IMTU. A new (old) start

[aramis]

Of course, not of that matters if Cryton does not wish to use it - it's his ATU.

My main point earlier was to separate the titles from straight lines on a map to something more physical, like stellar clumping. I've never seen a map of any place where all of the boundaries were along lines of latitude and longitude.

Not on a state or national level (excepting of course, Nevada, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico...

The city limits of Anchorage were, in the 1930's, 9th and Gambel to the water in both directions. Later it became 15th and Orca. Then Northern lights and Lake Otis, finally adding a chunk east of Gambel, north of 36th, west of Lake Otis, south of Debar. (Where it remained until 1976, when the Municipality incorporated fully the cities of Mountain View, Muldoon, Spenard, and Jewel Lake.
Mountain View was, until amalgamation, everything north of Debarr and Lake Otis to Boniface and Debarr. (Debarr is MV's name for Anchorage's 15th Avenue). Elmendorf is north of Anchorage and Mountain View both.
The city of Muldoon was everything east of Boniface and north of Tudor, south of the Richardson Highway. (It's bordered on the north by Fort Richardson.)
The city of Spenard was west of gambel, south of Northern lights, and north of Dowling. When Anchorage expanded to LO & 36th, anchorage annexed also everything north of Fireweed along Spenard Road (= Main Street for Spenard), renaming it Hillcrest Drive. My FLGS used to be in the technical city limits of Spenard, but just this year moved north across fireweed on spenard. The Muni has since sharpened the corner between Hillcrest and Spenard, and uses Spenard south of Hillcrest and Spenard. Anchorage High School was, in all irony, built so the school was in unincorporated territory JUST NORTH of Spenard...
In 1976, it all got amalgamated into the Municipality of Anchorage.

 

[Timerover51]

Of course, not of that matters if Cryton does not wish to use it - it's his ATU.

My main point earlier was to separate the titles from straight lines on a map to something more physical, like stellar clumping. I've never seen a map of any place where all of the boundaries were along lines of latitude and longitude.

Lake County, Illinois. Look at a map and the only non-straight boundary is to the east with Lake Michigan.

The US-Canadian boundary between Lake Superior and the Pacific runs along the 49th Parallel of Latitude, except for that spot where they messed up surveying by the Lake of the Woods.

 

[Timerover51]

Just checked http://travellermap.com using the route finder. (GREAT resource!)

Regina to Capital by J2 :154 parsecs - 83 jumps, by Jump 4: 154 parsecs - 39 jumps, by Jump 6: 154 parsecs — 26 jumps.

So longer than my original estimates, but not terribly so.

You are still looking at Age of Sail communication speeds or worse. You are looking at 39 to 40 weeks just to get a message from Regina to Capital, then for the Emperor to determine how to respond or what to do, and then another 40 weeks to get a message or personage back to Regina. That is over a year and a half.

Say, a disgruntled younger son assassinates the Duke of Regina and any older siblings and seizes control of the Dukedom. That time lag gives him a year and a half to solidify his control of the sector, and sector fleet. Or the wife of the Duke has him assassinated and then puts her incompetent lover in his place. The Sector Fleet then refuses to follow any of the new Duke's orders, while the subsector Dukes are trying to figure out which way to jump.

Even at Jump-6, any orders from the Emperor are a year old and more than likely a year out of date. It is like Napoleon giving orders to his Marshalls in Spain from Moscow, Russia, except worse.

 

[creativehum]

Easiest way is with an example (note that this is using the 81 version of LBB3 - Starter Edition and The Traveller Book actually have much more comprehensive tables)

I roll on the patron table and get:

rumour, avenger, army

next I roll on random person encounter

workers, animal encounter (a roll of 6,n I take as animal or alien) and ambushing brigands.

I pick the starting encounter:

Lets say the players encounter some workers who are obviously agitated, discussion with them reveals that the industrial plant they have been operating has been closed due to rumours of some violent native beast, and that some hotheads are thinking of going to hunt the animals down. There is a rumour that the animals in question have highly valuable (insert whatever you want here - anagathic glands, valuable fur, expensive blubber - whatever).

Players may or may not join the hunt, but they have been seen talking to the workers.

Next encounter depends - if they go on the animal hunt then they may encounter the ambushing brigands who are also after the animals, or they may encounter the army patrol guarding the industrial site and containing the animals.

If they don't go on the hunt they are approached by the avenger who has lost (family member, best friend, whatever will pull players in) and offers to guide the players past the workers/army guards to get to the animals.

If they went along with the workers they may still encounter the avenger being attacked by the brigands/army patrol.

It's fairly organic - I may decide to change the encounter order in response to player actions, and reaction rolls may make things more tense than they need to be.

And at some point I have to generate the animal stats...

Hey, hey...

You took the time to offer up an example, and I never followed up.

Thanks! This was great.

 

[kilemall]

Hey, hey...

You took the time to offer up an example, and I never followed up.

Thanks! This was great.

It's really genius, it's like amberzones that write themselves.