Random Homeworld Selection vs Generation

[welsh]

The question is whether you'd leave Earth and all its diversity and opportunities for a life as a gypsie wandering from world to world, locked up in a little ship with the same several folk for a week at a time, you and those several then dealing with complete strangers in a new place with different gravity and different air and different laws and different and sometimes bizarre culture for the next week or longer. It's more a question of which worlds are more likely to produce folk interested in living a pretty much rootless existence with no long term friends or family other than those within the confines of your ship.

Well, some worlds are like small towns. If that pop digit is, say, 3....

But this takes us back to my original point: oppressive government, toxic atmosphere ... there will always be some adventurers from anywhere, but the money's on the worlds you're more likely to want to leave.

 

[aramis]

Then why are large cities in the US leaking people on a steady basis? For that matter, how is the US filling its recruit quotes for your more than somewhat disparaging "pointy -end careers"? I actually signed up for and took ROTC during this thing called the Vietnam War, while a lot of other guys my age were running to Canada. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, where Chicago was the northern border. Anything more to say would be extremely political.

Speak your piece. [M;]exemption from the no politics rule granted subject to....[/m;]
keep it polite in word and tone
Keep it academic or self-only; do not address others views personally.
Keep it limited to the impact upon recruiting or ones self as a recruit.

 

[Timerover51]

Speak your piece. [M;]exemption from the no politics rule granted subject to....[/m;]
keep it polite in word and tone
Keep it academic or self-only; do not address others views personally.
Keep it limited to the impact upon recruiting or ones self as a recruit.

Thank you for the waver, Aramis, but I am done. I have expressed my views on this thread, and will be quiet on this thread for the future.

 

[Ishmael]

Then why are large cities in the US leaking people on a steady basis? For that matter, how is the US filling its recruit quotes for your more than somewhat disparaging "pointy -end careers"? I actually signed up for and took ROTC during this thing called the Vietnam War, while a lot of other guys my age were running to Canada. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, where Chicago was the northern border. Anything more to say would be extremely political.

Based on papers by RAND, much of the reason are financial incentives ( direct cash bonuses ) and educational incentives ( tuition aid and programs such as the ROTC ), both being attractive to to people without strong stable financial outlooks, especially in an environment where an advanced education can cause a large financial debt.

As economies improve and unemployment drops, recruiters often have to increase bonuses/incentives and/or lower acceptance standards, mostly minimum educational standards, to maintain enlistment quotas. If the incentives are not good enough to overshadow the dangers, then people won't enlist.

There are many studies concerning this on-line.
Because of this sort of thing, it is my opinion that stat dm's for social standing ( wealth/income distribution effects ) should be applied to the education roll during chargen.

 

[coliver988]

As for the original question: random versus picking versus rolling up. I let my players decide what kind of world they come from and then we try & find something that matches via the TravellerMap.

I've got the Traveller Mongoose Character software, and when rolling up a character you can pick the trade codes and start getting a restricted list of worlds in the Marches (sadly only the Marches - I may put in a request to allow for any of the worlds supported on TravellerMap...that's what I am doing with my nascent software).

And I've done this for all the NPCs they encountered, and then done research via the Wiki or my own collection of things to see if there is anything interesting about that system (people from Glisten really don't like the great outdoors - the air just does not taste right. And they always read the emergency info brochures when entering ships and stations. Little nuances like that).

So some come from high pop worlds wanting to get away from it all, some come from low pop worlds wanting to get to it all. Everyone is different and has different reasons for wanting to travel.

 

[Carlobrand]

Well, some worlds are like small towns. If that pop digit is, say, 3....

But this takes us back to my original point: oppressive government, toxic atmosphere ... there will always be some adventurers from anywhere, but the money's on the worlds you're more likely to want to leave.

What gets bad is when you don't realize it's the kind of place you want to leave until halfway through the adventure.

 

[SanDragon]

Gary Indiana Gary Indiana Gary Ind...

Ahem, sorry. Tune's stuck in my head now.

And now, I wish to hurt you.

Born ,grew up, and edjumakated in Fort Wayne; had an opportunity to go play technician in Chandler, AZ. That lasted until the layoff.

[counter-earworm] Back home again in Indianaaaaaaa.[/Jim Neighbors]

 

[welsh]

As economies improve and unemployment drops, recruiters often have to increase bonuses/incentives and/or lower acceptance standards, mostly minimum educational standards, to maintain enlistment quotas. If the incentives are not good enough to overshadow the dangers, then people won't enlist.

This is what I'm getting at. In the Imperial context, they don't need to lower standards or increase incentives, because they draw their recruits from places where existing incentives overcome the downside Carlobrand already aptly described.

Especially since (in my interpretation) the Imperium doesn't need a massive military. (Canon aside.)

 

[khadaji2002]

Again going back to the original question, I usually let the players describe the homeworld they want their characters to be from. If there is something close to their description in the subsector we're starting in, great. If not we roll up a planet, plugging in the desired traits. During character creation this has proved to be an interesting part of characters' back story.