Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
Just thinking out loud, for discussion...
It seems to me that the Army career in Book 1 is meant to be a local force, not an Imperial Force, and thus characters generated under that career should be limited to the TL of the world.
If you're on Pysadi, and you are drafted into the Army, then you are trained to TL 4, circa 1860-1900. If the character's homeworld is Aramis, with its corrosive atmosphere, then as a soldier, you are trained to TL B, the highest in the subsector, average Imperial tech, with laser rifles and combat armor.
Is the character who is rolled up on the Pysadi homeworld screwed? I think not. It's an opportunity to create a fascinating character.
Think of what skills a TL 4 character could have that would be useful as a Traveller. The revolver. The shotgun. Weapons that are still used.
But...it's the blades where this character could excel. Swordmasters. Knifemasters. What about making up some sort of ancient school or Order to which the character is a member. Like an ancient Order of Assassins that only uses blades by way of their training, honor, and belief system.
And, it's not like a Pysadian character who is interested in leaving Mother Pysadi wouldn't try to broaden his education every chance he got. Pysadi has a Class C Starport, so there has to be some tech bleed into the neighboring settlements. The character could, during generation, be considered to be grabbing every basic and advanced course he could to make himself useful off-world, in space. He's a TL 4 character, but he's spent time learning the basics that he needs to understand higher tech. I'd say that a Class C Starport is probably about TL 10, regardless of a lower tech world around it (like a US base in a third world country). Because of this, the character could have some skills considered higher than TL 4.
Depending on how detailed the homeworld is, this can give clues to how a character can be more advanced than his homeworld's tech level. For example, Pysadi is TL 4, but the world also has a tainted atmosphere. The character will be familiar with sealed or filtered environments and protective masks, even if we're talking about a WWI era gas mask and lumber or brick or stone buildings lined with pitch and charcoal filtering system.
Another thing to consider is local gravity. Maybe some worlds are do not meet minimum standards to qualify as a homeworld for a Traveller. Pysadi is a Size 4 world, meaning that it is 0.5 G local.
This means that native Pysadians are half as strong as those who live in Standard 1G fields.
A player who rolls a character with the world of Pysadi as his homeworld may want to trash this character (try to get him killed in character generation and try again), and the Ref should always allow players to do this. (Save the trashed character for an NPC, used later, maybe from a different world.)
Or, figure out how this particular Pysadian grew up living in a 1G field.
Maybe he grew up in the highport (it probably is a high port because of the local gravity---or most of the Starport lays dirtside on G-plates built into the floors--that sounds expensive, so it's probably a high port). In this case, the local gravity field for the character is the standard 1G.
But, I can picture a very cool character--a religious assassin of a secret Order--trained in the use of blades...and poisons. Special poisons.
The guy is weak, used to 0.5 G. Is there special equipment that we can give the character to allow him to function in a normal 1G field? An exo-skeleton? Only a few of these assassins are trained to go off world, and they do the dark bidding of Mother Pysadi (like those who steal Anolas).
The key is to make the character equally cool in other areas and give him tools to overcome some of his obstacles that other PCs don't have. 0.5 G can be a pain in the ass, but the ship he's on can have a section tuned to half a gee to accommodate him. And, the character knows something special or has special equipment that normal characters do not--maybe a gravchair, giving the character practical access to an air/raft type affair that can hold extra equipment, be computer enhanced, allow for great speeds (speeder bikes, anyone?), and be able to reach high into the sky at a moment's notice--for recon or gaining access to a ledge or cliff or dorsal section of a spaceship. It can even be used in zero-G, if a thruster unit is attached and the Pysadian uses a Vacc Suit.
See...this can be a bad assed character in spite of the fact that he becomes helpless quickly in a 1G field. The chair makes all the difference.
It seems to me that the Army career in Book 1 is meant to be a local force, not an Imperial Force, and thus characters generated under that career should be limited to the TL of the world.
If you're on Pysadi, and you are drafted into the Army, then you are trained to TL 4, circa 1860-1900. If the character's homeworld is Aramis, with its corrosive atmosphere, then as a soldier, you are trained to TL B, the highest in the subsector, average Imperial tech, with laser rifles and combat armor.
Is the character who is rolled up on the Pysadi homeworld screwed? I think not. It's an opportunity to create a fascinating character.
Think of what skills a TL 4 character could have that would be useful as a Traveller. The revolver. The shotgun. Weapons that are still used.
But...it's the blades where this character could excel. Swordmasters. Knifemasters. What about making up some sort of ancient school or Order to which the character is a member. Like an ancient Order of Assassins that only uses blades by way of their training, honor, and belief system.
And, it's not like a Pysadian character who is interested in leaving Mother Pysadi wouldn't try to broaden his education every chance he got. Pysadi has a Class C Starport, so there has to be some tech bleed into the neighboring settlements. The character could, during generation, be considered to be grabbing every basic and advanced course he could to make himself useful off-world, in space. He's a TL 4 character, but he's spent time learning the basics that he needs to understand higher tech. I'd say that a Class C Starport is probably about TL 10, regardless of a lower tech world around it (like a US base in a third world country). Because of this, the character could have some skills considered higher than TL 4.
Depending on how detailed the homeworld is, this can give clues to how a character can be more advanced than his homeworld's tech level. For example, Pysadi is TL 4, but the world also has a tainted atmosphere. The character will be familiar with sealed or filtered environments and protective masks, even if we're talking about a WWI era gas mask and lumber or brick or stone buildings lined with pitch and charcoal filtering system.
Another thing to consider is local gravity. Maybe some worlds are do not meet minimum standards to qualify as a homeworld for a Traveller. Pysadi is a Size 4 world, meaning that it is 0.5 G local.
This means that native Pysadians are half as strong as those who live in Standard 1G fields.
A player who rolls a character with the world of Pysadi as his homeworld may want to trash this character (try to get him killed in character generation and try again), and the Ref should always allow players to do this. (Save the trashed character for an NPC, used later, maybe from a different world.)
Or, figure out how this particular Pysadian grew up living in a 1G field.
Maybe he grew up in the highport (it probably is a high port because of the local gravity---or most of the Starport lays dirtside on G-plates built into the floors--that sounds expensive, so it's probably a high port). In this case, the local gravity field for the character is the standard 1G.
But, I can picture a very cool character--a religious assassin of a secret Order--trained in the use of blades...and poisons. Special poisons.
The guy is weak, used to 0.5 G. Is there special equipment that we can give the character to allow him to function in a normal 1G field? An exo-skeleton? Only a few of these assassins are trained to go off world, and they do the dark bidding of Mother Pysadi (like those who steal Anolas).
The key is to make the character equally cool in other areas and give him tools to overcome some of his obstacles that other PCs don't have. 0.5 G can be a pain in the ass, but the ship he's on can have a section tuned to half a gee to accommodate him. And, the character knows something special or has special equipment that normal characters do not--maybe a gravchair, giving the character practical access to an air/raft type affair that can hold extra equipment, be computer enhanced, allow for great speeds (speeder bikes, anyone?), and be able to reach high into the sky at a moment's notice--for recon or gaining access to a ledge or cliff or dorsal section of a spaceship. It can even be used in zero-G, if a thruster unit is attached and the Pysadian uses a Vacc Suit.
See...this can be a bad assed character in spite of the fact that he becomes helpless quickly in a 1G field. The chair makes all the difference.
