re: Gamba economics and TL

Rob Dean:

>Steve's right on the mark with this one, although I will note that TL3
>is roughly 1700-1860 by my classic Traveller guidlelines.  I don't really
>think that Motet will be feeding the subsector, or even Madrigal.  I do
>think that they may have sufficient food to export, although I expect that
>the exports would concentrate on high value foods of various sorts rather
>than bulk grain.  Real world analogies would include bananas, coffee, and
>alcoholic beverages as examples.

I tend to agree with the picture of these guys exporting luxury foodstuffs.
Maybe they can grow chocolate that is worth the trouble of exporting.
Certainly coffee tastes different wherever it is grown, so if their coffee
tastes good, then they can always find a market for it.  Likewise wine and
whiskey.


>This brings up one of those sticky points about Traveller, which we are all
>aware of, and which we all have different ways of dealing with:

>WHAT IS TECH LEVEL?

"Tech Level" as specified in the UPP represents the economic strength of
the world in question.  TL3 would represent very low industrialization, high
dependence on imports to maintain standard of living, large numbers of poor
people, and comparatively few wealthy ones.

I use the expanded TL description from WBH to generate two other "Tech Levels":

One represents the local ability to produce things.  This is normally based
on the standard WBH roll-up, with my own mods thrown in.

The other represents "standard of living", and is based on "novelty TL", and
the nature of nearby industrial worlds.  This one I have to free-hand in for
every world.  I can't think of a good way to automate it.


					---Steve