Planets

[endersg]

Okay my third question (in my line of questions totally not related to each other).

The UWP of a system, although it gives the # of belts and gas giants doesn't actually give how many planets are in a system, does it?

Am I just not seeing it?

 

[far-trader]

Oh no. He's onto the secret of the ancients!



You are correct the extra data string only lists the number of belts, gas giants and stars in a system. The UWP itself is only for the system's mainworld. There are no other worlds in the system because grandfather ate them all to make the mainworld as suitable for his purposes as possible.

Nah, not really. It's all a part of the old system legacy. Originally there wasn't even a note on how many belts, gas giants, and suns the system had, just the bare UWP for the mainworld.

That didn't mean there weren't any belts, gas giants, and suns, or even planets for that matter. Only that all we were given was the mainworld UWP (or even less) and were expected to imagine and fill in the rest. T20 does include the rules for extended system generation to fill in the other orbits, though I only skimmed it so I'm not sure how it determines how many of the orbits are planets. I'd guess you take the total orbits for any star, subtract the mainworld orbit (in the habitable zone imo), subtract orbits for the number of belts and gas giants (placement up to you pretty much) and then the number of orbits left are yours to play with. Add planets or leave them empty to your heart's content

 

[aramis]

The first published sector had GG indicators, as did the early 80's versions of CT. No numbers, but an indicator of them being present.

 

[archhealer]

T20 does do an admirable job of filling out the details of systems; unfortunately, this largely breaks down the 'one important planet per system' model. It also makes system generation occasionally a nightmare, since according to the system one system can have three suns, as many as a dozen or more planets, up to I think five gas giants, and each gas giant can have as many as 2d6 sattellites, all of which may or may not be useable worlds.... I've got systems which have litterally dozens of inhabited worlds within a single system, and those systems are in subsectors that are fairly dense and have literally 60+ systems in them... Ugh.

 

[far-trader]

I would advise Archhealer and all to use the extended system generation the way I think it was intended. That is that the Mainworld IS the MAIN world for a reason and every other piece of rock in the system is secondary or less in importance and habitability.

I usually put the Mainworld in the Habitable Zone and no other world will have as high a TL or as much population, though all the other worlds may exceed the Mainworld population. I also don't go nuts detailing moons

In fact I don't do expanded generation at all unless I want to set an adventure in the system that will require it. The PC's don't usually ask. It's just hit the port, do their business, run to 100d and jump; repeat.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Originally posted by Archhealer:
T20 does do an admirable job of filling out the details of systems; unfortunately, this largely breaks down the 'one important planet per system' model. It also makes system generation occasionally a nightmare, since according to the system one system can have three suns, as many as a dozen or more planets, up to I think five gas giants, and each gas giant can have as many as 2d6 sattellites, all of which may or may not be useable worlds.... I've got systems which have litterally dozens of inhabited worlds within a single system, and those systems are in subsectors that are fairly dense and have literally 60+ systems in them... Ugh.

Maybe Joss Whedon used those rules to create his 'Verse in Firefly/Serenity.

 

[endersg]

Yeah, I'm trying to hand players a world gazette, so to speak, of the systems within their jump capability so I was filling out the Star system worksheets to hand them.

I hate figuring out orbits and extra planets, I think I'll just make them up.