The Dragon Master
SOC-8
I'm not using the normal Traveller universe, though I do plan to use the staples (races, no FTL comms, etc.).
A. For the adventure/campaign I am planning to run I want to set it in a time just after jump technology became available. I'm imagining a Universe in which Generational ships were sent out to colonize the galaxy. Jump drives were created a short time ago, (I.E, jump 1 is moderately common, but jump 2 is the next big thing, and scientists are theorizing about jump 3).
The idea was to create a more sparsely inhabited sub-sector, and the solution I came to was to follow the model in the book of applying a DM (of -1 in this case) to the planet roll. This didn't work as I'd wanted though. It did create a sub-sector of fewer planets, but the number/quality of spaceports wasn't changed (this may be a Duh moment for those who've created them before, but I was going through the progress paragraph by paragraph). Having already started, I decided to finish the sub-sector I was working on for the purposes of getting the hang of it, and figure out what to do later.
My current idea is to apply a DM+2 (or whatever) to the second roll (don't have the book on me so I don't have the verbiage at hand) so that A rated Space Ports are removed, and possibly increase that to get down to the highest level of space port I'm planning to have.
B. While looking at the table I noticed how much setting detail is defined by that table. That a port is more likely to have a Scout base than a navy base. That a commercial port is less likely in the absence of a gas giant (fuel, I know). A couple
1. Scout bases were (slightly) more likely on a base by base basis, to have a better star-port than a navy base. Given that the Scouts are the ones who should be expanding the frontiers, and the Navy should be defending the encompassed territories, I figure that Scout bases should be the first ones placed down, so they should be more likely to be in a system with a rating of x than navy bases should be.
2. As for there being no navy or scout bases in systems with a high space port rating, that seems odd to me. Is that a matter of Ports that are established by Corporations, rather than the military? Or is there some other reason for it?
3. The text says that Ports of such and such rating may have a navy base, and may have a scout base, yet according to the matrix, they all do at that level (this comment is repeated for each quality of Port other than A and possibly B, don't have the book on me atm though). Was that a typo (on one side or the other? Or is the matrix just meant to show what's likely?
C. Now for the big one. How much will I screw things up if I modify things to "fix" these "problems"? Specific changes: Add a few levels at the bottom of the matrix for a second X port, as well as a couple for Y ports (an unmarked patch of dirt, no bases, no facilities); move the Navy column up such that the top of it is in line with the top of the scout column, while leaving the number of rows in the matrix that have a yes in that column the same (i.e, no new navy bases added, just moving them to higher quality bases); removing every other base such that (for example) odd rolls don't have a navy or a scout base and even ones do, or evens are an either or proposition and odds have both.
Any thoughts? Am I worrying over nothing? Is there a section in a later book that addresses these things? Or is the expectation just that the chart will be used to stimulate the imagination (much as they describe the process of planet generation)?
A. For the adventure/campaign I am planning to run I want to set it in a time just after jump technology became available. I'm imagining a Universe in which Generational ships were sent out to colonize the galaxy. Jump drives were created a short time ago, (I.E, jump 1 is moderately common, but jump 2 is the next big thing, and scientists are theorizing about jump 3).
The idea was to create a more sparsely inhabited sub-sector, and the solution I came to was to follow the model in the book of applying a DM (of -1 in this case) to the planet roll. This didn't work as I'd wanted though. It did create a sub-sector of fewer planets, but the number/quality of spaceports wasn't changed (this may be a Duh moment for those who've created them before, but I was going through the progress paragraph by paragraph). Having already started, I decided to finish the sub-sector I was working on for the purposes of getting the hang of it, and figure out what to do later.
My current idea is to apply a DM+2 (or whatever) to the second roll (don't have the book on me so I don't have the verbiage at hand) so that A rated Space Ports are removed, and possibly increase that to get down to the highest level of space port I'm planning to have.
B. While looking at the table I noticed how much setting detail is defined by that table. That a port is more likely to have a Scout base than a navy base. That a commercial port is less likely in the absence of a gas giant (fuel, I know). A couple
1. Scout bases were (slightly) more likely on a base by base basis, to have a better star-port than a navy base. Given that the Scouts are the ones who should be expanding the frontiers, and the Navy should be defending the encompassed territories, I figure that Scout bases should be the first ones placed down, so they should be more likely to be in a system with a rating of x than navy bases should be.
2. As for there being no navy or scout bases in systems with a high space port rating, that seems odd to me. Is that a matter of Ports that are established by Corporations, rather than the military? Or is there some other reason for it?
3. The text says that Ports of such and such rating may have a navy base, and may have a scout base, yet according to the matrix, they all do at that level (this comment is repeated for each quality of Port other than A and possibly B, don't have the book on me atm though). Was that a typo (on one side or the other? Or is the matrix just meant to show what's likely?
C. Now for the big one. How much will I screw things up if I modify things to "fix" these "problems"? Specific changes: Add a few levels at the bottom of the matrix for a second X port, as well as a couple for Y ports (an unmarked patch of dirt, no bases, no facilities); move the Navy column up such that the top of it is in line with the top of the scout column, while leaving the number of rows in the matrix that have a yes in that column the same (i.e, no new navy bases added, just moving them to higher quality bases); removing every other base such that (for example) odd rolls don't have a navy or a scout base and even ones do, or evens are an either or proposition and odds have both.
Any thoughts? Am I worrying over nothing? Is there a section in a later book that addresses these things? Or is the expectation just that the chart will be used to stimulate the imagination (much as they describe the process of planet generation)?
It's your universe (YTU aka Your Traveller Universe) and what you're doing isn't anything many of us haven't done.
(and in Book 6 "Y" is used in Spaceport key (for none, like X)
