"Tech Level" indicator.

[Blue Ghost]

This has always bothered me some. It's about the TL designation. Seriously, when travelling from system to system would a brochure or a travel guide of any sort say "Tech Level is ... *blah blah blah*"

I know that for game purposes we use that, but I've always had a hard time imagining it being used in "real life". That is when you travel to say a reservation for native people of any continent, no one tells you the "tech level". They may prepare you for certain aspects of the society you're going to visit, but there's no numerical descriptor as such.

So I'm curious what anyone thinks of the TL thing being used in a game session. Do you actually have your players' characters use that designation, or is it more of a referee and player concept to help gameplay?

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

What are you talking about?

Nerd that I am, I use it in Real Life in conversations with other nerds and anyone else willing to discuss such things. :devil:

 

[Keep On Travellin']

I leave it floaty, but it is an industrial standard used by worlds, mostly higher tech worlds, to rate lower tech ones. It's like ANSI or something. These are developmental benchmarks. Like at one point a rifle is a hand cannon, a musket, then a winchester, etc. I find it best to round it off, and just assume that having a low tech weapon or item made at a much higher tech level has a kinds of weird effects. (Item talks, weighs next to nothing, made supr durable, etc.) I leave it up to the players to mess with.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Think about how your player's characters would describe it. How would someone used to the 'good life' react if they were on a low Tech Level world?

"Man, that's backwater world"

Anything TL5 or below - Primitive backwater - low tech
Anything TL10 or below - Early spaceflight - middle tech
Anything TL15 or below - Sophisticated Interstellar society - high tech
Anything TL20 or below - State-of-the-art or superscience - ultra tech

The TL can be tied to how sophisticated (or decadent) the population is. This can translate easily from a lot of areas around big cities - the city is high tech, the suburbs are middle tech, and the rural areas are low tech. Although a lot of that has changed with the Internet, that's how it used to be.

or

You can also consolidate the Tech Levels:

TL1 - Very Primitive
TL4 - Primitive
TL8 - Rudimentary spaceflight - just getting to orbit
TL12 - Commonplace spaceflight
TL16 - Magic

 

[rancke]

Think about how your player's characters would describe it. How would someone used to the 'good life' react if they were on a low Tech Level world?

"Man, that's backwater world"

Anything TL5 or below - Primitive backwater - low tech
Anything TL10 or below - Early spaceflight - middle tech
Anything TL15 or below - Sophisticated Interstellar society - high tech
Anything TL20 or below - State-of-the-art or superscience - ultra tech

I use:

TL1-3 - Low Tech
TL4-5 - Mid Tech
TL6-8 - High Tech (~ What we have on Earth today)
TL9-15 - Ultra-tech (~ What the Imperium has that we don't)
TL16+ - Hyper-tech (Higher than what the Imperium has)​

The division into ultra-tech and hyper-tech is an idea of my own. I've been trying to promote the distinction between technology in advance of our own that the Imperium has and TiAoOO that the Imperium doesn't have.


Hans

 

[HG_B]

It's short hand.

 

[robject]

Yah.

Preindustrial, Industrial, Spacefaring.

 

[aramis]

MegaT already has such a shorthand:
TL_ Label
0-3 Pre-Industrial
4-5 Industrial
6-8 Pre-Stellar
9-10 Early Stellar
11-13 Average Stellar
14-15 High Stellar

Note that this also is used for imposing a DM for skill learnt at a different tech from the equipment.

 

[samuelvss]

Original title comment redacted by moderator.

Towards actually ANSWERING THE QUESTION:

IMTU I do use the number in conversations, literature, etc. I have it as an Imperial standard, and as such, will be at least known outside the Imperium. Such standards are far more important in an interstellar society with such varying TL's on the member worlds than it is necessary on our world, as useful as such a system might be.

That is not the only terminology used, of course, but it tends to be more precise. There are, I assume, more detailed descriptors in use in academia and the like, but the numerical TL is something that everyone in the Imperium understands.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Interesting.

In my Traveller gaming sessions (what few I've had) I do use Starpot grading; type A, B, and so forth. To me that seems like something you might find on a AAA brochure. It lets you know how well equipped the facility is. But a tech level designator always struck me as a bit odd.

Anyway, thanks for the replies.

 

[HG_B]

Interesting.

In my Traveller gaming sessions (what few I've had) I do use Starpot grading; type A, B, and so forth. To me that seems like something you might find on a AAA brochure. It lets you know how well equipped the facility is. But a tech level designator always struck me as a bit odd.

Anyway, thanks for the replies.

Well, for star-faring planets, what J level have they obtained gives an exact level...

 

[Enoki]

I would agree with those who use generalized terms to describe the approximate level:

1-3 Primative or maybe some harsh term like "ghetto"
4-5 Backwards or "third world." A slum. Frontier-like conditions.
6-8 Barely civilized. Industrial backwater. Quaintly old fashioned.
9-A A "rural" world. Rustic.
B-C Has an "acceptable" level of technology.
D-E First world, top notch, state-of-art
Anything higher would generally be called amazing or incredible levels of technology.

This would be from an Imperial point-of-view.

 

[Keep On Travellin']

That's it, it's like a planetological classification, and it's a benchmark. I played in a game That used that Heaven and Earth program to break down planets and tech levels, and it even added a dimension of variances. This made a lot of depth to the world. There migh be one doc you go to, and he'd be basically a witch dotor, and then somewhere else, there would be another guy running at the top of his game at TL3, but he would be like Xenophon or something, and would get top fees.

 

[Enoki]

I personally also see tech levels as the average on a planet. Thus, you could easily have a planet with one or a few specific technologies where they are more advanced by several levels over the general rating or, several levels behind in another area. An example might be a planet where the atmosphere is very thin or a vacuum world. Technology that created livable areas would be critical so, that might be more advanced than the overall tech level.