What does TL mean?

[MasterGwydion]

I found this while scrapping through Hard Times. Thought it might help with defining TL.

 

[ross]

This is definitely the case. Being aware of other technologies while being unable to support them or construct them has lead to some interesting things in our small civilizations.

 

[hopsnbaer]

Cargo Cult.

 

[MasterGwydion]

It means that people can have access to any TL as long as there is interstellar trade. It is merely the upper limit of local manufacturing for the world.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I thought it meant Transylvania, Left-handed.

 

[ross]

It means that people can have access to any TL as long as there is interstellar trade. It is merely the upper limit of local manufacturing for the world.

The system gets wonky when you have an Imperial Naval Base, nominally TL12-15 depending on your continuity, on a TL10 world, and really within about Jump-4 of any Imperium military base. The moment you can offload an automated factory from a cargo hold the technology level should increase to at least TL12 very quickly. At least IMTU. Once you have the ability to throw raw materials in one end and get technology from the other the system stops making sense.

 

[MasterGwydion]

The system gets wonky when you have an Imperial Naval Base, nominally TL12-15 depending on your continuity, on a TL10 world, and really within about Jump-4 of any Imperium military base. The moment you can offload an automated factory from a cargo hold the technology level should increase to at least TL12 very quickly. At least IMTU. Once you have the ability to throw raw materials in one end and get technology from the other the system stops making sense.

I have always felt that most of the planets in Traveller have artificially low tech levels for the amount of trade that is supposed to be occurring. Never figured out why that is. I just kind of ignore it now. Mostly... lol

 

[Condottiere]

That would be the general industrial base.

You could have someone in his garage, hammering out an antimatter power plant.

 

[collins355]

It means that people can have access to any TL as long as there is interstellar trade. It is merely the upper limit of local manufacturing for the world.

Yes, and this section of CT/Striker illustrates how to work this in practice...

 

[ross]

I have always felt that most of the planets in Traveller have artificially low tech levels for the amount of trade that is supposed to be occurring. Never figured out why that is. I just kind of ignore it now. Mostly... lol

Yes definitely. Anything within a single J4 of any naval base should be at least TL12. This is an interstellar polity that has been around for centuries. Simple economics would make it necessary. Of course that’s just one man’s opinion.