The Long Night

[mike wightman]

Over the years myself and many others, have made the observation that the Long Night is an ideal setting for Traveller (I have an on again, off again campaign that uses it as the default).

Consider this, Is it the Long Night between the ROM and the 3I? Is it the Long Night that followed the release of Virus and eventual collapse of the fourth Imperium? Is it a Long Night following the collapse of the fifth Imperium?

Doesn't matter.

There are rumours there was once a mighty interstellar empire of mankind in this part of space.

There are pocket empires, one of which is where the PCs may come from - keep it off board if you like. On the borders are the frontier worlds that are months away comm-wise beyond them is the true unknown.

Go trade/explore/fight in mercenary actions/take on evil megacorporations/conduct piracy/discover new races/discover the ruins of old civilisations/encounter Vargr, Aslan, Hivers, Ithklur, K'kree/a pocket empire of evil mind reading scum/a pocket empire of enlightened psionic masters etc etc.

And think on this.

PCs discover a derelict ship fitted with tachyon cannons:
PC1 "Lol, they don't exist in the Imperium setting"
PC2 "Which Imperium, the first, third or seventh?"

Note - for tachyon cannon substitute: wormhole network, stargates, warp drive, ansible etc. whatever you want to include.

 

[Spinward Scout]

A period of intense anarchy, widespread tragedy, and interstellar disaster between the fall of one major polity, the Second Imperium or Rule of Man, and the succeeding polity, the Third Imperium.

It was a period where worlds were cut off from one another, technology was lost and the population on many worlds simply failed to survive.

The idea of the Long Night is almost impossibly illogical. The Traveller interstellar trade paradigm and the way starships function wouldn't have as much an effect as the story claims. Trade doesn't extend that far and only some very hi-tech worlds completely dependent on deliveries would have had a widespread effect and gone under. Granted, it lasted more than 1700 years, but most worlds would never be dependent on anything farther than 6 parsecs. Pocket empires would have sprung up all over to replace the over-arching government.

It would be like people all of a sudden forgetting how to fix automobiles, or make breakfast.

And all it would take to fix it all is a long lived Engineering/Mechanic 'Bot. Or about 1000 of them.

 

[Condottiere]

Currency can be based on the Refined Hydrogen Standard, one Credit backed by two kilogrammes of refined hydrogen.

 

[mike wightman]

The idea of the Long Night is almost impossibly illogical.

I agree, but it is no more or less silly than a lot of the other stuff found in canon.
There was a Long Night between the ROM and the declaration of the Third Imperium, I don't think we have ever been told the true story or reason for it.
A Long Night post Rebellion/Hard Times/Virus makes a lot more sense then a fourth Imperium being up and running as if nothing happened after only a century or two.

The Traveller interstellar trade paradigm and the way starships function wouldn't have as much an effect as the story claims.

The we don't know the whole story - because it happened. As to the trade paradigm, we have speculative trade for PCs but nothing to cover the interstellar trade model of the Vilani Imperium, Rule Of Man etc so we don't know how it worked.

Trade doesn't extend that far and only some very hi-tech worlds completely dependent on deliveries would have had a widespread effect and gone under.

High TL worlds would be the least likely to go under.

Granted, it lasted more than 1700 years, but most worlds would never be dependent on anything farther than 6 parsecs.

Most worlds and systems should be entirely self sufficient...

Pocket empires would have sprung up all over to replace the over-arching government.

They did. Some lasted a long time, others fell as quickly as they rose.

It would be like people all of a sudden forgetting how to fix automobiles, or make breakfast.

Not quite - how many people do you know who can fabricate replacement parts and fix their smart phones? Fixing a truck powered by an oii burner is not the same as being able to manufacture parts for the Space Shuttle

And all it would take to fix it all is a long lived Engineering/Mechanic 'Bot. Or about 1000 of them.

I understand the sentiment, but the Long Night is canon so we may as well use it for all it is worth.

 

[mike wightman]

Currency can be based on the Refined Hydrogen Standard, one Credit backed by two kilogrammes of refined hydrogen.

No it can't.
Refineries are too cheap to build compared with the return you would get if you are making your own hard currency.

 

[GypsyComet]

With the setting's default approach to travel vs communications, big empires take a lot of work. The Long Night (the only one with that name) as well as the Virus Night (1100s) and the post 4th Imperium era (1300-ish to 1900) are periods when no one rises to that challenge.

While it is called The Long Night, it is easy to miss that this is not a meta-game term, but what the natives of the setting call it. The Vilani for whom it was the only period in the last 11,000 years that they did not rule over all they could reach; the Solomani who watched their largest empire crumble. No one else uses the term, because it wasn't a night for them.

 

[mike wightman]

With the setting's default approach to travel vs communications, big empires take a lot of work. The Long Night (the only one with that name) as well as the Virus Night (1100s) and the post 4th Imperium era (1300-ish to 1900) are periods when no one rises to that challenge.

I agree completely.

It may be worth reminding people that during the 1105+ setting worlds in the Spinward Marches not on an x-boat route or trade route may not be visited for quite a while unless they invest in their own subsidised merchantmen.

While it is called The Long Night, it is easy to miss that this is not a meta-game term, but what the natives of the setting call it. The Vilani for whom it was the only period in the last 11,000 years that they did not rule over all they could reach; the Solomani who watched their largest empire crumble. No one else uses the term, because it wasn't a night for them.

You mean like the dark ages - which were not dark or even remotely uncivilised or without learning and progress.

A Long Night setting is a time between large empires, with plenty of civilisation and technology and trade, but also a lot unknowns beyond the little empires.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Not quite - how many people do you know who can fabricate replacement parts and fix their smart phones? Fixing a truck powered by an oii burner is not the same as being able to manufacture parts for the Space Shuttle

Well, think about it like this:

In the Imperium, every starport except E has some sort of ship-building/repairing capability. In the fallen Vilani Empire/Rule of Man, did all of the Techs, Mechanics, and Engineers disappear or forget how to do their jobs? Did none of them semi-retire and become teachers? Did the Universities just go away? Were there no unsold ships at the Ship Sale Lot to cannibalize parts from? Did all of the technical manuals get erased or burned? Did the Imperial Encyclopedia get erased? Were there no expert robots to help? Did all of the Libraries crumble? Were there no backups? Did people forget how to learn?

If the answer is "No", and I can't see it being anything but "No", then something else happened. And the official story isn't the true story.

I just can't believe that in 1700+ years only Cleon I was brave enough with the only equipment to go from world to world and say: "Do you want to join our Interstellar Club"?

 

[mike wightman]

And yet the Long Night is there in Imperial Library Data for all to read...

so we need an explanation.

 

[Spinward Scout]

And yet the Long Night is there in Imperial Library Data for all to read...

so we need an explanation.

The winners write the history books?

During the Rebellion, ArchDuke Norris had false information placed into the Imperial Encyclopedia that was sent out through the Spinward Marches. Cleon I could have done something similar. But that would have to be a massive undertaking to erase/change the records of thousands of worlds. So it would have to be built into the updates and new editions of the Imperial Encyclopedia. Which eventually replaced each worlds' record of history.

Cleon's propaganda machine could have started it to make him look even more like a hero, and Cleon might not even have known.

Five generations later (about 200 years), would anyone even know what happened?

 

[Adam Dray]

Some ideas offered up for grab. Not all of these adequately explain why people forgot how to repair ships but maybe this will spark your own ideas.

Unobtanium
The jump process uses up small amounts of a rare metal, used as a catalyst. Towards the beginning of the Long Night, wars broke out across known space over mining operations, but it was too late. Without the metal, jump stopped. Without jump, space exploration and remote mining stopped. The economy crashed to a halt.

Sure, some TL can transmute elements, at whatever cost. Maybe these radioactive isotopes don't work for the sensitive vagaries of jump space.

Virus
No, not that one. Disease. A new kind of biological virus spread across the galaxy, killing 30% of the population. There is no known cure for it. Systems quarantined to prevent further spread of it. Quarantine was enforced by really powerful satellite defense systems. 1700 years later, people seem to have evolved a natural immunity.

Kill off 30% of a population across the galaxy, society falls apart. When society falls apart, people start forgetting old traditions. If you're not going into jump space for 100 years, people no longer need those skills and they get forgotten.

Tech Overlords
A very high TL race discovers the Traveller Universe and conquers them. Their tech is nigh-indecipherable. They upfit all of your technology with theirs, as well as imposing all kinds of other restrictions on you. It takes 1700 years before we understand their tech well enough to start doing stuff with it.

Optionally, the alien race is still in charge and you have to deal with them constantly. I'd make them a completely virtual (AI) race, myself.

Physics Event
Maybe it's due to overuse of jump space, or testing a new kind of ansible device. Maybe known space just passed through a kind of galactic region that modern physics can't explain. Whatever it is, a lot of sensitive electronic devices just stopped working everywhere. It took 600 years to sweep across known space, but the rules of quantum physics seem to have changed in weird ways, and the galaxy plunged into darkness.

As the effect crossed space at twice the speed of light, systems were powerless to avoid it. Statistical analysis of trade activity definitely suggested that something was coming, and people on the far end of the Effect started migrating away from it (still not knowing what they were running from), buying themselves years, even decades. Eventually, everyone got hit.

It's taken this long to unravel what happened. Sure, there are still physicists and J-drive engineers, but they had to start from scratch, building up basic science theory and analytical equipment again.

 

[aramis]

Plague is canonically present, partially causing the transition from 1I to 2I - plague of duskir.

The wiki article is deucedly vague...

... but almost rules out plague for 2I-long night- 3I transition.

 

[whartung]

Cleon I could have done something similar. But that would have to be a massive undertaking to erase/change the records of thousands of worlds. So it would have to be built into the updates and new editions of the Imperial Encyclopedia. Which eventually replaced each worlds' record of history.

Cleon's propaganda machine could have started it to make him look even more like a hero, and Cleon might not even have known.

This seems even more outrageous than the Long Night not happening at all.

Five generations later (about 200 years), would anyone even know what happened?

There would be folklore and myth surrounding something so wide spread. You may be able to edit the Imperial Encyclopedia, but not the stories of Grandma and Grandpa.

 

[aramis]

at 5 generations, almost no "Grandpa remembers..."

At present, the last few children of the US civil war veterans are elderly... and that's just 150 years; no one alive remembers the civil war firsthand.

Hell, most of the Spanish Civil War and WW II vets are dying off... those end dates are 77 and 72 years ago. The last few are in their 80's, 90's and 100's. Give another 30 years, and no one alive will actually remember the wars.

200 years is plenty to eliminate it as 1st hand. It's enough to get rid of most second hand folk, too. At 300 years, no one alive knew anyone who survived the period.

Double those numbers for the Vilani.

 

[Spinward Scout]

An application of psychohistory to cover up something else gone bad? The only way I can really see worlds "losing" tech knowledge is if there was an anti-technology ideology that went through society. Sounds like Hiver manipulation to me.

 

[aramis]

An application of psychohistory to cover up something else gone bad? The only way I can really see worlds "losing" tech knowledge is if there was an anti-technology ideology that went through society. Sounds like Hiver manipulation to me.

Keep in mind: if we got hit by a nuclear/asteroidal-impact winter, say 5 years without food crops, human populations would drop dangerously. Quite likely to the point that anything not vital simply isn't taught anymore.

And, in just 50 years, NASA's contractor lost the ability to manufacture the F1 rocket engine. Not because it's technically impossible, but no one alive remembers how the practice differed from the stated process, and the stated process fails. (The F1b isn't actually built like the F1 - it's a new design which uses very different techniques for manufacture, and has similar performance, and is modeled closely upon the F1 and F1a designs used in the 60's...)

Likewise, almost no one can read an 8" floppy anymore. Not that we don't know how, but no one makes the drives, and most of the extant drives have failed, often irreparably, and many have been scrapped for parts and or metal content.

We can't read certain of the census punch-tapes from the 1880 and 1890 censuses - those particular tabulator tapes were not coded the same as standard, and we can guess what they were, but it's not certain, as the code key was lost.

If I were to hand you a 5" Kaypro CP/M floppy with some games, do you have a machine that could read it? Most people don't.

Can you plug my atari 2600 into your 2016 100" UHD flat panel? Not without a converter, most likely... as it sends NTSC to an RCA plug... you'll need an NTSC to HD converter.

Once things go primarily additive manufacturing, a lot of machine-tool tech will likely be falling out of use... just like happened at Rocketdyne...

 

[GypsyComet]

If I were to hand you a 5" Kaypro CP/M floppy with some games, do you have a machine that could read it? Most people don't.

Point of order: Most people *never did*.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I've got an old Commodore 64 somewhere. Same timeframe as the Kaypro, but probably a different format.

So you're saying that if a world had to go backwards, that they would have to start over?

 

[GypsyComet]

I've got an old Commodore 64 somewhere. Same timeframe as the Kaypro, but probably a different format.

So you're saying that if a world had to go backwards, that they would have to start over?

I don't know that it is that simple.

To the point of those computers, however, I would think that they are bad examples as losers in the march of even their own technology. Transitional answers instead of final ones in a time when that particular set of technologies was moving *very* fast toward mature TL7. They were also bad examples because, as I so bluntly stated the first time, they were "common" at a time when the entire computer culture was still phreaks and geeks who made up a tiny part of the population. 8" floppy discs were never common, and in the grand scheme even 5-1/4" floppies were a short-lived format, 3-1/2" floppies (the hard-shells) had barely a decade of dominance, and the floppy media family only lasted a few years after that in any common form.

In another ten years floppy discs *of any form, format, or content* are going to be the realm of archivists, and taken as a whole they were common enough to be a good example of the concept. CDs may not be far behind, and we were hearing their longevity as a storage medium being touted only 15 years ago. There are CDs, DVDs, and their more advanced formats *everywhere*, but even now many modern folk would need to make some unusual effort to access them.

Traveller's Imperials actually have it a little easier, because the Vilani don't buy into a lot of the "new model year = new tech" hype we live with now. They are likely to be able to back down through the Stellar TLs with relative ease, but will have trouble once you take away fusion.

 

[nobby-w]

Over the years myself and many others, have made the observation that the Long Night is an ideal setting for Traveller (I have an on again, off again campaign that uses it as the default).
[ . . . ]

So, IMTU, which is largely set just as the ROM is falling apart, the Long Night is something more like the Dark Ages than a total apocalyptic collapse of society.

The Dark Ages weren't some sort of reversion to primitive tribalism - there were plenty of organised kingdoms and other polities during this period (including the Romans - Attila's army didn't completely trash the Roman Empire). The Vikings had a trade network that went well into Asia during the Dark Ages and artifacts from all over the show have been found in Viking archaeological sites. However, they are called Dark Ages because they weren't well documented so not as much is known about them as is known about the classical era.

What the Dark Ages lacked was a single super power producing literature that anyone cared enough about to preserve in quantity. The Romans and Greeks were a big deal in the ancient world, and quite a bit of history from this era comes via documents preserved and translated in medieval Arabia. Nobody cared enough about King Podunk II (596-651AD) of Outer Mucklengren to make a point of keeping or translating literature originating from his kingdom, so we only have fragmentary records of most of Europe during this period.

I see the Long Night as being partly Imperial Propoganda - Cleon wanted to portray the post-2I universe as having collapsed back to barbarism so he could spin the Third Imperium as bringing civilization and restoring the Imperium to its former glory.

The Long Night could have many smaller polities with local influence, maintaining sufficient technology for at least a J1-J2 trade network - and maybe more in some cases. In Cleon-speak, these would subsequently come to be known as 'Reavers', portrayed as barbarous warlords and pirate kingdoms. What's lacking is a superpower with a cohesive narrative - at least until Cleon shows up with his schtick about restoring the glory of the Imperium.

For example, I retconned Drexilthar as being the seat of a major Reaver state. Towards the end of the Reaver wars,¹ Cleon glasses it a warning to the Geonee and Suerrat. Thus, as of 1105, it has a small population who - to this day - really hate the Imperium. The various third party materials that mention Drexilthar describe it as having an insular, xeonphobic population, which fits quite nicely with this back story.

Bear in mind that Long Night couldn't have been a complete power vacuum or the Aslan would have had nearly 1.5 millenia to conquer all of human space with no meaningful resistance.

¹ Actually after the setting I ran it in, but I did some future timeline stuff for the early post-2I polities to link the context with Milieu-0 material.