Traveller - growing on me

[Lapthorn]

Accompany me, if you will, on the intellectual odyssey (!) which has left me possibly quite happy with some aspects of the OTU. And forgive a poor newcomer any glaring errors, although these boards seem generally quite friendly.

Brought to these boards by a liking for 2300, I recently started reading about Traveller proper, and have even picked up some PDFs (T4 and the Megatraveller players' book). At first the OTU struck me as pretty daft, with technology in some respects behind what is available today, not to mention the 1950s-scifi-style mock-feudal political setup.

I have reconciled myself to some of this silliness, and I even think some of it makes sense. For example:

The Fermi Paradox: where are the aliens?
OTU response: comparatively nearby space is dominated by a decadent, stagnant empire which has no interest in further exploration in our direction and insulates Sol's region from anyone else.

Why no AI/nanotech/genetech? Well, on AI, I quite like 2300's answer that AIs can be made, but tend to go insane quickly.
For the rest - the Vilani First Imperium repressed this knowledge, at first because it led to some disastrous mistakes, and later for fear of upsetting the empire's social and political hierarchy.
Then along comes Earth, which does have this tech (we are talking 2100s-2200s by then, I think). This helps explain Earth's rapid victory over the Vilani. The Earth-humans' embrace of this tech is regarded with horrified fascination by the Vilani, for whom it is taboo.
However, the breakdown of Earth's control over its far-flung territories leads to Mistakes (a few rebel cities turned into grey goo by nanoweapons, requiring planetary thermonuclear sterilisation; horrible mistakes with genetic science or mad AIs). This reinforces the Vilani fear of nanotech etc. and introduces it among Solomani, who are becoming more assimilated into the Vilani society they have conquered. By the Third Imperium timeframe, this stuff is once again taboo (a taboo possibly enforced by some sort of Imperial secret police).

Who are the Zhodani? OK, I don't like psionics. I don't like magic, goblins or trolls, either (or centaurs for that matter). But I like the idea of a subtle, mysterious enemy on the Imperium's borders. So I rationalise the Zhodani like this. In their ancient past, the Zhodani did develop nanotech, geneering and the rest of it, and they couldn't handle it safely either. After the ensuing racial dark age, only some tightly-controlled nanotech remained - in the bloodstreams of the elite, to whom it gives apparently magical powers (thankyou Arthur Clarke). For example, a Zhodani "psionicist" can access information from a nanocloud in the next room, or next continent, giving the impression of clairvoyance.
So why haven't the Zhodani used their supertech to stomp all over the 3rd Imperium, as Earth did to the First? Their remaining nanotech is rare and tightly controlled. Geneering mistakes in the past have left their elite prone to a mysterious disease (of some sort) which kills them in some horrible way. Possibly, inbreeding required to maintain the purity of the nanotech is weakening them. In my view of the Zhodani, their population is tiny, with an elite and a slightly larger slave caste.

So, that's How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Like Traveller!

 

[Klaus]

It's easy enough to rationalise the tech of the 70's/80's OTU with modern ideas of high technology. No silliness required.

AI: doesn't work, at least not like HAL2000 or Skynet. Expert systems can be produced, even systems that satisfy a Turing test, but true AI has never really been achieved. Insanity is one problem, or auto-suicide.

Nanotech: a charlatan's technology if there ever was one. Yes, nanometer scale engineering will occur, and is used in the OTU; in fact, it's necessary, for making all sorts of things from computers to jump drives to heat sinks, but it's just part of the industrial process, like smelting or mass production. Things like blue-goo or SG1-style replicators are just Ray Kurzweil's fantasies. Self-replicating mini-machines do exist: it's called biology. Biotechnology does all the job nanotech does. Who needs blue goo when you got weaponised Ebola?

Genetech: genetic engineering has existed and does exist, but it's so normal, mundane and routine no one really needs to talk about it; it's a technology like the book, revolutionary, ubiquitous, but ultimately almost invisible as a distinct and obvious technology. Vilani didn't really have it, as their bio-sciences were nascent due to the lack of a consistent bio-record on Vland. However, the Ancients had gentetically manipulated them to aid their survival.
When the Terrans branched out, genetic engineering was used heavily to harden the Terran genome to low G and alien biospheres. They relearned what the Ancients had already done to the Vilani. By 1100 in the 3I the genetic manipulations are taken for granted and ignored. They just mean people can travel without dying of diseases at every stop. Genetic research does exist but on a local scale. The Vilani are culturally uninterested in this science, and since the Solomani movement emerged the Sollies are keener on the notion of genetic purity than of manipulation.

Any or all of these technologies will have been tried at some point somewhere in known space, but only the useful and the reliable will become in common use.

Remember too, high tech (12+) worlds are not ubiquitous in the OTU. The economy will depend more on worlds of TL9-11, so these technologies will be the most common.

Traveller canon nowhere states that these technologies do not or cannot exist. It only describes the stuff a Traveller will commonly encounter.

So realy, anything goes in the OTU.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Pretty much what Klaus said

Nano-tech wasn't a widely popular idea at the time the original rules were written, but now that the notion has passed its popularity in popular science/technology rings, there's no need to "ooh and ah" over it as I'm sure quadrillions of micro-bots are probably doing numerous things to help keep various economies running.

Robots and AI; AI is mentioned in the original rules (albeit briefly), but never expanded upon until, I believe, the Kinunur adventure book, where a colonial cruiser is mentioned to have a paranoid "Hal"-like AI computer running the ship. If you go to a bank in the Imperium and decide to use the ATM you might (or might not) speak with an automated AI teller who can tell ou what your Money Market Fund is doing, and how your stock options in Ling might fluctuate. He or she would probably be programmed to sell you stuff as well, though keep within the bounds of the law.

Just my two cr.s worth.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Klaus:
AI: doesn't work, at least not like HAL2000 or Skynet. Expert systems can be produced, even systems that satisfy a Turing test, but true AI has never really been achieved.

Althought typically not the focus of a Traveller supplement, AI does pop up in Traveller background material.

Here's a section of a post I wrote recently with regard to the Anti-Hijack Program:

==================================

Beginning at TL 13, starships begin to incorporate synaptics into their CPUs. As a result, the starship computer begins to seem more like one of the crew (HAL) than just a machine. This means, on TL 13+ vessels, crew members are voice coded and recognized by the main computer. A captain merely needs to speak, and the ship's computer will do his bidding, Star Trek style.

"Close airlock 3 and internal hatches 7 and 14, then decompress the corridor between them."

Simple as that.

Passive metabolic scanners employed on most starships do more than just spot imposters. They provide detailed information on a subject's possessions and emotional state.

"Crewman Annabell Jones just left her cabin and is headed aft toward the main entrance to the jump drive. She has her mechanical tool kit secured to her belt, a snub pistol loaded with high explosive ammunition in her right hand, and is wearing a ship's jumper. She appears to be very nervous and quite angry. Do you wish mor specific details."

I have found this to be a great way for the GM to interact with the PCs, btw.

At TL 15, high tech recognition sensors appear. The optical sensors are virtually non-detecible without a scanner to search for them and are capable of recognizing individuals simply on sight.

At lower tech levels (TL 9-11), starship crewers use personal ID chips.


==================================

Those are my words, but the details are taken from DGP's Starship Operator's Manual.

Obviously, there's some AI at work, there (at least on TL 13+ starships).

And, it's already been mentioned the "scary" AI in ANNIC NOVA.

AI does make its way into Traveller, from time to time.

-S4

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Marchand:
Why no AI/nanotech/genetech?

Another thing that is interesting to me with not just Traveller, but any rpg, is that GMs forget to get "creative" with their games.

There's a lot of "space" out there. The Imperium, as small as it is compared to the galaxy, is a very, very large place.

Why not have a world in your Traveller universe where AI is king? Nanotech is rampant? Genetech is commonplace?

There's nothing stopping you. It's not something that will break suspension of disbelieve in the Traveller universe (unlike introducing an AK-47 to a D&D game). In fact, there's official published precedent for this type of thing--just read up on the Darrians (and how it is believed that they once held the technology to induce a star to nova).

So, get creative with your gaming world. Introduce genetech, if you want to.

In my game (see the pdf in my sig), I payed homage to the Solomani and their geneering techniques by allowing a very small chance that player characters could have geneered traits (in game terms, they had a chance to roll their character's stat using 3D6, keeping the best 2D).

Nobody in my game made the cut (because I made it very, very rare), but the possibility was there.

GET CREATIVE!

Make your Traveller universe sing.

Make it a place your players can't wait to get back to.

Have them thinking about it while they're at work, in between games.

You don't have to be caged in by the dogme of the game.

Make your gaming universe a place that's interesting and fun to explore.

-S4

 

[Lapthorn]

Why not have a world in your Traveller universe where AI is king? Nanotech is rampant? Genetech is commonplace?

-S4 [/qb]

Because of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Once you chuck in that kind of world, then you have to answer the question: why don't they use their supertech to take over? The answer may well be, because they don't want to, for various cultural reasons. But (to me at least) that explanation soon wears thin.

But thanks for replies, everyone!

 

[Malenfant]

Look at Transhuman Space if you want to see what happens when nanotech and genetech is unleashed (and believe me, the writers did put a great deal of thought into the consequences of that). I think an ATU where that sort of thing was common would be a rather interesting one.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Marchand:
Because of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Once you chuck in that kind of world, then you have to answer the question: why don't they use their supertech to take over? The answer may well be, because they don't want to, for various cultural reasons. But (to me at least) that explanation soon wears thin.

You'd have to be creative with it within the framework of the Traveller universe (well, you don't have to, but I would).

The Solomani have extensive genetech, but it hasn't influenced the entire Imperium.

Remember, the Traveller Universe isn't like Star Wars or Star Trek, where every planet has access to basically the same tech.

Many (most?) worlds in the Traveller Universe are more akin to the US (high tech) compared to some-rarely-heard-about-country in Africa.

There's really hardly any comparison.

Sure, cells phones and computers and other high tech things make it into their society--but a lot doesn't.

The standard of living (technologically speaking) is wide and diverse even on our own planet, at this day and age.

Why isn't it easy to believe that things just might be like that in a star-spanning empire?

Just because I know them well, I'll take the five planets I chose for homeworlds for my present Traveller campaign (you'll see write-ups on them in that doc in my sig).

TL 4 Pysadi
TL 5 Vanejen
TL 8 Natoko
TL 9 Patinir
TL 11 Aramis

Pysadi is dominated by a strict religious world government.

Vanejen is akin to what life would be like here on earth if the governments of the middle ages survived into the 1930's.

Natoko is a Tatooine-like desert world, undeveloped, with only a large starport complex on it as any sign of settlement or civilization.

Patinir is a collection of Babylon-5-like space stations and communities carved into the rocks of an asteroid belt.

And, Aramis is a high-tech society living underground of an abandoned mining cave, below the surface of a world where the wind can blow the skin off your bones and temperatures reach -300 degrees.

So...

Let's say I want to introduce genetech into my Traveller universe. I can look at these 5 homeworlds I've picked and say...

Hmm... Aramis is the only place where this is likely to take place. But, it's a feudal government with Aramis being ruled by the Marquis Bolden-Tukera.

OK, to limit it, I'll say that it's available on Aramis, but only to the nobility (which makes it off-limits, even to the rich, by the Marquis' decree).

Since Natoko is only a space port, it's doubtful this tech will find its way there. The population is not high, and there's no industry.

OK, Patinir. Only people with ties to the Aramis nobility would have acces to the tech--and even then, there's not a huge city, besides the space stations, for a manufacturing center to grow up.

Vanejen. They might have heard about it, but at TL 5, they can't do anything with the tech even if they spent the gross world product to ransom it from some black market boss.

And Pysadi. Even if they could use it, they wouldn't because of their religious beliefs.

You see...

I could go on with other worlds, but you get the idea.

And, the farther away from Aramis one gets, the less likely its tech will effect other worlds around it.

Remember that space travel in the Traveller universe is expensive and time consuming.

This isn't Star Wars where just anybody can jump into their speeder, park it aboard a ship, and make a quick hop to the other edge of the galaxy.

In Traveller, worlds are isolated. Think about it. If a person wants to go to another world, it will cost him the today equivalent of $8,000 bucks and a week spent on a shrimp boat to get there. And, even if he does cough up the 8 grand, his range is limited (to about 1-3 parsecs from his original world).

And, if he wants to move on farther, it will cost him another 8 G's (and another week of his life).

All of this coming back to my point...it's easy to isoloate worlds and get creative with them if you want to in the Traveller universe. The game lends itself to this.

You can have genetech on one world, nanotech on another, and "fill in the blank" tech somewhere else.

Just get creative and plan out your subsector (or whatever area of the TU you're playing in) accordingly.

It can be done.

Without far-reaching consequences.

-S4

 

[The Shaman]

S4 is wise in the ways of Traveller!