Joshua Bell of TravellerMap has been able to recover the ~200 sectors of data from Turokan's Rim Expedition; they can be found online on the TravellerMap GitHub database. However, this data is considered to not really be compatible with the OTU because there are too many large, high-tech states along the route, and there are also some sectors/worlds at the rimward end which reference other copyrighted properties like Star Wars and Star Trek. Arguably, the first complaint could also apply to Clifford Linehan's Core Route data, but that is considered more OTU-compatible due to the ZCR being a canonical concept and (I assume?) the data being less extremely weird. So, perhaps the Core Route data could also use some revision, but that isn't what I wanted to talk about here.
I understand the problems with Turokan's data, but I still like the concept of the Rim Expedition and Turokan's sector names, so I hope we can find a way to make them more OTU-compatible. In particular, a few years ago, when I thought Turokan's data had been permanently lost, I had my Orion OB1 Association maps overlap the Rim Expedition slightly, and thought up an in-universe concept for the Rim Expedition.
Specifically, I sort of combined Turokan's concept with Operation Perseus, a canonical rimward exploration by the Solomani which was never mapped. In this concept/setting, the Rim Expedition was undertaken by the Solomani-dominated Second Imperium in a similar way to how the Zhodani Consulate has organised the Core Expeditions; the character of Turokan could then be considered a major leader of these Second Imperium expeditions. When the Second Imperium fell, the Solomani colonies were spared most of the ensuing chaos and became self-sufficient.
In the present day (M1105), these former Rim Expedition colonies now form a polity known as the Rim Reach. Instead of starting at Core and going through Hiver space, the route instead starts in Rim Reach Sector (rimward of the Solomani Confederation and adjacent to a sector I previously worked on, Amderstun Sector), where the main body of the Rim Reach polity lies, and goes trailward for a few sectors before rejoining the diagonal rimtrailward path of Turokan's sectors. Similarly to the Zhodani Core Route, there are small Rim Reach colonies along the length of the route, although from the first rift onward there are rarely more than a few such worlds per sector. In the section before the first rift, there would also be some former-Solomani human pocket empires; I would also preserve a few of the non-human polities along the route, although not nearly as many as in Turokan's original data, so large part of the route would simply be winding through barren/unexplored sectors (similar to the "barren arm" section of the Core Route sectors).
In general, I would keep the approximate stellar density/dotmaps, since these were calculated/generated by Clifford Linehan in discussion with Marc Miller (that's what the comments in Turokan's data suggest, anyway, and I know this was the case for the Core Route), with the exception of the small area where the Orion OB1 Association overlaps the route, since I like the idea of combining these concepts/settings. (The Rim Reach polity could also be linked to the M'norr Republic polity from the Orion OB1 Association, though I'll need to think about that more - the M'norr Republic could be another state founded by early Solomani explorers located to spinward/rimward of the Orion OB1 Association, or it could be a polity unrelated to Charted Space. Another concept I have, the Qcuxl Confederation located to spinward of Alagoric's Empty Stars region could also be linked to it somehow... but I'm getting off topic here.) In fact, with the exception of that overlap area we could perhaps keep/reuse Turokan's dotmaps entirely, since that would make new sector work easier.
Anyway, these are just the thoughts I have about it right now; I could have some more specific ideas for states after looking at individual sectors in detail later. (In fact, I've already had some ideas...)
So, what do people think of these ideas? Could Turokan's Rim Expedition data be made more OTU-compatible?
I understand the problems with Turokan's data, but I still like the concept of the Rim Expedition and Turokan's sector names, so I hope we can find a way to make them more OTU-compatible. In particular, a few years ago, when I thought Turokan's data had been permanently lost, I had my Orion OB1 Association maps overlap the Rim Expedition slightly, and thought up an in-universe concept for the Rim Expedition.
Specifically, I sort of combined Turokan's concept with Operation Perseus, a canonical rimward exploration by the Solomani which was never mapped. In this concept/setting, the Rim Expedition was undertaken by the Solomani-dominated Second Imperium in a similar way to how the Zhodani Consulate has organised the Core Expeditions; the character of Turokan could then be considered a major leader of these Second Imperium expeditions. When the Second Imperium fell, the Solomani colonies were spared most of the ensuing chaos and became self-sufficient.
In the present day (M1105), these former Rim Expedition colonies now form a polity known as the Rim Reach. Instead of starting at Core and going through Hiver space, the route instead starts in Rim Reach Sector (rimward of the Solomani Confederation and adjacent to a sector I previously worked on, Amderstun Sector), where the main body of the Rim Reach polity lies, and goes trailward for a few sectors before rejoining the diagonal rimtrailward path of Turokan's sectors. Similarly to the Zhodani Core Route, there are small Rim Reach colonies along the length of the route, although from the first rift onward there are rarely more than a few such worlds per sector. In the section before the first rift, there would also be some former-Solomani human pocket empires; I would also preserve a few of the non-human polities along the route, although not nearly as many as in Turokan's original data, so large part of the route would simply be winding through barren/unexplored sectors (similar to the "barren arm" section of the Core Route sectors).
In general, I would keep the approximate stellar density/dotmaps, since these were calculated/generated by Clifford Linehan in discussion with Marc Miller (that's what the comments in Turokan's data suggest, anyway, and I know this was the case for the Core Route), with the exception of the small area where the Orion OB1 Association overlaps the route, since I like the idea of combining these concepts/settings. (The Rim Reach polity could also be linked to the M'norr Republic polity from the Orion OB1 Association, though I'll need to think about that more - the M'norr Republic could be another state founded by early Solomani explorers located to spinward/rimward of the Orion OB1 Association, or it could be a polity unrelated to Charted Space. Another concept I have, the Qcuxl Confederation located to spinward of Alagoric's Empty Stars region could also be linked to it somehow... but I'm getting off topic here.) In fact, with the exception of that overlap area we could perhaps keep/reuse Turokan's dotmaps entirely, since that would make new sector work easier.
Anyway, these are just the thoughts I have about it right now; I could have some more specific ideas for states after looking at individual sectors in detail later. (In fact, I've already had some ideas...)
So, what do people think of these ideas? Could Turokan's Rim Expedition data be made more OTU-compatible?
