times my interest in traveller was greater than my disinterest in the tedious antics of players I've put up with in the past, and that's where my negative descriptions come from. Players chose to act in certain ways, and Im not going to sugarcoat how they acted. Truth be told I've never had a solid traveller group. I had solid groups for chaosium games and post atomic games, even fading suns, but it just never came together with traveller. I admire the folks here who've had solid long term traveller groups.

 

[aramis]

Because traveller is interesting and fun.

The behavior of some players is not interesting or fun. That is why I play Traveller and I don't play anything with players who are a drag. Many times my interest in traveller was greater than my disinterest in the tedious antics of players I've put up with in the past, and that's where my negative descriptions come from. Players chose to act in certain ways, and Im not going to sugarcoat how they acted. Truth be told I've never had a solid traveller group. I had solid groups for chaosium games and post atomic games, even fading suns, but it just never came together with traveller. I admire the folks here who've had solid long term traveller groups.

I have similar experiences. The local players who want to play Traveller are not people I want to run Traveller for, for a variety of reasons. They don't know the material in MT IE nor CT S8 & S11, and many of my campaign elements revolve around those elements. And I'm bloody sick and tired of Merchant games (the only form which I don't tie into the details of S8/S11/MTIE, because the players avoid entirely dealing with them by being nobody gruntbuglies).

 

[Tiikeri]

I have similar experiences. The local players who want to play Traveller are not people I want to run Traveller for, for a variety of reasons. They don't know the material in MT IE nor CT S8 & S11, and many of my campaign elements revolve around those elements. And I'm bloody sick and tired of Merchant games (the only form which I don't tie into the details of S8/S11/MTIE, because the players avoid entirely dealing with them by being nobody gruntbuglies).

I definitely see where you're coming from.

I think a big part of why a traveller group never came together for me is that people weren't interested in how things worked, and they resented having to think about it.

They wanted star wars, where Luke clicks on autopilot and goes from dagobah to wherever cloud city is without even having to go to the bathroom. They wanted star trek where they could transporter people into a wall and then laugh about it. They were willing to spend a lot of time arguing about how to attack enemies, but they didn't want to spend a minute thinking about how to make it to the jump point to escape pursuing pirates. "Can't we just leave?" is what people would say. Some people weren't even willing to keep track of their ammunition.

It's not surprising to me at all that people wouldn't want to read IE or make an effort to figure out how to make ends meet as merchants.

The violence-as-humor crowd fit better in other settings, where things didn't particularly need to make sense.

 

[Timerover51]

Going back to the original post, I play it based on the planet.

In the Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector that I am creating, the Imperium is basically a legend, something that may exist, but is so far off as to be meaningless. All starports are owned by the local government, and each has its own rules.

On the planet El Paso, in the Sword Sub-sector, there is one D-class star port, located adjacent to the major city, also known as El Paso. Every ship attempting to land is first contacted, and provided by radio with a short handbook on behavior for any visitors and ship crew planning to disembark. One point repeatedly stressed is that as a spacer, you may not leave the ship armed, nor may you go about armed, licensed hunting parties exempted to the carrying of arms. If a person gets off a ship armed, they are immediately shot by the star port guards under the presumption that they are a Space Viking. If it is thought that they are wearing ballistic protection, they are shot by a 6 pounder breechloading Hotchkiss gun with solid head explosive rounds. The planet has had some experience with Space Viking raids, and takes steps accordingly. If a ship lands without notice, the alarm goes off, the militia gets its guns, the town buttons up, and everyone is ready to shoot on sight any off-worlder. Note, the people take their shooting seriously. El Paso has been raided three times in the past 20 years by Space Vikings, so the citizens view any ship landing as a potential threat.

Crews and visitors from New Texas are treated politely, but viewed as a bit "dudish". Those with items to ship will meet the New Texas ship and start bargaining to sell their meat, hides, spices, and other material. Crews and visitors may purchase local clothing so as not to appear so conspicuous, with the option of purchasing used clothing available. Even with that, the off-worlder will tend to stand out, but it does help one to keep them from getting thoroughly taken to the cleaners by the local merchants. Those visitors that stay a while will discover that the inhabitants are quite friendly to those who are generally interested in finding out about El Paso. Hunting parties are viewed as "cash cows", and they pay through the nose for everything.

Note, crew and visitors must buy local currency in order to pay for things on the planet. Ten Credits will buy you one local silver dollar, weighing one ounce. Two Hundred Credits will get you a $20 Gold Piece, weighing one ounce. Most transactions are carried out in coin, but some paper money is used as well.

 

[BRJN]

My take is that how Travellers behave makes the difference in how they are treated. … Do they visit the countryside wearing their foreign clothes, speaking in their odd dialect and expect the locals to bend to the Travellers' way of life? They're going to face a lot of resentment and little help from anyone.

Unless the point of the exercise is to get their 'civilized knowledge' into the countryside to solve some problem.
- Fix a local overlord's broken air/raft (needs annual maintenance)
- stop / treat an epidemic
- The Chamax Plague
- take down the local TED bandit gang
- heavy-lift 'Brontosaur' fossils to the Planetary Museum. And scan them with the ship's sensor suite
- sweet-talk the previous group of Travellers into leaving
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, scene in the drought-stricken village.

 

[Enoki]

Going back to the original post, I play it based on the planet.

Note, crew and visitors must buy local currency in order to pay for things on the planet. Ten Credits will buy you one local silver dollar, weighing one ounce. Two Hundred Credits will get you a $20 Gold Piece, weighing one ounce. Most transactions are carried out in coin, but some paper money is used as well.

On this, the smart player asks around about money exchanges that aren't "official." Somebody tells this player to see the guy in the backroom of the (pawn shop, music store, restaurant, barber shop, etc.). You go there with some tech from the ship and get ten times the official rate in money, or something like that.

There's always a way where there's a will...