Very Low Tech
- Thread starter Jame
- Start date
Apparently, the Bronze and Iron ages weren't always combined into one TL, per Ken Pick's article:
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/culture/reference/tech.html
I think playing a low-TL Traveller campaign can be extremely fun, as long as the resources available to the players is rich enough to interest them. Plenty of archaic weapons and low-tech devices is a requirement. The setting would be novel to sci-fi RPG players, while D&D types will have to adapt to Psionics instead of Magic. Plus there's the novelty of using Traveller in the ancient world.
But the common medieval or archaic themes are so well known to us it's bound to be fun if you throw in the usual plot devices (Spartacus, Troy, Phoenicians, King Arthur, dragons, the Golden Fleece...). Greed, lust, jealousy, and power, as usual, can make compelling stories.
Nota bene: those plot devices mentioned above are the ancient world's equivalent of "science fiction".
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/culture/reference/tech.html
I think playing a low-TL Traveller campaign can be extremely fun, as long as the resources available to the players is rich enough to interest them. Plenty of archaic weapons and low-tech devices is a requirement. The setting would be novel to sci-fi RPG players, while D&D types will have to adapt to Psionics instead of Magic. Plus there's the novelty of using Traveller in the ancient world.
But the common medieval or archaic themes are so well known to us it's bound to be fun if you throw in the usual plot devices (Spartacus, Troy, Phoenicians, King Arthur, dragons, the Golden Fleece...). Greed, lust, jealousy, and power, as usual, can make compelling stories.
Nota bene: those plot devices mentioned above are the ancient world's equivalent of "science fiction".
It seems to me that this is not that difficult of a subject to consider. There are plenty of stories abounding about that time period, and should give you plenty of insights on what to do.
Are you planning on having a Sword and Sorcery (minus the sorcery) type campaign, using Traveller rules? Are you instead starting the characters off in such a locale and then have them be uplifted (something like the Idol Dreams scenario in the TNE mainbook)? Or are you just talking about your players visiting/crashing on such a world?
In any case, it should be obvious that things like swords and daggers and shields are going to be the stuff of the day. You'll have to walk everywhere, unless you have a riding animal. Settlements can't be all that big, and can't have hardly any structures higher than 2-4 stories (not counting palaces and deity monuments).
I hate to say this, but D&D and Warhammer (not 40k) will probably give you some good ideas, if you can wade through all the crap about magic and elves and such.
And don't rush to add psionics to your campaign. Psionics is something that should be rare and interesting, not as common as TV. It loses its specialness and ability to fascinate if it's too prevalent. I wouldn't let a player have it the first game, and MAYBE have an NPC with it.
Are you planning on having a Sword and Sorcery (minus the sorcery) type campaign, using Traveller rules? Are you instead starting the characters off in such a locale and then have them be uplifted (something like the Idol Dreams scenario in the TNE mainbook)? Or are you just talking about your players visiting/crashing on such a world?
In any case, it should be obvious that things like swords and daggers and shields are going to be the stuff of the day. You'll have to walk everywhere, unless you have a riding animal. Settlements can't be all that big, and can't have hardly any structures higher than 2-4 stories (not counting palaces and deity monuments).
I hate to say this, but D&D and Warhammer (not 40k) will probably give you some good ideas, if you can wade through all the crap about magic and elves and such.
And don't rush to add psionics to your campaign. Psionics is something that should be rare and interesting, not as common as TV. It loses its specialness and ability to fascinate if it's too prevalent. I wouldn't let a player have it the first game, and MAYBE have an NPC with it.
A good source with stuff broken down by a similar tech level structure and approached from a Gamers perspective is GURPS Low Tech which contains a lot of background and discussion and relatively small amount of rules perpective.
Another good gaming source for a medievel world is Ordo Nobilis for Ars magica which concentrates on the life of the nobility.
In the UK the TV series "what the Romans did for us" gives a view of the Roman ability and technological capability .
You should also consider that in the Traveller universe a low tech world may well have access to basic knowledge from Higher technology worlds which will allow more effective use of the technical capabilities of that TL in particular a very few simple steps will radicaly improve public hygene allowing larger populations . If they can import technology or are devolved colonists GM Crops will make a huger difference to populations and a small number of radio's or similar will greatly help keeping the socirty together , and a few modern weapons will change warfare.
Many alternate history/time travel/parrelel world books have good ideas about this sort of thing the Jannisseries books by Pournelle are at the right TL
Another good gaming source for a medievel world is Ordo Nobilis for Ars magica which concentrates on the life of the nobility.
In the UK the TV series "what the Romans did for us" gives a view of the Roman ability and technological capability .
You should also consider that in the Traveller universe a low tech world may well have access to basic knowledge from Higher technology worlds which will allow more effective use of the technical capabilities of that TL in particular a very few simple steps will radicaly improve public hygene allowing larger populations . If they can import technology or are devolved colonists GM Crops will make a huger difference to populations and a small number of radio's or similar will greatly help keeping the socirty together , and a few modern weapons will change warfare.
Many alternate history/time travel/parrelel world books have good ideas about this sort of thing the Jannisseries books by Pournelle are at the right TL
Okay, two things.
First: what I was thinking was something like Jannisaries, where there is a tl differential. In my case, however, the nobles have (and sustain) tl 11 with the help of a few non-noble "technical" class/caste, while the peasants have tl3, which for me is just the medieval era. A sort of extreme technocracy.
Second: After reading the Freelance Traveller article I got to thinking: move the tls up one, i.e. make us only tl8. Also move the technological plateau up to tl8. I say this because of observation I'll have to move to Random Static.
First: what I was thinking was something like Jannisaries, where there is a tl differential. In my case, however, the nobles have (and sustain) tl 11 with the help of a few non-noble "technical" class/caste, while the peasants have tl3, which for me is just the medieval era. A sort of extreme technocracy.
Second: After reading the Freelance Traveller article I got to thinking: move the tls up one, i.e. make us only tl8. Also move the technological plateau up to tl8. I say this because of observation I'll have to move to Random Static.
Military uses
A few TL 0-2 guys would make extremely good scouts for a high tech merc group with a bare minimum of training, expecially on planets similar to their home world.
Trade uses
Think of the deals made with the American Indians with a few beads. New York City for $24. Piles of hides, food, information for a knife blade of iron. The spanish enslaved a civilization to mine gold and silver in Central and South America.
For adventure ideas, think about a company trying to exploit a native population with some individuals of the caliber of the Spartan warriors.
A few TL 0-2 guys would make extremely good scouts for a high tech merc group with a bare minimum of training, expecially on planets similar to their home world.
Trade uses
Think of the deals made with the American Indians with a few beads. New York City for $24. Piles of hides, food, information for a knife blade of iron. The spanish enslaved a civilization to mine gold and silver in Central and South America.
For adventure ideas, think about a company trying to exploit a native population with some individuals of the caliber of the Spartan warriors.
Tech levels tend to be very vague things. For example, the neolithic Old Kingdom of Egypt c. 4500-5000 yr BP) had communications technology (literacy) and mathematics far beyond what iron age Europe had (1000 yr BP).
I might suggest L. Sprague de Camp's The Ancient Engineers
I might suggest L. Sprague de Camp's The Ancient Engineers
recommended fiction Dying Earth books by Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun books, and some of Clark Ashton Smith's planetary romances. (yes that is a sub-genre of SF)
Pretty sure at least one or two of the latest Culture book by Iain M. Banks are more like medieval fantasy but set in the Culture. (i.e. low tech worlds with ties to really high tech worlds)
The Gurps book for the Book of the New Sun has some good bits on mixing tech levels as well as examples of a planet where that's the case. Not to mention a drug that allows someone's memories to live on for a while in another person. (the basis for a Vilani Ancestor Cult I wrote up one time
)
Casey
Pretty sure at least one or two of the latest Culture book by Iain M. Banks are more like medieval fantasy but set in the Culture. (i.e. low tech worlds with ties to really high tech worlds)
The Gurps book for the Book of the New Sun has some good bits on mixing tech levels as well as examples of a planet where that's the case. Not to mention a drug that allows someone's memories to live on for a while in another person. (the basis for a Vilani Ancestor Cult I wrote up one time
Casey
What would a D&D world be like if it were placed in the Traveller Universe and had to obey Traveller rules. There is no magic, but many D&D creatures could still exist. I think it would be a good idea to set up a dungeon with alot of high tech Traveller items laying around and in the hands or orcs and the like.
TL 0 can be fun if you place the PCs in a high tech environment where they have to accomplish things in a TL0 manner.
I ran a CT campaign featuring a water world renowned for TL0 assassins who were hired as cheap hit men.
The PC was hired to assassinate a VIP (without weapons of course). He ended up mixing in with the VIPs entourage and pushing the VIP over a balcony. He escaped too and I'm no pushover ref.
A little more -
In order to become an assassin I made the character successfully kill a rival tribesman before he could get his first contract. He simply swam to the rival's island and attacked.
Basic but fun to see how these situations actually play out.
I still laugh about it today.
I ran a CT campaign featuring a water world renowned for TL0 assassins who were hired as cheap hit men.
The PC was hired to assassinate a VIP (without weapons of course). He ended up mixing in with the VIPs entourage and pushing the VIP over a balcony. He escaped too and I'm no pushover ref.
A little more -
In order to become an assassin I made the character successfully kill a rival tribesman before he could get his first contract. He simply swam to the rival's island and attacked.
Basic but fun to see how these situations actually play out.
I still laugh about it today.
I always thought a less comedy version of Mark Twain's (is that right?) A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court would make a cool setting for a traveller adventure. As a !SHAMELESS PLUG! see my write up for Noricum/Sindal on the Trojan Reach post on IMTU for this kind of idea.
Even if the natives know about the Imperium and live on other planets, actually meeting them is an very different thing....
A Far Trader crew with Vargrs and Droynes might find the natives running away screaming about werewolves and demons....
Another twist: the natives are Vargrs and the Humans are the demons!
A Far Trader crew with Vargrs and Droynes might find the natives running away screaming about werewolves and demons....
Another twist: the natives are Vargrs and the Humans are the demons!
For a good laugh and something to think about in this context, see The Low Crusade at http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/othroads/shavfoib/lowcrusade.html
It tells of the misadventures of a party of well-armed ruffians in their big, bad, high-tech spaceship versus some medeaval schmucks armed with swords and bows and stuff.
The moral: The fact that they're low tech does NOT mean that they're stupid and helpless.
It tells of the misadventures of a party of well-armed ruffians in their big, bad, high-tech spaceship versus some medeaval schmucks armed with swords and bows and stuff.
The moral: The fact that they're low tech does NOT mean that they're stupid and helpless.
A good example of such a meeting of cultures can be found in a novel by Jerry Pournelle--"King David's Spaceship". It's set in the same future-history as "A Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand".
Essentially- an interstellar spanning culture meets an 18th-19th century culture--meets a medieval/nomadic culture. One after the other, plus its a good read, too.
Story has couple of good kickers for cross cultural pollenation completely by mistake despite the best efforts of the Imperial Navy.
