OTU Only: Player Library Data (Golden Age Milieu)

[prognosticValtiel]

I'm starting up a new game of Traveller with some IRL players in the Spinward Marches. I'm drafting up these Lore Documents for a player folder I'm working on, so I was just wondering what everyone's feedback on this is. Is this good enough for a brief quick reference, is there some stuff I should include/exclude, etc. ?

 

[Spinward Flow]

Parsec
Each Hex on the Map is a single “Parsec”. Each Parsec is roughly 3.14 Light Years from one end to another.

My understanding is that parsecs are 3.26-3.27 light years of distance.

Droyne
Diminutive Impish looking creatures. Not much is known about them, other than they are very insular. Droyne seems to all have a latent psionic ability being much more adept at it than any other race.

I would remove the note about Droyne being psionic. Until the PCs find out for themselves, that's a secret.

Zhodani
These Humans were genetically altered by the Ancients into having stronger Psionic abilities than what is the norm for Humans. They have built a very top down built society where a society of Psionic Nobles who watch over the mental well being of their society with Thought Police.

However, since psionic powers or strength are not hereditary, Zhodani society experiences more "churn" in the upper echelons of power with each generation. This continuous turnover via psionic meritocracy helps to inhibit the emergence of generational aristocracy and the hoarding of wealth and resources (it doesn't prevent it, but it does slow the accumulation that can lead to oligarchic dynasties).

Titles of Nobility

There's a problem here.
There's a difference between people in the "career" of being a Noble (which means acquiring Position and Promotion, ala character generation) and people who have achieved high social standing by birth (from their parents) or as a reward for accomplishments and deeds (usually character generation related in a variety of careers that are not the Noble career).

In short there are "working" Nobles, who represent the Emperor to their world (and vice versa), who are "in post" as the noble of {insert world name here}.

• Duke Regina
• Countess Efate
• Baron Kinorb
• Knight Boughene

... you get the idea.
In character generation terms, all such people are engaged in the "career" of being a Noble AND have successfully rolled Position in order to be posted as the noble for their "assigned" world. Only career nobles are granted fiefs of territory (from which they can draw rents and income to sustain themselves and their households).

EVERYONE ELSE does NOT get afforded such titles and grants.
People who are in the "career" track of being a Noble but have not successfully rolled for Position are essentially "staff, retainers and functionaries" rather than being the "head that wears the laurels" (so to speak), waiting for their opportunity to "move up in rank" (as it were) and are thus (more or less) "waiting in the wings" for an open seat in the game of musical chairs that is a matter of deciding who gets posted where in what Positions.

Everyone who is NOT on in the "career" track of being a Noble is effectively an "honorary" noble, rather than an explicitly political/working noble. Kind of like how people can become famous for all kinds of things, without necessarily needing to enmesh themselves in politics (or "noble society" with respect to sustaining imperial power and loyalty).

What you have written makes no distinction between these two types of outcomes for high social status.

It's kind of like the difference between being Prime Minister and ... Oprah.
Both have "high social standing" (for the purposes of illustration) ... but only one of them is involved in the governing of a polity (Noble career, in post), while the other is "merely" a celebrity.

All Noble career Traveller PCs are people who have "turned over their responsibilities" to a successor ... and mustered out of the career path. They can still garner significant respect (for their social standing, if nothing else), but they are no longer the "currently in post" noble of a particular world. Kind of like being a former president or former prime minister of a polity ... someone else has the job now, but you held the posting for a time.

 

[prognosticValtiel]

My understanding is that parsecs are 3.26-3.27 light years of distance.

Yeah, must've been muscle memory hammering out 3.14 AUGH, I'll adjust accordingly.

I would remove the note about Droyne being psionic. Until the PCs find out for themselves, that's a secret.

Will Adjust Accordingly!

However, since psionic powers or strength are not hereditary, Zhodani society experiences more "churn" in the upper echelons of power with each generation. This continuous turnover via psionic meritocracy helps to inhibit the emergence of generational aristocracy and the hoarding of wealth and resources (it doesn't prevent it, but it does slow the accumulation that can lead to oligarchic dynasties).

I didn't think about that, I'll make sure to put that into my notes for the document!

There's a problem here.
There's a difference between people in the "career" of being a Noble (which means acquiring Position and Promotion, ala character generation) and people who have achieved high social standing by birth (from their parents) or as a reward for accomplishments and deeds (usually character generation related in a variety of careers that are not the Noble career).

In short there are "working" Nobles, who represent the Emperor to their world (and vice versa), who are "in post" as the noble of {insert world name here}.

• Duke Regina
• Countess Efate
• Baron Kinorb
• Knight Boughene

... you get the idea.
In character generation terms, all such people are engaged in the "career" of being a Noble AND have successfully rolled Position in order to be posted as the noble for their "assigned" world. Only career nobles are granted fiefs of territory (from which they can draw rents and income to sustain themselves and their households).

EVERYONE ELSE does NOT get afforded such titles and grants.
People who are in the "career" track of being a Noble but have not successfully rolled for Position are essentially "staff, retainers and functionaries" rather than being the "head that wears the laurels" (so to speak), waiting for their opportunity to "move up in rank" (as it were) and are thus (more or less) "waiting in the wings" for an open seat in the game of musical chairs that is a matter of deciding who gets posted where in what Positions.

Everyone who is NOT on in the "career" track of being a Noble is effectively an "honorary" noble, rather than an explicitly political/working noble. Kind of like how people can become famous for all kinds of things, without necessarily needing to enmesh themselves in politics (or "noble society" with respect to sustaining imperial power and loyalty).

What you have written makes no distinction between these two types of outcomes for high social status.

It's kind of like the difference between being Prime Minister and ... Oprah.
Both have "high social standing" (for the purposes of illustration) ... but only one of them is involved in the governing of a polity (Noble career, in post), while the other is "merely" a celebrity.

All Noble career Traveller PCs are people who have "turned over their responsibilities" to a successor ... and mustered out of the career path. They can still garner significant respect (for their social standing, if nothing else), but they are no longer the "currently in post" noble of a particular world. Kind of like being a former president or former prime minister of a polity ... someone else has the job now, but you held the posting for a time.

Yeah I see, so it's similar to the Cursus Honorum where you have to actively make an effort to climb the ladder as opposed to just traditional Nobility where you are given the land/titles because You happened to be born to the family. I'll adjust it accordingly, I might have to make a separate section dedicated to Nobility, how they work, etc. I was kinda hoping to make it concise but I want these documents to lean more towards understanding and clarity as opposed to bit sized "snippets of info" that is incorrect.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Yeah I see, so it's similar to the Cursus Honorum where you have to actively make an effort to climb the ladder as opposed to just traditional Nobility where you are given the land/titles because You happened to be born to the family. I'll adjust it accordingly, I might have to make a separate section dedicated to Nobility, how they work, etc. I was kinda hoping to make it concise but I want these documents to lean more towards understanding and clarity as opposed to bit sized "snippets of info" that is incorrect.

The only reason why I got so wordy about the topic was to lay things out logically in a way that both explained the correct understanding while also blocking off incorrect alternative understandings.

The simplest way to think about the how nobility thing is to assume that MOST people with Social: A- are not "career" Nobles (in the character generation sense). There are going to be plenty of people in a sector who have high social status but are not themselves "in post" as the Emperor's representatives to specific worlds, meaning they're not part of the political class. High social standing, sure, but responsibilities and "duties to the realm" not quite so much.

So the easier way to rewrite that section is to present it as being mainly for "lay" nobles who have the social status but don't have "career" duties and obligations as a Noble. You can then add on an addendum that explains in broad terms that the Noble career from character generation is how people become the Emperor's representative to specific worlds where they are installed in post ... until a successor takes over their role, responsibilities and duties. So people who take up the career path of being a Noble are more of a "special case" of the nobility ranks, rather than being the starting point.

Hope that helps.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Oh, one other thing to mention.
The Third Imperium doesn't (directly) "rule" over worlds and populations within its territory.
Instead, all worlds are largely autonomous within their own star systems.

The Third Imperium concerns itself more with intERplanetary relations, rather than intRAplanetary matters.
So long as worlds aren't getting too far out of line or "wrecking the place so no one can have it" (see: nuclear war, etc.) the Third Imperium will typically take something of a "hands off" approach to local affairs.

This means that "noble society" of all the nobles "in post" for the various worlds tend to be more Outward Looking rather than Inward Looking from their perches as the nobles in post for each world in imperial territory. The nobles deal more in matters of interstellar foreign policy rather than in matters of local domestic policy (if that helps clarify things).

 

[Enoki]

My understanding is that parsecs are 3.26-3.27 light years of distance.

I would remove the note about Droyne being psionic. Until the PCs find out for themselves, that's a secret.

However, since psionic powers or strength are not hereditary, Zhodani society experiences more "churn" in the upper echelons of power with each generation. This continuous turnover via psionic meritocracy helps to inhibit the emergence of generational aristocracy and the hoarding of wealth and resources (it doesn't prevent it, but it does slow the accumulation that can lead to oligarchic dynasties).

There's a problem here.
There's a difference between people in the "career" of being a Noble (which means acquiring Position and Promotion, ala character generation) and people who have achieved high social standing by birth (from their parents) or as a reward for accomplishments and deeds (usually character generation related in a variety of careers that are not the Noble career).

In short there are "working" Nobles, who represent the Emperor to their world (and vice versa), who are "in post" as the noble of {insert world name here}.

• Duke Regina
• Countess Efate
• Baron Kinorb
• Knight Boughene

... you get the idea.
In character generation terms, all such people are engaged in the "career" of being a Noble AND have successfully rolled Position in order to be posted as the noble for their "assigned" world. Only career nobles are granted fiefs of territory (from which they can draw rents and income to sustain themselves and their households).

EVERYONE ELSE does NOT get afforded such titles and grants.
People who are in the "career" track of being a Noble but have not successfully rolled for Position are essentially "staff, retainers and functionaries" rather than being the "head that wears the laurels" (so to speak), waiting for their opportunity to "move up in rank" (as it were) and are thus (more or less) "waiting in the wings" for an open seat in the game of musical chairs that is a matter of deciding who gets posted where in what Positions.

Everyone who is NOT on in the "career" track of being a Noble is effectively an "honorary" noble, rather than an explicitly political/working noble. Kind of like how people can become famous for all kinds of things, without necessarily needing to enmesh themselves in politics (or "noble society" with respect to sustaining imperial power and loyalty).

What you have written makes no distinction between these two types of outcomes for high social status.

It's kind of like the difference between being Prime Minister and ... Oprah.
Both have "high social standing" (for the purposes of illustration) ... but only one of them is involved in the governing of a polity (Noble career, in post), while the other is "merely" a celebrity.

All Noble career Traveller PCs are people who have "turned over their responsibilities" to a successor ... and mustered out of the career path. They can still garner significant respect (for their social standing, if nothing else), but they are no longer the "currently in post" noble of a particular world. Kind of like being a former president or former prime minister of a polity ... someone else has the job now, but you held the posting for a time.

When it comes to nobles, I tend towards making it something you likely don't want to be involved with. If you have the title, be it knight or something higher (and it gets worse as you go up), there's stuff expected of you by the rest of nobility and by society.

When you arrive on some planet, depending on the other nobility there, you are:

THE news. You have something between minor and major celebrity status.
Doing nefarious stuff is almost certainly not going to happen--at least you doing it. Hire henchmen and such to do it for you.
Depending on your past, you may need bodyguards etc. There may be people out to get you.
You cannot just arrive on some derelict ship. Proper style is required
Proper etiquette and dress is required. Be prepared to spend money
In MTU there's "Emperor's Day." Nobles have to make a substantial cash / loot donation to the emperor to show fealty.
Expect to have to meet with other nobility on whatever planet you go to. Rubbing elbows with your equals is expected. Bring presents ($$$).
Expect commoners to defer to you. If you act like a commoner, there's going to be trouble.
Catching a case of affluenza isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Being a noble means spending lots of cash or becoming a pariah. You many still have the title, but you are in for some rough times if you don't have the wealth to go with it.
Your title is from military success? Better be prepared to be asked to lead troops into battle at any time.
You get to spend lots of time at meetings, social events, and other boring nonsense, and it isn't optional.

 

[casquilho]

I always hated that a character could get lucky with rolls and end up a Baron or such. So, I took it out of the game. You had to receive a noble title as part of the game, not some random dice roll. What I did do is treat the SOC as a DM for knowing how to act in social situations. How to adjust when the situation changed. How to read a room for example.
And no, just rolling a high SOC does not take control of the character away from the player any more than rolling a high STR would.

For the most part, no noble PCs running around as the engineer of a tramp trader on my table.

 

[Condottiere]

Characteristics as unrealized potential.

 

[Spinward Flow]

When it comes to nobles, I tend towards making it something you likely don't want to be involved with.

Start with a "pit of vipers" and work your way DOWN from there ...

If you have the title, be it knight or something higher (and it gets worse as you go up), there's stuff expected of you by the rest of nobility and by society.

Keeping Up Appearances is part of the duties and requirements, yes.

Suffice it to say that "living up to the demands" of your (high) social status can be its own form of Mind Control.

THE news. You have something between minor and major celebrity status.
Doing nefarious stuff is almost certainly not going to happen--at least you doing it. Hire henchmen and such to do it for you.
Depending on your past, you may need bodyguards etc. There may be people out to get you.
You cannot just arrive on some derelict ship. Proper style is required
Proper etiquette and dress is required. Be prepared to spend money
In MTU there's "Emperor's Day." Nobles have to make a substantial cash / loot donation to the emperor to show fealty.
Expect to have to meet with other nobility on whatever planet you go to. Rubbing elbows with your equals is expected. Bring presents ($$$).
Expect commoners to defer to you. If you act like a commoner, there's going to be trouble.
Catching a case of affluenza isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Best examples we have of this kind of thing is to be found in the British Royal Family (The Firm™) when someone marries into the family.
The sheer TABLOID SPECTACLE of it all can get rather ... exhausting.

Being at the center of that much attention all the time has a way of making it feel like you're living in a goldfish bowl ... and the water doesn't get changed often enough ... and the walls are closing in ...

Being a noble means spending lots of cash or becoming a pariah. You many still have the title, but you are in for some rough times if you don't have the wealth to go with it.

I wouldn't necessarily have social standing rest upon ostentatiously lavish displays of wealth as a basic/fundamental requirement. It's certainly ONE WAY to do things, but it isn't going to be the ONLY WAY, necessarily.

Characteristics as unrealized potential.

There is precedent, if you know where to look for it ...

Taken to extremes, I can imagine a low tech, low population imperial world as being the homeworld of a character who rolls Social: A+ during character creation, but takes the Barbarian career at age 14 ... only to "muster out" of being a Barbarian after 1 term at age 18. The character then switches career to Noble (automatic enrollment with Social: A+) and you proceed with character generation (as normal) from there.

An alternative is basically the same thing, but done as a Belter instead of a Barbarian, for a slightly more high (spacer) tech background with some pretty solid blue collar roots ... before being discovered as the "lost" relation so some noble house and being brought in for reasons of succession.

 

[Condottiere]

You can't be smarter than this factor; once you reach this cap, further progress requires double effort and resources.

Or educated.

Or strong.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Those are nice!

If you get the Classsic Traveller CD from Far Future Enterprises, The Traveller Book and the Traveller Adventure both have pretty nice Library Data. The Traveller Book also has a Guide the Traveller Universe. It could save you some typing.

 

[kilemall]

I always hated that a character could get lucky with rolls and end up a Baron or such. So, I took it out of the game. You had to receive a noble title as part of the game, not some random dice roll. What I did do is treat the SOC as a DM for knowing how to act in social situations. How to adjust when the situation changed. How to read a room for example.
And no, just rolling a high SOC does not take control of the character away from the player any more than rolling a high STR would.

For the most part, no noble PCs running around as the engineer of a tramp trader on my table.

The way I have it for non noble universes is SOC is measuring emotional intelligence and is used as base stat for any interaction skills- Leader, Bribery, Persuade, Carousing, Intimidation, Interrogation, etc. Possibly Admin and Streetwise when it’s in an interaction context.

For situations requiring class/opportunity/rank type determination, EDU becomes that base stat. The reasoning is that higher classes get access to the best education while lower classes/undesirables get poor education. Idiot noble children still get into Space Oxford, high intellect lower classes don’t.

Also can be used for skill modification- a EDU 6- is a shade tree mechanic, EDU 8 is a tech school technician, EDU A is an engineer and EDU B+ is an architect.

I also have information dissemination rolls on EDU- roll EDU or less on official/academic channels knowledge, roll EDU or more on Rumors.

So high EDU tend to know and follow authoritative data, low EDU tend to rely on rumors. Depending on the situation, could be rumors are more truthful/faster then official knowledge.

Nice side effect, players can up their societal rank through education, providing social mobility. Great for many campaigns but not for rigid class structure universes. Choose your story.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

As this is the OTU forum, I am going to point out that, canonically, the Zhodani were not altered by The Ancients in any known way, and that their skill at psionics is only due to their being immersed in it, culturally, from they day that they are born. The Zhodani themselves did not begin to use psionics (or, apparently, even know about the practice) until -8550, when they encountered the Qiknavrat -- aka Chirpers -- that inhabited a continent on Zhdant (their homeworld) that the Zhodani had been previously unaware of.

Of course, the Zhodani will tell you that they are naturally stronger at psionics than other humans, but that is a conceit, albeit one that they themselves believe to be true as well. This is because they are parochial minded racists. Which is also canon.

Also, there are some differences between pure blooded Solomani and Vilani. The most notable one being longevity -- a pure Vilani can live up to three times longer than a T-Norm Solomani can.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Of course, the Zhodani will tell you that they are naturally stronger at psionics than other humans, but that is a conceit, albeit one that they themselves believe to be true as well. This is because they are parochial minded racists. Which is also canon.

Except, the notion that Zhodani (as a polity) are naturally stronger at psionics has quite a bit of truth to it, relative to the "neighbors" (Vargr, Imperium, Aslan). The difference is that psionics are nurtured and favored in Zhodani society, so there's a lot of education and support for the practice. In the Imperium, psionics are (more or less) outlawed.

The two three different strains of humaniti may have identical psionic potential at birth ... but the opportunities for development are radically different.

And that's important, because psionic power "decays over a lifetime" if it is not discovered and trained. Psionic potential will atrophy over time if it doesn't get used (-DM on rolls for older characters).

So a polity that trains (any and all) psionics "from an early age" will have a dramatically stronger "pool" of psionic people than a rival polity that has banned the use of psionics and has driven the training of psionics underground and into the shadows of society. It's the difference between viewing psionics as a blessing to be celebrated ... and viewing psionics to be a curse to be distrusted and (militantly) shunned.



It's therefore only natural for "middle aged folk" in Zhodani society to be stronger psionically than their Imperial counterparts ... it's the difference in opportunity during the formative years that makes all the difference.



A real world counterpart example would be STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education.

• Places where STEM education is "lacking" to non-existent rarely develop world changing technologies and businesses.
• Places where STEM education is "favored" tend to produce the engineers, scientists and mathematicians who advance the frontiers of knowledge and industry.

It's not a boolean "only" condition (so there are some exceptions), but it sure puts some pretty heavy +/- DMs on the dice rolls for outcomes.

Same deal with psionics.
Psionics may be egalitarian as a condition at birth, regardless of the branch of humaniti you're born into, but if psionic powers are not discovered and developed and trained from a young age (pre-18, basically) they will "wither and die on the vine" due to a lack of exercise and use. That means that social acceptance (and elevation) of psionics has a massively outsized impact on psionic "strength and skills" in the adult population of different polities.

 

[prognosticValtiel]

Thanks for giving me some notes on updates to my Library Data sheets. Im looking at revising it, but essentially my overall goal of this is to introduce my new players to the OTU.

Im debating on scrapping it entirely though and just following the format of the Library Data booklets that came with Classic Traveller. Its more convient to pull up data and factoids about the universe without bogging down the readers in information dumps (and my own biases about the lore).

 

[aramis]

My understanding is that parsecs are 3.26-3.27 light years of distance.

3.26156 LY.
Here's a link to why: https://www.astronomy.com/astronomy-for-beginners/why-is-a-parsec-3-26-light-years/

 

[aramis]

In general, for OTU games, I just grab the MT Imperial Encyclopedia PDF, remove the Ref's Library Data onward except the back cover, put it on my e-reader and let them use that at table.

 

[prognosticValtiel]

In general, for OTU games, I just grab the MT Imperial Encyclopedia PDF, remove the Ref's Library Data onward except the back cover, put it on my e-reader and let them use that at table.

I just picked up the book, and wow that was a phenomenal suggestion thank you so much.

 

[prognosticValtiel]

Ok I managed to revise my library Data. I'm still probably going to shoot them the Imperial Encyclopedia PDF, but wanted something they could each keep in their folder that was concise, easy to look up & read in the middle of a game. Here is my revised version of the Library Data (I made minimal changes to the Spinward Marches one so I'm not including that one in this post)

 

[casquilho]

Nice job prognosticValtiel