World Builder's Handbook: complaint

[tjoneslo]

The best definition of Major Race is "Race has built and maintains a multi-sector empire where they are the dominate species and the major decision makers". The "invented jump drive" is an excuse generated by the Vilani to justify their status and adopted by others.

A Major Race is generally defined as one that independently developed jump drive technology. While it is generally agreed that there are six Major Races, how they are specifically defined varies quite a bit. Even within Charted Space, this is understood to be a somewhat arbitrary distinction and something generally used for promoting the status of one's own race or diminishing that of another sophont species.

[Timerover51]

I checked Zozer Games Universal World Profile book to see if Paul put in anything about aliens or non-human intelligent life, but he did not.

[Nathan Brazil]

Originally Posted by BackworldTraveller

The Major Race/Minor Race argument probably deserves its own thread. In any case it can fairly easily be refuted on a small scale.

But this is a game that tries on occasion to simulate real life. I found an in game objective reasons why the data is presented with a lack of detail to the level you desire.
There is the coarse level of granularity being used. There may in fact many enclaves of other species besides the "standard humans" but they either:
Smaller than 1% of population, in this case less than 7 million
Not canon because there are none.
Not specific because there has been no systematic way to determine such breakdowns.

If you are referring to the Rebellion Era Data on travellermap, the Vilani (VilaN) populations were created by me as the V&V book does provide a way for me to extrapolate the percentage of pureblood Vilani populations for the restored Vilani Empire.

[Straybow]

The decision to represent everything with a single hex digit is an inherent limitation. It has to be ditched/amended for anything to be "fixed" (planet size, hydro, atmo pressure, atmo composition, population, tech). So, basically, only starport, gov, and law are effectively represented with a single digit.

[whartung]

Originally Posted by Straybow

The decision to represent everything with a single hex digit is an inherent limitation. It has to be ditched/amended for anything to be "fixed" (planet size, hydro, atmo pressure, atmo composition, population, tech). So, basically, only starport, gov, and law are effectively represented with a single digit.

Why? For most situations, why does it matter whether a world is 60, 65, or 70% covered with water?

The UPP is just a summary of a summary who's only real impact is the classification of trade code.

[BRover]

Then there's the "population" fix, where two digits gives a much smaller-grained population size, even if the two digits are in two separate places.

[coliver988]

Originally Posted by Straybow

The decision to represent everything with a single hex digit is an inherent limitation. It has to be ditched/amended for anything to be "fixed" (planet size, hydro, atmo pressure, atmo composition, population, tech). So, basically, only starport, gov, and law are effectively represented with a single digit.

Even those may be broken down (Grand Census does that for government and law). The UWP is the "big picture". There was a really interesting thread on breaking down the starport into yet another hex string. Of course we end up with things that need interpretation. While I personally like it, it is certainly not everyone's cup of tea (learned software when hex code was used, so Traveller was a natural fit for me!)

This thread I think has that discussion.

I know I played with it a while but gave up as no one I played with would really care, so it was just as easy to do GM fiat to decide the details of the port as required by the story.

[jcrocker]

Originally Posted by whartung

Why? For most situations, why does it matter whether a world is 60, 65, or 70% covered with water?

The UPP is just a summary of a summary who's only real impact is the classification of trade code.

Well, the atmo code also answers the question, "do we need to put on breathers or filter masks when we exit the ship?"

[aramis]

Originally Posted by jcrocker

Well, the atmo code also answers the question, "do we need to put on breathers or filter masks when we exit the ship?"

If the hydro is under 3, you're going to have dehydration issues even if the air is breathable. at 9+, you're going to have to be extra careful about keeping dry enough to not become a fungal colony...

That world with no hydrographics but breathable air? odds are good the life is imported... or is a remnant of an earlier time.

The two interact...

[BackworldTraveller]

Originally Posted by aramis

If the hydro is under 3, you're going to have dehydration issues even if the air is breathable. at 9+, you're going to have to be extra careful about keeping dry enough to not become a fungal colony...

That world with no hydrographics but breathable air? odds are good the life is imported... or is a remnant of an earlier time.

The two interact...

I'm not sure that this assertion is true. 100% of surface covered in water doesn't have to mean 100% humidity. 30% of surface covered in water doesn't have to mean 30% humidity or less. Local effects will predominate. 30% water may well mean 0-2% humidity well away from from the coasts - but the coast could be quite habitable.

No hydro and breathable air - very hard to justify given the propensity of purely geological processes to absorb oxygen. Just look how rust-red deserts turn!