Library Data?

[ericwood8]

I am a new referee to Traveller. Many modules have a Library Data section with the adventure.
Should I distribute this at the beginning of the game as a handout OR wait until a PC looks up something on the Ship's Library and then give them the topic in question? What do you do?

 

[Anstett]

The Library Data sections are to help smooth the transition for "this is what you should know" about a place/thing because they are part of your daily life and the other side of "we are new in town what do we need to know about this place/thing we have never seen.

I tend to put the data out there for the players to use as they see fit. If something comes up that they should be familiar with I will nudge them about reading the library entry on that.

 

[rinku]

Unless there's a section marked "Referee only", the Library data represents what the PCs can easily find on public databases, or their own ship's Library data. It's for their consumption, but it's brief, often incomplete and occasionally misleading.

Generally I'll let them look it up, or not, but I'm a fairly lazy Ref.

What I'm MORE likely to do is feed them news articles (which I often write, but I have a file of all the old TAS new entries that I use as a basic background event framework.)