Ship's Brain Interface sizing and use

[Sigtrygg]

Is it? I was pretty sure this was a MWMism along with no jump vessels under 100dton that came out of the same decision that jump torps were not a thing.

D.

No.
MJD introduced it in the Traveller Companion, it was then taken as setting gospel for some reason. Such a rule does not exist in Traveller canon up to Mongoose Traveller 2ed.

It is a homage to the way hyperspace is navigated in Niven et al Known Space stories. It has never been part of the Traveller rules or the Traveller setting, until...

Prior canon actually has robot pilots and navigators, not to mention fully automated xboats.

Keep it as an option for referee's who want it, but it should be removed from any setting supplement or adventure.

 

[Quint]

No problem, I'm thinking back to many half-remembered, old discussions on COTI and other sources and know that it's somewhat come up before - especially given the utter lack of robot ships in canon (have to admit I forgot about automated xboats). Combine minimum dtonnage which was conflated with the no jtorps, now mix in Shudasham Accords and a "setting" reason for no robot ships turned into an assumed "tech/engine/rules" reason.

D.

 

[rinku]

I mean there was some discussion of Psionic navigation and Psi-drives as an alternative tech in TNE.

Most probably they had in mind Dune Navigators, but EE Smith and Niven used them too. Warhammer 40K lifted the idea from Dune, more or less, but definitely cemented the concept among gamers in the 80's

Telepathy as a means of FTL *communication* is a bit more common. Heinlein used that in "Time for the Stars", between twins (but also to demonstrate the twin paradox of Relativity).

 

[Vormaerin]

McCaffrey, of course, had a whole series of books about intergalactic psychics talking across space and tossing ships from world to world.

 

[rinku]

When Physics inconveniently gets in the way of casual interstellar travel or communication (how very dare it!), Paraphysics has often been called upon to provide...

 

[Sigtrygg]

I mean there was some discussion of Psionic navigation and Psi-drives as an alternative tech in TNE.

FF&S spent a few pages explaining which technologies were present in the OTU and which ones were not, These were clearly identified.

This is something Mongoose has not done.

 

[rinku]

FF&S spent a few pages explaining which technologies were present in the OTU and which ones were not, These were clearly identified.

This is something Mongoose has not done.

Not totally true. High Guard clearly separates normal tech from exotic, with pretty clear instructions that everything in the Exotic Technology chapter is at the Referee's discretion. Any Referee is free to accept some of them or none of them.

Anything in the TL18+ bracket is ancient artifact territory, or maybe a protoype mcguffin.

For me, the only really problematic tech in the chapter are the deflector screens and to a lesser extent the Energy Shields being as low tech as they are, considering Black and White globes. As sub-TL16 things you would expect deflectors to be in wide use, which is not the case in Charted Space.

So those I'm happy to set aside as "if you want to run a setting with them" stuff. The alternate FTLs are all fine; JUST because Jump Drive proved possible at TL9 does not inherently mean other ways can't be developed at higher techs. We already have the example of portal travel from Secrets.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Not totally true. High Guard clearly separates normal tech from exotic, with pretty clear instructions that everything in the Exotic Technology chapter is at the Referee's discretion. Any Referee is free to accept some of them or none of them.

And then the setting introduces exotic technology as part of the setting... the Hop drive and collectors are baseline within Charted Space now.

Anything in the TL18+ bracket is ancient artifact territory, or maybe a protoype mcguffin.

In MgT 1e meson guns were exotic technology... and I reiterate collectors.

For me, the only really problematic tech in the chapter are the deflector screens and to a lesser extent the Energy Shields being as low tech as they are, considering Black and White globes. As sub-TL16 things you would expect deflectors to be in wide use, which is not the case in Charted Space.

And yet energy screens are now canon for personal use.

(Having said that... if deflectors are a gravitic tech, warping local space to bend light a little and projectiles a lot, I can see it)

So those I'm happy to set aside as "if you want to run a setting with them" stuff. The alternate FTLs are all fine; JUST because Jump Drive proved possible at TL9 does not inherently mean other ways can't be developed at higher techs. We already have the example of portal travel from Secrets.

In the current version of High Guard there are technologies that are now part of the setting - Hop drive, collectors - and technologies have been introduced to the setting that have never existed in the setting - ion weapons.