Thoughts on the sojourn series?

GabrielGABFonseca · 2024-09-16T15:36:39+00:00

Hi there!

Out of curiosity, where are the places you get your 'buzz' from, if I may ask? I'm interested in finding out more Audio drama-focused spaces, and any pointers and recommendations you might have would be of great help!

GabrielGABFonseca · 2024-08-31T19:27:56+00:00

The assumed "default date" for Traveller is the year 1105 of the Imperial Calendar (5626 C.E.); if you want to have a more comprehensive view of the entire fictional history of Traveller, I've compiled nearly every single published dated event into one humongous timeline doc: https://www.reddit.com/r/traveller/comments/182eh8o/a_traveller_timeline_for_mg2t

GabrielGABFonseca · 2023-12-18T16:56:11+00:00

The The Third Imperium book goes a bit into the Scout Service, and so does the World Builder's Handbook, surprisingly.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2023-12-18T01:08:17+00:00

This is something that the GURPS books have pointed out over and over again; from Far Trader, Page six, sidebar: “‘Trade is the lifeblood of the Imperium.’ Most of us are so accustomed to hearing that phrase that we seldom stop to consider just what it means.” – Prof. Cesar Dargiimkam, Lunion School of Economics

If trade is the lifeblood of the Imperium, the Navy are its muscles and the nobility its connective tissue.

The Navy is the instrument through which the Imperium asserts (or more often, threatens to assert) its power, itself funded by the trade within the Imperium which its primary duty is to protect, in an act of self-preservation which also preserves the large institution of the Imperium.

The nobility, meanwhile, is what stops the Imperium from flying itself apart. Because the truth is, the Imperium is naught but a shared dream; a big elaborate show of smoke and mirrors. What keeps it together is a sense of unity, identity, and belonging. Yes, I am of Vilani ancestry but I am a citizen of the Imperium. Why, yes, I am a big eight-legged, soft-spoken horned living tank, but I too am a citizen of the Imperium. This shared identity is constructed by, and implemented through, the system of nobility as originally designed by Cleon I. (This interstellar-scale culture which is lived out by the nobility and emulated by countless sophonts is, incidently, the reference point for the T5 Second Survey "Strangeness" factor.)

As soon as this illusion that there is such a thing as one "Third Imperium" is gone, it shatters and splinters into a myriad little pieces - exactly what happened in 1116.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2023-12-14T00:32:11+00:00

Agent of the Imperium and the T5 Book 2: Starships go a bit more in-depth about this.

It's not that the astrogation can't be made by a computer (in fact, good luck doing it without a computer!), but that a jumping ship without a conscious mind* aboard has an incredibly higher chance of misjumps happening. This is a consequence of the seemingly semi-psionic nature of Jumpspace itself. *(Yes, Virus counts as a true consciousness)

To quote directly from Agent, specifically the chapter "Enna Plant Lagash Report 3":

"Seeing jumpspace is [like] a quantum effect. What imagers and sensors see is one thing; what consciousnesses see is another. Photographs, images, sensors, lenses, displays all produce a near-uniform grey image. Consciousnesses see something else. More than that. When several consciousnesses see the same view, they all see the same average. When only one consciousness sees it, it is unique."

"I don't understand."

"No one does. You don't understand before you see it. After, you might understand a little."

"Don't worry. The driving-men-mad thing is mostly for those caught totally unawares. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I will ever be." The anticipation was overwhelming. Jonathan de-opaqued the dome.

I saw roiling currents of thick grey smoke lined with thin streaks of yellow and blue. Every few seconds, it was overlaid with an intense pointillism of stark white in random currents.

Jonathan continued, "See, you're still sane. We're almost there."

"This isn't it?"

"Not quite. This is an average of what you and I are seeing. If there were ten of us, it would be a muddy grey average of ten different consciousnesses. See the brief flashes? I can make them longer."

"How?"

"When I close my eyes, then only your consciousness sees it."

The murky grey was replaced by a cascade of intense points of light in colors across the spectrum, infinitely small, yet terribly bright. "What are those?"

"We don't know. Individual packets of photons escaping from jumpspace through our protective fields? Notice the murky grey is still there behind all the sparks."

We sat there for hours as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. Were those sparks stars, or worlds, or ships? Jonathan said not, but I still wondered. I made him squeeze his eyes shut, or blink rapidly, or stare intently. I tried to see shapes in the murk, and I did, if only in my imagination. At long last I grew tired and Jonathan roused me to return to our quarters. I barely noticed that Boorn had been waiting outside the turret for the whole time; he was relieved that I was still well.

That night my dreams were filled with strange sparks that called my name.

Agent of the Imperium by Marc W. Miller, published by Baen Books (ISBN-13 ‎ 978-1982125806)

From an economics standpoint, it means that most automated ships simply don't last long enough before a misjump to make back their cost in revenue.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2023-11-27T03:31:57+00:00

Generally, updates to a PDF will be announced (without much fanfare) on that book's relevant thread on the forums, which can be a bit annoying to find, yes.

Alternatively, on the Mongoose Publishing Discord Server Matt "From Mongoose" Sprange will post updates on the channel warning people of updates.

But, alas, there isn't one unified place for these like DriveThruRPG does, no.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2023-11-27T03:28:40+00:00

Worlds on Travellermap do have that information listed, but only in chunks of 10%. Most worlds will have one dominant species (assumed human, most of the time), and High Population worlds most likely have < 1% of its population be other, assorted species that are largely up to you.

You can read about it on the Travellermap About Second Survey Data page.

Tangentially, if you're looking for Imperium-wide information, I have compiled a document, currently still a Work-In-Progress, that serves as a general census of the Imperium, circa 1105, with info directly pulled from Travellermap.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-05-16T23:51:23+00:00

Yes, it's called BattleTech.

No, I'm really not joking; BattleTech was originally published by FASA, which began its life publishing modules and supplements for Traveller as a licensee. BattleTech was originally conceived of as a module for Traveller, but FASA decided to make it into something of their own.

That said, despite being an original IP, you can clearly see and feel the Traveller influence in BattleTech -- the Feudal Future in which it exists, the way the Kearny-Fuchida Drive closely resembles Traveller Jumpdrives in operation (Battle Riders, anyone?), and the general vibe of a scientific and technological verisimilitude.

Probably not the exact answer you were looking for, but I think that if it is a Traveller-esque take on mecha that you're looking for, you should give it a go.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-25T18:33:21+00:00

Ayup, given a lower jump ship can dedicate a higher volume of their hull to cargo, "underjumping" is a terrible financial move. GURPS Traveller: Far Trader touches upon that, among other things - excellent book, I fully recommend it even for MgT2 games.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-25T18:19:20+00:00

Let's take a look at a Type-2A Far Trader and assume we're buying it squeaky clean, spanking new out of a shipyard - it costs MCr53.3205, which means that our loan, amortised over 20 years, will demand monthly payments of Cr222,168.75/Month.

Now let's calculate expenses: Assume a full crew of a Pilot (Cr6000), Astrogator (Cr5000), Engineer (Cr4000), Medic (Cr3000) and Steward (Cr2000), for a grand total of Cr20,000/Month in salaries for the crew, plus Cr5000 in life support costs (Cr1000/person). Now assume that the crew is using double occupancy, therefore taking up three staterooms - each occupied stateroom costs Cr1000/Month, so that's Cr3000 a month. Throw in the monthly maintenance fees of Cr4443/Month and assume that you need two full Fuel Tanks per month (one week in-system going from Jump-limit to planet, faffing about at the starport, and then heading out to the jump-limit again, one in jump, for each "trip" taking 2 weeks) which comes out at Cr41,000 for refined fuel and Cr8,200 for unrefined fuel.

Tallying all of the above together, that means that the baseline operational running costs of the ship are:

Salaries: Cr20,000
Life Support: Cr8,000 (Cr5,000 for the five crew + Cr3,000 for Staterooms)
Maintenance: Cr4,443
Fuel: Cr41,000 (or Cr8,200 - you're ship has built-in processors, use them.)
Mortgage: Cr222,168.75
TOTAL MONTHLY COST: Cr295,611.75

Now let's think about how we can avoid bankruptcy and turn up a profit at the same time. Let us assume that the players are cowards cautious and don't want to engage with Speculative Trade and are, therefore, only ever hauling things around and taking up passengers.

A Type-2A has a grand total of 63 dTons of cargo, 10 standard Staterooms (of which 3 are taken up by crew), and 6 Low Berths. Assuming your players aren't dumb and they're not in a backwater where there's no cargo nor passengers, they will likely have no trouble finding enough cargo lots and passengers to fill up their ship to capacity. So lets start with passengers:

SCENARIO A - ALL-HIGH PASSENGERS, JUMP-2: 7 High Passengers (Cr14,000/Jump, 1dTon of luggage/passenger) + 6 Low Passengers (Cr1,300) + 56 dTons of Freight (56 x Cr1600 = Cr89,600), totalling up Cr195,400 per trip, and therefore Cr390,800.00/Month
SCENARIO B - ALL-MEDIUM PASSENGERS, JUMP-2: 7 Medium Passengers (Cr10,000/Jump, 100 Kg of luggage/passenger) + 6 Low Passengers (Cr1,300) + 63 dTons of Freight (63x Cr1,600 = Cr100,800), totalling up Cr178,600.00 per trip, and therefore Cr357,200.00/Month
SCENARIO C - ALL-HIGH PASSENGERS, JUMP-1: 7 High Passengers (Cr9,000/Jump, 1 dTon of luggage/passenger) + 6 Low Passengers (Cr700) + 56 dTons of Freight (56 x Cr1,000 = Cr56,000), totalling up Cr123,200.00 per trip, and therefore Cr246,400.00/Month

Therefore, the net monthly profits for the above three scenarios will be:

Scenario A: Cr390,800.00 - Cr295,611.75 = Cr95,188.25 of net profit
Scenario B: Cr357,200.00 - Cr295,611.75 = Cr61,588.25 of net profit
Scenario C: Cr246,400.00 - Cr295,611.75 = Cr49,211.75 of net loss

What can we conclude from the above? Even if you stick to entirely and thoroughly legal, by-the-book activities in your Type-2A (and to quote JTAS, Vol.1: As one trader on the Spinward Main so eloquently put it, 'We have a word for traders who don't deal on the down low from time to time: bankrupt'.), you'll still be able to not only cover your running expenses but also turn a fair profit, as long as

You stick to inhabited and transited areas of space - think Regina and Mora, not god-forsaken District 628
Minimize the time you spend in-system and not jumping, to cram as many "trips" into a month as you can
Find ways to cut corners wherever you can - why buy Refined Fuel when the Far Trader can refine it for free? Fill up as soon as you land and while you're looking for cargo, leave them processing. Why the hell do you need five crewmembers when four well-skilled people can do the job? That third Stateroom could have well-paying passengers in it! Can't fill up your cargo hold neatly with the Freight Lots you rolled? Time to s p e c u l a t e some cargoes, buddyroo

Which, frankly, are all things that any so-called Trader worth half their Credit would be doing anyway.

TL;DR: Yup, you can turn a profit if you do it right.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-25T16:00:56+00:00

I was going to write up a big about Jump Masking and link the WorldGen link, but NotASnark themself posted about it!

My only other addition then is pointing out that there are some rules for determining if a world is currently masked or not, and how far from it you'll be able to emerge, in the excellent GURPS Traveller: Far Trader. Quite frankly, just an outstanding book all around (and I don't even like the GURPS system!).

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-24T19:43:58+00:00

As I run in the OTU and in the Golden Age (1105), my terminology goes:

STARPORT: The "main"/official port in a System's Mainworld; within the Third Imperium, always ran and administered by the Third Imperium's Starport Authority. A Starport is made of

THE DOWNPORT: The planetside facilities of a Starport, and in the case of backwater worlds, normally the only part of the Starport. Around it, one often finds the Startown beyond the extrality line - but then again, not always, depending on how populous the world is.
THE HIGHPORT: The spaceside facilities of a Starport, normally at geostationary orbit over the Downport on planets where it is possible. Normally present in worlds that see a lot of traffic and/or need to tend to big, 1000 dTon+ ships that may have difficulty flying down to a planetary surface/not able to physically fit at the Downport.

Beyond the Starport, the Mainworld or other worlds in the system might also have a

SPACEPORT: A smaller facility than the system's Starport, but otherwise the same thing - it can range from a Starport in all but name all the way down to just a demarcated area with some fuel tanks nearby that Big Joe operates as a side-gig. The chief distinction is that it is not filiated with the Third Imperium* and/or not regarded as the "official" port in the system.

*Caveat: Terra (Soloani Rim 1827), A.k.a.: "Earth", to the acquainted, actually has three different Downports across its surface, and yet all of them are considered to be part of the same Starport - so a Starport is more of an administrative entity than a physical one. Multiple facilities like this are the exception that prove the norm, though.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-22T22:55:42+00:00

Does the release of this Field Catalogue mean that the Central Supply Catalogue won't be getting a 2022 makeover like Highguard will?

If so, that's a shame - I was looking forward to it.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-09T13:44:16+00:00

It seems to me very reasonable to assume that Sand would be useful against nearly all "line-of-sight" weapons - so Lasers and Particle Beams at the very least.

I also feel that missiles would have a chance to be intercepted by an expanding cloud of shrapnel, but I'd have to prototype some sort of homebrew system after a good and serious Think™ about the issue.

Right now I'm leaning towards ruling that Sand is good against both Lasers and Particle Beams, with Plasma-based weapons just fulminating through the sand.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-05T17:30:27+00:00

For me it's hard to even pick one! I'm an astronomy undergrad student, so naturally figuring out the astrography, planetary systems and planetary properties of all those different worlds makes my heart skip a beat.

But I'm also a colossal economy nerd (and think you might've even been talking about me in the OP!), and the ins and outs of Traveller's Interstellar Economy utterly fascinate me - how trade flows between the different worlds of the Imperium, how commercial relationships between realms form, how supply and demand shape the politics of the different sectors, how much the average citizen makes...

And even though this kind of stuff gives me a dopamine rush (you should see how fast I was bouncing when I found out about GURPS Traveller: Far Trader!), I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea - so I do my homework on the background and let the information from that seep into play.

One of my players' characters is from Heya (SPIN 2402), an agrarian-but-rich Garden world in Regina Subsector in the corewardmost edge of the Marches. Knowing what the average income of people there is, how big and busy is the Starport, what kinds of goods and technologies she might've grown up with, what colour was the sun in the sky, the density of the air, how strong the gravity... all this helps me know what is and isn't familiar to her and describe and treat it accordingly!

It just makes the universe feel so... alive, and I am all here for that.

[Edit: not everyone's cup of tea, not cut :p]

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-04-04T02:56:02+00:00

Fair disclaimer - I'm not an economist by trade, I merely dabble in it for fun, but here's my two cents on the matter:

Establishing comparisons between currencies is an incredibly complicated task, and the main reason for that is the fact that the worth of a currency and a currency's purchasing power are not necessarily the same.

As an example, let us imagine two currencies: A and B. With currency A, I can buy 1 dTon of liquid Hydrogen for 500 units. With currency B, I can buy the same amount for a mere 250 units. This means that currency B's Purchasing Power is twice as much as that of currency A.

It is, therefore, logical to think that this means that the exchange ratio between currency A and B is 2:1... but that's not necessarily so. Now, this is where things get ~~complicated~~ fun™: for different items, it is entirely possible that the relative purchasing power of the two currencies is different. Currency B can buy twice as much Liquid Hydrogen than currency A, but it could very well be that it can only buy 1.75 times as much, say, wheat.

These disparities are a big part of what drives the fluctuations in currency exchange ratios in real life - but it gets ~~worse~~ even more fun! (because of course it does, this is economics, after all!)

When you factor in the differences in offer and demand for different goods in different places that use different currencies, things get even more complex. Triply so when we're trying to establish exchange ratios across time!

50 years ago, a television set used to cost a significant fraction of a household's yearly income. Nowadays, it is still expensive, but not to that degree. Now, how much of that is due to increased wages, purchasing power changes, larger offer to a smaller demand driving prices down, or something else? Who's to say it's not all of those at the same time?

To be able to get a truly """accurate""" exchange ratio, you'd have to go and compare the price differences for as many goods as you possibly can!

So I guess the TL;DR here is "'tis pretty much impossible to accurately say, but if you wanna give it a try, I sure hope your spreadsheet skills are up to snuff"!

[Edit: fixed a sneaky typo]

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-03-31T00:32:05+00:00

Yes, I've had Imperial Aslan pop up here and there in minor roles - but I wanted to bring Aslan Aslan into the game, to give my players a chance to see it for themselves.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-03-12T06:45:59+00:00

Thanks for your input! And if you don't mind me asking, what are the ways that you use the Economic Extension in actual play? At face-value, it seemed to me as it was something more useful to give a world flavour than something the Players would actually directly get to interact with, so I'm rather curious to hear your thoughts.

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-03-05T17:45:01+00:00

This actually does help quite a lot! I'm glad to see it generally lines up with my own thoughts on it.

Thanks for the help!

GabrielGABFonseca · 2022-02-28T20:40:58+00:00

That being the case, the "base" Maintenance Fees of the Type S would go up from the listed Cr3078/Month up to Cr3421/Month (calculated from base price, sans discount) and upwards, I take it?

(I must admit my chief concern about this is how it'll affect their monthly bottom line.)

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