Traveller-digest     Saturday, October 9 1999     Volume 1999 : Number 1180



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Firing two guns at once
RE: Firing two guns at once
RE: Firing two guns at once
RE: It pays to be a Traveller player...
Re: Hamlet in Space was: Re: falkenbergs legions firing intocivilians
Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon))
Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)
Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)
Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)
Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...
Re: Jump Drive Question
Re: Annic Nova (canon)
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...
Re: Annic Nova (canon)
Re: Jump Technology (was RE: Annic Nova)
Re: Annic Nova (canon)
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 19:27:47 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once

Jesse DeGraff wrote:
> 
> > What do you do with all the partial clips? :-)
> 
> 
> Put it right back where you got the fresh one from in case you're having a
> REALLY bad day :)

Unless, of course, you're firing from the prone position (as I generally
am with my issue M16A2; I don't often "do" pistols).  Then you can set
the partial magazine somewhere nearby, where you won't confuse it with
either full magazines or empty ones.  Assuming that you win the
firefight (and, as a combat-support semi-REMF, I'm not likely to be part
of an assault), you police up your magazines, and reload them all ASAP. 
I would imagine that the infantry types are taught something more
efficient, but that sort of training never made it down to us
non-combat-arms types.

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 17:26:19 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: RE: Firing two guns at once

I'm pretty sure he meant as a competant SMG shooter, not as a gansta' again
:)  An SMG in trained hands is very deadly.  Just ask the poor bastards at
the other end of Seal or SAS CT operations :D

Jesse




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> [mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Jory Earl
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 1999 8:20 PM
> To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once
>
>
> >As a former Army pistol team member and long-time combat
> USPSA-IPSC shooter
> it
> >makes no sense to fire a pistol in each hand unless you like wasting alot of
> >ammo. The chances of actually hitting your target is low, maybe 20% and that's
> >if you're experienced.. Only an rank amateur or movie rambo would ever do this.
> >It makes more sense to buy a high quality carry weapon and load up with
> >additional magazines for the same amount of weight. If you want volume get a
> >submachine gun like an MP5K.
>
> Its been my understanding that a man with a semi-automatic pistol who can
> change magazines fast is a lot more deadly (and effective) than a man waving
> a submachinegun around.
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
>  J-Man
>  ICQ# 2843475
>  New Hampshire - U.S.A.
>  Email : j-man@iname.com
>  Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
> ___________________________________________________________
>
>
>

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 17:32:28 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: RE: Firing two guns at once

Heh heh.  Hadn't caught that :)
Jesse




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> [mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Leonard
> Erickson
> Sent: Saturday, October 09, 1999 2:19 AM
> To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once
> 
> 
> In mail you write:
> 
> > It makes more sense to buy a high quality carry weapon and load up with
> > additional magazines for the same amount of weight. If you want 
> volume get a
> > submachine gun like an MP5K.
> >
> > Alex Ingram
>        ^^^^^^
> 
> I find it amusing that you are advocating a submachinegun, given your
> name. Even more so *which* one you are recommending. :-)
> 
> -- 
> Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
>  shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
> leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort
> 

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 17:35:06 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: RE: It pays to be a Traveller player...

Lucky sod!!!!

Jesse




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> [mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Douglas E.
> Berry
> Sent: Saturday, October 09, 1999 2:17 AM
> To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> Subject: It pays to be a Traveller player...
> 
> 
> It's Fleet Week here in San Francisco.  The Blue Angles are buzzing the
> City, the parade of ships comes in today, and thousands of horny sailors
> are desending on us like.. well.. horny sailors.
> 
> The USS San Francisco SSN-771 docked in Alameda a few days ago.  While at
> my FLGS, I meet a guy loading up on GURPS Traveller stuff.  We get to
> talking, and he tells me he's an engineer on the SF.  Hasn't seen any of
> the new Traveller stuff in a while.
> 
> One thing leads to another, and later today I'm getting a private 
> tour of a
> nuclear attack submarine in return for running a game tonight in their
> wardroom!  Seems they've never played Legend of the Sky Raiders...
> 
> Pity I can't take a camera along.
> -- 
> 
> Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
> http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html
> 
> "In the long run luck is given only to the efficient." 
>            -Helmuth von Moltke, Imperial German Army
> 
> 

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:03:45 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Hamlet in Space was: Re: falkenbergs legions firing intocivilians

In mail you write:

> At 08:57 PM 10/8/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>> In space no one can hear you quote Shakespeare.
>>
>>That's what laser comms are for.... ;-)
>>
>>~wondering how Shakespeare sounds in Vilani~
>
> It sounds best in the original Klingon.

I've got a GIF of one of Shakespeare's sonnets in Kligon. Character set
and all. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:05:50 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Parts Quest! ( was Re: Annic Nova (canon))

In mail you write:

>> On 10/08/99 at 12:26 PM,  "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com> 
> said:
>> 
>> >Heh.  All good Quests *should* have the possibilty of resolution. 
>> >But nobody sez it gotta come *easy*.  After all, getting the ship
>> >*itself* is relatively easy using the adventure.  So it makes sense
>> >for the Parts Quest to be a real *muther*.  <grin>  No free lunches,
>> >remember?
>> 
>> Keven, remember *you* said that. <g>
>
> And your point is, other than being on top of your head & covered with fur?  
> <grin>

That I'd like to see! 

<pedant mode on>

"Hair" and "fur" are *not* the same thing.

<pedant mode off>

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:09:41 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)

In mail you write:

> At 06:07 PM 10/8/1999 PST, you wrote:
>
>>I recall a 4th of July a few years back when a friend had an
>>illumination flare he'd gotten somewhere. This was *just* the flare
>>part, pull the pin and watch it go. I think it was originally intended
>>for hooking up to tripwires so that the enemy infiltrators would light
>>themselves up for you.
>
> Ick.  Trip flares.  At least with the rocket you get a second or two of
> warning.  Those things just light up.  SOP is to freeze in place.  Don't
> drop, don't move to cover, don't even *breathe*.  Just stand there and pray
> you really look like a harmless little bush.
>
>>Anyway, we were out in the country at a friend's farm. We set it out in
>>the road and set it off. Sheesh! talk about *blinding*. And it lasted
>>such a long time too. 
>
> 30-45 seconds.

You *sure* about that? I'd *swear* this thing lasted more like a couple
of minutes. 

It had a metal (aluminum?) casing and was cylindrical, about 2" dia by
6" long. 

>>I can truly understand how it'd seem like *forever* in combat. And just
>>how well backlit you'd be if you tripped one of these.
>
> With proper camouflage, back lit isn't the problem.  It's what happens if
> the see the rifle in your hands, or get a reflection off your glasses...

I was thinking more of the fact that your silhoutte doesn't look a
whole lot like a tree, bush, or rock. Especially with that rifle in
your hands. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:13:00 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)

In mail you write:

> At 12:18 PM 10/9/1999 +1300, you wrote:
>
>>> I have fired over two hundred rounds of 7.62mm tracer into dry brush at
>>> Ft. Irwin in the hopes of setting it ablaze (he he he.. fire is COOL!!)
>>> with no success.
>>
>>Here in NZ we obviously have special high-flammability plants :) I've 
>>set a Toi-toi bush (the local species of pampas grass) in summer time 
>>with 100 rnds of 5.56 tracer fired from a C9 (the Canadian licence 
>>built FN minimi) LMG. It's also quite common for tussock bushes to 
>>catch fire from tracer in summer, though the common cause of this is 
>>thunder-flash grenade simulators and idiots using flares in areas with  
>>total fire bans.
>
> <John Wayne>
> Well pilgrim, our American plants are just a lil' bit tougher than furrin
> plants.  That's why we couldn't set 'em on fire.
> </John Wayne>

I think it's just that the plants you were firing at wre such that the
bullet never *lodged* in any of them. 

I vaguely rtecall hearing about a forest fire traced to a guy going
hunting with some 30 cal rounds he'd "liberated". Idiot hadn't noticed
that they were tracers. One lodged in a tree and got the bark/outer
wood to start smoldering.

Hmmm. Assume the PCs are in someplace with a semi-desert climate. Lots
of scrub brush. And they don't realize it has a high "oil" content. Not
until someone fires a PGMP/FGMP and they get to try outrunning the
resulting brushfire.

Or even just a prairie/steppe area during the latter part of summer.
Remember, in the "wild" state there are lots of places where the grass
is 8-10 feet tall!

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:19:20 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Battledress/Battlesuit Protection (GT)

In mail you write:

>> >"How effective is a panzerfaust against a troll, Heinz?"
>
> Ah, I see I'm not the only one to have read that Dragon article ...

Must have been a reprint. The original was in The Strategic Review, the
TSR "newslettr" that preceeded the Dragon. 

I've got all 7 issues of that, all issues of the Dragon up thru 150 or
so, and several issues of Little Wars (the non-sf/fantasy gaming mag
that TSR split off from the Dragon around Issue 6 and then recombined
because of poor sales around issue 15-20). 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:22:58 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...

In mail you write:

> The USS San Francisco SSN-771 docked in Alameda a few days ago.  While at
> my FLGS, I meet a guy loading up on GURPS Traveller stuff.  We get to
> talking, and he tells me he's an engineer on the SF.  Hasn't seen any of
> the new Traveller stuff in a while.
>
> One thing leads to another, and later today I'm getting a private tour of a
> nuclear attack submarine in return for running a game tonight in their
> wardroom!  Seems they've never played Legend of the Sky Raiders...

I'd love to hear *their* thoughts on stuff like fire-fights on
shipboard and life-support issues. After all, boomers and attack subs
are the closest thing we've got to starship tech. 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 13:24:40 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Jump Drive Question

In mail you write:

> I am new to Traveller so please excuse this silly question.
>
> In Mileu 0 they talk about jump-drives limiting range, but I don't
> understand that. Can't cargo ships carry enough fuel to initiate
> plenty of extra jumps without needing to refuel at gas giants and stuff?

Check the amount of fuel tankage in a typical freighter design. Then
compare that with the amount needed for jump. In most designs you are
lucky if you can manage two jumps without having to refuel.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 15:16:36 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (canon)

In mail you write:

>> In mail you write:
 
>> Sort of like what would happenm to us if we had a captured alien ship
>> with a jump drive and tried running it inside the 100 diameter limit. :-)
>
> You mean like that Vilani freighter that crashed in Roswell back in '47 that 
> they're still trying to figger out?  <grin>

"I'm sorry, now I have to kill you."
:-)

>> Another article tackling alien technology from a different viewpoint
>> was written back in the 50s by Poul Anderson. He pointed out that
>> there's not only no reason that aliens would use the same unit's of
>> measurement as we do, but that the base "dimensions" of their units
>> might be different, making duplication messy even with their help.
>> 
>>
>> Try considering things from the point of view of aliens who may have
>> sense such that they consider other units more important. One of the
>> examples Anderson gave was trying to find out what the alien unit of
>> length was and finding out that it was the length of the side of a cube
>> of some substance the had a capacitance of ....
>> 
>> You get the idea. Until you have a conversion table for the alien
>> units, and know which ones they consider significant, you can know if
>> that 3.58723 megohm resistor has that value because it *has* to, or
>> because that was a "standard" value, and worked well enough that they
>> didn't bother with a custom value that'd do better. Which is how the
>> values of most resistors an capacitors in most electronics are
>> determined. Except when the value *is* critical. :-)
>
> Well, you *don't* need to know the length of a 'wonqad', for instance, to 
> measure an object with a meter stick.  If you're doing a straight cloning of 
> the device, it should be relatively simple, *provided* there's no 'cotchas' 
> like the integrated circuit would be for 1920's technology.  <grin>

Except that you *still* need to know the units. Because it's not likely
that you *can* do a "straight cloning". For example, just *try* getting
screws with the same pitch as the alien ones. 

Does the screw pitch matter? It sure does for any adjustments.

And in any case, you *have* to be able to build it using your *own*
units to be able to mass produce it. At least until we reach the stage
of the "universal pantograph", "faber", "replicator" or whatever you
choose to call it. 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 99 20:03:34 -0500
From: "Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

On 10/09/99 at 04:18 PM,  "Chris Peers" <peersce@mindspring.com> said:

>I have read the definitions.  What does the TML have to say on it. 
>What is it?  Why does it come about?  How do the citizens live? 
>Interested to hear all answers.

Hum...well Feudal Technocracy is one of the "oft discussed" topics,
but until now, I've never put my two kopeks into the pot...so here
goes. <g>

Feudalism is based on a set of mutual obligations among a
population.  Historically, these obligations revolved around support
going up and protection going down a hierarchical structure.  The
serfs supported the local noble who provided protection for the
serfs.  The local noble owed fealty to the Duke providing taxes,
manpower and other support in exchange for the Duke's protection
provided through all of his vassals.  And so it continued right up
to the king.

A Technocracy would be a government where power centered around
control and use of technology.  This could be where environmental
factors made certain technologies necessary for survival.  It could
be were a low tech population was in the hands of a high tech ruling
class.  It could simply be where control of technology gives those
who control it power within the system.  Technocracies could take on
virtually any political form from despotism to democracy.

A Feudal Technocracy would be where a technocracy organized itself
into a feudal system.  The people would be obligated to support a
technical class which in turned was obligated to protect and defend
the people.  The technical class might owe fealty to other groups
higher in a hierarchical organization, where each level had
interlocking obligations to both lower and higher levels.  In fact,
I can see where technical classes could have interlocking obligations
with groups on the same level as well.  

For example, there might be Power Lord who has the knowledge and/or
control of a local power grid, a Communications Lord who controls
telephone and media, a Water Lord and an Atmosphere Lord.  The
populous would be obligated to provide money, material, and manpower
to these Lords who, in turn, would be obligated to provide services
to the populous.  The local Lords would have obligations to others
higher in the hierarchy (or network) who would require materials,
money and manpower from the local Lords to create and maintain the
plants and factories that service the local grids...and so on.

All IMO, of course. <g>


Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
"Eris Reddoch" <eris@pcola.gulf.net>    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 21:19:47 EDT
From: AveNelso@aol.com
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

    Another example of how a feudal technocracy might work would be a world 
where, unaided, human life would be impossible.   Thus the bulk of the 
population would have to swear fealty to the owners of domed habitats.  This 
would very much mirror actual feudalism at the peasant-baron level.  The 
technical know-how of dome building and maintence would be a closely guarded 
secret, much as the right to work land was rigidily controlled during the 
Middle Ages.

        Dave Nelson   

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 19:17:13 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (canon)

In mail you write:

>> In mail you write:
>> 
>> > Ya know, I've never been a Conon freak, and maybe this ship is one of
>> > the reasons why. It was the first "Book Adventure" I ever ran. My
>> > players spent a lot of time travelling in their recovered Annic Nova.
>> > Now it's broken and I guess they never really had any of those
>> > adventures!
>> >
>> > Com'on! The reason I gave, when asked, after a lot of time had passed,
>> > why the PC's couldn't duplicate the drives in the Nova, was simple. I
>> > said they could... if they could find a supply of the element used in
>> > construction of the capacitors. It seems that the storage capacitors
>> > used plates of an unknown element. No material known to Imperial science
>> > could be used and still duplicate the storage efficency.
>> 
>> *Please*. Do not use "unknown elements". That's Star Trek BS.
>
> Onesium is used in Traveller, guy.  *grin*  Mostly in the FASA supplements.  
> It's described as being a transuranic element in the 'island of stability' 
> where the halflives go back up over microsecond duration.

Well, from what you've said so far, at least they had *some* idea of
the way things really work. I'd have to know what's so "special" about
it to say whether or not they've fallen into the typical trap.

It's "sort of" ok to use a few new elements, as long as you pick
properties consistent with the periodic table. 

It was the "here's a new element, with made to order properties that
have *nothing* to do with the periodic table" style of doing things
that I was objecting to.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 22:01:14 -0400
From: Thom Jones-Low <tjoneslo@together.net>
Subject: Re: Jump Technology (was RE: Annic Nova)

Christopher,
	
	I'll quote from the Canon of Gurps Traveller to answer this question:

	Gurps:Traveller, P44 (sidebar): "Those who are not confused by the
details of jump theory have not studied it deeply enough."

	I have my TU explanations of how jump space works, and I would be
interested in seeing how others have defined theirs. 

	This is something that the CT OTU never defines. IMHO this is a good
thing, intentional or not it allows Traveller science to be easily
divided into the hard and the handwaves and never the twain shall meet. 

- -- 
	Thomas Jones-Low
	tjoneslo@together.net

> 
> Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 07:34:02 -0400
> From: Christopher Thrash <thrash@io.com>
> Subject: Jump Technology (was Re: Annic Nova)
> 
> Moreover, according to HG2 "energy that contacts the black globe is
> diverted to capacitors ... contained in the ship's jump drive" and
> "[s]tored energy may be removed from the capacitors by using it to power
> the ship." As Thom Jones-Low pointed out, "If a ship absorbs enough energy
> to make a jump, and is supplied with sufficient fuel, it may jump at the
> end of the turn." /Annic Nova/ dispenses with the fuel requirement.
> 
> Nothing I've been able to find in CT so far explains why jump fuel is
> required or what it is used for: hence my dilemma.
>

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 21:50:37 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (canon)

Leonard Erickson wrote:
<<snip>>
> >>
> >> *Please*. Do not use "unknown elements". That's Star Trek BS.
> >
> > Onesium is used in Traveller, guy.  *grin*  Mostly in the FASA supplements.
> > It's described as being a transuranic element in the 'island of stability'
> > where the halflives go back up over microsecond duration.
> 
> Well, from what you've said so far, at least they had *some* idea of
> the way things really work. I'd have to know what's so "special" about
> it to say whether or not they've fallen into the typical trap.
> 
> It's "sort of" ok to use a few new elements, as long as you pick
> properties consistent with the periodic table.
> 
> It was the "here's a new element, with made to order properties that
> have *nothing* to do with the periodic table" style of doing things
> that I was objecting to.

*hangs head in shame*

I must admit, I've used the unusual element concept in games I've run.

In my defense, I generally have used such names as "unobtainium",
"absurdium", and "quiterarium" for these materials, thus indicating that
I didn't expect to be taken seriously.

OTOH, it is not inconceivable that alloys using relatively stable
transuranic elements might be used in niche applications in the
Traveller Multiverse (including both official and heretical variants
thereof)....

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 23:50:22 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

- -----Original Message-----
From: Chris Peers <peersce@mindspring.com>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Saturday, October 09, 1999 8:23 PM
Subject: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...


>I have read the definitions.  What does the TML have to say on it.  What is
>it?  Why does it come about?  How do the citizens live?  Interested to hear
>all answers.


Before I start: I've always found the feudal technocracy classification
pretty absurd. It's not that I can't imagine a feudal technocracy. It's just
that a feudal technocracy seems so limiting. Personally, I use to feudal
technocracy designation to indicate one of two things: the world is ruled
directly by the Imperium, or the world is a technocracy of any sort (perhaps
something other than a *feudal* technocracy).

Miriam-Webster defines a technocracy as a "government by technicians;
specifically : management of society by technical experts". I know, you said
you've read the definition. I just wanted to clarify it for myself.

I think the answer is then pretty straightforward. A feudal technocracy
would likely be much like the feudal system that was popular in Europe,
except instead of the upper classes providing protection, they provide their
technical expertise and abilities.

How a feudal technocracy comes about is a slightly more difficult question,
since it would likely be different for every society that the IISS
classified in this fashion. I think it goes without saying that a society
must rely heavily on at least one form of technology in order for a feudal
technocracy to come about.

The inhabitants of a world with a very high population might rely on complex
arcologies. A world with very high industrial production might rely on
automated factories to maintain their high standard of living. Hostile
worlds are already assumed to rely on high technology to some degree.

However, there's got to be something else, some other reason that feudal
technocracies arise, or else every world with a sufficiently high TL would
have that type of government. After all, we're beginning to reach the point
on modern day Terra that it would be difficult for many societies to survive
without a high tech infrastructure.

Perhaps there's some sort of ideology involved. Perhaps there was some great
philosopher or political theorist who, Marx-like, proposed a sort of
Technocrat Manifesto.

Going hand in hand with this idea, or ignoring it entirely, it would have to
be assumed that there's some reason that a certain group (or groups) of
technicians can seize power.

An idea:

Exotic Technology: The population of Tanbril (made up non-canon name) relies
on a series of massive arcologies to survive. For any number of reasons,
life outside of these structures is unimaginable or simply impossible.
There's only one problem: the arcologies were designed and built by a
corporation that disappeared during the long night. The technicians who work
on and repair the complex arcologies know what they're doing. They even know
how to replace or bypass systems that have failed. The only problem is that
the original plans for the structures no longer exist, or exist in some
capacity that is impossible to understand or have access to without being a
technician. Perhaps the skills are encoded as part of some religion, perhaps
they are merely jealously guarded. Perhaps several different guilds of
technicians have broken up the different systems within the massive
arcologies and it is this web of interdependencies that provides the
"feudal" half of the feudal technocracy. On the other hand, perhaps
different technicians control different geographical areas within the
arcologies, and it is this that provides the "feudal" half. Maybe a
combination of both.

I can think of other ideas, but I'm really kind of too tired to type.

------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1180
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