pendragonman
Absent Friends Margrave
A truly terrifying encounter for PCs :devil:
In Your Traveller Universe, What Changes Have You Made?
- Thread starter Jeff M. Hopper
- Start date
A truly terrifying encounter for PCs :devil:
A lot of things over the years:
1. Freely swipe ideas from CT, MT, TNE, canon/non-canon out of order and in the wrong context.
2. AI, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, transhumanism in high TL societies.
3. Droyne expansionism under an unknown leader coordinating activities across multiple sectors.
4. The 3I is officially run by the Emperor and Nobles in a sort of techno-feudal system, but the megacorps and other political and economical entities play an equally powerful role (sort of like the Dune Navigators telling Shaddam IV where to get off).
5. Other worlds and other critters. Psionic Shanthas of Jorune. Rumors of a strange planet called Tekumel far beyond the fringes of known space.
6. "Little Empires" that don't use Jump Drive and blast through space in their relativistic fusion rockets.
7. Pirates aren't terribly common, but are commonly terrible when they turn up, but smugglers abound and running Imperial blockades is a good career choice for many people.
8. The Solomani Rim War didn't go so badly for the Solomani, so they're still a distinct and very real threat to the 3I (Solomani on one side, Droyne/Zhodani on the other, and the K'Kree probing for weakness on the part of either the Solomani Empire or the 3I).
And so on and so forth.
YMMV.
Best,
Will
I generally like something like these three, although I keep trying to come up with my own ATUs. I have some house rules which I apply to them all, such as rifles doing +1d damage to the CT-listed rules; I may have put them up here but I forget if so. (It's time to go look.)
Oh, and by the way:
And I get to play in his universe! HAH!
my changes
IMTU, I basicly leave it during the rebellion and let my characters 'misjump' to the islands sector...which I made as nothing like canon...
its 3d; 2 10 by 10 by 10 subsectors ( each parsec having a world on boxcars..gives the same general number of worlds per subsector as 'normal' Trav )
all ships vehicles, etc have performance based on mass and not volume..even jump drive performance. Jump ranges round to nearest 1/10th of a parsec. No magic grav focused lasers.
standard drives are Heplar and grav tech costs power like potential energy and
my other crazy ideas for gearheading, and world building without caring about how it affects Imperium stuff/history. A place to toy with economic ideas and tech levels rounded to nearest 1/10th. ..Tech 9.3 is not as good as tech 9.8.
my own heretical pocket yet I can return to canon if I feel like it.
its a 'sandbox' for me to play in....
IMTU, I basicly leave it during the rebellion and let my characters 'misjump' to the islands sector...which I made as nothing like canon...
its 3d; 2 10 by 10 by 10 subsectors ( each parsec having a world on boxcars..gives the same general number of worlds per subsector as 'normal' Trav )
all ships vehicles, etc have performance based on mass and not volume..even jump drive performance. Jump ranges round to nearest 1/10th of a parsec. No magic grav focused lasers.
standard drives are Heplar and grav tech costs power like potential energy and
my other crazy ideas for gearheading, and world building without caring about how it affects Imperium stuff/history. A place to toy with economic ideas and tech levels rounded to nearest 1/10th. ..Tech 9.3 is not as good as tech 9.8.
my own heretical pocket yet I can return to canon if I feel like it.
its a 'sandbox' for me to play in....
IMTU:
- The Imperium is the Empire, the Emperor is attempting to gather all authority under himself by under cutting or just plain eliminating the aristocracy, and the Imperial Marines are Mobile Infantry
- The mega-corps are either in deep with the Emperor or worried about "nationalization" by the Empire
- The Droyne are really bad guys, stay in the shadows, and normally vivisect first, then probe your exposed brain if they have questions
- The Hivers have been manipulating humaniti from the beginning and have even bred their own "ambassadors"
- The species generally don't mix (as the biological differences are more pronounced) and the Empire is distinctly human-centric; non-humans can live and work but are not considered citizens; Vargr are considered no better than dogs that can speak
- Imperial citizens are nearly untouchable by local governments
- The Empire has an "advisor" in every palace, capitol, and parliament who provides the final word on nearly everything; local governments rule at the pleasure of the Emperor
- The canon history is very different with the Hivers and Droyne having a long standing feud, using the "lesser" races as fodder, just as their master did with them
- Small ships rule and there are no civilian ships that can go toe-to-toe with a military craft of significant tonnage; even a fighter will make piece meal of the average freighter (no Millenium Falcons here)
- The number of Terran-norm worlds in any given sector can be counted on with two hands; more humans live in tubes, tunnels, and domes than under the stars
- Wars are fought over sources of food and agro-worlds are protected by Imperial warships from "accidental contamination"
- All lot more things go bump in the night
- The Imperium is the Empire, the Emperor is attempting to gather all authority under himself by under cutting or just plain eliminating the aristocracy, and the Imperial Marines are Mobile Infantry
- The mega-corps are either in deep with the Emperor or worried about "nationalization" by the Empire
- The Droyne are really bad guys, stay in the shadows, and normally vivisect first, then probe your exposed brain if they have questions
- The Hivers have been manipulating humaniti from the beginning and have even bred their own "ambassadors"
- The species generally don't mix (as the biological differences are more pronounced) and the Empire is distinctly human-centric; non-humans can live and work but are not considered citizens; Vargr are considered no better than dogs that can speak
- Imperial citizens are nearly untouchable by local governments
- The Empire has an "advisor" in every palace, capitol, and parliament who provides the final word on nearly everything; local governments rule at the pleasure of the Emperor
- The canon history is very different with the Hivers and Droyne having a long standing feud, using the "lesser" races as fodder, just as their master did with them
- Small ships rule and there are no civilian ships that can go toe-to-toe with a military craft of significant tonnage; even a fighter will make piece meal of the average freighter (no Millenium Falcons here)
- The number of Terran-norm worlds in any given sector can be counted on with two hands; more humans live in tubes, tunnels, and domes than under the stars
- Wars are fought over sources of food and agro-worlds are protected by Imperial warships from "accidental contamination"
- All lot more things go bump in the night
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Wonder if we ever gamed together...
Kharum1
SOC-12
Of course I'm rubbing it in.
Now, what you have to do is come play with us, in order to spite me.
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
- All Information we get is from the "Imperial Ministry of Information" and heavily tainted by a TL14-15, pro-Imperial, pampered Government Official view
- My model for the 3I is late Byzantine/Konstantinople with decend elements of Venice/Renaissance Italy and a tast of late Turkish Sultanat rather than Rome
- Using GT/TNE means
- Most Vehicles are nuclear powered with long durations
- Grav-Vehicles can make Planetfall and have internal compensators
- Battledress is weak and short ranged compared to vehicles
- Gravbelts are short ranged/battery powered
- Maintenance is part of the rules and BD, fighters etc are maintenance
heavy - Carry volume is rather small since maintenance etc. is not part of that (design system has extra spaces for that)
- A decadent nobility means
- The Marines are more like a Varagian/Pretorian Guard
- Access to TL11 or better ground warfare stuff is massively restricted
- Forget Mercs in Battledress/Combat Armor
- Forget Mercs with tons of fighters or Intrepid-Gravtanks
- Indenture Slavery is legal
- It carries over to a slaves child (since the raising of said costs money)
- Involunteer Colonists have to work of passage
- I use a medival style tax/power system
- Nobles can take their "cut" from taxes etc if the boss gets enough
- Each Planet has a Baron. Said Baron can interfer with the local Government i.e closing the Spaceport
- Nobility in general is corrupt/weak
- Mistress of the Week
- Sexual/Moral Deviation like in old Greece
- Huscarl forces are often Non-Imperials
- World definitions are more flexibel
- Tainted might just means "our TL15 weakling didn't like the smell'
- All definitions are relative to Sylea
- Being a fan of Pournelle means
- That the 3I operates a Bureau of Relocation and some nice colonies
- Beer, Babes and Borloi (aka Bread and Circus) is common on larger
worlds - The system is corrupt, static and rotten. You can bribe almost anyone
- Nobles through their contacts are far more powerful than they might appear
- Megacorps, Guilds and Unions run the show
- Getting into space takes more than skill, you better have contacts
- Free Traders form a group all by themselfs with little contact to the big lines. Those ships are often family/clan run like Bungi ships IRL
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I just found some rough campaign notes for MTU, I'll just cut-n-paste them (late for uni again)
Campaign Overview
and
Essential Differences from Standard MegaTraveller
Official Materials :
The following Official MegaTraveller sources are used for the basic campaign;
Players Handbook
Referee’s Manual
Imperial Encyclopaedia
Referee’s Companion
Book 8, Robots. (Adapted for MegaTraveller.)
MegaTraveller Errata
Significant Changes from Published Material :
The Imperium :
Ignore all references to The Emperor and The Nobility, substitute the following:
The Emperor
The most powerful entity in known space, this being’s overwhelming goal is maintaining the Status Quo (affectionately known as ‘The Stasis Quo’ to his subjects). Imperial troops (known as Void Troopers) are used only for one goal, and that is to discipline the forces of the Archdukes. Imperial Troops are not deployed from their deep space bases for any other reason, including invasion from beyond the Imperial borders, it is the responsibility of the Archdukes to ensure the Imperial borders integrity.
The Emperor has ruled for well over 200 years, and is obviously immortal, having the entire Imperium’s medical capability at your disposal means that the Emperor would have trouble dying naturally even if it was disposed to do so. The Emperors name is Cleon VI, it’s resources are unimaginable and it has power to match, at this level of power it is no longer even remotely human.
The Nobility
The Archdukes have power and resources second only to The Emperor itself, they have renounced their basic humanity and become something very much both less and more than human. ‘Rich’ is not a term that has relevance to an Archduke, they can draw apon the resources of a Sector and may not be aware of their personal wants, they just are satisfied without any interaction on their part. Archdukes spend their time in a ruthless and Byzantine game of economic, cultural and military game of acquisition from each other. The Archdukes react savagely to any external influence in their games, a reputation that keeps the stagnant Imperiums borders quiet.
The Dukes may be just as alien and inhuman as the rest of the upper nobility, having the power of an entire SubSectors output, their main goal appears to be to become an Archduke, this is generally achieved by assassination or open warfare. Dukes are the most volatile of the Nobility, and often succumb to mortality through the machinations of each other, this constant warfare is the cause of most of the woes of The Emperors subjects.
The Lesser Nobility are more or less human to a large extent, although they may display a characteristic lack of human consideration for their fellow beings, their activity is a mirror of the Greater Nobility drawn on a smaller scale.
Knights all belong to a specific order, which in turn is generally dominated by a particular noble house, all military units must be commanded by at least a Knight. Only Barons and above can Knight a commoner, and generally reserve this honour for those within their own households, The Emperor can bestow Knighthood apon any of his subjects of course, and reserves this for useful bureaocrats or other functionaries.
Nobles may not be molested by commoners, regardless of the situation, and Nobles may only inflict bodily harm apon each other with melee weapons. Considerable R&D is spent on making melee weapons more effective against modern armour types due to this particular edict.
The Armed Forces:
The Army, Marines and Navy have a different character to standard MegaTraveller, and generally conform to the following ‘classes’
Imperial Void Legions (TL 15)
Noble House troops (TL14)
Monastic Warrior Orders (TL12-14)
Condottiere (TL10-14)
Planetary/System troops (Any TL less than 15)
Imperial Technology Restrictions :
The Imperium reserves the right to mandate Technology Zones, technology embargoes thinly disguised as altruistic programs under the ‘gradual assimilation’ banner, a method of coercing planetary governments to toe the Imperial Line. This has had many strange effects, the methods of policing the TZ’s are unknown and appear to be applied unevenly, but the consequences of transgressing are severe. The Emperor can put in place the Imperial Interdict on what is considered a defiant system, all interstellar trade is prohibited and Noble House forces blockade the system to enforce this. A byproduct of the Imperial Interdict is an invariable and total economic collapse of the proscribed system, even if the system seems to be economically independent on the surface.
The Imperium actively discourages communication between systems and jealously guards it’s control over the X-Boat communication network, this maintains it’s power over information transfer (and the possibility of manipulating that data) and effectively controls the intersystem economy.
Due to the whimsical and apparently haphazard enforcement of TZs, many systems have passed Sumptuary Laws, a series of restrictions on the apparent sophistication of normal items which sees modern laser systems utilising wood, leather and decorative metals in the housings. This is balanced by the desire for higher TL equipment and the prestige that goes with owning such exotic items.
Health and Ageing
At TL 14, the Imperiums ability to heal and maintain a healthy body is amazing. Human citizens can expect to look healthy and fit up until about 110 years old, when the non-oxidisation techniques cease to function on their cells, until then they look, feel and are about
30 years old for a TL 9 Human.
Cybernetic (biological or synthetic) Enhancement
Extreme exercise and dieting regimes, intense study and nonstop training can only do so much. At some point, biological engineers have to intervene directly and reshape the body and mind to allow extremes of performance. Many citizens are uncomfortable with this, but at TL 14 the modifications are rarely extreme enough to be noticable as those of earlier TLs.
Any Statistic that is ‘C’ or higher is the result of cybernetic intervention, excluding Social Status ranks. Some basic techniques are:
Muscle Interweaves
Reflex Boosters
Cardio-Vascular rebuilds
Synaptic ‘greasing’
Memory Implants and storage boosting
Many more are available, and some have better reputations than others.
Campaign Overview
and
Essential Differences from Standard MegaTraveller
Official Materials :
The following Official MegaTraveller sources are used for the basic campaign;
Players Handbook
Referee’s Manual
Imperial Encyclopaedia
Referee’s Companion
Book 8, Robots. (Adapted for MegaTraveller.)
MegaTraveller Errata
Significant Changes from Published Material :
The Imperium :
Ignore all references to The Emperor and The Nobility, substitute the following:
The Emperor
The most powerful entity in known space, this being’s overwhelming goal is maintaining the Status Quo (affectionately known as ‘The Stasis Quo’ to his subjects). Imperial troops (known as Void Troopers) are used only for one goal, and that is to discipline the forces of the Archdukes. Imperial Troops are not deployed from their deep space bases for any other reason, including invasion from beyond the Imperial borders, it is the responsibility of the Archdukes to ensure the Imperial borders integrity.
The Emperor has ruled for well over 200 years, and is obviously immortal, having the entire Imperium’s medical capability at your disposal means that the Emperor would have trouble dying naturally even if it was disposed to do so. The Emperors name is Cleon VI, it’s resources are unimaginable and it has power to match, at this level of power it is no longer even remotely human.
The Nobility
The Archdukes have power and resources second only to The Emperor itself, they have renounced their basic humanity and become something very much both less and more than human. ‘Rich’ is not a term that has relevance to an Archduke, they can draw apon the resources of a Sector and may not be aware of their personal wants, they just are satisfied without any interaction on their part. Archdukes spend their time in a ruthless and Byzantine game of economic, cultural and military game of acquisition from each other. The Archdukes react savagely to any external influence in their games, a reputation that keeps the stagnant Imperiums borders quiet.
The Dukes may be just as alien and inhuman as the rest of the upper nobility, having the power of an entire SubSectors output, their main goal appears to be to become an Archduke, this is generally achieved by assassination or open warfare. Dukes are the most volatile of the Nobility, and often succumb to mortality through the machinations of each other, this constant warfare is the cause of most of the woes of The Emperors subjects.
The Lesser Nobility are more or less human to a large extent, although they may display a characteristic lack of human consideration for their fellow beings, their activity is a mirror of the Greater Nobility drawn on a smaller scale.
Knights all belong to a specific order, which in turn is generally dominated by a particular noble house, all military units must be commanded by at least a Knight. Only Barons and above can Knight a commoner, and generally reserve this honour for those within their own households, The Emperor can bestow Knighthood apon any of his subjects of course, and reserves this for useful bureaocrats or other functionaries.
Nobles may not be molested by commoners, regardless of the situation, and Nobles may only inflict bodily harm apon each other with melee weapons. Considerable R&D is spent on making melee weapons more effective against modern armour types due to this particular edict.
The Armed Forces:
The Army, Marines and Navy have a different character to standard MegaTraveller, and generally conform to the following ‘classes’
Imperial Void Legions (TL 15)
Noble House troops (TL14)
Monastic Warrior Orders (TL12-14)
Condottiere (TL10-14)
Planetary/System troops (Any TL less than 15)
Imperial Technology Restrictions :
The Imperium reserves the right to mandate Technology Zones, technology embargoes thinly disguised as altruistic programs under the ‘gradual assimilation’ banner, a method of coercing planetary governments to toe the Imperial Line. This has had many strange effects, the methods of policing the TZ’s are unknown and appear to be applied unevenly, but the consequences of transgressing are severe. The Emperor can put in place the Imperial Interdict on what is considered a defiant system, all interstellar trade is prohibited and Noble House forces blockade the system to enforce this. A byproduct of the Imperial Interdict is an invariable and total economic collapse of the proscribed system, even if the system seems to be economically independent on the surface.
The Imperium actively discourages communication between systems and jealously guards it’s control over the X-Boat communication network, this maintains it’s power over information transfer (and the possibility of manipulating that data) and effectively controls the intersystem economy.
Due to the whimsical and apparently haphazard enforcement of TZs, many systems have passed Sumptuary Laws, a series of restrictions on the apparent sophistication of normal items which sees modern laser systems utilising wood, leather and decorative metals in the housings. This is balanced by the desire for higher TL equipment and the prestige that goes with owning such exotic items.
Health and Ageing
At TL 14, the Imperiums ability to heal and maintain a healthy body is amazing. Human citizens can expect to look healthy and fit up until about 110 years old, when the non-oxidisation techniques cease to function on their cells, until then they look, feel and are about
30 years old for a TL 9 Human.
Cybernetic (biological or synthetic) Enhancement
Extreme exercise and dieting regimes, intense study and nonstop training can only do so much. At some point, biological engineers have to intervene directly and reshape the body and mind to allow extremes of performance. Many citizens are uncomfortable with this, but at TL 14 the modifications are rarely extreme enough to be noticable as those of earlier TLs.
Any Statistic that is ‘C’ or higher is the result of cybernetic intervention, excluding Social Status ranks. Some basic techniques are:
Muscle Interweaves
Reflex Boosters
Cardio-Vascular rebuilds
Synaptic ‘greasing’
Memory Implants and storage boosting
Many more are available, and some have better reputations than others.
MTU is an ATU started before I had even played in the OTU.
Only Terran humans (so far), but there are signs of ancient civilizations out there (exo-archealogy is a hot field). Uplift is beginning to be attempted, but no stable species have been produced yet (that the players know of). There are aliens out there, they haven't been contacted yet
Terran Confederation is the big polity, wonderful mommy-state "we know what's best for you types", think combo Star Trek TNG Federation and Firefly's Alliance. There are a handful of small one-planet independants and three bigger multi-planet governments, the Alliance of Free Worlds (libertarian, radical individualists, devoutly religious, yankee trader types), The Islamic Republic (the worst of the fanatical types that got kicked off planet when the ME got their collective doodoo together), and the New Man Collective (transhumanist communists).
There has only been one war since the TC was founded, when the Alliance of Free Worlds broke away. The TC was unprepared for it, and was completely overconfident, so got their butts handed to them. The TC hates the AFW, and goes out of their way to harrass AFW flagged shipping when it's in TC space.
Tech wise there are several fundamental changes, especially in jump and fuel requirements. Jump lasts about half as long (80 hrs + or - 10%), and only uses up 10% of the fuel as in normal Traveller, which allows me to use standard designs and have them have a 10 jump fuel reserve, rather than jump-and-fuel as in regular Traveller. The 10% rule holds for power plants as well, so standard designs allow for 40 weeks of use with a full tank, not 4. This allows me to make trading worthwhile, since the cost of a single jump is slightly cheaper, and also to spread out inhabited systems, which allows me to make them a little more realistic. It also means that there are more "empty hex" jumps and vacant system jumps than in the OTU, but I like the feeling of being totally alone that it gives the players. Since I am using T20 there it is a big ship universe, but none of the polities have the budget for multi-million ton ships, so they tend to be around 50,000-100,000 tons for the largest.
Psionics are not generally used, and mostly thought of as being tabloid story fodder, but there are people who seem to have something... special about them, and rumors of secret training facilities are out there.
Other tech is maxed out at TL13, which is still in the experimental stage. TL12is the standard for high tech worlds, with more newly colonized planets falling somewhere in the range from 6 to 11, mostly toward the former. There is cybernetic and bionic technology available, but not of Cyberpunk ubiquity, except in the New Man Collective (some say they take their inspiration from the Borg on the old flat screen show ST:TNG).
Only Terran humans (so far), but there are signs of ancient civilizations out there (exo-archealogy is a hot field). Uplift is beginning to be attempted, but no stable species have been produced yet (that the players know of). There are aliens out there, they haven't been contacted yet
Terran Confederation is the big polity, wonderful mommy-state "we know what's best for you types", think combo Star Trek TNG Federation and Firefly's Alliance. There are a handful of small one-planet independants and three bigger multi-planet governments, the Alliance of Free Worlds (libertarian, radical individualists, devoutly religious, yankee trader types), The Islamic Republic (the worst of the fanatical types that got kicked off planet when the ME got their collective doodoo together), and the New Man Collective (transhumanist communists).
There has only been one war since the TC was founded, when the Alliance of Free Worlds broke away. The TC was unprepared for it, and was completely overconfident, so got their butts handed to them. The TC hates the AFW, and goes out of their way to harrass AFW flagged shipping when it's in TC space.
Tech wise there are several fundamental changes, especially in jump and fuel requirements. Jump lasts about half as long (80 hrs + or - 10%), and only uses up 10% of the fuel as in normal Traveller, which allows me to use standard designs and have them have a 10 jump fuel reserve, rather than jump-and-fuel as in regular Traveller. The 10% rule holds for power plants as well, so standard designs allow for 40 weeks of use with a full tank, not 4. This allows me to make trading worthwhile, since the cost of a single jump is slightly cheaper, and also to spread out inhabited systems, which allows me to make them a little more realistic. It also means that there are more "empty hex" jumps and vacant system jumps than in the OTU, but I like the feeling of being totally alone that it gives the players. Since I am using T20 there it is a big ship universe, but none of the polities have the budget for multi-million ton ships, so they tend to be around 50,000-100,000 tons for the largest.
Psionics are not generally used, and mostly thought of as being tabloid story fodder, but there are people who seem to have something... special about them, and rumors of secret training facilities are out there.
Other tech is maxed out at TL13, which is still in the experimental stage. TL12is the standard for high tech worlds, with more newly colonized planets falling somewhere in the range from 6 to 11, mostly toward the former. There is cybernetic and bionic technology available, but not of Cyberpunk ubiquity, except in the New Man Collective (some say they take their inspiration from the Borg on the old flat screen show ST:TNG).
Changes I've made to the OTU to make it MTU:
I like Traveller like I must like my women (considering how my dating life has gone) - Cold, Hard, and with lots of Drama.
Year 1111 - GURPS Timeline
Smaller Jump Drives and Jump Fuel
Jump Drives are derived from handwavium theory and subject to change anyway, so I changed the Jump Formulae for Drive Size and Jump Fuel Tonnage from 0.1JnM (which is what it is in The Traveller Book) to 0.01JnM. Makes longer journeys much easier.
Aliens
Major Races are seen at pretty much every starport. Spinward Races have more 'influence' to Spinward, Trailing Races have more 'influence' to Trailing, etc... Minor Races get around quite a bit, but not too many own their own ships.
Nobilty
The Emperor is a good guy. So good, in fact, that he doesn't need a Propaganda Corps like past Emperors. Some people find that 'interesting'. Wants to make good changes and do the right things.
The Moot is an overburdened governing body. Stretched thin until...
FTL Comm comes about:
JumpComm
Other than that, the general/average TL of the Imperium is greater than it seems to be in the outlying areas. Individual worlds take a back seat to the Imperium. Starports are surrounded by an Imperial Enclave - property subsumed by the Imperium to foster trade, communications, and to influence the world to become more 'Imperium-like'. The Imperium has a great influence on the Member Worlds. Chemically-propelled Slugthrowers are quickly becoming a thing of the past as gauss weapons, plasma, and laser weapons are distributed along trade routes.
And, as with Real Life, the ones with the most (and more highly advanced) toys win.
Spinward Scout
I like Traveller like I must like my women (considering how my dating life has gone) - Cold, Hard, and with lots of Drama.
Year 1111 - GURPS Timeline
Smaller Jump Drives and Jump Fuel
Jump Drives are derived from handwavium theory and subject to change anyway, so I changed the Jump Formulae for Drive Size and Jump Fuel Tonnage from 0.1JnM (which is what it is in The Traveller Book) to 0.01JnM. Makes longer journeys much easier.
Aliens
Major Races are seen at pretty much every starport. Spinward Races have more 'influence' to Spinward, Trailing Races have more 'influence' to Trailing, etc... Minor Races get around quite a bit, but not too many own their own ships.
Nobilty
The Emperor is a good guy. So good, in fact, that he doesn't need a Propaganda Corps like past Emperors. Some people find that 'interesting'. Wants to make good changes and do the right things.
The Moot is an overburdened governing body. Stretched thin until...
FTL Comm comes about:
JumpComm
Other than that, the general/average TL of the Imperium is greater than it seems to be in the outlying areas. Individual worlds take a back seat to the Imperium. Starports are surrounded by an Imperial Enclave - property subsumed by the Imperium to foster trade, communications, and to influence the world to become more 'Imperium-like'. The Imperium has a great influence on the Member Worlds. Chemically-propelled Slugthrowers are quickly becoming a thing of the past as gauss weapons, plasma, and laser weapons are distributed along trade routes.
And, as with Real Life, the ones with the most (and more highly advanced) toys win.
Spinward Scout
In Malden, MA, in September. (I'm probably not making the August session, and now we gotta play together.)
Kharum1
SOC-12
Not sure what you are talking about, "August session". Malden, MA is a long drive or short flight. Details, need details.
Straybow
SOC-14 1K
I agree with most of that. In particular, without "shields" of some sort any ship should be very vulnerable. Not necessarily fragile, but we're talking about very powerful weapons. Therefore the armed trader that gets a surprise shot at a fighter or small patrol ship is at a similar advantage.
I see no problem with hi-pop worlds on inhospitable planets, partly because I disagree with the idea of agro-worlds being of great strategic value. Massive food production is possible at today's tech level without the need for open land farming. Open land farming is much cheaper, but interstellar shipping is so much more expensive than hydroponics, vat-breeding, etc.
Terran-type worlds are more valuable as vacation spots, status symbols, etc.
As was pointed out by some others to me, a few years back, the cost per kilo for produce being shipped is (using standard rates, and a 10 Tmetric per Dton mass limit, in accordance with TNE's FF&S & BL) less than Cr1 per kilogram per jump; we can presume per parsec). Specifically, 1 DTon of fruit is thus limited to no more than 10,000kilogramsand thus is Cr0.1 per jump, or roughly 25 cents per pound, somewhat less than the shipping costs of fruit to Alaska (which I'm told run between $0.30 and $1 per pound).
THe thing is that the quality suffers greatly in shipping. (As anyone who's bought fruit in both Alaska and California or Alaska and Florida can attest...)
THe thing is that the quality suffers greatly in shipping. (As anyone who's bought fruit in both Alaska and California or Alaska and Florida can attest...)
My campaign's locale is out side the Imperium where its influence is minimal except commercially. After the 4th Frontier War the Imperium drew back its forces & maintain influence by supporting local pro-Imperial governments, covert operations & the skillful handling of mercs & corsairs. The major political & cultural influence tends to be Aslan. The Aslan pressure in my Beyond sector (both clan & renegade)have been steady growing for the last 400 years, encroaching on the mixture of Vilani & Solomani that settled the region after the fall of the First & Second Imperium. It is also a region where corsairs quite often influence the rise & fall of pocket empires.
