Wildstar writes:
>Hans Rancke-Madsen [email removed]writes:
>>Based on the assumption that it takes two MCr worth of civilian shipping
>>to generate the revenue to support one MCr worth of warship ...
>
>How did you come up with this figure (inquiring minds want to know)?
From the campaign book (can't remember the title) of FGU's "Chivalry &
Sorcery" game. They had rules for setting up fantasy realms, including
how to calculate merchant and fighting navy sizes. I've made a half-
hearted attempt to find some figures for modern day navies to compare
with but haven't found anything useful.
>>The thing that really needs to be done about the tech levels is to get them
>>divorced from Terran historical dates. Just because we have it in 1990 it
>>dosen't have to be TL 8, and just because we don't have it dosen't mean it
>>can't be TL 8.
>
>The problem is that there needs to be a quick and easy "memory handle" to
>explain TLs to new people. Relating a TL to a historical date fills the
>bill (but it also leads to inaccuracies). The TL chart could definitely
>stand to be re-thought, but whatever the end result is, players and
>referees will immediately start comparing it to historical developments.
Sure, but emphasize to the players that the TL charts are the rule, the
Terran dates just a memory handle. I was in a campaign where the Referee
let us buy into a newly-opened planet and run a small country. The planet
was TL 4, and the Imperium embargoed import of military stuff of TL 6 and
above. Thus the locals were restricted to singleshot rifles, because they
were specifically mentioned in the charts, and we could import magazine
rifles. Fair enough. But he ALSO allowed us to import Spitfire-type
fighter planes, because they weren't specifically mentioned in the charts,
but were 1939 tech, thus TL 5! (We had a lot of fun with that Referee. He
cured me of by-the-book playing for good!)
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir