Book 10: Cosmopolite - Now on Drivethru
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
alex_greene said:
Nah, already knew you where to blame...
alex_greene
Guest
I will be available here to answer questions you may have.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
JRoss said:
Okay so Artisans expand the worker class and you split the white collar jobs between corporate and civic positions. Is there still a "colonist" career or has that been folded into a specialty for each of the three (four? Or is Teacher a Scholar career?) careers?
Scholar careers sound like fun, especially that "prodigy" one. Networks sound useful, similar to the list of contacts for Merchants in Merchant Prince. And the hooks that let you use the mundane skills that no one else has to jump start adventures sounds like it's worth the price of the book itself. Nice.
alex_greene
Guest
Network is a highly useful asset to have. It could be argued, from the description of Networks in Cosmopolite, that the TAS is the first and earliest example of such a Network - providing very specific benefits to its members.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
QUESTIONS FOR ALEX:
OK, I have read through the careers and I have a couple of questions related to how a certain type of citizen would fit into this system.
1. A Cab Driver (ala Die Hard 4)
2. A Shop Girl (not the owner or dress maker, the girl selling you the clothes) or ANY salesman actually
3. A blue collar worker such as a Plumber or Welder (maybe Craftsman, Labourer or Maintenance - but which?)
For the Scientist
4. If I wanted a Terraformer, what career should I use?
I like what you have done so far and everything makes sense, I just think there are a couple of holes/vague areas.
LOVE THIS BOOK!
OK, I have read through the careers and I have a couple of questions related to how a certain type of citizen would fit into this system.
1. A Cab Driver (ala Die Hard 4)
2. A Shop Girl (not the owner or dress maker, the girl selling you the clothes) or ANY salesman actually
3. A blue collar worker such as a Plumber or Welder (maybe Craftsman, Labourer or Maintenance - but which?)
For the Scientist
4. If I wanted a Terraformer, what career should I use?
I like what you have done so far and everything makes sense, I just think there are a couple of holes/vague areas.
LOVE THIS BOOK!
alex_greene
Guest
Good questions.
The idea of the professional Driver / Courier was a Citizen career option I was thinking of right at the start. It never even made it into the initial list of career branches. I didn't know if it would be too specialised for Book 10.
The shop floor staff / sales staff thing seemed a bit too much on the Merchant side, focusing on making and closing the sale. I saw shop staff and travelling door-to-door salesmen being offshoots of Merchant careers, possibly alongside their big huckster cousins selling tat on the tube. If they were Citizens, they'd be an assignment of Functionary, possibly a fourth assignment next to Administrator, Enforcement and Maintenance. I could seriously throw in Driver / Courier as a fifth Functionary assignment at this rate.
If you wanted a Terraformer, try Citizen / Architect. They're the builder types. There is no Engineer (terraforming) cascade skill in Traveller, but nobody says that Engineer (civil engineering) has to stop at building scale. At a high enough technological level, Engineer (civil engineering) might be big enough to design and modify atmospheres and environments of entire planets with the same ease as a 21st Century civil engineer designs a garden, or design orbiting stations which entirely encircle their homeworlds like artificial ring systems.
The idea of the professional Driver / Courier was a Citizen career option I was thinking of right at the start. It never even made it into the initial list of career branches. I didn't know if it would be too specialised for Book 10.
The shop floor staff / sales staff thing seemed a bit too much on the Merchant side, focusing on making and closing the sale. I saw shop staff and travelling door-to-door salesmen being offshoots of Merchant careers, possibly alongside their big huckster cousins selling tat on the tube. If they were Citizens, they'd be an assignment of Functionary, possibly a fourth assignment next to Administrator, Enforcement and Maintenance. I could seriously throw in Driver / Courier as a fifth Functionary assignment at this rate.
If you wanted a Terraformer, try Citizen / Architect. They're the builder types. There is no Engineer (terraforming) cascade skill in Traveller, but nobody says that Engineer (civil engineering) has to stop at building scale. At a high enough technological level, Engineer (civil engineering) might be big enough to design and modify atmospheres and environments of entire planets with the same ease as a 21st Century civil engineer designs a garden, or design orbiting stations which entirely encircle their homeworlds like artificial ring systems.
Congratulations, Mongoose! Unless I am mistaken, this makes you the first publisher in any of the Traveller lines to have published expanded career books for all of the careers in the core rulebook(s) - a notable achievement.
Let's see - if you can get Alien Race books published for the Hivers, K'kree, and Droyne (and, arguably, the Vilani) you'll have swept the "Major Races" category. And, to be honest (since you've already put out a few ARBs for minor races) I wouldn't object if you put one out for cetaceans, great apes, and other uplifts. (Hey, anyone want to stat out Rocket Raccoon?)
Other possible suggestions for future development: since Mercenary 2 came out and I've seen talk around about High Guard 2, probably the next career book in need of a revision would probably be Robot, but that would definitely need some pretty solid strategic direction. After that, Psion - not from any critical lack in the work itself, but because it's such a rich field for development that it could well benefit from the additional treatment.
Some form of source book covering extended stellar system cartography and development would be nice, as would one covering technology in more detail, and in much wider range. Most people who play the game are reasonably familiar with the Industrial and Modern ages of technology, and find it fairly easy to research the Preindustrial ages, but the futuristic eras could use some additional work - in particular, those beyond High Stellar. What might a TL19 world look like... and what would it take for a society to get there? And for that matter, what would be involved in changing a system's UWP? (Say you've got a noble character who owns a system, but wants it to be better. How would he go about developing it - say, encouraging immigration and birth rates to increase the population, possibly terraforming the place, and funding and driving broad-spectrum technological development programs to raise that level? And how much would such programs cost?)
Understand, I'm not complaining! This is just a wish list for possible future development of the line.
Let's see - if you can get Alien Race books published for the Hivers, K'kree, and Droyne (and, arguably, the Vilani) you'll have swept the "Major Races" category. And, to be honest (since you've already put out a few ARBs for minor races) I wouldn't object if you put one out for cetaceans, great apes, and other uplifts. (Hey, anyone want to stat out Rocket Raccoon?)
Other possible suggestions for future development: since Mercenary 2 came out and I've seen talk around about High Guard 2, probably the next career book in need of a revision would probably be Robot, but that would definitely need some pretty solid strategic direction. After that, Psion - not from any critical lack in the work itself, but because it's such a rich field for development that it could well benefit from the additional treatment.
Some form of source book covering extended stellar system cartography and development would be nice, as would one covering technology in more detail, and in much wider range. Most people who play the game are reasonably familiar with the Industrial and Modern ages of technology, and find it fairly easy to research the Preindustrial ages, but the futuristic eras could use some additional work - in particular, those beyond High Stellar. What might a TL19 world look like... and what would it take for a society to get there? And for that matter, what would be involved in changing a system's UWP? (Say you've got a noble character who owns a system, but wants it to be better. How would he go about developing it - say, encouraging immigration and birth rates to increase the population, possibly terraforming the place, and funding and driving broad-spectrum technological development programs to raise that level? And how much would such programs cost?)
Understand, I'm not complaining! This is just a wish list for possible future development of the line.
alex_greene
Guest
As the author of this book that has boldly gone where no Traveller publisher has gone before, you're welcome.Galadrion said:
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
So what kind of ships or ship classes do we get?
alex_greene
Guest
I was reminded that Citizens already have access to practically every non-military and non-paramilitary vehicle already listed - so with the exception of the likes of Lab Ships and Yachts, anything that isn't a capital ship, patrol ship and so on is already available to Citizens.
The Spacestream came from my fevered mind when I saw an actual Airstream trailer bus that some enthusiast had brought over here from the States, and I found myself imagining the concept of the retired fat trader, no longer under subsidy, being bought up by wealthy Citizens and converted into the equivalent of a spaceborne Airstream.
Then I heard of these retired architects who spent their days travelling all over the States from job to job, practically living and working out of their old Airstream.
All your regular characters can wander round in those cramped old Far Traders. This is how Citizens roll.
Fly. Jump. Whatever.
The Spacestream came from my fevered mind when I saw an actual Airstream trailer bus that some enthusiast had brought over here from the States, and I found myself imagining the concept of the retired fat trader, no longer under subsidy, being bought up by wealthy Citizens and converted into the equivalent of a spaceborne Airstream.
Then I heard of these retired architects who spent their days travelling all over the States from job to job, practically living and working out of their old Airstream.
All your regular characters can wander round in those cramped old Far Traders. This is how Citizens roll.
Fly. Jump. Whatever.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
alex_greene said:
OK, that makes sense. Thanks for the response.
DivineWrath
Banded Mongoose
I have noticed a problem and I don't know if it has been addressed yet.
On p. 46, it talks about the time required to write a scientific paper. The way the rule is written means that the time required to write the paper increases in proportion to the number of skill ranks in science the character has. I don't like it and I can't think of good reason why it should be that way. You don't even get additional benefit from it.
If you use the optional rule of how well you write your paper, then only one skill adds to the test. Characters that diversified in multiple fields would take longer as normal, but gains no additional benefit from it. Only those who specialized benefits from that optional rule.
To take an extreme example, a character with enough skill ranks in science to bring the science total to 60 (or more) could roll badly enough to take a year to write a paper.
I think that if you must take extra time to write a paper, then some benefit should be gained. Otherwise, I think that the rules should give a consistent result, like a week or something. Maybe 1 +1d6 days (if you must roll something). Or maybe skill ranks could reduce the time you take to write a paper, as you are better at the topic and likely know a lot of relevant material. At the very least, please provide an upper limit to how long it takes to write a scientific paper.
----
On a related note, it says that characters don't gain skill ranks for writing a paper. So does this mean that other characters are free to train skills while a character is writing a paper?
On p. 46, it talks about the time required to write a scientific paper. The way the rule is written means that the time required to write the paper increases in proportion to the number of skill ranks in science the character has. I don't like it and I can't think of good reason why it should be that way. You don't even get additional benefit from it.
If you use the optional rule of how well you write your paper, then only one skill adds to the test. Characters that diversified in multiple fields would take longer as normal, but gains no additional benefit from it. Only those who specialized benefits from that optional rule.
To take an extreme example, a character with enough skill ranks in science to bring the science total to 60 (or more) could roll badly enough to take a year to write a paper.
I think that if you must take extra time to write a paper, then some benefit should be gained. Otherwise, I think that the rules should give a consistent result, like a week or something. Maybe 1 +1d6 days (if you must roll something). Or maybe skill ranks could reduce the time you take to write a paper, as you are better at the topic and likely know a lot of relevant material. At the very least, please provide an upper limit to how long it takes to write a scientific paper.
----
On a related note, it says that characters don't gain skill ranks for writing a paper. So does this mean that other characters are free to train skills while a character is writing a paper?
Lord High Munchkin
Mongoose
Some papers, although the science is OK, are so badly written that they are unpublishable... it happens.
IanBruntlett
Emperor Mongoose
On occasion I have written articles or book reviews about programming for fun. I pass them to the ACCU http://accu.org/ and they either publish them in Overload (academic stuff) and CVu (other stuff). Been doing this kind of thing since I was a teenager and some of my articles are available here:- https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/home/information-technologyDivineWrath said:
Typically I find something interesting and start studying it, making notes. Then one day I realise I have enough material for an article and write it up. Not everything gets published.
