ISO A4 format - Freelance Traveller

Doing It My WayMatching the Classic Traveller TechTree in GURPSby Anthony JacksonExplaining the ProblemGURPS Traveller represents a valiant attemptto convert the Traveller setting into the GURPSmechanics. Regrettably, that doesn‘t mean it‘s perfect.The GURPS tech system was never really designedfor a multi-TL setting in which there isregular trade between regions of different TLs. Itcan be done, but the effects are occasionally odd.For example, electronic devices are usually bothhalf price and half cost after one TL, and 1/4 aftertwo. Given the exchange rates in Far Trader, thisimplies that any sane GTL 10 world will prefer toimport GTL 12 products rather than use GTL 10products. This isn‘t canonical; most worlds inTraveller apparently prefer to mostly use localproducts. However, in order to make the use of localproducts rational, the exchange rates can‘t beanywhere near the Far Trader values; simply negatingthe cost advantage of higher TL implies an exchangerate of 4:1 between 10 and 12, and negatingthe quality advantage as well implies an exchangerate of somewhere above 10:1.In many ways, that‘s realistic for a 2 TL difference;using the World Bank definitions, if ‗highincome‘ (developed nations) are TL 7, one canpretty reasonably argue for ‗upper middle income‘(e.g. Brazil) states at TL 6, ‗lower middleincome‘ (e.g. the Philippines) at TL 5, and ‗lowincome‘ (e.g. most of sub-Saharan Africa) at TL 4-,and the per capita GNP ratio between high incomeand lower middle income really is around 10:1.However, Traveller canon doesn‘t imply anywherenear that much difference in wealth and power betweenTTL 15 worlds and TTL 12 worlds. For thatmatter, I‘m not sure if the difference between Reginaand Rhylanor is really equivalent to the differencebetween 1900 and 2000; I‘d think more like1960 vs 2000.That would put TTL12-15 as a single tech levelin GURPS. However, aside from conflicting withthe assumptions of Traveller players, is this reallythat bad? There are ways of creating distinctionswithin a single TL, and in truth, there are manyGTL 11+ technologies that are inappropriate forTraveller.What TL is the Imperium, Really?If you look at available Traveller tech vsGURPS tech, the maximum TL of the Imperiumdoes not appear to be 12. Running through commonequipment types, we find:Armor and Materials: The best armor in ClassicTraveller is bonded superdense, with 14× theDR per unit thickness of steel, and about 8× perunit weight. That‘s equivalent to a mass multiplierof .07, which is similar to GTL 10 advanced metalat .06. Material Tech: 10.Biotech and Medicine: Traveller isn‘t historicallybig on biotech; there‘s little evidence of geneticengineering, so the GTL could be as low as 7.The exception is the Terrans uplifting apes and dolphins,which sounds like GTL 10 or so. Travellermedical tech, on the other hand, is pretty good;with the exception of instaskill (GTL 11) most ofthe wonder drugs in UltraTech look reasonable,giving an overall GTL of about 10. One can arguefor GTL 9; Traveller drugs tend to have nasty sideeffects, and biotech is not exactly common.Computers: Classic Traveller computers arequite primitive, at roughly GTL 7. However, CTalso had robots; it didn‘t have AI, but it had advancednear-AI computers and computers couldbecome spontaneously sentient. This sounds likeGTL 9.Drives/Gravitics: CT space drives are largelyequivalent to GTL 11 reactionless thrusters;thruster plates were later set at TL11. CT contragravis more like a thruster plate variant than theamazing performance GTL12 contragravity, so theaverage GTL is probably 11. GTL11 includes someforce field tech that‘s vaguely gravity-related(deflectors, force weapons) but inappropriate forTraveller.Electronics and Stealth: Traveller doesn‘thave intruder chameleon or holobelts, and doesn‘treally have anything quite like a multiscanner,though neural activity sensors and densitometers(Continued on page 19)18