Starports, Population, and TL in MgT2

[robject]

How much does their rule affect worlds? I haven't run the numbers.

(1) grant starport roll DMs for a high population
(2) then grant TL mods for a good starport and high population

In a sense, then, Mongoose world TL is more strongly tied to population.

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I suppose I can test this.

Population rolls are identical for both, so I can loop through populations 1 - 10.

for $populationDigit 1..10

The starport distribution for each population level will be different. So I should roll a million starports at each population level.

roll mongoose starport()
roll traveller starport()

Then the TL will further diverge; however, the 1D roll is the same in both cases and so I can factor all randomness out.

mongoose TL (by population and starport) = fixed calculation;
traveller TL (by population and starport) = fixed calculation;

Thus for each Population + Starport entry, we have one and only one base TL value for each ruleset, but we also have a starport count for each rulset.

 

[robject]

In general the distributions are not dissimilar, but there are interesting divergences. Because the Mongoose DMs create a direct relationship between population and starport quality, this means low populations will have lower quality starports overall, and higher populations will have higher quality starports overall, compared to other Traveller rulesets.

In Mongoose, population also creates a magnified TL effect: population itself lends the usual TL mods, but now population additionally can affect TL by bumping up starport quality, which in turn bumps up TL.

• Lower populations (7-) are less likely in Mongoose to have class A starports (8% Mongoose versus 16% other rulesets).
• Pop 9 and 10 are the most similar; however, unlike the other rulesets, it's impossible to get a Pop 10 world under TL 5, or a Pop 9 world under TL 3. In Traveller generally, it's rare (27/1000) but possible.
• At low populations (under 8) there's a Mongoose skew towards class D and E starports, at the expense of class B and C starports, which become significantly rarer than otherwise.
• At population 8, the DM+1 is obvious, as it bumps all worlds up by one TL, across all starport classes.

A lot of this will be obfuscated by the 1D TL roll, essentially cutting their significance by 6 (or something).

 

[kilemall]

Depends. From a sim perspective the pop bumping TL makes sense, just more hands and minds to make/know/consume and drive more interstellar bizness.

But then you get a lot less high pop/low tech-port situations and thus less weird planet story generation.

 

[Condottiere]

It's probably more interesting trying to find justifications for those results.

Just remember, they might only be snapshots at the time you're setting the adventure.

 

[aramis]

In general the distributions are not dissimilar, but there are interesting divergences. Because the Mongoose DMs create a direct relationship between population and starport quality, this means low populations will have lower quality starports overall, and higher populations will have higher quality starports overall, compared to other Traveller rulesets.

In Mongoose, population also creates a magnified TL effect: population itself lends the usual TL mods, but now population additionally can affect TL by bumping up starport quality, which in turn bumps up TL.

There is an interesting problem with Mongoose... and with Traveller in General... The highest tech should be both the largest and the smallest populations - the smallest (pops <= 3) being most likely colonies, and if not colonies, approaching non-viable indigenous populations.

Mongoose, by making the linkage, prevents those high tech colonies... because they're not going to have the A and unlikely to have the B ports to have a high tech pop... which leads to a zoo-hypothesis and/or neoluddite situation...

 

[Condottiere]

Nuances.

The colonists could have been spawned from a planet with a technological level of fifteen, but haven't established an industrial base, beyond three dee printing.

Or could be a paradise planet, with restricted immigration, and manufacturing off world.