On 20Oct2020 0338, Thomas Jones-Low wrote:
> Marc Miller wrote a Governments in Traveller article which made this
> exact point. The design of the government codes was the ground view,
> what the PCs would see while interacting with world.
I've always held this to be the case. The UWP gives a basic and very
broad overview of what the world is like from the perspective of a
Traveller who's not going to be there long. It tells us what spaceport
services we can expect (and thus doesn't care about what the IN, IISS,
or local government has), about what the local gravity and air is like,
and what sort of masks or protective suits we'll need. It then says
roughly how many people there are, and how their government is likely to
behave, both in terms of red-tape and in terms of law enforcement.
Finally, it taells us what stuff we can expect to be able to buy readily
and at standard prices (rather than having to get imported as a special
order and at extra expense, etc.).

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.

--

Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>