[TML] Strange societys

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 3/3/08 4:18 PM, "Leon Wu" <Leon.Wu at newswire.ca> wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: tml-bounces at travellercentral.com
>> [mailto:tml-bounces at travellercentral.com] On Behalf Of Brad Murray
>> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 4:07 PM
>> To: The Traveller Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [TML] Strange societys
>> 
>> On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 12:59 PM, Stuart Frew
>> <stuart at frew.net.nz> wrote:
>>>  I tend to use aliens for weird societies, I find it helps
>> the players 
>>> detach  their expectations.
>>>  Or perhaps I'm just not very good at weird human societies :^)
>> 
>> I find that interpreting a classic Traveller UWP can lead to
>> some pretty weird societies--something I've come to love. A
>> huge population, low tech level, charismatic dictatorship
>> ruling an asteroid belt just begs for an unusual explanation.
> 
> I was watching the Duran Duran video "Wild Boys" and was thinking:
> massive generation ships, crew/colonists lose technology and over time
> devolve into tribes scavenging throughout the ship.

Oh, you might like one I read years ago.  A generation ship where crew was
separate from colonists, and the colonists were broken into 2 tribes
(pseudo-Aztec) not allowed to interbreed.  Because they were gengineered to
be "dumb", but once they interbred at the colony, the next generation would
be smart.  Only, of course, you can't keep people apart like that when they
live in the same region.  So the protagonist was a young man whose parents
broke the rule, and he eventually figured it out and got in the crew
compartment.  Turns out the crew decided not to stop at Proxima Centauri.

Some flaws, but a good read.

Captive universe, Harry Harrison.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_Universe>