Traveller Needs a "What is Charted Space?" Book

[actionman]

Felbrigg Napoleon Heriott, creator of the superb "Behind the Claw" podcast.

Mongoose should hire Felbrigg to be on their Let's Play team.

 

[actionman]

Of course the starting place would be the Third Imperium wouldn't it. We got a great history of it, but so little detail on how it actually works which probably would have doubled or more the size of the Third Imperium book. The closest was that Gurps: Nobles book but even that was perfunctory in many spots.

Things would be a lot easier if Mongoose would discard the idea that the Imperium only rules the space between the stars and state that the Imperium is an empire, its noble fiefholders rule planets, and beneath them the planetary governments are allowed autonomy to a greater or lesser degree. Imperial nobles can intervene, but they usually don't because managing the affairs of a planetary population is better left to the planetary government, and when planets joined the Imperium most of them were able to negotiate keeping their governments and a degree of autonomy. Imperial noble planetary fiefholders are responsible for 1) enforcing Imperial law, 2) ensuring the flow of tax revenue, 3) ensuring trade is not impeded, and 4) ensuring that planetary or interplanetary conflicts don't become too destructive. It could be explained on one page. The tax revenue must flow.

 

[Micky]

responsible for 1) enforcing Imperial law, 2) ensuring the flow of tax revenue, 3) ensuring trade is not impeded, and 4) ensuring that planetary or interplanetary conflicts don't become too destructive. It could be explained on one page. The tax revenue must flow.

haha! Awesome! You need a job as an editor?


I'm at fifty something pages entering a first edit of a chapter detailing the multiple ministries of the Imperial bureaucracy which are the tools the nobility have to manage the Imperium. Covering those point you raised (as well as others)

Some noble isn't out there with hat in hand collecting taxes.. he is just responsibility for making sure it happens. The Ministry of Economics is probably the most important of those ministries for the reason you said. My first draft of that ministry alone is roughly 12 pages. There is a lot to explain and detail. The income must flow.... all those nice shiny toys must be paid for... I provided rather a stark example ... not even counting the far greater expenditures needed for supporting the SPA and IISS.

'....the collection of credits which are needed to fund the mindboggling expenses of the Imperium. How mindboggling? Take for example the maintenance needs of the Imperial Navy just for upkeep of its Tigress class Dreadnoughts. Upkeep alone on just that one class of starship costs the Imperium over thirty-five billion credits a year.'

 

[Endie]

haha! Awesome! You need a job as an editor?


I'm at fifty something pages entering a first edit of a chapter detailing the multiple ministries of the Imperial bureaucracy which are the tools the nobility have to manage the Imperium. Covering those point you raised (as well as others)

Some noble isn't out there with hat in hand collecting taxes.. he is just responsibility for making sure it happens. The Ministry of Economics is probably the most important of those ministries for the reason you said. My first draft of that ministry alone is roughly 12 pages. There is a lot to explain and detail. The income must flow.... all those nice shiny toys must be paid for... I provided rather a stark example ... not even counting the far greater expenditures needed for supporting the SPA and IISS.

'....the collection of credits which are needed to fund the mindboggling expenses of the Imperium. How mindboggling? Take for example the maintenance needs of the Imperial Navy just for upkeep of its Tigress class Dreadnoughts. Upkeep alone on just that one class of starship costs the Imperium over thirty-five billion credits a year.'

Thirty-five billion credits is slightly less than one quarter of a day's GWP for Pourne, an unimportant hellworld planet of only TL10, not industrial or rich, with less than a billion population with a good (but not amazing) infrastructure rating and decent (but not great) Efficiency.

Browne, a nearby poor, high population TL 9 world (again, not with an industrial code) with indifferent Efficiency and a B-Class starport generates that every six minutes in GWP. It's not even a noticeable amount to Regina subsector, let alone the Third Imperium.

Edit: I'm deliberately not getting into the discussion of what percentage of GWP is taken by world governments or the Imperium, in taxes or tariffs. But when 35 billion represents 0.002% of GWP of a single, poor high-pop world then even a 2% tariff is covering it a thousand times over...

 

[Micky]

Thirty-five billion credits is slightly less than one quarter of a day's GWP for Pourne, an unimportant hellworld planet of only TL10, not industrial or rich, with less than a billion population with a good (but not amazing) infrastructure rating and decent (but not great) Efficiency.

Browne, a nearby poor, high population TL 9 world (again, not with an industrial code) with indifferent Efficiency and a B-Class starport generates that every six minutes in GWP. It's not even a noticeable amount to Regina subsector, let alone the Third Imperium.

Edit: I'm deliberately not getting into the discussion of what percentage of GWP is taken by world governments or the Imperium, in taxes or tariffs. But when 35 billion represents 0.002% of GWP of a single, poor high-pop world then even a 2% tarrif is covering it a thousand times over...

exactly the point I was trying to make without modelling the whole of Imperial economics. Which would be fun to do, probably less so to read haha.

It was an example of large number but one that is such a minuscule part of the overall budget. Perhaps I should have, instead of the Tigress, made mention of the hundreds of billions working for the Imperium (360 billion at 2% of Imperium population using current standards). Wages alone for the Imperium employed would go into the trillions. The point being... the Imperium needs a massive influx of credits every year or else it doesn't have that nice large Imperial fleet much less afford to subsidize free trade or maintain the huge IISS presence it does. It was a merely an example to show just how much the Imperium needs to bring in without making a full blown economic dissertation out of it.

 

[Anstett]

. It was a merely an example to show just how much the Imperium needs to bring in without making a full blown economic dissertation out of it.

Need enough for game flavor without being a simulation.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Thirty-five billion credits is slightly less than one quarter of a day's GWP for Pourne, an unimportant hellworld planet of only TL10, not industrial or rich, with less than a billion population with a good (but not amazing) infrastructure rating and decent (but not great) Efficiency.

Browne, a nearby poor, high population TL 9 world (again, not with an industrial code) with indifferent Efficiency and a B-Class starport generates that every six minutes in GWP. It's not even a noticeable amount to Regina subsector, let alone the Third Imperium.

Edit: I'm deliberately not getting into the discussion of what percentage of GWP is taken by world governments or the Imperium, in taxes or tariffs. But when 35 billion represents 0.002% of GWP of a single, poor high-pop world then even a 2% tarrif is covering it a thousand times over...

Because it made sense to me, IMTU I have the purchase of goods taxed at 3% to keep the impact on trade low. 2% goes to the Imperium and 1% goes for the world.

 

[Terry Mixon]

exactly the point I was trying to make without modelling the whole of Imperial economics. Which would be fun to do, probably less so to read haha.

It might not be fun to read, but it would be hella useful.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Need enough for game flavor without being a simulation.

Talk about walking a tightrope.

 

[actionman]

You need a job as an editor?

Yes?

 

[rinku]

Current economics is enough of a black art and multidimensional shell game. I'm not sure Far Future economics needs to make sense to a 21st century gamer with opinions.

Very, very much YTU territory. IMHO best to just state that there's a large background economy that is only seen by the big players, and anyone down at street level sees THIS. Weak PC-centric rules, since they apply to player grade NPCs just as much as the PCs... but maybe not the ACTUAL average citizen or to the elite. Both of whom might exist in a base level of everything provided for them, just at different grades.

For that matter, the Galactic economy might be too big and complex for normal comprehension. Could essentially be multidimensional chess played out by specialist planet grade AIs. Or secret precogs. Or just unpredictable chaos in the mathematical sense.

 

[Condottiere]

Probably quantum mechanics.

We won't know what actually happened, until someone gets around to opening the box.