Interesting settings;
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds; yeah, I figured it might be kind of neat to have a band happen across one via a misjump or somesuch. I may write something up along these lines.
I never figured that any commonly known race, Darriens included, would have one in the official Traveller Milieu, but it would be interesting if a band of adventurers had to encounter one and make their way out of a dicey situation.
A dyson sphere or ringworld would fill volumes of sourcebooks for settings. Some mercenary poster actually ran with this idea when I brought it up a couple years back. It was pretty vanilla flavored stuff.
Another setting; has anybody considered venturing into a stellar nursery, or a primordial world? I recall "Shadows" (the mini adventure that came with Starter Traveller) had a set of ruins in an insidious or corrosive atmosphere. I think the old big black Traveller book had a concept or seed for a world covered with fungus life forms.
Has anybody done a Gas Giant or Iceworld adventure?
I never figured that any commonly known race, Darriens included, would have one in the official Traveller Milieu, but it would be interesting if a band of adventurers had to encounter one and make their way out of a dicey situation.
A dyson sphere or ringworld would fill volumes of sourcebooks for settings. Some mercenary poster actually ran with this idea when I brought it up a couple years back. It was pretty vanilla flavored stuff.
Another setting; has anybody considered venturing into a stellar nursery, or a primordial world? I recall "Shadows" (the mini adventure that came with Starter Traveller) had a set of ruins in an insidious or corrosive atmosphere. I think the old big black Traveller book had a concept or seed for a world covered with fungus life forms.
Has anybody done a Gas Giant or Iceworld adventure?
Several of them slipped out just before an extension was passed. (mostly early ones which hadn't been extended).
Others may have been released by the estate.
It used to be 20 years then renew for 50 more or life+20, and unless specifically copyrighted, not protected.
My how things have changed since the early 1990's...
Others may have been released by the estate.
It used to be 20 years then renew for 50 more or life+20, and unless specifically copyrighted, not protected.
My how things have changed since the early 1990's...
Arthur Denger
SOC-12
Forget about the GURPS version go back to the original Biohazzard Games release of the rules for the main rulebook and its companion - Archipelago: A Guide to the Islands of Blue Planet.
Milieu background:
http://www.biohazardgames.com/bp.html
The Flying Flight Games stuff is not bad, but I think they dealt too much into the "punk" (as in cyberpunk) aspect of the game. The original was much more balanced.
The Gamelords Environment series including the adventure could all be adapted to Waterworlds.
You mentioned Farpoint as an exotic locale, it is also a waterworld as there is less than 1000 sq kms of land that peaks above ocean. It is modelled after Europa. True, what is under the water is more interesting...
Milieu background:
http://www.biohazardgames.com/bp.html
The Flying Flight Games stuff is not bad, but I think they dealt too much into the "punk" (as in cyberpunk) aspect of the game. The original was much more balanced.
The Gamelords Environment series including the adventure could all be adapted to Waterworlds.
You mentioned Farpoint as an exotic locale, it is also a waterworld as there is less than 1000 sq kms of land that peaks above ocean. It is modelled after Europa. True, what is under the water is more interesting...
BTW, here is my list:
Unusual social environment
Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies. :See: Utopia, Dystopia.
- Aka — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Telling (hyper scientific advancement)
- Anarres — Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (anarchist)
- Armaghast — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (prison planet)
- Athos — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos (male-only society)
- Barrayar — Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)
- Beowulf — David Weber's Honorverse. Very liberal sexual mores.
- Brontitall — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of bird people who live in the ear of a statue after shoe shop disaster.
- Cetaganda — Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)
- Chthon — Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)
- Coruscant — The Star Wars films (planet-wide city, seat of Galactic Republic and Empire)
- Crete — Freelancer
- Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)
- Gauda Prime — Appears in the last episode of Blake's Seven, being where one of the characters originates, and where the series' eponymous character is residing. A planet overrun with bounty hunters and the scum of the galaxy - but some of whose inhabitants wish to return it to normality (and the Federation).
- Gethen/Winter — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)
- Gork
- Gor — John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are often sex-slaves; all are generally happy in their appointed roles)
- Hades — David Weber's Honorverse. Prison planet where none of the native wildlife can be metabolized by humans.
- Hain — Central planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish series.
- Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
- Houston — Freelancer
- Irk (Invader Zim)
- Leeds — Freelancer, a heavily polluted planet.
- Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (planet of wealthy customised planet builders)
- Mejerr — Vandread (female-only society)
- Miranda — Serenity (site where Alliance accidentally spawned the Reavers)
- Nark A charlie planet
- Omega — Robert Sheckley's The Status Civilization (a prison planet)
- Orthe — Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)
- Pacem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (base of Catholic church)
- Parvati — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (reformed Hindus)
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)
- Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)
- Rimmerworld Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf spends 600 years alone on this planet, creating clones of himself in a failed attempt to create a girlfriend. The planet is eventually populated by millions of clones who imprison the original Rimmer.
- Riverworld — Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans in history reincarnated along a spiral river)
- Rubanis — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (ultra-capitalist)
- Sangre — Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)
- Salusa Secundus — from the Dune Chronicles. Nuked-out "hell world" used as a training environment for super-soldiers.
- Shikasta — Doris Lessing's Shikasta (cosmic consciousness)
- Shora — Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)
- Solaria — Isaac Asimov's Robot series. People grow up isolated, and eventually lead totally solitary lives, interacting only via telepresence.
- Talark — Vandread (male-only society)
- Terminus - Foundation; Isaac Asimov
- Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
- Yugopotamia (The Fairly Oddparents)
- Xindus — Star Trek: Enterprise (six distinct sentient species)
- Zycos A charlie planet. Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.
Unusual physical environment
Typical examples are one-climate planets — deserts, waterworlds, arctic conditions and especially jungles.
- Abyormen — Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (temperature extremes)
- Acid planet — Total Annihilation (Corresive oceans with forests of explosive gasbag plants)
- Aether — Metroid Prime 2, planet with two parallel dimensions
- Aquarius — Giant waterworld that caused the Biblical Great Flood. From Final Yamato of the Space Battleship Yamato series.
- Aquas — Small waterworld in the Lylat System, setting of the video games in Nintendo's StarFox series
- Arrakis — Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world, sole source of Melange)
- Atlantis — Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy (waterworld)
- Ballybran — Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. (toxic world. Inhabitants must form a symbionic relationship with a spore in order to survive.)
- Baloris Prime — A planet from the PC game 'Descent II' which was mostly desert (according to the writers of the game this was because its axis of rotation was exactly perpendicular to its plane of orbit, causing a total lack of seasons on the surface of the planet.
- Bespin — Star Wars (gas giant with habitable atmospheric layer)
- Big Planet — Jack Vance
- Chaos — Exosquad (the tenth planet of the Solar System, composed entirely of dark matter)
- Core Prime — Total Annihilation (metallic with a gigantic computer at its core and a landfill-covered satellite)
- Crematoria — The Chronicles of Riddick movie (periods of intense heat)
- Cybertron — Transformers series (Metallic/Mechanical)
- Dagobah — Star Wars (swamp, Yoda's hideout)
- Dhrawn — Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
- Dragon's Egg — Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
- Echronedal — Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games (a fire storm forever sweeping round an unbroken equatorial continent)
- Ego the Living Planet — Marvel comics (living planet)
- Endor — the forest-moon in Return of the Jedi
- Erna — C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (psychically malleable quasi-sentient natural forces)
- Far Away — Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star (triangle of stratospheric mountains, sterilized by solar flare, Starflyer alien)
- Fortuna — Small planet in StarFox 64, it is a world similar to Hoth
- Gamilon/Gamilus — Polluted homeworld of Leader Desslock the Gamilon/Gamilus Empire — Space Battleship Yamato
- Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
- Giedi Prime — Frank Herbert's Dune series (surface covered in upwelling oil, homeworld of House Harkonnen)
- God's Grove — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (forest world,Worldtree)
- Grayson — David Weber's Honorverse. Toxic, heavy metal environment.
- Hekla — Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)
- Helliconia — Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)
- Hoth — The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)
- Homeworld of The Micronauts, actually a chain of worldlets connected which resembles the ball and stick molecular model.
- Htrae — Red Dwarf (a backwards version of Earth).
- Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
- Hyperion — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (one of 9 labyrinth planets, Time Tombs)
- Ireta — Anne McCaffrey's Planet Pirate series. Inhabited by both people and dinosaurs.
- Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
- Jinx — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (high gravity and extreme vertical scale)
- Kamino — Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (ocean)
- Kashyyyk — Star Wars, particularly Knights of the Old Republic (forest world caused by a terraforming accident, where gigantic trees and furry, sentient Wookiees to maintain them evolved at an accelerated pace)
- Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet) destroyed by an enemy race after space travel is developed
- Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld rich in heavy metals, which form part of the biochemical structure of its life. Mildly toxic to non-native life. also the "retirement" home of a neurotic race with enormous psi power)
- Lagash — Isaac Asimov's Nightfall (planet where each day lasts two thousand years)
- Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
- LV-426 — Aliens
- Manaan — Star Wars (ocean)
- Majipoor — Robert Silverberg (large planet)
- Mare Infinitus — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (waterworld)
- Maui-Covenant — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (motile isles)
- Medea — Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project
- Mesklin — Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (superjovian)
- Monea — Star Trek: Voyager (waterworld)
- Mor-Tax — the aliens' homeworld in the first season of War of the Worlds (described as a garden planet)
- Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Namek and New Namek — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (temperate land where trees are scarce, but water and grass abondant)
- Pittsburgh — Freelancer (desert, populated with mining operations).
- Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place
- Plateau/Mt. Lookitthat — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (Venus-like with only a small high plateau habitable; colonized by mistake)
- Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)
- Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic animals)
- Regis III — Stanisław Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)
- Resurgam — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (desert with buried alien artefacts)
- Rocheworld — Robert Forward (double planet that almost touches)
- The Smoke Ring — Larry Niven's Integral Trees & Smoke Ring (gas ring around a neutron star)
- Sol Draconi Septem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (glacier covered)
- Solaris — Stanisław Lem's Solaris (Mostly covered by living ocean)
- Star One - a star with a single planet holding the Federation's main computers in Blake's 7, situated between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. Planet destroyed in an intergalactic war.
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. Deadly spore capable of eating anything (except rock and metal) rains down on planet for fifty years every 200-400 years.
- Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)
- Tallon IV — Metroid Prime. All life on planet was horribly mutated following the crash of a toxic asteroid.
- Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
- Terminal — an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blake's 7.
- Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
- T'ien Shan — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (mountain world, toxic surface clouds)
- Tycho Brahe — From Descent II, a spaceship the size and shape of a planet, mistaken for one until its two hemispheres actually separated to reveal a mechanical interior (metallic/mechanical)
- Ursa Minor Beta nearly always Saturday afternoon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Venom — Largest and closest orbiting planet of the Lylat System, setting of the games in Nintendo's StarFox series, bearing an extremely toxic atmosphere and therefore a highly desolate surface. In some versions of the backstory, Venom was previously called Edena because it was supposedly covered almost entirely with forest, possibly evergreen, before Andross was exiled there, suggesting it may have also been a prison planet.
- Vladislava — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe (extremely turbulent atmosphere)
- Well World — Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)
- World of Tiers — Philip José Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)
- Yavin 4 — Fourth moon of the gas giant, Yavin; Rebel Alliance stronghold located in the ruins of an ancient Massassi temple (abandoned long ago) from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Yellowstone — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, the site of Chasm City and Glitter Band habitats
- Zahir — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (hollow planet)
- Zeelich, a planet in Little Big Adventure 2. It is covered by a thick layer of gas clouds and beneath lies a sea of lava. Vegetation and civilisation is recurrent only on mountains above the cloud layer. Zyrgon, a icebound planet in "Halfway across the galaxy and turn left"
- Zoness — A planet that once was nearly all tropical in its climate, and home to many island resorts in StarFox's Lylat System, the whole planet was turned into a toxic waste dump by the forces of Andross according to the storyline of StarFox 64, turning its once beautiful oceans into seas of corrosive poison and its atmosphere into a caustic cloud of deadly vapors.
Living/sentient planets
- Petaybee, from the Petaybee Series (Powers series) by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough
- Gaea, a sentient artificial space habitat, from the Gaea Trilogy (Titan, Wizard & Daemon) by John Varley.
- Zonama Sekot living world from the Star Wars expanded universe.
- Pandarve, from the Storm comic books, is not only alive, but also has the status of a goddess
- Mogo, from the Green Lantern Corps comic books, is not only alive, but also an appointed member of the corps.
Other
- Acheron — aka LV-426 the planet on which the derelict ship and its deadly cargo are found in the movies Alien and Aliens
- Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
- Altair IV — Forbidden Planet formerly inhabited by mysteriously extinct race
- Ahnooie-4 where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) decides to put a repulsive blob out of its misery
- Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
- Ark — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Arlia — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Astra — A Marvel Universe planet where humanoid aliens possess magnetic and molecule-controlling powers that enable them to have every power on metal
- Athse — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest
- Bajor — Star Trek
- Barsoom — Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy version of Mars
- Belzagor — Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth and into Conrad's Heart of Darkness
- The Blue Sands Planet — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- Bog— where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) avoids pools of toxic chemicals under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases
- Botany — an Earth-like world portrayed in Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series.
- Boskone — Smith's Lensmen series
- Bothawui — Star Wars cosmopolitan planet of Bothans
- Caladan — House Atreides home planet before being ordered to take up occupancy of Arrakis. Frank Herbert's Dune.
- Calafia — Water world in David Brin's Uplift universe, inhabited by humans and neo-dolphins. Currently occupied by the Soro.
- Caprica — destroyed home planet of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the 12 home worlds
- Corneria — home planet for the Fox Team in the Star Fox video game series
- Covenant — Scottish-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History. Known for its mercenaries specializing in infantry.
- Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe
- Churchill — English-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
- Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
- The Discworld — not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
- Deemi — World in David Brin's Uplift Universe leased to humans on the condition that they run the Galactic prison. Bathed in UV radiation. Most of biosphere is aquatic.
- Dragon World — the Earth from the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
- Dayan or Dyan — Israeli-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
- Expel — where much of the action of Star Ocean: The Second Story occurs
- Exxilon — Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks
- Fortuna — Planet of the Star Fox video game series; the "dinosaur planet".
- Freeza Planet 79 — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Frystaat — Afrikaaner-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Garrota — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Garissa — Planet in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy that is anti-matter bombed and rendered uninhabitable.
- Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blake's 7 comes to an end.
- Giedi Prime — home planet of the Harkonnen Dynasty from Dune
- Giganda — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Gloob — above which Spaceman Spiff, Calvin from the comic (Calvin and Hobbes), has a malfunction in his hyper freem drive and is blasted with a deadly frap ray by the aliens
- Gorgona — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- The Great Kai Planet — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Harvest — a farm planet in the video game series Halo
- Hegira — Greg Bear
- Helicon — Home of Psychohistory founder, Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
- Hiigara — Homeworld (lost Kushan home planet)
- Homeworld — Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series (Risen Imperial capital)
- Hope — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Jean — colony planet in the Freefall comic
- Jijo — Planet in Galaxy #4 where Humans and other sophont refugees have illegally hidden, in the case of the G'kek and the Humans to avoid extermination, potential for humanity, certain for G'kek.
- Jobis — A Kiint world with three artificial moons from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
- Jophekka — In David Brin's Uplift Universe, the homeworld of the Jophur, sapient and ambitious sap ring stacks.
- Jurai — The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.
- Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
- Kanassa — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Koosebane — weird planet in The Muppet Show
- Kosmos — A planet in the Marvel Universe from which a criminal sludge-like alien escapes to hide on Earth where he kills The Wasp's father and fights Ant-Man
- Klendathu — bugs homeplanet in Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers
- Krypton — Superman
- Lar Metaal — Planet which shifts location in space every 1,000 years. Homeworld of Queen Promethium, Maetel and possibly Emeraldas — Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millenia, Maetel Legend
- Legis XV — location of Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series
- Manhattan, London, Tokyo and Berlin — Freelancer. Most places in this game are named after Earth places, such as the planet Stuttgart, the New York system, or the Detroit asteroid field.
- Leonida — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience
- Londinum — Co-capital world (Anglo-American) of the Alliance in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe.
- Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
- MacBeth — planet from the Star Fox video game series
- Meiji — Japanese-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Metaluna — This Island Earth
- Minbar — homeworld of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe
- Mok, where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) undergoes water torture (his mother washes his hair)
- Mondas — home planet of the [[Cyberman
Unusual social environment
Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies. :See: Utopia, Dystopia.
- Aka — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Telling (hyper scientific advancement)
- Anarres — Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (anarchist)
- Armaghast — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (prison planet)
- Athos — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos (male-only society)
- Barrayar — Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)
- Beowulf — David Weber's Honorverse. Very liberal sexual mores.
- Brontitall — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of bird people who live in the ear of a statue after shoe shop disaster.
- Cetaganda — Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)
- Chthon — Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)
- Coruscant — The Star Wars films (planet-wide city, seat of Galactic Republic and Empire)
- Crete — Freelancer
- Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)
- Gauda Prime — Appears in the last episode of Blake's Seven, being where one of the characters originates, and where the series' eponymous character is residing. A planet overrun with bounty hunters and the scum of the galaxy - but some of whose inhabitants wish to return it to normality (and the Federation).
- Gethen/Winter — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)
- Gork
- Gor — John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are often sex-slaves; all are generally happy in their appointed roles)
- Hades — David Weber's Honorverse. Prison planet where none of the native wildlife can be metabolized by humans.
- Hain — Central planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish series.
- Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
- Houston — Freelancer
- Irk (Invader Zim)
- Leeds — Freelancer, a heavily polluted planet.
- Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (planet of wealthy customised planet builders)
- Mejerr — Vandread (female-only society)
- Miranda — Serenity (site where Alliance accidentally spawned the Reavers)
- Nark A charlie planet
- Omega — Robert Sheckley's The Status Civilization (a prison planet)
- Orthe — Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)
- Pacem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (base of Catholic church)
- Parvati — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (reformed Hindus)
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)
- Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)
- Rimmerworld Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf spends 600 years alone on this planet, creating clones of himself in a failed attempt to create a girlfriend. The planet is eventually populated by millions of clones who imprison the original Rimmer.
- Riverworld — Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans in history reincarnated along a spiral river)
- Rubanis — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (ultra-capitalist)
- Sangre — Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)
- Salusa Secundus — from the Dune Chronicles. Nuked-out "hell world" used as a training environment for super-soldiers.
- Shikasta — Doris Lessing's Shikasta (cosmic consciousness)
- Shora — Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)
- Solaria — Isaac Asimov's Robot series. People grow up isolated, and eventually lead totally solitary lives, interacting only via telepresence.
- Talark — Vandread (male-only society)
- Terminus - Foundation; Isaac Asimov
- Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
- Yugopotamia (The Fairly Oddparents)
- Xindus — Star Trek: Enterprise (six distinct sentient species)
- Zycos A charlie planet. Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.
Unusual physical environment
Typical examples are one-climate planets — deserts, waterworlds, arctic conditions and especially jungles.
- Abyormen — Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (temperature extremes)
- Acid planet — Total Annihilation (Corresive oceans with forests of explosive gasbag plants)
- Aether — Metroid Prime 2, planet with two parallel dimensions
- Aquarius — Giant waterworld that caused the Biblical Great Flood. From Final Yamato of the Space Battleship Yamato series.
- Aquas — Small waterworld in the Lylat System, setting of the video games in Nintendo's StarFox series
- Arrakis — Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world, sole source of Melange)
- Atlantis — Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy (waterworld)
- Ballybran — Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. (toxic world. Inhabitants must form a symbionic relationship with a spore in order to survive.)
- Baloris Prime — A planet from the PC game 'Descent II' which was mostly desert (according to the writers of the game this was because its axis of rotation was exactly perpendicular to its plane of orbit, causing a total lack of seasons on the surface of the planet.
- Bespin — Star Wars (gas giant with habitable atmospheric layer)
- Big Planet — Jack Vance
- Chaos — Exosquad (the tenth planet of the Solar System, composed entirely of dark matter)
- Core Prime — Total Annihilation (metallic with a gigantic computer at its core and a landfill-covered satellite)
- Crematoria — The Chronicles of Riddick movie (periods of intense heat)
- Cybertron — Transformers series (Metallic/Mechanical)
- Dagobah — Star Wars (swamp, Yoda's hideout)
- Dhrawn — Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
- Dragon's Egg — Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
- Echronedal — Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games (a fire storm forever sweeping round an unbroken equatorial continent)
- Ego the Living Planet — Marvel comics (living planet)
- Endor — the forest-moon in Return of the Jedi
- Erna — C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (psychically malleable quasi-sentient natural forces)
- Far Away — Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star (triangle of stratospheric mountains, sterilized by solar flare, Starflyer alien)
- Fortuna — Small planet in StarFox 64, it is a world similar to Hoth
- Gamilon/Gamilus — Polluted homeworld of Leader Desslock the Gamilon/Gamilus Empire — Space Battleship Yamato
- Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
- Giedi Prime — Frank Herbert's Dune series (surface covered in upwelling oil, homeworld of House Harkonnen)
- God's Grove — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (forest world,Worldtree)
- Grayson — David Weber's Honorverse. Toxic, heavy metal environment.
- Hekla — Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)
- Helliconia — Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)
- Hoth — The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)
- Homeworld of The Micronauts, actually a chain of worldlets connected which resembles the ball and stick molecular model.
- Htrae — Red Dwarf (a backwards version of Earth).
- Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
- Hyperion — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (one of 9 labyrinth planets, Time Tombs)
- Ireta — Anne McCaffrey's Planet Pirate series. Inhabited by both people and dinosaurs.
- Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
- Jinx — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (high gravity and extreme vertical scale)
- Kamino — Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (ocean)
- Kashyyyk — Star Wars, particularly Knights of the Old Republic (forest world caused by a terraforming accident, where gigantic trees and furry, sentient Wookiees to maintain them evolved at an accelerated pace)
- Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet) destroyed by an enemy race after space travel is developed
- Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld rich in heavy metals, which form part of the biochemical structure of its life. Mildly toxic to non-native life. also the "retirement" home of a neurotic race with enormous psi power)
- Lagash — Isaac Asimov's Nightfall (planet where each day lasts two thousand years)
- Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
- LV-426 — Aliens
- Manaan — Star Wars (ocean)
- Majipoor — Robert Silverberg (large planet)
- Mare Infinitus — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (waterworld)
- Maui-Covenant — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (motile isles)
- Medea — Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project
- Mesklin — Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (superjovian)
- Monea — Star Trek: Voyager (waterworld)
- Mor-Tax — the aliens' homeworld in the first season of War of the Worlds (described as a garden planet)
- Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Namek and New Namek — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (temperate land where trees are scarce, but water and grass abondant)
- Pittsburgh — Freelancer (desert, populated with mining operations).
- Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place
- Plateau/Mt. Lookitthat — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (Venus-like with only a small high plateau habitable; colonized by mistake)
- Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)
- Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic animals)
- Regis III — Stanisław Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)
- Resurgam — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (desert with buried alien artefacts)
- Rocheworld — Robert Forward (double planet that almost touches)
- The Smoke Ring — Larry Niven's Integral Trees & Smoke Ring (gas ring around a neutron star)
- Sol Draconi Septem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (glacier covered)
- Solaris — Stanisław Lem's Solaris (Mostly covered by living ocean)
- Star One - a star with a single planet holding the Federation's main computers in Blake's 7, situated between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. Planet destroyed in an intergalactic war.
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. Deadly spore capable of eating anything (except rock and metal) rains down on planet for fifty years every 200-400 years.
- Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)
- Tallon IV — Metroid Prime. All life on planet was horribly mutated following the crash of a toxic asteroid.
- Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
- Terminal — an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blake's 7.
- Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
- T'ien Shan — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (mountain world, toxic surface clouds)
- Tycho Brahe — From Descent II, a spaceship the size and shape of a planet, mistaken for one until its two hemispheres actually separated to reveal a mechanical interior (metallic/mechanical)
- Ursa Minor Beta nearly always Saturday afternoon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Venom — Largest and closest orbiting planet of the Lylat System, setting of the games in Nintendo's StarFox series, bearing an extremely toxic atmosphere and therefore a highly desolate surface. In some versions of the backstory, Venom was previously called Edena because it was supposedly covered almost entirely with forest, possibly evergreen, before Andross was exiled there, suggesting it may have also been a prison planet.
- Vladislava — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe (extremely turbulent atmosphere)
- Well World — Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)
- World of Tiers — Philip José Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)
- Yavin 4 — Fourth moon of the gas giant, Yavin; Rebel Alliance stronghold located in the ruins of an ancient Massassi temple (abandoned long ago) from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Yellowstone — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, the site of Chasm City and Glitter Band habitats
- Zahir — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (hollow planet)
- Zeelich, a planet in Little Big Adventure 2. It is covered by a thick layer of gas clouds and beneath lies a sea of lava. Vegetation and civilisation is recurrent only on mountains above the cloud layer. Zyrgon, a icebound planet in "Halfway across the galaxy and turn left"
- Zoness — A planet that once was nearly all tropical in its climate, and home to many island resorts in StarFox's Lylat System, the whole planet was turned into a toxic waste dump by the forces of Andross according to the storyline of StarFox 64, turning its once beautiful oceans into seas of corrosive poison and its atmosphere into a caustic cloud of deadly vapors.
Living/sentient planets
- Petaybee, from the Petaybee Series (Powers series) by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough
- Gaea, a sentient artificial space habitat, from the Gaea Trilogy (Titan, Wizard & Daemon) by John Varley.
- Zonama Sekot living world from the Star Wars expanded universe.
- Pandarve, from the Storm comic books, is not only alive, but also has the status of a goddess
- Mogo, from the Green Lantern Corps comic books, is not only alive, but also an appointed member of the corps.
Other
- Acheron — aka LV-426 the planet on which the derelict ship and its deadly cargo are found in the movies Alien and Aliens
- Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
- Altair IV — Forbidden Planet formerly inhabited by mysteriously extinct race
- Ahnooie-4 where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) decides to put a repulsive blob out of its misery
- Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
- Ark — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Arlia — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Astra — A Marvel Universe planet where humanoid aliens possess magnetic and molecule-controlling powers that enable them to have every power on metal
- Athse — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest
- Bajor — Star Trek
- Barsoom — Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy version of Mars
- Belzagor — Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth and into Conrad's Heart of Darkness
- The Blue Sands Planet — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- Bog— where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) avoids pools of toxic chemicals under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases
- Botany — an Earth-like world portrayed in Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series.
- Boskone — Smith's Lensmen series
- Bothawui — Star Wars cosmopolitan planet of Bothans
- Caladan — House Atreides home planet before being ordered to take up occupancy of Arrakis. Frank Herbert's Dune.
- Calafia — Water world in David Brin's Uplift universe, inhabited by humans and neo-dolphins. Currently occupied by the Soro.
- Caprica — destroyed home planet of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the 12 home worlds
- Corneria — home planet for the Fox Team in the Star Fox video game series
- Covenant — Scottish-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History. Known for its mercenaries specializing in infantry.
- Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe
- Churchill — English-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
- Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
- The Discworld — not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
- Deemi — World in David Brin's Uplift Universe leased to humans on the condition that they run the Galactic prison. Bathed in UV radiation. Most of biosphere is aquatic.
- Dragon World — the Earth from the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
- Dayan or Dyan — Israeli-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
- Expel — where much of the action of Star Ocean: The Second Story occurs
- Exxilon — Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks
- Fortuna — Planet of the Star Fox video game series; the "dinosaur planet".
- Freeza Planet 79 — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Frystaat — Afrikaaner-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Garrota — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Garissa — Planet in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy that is anti-matter bombed and rendered uninhabitable.
- Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blake's 7 comes to an end.
- Giedi Prime — home planet of the Harkonnen Dynasty from Dune
- Giganda — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Gloob — above which Spaceman Spiff, Calvin from the comic (Calvin and Hobbes), has a malfunction in his hyper freem drive and is blasted with a deadly frap ray by the aliens
- Gorgona — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- The Great Kai Planet — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Harvest — a farm planet in the video game series Halo
- Hegira — Greg Bear
- Helicon — Home of Psychohistory founder, Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
- Hiigara — Homeworld (lost Kushan home planet)
- Homeworld — Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series (Risen Imperial capital)
- Hope — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Jean — colony planet in the Freefall comic
- Jijo — Planet in Galaxy #4 where Humans and other sophont refugees have illegally hidden, in the case of the G'kek and the Humans to avoid extermination, potential for humanity, certain for G'kek.
- Jobis — A Kiint world with three artificial moons from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
- Jophekka — In David Brin's Uplift Universe, the homeworld of the Jophur, sapient and ambitious sap ring stacks.
- Jurai — The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.
- Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
- Kanassa — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Koosebane — weird planet in The Muppet Show
- Kosmos — A planet in the Marvel Universe from which a criminal sludge-like alien escapes to hide on Earth where he kills The Wasp's father and fights Ant-Man
- Klendathu — bugs homeplanet in Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers
- Krypton — Superman
- Lar Metaal — Planet which shifts location in space every 1,000 years. Homeworld of Queen Promethium, Maetel and possibly Emeraldas — Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millenia, Maetel Legend
- Legis XV — location of Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series
- Manhattan, London, Tokyo and Berlin — Freelancer. Most places in this game are named after Earth places, such as the planet Stuttgart, the New York system, or the Detroit asteroid field.
- Leonida — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience
- Londinum — Co-capital world (Anglo-American) of the Alliance in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe.
- Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
- MacBeth — planet from the Star Fox video game series
- Meiji — Japanese-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Metaluna — This Island Earth
- Minbar — homeworld of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe
- Mok, where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) undergoes water torture (his mother washes his hair)
- Mondas — home planet of the [[Cyberman
Arthur Denger
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Arthur Denger
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Arthur Denger
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Give me an hour (or six) to digest all that!
Actually, I found the GURPS version only good for the Guns & FFG's too punkish.Originally posted by Arthur hault-Denger:
Thanks for the link, kafka47. You're right about the cyberpunk element, it is slightly overdone in the GURPS version (and in many of their other publications, too, IMHO). Great Gamelords The ... Environment series suggestion! These supplements are still available (new, old stock) from time to time on eBay.
Gamelords stuff may yet appear in CD ROM from Marc, as one time we talking about merging it with the FASA stuff. As I believe that you could even get them off this site at one time.
Come to think of it... there was also a FASA adventure that dealt with Underwater/waterworld setting.
As you say, used to be, though my understanding from similar threads on CotI etc. is that's changed so anything post-the first Mickey Mouse cartoon automatically is considering copywritten and will remain so for some years.
AFAIK Ace books bought Piper's work, and my copy of Federation has Federation copyright 1981 Charter Communications Inc., not sure if that's an estate or what. Works like Little Fuzzy (reprinted several times and IIRC a later work) are showing up, which was reprinted in the late 1990s or 2001. And the site specifically says as applies to the US in regards to copyright issues, unlike some other sites which get around legal matters by not being in the US/adhereing to US copyright laws.
Is this a case of the original pulp magazine in which a work first was published now being public domain? That still sounds a bit dodgy, esp. if a publisher still shows interest in an author's work (I've noticed at least one Conan tale on that site, which I'm sure has not lapsed). This sounds like applying the concept of abandonware to written works.
Note, I'm not meaning to be a stick in the mud about this, but I've been mistaken on such matters before and CotI is pretty strict on copywritten works. I really like Piper's work, and the more readers the better, though personally I'd prefer he be in print more than he is, but that's a seperate matter.
mbrinkhues
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To add a few worlds to Kafka47:
Avalon: The local food-chain generated a Predator capabel of extreme bursts of speed (at the risk of massiv overheating) and build like a well armored crocodile. The beast goes through a multi-stage life cycle, one of them being a large fish-like animal. They are caniballistic, getting parts of their food supply from other predators offspring. Recently a small group of colonists have set down on the world (Legacy of Heorot/Beowulfs Children)
Haven: The moon of a Super-Jovian gas giant. The combined energy of the Sun and the Giant makes it barely inhabitable to humans if they stay in the lower regions. The night/day cycles are extrem and during the long night (when the Star is shadowed) temperatures become dangerously low. The environment contains traces of heavy metal and air pressure in higher regions is low enough to make childbirth dangerous. Add a religous set of initial settlers, a large number of deportees from various cultures, a pirat nation and an attacker from outer space (WarWold)
Plateau A world with an extremly small habitable surface area ruled by an oligarchi based on the former crew and colonists (Niven, Known Space)
Avalon: The local food-chain generated a Predator capabel of extreme bursts of speed (at the risk of massiv overheating) and build like a well armored crocodile. The beast goes through a multi-stage life cycle, one of them being a large fish-like animal. They are caniballistic, getting parts of their food supply from other predators offspring. Recently a small group of colonists have set down on the world (Legacy of Heorot/Beowulfs Children)
Haven: The moon of a Super-Jovian gas giant. The combined energy of the Sun and the Giant makes it barely inhabitable to humans if they stay in the lower regions. The night/day cycles are extrem and during the long night (when the Star is shadowed) temperatures become dangerously low. The environment contains traces of heavy metal and air pressure in higher regions is low enough to make childbirth dangerous. Add a religous set of initial settlers, a large number of deportees from various cultures, a pirat nation and an attacker from outer space (WarWold)
Plateau A world with an extremly small habitable surface area ruled by an oligarchi based on the former crew and colonists (Niven, Known Space)
Casey; Nausicaa would make a very interesting setting.
As you say, used to be, though my understanding from similar threads on CotI etc. is that's changed so anything post-the first Mickey Mouse cartoon automatically is considering copywritten and will remain so for some years. </font>[/QUOTE]Here's the thing: if it was ever out of copyright after first copyright, the new extensions don't apply, since it already entered the public domain. It's actually in the law, as of last summer, that way. The mouse, however, has never been out of copyright, tho' if the extensions hadn't been, Steamboat Willie would have lapsed.
Automatic copyright without notice is a relatively new thing, post 1990, which is when I did my original researches on copyright law for a music theory paper.... Almost everything post 1975 was specifically moved into copyright even if the hand-copyright (aka unregistered items) had expired (they had a 2-year at the time), as the hand-copyright distinction has basically been eliminated.
Arthur Denger
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GypsyComet
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That's quite the list. I do notice a few holes. Little to no Alan Dean Foster, for one. One of my favorites:
Tslamaina (aka "Horse Eye") - a world with a huge impact crater as a central ocean and *three* sentient native species evolved to fill the major temperature/pressure zones around a huge river that started as one of the crustal cracks from the collision.
Then there's Brian Aldis:
Heliconia - A world with an equitorial band of ocean. An eccentric orbiting secondary star inflicts a thousand-year seasonal cycle ranging from sweltering summer to solidly frozen winter. The two species on Heliconia, one very human-like and the other almost yeti-like, are optimised for the opposing seasons. The "humans" suffer seasonal changes as paired "plagues" which kill most of the populace but leave the survivors more able to survive the coming winter or summer. Much of the animal life is also seasonally di-morphic, and a lot of it reproduces by necro-genesis, with the parent animal dying to start the next cycle of life.
Arthur Denger
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GypsyComet
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I had pictured them as something of a "musk-ox minotaur", but "Yeti" was shorter
I started to adapt Andre Norton's Witch World as a planet of psionic users. However I made producing more psis a perogative of the witches instead of celebicy. Other than a little background data, I never got around to developing the idea.
I got involved in an interesting campaign based off Mongo from Flash Gordon. It ended after two sessions due to the GM getting transferred.
I got involved in an interesting campaign based off Mongo from Flash Gordon. It ended after two sessions due to the GM getting transferred.
