Alistair Langsford asked...
>What world characteristics do people think would be appropriate for the
>development of a cyberpunk style society in Traveller? I tend to think an
>Early Stellar tech, High Population world at least is required (or the
>world is a colony of such a place). What else - Government type?
Well, on a general level, remember CP means different things to
different people- it's all a question of attitude. So it might be
possible to get outcasts from society using the cutting edge of technology
to fight the government or corperations at TL4. (hmmm, people hacking
the TL4 telegraph system using imported TL 7 laptops... that could be an
interesting planet to visit. I'll think about that some more...)
As for the "Cyber" part- IT, bionics and neural interfacing- yes Early
Stellar seems to allow reasonable bionics, but for the neural
interfacing most Traveller material suggests TL12-13 as far as I can
remember, and even higher for the more advanced forms. Of course Trav
predates CP, so it's TLs don't reflect a CP view of technological
development, or even mention it.
You asked about governments- I'd suggest that the government code has
always been rather flexible. You could probably have any code on a
world with a CP background- or that 2nd Survey data might just be wrong.
I don't think it should stop you using any world that otherwise looks
suitable.
Population- yes, high population tends to be part of it, but consider
a lower pop world where the there is little living space, it could
easily be as crowded as Los Angeles 2019 (the obvious CP example)
Would bionics be acceptable in the Imperium- it actually varies.
Generally it's been said that there is a general distrust of any
cyborgs. It's worse in Margrets area, but people I know in HIWG
put a reasonable amount of such tech in Gush...ge (I cann't spell it,
Real Strephon's domain) and Dagudashagg, claiming they had less
of a cultural bias against it. Your choice on the Spinward Marches as
far as I know.
Organ Legging- not a large scale interstellar business. At least I've
never heard it being mentioned. A lot of the high-pop worlds are so
high-tec they can regrow or clone most of what you need anyway,
working from descriptions of Medical Tech in Travellers Digest. It cuts
out a huge section of the possible market.
Just on-planet, or between a small circle of planets with the right pop/
technology balance it almost certainly happens. The Imperium is a big
place.
Possible planets in the Marches?- well I know people have used Efate as
a CP background- high pop. and tech. low law-level, it certainly fits
better than some.
CP in Traveller has the extra twist that people can import higher
technology if they have the money- not common in most CP.
And don't forget that even the nicest POP A, TL G planet probably has
some mean streets...
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Re; Traveller Background and Rules
David Johnson mentioned...
>This is really of interest to me. One of the `failings' of Traveller IMHO
>has always been the focus on combat skills - hence the expanded character
Yes, the rules really do a background works out in play. Traveller has a
lot of combat skills and equipment, but it's rules tended to make combat
VERY lethal to balance this out a bit. TNE makes combat less lethal for
the PC's (if you play the rules as written) so you would expect it to
be a more combat-heavy background, and nobody has argued that isn't the
case.
One RPG had a whole chapter and set of stats devoted to character
interaction (NON combat) rules and that was the very bloody "Freedom
Fighters".. by J Andrew Keith (so it does have some connection to
Traveller...). There might be others. It's an interesting idea. I was
recently trying to work out a GURPS Space background where humans had
no access to firearms at all- they were considered too violent to be
trusted. I gave up- players would hate it...
May your Fusion Guns never run out of ammo
Anthony K.
(someone must have been telling lies about me)