Using Cultural World Extensions in Personals

[Lapthorn]

I'm not a frequenter of the T5 forums so sorry if this question is old - grateful to be redirected to another discussion if so.

We have the Cultural Extension for the UWP. We also have Personals, which I thought was odd to begin with but now prefer to a more usual "I use my Persuade skill" sort of approach to handling social interaction.

But I haven't found any discussion of applying the Cultural Extension in the Personals. I think it would be fun (and logical) to bring them in.

But the problem is the Extension values are so big that they would bust the Personals system if applied as mods. Take Bigirashgi (Antares/1106). It has Homog 1, Acceptance 4, Strangeness 1, Symbols 6 (according to travellermap).

Let's also take Personal example number 5 - Persuade to roll 13 or less on 3D.

Bigirashgi has Acceptance = 4. A +4 mod to the taget number will make the task absurdly easy.

Acceptance is Population + Importance. The average world is Pop=5. I estimate the average Importance is -1 (Egareva C555555-7 Ag, no bases). So average Acceptance is 4.

On this count, Bigirashgi would give a character zero mod on a Personal for Acceptance. It's as accepting of travellers as the next world, but no more.

Strangeness might come into play but only as a negative mod. Average Strangeness is 5 (5+Flux). So the mod would be [5-Strangeness].

Symbols might come into play but in more specific situations - I don't know, if trying to impress at a gallery opening or something!

What do people think? Did I miss how Cultural Extension is supposed to get used? - it's a big book...

 

[whulorigan]

Symbols might come into play but in more specific situations - I don't know, if trying to impress at a gallery opening or something!

What do people think? Did I miss how Cultural Extension is supposed to get used? - it's a big book...

This probably is not exhaustive as an answer to your question (and doesn't deal with the Personals idea that you brought up), but these threads touched on the extensions, and in particular had some good discussion on the "Symbols" statistic.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=29896&highlight=Symbols
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=31220&highlight=Symbols

 

[robject]

That's a creative use of the Cultural Extension; I like it. But it does seem a bit too chaotic-valued for Personals -- or at least the low difficulty ones.

 

[Lapthorn]

So just to check, is there any practical, game-able application of the Extensions in the RAW as written that I've missed? Or are they basically just flavour?

The Economic Extension (or similar) was used in Pocket Empires for T4, but we still don't have that kind of ruleset for T5. Maybe it's intended for the time when we do (just use PE in the meantime I suppose)

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

I am working on it!

So just to check, is there any practical, game-able application of the Extensions in the RAW as written that I've missed? Or are they basically just flavour?

The Economic Extension (or similar) was used in Pocket Empires for T4, but we still don't have that kind of ruleset for T5. Maybe it's intended for the time when we do (just use PE in the meantime I suppose)

I too miss having PE rules for T5 as I have quite a few folks in games with Land Grants either as Knights, higher level Nobles and even some Discovery Grants. So, I have been working on a draft, but much like my Bw Oc He Random Trade Goods charts it isn't official. Nor at this time is it finished, not by a long shot. Still, I am working, PM if you want a look or even have some desire to contribute.

 

[Lapthorn]

Thanks all for the feedback. So as things stand, essentially the extensions are fluff. That's fine - I like a less structured approach, a lot of the time.

But not using the Economic Extension in the trade system seems a shame. In particular, more productive worlds should surely offer cheaper goods - that's essentially the definition of more productive.

Could also feed into QREBS - more productive than average worlds should get a bonus on one or another category.

Maybe high Symbol worlds could get a penalty on Ease-of-use.

 

[Original_Carl]

Maybe high Symbol worlds could get a penalty on Ease-of-use.

High Strangeness could contribute to that. High Symbols might do the opposite, or perhaps work in conjunction with high Strangeness to make something even more difficult to use.

I interpret Symbols as an indicator of how much reading and asking questions a visitor is going to have to do to find anything. High Symbols, not much guidance needed to get around figure out what's what. Low Symbols means you better hire a guide or be fluent in the local language. High Symbols and high Strangeness might even merit an Amber zone.

I like where you're going with all this. Thanks for posting.