Droyne are sophonts though, and it may take a lot of time for them to adapt to society outside of the oytrip,
IMTU, I feel that they can tamp down their instincts after a while, especially if they aren’t around other Droyne. They can make personal choices, think independently, gain ambition, and choose to better themselves.
You are projecting human traits onto them, they are not human. This is the ongoing problem with anthropomorphising alien races to make them understandable and make them playable.
A Droyne is not even born a droyne, they are born a chirper. They do not become a droyne until the casting which harkens back to an Ancient era process to augment them.
Droyne know they are part of a consciousness that goes back hundreds of thousands of years. They may not even really die why their body fails them it may be that their memories and personality have already been shared so much that the "individual" may one day be downloaded into a new chirper body during the casting ritual.
Droyne are born Droyne, Sig. Casteless immature Droyne, but Droyne nevertheless.
Chirpers are the result of generations of casteless Droyne that have regressed to a pre-sophont state. They're barely able to use tools and start fires, and are incapable of advancing even if an Oytrip adopted them and tried to caste them... which is something that wouldn't even occur to any Oytrip's members to begin with. Droyne do protect chirper enclaves, but chirpers are chirpers and Droyne are Droyne... related but separated by evolution /Grandfather.
[note: I went out of my way to avoid the chimpanzee - human comparison. Psionics are a thing in Traveller, after all.]
You are projecting human traits onto them, they are not human. This is the ongoing problem with anthropomorphising alien races to make them understandable and make them playable.
A Droyne is not even born a droyne, they are born a chirper. They do not become a droyne until the casting which harkens back to an Ancient era process to augment them.
Droyne know they are part of a consciousness that goes back hundreds of thousands of years. They may not even really die why their body fails them it may be that their memories and personality have already been shared so much that the "individual" may one day be downloaded into a new chirper body during the casting ritual.
But Droyne are not a collective hive-mind. Individual oytrips come into conflict with one another and there’s no evidence of a “collective memory.” Before being cast out, Droyne have enough wherewithal to complete tasks the way they see fit and through trial-and-error rather than having an instinctual idea of how to do it.
We have a canonical example of a wandering Droyne in the wider universe to use as a case study. Bu.
The Starport guide says this about him.
“…Bu is educated, chirpy and well-travelled…”
That says right out there there that it is possible to leave home, be without others of his kind, and find a place with others. He also seems well adjusted.
No, they are chirpers until they undergo the casting ceremony. The distinction is that the chirpers never go through the ceremony and do not live within Droyne communities.
Perhaps it would have been better to say immature droyne within a droyne society are effectively chirpers, while chirpers remain casteless droyn their entire lives.
Ever wonder what would happen if a droyne family decided to start casting chirpers...
They're barely able to use tools and start fires, and are incapable of advancing even if an Oytrip adopted them and tried to caste them... which is something that wouldn't even occur to any Oytrip's members to begin with.
Droyne do protect chirper enclaves, but chirpers are chirpers and Droyne are Droyne... related but separated by evolution /Grandfather.
[note: I went out of my way to avoid the chimpanzee - human comparison. Psionics are a thing in Traveller, after all.]
So where to start with canon, this lot is from GT:
"Mutation is the leading theory as to why the Droyne became a race that forms castes, because DNA analysis (and the Chirper nature) suggest the trait isn’t inherent. The Droyne subject their children (heretofore identical to Chirper youths) to a casting ceremony when they are 12 years old.
Chirpers, a semi-intelligent minor race native to many worlds, are in fact populations of Droyne who have for some reason lost the ability to caste. They therefore engage in two sex reproduction, though often not at population-maintaining rates.
Adult Chirpers are as smart as Droyne workers – but the Droyne treat them as lesser sentients. Chirpers do seem to have a much harder time maintaining a high-TL society, for reasons not entirely understood. Chirpers can learn Human speech, often developing an impressive vocabulary,
although their conversation always retains the sharp, chirping tones for which they are named. The Imperium recognizes Chirpers as intelligent, and accords them the normal protections of sophonts. Within the Imperium, Chirpers mostly live on reservations, and have little contact with Humans.
Most Chirper worlds seem to show a slow but steady decline in numbers. Imperial authorities are currently debating whether or not the Droyne should be invited to teach their less fortunate cousins how to caste.
Teach a Chirper to Caste . . .
Authorities on a world with a small Chirper population have resolved to bring in Droyne to share the secret of casting. The PCs may be sent to find teachers and bring them back, or hired by powerful interests (perhaps a megacorp that covets the Chirper land) to prevent it. Several NPCs should
present different, but convincing, views of which course is morally correct.
The Uncasted
Those Droyne who don’t undergo casting are Chirpers. Chirpers tend to remain small and perhaps a bit less intelligent than the casted Droyne. They eventually develop male or female sexual characteristics. Usually Chirpers live on a planet with no population of casted Droyne, or in an isolated pocket on an otherwise Droyne world. In some cases, Droyne and Chirper populations co-exist, with the Droyne apparently feeling no urge to share their ability with their brethren. Some Droyne communities even exploit Chirper neighbors."
Now we move into spoiler territory:
The Droyne became the dominant species on their world nearly half a million years ago, and built themselves a gentle, simple civilization without a caste system. Dwelling contentedly in a society of cooperation and trust, the Droyne had little impetus to develop technology, so advanced very slowly.
With his own innovations in psionically enhanced GTL7 genetics, he recruited the whole population as assistants – introducing casting as a means to hone his race’s limited potential.
The surviving Droyne began a long period of decline – Grandfather’s casting system depended on his guidance to function properly. Without his
oversight, the artificial social mechanism began to break down, the Droyne began to lose hold of their ability to caste and their technology level, and worst of all, the modified race no longer remained viable as a low-tech culture. His modifications fatally flawed their uncasted reproductive system.
Later, for his own reasons, he intervened to help the Droyne survive. He designed and introduced the coyns, the rituals surrounding them, and Oynprith; these in tandem contain coded instructions to keep the Droyne casting and viable. He revised the system several times; one of these improvements added the coyns depicting the current major races."
Good points about Sport limitations as an Agent, but there are all kinds of those. Agent (Intelligence) takes in the realistic end of deep cover plants, black ops sabotage and counterintelligence, to the James Bond end of things. I think we can agree that a Droyne isn't going to be going undercover very often, but I could definitely see one being a valuable counterintelligence asset, especially as a psionic one that people naturally forget has any psionic powers. A black ops team could make use of their alien abilities too.
And if we're doing James Bond stuff - all bets are off anyway
And he's still in charge. It appears he's never actually abandoned them totally and keeps tabs on his old kin, at least through proxies. It's probable that he'd further meddle if he thought it needed... but remember that his perspective is uniquely long term.
And I think MG did cover this indirectly but it's only juvenile Chirpers and Droyne that are the same, I think. If a chirper matures and becomes male or female on their own, I don't believe they are able to be casted. In the "Teach a Chirper to Caste" job, you'll have to kidnap children...
I'm sure one of the previous editions had a line about Chirpers being able to cast, and after that being indistiguishable from other Droyne of that cast (think about it, if Chirpers couldn't cast then when Yaskie Baby came back and gave them coyns, they would have ALL remained Chirpers)
Should be able to be. I'm unsure if they've been written up, or written up fully for the current edition. You'd start with an uncasted Droyne and maybe run them as Barabarians?
I'm sure one of the previous editions had a line about Chirpers being able to cast, and after that being indistiguishable from other Droyne of that cast (think about it, if Chirpers couldn't cast then when Yaskie Baby came back and gave them coyns, they would have ALL remained Chirpers)
The adults would, The kids would be able to caste.
Text that talks about them being Semi-Intelligent comes from Library Data, which means it's likely to just be accepted consensus and not the full story. Given they they are also quite alien and also psionic, I'm not worried so much by what Imperial scientists think they know.
Sentience is being able to perceive and feel things. Animals have sentience, so they definitely are that. Sophonts are self aware, which is where it gets a bit tricky... but since you can definitely communicate with Chirpers at a level higher than that of a dog or dolphin, I would class them as low grade sophonts. And since you can play a sentient but not self-aware robot, there shouldn't be any problem with playing a Chirper adult.
The adults would, The kids would be able to caste.
Text that talks about them being Semi-Intelligent comes from Library Data, which means it's likely to just be accepted consensus and not the full story. Given they they are also quite alien and also psionic, I'm not worried so much by what Imperial scientists think they know.
Sentience is being able to perceive and feel things. Animals have sentience, so they definitely are that. Sophonts are self aware, which is where it gets a bit tricky... but since you can definitely communicate with Chirpers at a level higher than that of a dog or dolphin, I would class them as low grade sophonts. And since you can play a sentient but not self-aware robot, there shouldn't be any problem with playing a Chirper adult.
I THINK the CT Alien Module is where I first saw "non-sentient" used for Chirpers, though it may actually just be semi-intelligent like Library Data.
Well of course it's only adolescants, DROYNE if they miss the casting ceremony become Chirpers which are pretty much those stuck at the adolescent stage of development. That's how I've always understood it at least
It's fairly specific that casting takes place at age 12 and determines which of the three sexes the kid develops into. Likewise, uncasted juveniles develop into two sex Chirpers. At that point they're no longer interfertile. Or rather, the sexless juveniles can go either way but will be locked into one or the other depending on whether they casted or not. Maybe advanced medicine or extreme conditions could change that, as with other metamorphing species. I've not seen that discussed.
But Droyne are not a collective hive-mind. Individual oytrips come into conflict with one another and there’s no evidence of a “collective memory.” Before being cast out, Droyne have enough wherewithal to complete tasks the way they see fit and through trial-and-error rather than having an instinctual idea of how to do it.
There is evidence of collective memory...
"the custom of using psionics in education means that significant portions of a Droyne’s experience and personality live on in the next generation – the living Droyne has fragmentary memories of earlier lives"
We have a canonical example of a wandering Droyne in the wider universe to use as a case study. Bu.
The Starport guide says this about him.
“…Bu is educated, chirpy and well-travelled…”
That says right out there there that it is possible to leave home, be without others of his kind, and find a place with others. He also seems well adjusted.
And he's still in charge. It appears he's never actually abandoned them totally and keeps tabs on his old kin, at least through proxies. It's probable that he'd further meddle if he thought it needed... but remember that his perspective is uniquely long term.
And I think MG did cover this indirectly but it's only juvenile Chirpers and Droyne that are the same, I think. If a chirper matures and becomes male or female on their own, I don't believe they are able to be casted. In the "Teach a Chirper to Caste" job, you'll have to kidnap children...
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