On Sat, 8 Jul 2023 08:51:41 +1200, Rupert Boleyn wrote:

>On 08Jul2023 0520, Jeff Zeitlin - editor at freelancetraveller.com (via
>tml list) wrote:

>> Second in visibility to the Hani are the Mahendo'sat and the Kif. Kif
>> society seems to run on _sfik_, which in some ways seems to be Vargr
>> charisma-based social status cranked up to eleven - or maybe twelve. There
>> seems to be an undercurrent in Kif society that says, in effect, that
>> anyone who can credibly threaten one's _sfik_ is an enemy that should be
>> destroyed; anyone who can be used to add to one's _sfik_ should be so used,
>> and anyone whose _sfik_ is above one's own may be someone who one should
>> respect and 'ride the coattails of'. _Sfik_ competition is by no means
>> 'friendly'.
>
>Sociopathic Vargr, perhaps.

Here you make a double error - you evaluate both Vargr and Kif psychology
in human terms. Kif are not sociopathic by their own terms; it is merely
their view of what is important. One could say that the 'amoral familism'
that is culturally practiced in tribal societies, most notably in the
middle east and Saharan Africa, is 'sociopathic' - but it _isn't_, by
_their own_ lights, and was (and to some extent may still be) a survival
mode for the environment. The same would be true of Vargr competition for
what is [mis?]called 'charisma', and of Kif competition for _sfik_.

>> Mahen society places a lot of store on Personage, which has some
>> similarities to both _sfik_ and Vargr charisma, but definitely toned down,
>> and there is also an element of Hiver Manipulation in there. It is not
>> nearly as cutthroat as _sfik_, but Mahen governments have fallen when
>> leaders have their Personage reduced.

>I got the impression, though I don't think it's ever mentioned
>explicitly, that Personage has a hereditary element - that those born
>into little power were not expected to ever gain much, unlike the Kif,
>where anyone could become a great leader if they had sufficient guile,
>will, charisma, and luck.

I didn't get that impression, especially given that Pyanfar Chanur, born
completely outside Mahen society, arguably ended up with more Personage
than even "the Personage" of the Mahendo'sat.

>> Technology tends to rest near the lower end of most Traveller settings -
>> personal weapons seem to be mostly slug-throwers, though lasers aren't
>> unknown. Starships are mostly tramp traders, going where profit seems most
>> likely, and trade is mostly speculative.
>
>They are, I think, fairly large ships, with small crews. That's why an
>honest freighter can become a less than honest hunter by pulling off the
>cargo holds, etc., and adding weaponry - they engines and powerplants
>are already pretty hefty to allow hauling massive cargoes.

I think that this is a reasonable position to take; in my comments below
about running Traveller in Compact Space, I picked what seemed to be the
'semantically closest' classes, rather than the 'mechanically closest'.
Certainly, if you're going to try to run a game in Compact Space, even with
the serial numbers filed off, you can design your own ships...

>>                                                                      There
>> is also a suggestion that 'hunters' can do what Traveller would call
>> 'micro-jumps'.

>*Some* species' hunters (and other ships) can make micro-jumps.
>Mahendo'sat's and Humans' can, Hani can't and didn't even know it was
>possible (at least in the time of the novels) - one of the many things
>their Mahendo'sat mentors didn't mention. I can't remember if the Kif
>are shown to be able to or not. The Knnn seem to be able to do these,
>and change course in jump, and do other completely 'impossible' things.

I don't think we ever saw a micro-jump by anything other than a Mahen
hunter, true. And Knnn ships do indeed do all sorts of 'impossible' things.
But the original post wasn't intended to be a comprehensive guide to
Travelling in Compact Space, just a quick look to maybe inspire you.

(I'll be picking some other favorite series, and writing 'Travelling in...'
for them as well. They'll be overviews, too, not really in-depths.)

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