Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Darn you Colin, you may make me buy that pdf... Curse you! :wink:
What about an every day life supplement?
- Thread starter praios
- Start date
Some roleplaying games have "everyday life" chapters or even entire
supplements, for example GURPS Terradyne or the German game Lod-
land, and I like to use such material whenever it fits into my setting.
However, all of this material was written for specific cultures, usually on
a single planet or within a single system, and none attempted to cover
a wider range of cultural diversity and technological development, and I
still doubt that it would make much sense to give a very superficial and
general overview of something the size of the Third Imperium.
That said, a supplement about everyday life on a specific planet / in a
specific society of the Third Imperium could of course be interesting and
useful.
Just let me know when something like this for a TL 9/10 water world is
published. :wink:
supplements, for example GURPS Terradyne or the German game Lod-
land, and I like to use such material whenever it fits into my setting.
However, all of this material was written for specific cultures, usually on
a single planet or within a single system, and none attempted to cover
a wider range of cultural diversity and technological development, and I
still doubt that it would make much sense to give a very superficial and
general overview of something the size of the Third Imperium.
That said, a supplement about everyday life on a specific planet / in a
specific society of the Third Imperium could of course be interesting and
useful.
Just let me know when something like this for a TL 9/10 water world is
published. :wink:
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
DFW said:
Well, depends on the species, some human food isn't likely to agree with some races.
Though that's rather general, not all humans like music. Some cultures may be against music in any sort of electronic form or some such. And of course not all planets are human dominated.
barnest2 said:Bugger you
No, I probably cant with Music... but there other things that can be missed. Such a culture as I mentioned above would never have time pieces for instance...
Yes, in star trek settings I never saw them use a timepiece. But, the exception proves the rule in this case too.
The point I was making is that even though there might be .001% of human cultures that won't use jump drive if they achieve that TL, in no way dimishes the usefulness of having it in the game as a tool for the GM & players.
I'll go nowThis is what I mean with "general" and "superficial" description, I reallyDFW said:
would not pay money for a supplement that contains only informations I
can easily come up with myself because they are obvious. :wink:
What would be interesting for me is what the clothes look like and what
colours are the most common, what kind of food the people of the pla-
net prefer and what their table manners are like, whether their music
sounds more like hard rock or more like Tibetan temple music and what
instruments they use, and so on.
Edit.: As for a human culture which does not like music, the hard line
Puritans did come very, very close, and I doubt that even the much
more moderate Amish would find the use of MP3 technology acceptable.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
rust said:
That level of detail might be too much for me (for you?). Styles of clothing and music will change, even within a culture or even a city, within a few years (potentially). I think it might be easier to come up with a 1d6 or 2d6 table with whatever options you want and then roll it as needed.
I also don't think that when you get to that level of detail, you are representing Culture rather than Tech Level. Culture is incredibly more diverse that general Tech Level discussions.
I am not sure to which degree culture and technology can be separated,Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
to me they seem very interdependent, with each new development in
technology enabling related new developments in culture, while culture in
turn does influence technological development. Therefore I tend to see
technology as a basic branch of culture, not as something different from
culture.
As a simple example, the colours of the clothes worn in a society depend
a lot on the dyes developed by the chemical industry of that society, but
which dyes are developed is also very much influenced by the culture of
that society.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I agree, that absolutely can influence each other.
Take the venerable Grav Belt.
I would expect a Grav Belt built by American culture to look quite different from one built by Arabic culture, but in the end, the idea is that the Grav Belt becomes common at what TL? At what TL does the Grav Belt (and the air/raft) eliminate the need for paved roads (if ever)? Whether the Grav Belt looks like a jet pack or a flying carpet is secondary to me over that first consideration.
Once I know that Grav Belts are common, then I can extrapolate what that does to the society and then throw in cultural influences as well.
Grav Belt is a TL-12 device with a cost of Cr 100,000. So at TL-12 it is a rich man's device.
By TL-13 it should be "common" for everyone to have one, at least one per family.
By TL-14, everyone should have one and kids might use them to go to and from school.
At TL-15, they are so common that life without one is almost unknown.
SO, given that, I can then say how my culture would influence that. In my Arabic culture, I can decide that flying carpets are what they went for in the inital designs. By TL-13, they can be rolled up and stored in pretty small spaces. By TL-14, roads are probably completely obsolete and everyone has a flying carpet; EVERYONE, even the kids, once they are old enough to learn how to use it; thus Flyer-0 skill as a High Tech skill makes perfect sense, everyone uses it every day.
If I chose to have a world with a stronger American Influence, then instead of the carpet, the Grav Belt is just that a harness type thing that one person can wear. It still becomes common at the same tech levels, but it just looks different. Same performance and game stats though.
Now, I envision a culture that rejects gravitic technology; OK, I just throw this part of the "everyday life" out and keep ground cars and roads, they just become incredibly efficient. I can deal with leaving something out for a particular culture, but just understanding how all the different Technologies fit together at a given TL is what I haven't figured out how to do. Although, we keep up this thread much longer and we might have it figured out, at least at the generic level.
Take the venerable Grav Belt.
I would expect a Grav Belt built by American culture to look quite different from one built by Arabic culture, but in the end, the idea is that the Grav Belt becomes common at what TL? At what TL does the Grav Belt (and the air/raft) eliminate the need for paved roads (if ever)? Whether the Grav Belt looks like a jet pack or a flying carpet is secondary to me over that first consideration.
Once I know that Grav Belts are common, then I can extrapolate what that does to the society and then throw in cultural influences as well.
Grav Belt is a TL-12 device with a cost of Cr 100,000. So at TL-12 it is a rich man's device.
By TL-13 it should be "common" for everyone to have one, at least one per family.
By TL-14, everyone should have one and kids might use them to go to and from school.
At TL-15, they are so common that life without one is almost unknown.
SO, given that, I can then say how my culture would influence that. In my Arabic culture, I can decide that flying carpets are what they went for in the inital designs. By TL-13, they can be rolled up and stored in pretty small spaces. By TL-14, roads are probably completely obsolete and everyone has a flying carpet; EVERYONE, even the kids, once they are old enough to learn how to use it; thus Flyer-0 skill as a High Tech skill makes perfect sense, everyone uses it every day.
If I chose to have a world with a stronger American Influence, then instead of the carpet, the Grav Belt is just that a harness type thing that one person can wear. It still becomes common at the same tech levels, but it just looks different. Same performance and game stats though.
Now, I envision a culture that rejects gravitic technology; OK, I just throw this part of the "everyday life" out and keep ground cars and roads, they just become incredibly efficient. I can deal with leaving something out for a particular culture, but just understanding how all the different Technologies fit together at a given TL is what I haven't figured out how to do. Although, we keep up this thread much longer and we might have it figured out, at least at the generic level.
For my desert world setting I first made two lists, one with the important
technologies and devices and one with the important everyday situations
(work, household chores, holidays, etc.). Then I created an average fami-
ly, parents and kids, and made notes how each of the technologies would
affect each of the everyday situations of the members of this family, ba-
sically a normal day's journal of life in my setting. As a result I got a ra-
ther good impression how the various technologies would interact under
the specific conditions of my setting, which made it a lot easier for me to
describe everyday life in this setting.
technologies and devices and one with the important everyday situations
(work, household chores, holidays, etc.). Then I created an average fami-
ly, parents and kids, and made notes how each of the technologies would
affect each of the everyday situations of the members of this family, ba-
sically a normal day's journal of life in my setting. As a result I got a ra-
ther good impression how the various technologies would interact under
the specific conditions of my setting, which made it a lot easier for me to
describe everyday life in this setting.
