Brandon Cope writes:
> One thing I would *definately* like to see fixed is the aging rules (the ages
> at which the characters must make saves to avoid the reduction of stats). Now,
> the table may be appropriate based on the medical care we have today, but not
> what it'll be like in 2000-3000 years!
I agree. I did some calculations, based on aging of the Strength
stat. Assuming there is a 2d6 bell curve in Strength (1/36 of the population
has a 2 Strength, 6/36 has a 7, etc.) and applying the aging rules, the
average life expectancy in the Traveller universe is 76 years. This excludes
people who gain Strength during character generation, people who die of
violence, and people who die of another stat reaching zero first. Thus
the actual value is probably lower. According to the World Almanac for 1991
the life expectancy in the USA is 72 for males, 79 for females.
Additionally, the same life expectancy holds regardless of tech level in
Traveller.
So I came up with this quick fix: If the average level of
medical care a character is getting is tech level Pre-Industrial,
use a DM of -2 on all aging rolls. This gives an average life expectancy
of 64.8 years. See following table for other values
Tech Level DM average life expectancy
0-3 Pre-Industrial -2 64.8
4-5 Industrial -1 69.7
6-8 Pre-Stellar 0 76.6
9-A Early Stellar +1 89.7
B-D Average Stellar +2 110.5
E- High Stellar +3 (not figured)
This gives average life expectancies more in line with what I
would expect of varying tech levels. The reason ther is no age figure
for High Stellar is that I originally used different categories, and
just now decided to bring them in line with the categories used in
MegaTraveller. Most PCs will not have an average medical care of
higher than D, probably.
How does one figure average Medical care? Well, it's a GM
call, really. During character creation, if one serves a 4 year term
on a Tl-13 starship, in a navy based on a Tl-13 world, it's easy to
decide. I'd set The Imperial forces at about Tl-13, as I seem to
remember that being the average the navy was equipped to. I one
spends the entire 4 year term on one planet, the answer is again
easy, but such things as wealth should be taken into account.
> I also have a problem with the fact that even if a character recieves a
> promotion every term, they will almost never serve more than two terms at
> the highest rank. This makes no sense that the military is going to force
> out their generals and admirals as soon as they get to that rank. The
> maximum voluntary number of terms (6, I think) should be extended for
> those of high rank (say 4+) by one term, with an additional term per level
> of rank past 4 (so an Admiral could serve 9 terms (36 years, minimum
> age of 54)).
This is a really good idea. I've also considered forced mustering
out to be a problem, and this looks like a good solution to me.
Chris Bertani [email removed]