Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

> It's a really useful set of information, in a really compact form, but it is of necessity limited in detail. In-universe, I assume that the IISS and TAS expect that it'll do for long enough at a Traveller who needs more information can find out for themselves, on the ground.

Agreed.

What I don't understand is why some folks don't treat randomly generated physical characteristics like "star type" and "satellite orbits" in the same way. They're meant to inform in-character non-experts who are simply "passing through" and aren't going to seem any more effective as models or simulations to a "real-world" astronomer or planetary scientist than "government type" does to a "real-world" political scientist or international relations scholar.

Cheers,

David
--
"In short, though Traveller is the SFRPG which most projects the atmosphere of a hard-science fiction universe, it is science ~fantasy~. However, I imagine no one (least of all me) will let that hinder his enjoyment of the game." - Greg Costikyan, "Traveller as Science Fantasy," ~The Space Gamer~ #49, March 1982