WUXTRY! Kinunir warrant fake! Read all about it!

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Shrale

What I never understood was why would this thing be on paper ?

Maybe it just looks like paper. Maybe it's actually a highly sophisticated piece of e-paper.


Hans

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Probably, given the importance of the document, it would have every nifty provenance-confirming gadget in existence.

I would assume it would be a physical document (an E-document would be too easy to duplicate.) This "paper" would be a very durable artificial material, including a hardened microchip (or several) embedded in a set of fibers. In addition, there would be microcode "taggants" (very small, possibly nano-sized ID chips engraved with ID numbers) embedded in the document. Add low-level radiation decay as a date confirmation and you're doing about as good as you can get.

Of course, one problem with this approach is that it would very well require elaborate equipment to "read" the micro-confirmations in the warrant and, as such, be tough for a less-equipped ship or installation to confirm.

[steelbrok]

I think that the Warrant would include key codewords that the bearer could use to prove their bona fides with any decent size Imperial computer system (IN ship, Port, Scout base etc)

The matching part of these would have been distributed well in advance by the X-boat system and would simply linger in the system until either activated or removed by an update

[Shrale]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

I was thinking more along the lines that the unusual nature of the double-blank warrant was due to the forger being unfamiliar with real warrants.
Hans

That actually has some root in realism, people can't forge them because they're not in the highest of highs, holiest of holys -- the very exclusive club that's around the Emperor and his Archdukeez. They just don't know how the "big boyz" do busy-ness.

It could be said the Warrant is on Paper (imperial stationary) because that's how the emperor does business and most others would think of some extravagant method of creating/utilizing one. Paper can be nano-marked or if the term nano is too big (pun intended) of a faux-pas for the setting, then micro-marked, which could be verified. However such an item could still be faked by a very large number of people inside or outside the Imperium.

There's still the inherent danger of simply treading where death is sure to follow in using such a device (by forging one).

As for something as mildly extravagant as "self-erasing" in an empire of 11,000 worlds (not to mention all the other portions of "known space") a misjump could be a daily occurance and something already within the realm of thought when creating the device initially.

I can hear the voice of the Emperor from Robot Chicken Star Wars as I write this...in some hilarious skit where it all blows up; due to something minor going wrong.

The other side of the coin is how does someone who needs to be informed legitimately, recognize it for what it is ?

I'd have to think in most respects the Archduck's word will suffice, but showing an Imperial Warrant is only going to work on other nobility, other high-level, muckety-mucks in the Imperium (like Mega-corps, most of the services, SPA and such) where they know Norris or whoever would be crazy to employ the device in any false manner. I'd have to think that unless the road to be travelled is a dead-end one, that just cooperating with the Archduck is going to be matter of course. Getting the X-th fleet to relocate from Chronor subsector to somewhere else, might be necessary to use it.

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[Easterner9504]

Captain's Cabin. This large, well-furnished cabin combines living quarters and office for the ship's captain. A detailed search of the room will reveal a wall safe concealed on the port wall containing a Cr40000 in cash and an envelope marked with the Imperial seal. On all ships except the Kinunir, this envelope merely contains routine orders; on the Kinunir, it contains a signed lmperial Warrant.

The bearer of this warrant is acting for the good of the Imperium and the Emperor. Extend him every assistance.
. Strephon

The instrument of power for such lmperial agents is the lmperial warrant, a document on lmperial stationery containing statements similar to the example shown above.

Where is it stated in canon the Kinunir IW says exactly the above statement? The warrant is SIGNED is only info we have on document unless it was later restated again somewhere else.

The entry is from a library data base with no relation to the adventure and is a true statement to any TRAVELLER player both playing and not playing the adventure in 1105 or 1120 or 799.

The Kinunir IW could be a forgery, I have no reason to assume so. It may also have verbiage on it relating to experiment and have the captain's name on it.

Further I agree 100% with Shrale, the idea a high tech society hands out a sheepskin with unlimited power is silly when on low-ish tech FIREFLY a preacher needs an electronic ID card to access a military hospital that otherwise would deny him service. Even if a sheepskin type document is issued (tradition!) an electronic/retinal/dna etc ID method would be issued with it.

[Shrale]

Well that's always been a problem with Traveller for me, some scenarios I just don't buy them.

Not that they're bad or wrong or evil, some just don't make sense to me or appeal to me.

Cases in point:

In one of the T4 books the players are jailed for "having music" or something similar. Alien society. Never heard of music. The pcs are all arrested. I'd have a big problem with this one, as most of the players I've known won't sit still for "doing something that's not doing anything" type of thing. I get the feeling they might think it's the GM being a jerk more than a clever device for a game session. Does that mean no one else could carry it off ? Absolutely not, I guess I just don't see the cleverness in it.

Another one is GURPS Darkmoon for Traveller (which I haven't looked at in a while). I'd have a devil of a time convincing a group of players that they should try to invade a maximum security prison ! (for fun). Unless they're the Mission Impossible types to begin with. I remember trying to run a D&D game with the players getting allies from a jailbreak (a Dirty Dozen type of scenario) and one of the players stating unequivocally they "would never take in anyone who was from another army's jail" where all this was suddenly real and based in fact. 50-foot firebreathing dragons were one thing...

"Let me get this straight. We're up to our eyeballs in hock, under the weight of crushing debt, just trying to keep this flying junkheap moving between worlds and now you want us to invade some Maximum Security Prison?!!!"

Of course if my name was Miller, Pulver, Jackson, Wiseman or Punch and was running this at a convention, it'd probably be a sellout no matter what the game was and people would prolly play along and have a great time.

I'm just not sure I could do it justice.

The Kinunir is in that category.

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[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Shrale

Well that's always been a problem with Traveller for me, some scenarios I just don't buy them.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think there are two different kinds of problems with dodgy adventure scenarios: with the scenario itelf and with the implications and ramifications, and of the two, I don't mind the first nearly as much as the second.

Say, for instance, that you have an adventure where an Imperial Research Station turns out to be manned exclusively by robots run by a single crazy old coot. Now, you may or may not be able to convince yourself that in one rare instance, some crazy old coot might have managed to evade the attention of whatever Imperial authorities supervise Imperial research stations and turned the installation into his own personal playpen. If you can, there's no problem, and you can just run the adventure as written. If you can't, there's a small problem, but with a little work you can introduce some human personnel and run the adventure. Or if the adventure was bad beyond redemption, well, it was just one adventure. You'd just have to run another one.

But what if the adventure had stated that all Imperial research stations were run by robots supervised by a single sapient director? Not only would there be a problem with the adventure itelf, but every other adventure set in Imperial research stations written at a later date would have the same problems, if the writer had stuck to canon!

And that's one of the two reasons[*] why I try to argue against some canonical bits. Only some, mind you. Any canonical bits that doesn't have any problems I want to preserve and get annoyed when subsequent writers ignore them.

[*] The other one is that I think it's fun.



Hans

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Shrale

Well that's always been a problem with Traveller for me, some scenarios I just don't buy them.

Another one is GURPS Darkmoon for Traveller (which I haven't looked at in a while). I'd have a devil of a time convincing a group of players that they should try to invade a maximum security prison ! (for fun). Unless they're the Mission Impossible types to begin with. I remember trying to run a D&D game with the players getting allies from a jailbreak >

Well, we cater to different campaign styles. My own players tended to enjoy doing all kinds of heroic stuff if well paid or if they had the reason to do so. Invading an Imperial Prison was not exactly new - they'd first done that in 1981 with the Gaesh adventure... Still, adventures come in all levels - I've run groups that liked messing about scrambling for a few credits (GDW example: the opening sequences of Expedition to Zhodane). But an awful lot of Traveller games I've been were of the "mission impossible" sort ...

[Shrale]

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

Well, we cater to different campaign styles. My own players tended to enjoy doing all kinds of heroic stuff if well paid or if they had the reason to do so. Invading an Imperial Prison was not exactly new - they'd first done that in 1981 with the Gaesh adventure... Still, adventures come in all levels - I've run groups that liked messing about scrambling for a few credits (GDW example: the opening sequences of Expedition to Zhodane). But an awful lot of Traveller games I've been were of the "mission impossible" sort ...

Exactly, if my name were David Pulver, and I had your head screwed on my shoulders (your IQ) I could pull it off. I'd probably have friends who were well-read, and trusting that their GM wasn't about to "off them, and laugh in their faces while doing so."

Unfortunately most of the gamers I've seen are from the: "I've only got X hours this week, this better be entertaining..." not to mention that most GMs aren't to be trusted, never mind the last six weeks of fun times, that was then this is now...essentially cry-babies.

I ran a one-off last year on COTI and at one point the players all woke up in cuffs and immediately the grousing commenced, but of course I ignored it. It was funny, it took a week for most to get their characters ready, with minute changes in equipment to account for every possibility, but they never did check out the cutter they were travelling in more than a cursory exam, despite the Ominous Locked Door™ on the locker room, I purposely laid out before them; and the typical: this job pays extremely well for doing something simple bait. I suppose it was a railroad job, but that's how a lot of Traveller adventures work: the players find themselves in such-and-such position. Some are easier to stomach I guess.

But yes, if you've got fans who've marveled at Stainless Steel Rat or any of the other equally well-intentioned, let's have fun type of stories and who hunger for it, then you're probably going to have quite a bit of fun whether you GM or play.

Trust is important, and no matter how much I helped the players they never seemed to understand that. I can best liken them to homeless people who shuffle their stuff around in a cart, "This is my PCs stuff and I'm not giving it up for anything!" That's part of the reason I soured on D&D. Too much emphasis on props.

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