Reading a subsector - Regina

[Supplement Four]

Thread resurrect!

Writing in another thread made me think of this.

Another thing to look at when reading a subsector is the World Size. Local Gravity will be critical. High tech may mean all installations have 1G grav plating, like a space station, but certain combinations of UWPs (low tech, small world) will tell the GM that the populace rarely leaves their homeworld (they can't...living on a world with .35 gravity will alter the body IF humans get used to it in the first place).

So, by taking this into consideration, a GM can tell from which planets Travellers hail. The men from Aramis, for example, are know throughout the subsector, while the men from Pysadi are never seen off their homeworld.

...Just more food for thought when "reading" a subsector.

 

[far-trader]

My caveat added as bold italic underlined

So, ...while the MOST men from Pysadi are never seen off their homeworld.

...some may very well come from Pysadi. Those employed at the Starport who are born raised and work under the artificial gravity of the 1G plating throughout the Starport. A factor that makes it difficult for most native Psydians to interact directly with offworlders in the port. And gives the port brats and offworlders a distinct advantage of strength over the locals.

(native Psydians may not even be human for that matter )

 

[far-trader]

...though, come to think of it, in MTU that C class Starport wouldn't support AG installation on it's own, so...

 

[Mithras]

Thread re-resurrect!

On the subject of the Imperial Army, did no-one notice the TAS report in issue#6:

"EFATE/REGINA 148-1106 Reliable sources ... have admitted .. that the Imperial Army's 1197th Separate Light Intry Brigade has been engaged in counter0insurgency ops ...on Efate's northern continent."
There are several other similar references in issues 7 and 8.

Don't really understand how such an army can work, given such local autonomy - but in the OTU it is there.

 

[Supplement Four]

Thread necromancy...again!

I was just thinking, when writing in another thread, that when you're reading your subsector, the TL of the world tells you something very important about that world: It tells you which people are likely to be encountered offworld, and which are not.

Let's look at the Aramis subsector.

Why kind of TL is required for space travel? I'd say a minium of TL A, since that is considered "interstellar community" in the TB.

Now, looking at the subsector, which worlds are TL A+?

Focaline
Lablon
Heguz

Violante
Carsten
Nasemin

L'oeul d'Dieu
Rugbird
Towers

Feneteman
Lewis
Aramis

Out of the 26 worlds in the subsector, these 12 represent the majority of the people who are Travellers. These are all likely candidate homeworlds, too, for the PCs.

From here, a GM can scrub the list based on campaign information. First, start with the Amber and Red Zones. Depending on what the zones are mainted for (campaign info), this may or may not influence people from that world often leaving it. For example, Lewis is a Red Zone, but in the Traveller Adventure, the world is populated by Tukera nobles. So, even though the Red Zone is in effect, those people are likely to travel. In a different campaign or a different subsector, a Red Zone may note a quarantined planet due to world-wide plague. Those people, no matter their tech, are not likely to be seen off their homeworld.

You'll also want to look at the population of the planet, its bases, and any other campaign info. For example, Patinir is an asteroid belt, but rated at only TL 9. Since it is a highly populated asteroid belt, the GM would alter his list above, adding Patinir as a likely source of Travellers. These people are born in space--some have never seen the surface of a hospitable world. All they know is the inside of ships, stations, and bases. So, even though they're at TL 9, they are probably Travellers.

Natoko, at TL 8, is really just a Tukera base. Again, these people are probably Travellers--and most of them are probably not native to Natoko. Tukera probably shipped them there, and the population is most likely transient as Tukera personnel finish their tours and are transferred elsewhere.

Feneteman, according to campaign info, is not a populated world (rated at Pop 2), but it is TL C and has a C class Starport. The GM can have fun deciding who these 100-900 people are that have this whole planet to themselves, with a C class starport (the population has got to be the starport personnel) at the high TL C. I would say the place is on a major trade route for one of the major shipping lines going through the subsector, and they've poured a lot of resources into making a high-tech base there for their ships. This is probably a transient population, likely to be Travellers.

I could go on, but you get the idea: A GM can look at his subsector and decide what cultures/types of people are likely to be encountered offworld. This will tell him what type of people dominate the space lanes. In the Aramis subsector, it would be extremely rare to find a Traveller from Pysadi (TL 4, fanatical relgious government). But, people from Armis itself (high pop, Naval and Scout base, TL B) are likely to be found all over the place.

 

[Marchand]

Thread necromancy...again!

...[worlds listed...]

Out of the 26 worlds in the subsector, these 12 represent the majority of the people who are Travellers. These are all likely candidate homeworlds, too, for the PCs.

I'd say these are the candidate homeworlds for NPCs. PCs by definition are the extraordinary people. PCs can come from anywhere. It would be easy to come up with a compelling backstory for a PC from Pysadi, for example.

 

[mllaneza]

Lanth subsector and trade protection

Let's keep this running !

I've been reading subsectors myself. What I've come up with is a real pickle for who's paying for trade protection in Lanth Subsector. It sits astride the branch of the Spinward main that connects Regina to Rhyllanor, and you know the sector capital is a fantastic market for TL15 goods. The problem is, on its own the Lanth subsector government is incapable of maintaining a credible trade protection force. Sure, Sector-level forces may be deployed to supplement the colonial squadrons but let's look at the numbers.

I'm going to use Imperial Squadrons as my basis for what naval forces individual worlds can produce. First off, the only class-A starport in the subsector is at Lanth itself, and that's only TL-11, or Jump-2. To summarize Imperial Squadrons, the number of fleet squadrons (counters in Fifth Frontier War) depends on TL cross referenced with the number of SDB squadrons, which in turn is a function of TL and population. Only TL7+ worlds with Pop 7+ get SDB squadrons, the number increases in magnitude with population, and linearly with TL (a Pop 8 world will have an order of magnitude more SDB squadrons than a Pop 8 TL 15 world).

The only worlds in Lanth subsector that can provide SDB squadrons are Equus (Pop 8, TL-11) with 12, Treece with 5, and Extolay with 10. Lanth itself can't contribute. Taking 27 SDB squadrons and feeding that (as tax revenue) to the # of Starship Squadrons table, we get… 2. The whole subsector can support 2 squadrons, at TL-11. With a whopping 27 squadrons of SDBs as backup. You garrison the subsector capitol, which incidentally, has one Jump-3 route and 2 Jump-4 routes to the rest of the subsector. You then split the SDBs along the Spinward Main, using Jump-2 tenders to service and redeploy the SDBs, with a squadron of TL-11 mobile units deployed as fire brigades for systems with heavy pirate activity. What you don't get is lots of TL-14/15 small warships sweeping lower-tech corsairs from the Spinward Main, unless the subsector government sends a lot of its budget out of the subsector. The numbers get worse if you assume they're importing higher-TL SDBs. You'd need a lot of them at TL-10 or -11 to do much good, you get fewer squadrons if you import.

Who benefits ?

Whoever can work the Rhyllanor-Regina trade route with Jump-2+ freighters. That covers both megacorps and noble families with with trade interests; as well as small freight lines and independents with Far Traders.
Anyone with a vested interest in keeping noble families in Lanth poor and busy.

Who does it hurt ?
Anyone with with Jump-1 freighters.
Lanth subsector taxpayers.

How about that ? Reading the map gave us a whole bunch of high-level campaign plots, and an excuse to design TL-11 patrol ships and TL10/11 SDBs.

Remember:
Look for high Pop and high TL worlds, make special note of worlds with both.

 

[rancke]

I've been reading subsectors myself. What I've come up with is a real pickle for who's paying for trade protection in Lanth Subsector. It sits astride the branch of the Spinward main that connects Regina to Rhyllanor, and you know the sector capital is a fantastic market for TL15 goods. The problem is, on its own the Lanth subsector government is incapable of maintaining a credible trade protection force. Sure, Sector-level forces may be deployed to supplement the colonial squadrons but let's look at the numbers.

As in most cases where jump-2 and jump-3 traffic is an option, the Spinward Main would actually be irrelevant to traffic between Rhylanor and Regina. Jump-2 and jump-3 are both cheaper than jump-1 (not to mention faster), so goods would be carried on some combination of J2 and J3 ships.

The distance between Rhylanor and Regina is 10 parsecs, which is awkward for J3 traffic and the astrography forces J2 traffic to do six jumps to cover those 10 parsecs. The best option is probably a two jump J2 route and a two jump J3 route meeting at K'Kirka and transshipping the goods there. Or possibly a three jump J3 route from Rhylanor to Yori and transshipping the goods to J2 ships there for one final J2 jump to Regina.

IMO Lanth is divided between the three neighboring duchies of Regina, Rhylanor, and Lunion (as you point out, Lanth just doesn't have the population to make a credible duchy), making trade protection the responsibility of the respective duchy navies. Yori's planetary navy should be able to deal with pirates, so if the Duchy of Regina places a squadron of ships at K'kirka and the Duchy of Rhylanor places one at Gileden, the merchant traffic should be safe from depredations.


Hans

 

[flykiller]

That's why my ATU is being generated with the entire system for each hex fully done up. Of course, that's also why it's taking forever....

did you ever finish?

 

[Supplement Four]

I was just thinking about this thread, today! From a decade ago! Wow. What a coincidence.

 

[mike wightman]

The definitive canonical statement for the actual existence of a standing Imperial Army:

The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service is a major service within the Imperium.
equal in stature to the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy

So there you have it, three services of equal stature, IISS, IN and IA. note the lack of the Imperial Star Marines as a separate and equal in standing organisation - so second conclusion is that the IA dwarfs the ISM.

Add the boardgame references, the pregenerated character references in Tarsus and Beltstrike, the Signal GK adventure references, the reference in S3 to Imperial way stations being Army barracks, the TAS news bulletins and there can be no doubt that there is a standing Imperial Army.

 

[aramis]

The definitive canonical statement for the actual existence of a standing Imperial Army:

So there you have it, three services of equal stature, IISS, IN and IA. note the lack of the Imperial Star Marines as a separate and equal in standing organisation - so second conclusion is that the IA dwarfs the ISM.

Add the boardgame references, the pregenerated character references in Tarsus and Beltstrike, the Signal GK adventure references, the TAS news bulletins and there can be no doubt that there is a standing Imperial Army.

Equality as a branch is not of need equality of numbers. The USCG is equal to the USN as a branch, but far smaller as numbers; the USMC is similar size to the USCG, but is not equal as a service, being part of the Department of the Navy.

The ISM is (IIRC) part of the IN, in exactly the same way asn the USN and USMC. Separate service under same department.

It could be bigger than the IA, but still be lesser as it's "part of the navy"...

 

[Ulsyus]

Equality as a branch is not of need equality of numbers. The USCG is equal to the USN as a branch, but far smaller as numbers; the USMC is similar size to the USCG, but is not equal as a service, being part of the Department of the Navy.

The ISM is (IIRC) part of the IN, in exactly the same way asn the USN and USMC. Separate service under same department.

It could be bigger than the IA, but still be lesser as it's "part of the navy"...

So could the IA be considered Imperial but still raised to local standards and in local areas but to a TOE&E that is set centrally (at least in terms of Sectors) so that there's interoperability between brigades from different systems?

Think NATO - common ammunition, some radio commonality, battle management processes (at least in the Anglosphere) and such, so that even though there's local idiosyncrasies different elements would still be able to manoeuvre together.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Traveller Adventures gives us an example of how to attach local labels and details about a subsector.



SUBSECTOR ASTROGRAPHY

Although not in an obvious section of the adventure, The Traveller Adventure does tell us about the three navigational sections of the subector.

Towers Cluster: This is the cluster of stars, all within jump-1, that contains Towers, Junidy, and Aramanx.

Aramis Trace: This is the smaller cluster of stars, all within jump-1, that contains Aramis, Natoko, Reacher, and L'oeul d'Dieu. These four worlds are the subsidy route for the March Harrier, meaning that the ship is locked into servicing these four worlds all the time except for the periods of time the ship is allowed to be away from its subsidy route allowed by in the contract.

Aramis Cluster: What is not clear--and is left up to the Ref--is whether the other worlds reachable by jump-1 from Aramis are also part of the subsidy route and part of the Aramis Trace. For convenience, I call this greater grouping of star systems the Aramis Cluster, which includes the Aramis Trace plus the worlds in the Rhylanor subsector: Vinorian, Nutema, and Margesi.

There is a question here as to the strength of the subsector boundary. What is more important, the subsector boundary, which would make the Aramis Trace consist of only the four worlds in the Aramis subsector, or the physical, astrological boundaries created by clusters of stars? If this is true, then not only does the Aramis Cluster continue through the Rhylanor subsector, but it also stretches over to the Sabine subsector of the Deneb sector, to the world of Saarinen.

Scatters: These are all the other worlds in the Aramis subsector. Like the Aramis Cluster worlds, Lewis and Patinir could be part of a cluster that runs across the Pretoria subsector in the Deneb sector, rimward into the Sabine subsector, and trailing into the Lamas subsector.

Likewise, Paya and Dhian both are part of a cluster that runs into the Regina subsector and into the Lanth and Rhylanor subsectors, and farther rimward along a main cluster of stars.



THE TRAVELLER ADVENTURE

Since the Traveller Adventure only details the worlds in the Aramis subsector, its easy to conclude that the subector boundaries are quite important boundaries, even when they cut stars away from clusters.

Still, if a Ref wanted to research all of the other worlds I mention above, the Traveller adventure could be advanced a great deal--and in an opposite direction--that what is detailed in the adventure.

 

[mike wightman]

You could do the research nowadays, but back then you would have to wait at least a year for the publication of Atlas of the Imperium and the Vargr Alien module to get the official version of what lies beyond the borders of the Aramis subsector.

Alternatively if the players wanted to go off map the referee would have to generate the adjacent subsectors themselves - which is what I was forced to do back in the day when I first ran the Traveller Adventure.

What is more in the spirit of the original game - the referee making stuff up or waiting for the official word on the matter?

I like what you are suggesting about reading a subsector by the way - it's a good idea.

 

[Supplement Four]

You could do the research nowadays, but back then you would have to wait at least a year for the publication of Atlas of the Imperium and the Vargr Alien module to get the official version of what lies beyond the borders of the Aramis subsector.

This is true. For a long time, I waited to see what was in the Deneb sector. It was finally published in a Traveller's Digest.

Alternatively if the players wanted to go off map the referee would have to generate the adjacent subsectors themselves - which is what I was forced to do back in the day when I first ran the Traveller Adventure.

Yeah, I believe that the Spinward Marches, and later, the Sol sector, were examples for Ref's of what could be done. They became "house" sectors for GDW's adventures. The rest of the Imperium was originally meant to be each specific Ref's playground, rich for his personal development.

 

[aramis]

This is true. For a long time, I waited to see what was in the Deneb sector. It was finally published in a Traveller's Digest.





Yeah, I believe that the Spinward Marches, and later, the Sol sector, were examples for Ref's of what could be done. They became "house" sectors for GDW's adventures. The rest of the Imperium was originally meant to be each specific Ref's playground, rich for his personal development.

GDW licensed specific chunks to various 3PP's, from a fairly early point, ending when Atlas was published.

 

[Supplement Four]

I like what you are suggesting about reading a subsector by the way - it's a good idea.

There's a ton of information in each subsector. The Ref just needs to take the time to read it and make his own conclusions for his personal game.

We talked about this in the other thread....



TECH LEVEL.

The highest TL in the Aramis subsector is TL 13, at Lewis, which is a closed world, home of the Tukera Noble estsates, with a Class X starport.

Next in line is Heguz, at TL 12, with a Class E Starport.

And, there's Feneteman, at TL 12, which is Poor and has very low population, Starport C.

Further....

Carsten is TL 11, but non-industrial.
L'oeul d'Dieu is TL 11, but non-industrial.
Aramis is TL 11, Subsector Capital, but non-industrial.

Meaning the highest tech sources in the subsector is coming from one place...

Nasemin, TL 11, Starport B, Water World



What do we know about Nasemin? We can see that it is in the Towers cluster. It is an industrial world, but it has a low population. The "Ref" decided (when he wrote the Traveller Adventure) that the popluation was engaged in exporting a drug made from a native animal called the byssal.

Another Ref might have made a different choice, given those parameters.



So, that takes us to...

Focaline, TL 10, Starport E, non-industrial
Lablon, TL 10, Starport B, non-industrial
Rugbird, TL 10, Starport B, non-industrial
Towers, TL 10, Starport B, non-industrial

Violante, TL 10, Starport C



Violante is out in the Scatters, and, again, we don't have a high population. The "Ref" has decided that Violante is owned, wholly, by a consortium of nobles from Deneb.



Where does that leave us?

Junidy, TL 9, Starport B
Patinir, TL 9, Starport C



A Ref can take this information and decide, with Junidy's A code population and it's Vargr Way Station, is the source of most of the highest tech finished items in the subsector.

The Ref can make up a company or two, base them on Junidy, and have the PCs know that, when they encounter goods from these companies, that they are considered the best in the subsector.

"Are those Thrashill Site-Nocs? Man! They've got all visual spectrim settings, plus they are durable as heck! See? Thrashill of Junidy, Since 987, right there on the side of the item!"

A Ref could give these sight aids, say, a +1DM at Short and Medium range, to make them a bit special to the PCs.

 

[pendragonman]

snip...

SUBSECTOR ASTROGRAPHY

I consider the rectangular grid that is the subsector/sector maps an artificial construct for the purposes of player/ GM publication, specifically NOT the astrogation maps that the characters would interact with. The maps that the characters interact with would depend on the radius of jump they wish to look at.

So a jump 1 route would includes all of the systems in the chain of jump 1 connection, regardless of artificial subsector/sector barriers.

But that is just my TU.

 

[khadaji2002]

I consider the rectangular grid that is the subsector/sector maps an artificial construct for the purposes of player/ GM publication, specifically NOT the astrogation maps that the characters would interact with. The maps that the characters interact with would depend on the radius of jump they wish to look at.

So a jump 1 route would includes all of the systems in the chain of jump 1 connection, regardless of artificial subsector/sector barriers.

But that is just my TU.

Given my work with the post office, I have the view that the boundaries for subsectors are fairly hard, much like city boundaries. However, there are many places where those boundaries come together in ways or places that make no sense given the local geography. I had a friend who's yard was the meeting place of three counties. After more than a year of wrangling the powers that be determined they would pay taxes to one county, join the library of the second county, and send their kids to school in the third county. None of which made any sense to those of us living in the area. We always referred to that house as part of the first county and town.

I tend to treat subsectors like Regina similarly. The government has drawn a grid and told everyone, "This is the grid you're in." Locally, however, many sophonts are going to say "That's part of the Aramis cluster" or "I'm going to the Far Trace" even though the planet they're heading for is technically outside that particular border. This is also a way to help the players feel like outsiders when they refer to a place by the designation on the map, and a local says "Oh, y'all are headin' fer the Trace". It's a small touch, but it's worked well IMTU.