Thorny problem with trade

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Agree mostly...

Props to Ackehece for that comprehensive set of notes on Trade! I'd like to add a little bit to one of the items he calls out:



Cultural differences cannot be understated. I think this extension on the UWP is one of the most useful for those what-am-I-going-to-do-with-these-players moments.

Homogeneity -- How similar are members of the population? High homogeneity can work in your favor as a trader ("Everyone has one! Don't be left out!") or against, ("Everyone already has those. No sale.") Low homogeneity is a good indicator that your potential market on a given planet may be much smaller than the Economic Extension may indicate. It can indicate a planet of niche markets -- can absorb only so many goods of a particular type.

Acceptance -- This one is pretty straightforward. Do they get along with strangers? No? Then they're probably not buying. Or maybe they'll just try and take it from you.

Symbols -- After much pondering on what a "symbol" is and how symbology might manifest itself in a culture or race, this one practically needs it's own book. However, for shorthand purposes, I've taken this to be an amalgamation of art, body language, signage, and architecture -- essentially the visual presentation of the culture on a scale from austere to ostentatious to over-the-top. The higher the Symbols score, the more visually fantastic a given culture may be. That said, using Symbols for RP/Trade purposes can be as simple as, "Can you recognize and read the signs directing traders to the market?" or as subtle as a negative DM on trade negotiations because the trader/broker fails to pick up on the body language subtleties of the dominant culture. Or if you want to go the Jack Vance route, you could have the locals react badly (or pleasingly!) to the characters manner of address or their clothing. "Only actors and vomit collectors wear yellow caps!"

Strangeness -- The farther the number from Zero, the farther this culture deviates from Imperial norms. The farther this number is from zero, the more difficult time you're going to have trading with that culture. And it may not be from lack of desire on the part of both parties, but simply an inability to negotiate. This could be a language barrier, or they could just be too weird to trade with. Maybe it takes a month-long ritual followed by a human sacrifice before they can accept goods from offworld traders. Maybe they want to have a feast and invite the characters to chop off a toe in solidarity with the revelers and throw it into the stew pot so that they all may share in the delights of each other's company before exchanging goods. I love strangeness.

Good luck, fellow Traveller!

Excellent write ups, but I'm pretty sure it states that the base line Imperial Standard is actually 7. Of course, it has been months since I read that section so I may have to refresh the memory and see...


Either way, there is some really good posts in this thread.

 

[Ackehece]

pg 411 T509
normal is relative when it comes to social extensions.

Especially homogeneity - the closer to norm that extension is the more everyone seems the same... if homogeneity = pop then everyone is the same. clones!
Pop + flux

acceptance is interesting as it is based on Importance of the world. The less important the world the more insular the people.... Small towns hate outsiders!
Pop + Ix

strangeness is the closer to 5 you are the more normal: so normal is the median roll.... aka a normal.
flux +5

symbols is somewhat interesting for another reason. It is based on Tl levels. So how people interact with Technology is the major factor for symbology. Thus the further the roll is from the TL the more esoteric the symbols.
flux + TL

 

[tjoneslo]

symbols is somewhat interesting for another reason. It is based on Tl levels. So how people interact with Technology is the major factor for symbology. Thus the further the roll is from the TL the more esoteric the symbols.
flux + TL

I've interpreted the symbols to be an educational level of the world culture. That is, in order to maintain a specific TL and culture you need to educate the children and new people into the technology and culture. The symbology required to teach a high technology level is, by necessity, more complex than one for a lower TL.

In this interpretation, if the forward looking education and cultural processes required to support a TL of X, the Symbols rating shows how far ahead or behind the culture is from the TL.

A Symbols rating above the TL indicates the world is advancing their TL, and probably has one or more sub-tech group above the baseline TL, and will probably gain one or more TLs in the future.

A Symbols rating below the TL indicates the worlds is retreating in TL, and probably has one or more sub-tech groups below the baseline TL, and may lose one or more TL in the future.

The one thing not explained in the T5 rules is how these values change. It is, obviously, possible but there is no procedure for doing so.

 

[Original_Carl]

The one thing not explained in the T5 rules is how these values change. It is, obviously, possible but there is no procedure for doing so.

I struggled for a while with the concept of the evolving planet and by extension, the planetary system. I had a group who had a couple of nobles (same world) and managed to acquire quite a bit of money and expertise through NPC hiring. They went Space Viking and claimed their planet, which was TL5 or so and then began the process of governing and advancing to Imperial standards.

There's little guidance for doing this. Planets, systems and subsectors are pretty much static once generated. One of my pie-in-the-sky projects is to come up with a computer model to "age" a given Traveller Universe. It would be nice to have a little more meat around this kind of thing.

 

[pendragonman]

I suppose the reason there are no guidelines for system/planetary evolution has to do with the perceived "lifetime"...i.e. playtime...of a given group of characters.

The vast majority of teams of characters will not live (or be in play) long enough to effect the habits of millions to billions of people to generate that evolution.

Example(ish): In 1990 the cell phone was a phone, not an all encompassing entertainment and communications center that it became when the first Iphone hit the market (about a decade ago). Who knew beforehand that it was going to radically alter society? When the public was foretold of these consequences we mostly went "yeah right. Show me."

But the evolution that came with the cell phone and smart phone took decades. Most groups of players are dead/dispearsed/retired to their own asteroid well before then.

 

[tjoneslo]

There's little guidance for doing this. Planets, systems and subsectors are pretty much static once generated. One of my pie-in-the-sky projects is to come up with a computer model to "age" a given Traveller Universe. It would be nice to have a little more meat around this kind of thing.

There are two Traveller sources for making changes to worlds.

TNE's World Tamer's Handbook has rules for managing a colony world. This is focused on a single world, and managing events for a small population world (less than 10,000 people). I'm sure it can be extended, but it's focused on having the players make decisions about resource allocation and event management.

T4's Pocket Empires is a set of rules for building and managing a pocket empire. There are specific scenarios for increasing any and all of the social parameters (Population, Government, Law Level, Star Port, Tech Level) and adds several economic ones too. Like WTB, the rules are designed around game playing, with a referee designating events and having players make multiple decisions about resource allocation.

The challenge with both of these systems is automating (or simplifying) them relies on making assumptions about the resource allocation process. An expansionist empire vs an isolationist one will have different priorities. But simplifying the range of choices present in the system to a few dice rolls looses the flavor of the processes.

 

[Original_Carl]

Pocket Empires! Of course. Shout out to RObject for that. I was aware of it and I forgot. I'll have to dig back into that.