Personal Paperwork

[BackworldTraveller]

What paperwork is issued and by what authorities at what law level.

Birth Certificates
Marriage Certificates
Death Certificates
Identity Cards

Visas
Passports

Tax Receipts
Identity Cards

How does that "paperwork" change at TLs progress?

Do High-Population and High Law worlds require pre-conception paperwork or proof of sterility?

Do the Imperial Worlds just assume everyone is an Imperial citizen or do they need some form of proof?

What does being an Imperial Citizen actually allow - Access to a starport (from the off-world side) - Anything else?

What papers do the Imperial Armed Forces supply? Good (or bad) conduct discharge papers? Draft exemptions? Dog-Tags? Medical Information Implant Chips?

What happens when an undocumented person is discovered on a ship by an IN inspection?

 

[mike wightman]

Vehicle operation licence (pilot's licence, driving licence, HGV etc)
Social Security or National Insurance number

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I believe paperwork is issued by your local government, so as there are thousands of systems in the Imperium there will be tens of thousands of different documents.

There might be Imperial starship qualifications, e.g. astrogation licenses.


I assume for simplicity that interstellar paperwork is issued as low-tech paperwork with embedded computer chips, somewhat like current passports. That way it is guaranteed to be people-readable regardless of the local tech level. The computer chip might be readable depending on TL and distance from the issuing system.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

I assume for simplicity that interstellar paperwork is issued as low-tech paperwork with embedded computer chips, somewhat like current passports. That way it is guaranteed to be people-readable regardless of the local tech level. The computer chip might be readable depending on TL and distance from the issuing system.

For information, and as an aside, the current chipped systems hold very little information directly, but they do hold an index ID into a system that does hold data...both that system and the papers have to match to be valid. Makes forgery much trickier - but doesn't work well if you have no access to the associated data.

 

[Condottiere]

Everything's on a blockchain.

Presumably, different authorities can decipher only the relevant blocks pertaining to their sphere of responsibility, like doctors can decipher your medical records.

 

[Timerover51]

Your can find some of the needed forms in Supplement 12 to Classic Traveller, which gives you hard copies of what could be on chips. Given the lack of Faster-than-Light communications, hard copies would be useful as well, given the wide range of Tech Levels that you can encounter. Having all of your data on a chip does not do a lot of good if you are outside the Star Port on a Tech Level 5 world.

 

[Garnfellow]

GURPS Traveller describes a universal system within the Imperium:

Imperial Identity Document: Also known as the Universal Identity Document, Universal ID, ID card, and a number of other names. The record of every citizen’s identity, taken first when birth is registered, and supplemented and expanded as time passes. The record consists of a full genetic work-up, full body and head-and-shoulders holograms, retinal pattern, fingerprints, and other identifying information.The Imperial enabling legislation does not define the form of the documentation, but does specify what data must be recorded for various sophont species, and how the data is to be verified at all tech levels within the Imperium. Additional information – such as criminal, medical, and educational records – may be recorded on the portable form of the document. Planetary governments at all tech levels are capable of issuing the most primitive form of the document, which consists of a plastic card incorporating a data chip with the minimum data recorded within, and with holographic images, thumbprint, and other features on the surface. Sophisticated versions of the ID are capable of carrying a virtual dossier in their data-storage systems, and are capable of projecting and displaying all of the data in a wide variety of formats (Core Rules, pp 39-40).

I'm not sure that anything like this is described in CT or MT.

 

[Garnfellow]

I find it interesting that in CT so many of the standard forms are issued by the TAS rather than an Imperial agency. This suggests that the TAS is one of the most powerful but also least described organizations in the entire OTU. We know more about the Sylean Rangers or Office of Calendar Compliance. How is the TAS structured? How does it operate outside the Imperium? T5 may be the first edition to treat the TAS as what it must actually be: a megacorporation.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

T4 Milieu 0 details the origin of the Travellers' Aid Society at the beginning.

A few words from Ve Nu Lant, TAS Chief Executive Officer, 145-0008.
“In those early years of expansion, many people just packed a bag and headed off into space, hitching rides on scouts, traders, and even warships. It didn’t take long for an informal self-help network on the ‘net to start up, passing Traveller’s tips, places to go to, places to avoid, what to eat, and what not to. So one summer, I collected the stories coming back, and put together the first Crowded Space guides. They were instant hits, but many people needed more practical help. So with a few friends, I set up the Travellers’ Aid Society. We started off with ‘net lectures, devised a simple color code for planet safety, and in Year -16 we opened up our first planetary office. It was a great hit, helping people to get oriented, providing a meeting place and information exchange, and even a few beds for the night. The rest, as they say, is history.” - page 38.

 

[Timerover51]

I find it interesting that in CT so many of the standard forms are issued by the TAS rather than an Imperial agency. This suggests that the TAS is one of the most powerful but also least described organizations in the entire OTU. We know more about the Sylean Rangers or Office of Calendar Compliance. How is the TAS structured? How does it operate outside the Imperium? T5 may be the first edition to actually treat the TAS as what it must actually be: a megacorporation.

I suspect that they are called "TAS" forms for the sake of convenience by Games Design Workshop, rather than spend the time to come up with Imperium Form names and numbers.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

GURPS Traveller describes a universal system within the Imperium:

I'm not sure that anything like this is described in CT or MT.

I'm not sure a govt zero world is going to care.

Govt 1 is going to issue Corporate identities

Govt 6 is going to issue documents as if you were from the parent world and temporarily resident elsewhere.

Govt 8-A are going to love the whole concept even if its at TL-1

Law Level 0 doesn't seem to have the concept of an illegal death (or of tax?)
Law level C is going to want paperwork for every movement (pun intended).

But what about those not world-born. Imperial Documents are OK but given the nature of the Imperium they don't really care about individuals unless they are nobles or in the armed services or civil services (e.g. SPA).

Bureaucracy only bothers with issuing papers about things it cares about. the Imperium isn't taxing individuals, isn't running a census or caring if an individual lives or dies (exceptions as above). Birth Certificates are for Census/Tax Purposes; Ditto Death Certificates but they also have "Don't kill my citizens, only I may do that" purposes too. Marriage Certificates have no bureaucratic purpose if there is no Census or Tax applicable. They may have social purposes though - but at Imperial, I don't think so.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Marriage certificates absolutely have an Imperial purpose: Social Standing is hereditary (mostly).

 

[Nathan Brazil]

How does it operate outside the Imperium?

I do not think that they do. IIRC everything outside the Imperium is automatically treated as Amber Zone. In any case, I do not think that it would be wise for an Imperial megacorp to set up assets like a hostel in Kkree, Solomani, or Zhodani space, due fear, politics or paranoia between at those governments to the Imperium. Consider the dangers:

"Welcome to the Traveller's Aid Society on Cronor! Our hostel boasts the finest cuisinein the subsector. We have our wheels of greeting! The wheels relax all our Travellers. Our weary Travellers. Our sleepy, weary, Travellers. Do you not feel relaxed? Of course, you do. Sleep. Sleep....".

or worse

"Why is the herd in the business quarter panicked? I can smell the fear from here."
"A new human supplier for their Travellers Aid Society hostel landed to fill their food dispensers. My Lord, I saw the cases. He brought something that in Anglic are called "Slim Jim's. It is horrible. They smell of meat, My Lord. Meat!"
Oho, does it now? Prepare the fleet! We will teach the g'naak the error if its ways. FOR THE HERD!"

 

[whartung]

I believe paperwork is issued by your local government, so as there are thousands of systems in the Imperium there will be tens of thousands of different documents.

Perhaps, but off world there has to be some drastic subset of official recognized documentation for use in other systems. It's unreasonable to expect other polities, much less things like local businesses, to be familiar with the "tens of thousands of different documents".

This struck me once when I was at a grocery store, and the clerk was checking ID for something. And the fellow here said, paraphrased, "well, here's my Australian drivers license, but we don't have photos on them down there".

And that intrigued me. Clearly, the clerk has no idea what an Australian DL looks like, and, no doubt, could simply choose to not honor if. But then I wondered: "Does random Joe Police officer have any idea what an Australian DL looks like? Latvia? Estonian?"

In fact, I bet I could forge up a Kazakstan Passport (and I have no idea what a Kazak passport looks like) and present it in some non-official place (i.e. not at a border, but I bet I could at a hotel). Now, maybe the hotel clerk has a book they can look in to see what an official one looks like, but I'm guessing most don't. Most have a vague idea what a passport looks like (little book, pages, "stamps", ideally has the word "passport" embossed in gold somewhere on it), but an official one? Hardly.

Now, part of that is that in the US, the Hotels don't really care who you are. They're not part of the border enforcement system.

But in other countries, Russia, France, etc., they are part of it. Authorities collect documents from all the hotels about the foreign visitors they have. So it may well be more important in those countries that the passport they accept is, well, more authentic than not.

 

[Condottiere]

In ShadowRun, the point is not having a paper trail.

However, for interstellar travel, that probably isn't an option, even if it has to be forged. Or identity theft.

 

[Garnfellow]

So upon further review I see the GURPS Traveller "Imperial Identity Document" is also supported in Milieu 0:

Imperial ID Also known as the "Universal ID," or more often just the "Universal," this contains authenticated identity information about a person, such as fingerprint, name, date of birth, holographic photo, and so on. This info is encrypted on the card, the encryption being updated every day or so based on an internal clock and computer (T4 Core Rules p 66).

As well as Traveller⁵:

Imperial ID
TL B, Size 2, Cr 10.
This represents not only the Imperial ID, but also identity or membership cards given out by various organizations such as TAS (Book 3, pp 188-189).

Although I don't see the concept directly contradicted in CT, one does wonder what the point would be of TAS Forms 2 and 41 (Supplement 12) if an Imperial Universal ID was available.

 

[Garnfellow]

My guess would be that most Imperial citizens never bother to get a Universal ID, which is probably only necessary if one wants to travel offworld. Though an ID probably makes a lot of onworld things easier -- maybe banking with an interstellar bank, or enlisting in the Imperial military, or maybe even obtaining a marriage license (the point made above about inheritance is very interesting.)

For some lower pop or tech worlds, getting your ID might be a real bother: you've got to travel all the way to the planetary capital (that's a 200 dipthong trip!) with all the necessary documentation and then find the appropriate Imperial office and wait for days. Maybe it's an Imperial consulate, or an office of an Imperial representative. Might be a nice modest revenue line for petty nobles.

Dame Agatha, when not "overseeing" the Holbrook platinum mine from the vantage of the Luxus casino in the New Topeka Grand Hotel, also hears the petitions of Imperial citizens once a week by appointment only. Three days a week her office is open to notarize official documents and receive applications for Universal IDs, court actions, military academies, chartered universities, and other vital functions of the Third Imperium.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

or maybe even obtaining a marriage license (the point made above about inheritance is very interesting.)

The only hitch is that only Nobles are tracked by the Imperial Court (per Nobles book). The rest don't count!

 

[Grav_Moped]

The only hitch is that only Nobles are tracked by the Imperial Court (per Nobles book). The rest don't count!

Would be useful in the event that an individual gets elevated to SOC-11, to be able to track their heirs. While the Imperium might not track marriages below SOC-10, the standard data record would have space for them.

 

[Condottiere]

Legal heirs; which might the reason to formalize such relationships.