Is "No FTL communications" really encoded in the rules, or is it just one of the fundamental elements of the Third Imperium's universe?
Can you give me an example of where it's assumed in the rules?
Given that the LBB's and TTB don't make any firm distinction between the OTU and the rules, and that same non-distinction approach exists in the MGT core.
Really, until about 1985, few games drew any distinction between Rules and Setting Materials. Then GURPS came out... and a lot of people started drawing an imaginary sharp-line boundary between them. That boundary is as illusory as a rainbow... you get to the right POV and it disappears or reappears.
The CT rules are built around two fundamental premises, and the entirety of ship economics is utterly dependent upon them:
- jump transit takes a week and in system activity takes a week
- no FTJ (faster than jumpig) comm
If you can get information faster than by jumping, thenyou start to migrate from a speculation & representation based economy to an order based economy. A speculation based economy is built upon risk taking; you can't know what they need NOW, so you have to guess. A representative based economy is built on "I need X, so I send joe to go negotiate for X in system y in order to assure I get it as soon as possible." When you get FTJ commo, that starts to change. If, for example, I can send a FTJC in one day, In the same time it would take to send Joe with the cash, counting ticketing taking 24-48 hours so Joe can pack, I can comm them, find out their price, send a funds transfer, and have it in 10 days. I don't send the cash until it ships, but they can check with the escrow to see if the cash exists, and is set aside, and so it takes 10 days, not 15-20, to get the item to me, and I know ahead of time how much, and I know when to expect it, as well. The message trail:
- a->b: Do you have Widgets in stock and how much
- b->a: yes, KCr1 each. Shipping will be 1Td per 14, at KCr1.1/Td
- a->b: I want 20. KCr 22.2 on escrow with Corky Escrow (c)
c->b: escrow held for you of KCr22.2 to be released upon arrival of 20 Widgets.
- b->a: Will ship when escrow confirmed.
b->a: shipping today, bound for escrow
b->c: shipping today. Expect arrival in 7 days.
- time passes
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- c->b:arrived today. Sending funds transfer, and delivering locally to a.
Now, without FTJC, that's 3 weeks before goods ship, and you don't know that the deal's been made until the goods arrive in week 4.If the FTJ comm is 6 days, it's still 3 weeks, but you know the day before you'll need the warehouse space. At 3 days, you're down to 12 days.
The alternate method, sending Joe.
- Joe, pack up, I'm sending you with KCr30 to buy widgets.
- joe goes
- Jump
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- Joe buys widgets
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- Joe jumps back
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- Delivery and change.
from the standpoint of a shipowner: if you can call and say, "What do you want" and get that information faster than a ship can be sent, you can make arrangements to buy and then deliver with reduced risk.
Further, any form of FTJ commo makes the questionable actions encouraged in CT adventures likely to have serious repercussions. Further still, skipping becomes almost impossible.
Further, since FTLC in traveller is by ship, there is the risk of the ship; other FTLC modes are less likely to use that.
Lots of little bits.
In the Traveller rules, ships make two commercial jumps a month; for small freighters on good routes, they jump about 90% full, and break even. Getting ahead becomes the source of adventure. If, however, you can make 3 jumps a month with the same sizes, costs, and prices, then suddenly the ships are major sources of profits; on the other hand, if you push it to 18 days per cycle, as TNE did, even ignoring the changes in costs, you reduce the income cycle drastically.
