11-01-2022, 02:50 PM | #11 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: TL Minus
I could see it making sense, even if it gives me cold sweats as an editor due to SJ Games using the hyphen-minus (-) as a figure dash (‒), a true minus (−), and in place of an en dash (–) for ranges.
TL(7+1) is some James Bond imagining of today with big, clunky TL7 gizmos producing all meaningful TL8 functions.All would be TL8 in capability, but TL(7+1) would arrive at that capability by imaginative projection from the past instead of the actual route we took, while TL(9-1) would arrive at that capability by creative improvisation from the future; I can't easily imagine a TL(9-1) society that never knew TL8 first. Specifically, a lot of the Mad Max silliness seen in cinematic post-apoc settings is functionally TL(8-8) to TL(8-1), not true TL0 to TL7: It all starts with our TL8 leftovers and cobbles them into various approximations of "natural" lower TLs.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
11-02-2022, 04:19 AM | #12 | ||
On Notice
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: TL Minus
Quote:
areas are still at 5, even in advanced nations)" (Infinite Worlds: Britannica-6 pg 26). This is effectively Split Tech Level (Basic p 511) Quote:
For example, Traveller 5 had Democracies as TTL 3 c1700 CE even though ancient Greece (TTL 1.3 c 1300 BCE) had them. Kingdoms is set at TTL 1.6 (c 600 CE) even though there were kingdoms as far back as TTL 1 (Bronze age). It just doesn't work very well.
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11-03-2022, 04:46 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Re: TL Minus
An alternative to using "-" for transition might be ">", e.g. "TL 5>6" meaning "5, going on 6". (Though I apologize if I gave anyone twitches for writing "5 is greater than 6".)
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11-03-2022, 07:28 AM | #14 | |
On Notice
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: TL Minus
Quote:
*Europe in the mid 15th century — TL3 (Armor and Weapons, TL4) *Old West era of the United States — TL5 (near railroads post 1880, TL6) *United States or Europe in the 1950s — TL6 (Jet aircraft, atomic power, automatic weapons, TL7)
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11-03-2022, 10:48 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: TL Minus
Quote:
On one hand, a range of technologies would look like "TL5-6," with the second number always being greater than the first. On the other hand, a technology that was unexpectedly ineffective would look like "TL(5-3)," with the second number necessarily being less than or equal to the first (since negative TLs don't exist in GURPS). Oh, and in the latter case, I would enclose the numerical expression in parentheses, but not in the former.
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britannica-6, tech level |
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