Recent content by J. L. Brown

True, but changing the price of ships helps answer 'why does piracy exist'? If Pirates come out ahead -- legally, and with no risk -- from just selling their own (starter) ship, then nobody would ever do it. For 'piracy' to work the ships need to be cheap, and the cargo valuable. Right now...

Yeah, okay; I understand your reasoning now. But if your contention is that 'Compared to the value of Cargo Hauled, Traveller ships are way too expensive', then I think we are just coming at this from different directions. A Fat Trader carries 200 dTons (~400 TEU) of cargo, and that cargo...

So a 'Small Bulk Cargo' ship is usually about US $1 million to US $5 million; but a Free/Far Trader is about 50MCr -- the ship prices in HGU are too high by 10x or 50x. Add to that the exchange rate between US $ and the CrImp (US $5 = 1 Cr), and the prices are 50x to 250x too high. Or use TL...

I think the problem has roots in the vastly different scales of cash involved between 'cost of living' and 'standard equipment' and 'ships'. The prices in High Guard are too expensive by at least a factor of ten, maybe a factor of one hundred. That would have knock-on effects down the line of...

Regina to Drinax is only 57 parsecs, 10 jumps at (up to) J-6 -- about twenty weeks, less if they are intent on maximum speed. But don't worry about that too much. 'Mysteries' is mostly on Lydia; 24 parsecs rimward of Regina. That transit happens 'off screen' in the campaign as written...

Again, did you watch the video? Spaces set aside for pristine wilderness are certainly possible -- and for Aslan built ones, inevitable; an ecumenopolis is an arcoloogy at the scale of a entire world, and arcologies grow their own food as a matter of definition. No part of a shell-world /...

Did you watch the video? The amount of 'floor space' is not the limiting factor. Put a trillion humans on Terra with 100 floor-tall arcologies, and you have covered less than 2% of the planet's surface. Build a 100 layer 'shell-world' with a trillion inhabitants and they could all have more...

20 billion sophonts on a planet is chump change to a TL-10 civilization. A good (if long -- turn on the captions, and grab a snack; I watch at x1.25 speed) video on this topic:

Much less than 1% -- but still a very large and troubling number. No wonder the folks in the Dustbelt are so edgy.

Not Ihatei on Ihatei -- Aslan on Aslan. Every clan has at least one border with another Aslan clan; not all of them have access to unclaimed space or neighboring powers.

Ihatei that have to transit the Riftspan Reaches J-5 route are probably a non-factor for the Trojan Reach, though. Ihatei will probably seek opportunities as close by as feasible -- less expense than a longer transit, and being closer to the home-clan means better odds of support. I do not...

Why would I do this? Because we are not told anything much about Aslan fertility -- I am not sure there is even a canonical source on whether they usually have 'single birth' or a 'litter' -- although it seems like the fiction treats them as approximately human. Nor is there anything about...

The number of Ihatei born every year should be vastly less than 1%. Humans have about 17 live births per 1000 people per year. If female Aslan give birth at about the same rate, and males only make up 25% of all births, AND the 'potential Ihatei" are only non-first sons... it looks like 1% is...

I have been looking at the 'Augment Range' Power, and I am not satisfied with it. The original intention was for the Meta-Psion to have a way of assisting other psions with their powers -- so 'Augment Range' implies that there ought to be Powers to augment duration, and area, and speed of use...

The existing 'Healer' Talent has a Power called 'Triage' (I am re-naming it to 'Aid') which works something like this with Medic skill. I have had trouble finding a completely satisfactory way of handling it, so maybe browsing through the Pioneer preview might be useful. I think the intention...