The Anagathics Roll to Start Using: Roll 10+ Every Term or just the Initial Term Started?

Yenaldlooshi

Cosmic Mongoose
On Core page 49 it states "At the start of any career term, a Traveller can start taking anagathics by rolling SOC 10+"

This sounds as if on any term you want, you can start taking them by making the roll, but it sounds like it is just one roll to start, as opposed to you must make that roll at the beginning of every term thereafter.

Of course there is the extreme cost, the prospect of going into debt, and having problems finding them after game play starts.

Does this match everyone's understanding of the rule mechanic?
 
Last edited:
If it's illegal, or questionably so, how about streetwise?
Not sure what you are asking/saying. I am talking about how on Core49 it discusses how characters can use Anagathics within chargen rules as written. It says you first have to make a roll to start using them (SOC 10+). Is that one time to start or every term thereafter?

I am not referring to role playing getting them after character generation is completed (ie streetwise).

Using the wording alone, I am inclined to think it is just one roll to start, otherwise it will never make any sense, even for a Noble with the funds to try to use them because they would just lose the benefit almost every time they ever started them. With all the other negatives, that would push these rules into the realm of wasted wording as it is not feasible otherwise.
 
Anagathics seem to be one of those game mechanics that are disruptive, and whose legality seems questionable.

Whether that has changed under Mongoose, seems a little unclear.

Doesn't seem something that Imperium institutions hand out as perquisites, and obtaining them seems something that characters have to do on their own.

I tend to view them like cocaine - anyone can obtain them, but usually it seems restricted to the higher tiers of society, and if you are a regular user, you'd want to be able to secure a reliable supply, that isn't too watered down.
 
I take it to mean you found a supply and can take them every term. It doesnt make sense to me to have to make a 10+ every term. I have a character that I have not played yet, but will be starting with Cr400,000 in debt from various sources and is getting desperate as he just took his last dose.
 
I take it to mean you found a supply and can take them every term. It doesnt make sense to me to have to make a 10+ every term. I have a character that I have not played yet, but will be starting with Cr400,000 in debt from various sources and is getting desperate as he just took his last dose.
just remember... you never catch the dragon...
 
Anagathics seem to be one of those game mechanics that are disruptive, and whose legality seems questionable.

Whether that has changed under Mongoose, seems a little unclear.

Doesn't seem something that Imperium institutions hand out as perquisites, and obtaining them seems something that characters have to do on their own.

I tend to view them like cocaine - anyone can obtain them, but usually it seems restricted to the higher tiers of society, and if you are a regular user, you'd want to be able to secure a reliable supply, that isn't too watered down.
This is pretty much how I thought of it since LBB days, but for my money, this actually has changed under Mongoose in a way that makes it interesting, has sound game mechanics and create wonderful possible conflict for the user. Here are my findings:

1) none of this works if you read the rules as meaning roll 10+ every term as opposed to Roll 10+ start on any term you want to begin. If you are a ref that requires it every term, then you might as well take a black marker to your book on the whole anagathic rules section and say your players are not allowed to use them period, that is the same as saying they must Roll SOC 10+ every term, pay Cr25K x 1D, oh but if they don't make the SOC 10+, at the beginning of the next term, they they have to age anyway, but now with all the money down the drain. It should be tough and costly, but not so tough and costly that you can never get the benefit from taking the tough and costly choice.
2) If you do this and are not a noble, the debt will set you up to be truly messed with by the referee once in game. I'd be thinking "Organ Repo" or something evil.
3) Even if you are a noble, it will like wipe out each of your 3 cash rolls and then some at a rate of one cash roll per term spent using anagathics. Better get that rank 5+ and have a gambling skill too. Do that and you might even muster with a little cash left in your pocket and no debt.
4) You are not going to see characters really go to 200+ years using this because the advancement roll limit will have you kick out of every career available except maybe drifter if the GM allows it. At most they might be able to squeeze off maybe 3-4 more terms using anagathics which creates so much medical cost/debt.
5)once they muster and start game, they have 30 days to locate and buy their next "hit". If it's me reffing, I'd say they already have a source from where they are from, but then every 30 days scratch Cr20K. They better hope for big scores, which is what I would want them to go for anyway. Remember there is a Cr10K limit on initial gear so no buying up extra doses... then maybe one day "ooops, I think I ran out man. Sorry! My cousin in the next SECTOR might have some..."

What's more, being noble and on anagathics can truly make you a target if your titles are inherited. Just ask the 3I Imperial family which is rife with anagathics.
 
Mongoose is able to retcon stuff at a whim.

Anagathics as presented need to go away and be replaced with rejuvenation medical treatments, using gene therapy and the like to reverse cellular aging.
 
I'd say for the vast majority of users, they'd be like me and modern plumbing.

In other words, no plans to voluntarily not be in a position where I couldn't access that.

For the uppercrust, especially titled, the implication was that you couldn't obviously stand out with having an extended lifespan.

How this actually works out in social dynamics, in Traveller, I really couldn't say, but game effect would be that the player characters are more likely to end up needing money to maintain this particular mortgage.

Generally speaking, institutions don't tolerate their employees being in debt, especially if they're filling a sensitive position.

I can't really speak to the financial book keeping aspect of it, but the potential to disappear in the teeming trillions of inhabitants in Chartered Space seems immense, and seemingly untrackable.
 
On Core page 49 it states "At the start of any career term, a Traveller can start taking anagathics by rolling SOC 10+"
The answer is in the title...

One roll to START taking it, no more SOC rolls.

The continuing cost is in the next paragraphs:
Core'22, p49:
Anagathics have two drawbacks. First, the combined risk of trying to obtain a reliable supply and the disruption to their biochemistry means the Traveller must make two Survival checks in each term instead of one. If either or both checks are failed, the Traveller suffers a Mishap.

Second, the drugs cost 1D x Cr25000 for each term the Traveller uses the drugs. These costs are paid out of the Traveller’s eventual cash benefits. If the Traveller cannot pay these bills, they go into debt – see Medical Bills.
 
The addiction element needs to go away as too big of a problem. Being illegal is enough of an issue, every purchase is a crime and you need to do them constantly never knowing if the stuff you buy is real or even the same as what you are addicted to or a police sting operation. Not to mention needing to change your whole identity every few years for being too young for your age. At some point you get revealed as a "Methuselah" and then for the rest of your life you are being hunted.

The upper classes would not tolerate this, they would insist it being legal so THEY could have their longevity regardless of price and be able to look down on the short lived masses. Now individual worlds might have it be illegal but not the empire itself and on those worlds the elites would still use it but only be charged if they were public about it or had some bigger crime the government didn't want to reveal (Epstein for example).

The empire might prohibit the interstellar trading of it, making it local production or black market on worlds too low in TL to produce it or where it was formally illegal. But they wouldn't make it illegal all together.
 
Mongoose is able to retcon stuff at a whim.

Anagathics as presented need to go away and be replaced with rejuvenation medical treatments, using gene therapy and the like to reverse cellular aging.
Or the nanorobot treatments in the Robot Handbook. I like them a lot. They have tech level limitation and are only effective for so long. They are expensive, but affordable enough over the timeframe for players to manage.

1755775684905.png
 
Last edited:
Why are anagathics illegal in the OTU? It is a drug with only medicinal benefits, but I have seen no indication that anagathics can be legal by prescription in the OTU. No one can get high on anagathics. Also, historically, in the US anyhow, drugs have only ever been made illegal to persecute poor but plentiful racial/cultural minorities. So, what racial/cultural minority were the laws concerning anagathics targeting?

Edit - Just saying, look at all of the billionaire class on Earth? Are you telling Me most of them wouldn't be using anagathics if they existed?
 
Last edited:
It's a badly kept secret that the billionaires are actively financing research on life extension.

Whether having a regular blood transfusion from your offspring has any actual effect, we'll eventually find out.
 
Back
Top