Technology level
Technology level or Tech Level is a measure of technological capacity. Usually this is used in a UWP (Universal world profile) to indicate the overall technology of the planet. (A planet may have large sections, and/or populations at a more primitive level than listed).
Technology does not imply standard of living as workers in a high tech industrial world can have a poorer quality of life (perhaps not having the money to pay for high-tech health care), than a medieval farmer. The tech level does impact the exchange rate for the planet, and has a large effect on its economy and interstellar trade.
Enhanced tech levels describe the technology for different classes of technology (e.g. a planet may have a medical tech level different from its weapons tech level). The enhanced tech level is usually broken into the following sections:
Common
- High
- Low
Quality of Life
- Energy
- Computers/Robotics
- Communications
- Medical
- Environment
Transportation
- Land
- Water
- Air
- Space
Military
- Personal Military
- Heavy Military
Novelty
- Novelty
Tech levels are measured in the range 0-15 (0-F), with 0 representing extreme primitive levels (hunter/gatherers), and 15 the height of Imperial technology, however there is technology beyond that of the imperium as evidenced by ancient sites. (E.g. Rosette worlds are TL21 and Rigid Dyson Spheres TL27).
These codes are represented as Universal Codes as CC-QQQQQ-TTTT-MM-N codes in the order defined above.
Tech Level Conversions
| Traveller TL | GURPS 3e TL | GURPS 4e TL | Historical Era |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Stone Age (fire) |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Bronze Age (3500 BC) |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | Iron Age (1200 BC) |
| 1 | 3 | 3 | Medieval Age (600 AD) |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | Age of Sail (1450 AD) |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | Industrial Revolution (1730 AD) |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | Mechanized Age (1880 AD) |
| 5 | 6 | 6 | Circa 1910 AD |
| 6 | 6 | 7 | Nuclear Age (1940 AD) |
| 7 | 7 | 7 | Circa 1970 AD |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | Digital Age (1990 AD) |
| 9 | 9 | 9 | Early Stellar (2050 AD) |
| 10 | 9 | 10 | Early Stellar (2120 AD) |
| 11 | 9 | 10 | Average Stellar |
| 12 | 10 | 11 | Average Imperial |
| 13 | 10 | 11 | Average Stellar |
| 14 | 11 | 12 | High Stellar |
| 15 | 12 | 12 | Imperial Maximum |
| 16 | 13 | 13 | Darrian Historical Maximum |
- In Standard GURPS 4th, the maximum TL is 12, but in the GM's permission there can be more TLs. It's assumed to be the maximum tech level that present human can imagine is TL 12.
See Also
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