So yeah. Traveller. Very cool.
Aside from the elaborate character creation mini-game, one of the main thing Traveller is famous for is its setting creation system. From what I remember, the system for making a map and populating it with planets is almost identical in Stars Without Number, and that was what I used for the Esekar sector map for the first version of Iridium Moons.
I now made a map for the new Foross (Sub)sector using the system from Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. In previous posts, I already described the six primary planets of the Foross Sector. The first thing that I did was to translate these into Traveller game terms. For each trait, like planet size, atmosphere type, population scale, and so on, there is a table listing the different possible options and each of them is identified by a single character. These can then be strung together in a fixed order to create the world’s UWP code. It’s a summary of a planet’s statistic in just one 8 to 10 digit code. The first character for the size of the spaceport facilities, the next three characters for the planet’s physical traits, and the last four for the society of its inhabitants. And if you’ve been using them for long enough, you’re supposedly able to read quite a lot of information from them before even looking up the respective tables. That’s exactly the kind of RPG nerdery I can absolutely get behind.
For those Traveller nerds who are interested (I assume there might be one or two), here’s the UWPs for the six planets:
- Sarhat C862733A
- Kion C765734A
- Palan B763695B
- Meruna C8686469
- Halon E9703008-A
- Ataris D6A0416B
And for those Traveller players who have not read my previous planet descriptions: Yes, Iridium Moons is a pretty low-tech and low population.
The default subsector map is an 8 by 10 hex map, but since I’m not working on photocopied sheets, I went with a 10 by 8 arrangement resulting in a square map. It doesn’t affect hexagonal movement.
Each hex has a 50% chance of having stars in them, and after four attempts, I settled on this arrangement, which I quite like, and hand selected six of the stars for my planets.
Unlike Traveller’s default Third Imperium setting, there is no such thing as scooping up raw fuel from gas planets and ocean worlds in Iridium Moons. Instead, ships must refuel at starports. It is possible to take on additional fuel as cargo to make multiple jumps without refueling stops, but this does significantly reduce a ship’s capacity to carry goods, and commercial cargo ships avoid doing this whenever possible. For this reason, new trade routes require an infrastructure of dedicated fuel stations every two parsecs to be commercially viable for cargo ships. There are currently six such station in operation in the Foross subsector.
With these stations being literally centuries old, and the subsector being heavily shaped by industrial decay, I had the idea that most of these stations would not be refining their own fuel, but instead get it delivered by giant tankers carrying thousands of tons. And at the scale of a subsector, that still has considerable local industry going on, it really would make sense to have one central refinery that is supplying all the starports and fuel stations in the area. Station 54 would be perfect for that, resulting in the addition of the seventh main planet to the setting.
Station 54 (B3305179)
This small planet (size 3) has sufficiently strong gravity to run fractional distillation and a non-toxic atmosphere dense enough to breath with regular respirators (atm 3), making it perfect for refining ship fuel. The planet typically houses over 100,000 people (pop 5), who are almost exclusively employees of the refinery (gov 1) on six months assignments. The refinerie’s starport has the capacity to service several of its giant tankers simultaneously (starport B), but lacks the equipment and staff to make major repairs (TL 9). The refinery and the starport are owned by one of the Sarantal Oligarchs from Palan.
The ancient tankers being out of commission sometimes for months has been causing huge disruptions to trade in the Foross over the last decades. Many traders and cargo captains have grown extremely concerned about the reliance on a single refinery for the subsector, and the economic damage that would result from it going out of service for more than a week or two.
Having such an obvious weak point in the aging infrastructure of the decrepit sector is just too interesting to not use, so this remains the only fuel source in the whole Foross subsector.
I also had a plan for a space station near Sarhat, and hex 62 seems like a great place to put it.
Station 62 (C000412A-A)
This old station (C000) is one of the oldest in the sector, going back to the first mining operations on Halon. Back in the early days of the Foross subsector, it served as a central trade hub where smaller mining camps from the surrounding systems would sell their ores and buy new equipment or food coming from Kion. With the closure of the mines on Halon and the depletion of many smaller mines, large scale ore and food trade has ceased on the station over a century ago. The station is now home to some 20,000 people (pop 4), and while technically being run by one of the Tauros Oligarchs from Sarhat (gov 1), it is largely under the control of several gangs (law 2). Most ships coming through the systems only make a quick stop to take on new fuel and have their crew stay close to the ship (travel code A).
The other four stations are simply fuel stations with nothing of interest going on there.
For the rest of the systems, I decided to see what the random generation rules can produce. I generated another 35 worlds (which with the help of spreadsheets and random number generation sites was fairly painless), and oddly enough, it started with giving me 7 really awesome planets that basically wrote their own descriptions, followed by 27 really boring ones and just one quirky oddity.
E3113797
A large moon (size 3) with almost no atmosphere (atm 1) or water (hydro 1). This gives it the Ice-Capped trade code to determine resource availability, so I’m making it like one of the main moons of Jupiter. It’s home to a few thousand miners (pop 3) who have split into rival factions (gov 7), but lack of access to weapons (law 9) has kept things civil so far. Unfortunately, they don’t have the technology to maintain a space habitat (TL 7) and they will probably have to leave the planet. Getting passage for several thousand people might be difficult, which is probably the reason for the hostile factionalism.
B420575E-A
A small planet (size 4) with thin and toxic air (atm 2) below freezing and no water (hydro 0). It is home to over a hundred thousand people (pop 5) who have split into competing factions (gov 7). Military weapons are banned but there’s plenty of smaller stuff around (law 5). It gets interesting with this being a an very high-tech world (TL 14) for the subsector, with a small shipyard (starport B). Not sure what’s going on here, but this has potential.
D0(2)02527-R
A space station (size 0) occupied by a few hundred people (pop 2) living under Technocratic Feudalism (gov 5) with free possession of almost all weapons (law 2), and their technology is incapable of maintaining a space station (TL 7). It was immediately clear that this is a derelict space station where everyone is under the thumb of the last engineer who maintains and controls what is left of the life support systems. Being the third world I generated, I made a mistake and rolled for an atmosphere, even though size 0 and 1 worlds don’t have any and everyone has to live in artificial habitats. However, since the low tech level indicates the station can not be properly maintained, and the atmosphere I rolled (atm 2) is “thin and toxic”, this is just way too good not to use it! Not only is the station going to shit, it’s already so shit that you can’t leave the living quarters without respirators. Given the circumstances, I also gave the place Travel Code Red. This is all one big nightmare.
XA645374
A large planet (size 10) with a hot but normal atmosphere (atm 6) and some small seas (hydro 4). Home to several hundred thousand people (pop 5) ruled by an hereditary elite (gov 3), allowing no guns (law 7). It has no ship landing facilities at all (starport X) and the original Tech Level I rolled was stone age (TL 0). Though it’s hot and has little water, it does qualify for the Agricultural trade code, which means visitors can pick up wood, textiles, live animals, biochemicals, uncommon raw materials, and luxury consumables. I like the idea of crops being grown in underground caves where it’s cooler and moist.
Option A is to take this as it is, and make it a new alien species native to this planet. Option B is to raise their Tech Level up to 4 and make them something like Fremen, because this is already totally Dune! With the crazy plants being grown underground and the outside being a desert, nobody might know about them except the locals. And with the way space travel works, you can’t just follow the one trader that is selling these new exotic plants to learn where he gets them. Great potential.
E8432008
Earth-sized planet (size 8) with a thin, hot, and slightly toxic atmosphere (atm 3) and little water (hydro 4). It is home to a few hundred people with very basic starport facilities (starport E, TL 8). Since they are so few and the planet has no special resources, I default to them being a small independent mine. With the air being thin, hot, and slightly toxic, I had the idea that their settlement is high up in the mountains, where the temperature is not as deadly and the toxic gases are low enough to be okay with just a respirator. Not sure what interesting things might happen here, but the environment is neat.
E6601006
Mid-sized planet (size 6) with a standard atmosphere (atm 6), very hot temperatures, and no water (hydro 0). On it there are a dozen or so people (pop 1) with no government (gov 0) or weapon restrictions (law 0), and they have no digital technology (TL 6) or the means to survive for long, but a basic landing site (starport E). Must have crashed their ship here. Is this Pitch Black?
D7C156A7
Mid-sized planet (size 7) with highly corrosive atmosphere (atm C), a brutal heat (17 on a scale from 2 to 12+) and very little water (hydro 1). Under these conditions, we get large lakes of petrochemicals and precious metals. There are hundreds of thousands of people living on this planet (pop 5), but they are being controlled by a hostile outside power (gov 6). They have no weapons (law 10) and their Tech Level (TL 7) is three levels to low to survive in this environment. This is obviously some kind of brutal prison world like Chronicles of Riddick.
X7880000-A
A mid-sized planet (size 7) with a dense atmosphere (atm 8), temperate climate, and a lot of water (hydro 8). Other than Meruna, it’s the only planet in the subsector that qualifies for being a Garden World. And it is completely uninhabited. Why is that? Certainly should have Travel Code Amber.
The other worlds are all very nondescriptive and don’t bring up any inspirations. Since 16 worlds is way more than I would think I’d ever need, with the three largest being home to several colonies and stations each, I decided to just erase some of the stars from the map that were particularly densely packed. Maybe I leave the remaining 25 stars blank until I have need of them. There is already so much here to work with.