T5: Morrow Project & All Others

[mhwittek]

I see no Story Line in CT 1E - but I do see a lot of setting materials encoded mechanically.

Just from Character generation, the following setting inferences can be made:

• The Army, Marines, and Navy are separate services.
• There is a system of nobility
• There is a draft
• Shiboard combat tends to be right up close and personal
• The Scouts are not a military service, despite the draft
• Pensions based solely upon length of service - this implies pay may likewise be.
• No up-or-out policy, at least for officers
• Most Army and Marine troops do not have significant practical vacuum experience
• The Merchant Spacers are unpopular enough that they, too, are beneficiaries of the Draft
• Organized Crime prevents being drafted.
• Organized crime also participates in a similar pension system, if not the same one, as the military - this implies a universal retirement system that is bought into.
• General medical and longevity seems to cap, and is mostly knowledge based, rather than technology based (since there's no TL effect, and all imperials use the same tables)
• Marines tend to have lots of free time.... and spend a lot of it gambling.
• Marine Armor is either wheeled or tracked, not gravitic
• Army units sometimes use gravitic vehicles.
• Scouts don't use ground vehicles, but use plenty of gravitic ones.
• Merchants, Scouts and Navy can dabble in a lot regardless of educational background.
• Organized Crime tends to not give the uneducated a chance to dabble.
• Army and Marines tend to be pretty focused.
• No one has a whole lot of control over what they do in their jobs.

And that's just HALF of Book 1.

Aramis,
That is interesting that you and I look at the same thing, but see it differently. To me these name that you quoted here are nothing more then meta types, and I don't seem them necessarily as an implication of the meta characters. For example, when Traveller uses the name "Scout" I can as easily see a "Ranger" in my head as well as a character humping around the star in the IISS. Perhaps a "Army" is a solder with a guess weapon as well as a fighter with a sword. The difference is TL 0 vs T 15. This is why that I stated earlier that Traveller has a lean to sci-fi since if you try to use Traveller's rules to describe clerics or magic-users, you would have to do some rule rework and addition to accurately describe those meta characters in the Traveller universe. But if you run a low or no magic universe then most of the Traveller careers would work in a low tech level game without confusing the two genres.

But on a personal note, I would note use the Traveller mechanics for a fantasy genre. There area too many other mechanics that will handle the genre without having to rework the Traveller rules.

Much Regards,
Mike W.