Traveller Classic Subsector and World Creation

[@deansimono7057]

Thank you for posting, am playing almost solitaire...Was in the game with the advent of the little black books...a pleasant voice and decent treatment of the material, again, much thanks!

[@RicksPoker]

Fun video. The traveller worlds tend to be on the small size, and since those rules came out we have found that super Earths are fairly common. I would suggest that if you roll a 5, rather than saying the world's diameter is 5,000 km, you say its RADIUS is 5,000 km. Warm regards, Rick.

[@jonleonard1555]

I think I prefer the process offered in Cepheus Deluxe. Though it uses the same types of rolls and mechanics, it's done in a different order that makes more sense. Here, one of the first steps is to see if there's a starport. In Cepheus Deluxe, it's one of the last choices before tech level. It would make more sense to find out if there's a sufficient population that could justify having a starport, before deciding it has one.

[@bgmill70]

I love Traveller and its many derivatives. I rolled by hand two subsectors and have ran several campaigns a couple of conference one shots. In my opinion that is the way to go.. Make your own playground and play.

[@CCartman69]

It was cool seeing you make these worlds, I can imagine what kind of stories or planets you could develop with them, so it would be cool if you explored these worlds in detail in like a solo game or something.

[@tamsinp7711]

For more detail on the systems, there is an expanded generation system in Book 6 Scouts. That might be worth looking at in another video, maybe working through the process for one system.

[@tamsinp7711]

For determining Amber and Red zones, it's usually best to wait until you've generated the main planet codes. Government type, Law Level and possibly Atmosphere or Population can give you reasons why the planet might have received a zoning. Eg, if the world has Balkanised as the government type, that could indicate an ongoing civil war; a very high law level might give an amber warning (Travellers beware!); an exotic or tainted atmosphere combined with zero/low population might indicate something deadly. I've always found it odd that you determine starport type as the first step after determining whether a system is present; it makes much more sense to do that once you know more about the planet - after all, why would a poor, non-industrial, low population, low TL desert planet have a Class A starport? There should still be a chance of course - it may be that the world has some exotic flora and fauna that make it a major tourist destination. Doing starports and bases last would mean amending the TL roll - maybe 2D-2 + DMs (ignoring the starport ones) and then changing the starport roll to be modified by TL, Population and trade codes (positive DMs for Ri, In and Ag worlds; negative for Po, Na and Ni worlds?). As for their classifications, I view them more as an indication of the quality of accommodation and entertainment facilities (starport A is 5 star; starport E is a grotty roadside diner in the middle of nowhere). The other facilities (eg shipyards) might vary depending on the UPP of the planet - there's no reason why a class D starport at a high TL industrial world wouldn't be capable of supporting a shipyard capable of building starships. Looking at the availability (and price) of refined fuel, I think that would depend more on the size of the starport and whether the main world has a good hydrographics % or if there is a gas giant in the system as the cost of fuel purification is relatively low; for example, there is no reason why even a class E starport on a water world couldn't have an abundant supply of refined fuel available (other than the likely demand - if there aren't many starships visiting then you wouldn't need much on hand). Thinking about pricing, if a system's main world doesn't have a gas giant and has a very low hydrographics % then fuel would need to be shipped in from elsewhere as "cargo" which would increase the cost; of course, if all the starports are being managed by the same company, they could spread the costs to keep the prices down at such starports.

[@solorpgjournal]

Yeah, I thought that some of that generating starport, travel codes and travel lanes before UPP was a bit backward, too.

[@MartinSparkes-BadDragon]

@@solorpgjournal Looking at more recent rule sets, the order is Size, Atmos, Hydro, Pop, Govt, Law, Starport, Tech Level

[@Buzz_CT]

What editor and browser were you using in this video? I liked the small footprint of them and how easy it was to see all the pieces needed to make your subsector map. Thanks!

[@solorpgjournal]

Emacs and Qutebrowser. The formfactor is why I use Qutebrowser for videos. Qutebrowser is pretty easy, just have to learn the keyboard shortcuts, or how commands are proceeded with a : Emacs is a bit more complicated. I use it with evil-mode, so that it has vim like commands in most modes. org-mode is the mode that gives me markdown like syntax that translates to what you see on the screen, and the ability to write code that I can run inside the document itself.

[@Buzz_CT]

@@solorpgjournal Perfect! I'll give them a shot. Thanks you.

[@solorpgjournal]

Good luck.

[@creeperduck5209]

I was wondering what you used to crete worlds via the editor and map I'''''ve been strugglingto fiond a good site to create a world map

[@solorpgjournal]

Do you mean the traveller subsector generator that I use at 57:00? campaignwiki.org/traveller/edit If you mean what I'm writing in the whole time, emacs with org-mode. Honestly though, notepad in windows is fine for that.

[@allones3078]

Have you done a series on twilight 2000? It has a solo play element to it

[@solorpgjournal]

I have not; I actually had not heard of it. Looking at it, its a post WW3 setting. Does it require a large amount of setting knowledge to play, or is it fairly easy to pick up? If it sounds interesting, I could put it on the list.

[@allones3078]

@@solorpgjournal Cold war knowledge helps but not needed with the free league edition gear is listed under nation armies. Think basically a Red Dawn the survival RPG and you are not far off. the ruleset has a solo mode for it but better with at least one buddy playing the bag guys and best with a group. The hands down best game i ran of twilight 2000 was all non-military characters keeping their town running. if you do it feel free to hot me up for insight

[@solorpgjournal]

That game that you ran of characters running a town sounds super interesting.