My campaign is set in the sandbox (Foreven)--only the group seems bound and determined to head off into the artificial strangeness of The Beyond. Specifically (for the moment) the Mapepire Cluster. Which artificiality has long bothered me. I mean, who could have made such a thing? Maybe the Ancients, or someone of similar tech level--30s at least, to move whole systems. And why? Then there is the I'sred Net, or whatever it is supposed to be. :CoW:
Anyway, IMTU, I decided that I could replace at least one with a small "open cluster." Wikipedia describes them as 100+ (up to 10k?) stars that formed in a small place and time in a gas/dust cloud that got destabilized. After the dust clears--thanks to those bright OB stars, and maybe a few supernovae--the cluster has lots of stars in the 3-4 ly core (1 parsec plus maybe a bit!), and most of the rest within a corona of other members about 20 ly (6pc!).
Next question: How to model this? I'm thinking maybe taking a blank sector map, and drawing larger hexes with 61 small hexes each (5 on a side). This gives me a rectangle 5+ by 3-4 hexes. The core sector then will have most of the 61 mini-hexes filled, some maybe with two (or even more?) stars, possibly with or without planets, while density would drop off quickly outside that limit--the next hexes might have a couple stars, or none, with normal chance for planets, etc.
Because of the scale, a distance up to 10 (or 8?) mini-hexes would be J-1, and so on for higher jumps. It causes some anomalies--but we can write some strangeness up to the cluster itself.
I'm still debating with myself about astrogation, especially in the core. Will a system--or maybe a threshold of two or three--cause jumps to be impossible? Increase misjump chance? Are jumps in the core just impossible, period? Maybe there is a need for a local "cluster pilot" who knows the stresses and what is possible? Lots of possibilities.
I'm thinking of identifying it as the NCG 7686 cluster--which seems to be only an optical gathering, but is at least in more or less the right direction from here.
Still, that's where I am at the moment. Any thoughts or observations or suggestions?
Anyway, IMTU, I decided that I could replace at least one with a small "open cluster." Wikipedia describes them as 100+ (up to 10k?) stars that formed in a small place and time in a gas/dust cloud that got destabilized. After the dust clears--thanks to those bright OB stars, and maybe a few supernovae--the cluster has lots of stars in the 3-4 ly core (1 parsec plus maybe a bit!), and most of the rest within a corona of other members about 20 ly (6pc!).
Next question: How to model this? I'm thinking maybe taking a blank sector map, and drawing larger hexes with 61 small hexes each (5 on a side). This gives me a rectangle 5+ by 3-4 hexes. The core sector then will have most of the 61 mini-hexes filled, some maybe with two (or even more?) stars, possibly with or without planets, while density would drop off quickly outside that limit--the next hexes might have a couple stars, or none, with normal chance for planets, etc.
Because of the scale, a distance up to 10 (or 8?) mini-hexes would be J-1, and so on for higher jumps. It causes some anomalies--but we can write some strangeness up to the cluster itself.
I'm still debating with myself about astrogation, especially in the core. Will a system--or maybe a threshold of two or three--cause jumps to be impossible? Increase misjump chance? Are jumps in the core just impossible, period? Maybe there is a need for a local "cluster pilot" who knows the stresses and what is possible? Lots of possibilities.
I'm thinking of identifying it as the NCG 7686 cluster--which seems to be only an optical gathering, but is at least in more or less the right direction from here.
Still, that's where I am at the moment. Any thoughts or observations or suggestions?
