Not to flame your defense (in fact I concur with most of it), but
let me point out:
Matt "Seems to be Defending TNE alot" Goodman said:
>... Why
>can't you have merchant activities? I would think merchants would
>be in high demand. Not all planets were blasted back to the
>stone age (look at the Virus Effect table, or whatever it's called,
>that shows you how to reduce the stats of planets).
>
>Many planets are going to be in the 7-9 TL range,
I agree merchants will be in high demand, but the background is
not geared toward massive economic activity like in Classic Trav.
There won't be a lot of merchants moving between TL 7-9 worlds if
there is no way to keep them from being stranded due to starship
maintenance needs.
Support for interstellar trade starts at TL10; without the
traffic you're just not going to get the same Classic background
flavor of 'hide in the crowd'; 'just another ripple in the current.'
It's up to your character to rise above the din of mediocrity.
TNE is a different flavor of background: any merchant trade at the
frontier is high risk, automatically a standout in the quiet of
infrequent visits.
>... and they're going
>to WANT to pick up interstellar trade again with their neighbors,
>for all the same reasons they did before the collapse.
Now it may move in that direction, but then we're talking about a
general TL rise - the table would be different.
Okay, maybe it was a flame :-)
Keith Thoms
Lexington Park, Maryland