After the response to my message concerning a mixed species love affair i have
been mulling over a few things.....
1) The sexual mores of various races for a start.
It is fair to exclude K'Kree,Hivers and most other non humanoids from this but
has anyone wondered what the base racial attitudes to sex etc. IS for various
races?
Eg. The leonine Aslan who if they are ecologically like lions will have a part
of the year when females are insatiable, an interseting possiblity in so rigid
a soceity, the social saftety valve could be some ritual.
Or Vilani whose soceity might suggest some high degree of prudery (don't ask me
why but thats my impression) with again some outlet in soceity.
The total honesty of Zhodani soceity lends itself to all sorts of setups espec-
ially among the psionic classes, a good example to look at are the Darkover
books By M.Zimmer-Bradley.
2) The cop out of the imperium having cultural postulates of Tech 8 earth......
Which bit exactly? Middle class America? East end of London slums? Arab Shieks?
try acting out the postulates of one of those in the other situation and see
where THAT gets you! Ok so it's a conveinience for us (mainly) European/Us
priveleged (eg.able to afford games) types to be able to play it But the
year is 5400+ things change! 5000 years ago most peoples ancestors were into
'cultural postulates' a wee bit different from now! Even 20 years ago......
Not all traveller characters are going to have the same basic viewpoint on
life just like even near neighbours on earth.
3) How interfertile are most human races? the kind of havoc 240,000 years of
different selective pressures will have played with fertility between Hom. sap
sub species..... Ok so tech 15 fiddling could put it right but it'll cost to
have kids.
4) The starship crew lifestyle is worth thinking about, hardly ever on your
homeworld... in lose quarters with the same crew for often years, the kind of
Starship-starport subculture that could spring up. One of my party see's the
universe as a procession of bars where the drinks and licensing laws are all
that change. The kind of bond a small ship crew can form esp. a warship like
a t-type, gazelle or fiery and the fact that the trav' universe is apparantly
an equal opportunities employer meaning sex ratios are roughly equal. I have
a party that is 60% female human 30%male human and 10%vargr female and that
is an entertaining mixture.
5) Re: the players wanting to 'dirty' things with their PC's? how many of you
get that? Mine don't incidently (of my player group 3 are female 5 male and
males play women females also play men). Not a terribly relevent point but
I thought I'd ask while I was on the subject. I find MT and Sf gaming seems
less prone to a that sort of thing than fantasy which I have seen get a bit
'quaff and wench' maybe it is the civilised nature of imperial soceity that
makes that kind of 'lecher gaming' impractial? Anyone willing to comment?
once again long winded but more relevent!
JAFO