Re: Comments and Tables and Stuff...

Yesterday on TML, Steve Higginbotham wrote:
> >Can you provide corrected tables?
> Yes...  Oh, you mean NOW?!?  Sure:

Thanks.  The more errors stomped now, the better!  Of course, if GDW had
been able to get us a copy of the text for about a week *before* sending
it to the printers, these errors could have been fixed already ...

> >pp.191, "TED Government Type" table - new table:
> I like this, but I wonder at the necessity of a TED table at all.  TEDs
> are relatively common in classic Trav material (Pavabid, which has a
> TED/Religious Dictatorship comes immediately to mind), so why bother
> listing it separately?  This sounds like an attempt to codify something
> best left to the referee's imagination...

I know.  However, T:TNE seems to consider TEDs important (probably
because the TED code indicates "Opportunity for Player Characters to
Engage in Officially Sanctioned Excessive Violence Against Generally
Inferior Opposition" for Star Viking players).  My fix preserves (at
least IMHO) the intent of the rules on pp.191, but without requiring
double definitions for te Government type codes.

After I folded Tribal and the two Mystic governments into the existing
codes, that left the TEDs.  Since they are important to T:TNE, I needed
to put the code somewhere, so I put it in the Allegiance.  That left
nothing in the UWP Government code.  One possibility is to code all of
these worlds as type 6 (Captive Government) and leave it up to the
referee.   I should note that you are still free to do this.

On the other hand, as you pointed out, many different kinds of
governments can be TEDs.  Pavabid came to my mind also (that's the world
from the "Divine Intervention" Classic Traveller Double Adventure).
Others are certainly possible; however I have noted that T:TNE tends to
assume that TEDs are typically Non-Charismatic Leaders.  To make the
different government types explicit, and as an aid to the referee's
imagination, I provided the TED Government Table.

I ranked the various governments by my estimation of their
probability of becoming a TED, and filled in the table accordingly.  A
large majority of them will be Non-Charismatic Leaders or Totalitarian
Oligarchies, but there is always the possibility of others, all of which
seem at least possible to me.  Some of them could lead to some very
interesting adventures for Star Vikings that don't do their homework and
undercover work.

> >       If the world government is a TED, the nroll 2d6+3 to determine
> >the world's law level.
> I disagree with this.  A TED CANNOT maintain tight control with a
> dwindling supply of HighTech goodies.  What he will have is a HIGH Law
> Level WHERE HE IS AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT, and almost NO Law Level anywhere
> else (since it is NOT in his interests to establish a real government to
> run things - they might decide HE is optional, especially if they have
> access to his goodies.  If they DON'T, then they will be pretty much
> incapable of running things (think of Prison Trustees, in the absence of
> Guards)).

I restricted myself to fixing up the Government codes, so that the one
"Normal" government code table could be used everywhere.  I very
carefully preserved everything else in the original T:TNE rules;
including Law Level.  If you look carefully, when all the appropriate
modifiers have been added, the roll on original pp.191 will be 2d6+3.

This doesn't mean that it's right, but simply that my modification only
affects the government code value used (and the allegiance, for TEDs)
and doesn't change anything else.

One possible interpretation: the TED's law level is that which applies
to strangers, and/or near the TED, with the rest of the world enjoying a
lower (possibly much lower) law level.


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