Sophont Modules for T5

[robject]

Something that's been on the backburner for a few years is a port of the CT alien modules canon text into T5 sophont books.

Mostly, this is a mechanical process:

1. Take the alien module.
2. Rip out career and skills pages.
3. Replace with career guidance.
4. Update starship descriptions.
5. Update weapon and armor descriptions.
6. Rip out any sector maps, and replace with references to TravellerMap.
7. Bake into PDF format and serve hot.

 

[mike wightman]

What about updating them to the Galaxiad era?

 

[robject]

A good rationale and strategy. Thank you!

 

[The Pakkrat]

Alien Module: Vargr

I would be happy and gratified to work with the Vargr lead on the Alien Module for T⁵ on Vargr. I've got threads on COTI for sophont cards on the various sub-species of Vargr, or it can be defaulted to the Gvegh template.

Flavor Text. I like flavor text, be they chapter headers, sidebars, or footnotes at the bottom of a page for filler. With flavor text, the reader can get small windows into the mind of a Vargr speaker or other Major Race speaking on their most memorable encounter with the Vargr.

I do not know if my artwork is up to snuff to do Traveller⁵ justice. I'm just not the digital artist or cgi artist others are.

But this project was sitting in the back of my brain too.

From the Writers' Desk in orbit high above Roethoeegaeaegz, this is the Pakkrat.

 

[OjnoTheRed]

I'd love to have a crack at one of them - happy to defer to other's favourites or other expertise; are there original Alien Module authors who might be hanging around on CoTI forums? I really like laying stuff out and I'd enjoy the research but I'm not necessarily an expert. I would definitely have to defer to other's artist expertise.

At the risk of complicating the project, could I ask: the Nobles and Bases statistics in the T5 World Generation process strike me as very Imperial-centric. Are there variations to interstellar government and military structures that go with fully fledged out modules? Would module converters be free to import or convert 'bases' rules and/or create alien noble-equivalent structures including generation rules? I'm happy with the answer 'no' to both questions, but thought I'd ask.

Further, it also strikes me that a lot of initial work has been done on minor sophont species - would it be worth extending the project to collect the various Journal articles (in particular Contact!) for them?

 

[Thot]

Wouldn't a general Galaxiad era volume be of higher priority?

 

[infojunky]

Wouldn't a general Galaxiad era volume be of higher priority?

Anything to get the ball rolling would be a good thing.

 

[Thot]

Of course. But in order to consistently advance the OTU's timeline to 1902, there would have to be some established boundary conditions... regardless of whether it is an actually published book or just a collection of notes available to other authors,

Such things as which techlevel (from the book, it seems to be 19), major political entities, size of charted space (even without hop drives, I'd expect Charted Space to have grown by then),

A short historical summary would also be required. Especially, what happened after the early 1200's? What did the Empress Wave do to Charted Space? How did all the new technologies affect warfare?

Without that, updating anything to 1902 will not be possible, I believe.

 

[robject]

Jonathan,

The base codes are one of the items Don and I locked horns on. He wanted 25 (or so) base codes. I wanted six (or so). I'm not sure, but I think I lost that argument.

We'll see.


Thot,

There is a private Galaxiad 'bible' that spells out a lot of baseline data. For example, Regina's TL goes up and down between 1250 and 1900, and the Republic crosses the boundary from TL 16 to TL 17 around 1900-1902. But I believe the first adventures will actually be 'episodes' from the 'Galaxiad', meaning they may vary between different time periods but use the same characters. At the least, these episodes will be some of the adventures, serving as training wafers.

 

[Thot]

Ah, thanks.

Any chance that this private bible might make it into a purchasable product in the near or not-so-near future?

 

[mike wightman]

At the very least make it available to the T5 kickstarter backers.

 

[Reban]

At the very least make it available to the T5 kickstarter backers.

Perhaps bundle it with the update to T5.1 for backers and people who have bought it. Proving a setting supplement would kill another criticism of T5, that there isn't enough setting material.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I would be happy and gratified to work with the Vargr lead on the Alien Module for T⁵ on Vargr....

Of course. But in order to consistently advance the OTU's timeline to 1902, there would have to be some established boundary conditions...A short historical summary would also be required. Especially, what happened after the early 1200's? What did the Empress Wave do to Charted Space?...Without that, updating anything to 1902 will not be possible, I believe.

And therein lies the way to Madness :CoW:
With respect to the Empress Wave and TNE (and 1248 for that matter), it seems that has to be settled by the powers that be. This means you Rob and the rest of the inner circle.

1248 and the Empress wave are some of my "Other" expertise obsessions.
First, TNE and 1248 both make the Empress Wave relatively benign. By that, I only mean that it unravels Zhodani society and hurts, drive insane (maybe kills) some psions. There is only a little history on the fate of Gvurrdon Sector Pakkrat. Basically Society of Equals, the Thoengling Empire and the Commonality of Kedzudh survive Virus only because they listened to the Domain of Deneb, though they suffered territorial losses due to Vampire Fleets. But the history up until 1248 was otherwise documented and canon.

OR AT LEAST IT WAS. Because...

When Mongoose came out with the Zhodani book, the Empress Wave was sped up to 1pc a year instead of simply 1LY a year. AND Agent of the Imperium made the Empress Wave really deadly. It drives even non-psions insane or kills them outright. It drives even plants "insane" by forcing them to grow or die against seasonal patterns. So the "New Wave" (ha ha :rofl is now a ecological threat.

The impact is that a some (but by no means all) of 1248 history is invalidated by the change. Specifically, The Freedom League (formerly the Reformation Coalition) is little impacted by the changes to the Wave as they dont get hit by the Wave yet and continue to develop in relative isolation. This is BIG, BIG difference for aliens there is the Droyne make a territorial resurgence between TNE and 1248. The Hivers survived Virus more or less intact, but due to issues leave the Coalition/League.
And then there are the K'kree, heh, heh, heh...:smirk::devil:

Yes, by 1902 everyone got hit by the Wave. How bad depends on how deadly the Wave is. How widespread your alien is and what they look like is dependent how much of the 1248 history you accept. Some of this history occurs before even TNE begins and would not be impacted AT ALL by the wave.

If you like I can enumerate these differences.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The K'kree for example:

Prior to IY 1202 (TNE), 1248 history indicates the leader of The Lords of Thunder, Anv!ull’lxux, allies with a Strain of Virus. The leader of the Lords kills the Steppelord of the Two Thousand Worlds, takes it over and goes on the Crusade to kill all carnivores and omnivores. The leader eventually gets uploaded, just like Lucan.

How does this impact a Galaxiad K'kree module? The text indicates a better familiarity/sophistication/comfort with Robots/Virus'ed Robots. They don't eat meat and fight along with the organics.. The line of Steppelords is usurped. They are no longer satisfied with keeping to themselves. If you are looking for old-fashioned K'kree, they live on one planet in the Marches (per TNE and 1248). The rest are My Little Ponies of Death.

 

[robject]

Yes, Marc has this habit (or philosophy) of using what he's been given, rather than erasing it, and then changing it significantly to fit his goals.

If I recall, the Wave is done with Charted Space by 1450 or so. And yeah, things get bad when the Black Curtain Lords of Thunder (?) head for the Nth Imperium from antispinward at the same time the Wave heads for the Nth Imperium from coreward. Of course, that's all ancient history. :coffeesip:

Just so you know, the Wave's passing was one consideration for deciding on the time period of the Galaxiad. First it was 1600 or so, but thinking about the Wave caused Marc to adjust the timeline and change the Wave itself.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Yes, like my signature says....

The biology of the aliens is not likely to change much. Except maybe Droyne.
Something stirred up the Droyne in the Freedom League to become much, much more active in interstellar society. Part of it is that the Droyne went to all the Chirper planets and forcibly coyne'd them all so they are adults now. Effectively, the only Chirpers left are on backwater planets adult Droyne haven't gotten to yet.

That might be more a societal change like the K'kree. Or maybe an Ancients thing.

 

[Thot]

More active Droyne is something that I always found missing in the OTU. A whole major race with an awesome backstory, but they do nothing with it? Such a waste!

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Let's see what else

Solomani - The Confederation was destroyed by not by Virus, but by "Sauron Supermen", descendants of genetically modified humans that Terrans made along with uplifted apes, dolphins and ursas during the Interstellar Wars. They had a few motives in doing so. Terra, as of 1248, has gone all noble. It is in a new Commonwealth and made up with the Vegans. The Vegans are part of this Commonwealth.

This is not to say that the Solomani are gone. Our Self-Proclaimed Champions of Human Supremacy are alive and well in Newold Sector having centralized and formed the "Solomani Imperium". It is worth noting that the Solomani were back up and running by the 1160s, long before the Dawn League. Without help from aliens, thank you very much.
And might have started taking over Charted Space were it not for...

 

[Maksim-Smelchak]

Let's see what else

Solomani - The Confederation was destroyed by not by Virus, but by "Sauron Supermen", descendants of genetically modified humans that Terrans made along with uplifted apes, dolphins and ursas during the Interstellar Wars. They had a few motives in doing so. Terra, as of 1248, has gone all noble. It is in a new Commonwealth and made up with the Vegans. The Vegans are part of this Commonwealth.

This is not to say that the Solomani are gone. Our Self-Proclaimed Champions of Human Supremacy are alive and well in Newold Sector having centralized and formed the "Solomani Imperium". It is worth noting that the Solomani were back up and running by the 1160s, long before the Dawn League. Without help from aliens, thank you very much.
And might have started taking over Charted Space were it not for...

Oy vey iz mir.

Can't wait to see it happen.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[Ulsyus]

I'd be happy to help on any work done on the Solomani or the states in the vicinity of the old Solomani Rim Sector.

What about updating them to the Galaxiad era?

Is there going to be any material bridging Martin's work on 1248 to the 1900 Galaxiad, or is there just going to be a dive into the later period with a generalised sourcebook providing a framework as to what passed in the 600+ years between those eras?