Thomas Jones-Low <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote: > I have as as summary from an article by Marc Miller as published in High Passage issue 5, titled Governments in Traveller which explains the reasoning behind the government codes: Have always wanted to track down a copy of that article! > The original reason for these classifications is to better describe the characters interactions with the world governments. They do not deal with kings or presidents or heads of state; they deal with individual members of broad government mechanisms; they deal with office holders and employees whose attitudes and actions are shaped by the type of government they serve. As a result, travellers are rarely interested in the upper reaches of government; they want to know what they can expect from the governmental structure at their own level. Yeah, I've heard that perspective before, and it makes sense for something like "company / corporate" and maybe "religious dictatorship" and "no government" and perhaps even "balkanization" but in general it's always seemed to me like a bit of ~post hoc~ rationalization. The described distinctions between a "charismatic dictator" and a "non-charismatic leader" don't seem to make a lot of sense from player-character perspective. Neither does the difference between "self-perpetuating oligarchy" and "charismatic oligarchy." And how do player-character interactions look different on a world with a "participating democracy" as opposed to a "representative democracy"? > If you want a more political science type list of governments, I recommend the list provided by GURPS Space 3rd edition, and as copied into GURPS Traveller Core rules, and expounded upon in GT:First In. I must admit I haven't played close attention to these but they mostly seem like the same old government types, determined in a similar manner including the +DM for population, just with slightly different names. Heck, the ~First In~ text for "Technocracy"--also coded as "5"--even reads a "Technocracy represents what ~Traveller~ calls a 'feudal technocracy.'" > I have a set of house rules for T5 to expand the description of the government, including details of their inner workings. Which I should publish as some point. It's about 6 pages, I wonder if Jeff would be interested. As Jeff has said, "Send it in!" ;) Cheers, David -- "Great greasy comets! I might have been sitting in the Everest House with a bucket of champagne, lying to some beautiful wench about my exploits . . . but no, I had to come out here and do 'em!" - Dominic Flandry (Poul Anderson), ~A Message in Secret~
