[TML] Strange societys

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 3/3/08 4:07 PM, "Brad Murray" <bjmurray.halfjack at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

Not just unusual...

If it's truly low tech, it can't dictate beyond it's own asteroid.  That
makes high pop just about impossible.  Actually, it can reasonably be argued
that size of governable population is directly related to tech.  You *need*
comm tech over broad area, or food tech to cram them into small area.