Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Traveller

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-18-2017, 12:28 AM   #81
Blue Ghost
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Having never played Traveller before, but having read up a lot on it and reading up on various tech discussions, one thing I've always heard is that Traveller is a game that shows its 1970s roots. That in addition to the fact much of its themes and ideas are based off of science fiction from the 1940s to 1970s, you also have mention of the giant computers being an example of how Traveller was designed before the computing revolution of the 1980s.

Having said this, I've often heard that for starships but do those same assumptions ever show up for day-to-day civilian electronics, like something you would use in your home and such? Are there any civilian electronic tech or computers that really show "yeah this was definitely designed before the Digital Age?"
Sort of. What RPGs have you played that include a forensic's kit and "video cameras" or disguise kits? Given all the crime scenarios and the black book covers, to me at least, it's apparent that Traveller has more of a security bent to it, and to help players game out crime or international security scenarios you have things like what I mentioned, and more.

I can finally shrug my shoulders at it, but the big attraction for our player groups was the fact that there were starships involved, but it did seem very puzzling that while we were hacking on Apples and Apple IIs, that the computers in Traveller were 1950s UNIVACs.

It's more of a conventionalization to help players include what was then "present day tech" into a quasi "futuristic" scenario. Note how Bell laboratories were experimenting with online "video" shopping in the 1930s, but that there's nothing of the sort in Traveller. Note how there's some pretty basic crime fighting tools, but nothing in the way of ... software that can take a sample of DNA and give you the perp's face and body, complete with hair, eye color and age.

Traveller is an artifact of the time in which it was made, but it was also made for players of that time. So, even though the game says you can recreate any scifi situation of your choice, you do have to work at it. For all that, I'm glad I played it for what fun it gave.
Blue Ghost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 07:47 PM   #82
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Having never played Traveller before, but having read up a lot on it and reading up on various tech discussions, one thing I've always heard is that Traveller is a game that shows its 1970s roots. That in addition to the fact much of its themes and ideas are based off of science fiction from the 1940s to 1970s, you also have mention of the giant computers being an example of how Traveller was designed before the computing revolution of the 1980s.

Having said this, I've often heard that for starships but do those same assumptions ever show up for day-to-day civilian electronics, like something you would use in your home and such? Are there any civilian electronic tech or computers that really show "yeah this was definitely designed before the Digital Age?"
If you think digital technology has outgrown actual traveller you can always come up with a justifying gimmick. One thought is that Jump Space carries a number of electronic hazards that required extra "hardening" technology.

This by the way allows a dodge to that other problem of spending so much time in space not doing anything. You can have an electronic storm or plague of some kind threaten your systems.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 06:57 PM   #83
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

One possibility is advancements that can be done with a three d printer. One can have what amounts to a shipboard forge for precision manufacture of small tools and weapons.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 10:24 PM   #84
warellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
One possibility is advancements that can be done with a three d printer. One can have what amounts to a shipboard forge for precision manufacture of small tools and weapons.
Did Traveller ever have that, OTU or the GURPS version? Stuff like advanced 3D printers I mean.
warellis is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 10:51 PM   #85
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Did Traveller ever have that, OTU or the GURPS version? Stuff like advanced 3D printers I mean.
It did allude indirectly to "workshop" modules for maintaining the ship on a long voyage. The capability of constructing tools along the way does seem to exist and one can imagine either bringing raw material along or scrounging on planet. Or both. Perhaps there is a second device that serves as a purifier.

Freelance Traveller had an article about "microfoil" which was kind of like advanced cooking foil but made as a bandage for breakdown in metalic parts. It melts and resolidifies easily and any mechanic can carry an igniter and several strips of microfoil in a toolbelt for no more then an off road grav sled repair. One can posit twisting bits of it around each other in a similacrum of pattern wielding and heating, cooling, and laser slicing as many times as needed to get the shape you want. Or you can just take metal in more primitive form like containers of plain dust or ingots for anything along that line. Plastics and ceramics obviously can be made any shape you want with proper software and hardware and a reasonably skilled user.

Fancy stuff made with undecayed biological products(Kudebeck Ivory, for instance, should a spacer be able to afford it) might have to be done by hand carving but presumably said spacer is a hobbyist.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison

Last edited by jason taylor; 03-31-2017 at 08:55 AM.
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2017, 08:09 PM   #86
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
If you think digital technology has outgrown actual traveller you can always come up with a justifying gimmick. One thought is that Jump Space carries a number of electronic hazards that required extra "hardening" technology.
My personal choice is large collections of similar interacting things don't follow the same physics as in our universe. This not only kills computer designs, but with a little care in choosing technobabble (the departure from physics is they no longer behave independently based on their different individual inputs, but tend to all do the same thing collectively) lets me link the reason to some of the other oddities of the universe (psionics and interacting neurons, psychohistory and interacting sophants, mesons that all decay together).
__________________
--
MA Lloyd
malloyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2017, 03:06 PM   #87
Blue Ghost
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Did Traveller ever have that, OTU or the GURPS version? Stuff like advanced 3D printers I mean.
No, not ever. I think there's some implicit fabrication ability; jury rig a part to temporarily fix a problem, and probably Imperial cruisers and larger have workshops, but there was never any mention of any ACS being able to manufacture parts or just "stuff" in general.
Blue Ghost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-24-2017, 11:58 AM   #88
Mike Wightman
 
Mike Wightman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Did Traveller ever have that, OTU or the GURPS version? Stuff like advanced 3D printers I mean.
There are now.
Marc's novel has turned the concept of the makers in T5 into actual fabrication machines - just like high TL 3d printers.
Mike Wightman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 02:51 PM   #89
deckker
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Anyone have the specs of the IISS Walkabout Suit from MegaTraveller Journal (Issue 1 - Feb 1991)'s "Dressed to Kill: An Intimate Look at Battle Dress" article?
deckker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2017, 12:47 PM   #90
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Traveller and modern electronics

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Wightman View Post
There are now.
Marc's novel has turned the concept of the makers in T5 into actual fabrication machines - just like high TL 3d printers.
They have to be handled carefully lest they turn into replicators which are simply a non traveller. A good method is that it needs raw materials, can only handle some, and has a limited complexity of what it can produce dependent on TL.

Making hand tools should be easy and if they are not as done as well as in more elaborate establishments, should be able to do what is required. Spare wiring so on and is also an option.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:24 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.