Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Hmmm, the Heinlein planet that immediately comes to mind is the one from Tunnel in the Sky.
Planets borrowed from science fiction stories in your TU
- Thread starter aza
- Start date
My AD&D world Crestar is a combo of Philip Jose' Farmers' 'World of Tiers' and Andre Norton's 'Witch World' series. With a number of modifications. I didn't want to make it too obvious. Crestar is a flat planet in a pocket universe. I've been thinking of dropping it into my Traveller universe.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Obviously an artificial construct of the Ancients.
Man... I had originally wanted to use Philip Jose' Farmers' 'World of Tiers' as the physical basis for my AD&D world, but finally decided to do something different. From the start I had the world existing in my Traveller universe (I was creating my Traveller universe at the same time).
The very first AD&D adventure I ran (1984) had the PCs end up clearing out an evil wizard's base. He had taken over an old military installation that had been abandoned for centuries... there were APCs and tanks in the main cavern.
The world had been visited some 500 years earlier by space-faring humans who had set up an exploration base on a large island (~990 miles E-W & ~660 miles N-S).
However, the world had originally been set up by an Ancient civilization as a Psionic experimental laboratory (staffed with primitive human and alien sophonts) tens of thousands of years earlier, just before the civilization was destroyed in an interstellar war. There were guardian satellites that were programmed to destroy any vessels coming from the surface into space.
When their shuttle was destroyed as it headed back to orbit, their mother ship tried to destroy the satellites and lost... it was vaporized. The personnel on the surface eventually moved into the local human population, and all knowledge of where they had come from was lost.
In 1986 I ran a Traveller PC group through a visit to the world... they noticed the satellites on their way in, and when they left they had a high-level Illusionist cast a limited wish for them to not be noticed on their way out.
Ah, I started AD&D in 1980, at Lou Zocchi's game store in Gulfport, MS. I have a few hundred of his dice. I played Tunnels and Trolls in 1979, the area I was living in before my AD&D purchases had only that game available. Basically sold chess, checkers, and a few war games. The owner discovered T&T and had a shelf just for it. Gosh all that brings back memories, some pleasant.
Folks, never ask Lou Zocchi about the differences in dice. The one-sided discussion goes on for 2 hours. I think it was 'just' two hours.
I have been thinking Crestar was put there by, darn cannot remember the name, of the beings who came from the Milky Way core's stars in the Man-Kzin Wars. But the Ancients of Traveller would be just as viable a reason.
My first encounter with Traveller, about 1982, was a ref who tried to tell us that we had caught rabies from the plants in the passageways of the starship we were on.
Folks, never ask Lou Zocchi about the differences in dice. The one-sided discussion goes on for 2 hours. I think it was 'just' two hours.
I have been thinking Crestar was put there by, darn cannot remember the name, of the beings who came from the Milky Way core's stars in the Man-Kzin Wars. But the Ancients of Traveller would be just as viable a reason.
My first encounter with Traveller, about 1982, was a ref who tried to tell us that we had caught rabies from the plants in the passageways of the starship we were on.
Some interesting responses, although as I've not read much H. Beam Piper and no Andre Norton I was unfamiliar with a lot of the works. I have read the first Deathworld book years ago, that would be a good one although I'm sure the pacifist theme gets downplayed in a Traveller game. I think I have read the Azimov short story set on Mercury as well - the thing I remember about that was that the way the place worked was very simple chemically (at least much less so than we have found in later years if the docos I have seen on the subject are in any way accurate). I imagine that would be good for a few chemistry based puzzles that don't require a high level of knowledge in the subject.
The only Alan Dean Foster I've read is Icerigger, set on a frozen planet with dead smooth frozen seas. It was a good adventure story but I just didn't buy the planet as being in any way realistic, and the rubber suit aliens didn't help in that regard.
Oh, and Farmer, only read the Riverworld books - now that would be an interesting setting! One river canyon curling over the the whole planet, running from pole to pole.
I'm surprised some that the more notorious places didn't get a mention like Dune or Ringworld, or are those too cliched?
-Aza
The only Alan Dean Foster I've read is Icerigger, set on a frozen planet with dead smooth frozen seas. It was a good adventure story but I just didn't buy the planet as being in any way realistic, and the rubber suit aliens didn't help in that regard.
Oh, and Farmer, only read the Riverworld books - now that would be an interesting setting! One river canyon curling over the the whole planet, running from pole to pole.
I'm surprised some that the more notorious places didn't get a mention like Dune or Ringworld, or are those too cliched?
-Aza
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I liked the Deathworld series for making..well, Deathworlds, mostly. The idea of a sentient planet that could adjust adaptation to deal with invaders was intriguing.
I enjoyed some of the ideas from Andre Norton's Time Traders books...specifically from Galactic Derelict..some of the ruins and places inspired ideas.
Heinlein, Asimov, the fellow who wrote about the war between Terrans and Spartans (can't recall his name) gave me ideas for planetary assaults and warfare...it really is a much longer list of influences than I mentioned. I never did port anything in whole cloth though.
Shiara
I enjoyed some of the ideas from Andre Norton's Time Traders books...specifically from Galactic Derelict..some of the ruins and places inspired ideas.
Heinlein, Asimov, the fellow who wrote about the war between Terrans and Spartans (can't recall his name) gave me ideas for planetary assaults and warfare...it really is a much longer list of influences than I mentioned. I never did port anything in whole cloth though.
Shiara
Otto Harkaman
SOC-12
Hmmm you don't by chance mean John Faucette's "Siege of Earth" ?
"After bitter and desperate fighting, the moon had fallen, and with its occupation by Spartan forces, the last Terran possession was gone."
Otto Harkaman
SOC-12
That's it! Thanks.The leader of the Terran forces was a pacifist..with a gift for warfare, if memory serves.
Shiara
Led by famous Commander Dane Barclay
never could find anything else by the author
It was a book that got me started using psionics; Star Rangers had Kartr, Zicti, and a number of other psyker types. One of my favorite books by Andre Norton. There was another, by herself I think, which involved a kind of 'Beastmaster' type character whose homeworld was destroyed.
The Stars Like Dust is another one that influenced me, by Isaac Asimov.
Gah! Walks down memory lane. So many of these I read 40 years ago or more. Long time gone.
Shiara
The Stars Like Dust is another one that influenced me, by Isaac Asimov.
Gah! Walks down memory lane. So many of these I read 40 years ago or more. Long time gone.
Shiara
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
The name of that novel was The Beastmaster, and the destroyed home-world was Earth!
It was first published in 1959, and the sequel, Lord of Thunder, was published in 1962.
In 2000, 2004, and 2006 she published further novels in the series (co-written with Lyn McConchie).
If you pay attention to the opening credits of the 1982 movie The Beastmaster, it claims "based on the novel by Andre Norton".
This is really false advertising (and really pissed me off when I saw in November 1982, as the advertising had played up this aspect), as the ONLY thing they kept from the novel was the concept of a human mentally linking to a big cat, an eagle, and two small trouble-making mammals... nothing else was the same at all!
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
Did the book have Tanya Roberts coming out of a lake? Shame they've taken that scene out of all the recent versions of the movie. (Cheesy movie that was pretty much only redeemed by that scene and the ferrets.)
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Are you thinking of Ordeal in Otherwhere, which is the second book in the Warlock series? Warlock would be an interesting planet to adapt to Traveller, especially if you include the Wyverns as the native race. Female characters should love it.
Always loved the aircraft, in particular the huge battleship like ones, from the early Miyazaki films. Maybe they could exist on a low tech world with a dense atmosphere? Does seem kind of wrong though given the (again!) pacifist themes in the works themselves.
Looks like someone made a working model of one of the aircraft from Nausicaä
http://www.kabosu100.net/repo/moewe.htm
-Aza
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Bumping this thread a bit, but a fair number of the books mentioned are now to be found on Project Gutenberg, especially the H. Beam Piper books and a few of the Andre Norton books.
For Andre Norton, you have two of the "Solar Queen" series, Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet, then there is Storm Over Warlock, The Defiant Agents, Key Out of Time which is a water world basically with dolphins being used by the Terrans, and Star Hunter with a jungle planet with an ancient operating computer defense system.
For Harry Harrison, you have Deathworld and The Ethical Engineer which covers Deathworld 2.
Then for additional planets, you have some good ones from Murray Leinster in his "Med Ship" series, along with Christopher Anvil with his Interstellar Patrol stories, along with other possibilities. The early Astounding have some possibilities as well.
Browse Project Gutenberg under "science fiction" and you will find a lot of very good stuff.
For Andre Norton, you have two of the "Solar Queen" series, Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet, then there is Storm Over Warlock, The Defiant Agents, Key Out of Time which is a water world basically with dolphins being used by the Terrans, and Star Hunter with a jungle planet with an ancient operating computer defense system.
For Harry Harrison, you have Deathworld and The Ethical Engineer which covers Deathworld 2.
Then for additional planets, you have some good ones from Murray Leinster in his "Med Ship" series, along with Christopher Anvil with his Interstellar Patrol stories, along with other possibilities. The early Astounding have some possibilities as well.
Browse Project Gutenberg under "science fiction" and you will find a lot of very good stuff.
Each one is a Fractal Terrains 3 map using the Cosmographer Traveller, I think CT, template export. I only have 12 segments up on my Traveller site.
May add more in a few months. Kinda behind on several other projects.
