Why is Aging worse in Traveller than in 2300 AD?

[MonsterX]

It's more relevant to Melee combat than SOC though.

I don't know. High SOC people can sometimes make you feel really bad when they say mean things.

 

[Condottiere]

Punch, with augmented battle dress.

 

[Geir]

It's more relevant to Melee combat than SOC though.

Fight?
I have people for that.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Yeah, unless you have a high SOC because you are a famous fighter, you have people for that. Hell, professional fighters have bodyguards too...

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Terry Mixon]

Yeah, unless you have a high SOC because you are a famous fighter, you have people for that. Hell, professional fighters have bodyguards too...

 

[CordwainerFish]

Try to punch someone with your knighthood.

A knight doesn't punch someone. A knight slaps someone with their glove then arranges to meet them across the river in New Jersey.

 

[MasterGwydion]

A knight doesn't punch someone. A knight slaps someone with their glove then arranges to meet them across the river in New Jersey.

Or, if they are a peasant, simply have them executed for being rude.

 

[Condottiere]

Punch has quickdraw advantage.

 

[rinku]

Knighthood moves at the speed of entitlement, though...

 

[CordwainerFish]

Knighthood moves at the speed of entitlement, though...

Knighthood moves at the speed of 2.236 squares per turn.

 

[Condottiere]

Knights default to hooks.

Straight punches are harder.

 

[Zarpaulek]

Charted Space is influenced by mid-20th century space opera like Trek and Wars, where privately owned FTL starships with artificial gravity are commonplace but human biology is mostly unchanged save for rare exceptions.

2300 AD has more cyberpunk/"hard" sci-fi influences. There's no gravity technology, most ships need big rockets to escape atmosphere, but biotech is very advanced and many people have DNAMs and/or cybernetic implants.

 

[Bryn the 2300AD guy]

Charted Space is influenced by mid-20th century space opera like Trek and Wars, where privately owned FTL starships with artificial gravity are commonplace but human biology is mostly unchanged save for rare exceptions.

2300 AD has more cyberpunk/"hard" sci-fi influences. There's no gravity technology, most ships need big rockets to escape atmosphere, but biotech is very advanced and many people have DNAMs and/or cybernetic implants.

The latter point is not true in the original canon.

In the 1987 1st edition, there is stated to be no genetic engineering of people - it was something they hadn't cracked and was still experimental.

In the Colonial Atlas, Billy Connor's write-up of King was very messed up (see here). He generated a gas giant, but didn't read the rules correctly. With such a high gravity (the highest possible in the system, involving rolling all 6's etc.) he invented the DNAM to cover that circumstance only. The DNAM virus' effect was roughly 50% successfully transfected, 25% failure with only minor side effects, 25% lethal or crippled. It clearly wasn't meant for general use.

The Earth/ Cybertech SB didn't change this - retroviral transfection remains extremely lethal.

 

[Zarpaulek]

The latter point is not true in the original canon.

In the 1987 1st edition, there is stated to be no genetic engineering of people - it was something they hadn't cracked and was still experimental.

In the Colonial Atlas, Billy Connor's write-up of King was very messed up (see here). He generated a gas giant, but didn't read the rules correctly. With such a high gravity (the highest possible in the system, involving rolling all 6's etc.) he invented the DNAM to cover that circumstance only. The DNAM virus' effect was roughly 50% successfully transfected, 25% failure with only minor side effects, 25% lethal or crippled. It clearly wasn't meant for general use.

The Earth/ Cybertech SB didn't change this - retroviral transfection remains extremely lethal.

And in the edition where aging rolls start at 50 getting a DNAM safely is just a END 4+ or 6+ check.

I'd expect a telomere extension to be even easier on the body than chromosome-level GRS.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The latter point is not true in the original canon.

It is for the provolutionists...

"Provolution genetically and mechanlcally enhances its agents, but, because of limited resources and unconcern for the individual, worries little about side affects. Provolution agents are often powerful, but they pay for if in terns of shortened life expectancy, constant pain, and/or mental instability. Also, if is believed that many of societies missing persons end up as experiments on Provolution lab tables every year."

More about the provolution movement in Earth/Cybertech and Rotten to the Core. I am not fighting with the formatting of the pdfs anymore.

I really wish they had scanned this stuff properly.

 

[BelleEpoqueTraveller]

I think Geir said to treat TL as an attribute to get the appropriate modifier, then add that modifier + the modifier for SOC, then add it all to your Aging rolls.

I like it too. The start point for checking for aging has seemed too low to me since I started learning Traveller, and while I'll have to clear it with my prospective referee this seems like a very neat way to incorporate the effects of tech and ability to get better healthcare (as well as self-care).

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

It was suggested that SOC be used as a modifier and I can buy into that logic.

I'm working on my own system and am using TL (treated as a characteristic) and the higher mod of Soc and End when rolling the aging effect. TL and Soc also increases (or decreases) the age at which rolling starts.

As an example a typical character for my personal setting would be TL 9-11 and Soc 6-8, this would have them start rolling at age 42 at the end of their 6th term. At TL 2 barbarian "prince" (Soc 12) would start rolling at age 26 at the end of term 2. A TL 15 Soc 5 would be age 46 and term 7 for beginning rolling.

Now if your barbarian gets off world into a higher TL culture BEFORE he starts rolling he will start rolling at the age of that TL with the rolling benefits it has (though his Soc will likely suffer as his being a barbarian Prince isn't high Soc off his world). Your TL 15 character stranded on a TL 4 world is going to start aging based on that TL.