What got me thinking along these lines was how it's done in Pendragon. That has the ability to add to characteristics as a training option, but Size can't increase that way after Age 21 and other stats can't normally increase once ageing starts (usually 35. Although Pendragon doesn't have mental stats either - just personality ones and skills).
Why is Aging worse in Traveller than in 2300 AD?
- Thread starter Terry Mixon
- Start date
TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
Personality changes over time in Pendragon - it is just two-ended in opposing pairs, so they can all go up and down. Passions, Traits and Skills change with Experience checks. Characteristics are changed with Training during Winter Phase. In Runequest (classic), there was actually a big emphasis on raising Characteristic scores (aside from Size and Intelligence) through training. This training would actually require monetary funding - and actually has more in common with classic Traveller rules than many people assume.
I think in Traveller, the big difference is the use of technology to artificially raise Characteristic and Skill scores - which again directly links improvements to wealth.
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Yeah, I only mentioned the mental side of things in Pendragon to be complete. Really, it doesn't have an equivalent to INT or EDU loss. OTOH, Pendragon characters typically die or retire before 50 anyway.
Medical hacks to boost characteristics are more likely than not to be bad for long term health, too. We can already see that a little in the rule for medical treatment penalised if lower TL than any enhancements installed. A TL16 super cyborg pretty much has to hang around a TL16 world or they'll eventually become unrepairable.
Medical hacks to boost characteristics are more likely than not to be bad for long term health, too. We can already see that a little in the rule for medical treatment penalised if lower TL than any enhancements installed. A TL16 super cyborg pretty much has to hang around a TL16 world or they'll eventually become unrepairable.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Or just keep a TL-16 workshop, robotics laboratory, or autodoc on your ship. The whole ship doesn't need to be TL-16, just the part that fixes the super-cyborg...
That will help, but supplies will be consumed. Periodic returns to the TL16 planet are likely to be required every so often.
That is also one of the reasons somewhere like Vincennes or Darrian can't affect much far away from them. They can make *better* TL15 or lower stuff that can be maintained elsewhere, and that's important, but anything that requires TL16 has to come back there to be replaced, or repaired if TL16 parts run out.
That is also one of the reasons somewhere like Vincennes or Darrian can't affect much far away from them. They can make *better* TL15 or lower stuff that can be maintained elsewhere, and that's important, but anything that requires TL16 has to come back there to be replaced, or repaired if TL16 parts run out.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I'd bet that the TL16 ship parts will be available in Class A yards within a dozen parsecs. It will spread, though slowly.
Adjacent subsectors, sure. And over time, yes. But until it uplifts other hubs to TL16, there will be limits. Plus, I'd think only TL15 starports would be able to manage it at all. That seems like a fair thing.
My understanding is that Vincennes reaching TL16 is too recent for that to have happened much before things fall apart. And Darrian itself has well described limitations on its TL16.
Because the Imperium (especially the armed forces) is established as having a normal limit of TL15, the TL15 ships don't run into the problem, but the same principles could apply in other polities that have a lower established TL.
Aslan are usually presented as TL14. The Zho are as well, but may be more like 14.5 and seem to have plenty of TL15 worlds. In both cases I'd expect a TL15 ship may struggle to get repairs, even aside from different standards and alien designs.
Edit: Okay, Vincennes clicked over to TL16 in 1090. So by any stretch of the imagination is only in the early stages of it. If we compare TL5, which clicks over to TL6 with Atomics, Imperial Navy (etc) is late WW2, but Vincennes is early space age.
My understanding is that Vincennes reaching TL16 is too recent for that to have happened much before things fall apart. And Darrian itself has well described limitations on its TL16.
Because the Imperium (especially the armed forces) is established as having a normal limit of TL15, the TL15 ships don't run into the problem, but the same principles could apply in other polities that have a lower established TL.
Aslan are usually presented as TL14. The Zho are as well, but may be more like 14.5 and seem to have plenty of TL15 worlds. In both cases I'd expect a TL15 ship may struggle to get repairs, even aside from different standards and alien designs.
Edit: Okay, Vincennes clicked over to TL16 in 1090. So by any stretch of the imagination is only in the early stages of it. If we compare TL5, which clicks over to TL6 with Atomics, Imperial Navy (etc) is late WW2, but Vincennes is early space age.
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Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I can agree with this.
Having said all that, OF COURSE the Navy is going to secure as many advanced ships and tech as they can. Even if it can't have any realistic effect on fleet sized matters yet, they'll be super keen to test new prototype ideas, put into production designs already prototyped at TL15 and assemble special mission ships. But numbers of all that stuff will necessarily be small... brand new ship designs take a while, then need to be tested a lot before production can start. If a campaign is pre-FFW, I'd not expect to see too much, but you'd also expect the FFW would have given a kick to development in this area, so that era up to Rebellion is probably the brief golden age of Vincennes' superiority. We know they are badly affected by the reaction against Virus, so if that is part of your campaign their bubble bursts.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Not part of my campaign, thank goodness. Never liked Virus.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
Vincennes has been TL16 for quite a while in 1105, it is borderline TL17 by TNE (at least until Mongoose retcons it)
By 1125 quite a few Imperial worlds have achieved TL16, they wouldn't stay that way for long though
Darrian is mislabeled, it is a TL13 world that imports TL15 stuff from the Imperium. It has relic TL16 tech that it no longer understands or can produce, and is likely why they have such a good trade deal with the Imperium.
As things currently stand in the OTU now there is an inflection point. The events of Singularity could lead to a very different future for the Third Imperium.
By 1125 quite a few Imperial worlds have achieved TL16, they wouldn't stay that way for long though
Darrian is mislabeled, it is a TL13 world that imports TL15 stuff from the Imperium. It has relic TL16 tech that it no longer understands or can produce, and is likely why they have such a good trade deal with the Imperium.
As things currently stand in the OTU now there is an inflection point. The events of Singularity could lead to a very different future for the Third Imperium.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
An inaccurate UWP Code??? Say it ain't so!Vincennes has been TL16 for quite a while in 1105, it is borderline TL17 by TNE (at least until Mongoose retcons it)
By 1125 quite a few Imperial worlds have achieved TL16, they wouldn't stay that way for long though
Darrian is mislabeled, it is a TL13 world that imports TL15 stuff from the Imperium. It has relic TL16 tech that it no longer understands or can produce, and is likely why they have such a good trade deal with the Imperium.
As things currently stand in the OTU now there is an inflection point. The events of Singularity could lead to a very different future for the Third Imperium.
Mongoose would never let that happen!
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
It was GDW, they had Darrian as TL16 and then:
"Darrian itself is an old decaying world depending on its past as a resource; art objects are a major export, although strictly controlled. Many local buildings and complexes are tech level G, but the technology to maintain them has been lost."
"Darrian itself is an old decaying world depending on its past as a resource; art objects are a major export, although strictly controlled. Many local buildings and complexes are tech level G, but the technology to maintain them has been lost."
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
The Maghiz happened almost 2,000 years ago. Given the maintenance rules in Traveller, none of their TL-16 stuff should function anymore. So, how are they still TL-16? All of that infrastructure should be gone.
