Social Parameters, Revised

dataweaver · 05-31-2012, 10:26 AM

GURPS Traveller: First In had a series of Social Parameters in it that were intended to reflect the general character of a planet's society. I was wondering about a few things regarding it:

First, I'm thinking of updating it for use with 4th edition material. In particular, I'd like to see about integrating something like it into the world generation system. That said, I don't want to do a straight port, for three reasons: there are a few cases where I'd like to have a planet's settlement characteristics be influenced by the social parameters instead of the other way around (e.g., TL influenced by Innovation, rather than Innovation being influenced by TL); there are some glitches in the Social Parameters generation process in First In (Tractability is not influenced by Suspicion, though it should be; TL should relate to Innovation at least as strongly as it relates to Pragmatism); and there are now nine "Personality scales" in GURPS Space, rather than the eight that First In referenced. Any thoughts on how I should tweak this?

Second, First In had each Social Parameter provide a modifier to appropriate social interaction rolls when dealing with the locals. I'm wondering how well those rules gel with the rules in Social Engineering. In particular, could these traits be used as an abstract measure of the character of a crowd or organization and then used to adjust attempts to influence said group accordingly?

05-31-2012, 10:26 AM	#1
dataweaver Join Date: Aug 2004	Social Parameters, Revised GURPS Traveller: First In had a series of Social Parameters in it that were intended to reflect the general character of a planet's society. I was wondering about a few things regarding it: First, I'm thinking of updating it for use with 4th edition material. In particular, I'd like to see about integrating something like it into the world generation system. That said, I don't want to do a straight port, for three reasons: there are a few cases where I'd like to have a planet's settlement characteristics be influenced by the social parameters instead of the other way around (e.g., TL influenced by Innovation, rather than Innovation being influenced by TL); there are some glitches in the Social Parameters generation process in First In (Tractability is not influenced by Suspicion, though it should be; TL should relate to Innovation at least as strongly as it relates to Pragmatism); and there are now nine "Personality scales" in GURPS Space, rather than the eight that First In referenced. Any thoughts on how I should tweak this? Second, First In had each Social Parameter provide a modifier to appropriate social interaction rolls when dealing with the locals. I'm wondering how well those rules gel with the rules in Social Engineering. In particular, could these traits be used as an abstract measure of the character of a crowd or organization and then used to adjust attempts to influence said group accordingly?