Day to day lives of Starmen

[Woas]

I'm back looking for more feedback and to pick some brains. This time I was pondering what day to day life for a character in a Traveller universe is like. I have some specific topics:

1) Communications. Today... here on Earth... we have dozens of ways to communicate with one another. Telephone, cellphone (wireless network), internet, telegraph, radio/tv, postal services, laser, smoke signals 8)

Some of these are free. I can get two HAM radios or CBs and talk with my friend, but there are limitations. For example if my friend isn't next to his radio when I send my message he wouldn't know I sent one. I have to pay a monthly charge for other communication services like cellphone, internet and land lines. Some even charge me extra fees to call other networks (long distance) on the same world. But these services also grant extra services... they are "private" (I mean you can tap phones but still, I just can't pick my phone up and scan all, frequencies to eavesdrop on my neighbors phone conversations), alert the other person that someone is trying to contact him, among other things.

Now image you are the Comm guy on a starcraft, jumping from world to world in the endless sea of stars. Most systems with a tech level of 7 I believe the book says are assumed to have a communications system/network that encompasses the whole planet/system. How do you envision ships and people tapping into this system? Would it cost money to have a 'universal system "phone" number' that would work with some standardized telecommunication system present on every planet? What do you guys do about this, if anything? Or maybe its just a handwaved "it just works" deal.

2) Currency: Ok so the standard monetary unit is the Credit. But how do people keep their money 'with' them. This is of course aimed at player characters who are assumed to move around a bit more than an NPC that might live their lives in a single system. It's nice to have a million Credits in the bank... 4 weeks away. Do characters have to keep their money with them on either a digital 'bank account' or in physical form all the time?
Thinking about it more, I thought perhaps when a person enters/exits a starport there would some universal money transfer machine. When you leave the starport and are getting onto your ship to leave the planet or system, it sort of digitizes all your wealth onto a special chip that you carry with you to the next planet where you can de-digitize it back down to physical money. But they wouldn't help if there is only a Class D or some backwater flat field fenced off and called a starport...
Anyway, I'm looking for more ideas and feedback about this.


I think that's it for the moment. I'm sure I'll be back with some more. Thanks any feedback of course.

 

[dmccoy1693]

2) Currency: Ok so the standard monetary unit is the Credit. But how do people keep their money 'with' them. This is of course aimed at player characters who are assumed to move around a bit more than an NPC that might live their lives in a single system. It's nice to have a million Credits in the bank... 4 weeks away. Do characters have to keep their money with them on either a digital 'bank account' or in physical form all the time?

Organized crime will make sure that currency isn't pure electronic. They'll bribe, blackmail, threaten, kidnap, etc to make sure no government ever goes pure electronic. Ever. As long as there is a trail that they can't clean up completely, they'll fight it to their deaths.

 

[Input Jack]

Additionally, Id say that some form of "paper money" will always be with us because (a) people would always rather be able to go in and buy a soda at will, rather than waiting 4 weeks for a credit approval, and (b) exotic dancers dont like it when you stuff a cred stick in their g-string. The cred sticks are cold.

 

[dmccoy1693]

(b) exotic dancers dont like it when you stuff a cred stick in their g-string. The cred sticks are cold.

In the future, all g-strings are made from material that warms the cred sticks as they enter.

 

[rust]

Hmmm ... not really that exotic if they still wear g-strings ... :?

 

[dmccoy1693]

Hmmm ... not really that exotic if they still wear g-strings ... :?

holographic clothing? Only those that pay can see through them.

Also it depends on the TL. If we're talking TL 7 or 8, I can see a g-string. TL 12-14, no.

 

[qstor]

My take is that paper money won't be around much longer. Here in the Washington DC area, the local transit authority has gotten rid of paper transfers in favor of a electronic card that "holds" money. I think whatever system the PCs are in, they'll have access to their bank accounts electronically.

Mike

 

[Woas]

My take is that paper money won't be around much longer. Here in the Washington DC area, the local transit authority has gotten rid of paper transfers in favor of a electronic card that "holds" money. I think whatever system the PCs are in, they'll have access to their bank accounts electronically.

Mike

I agree that paper (or whatever material.. plastic, metal) money seems on the road to obsoleteness in the near/far future. But how would you propose the characters access their bank account if it's 4 weeks away? I ask in a general sense, not asking to quote canon from previous Traveller books on the subject. Just brainstorming...

It would be as if we were living in the 16th or 17th Century as colonists someplace in America. We have credit back in Europe... some bank holds large funds for us. I want to purchase some cheap horseshoes from Bill the Blacksmith but when I try to swipe my card at his cabin I have to wait 2+ weeks for a ship to send a message back to Europe, then back to America. I mean obviously that's not what colonials did... they have actual funds with them in America or used some sort of barter/credit system.

 

[aspqrz]

I agree that paper (or whatever material.. plastic, metal) money seems on the road to obsoleteness in the near/far future. But how would you propose the characters access their bank account if it's 4 weeks away? I ask in a general sense, not asking to quote canon from previous Traveller books on the subject. Just brainstorming...

It would be as if we were living in the 16th or 17th Century as colonists someplace in America. We have credit back in Europe... some bank holds large funds for us. I want to purchase some cheap horseshoes from Bill the Blacksmith but when I try to swipe my card at his cabin I have to wait 2+ weeks for a ship to send a message back to Europe, then back to America. I mean obviously that's not what colonials did... they have actual funds with them in America or used some sort of barter/credit system.

Hmm. You need to read more widely about international trade in the period ... especially asian and east asian.

Hawallahs, for example, have been around for a long time, and something like them would certainly exist in the Traveller universe ... they're interesting, check them out :wink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

is a good start, but there's a *lot* more online and in print.

In fact, as they exist, they're very Vilani in concept ... so you can assume that they would exist in ATU*

Actually, bank certified credsticks would be likely to exist and would use interbank exchange procedures that have been around since at least the period of the Medieval Fairs ... and which had to deal with much longer "voyage times" than are likely to exist in ATU* ... :shock:

I really don't see it as being such a big deal ... really, an 1100 year old Imperium will have formal and informal ways of dealing with such things!

Phil
*Any Traveller Universe

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Regarding communications:

I see all systems within a polity having a "standard" design and interface. Most independent worlds near these polities would use a similar, or easily compatible system. The Megacorporations are going to push for standardization (their standard of course) so they can save money.

Local/world comms are handled by the future equivalent of Blackberries, but will likely be voice activated and holographic imaging.

Due to the Speed of Light limit, in-system traffic will not be real time, but there are already real world groups working on an Interplanetary Communications Protocol for information transfer using relay stations etc.

Interstellar communications is by Xboat or other courier. Messages are encrypted and usually Audio/Visual (A/V) and Holographic.

There was an article in the original Journal of the Traveller Aide Society that discussed "standard" communications channels within the 3I. As I remember, there were 100 channels and Channel 10 was the "Emergency Channel". It was based on the old CB radio channels. Now of course, all those channels would be A/V and the closer, high density, transmissions would be holographic.

 

[Pyromancer]

You know how you spot a Traveller? They have this bulky multi-standard phones. Of course, on most Imperial starports, you have access to the Standard Imperial Starport Audio Communication Net, and payment for that is part of your landing fee. But once you leave starport and startown, you have to use the local infrastructure and local service providers. A simple "Traveller Phone" speaks over two hundred different standards and uncountable dialects. And it can easily be adapted to use new and unknown ones. Most of the new phones learn new standards simply by listening to the electromagnetic waves around them.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

1) Well those planet wide nets at TL7 would only be for well populated worlds, wouldn't they? As for 'most' worlds, what was said above: within the Starport a standard light net would exist, but linking to the domestic system might be glitchy or prone to problems, depending on the world. Some would be smooth and easy, others frustrating and patchy; law level might affect this.... Akin to net access in China or Saudi Arabia.

Outside the Imperium you'd probably at the mercy of pot luck. The Darrians, Sword Worlders, and D268 would probably be compatible, but beyond that....

Be interesting what kind of access an approaching ship might get; would they get access to the stock markets and other commercial data while still at the 100d limit? Or would the world restrict this. Again, Law Level would seem to be a rough indicator.

2) I say cash! Mainly because of it's simplicity, the ability to rob payrolls, and the awkwardness of carting round crates of money. Some kind of credit system or systems would obviously be in operation, but these might be closed shops. For example, I envisage a credit union for bounty hunters operating interstellar - so that they don't have to cart the mark back a dozen parsecs to collect the reward. There could even be a market in 'convict futures'... Trade associations and cultural or ethnic groupings might offer such facilities, as might TAS. However, getting access to it would depend on being on a world with the right connections, right corporations, etc. Dirtyl low tech backwater, you need hard currency.

That hawala is rather intriguing, but it may require a shared culture to work, and one with strong common values. Sounds quite Vilani; I'm sure the Solomani would sniff at the very idea, and the Vargr would just look confused and ask you for cash again. I could be one of the pillars of the Hiver Federation economic system, however.

As for the exotic dancer, depends where you are. Old skool, and yep, cash in the g-string, or what-have-you. TL8+ or so, and maybe it would be like an oyster card - just press to the right spot, et voila. Or, perhaps the closer the proximity, the more it costs....

 

[Woas]

Next topic...

This time about spacecraft fuel and fueling. There are three places I see people getting fuel: skimming gas giants, skimming water on a planet (or breaking off chunks of ice and melting it?) and finally at a starport/gas station.

Concerning the gas giants and surface water, what is typical policy with those? Free gas? Or is it reasonable to believe that perhaps a company/government/person owns the rights to those?

Your thoughts? Can by OTU or YTU (Your Traveller Universe). I certainly am not sticking to OTU at all while creating MTU.

 

[rust]

My previous setting was a water world, my current setting is a cold desert
world where the only water comes from the polar ice caps.
On the water world water for fuel was freely available at no cost, on the
desert world anyone trying to "steal" water ice would be considered a
criminal, and the hydrogen fuel at the starport is quite expensive.

 

[aspqrz]

1) Well those planet wide nets at TL7 would only be for well populated worlds, wouldn't they? As for 'most' worlds, what was said above: within the Starport a standard light net would exist, but linking to the domestic system might be glitchy or prone to problems

Yeah. Right. They can't solve these problems after ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS :roll:

Traveller tech restrictions might, barely, make sense if the world is newly discovered. Otherwise anyone who believes in restrictions like this is ... not thinking clearly about how long a time 1100 years is, I would say

As we say here in Oz, "Pull the other one, it plays 'Jingle Bells' ..." :lol:

Phil

 

[Woas]

Yeah. Right. They can't solve these problems after ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS :roll:

Traveller tech restrictions might, barely, make sense if the world is newly discovered. Otherwise anyone who believes in restrictions like this is ... not thinking clearly about how long a time 1100 years is, I would say

As we say here in Oz, "Pull the other one, it plays 'Jingle Bells' ..." :lol:

Phil

Do you feel the issue is better handled just hand waving it and saying 'it works'?
Personally, I've only just discovered the wonderful universe of Traveller an am developing my own Traveller universe for a game I intend to ref down the road sooner or later. I have no idea, nor interest in Traveller canon and prefer to make it up myself (its sort of like a creative outlet for me).

So although I gladly take any advice given to me, I have to ask would you feel your answer would be any different if say the time frame was "150" years instead of "1100"?

 

[aspqrz]

Yeah. Right. They can't solve these problems after ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS :roll:

Traveller tech restrictions might, barely, make sense if the world is newly discovered. Otherwise anyone who believes in restrictions like this is ... not thinking clearly about how long a time 1100 years is, I would say

As we say here in Oz, "Pull the other one, it plays 'Jingle Bells' ..." :lol:

Do you feel the issue is better handled just hand waving it and saying 'it works'?

Pretty much, yes.

I mean, consider 1100 years ... AD 908 ... compared with Ad 2008.

Commo problems in 908?

What alphabet to write with. Whether to bind in scroll or book form. What to use to write on that's cheap.

Commo problems solved?

All of them. You can argue about when, but they are all solidly solved 1100 years later. :shock:

Even the alphabet thingy ... no-one uses ideograms, much, outside of China and Japan, and for a lot of words (cutting edge ones, especially) the Chinese and Japanese actually use Latin lettering (or kanji, which is basically alphabetical anyway) ... so

That's the sort of time scale we are talking about. :shock:

Even now with the problems with various parts of the world using 3 different and incompatible Mobile phone systems ... well, that didn't last as a "problem" very long. Almost right away there were triband capable handsets, slightly bigger, clunkier and definitely a lot more expensive .. but the latest models, afaict, are not significantly bigger than their single system equivalents, and the cost has come down as well.

So to assume that in 1100 years no-one will be able to get the local POTS to work with the Starport one is, frankly, unbelievable :wink:

And, frankly, look at Somalia if you believe the locals will develop their own system and standards from scratch :shock: ... Somalia has the biggest Mobile Phone system Africa for its size, bar none. And its all imported and their is effectively no central government to run it ... all private enterprise ... the locals will buy the tech because it is cheaper or, if particularly nationalistic, will reverse engineer it ... and, since the purpose of the Imperium is to promote trade, they'd have to be complete morons (and maintain that level of moronicness) for 1100 years to ignore the common sense of using Imperial standards for cheapness.

Personally, I've only just discovered the wonderful universe of Traveller an am developing my own Traveller universe for a game I intend to ref down the road sooner or later. I have no idea, nor interest in Traveller canon and prefer to make it up myself (its sort of like a creative outlet for me).

So although I gladly take any advice given to me, I have to ask would you feel your answer would be any different if say the time frame was "150" years instead of "1100"?

I suspect even 150 years is too long. Somalia being a case in point. :shock:

The best thing to do is take your campaign as a snapshot in time, and assume that within the existing Stellar polities problems such as this have been worked out and its only on newly discoevered worlds, say ones that have only been discovered in the last generation (10-20 years) or which are really isolated (way to hell and gone in the middle of nowhere) or which have specific unusual local circumstances (such a stupid [is there any other sort in SF? :wink: ] theocracy) that simply won't last long for a whole variety of obvious historical reasons.

That's the best bet, for my .02 centicredits anyway ... you'll get differing responses depending on how the canonistas respond :roll:

Phil (who is a historian by profession, and so is interested in these sorts of things)

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

But there are computer/automated programs that can translate between all of them. Sure, those programs can be clunky, but they get better every YEAR. Give it a couple decades and it will be seemless.

I go with the "IT WORKS" crowd. If you really want to mess with it, keep it as problems between the big polities.

So your Imperial Multicomm won't work in Zhodani space without a clip-on translator, well you can buy one at the Starport and off you go... Of course the Zhos are monitoring everything you say anyway...

 

[aspqrz]

Actually we currently have at least 5 alphabets in use by large population groups (> 100Million people) as their MAIN way of writing:

And the one used for the main languages of international communication?

English. Latin alphabet.

Biggest second language, bar none.

But, ignoring that ... what I said was that *ideographic* writing is largely an also ran. Chinese is spoken, pretty much overwhelmingly, only in China ... hence Chinese ideograms are irrelevant on a world scale.

Japanese, likewise ... but they at least came up with Kanji, which is alphabetical rather than ideographic.

+ Latin with it's various variants (US, German, French,...)

+ Russian aka Kyrilic

Alphabetical, not ideographic.

+ Arabian

Alphabetical, not ideographic.

+ Chinese (Granted, used by barely 1 Billion people)

+ Japanese/modern

See comment above about its geographical limits and irrelevance as a second language outside those strictly defined limits.

+ Hindi

Alphabetical. Not ideographic.

It's good to see you fail to grasp what has been commented on ... again. :wink:

Not to mention Greek, Hebrew and various other minor alphabets commonly in use as the prime language in their nation.[

Also all alphabetical. Also used only within strictly defined geographical limits and having no relevance as a lingua franca.

Same with power nets world-wide, either the voltage is different (110, 120, 220, 240V) or at least the plugs are different. Or take GSM (mobile phones) with no less than 4 different frequency bands in use world wide, ISDN has two implementations. And the Brits, Irish etc. still travel on the wrong side of the road.

And you still don't grasp the concept.

There are multi-band Mobile phones. So the fact that different systems exist doesn't mean that they will be forever incompatible. Even multi-band phones aren't hugely more expensive (now) than single band phones. Which, of course, was one of my original points which, as usual, you seem to have ... missed ... or failed to grasp? :shock:

As for different voltages. Gee, the last couple of laptops I have owned (over the last four/five years, at least :shock: ) and every electric razor I have owned for the last 36+ years :shock: have had switching power supplies and all that needs to be changed to make them workable overseas is a different plug or a plug adaptor. And, guess what, it didn't take anyone 1100 years to fail to come up with either a) the idea for same and b) manufacture same.

So, as usual, your arguments are ... irrelevant :wink:

Phil

 

[aspqrz]

So your Imperial Multicomm won't work in Zhodani space without a clip-on translator, well you can buy one at the Starport and off you go... Of course the Zhos are monitoring everything you say anyway...

I suspect its all likely to be software, rather than clip-on, but you may well be right.

Phil