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Scrunched Known Space

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Kilgs

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Baron
Has anyone experimented with making Known Space a smaller number of sectors? Just scrunching it all together so that Zhodani and K'kree can rub shoulders, the Aslan and Ithklur can duke it out in the streets etc.

Just an idle thought as I really like Glorious Empire material and was thinking how to fit in somewhere near Crucis Margin. Then I got to thinking (1hr commute each way) and thought about scrunching it all down. Because I've been messing around with Traveller for nearly twenty years and I've never been to the Spinward side... never met a Zhodani and they're kinda cool in a creepy, sanitary way.

-I won't expound on some other ideas for scrunching things together unless folks want to kick it around. But my commute can be long...
 
I've put colonies from some of the major races in places, and IMTU aliens are a tad more common (not to Star Wars level, more like TOS Star Trek level) so that there can be more interactions between everyone. I usually get players playing Vargr and Aslan so it all works out.

But yeah, looking at the maps and commute times means the major empires don't have a lot of comingling going on as is.
 
The Mongoose 2E Box Set The Great Rift has the Phobetor (Touchstone 2333) system, Though an isolated system, it is a important starting point for exploration campaigns. It is the only star system that got it's own poster map besides the sector maps in the set and some 20-25 pages are devoted to it. To show how important it is in the Box Set.

Why should you care?
The system has Humans, a minor race (the Ascondi), VARGR AND K'KREE ! With hungry Aslan itatei relatively nearby. The K'kree are only TL 3, but dont go into the woods alone (heh heh heh).
 
One option is to adopt a 3D map for the Traveller universe. This will drag everyone much closer but still keeping the 11,000 worlds of the Third Imperium.
 
Yeah, I've experimented on and off with that over the years. It always ends up being more of a pain than I would like though, so I always end up dropping it.

D.
 
Many years ago there were a couple of threads about reducing the size of the Imperium to only a few sectors and thus having more of the surrounding polities available "in play" so to speak.

I thought I had started a thread on it, but it is likely it just came up in another. IIRC Rob did some maps of a reduced size Imperium.

To the search engine...
 
mike wightman said:
Many years ago there were a couple of threads about reducing the size of the Imperium to only a few sectors and thus having more of the surrounding polities available "in play" so to speak.

I thought I had started a thread on it, but it is likely it just came up in another. IIRC Rob did some maps of a reduced size Imperium.
Click to expand...

I think Aramis at some point posted a reduced-size Charted Space map interpeation based on what he conceived Charted Space to look like in the early days of Traveller before the actual published canonical maps were published.

@aramis: Do you know that modified Charted Space map that I am talking about?
 
No, I posted about reducing the size of the Imperium so that the various alien race polities were close enough that you could conceivably run into Hive Federation, Vargr, K'kree and the Zhodani regularly.
 
Here is one of the thread - I am getting old :(

Redefining the TU

Occasionally, some of us have wondered if the Imperium is too big, and if its boundaries are too well-defined; there's no frontier anymore. Rarely, the point is also brought up that, waaay back when, the hazy, undefined Imperium even had a different astrography: Capital was seated conveniently...
www.travellerrpg.com www.travellerrpg.com

sadly Rob's map links no longer work - he may still have them.
 
"Turn sectors into quadrants" is exactly what I did for another project. But, in addition to shrinking (at least around the campaign area) the Big Guys also breaking them out so they're not 100% contiguous/monolothic. A map that would feel more like a 3D one where there are holes everywhere not well-defined boundaries. In doing that, you can stick Polity outliers anywhere to get a dose of K'Kree or something. Here's a 10minute conceptual... Highlighted two sectors just to leave some room.

On an amusing note, I realized that in the OTU Miller stuck us smack in between the carnivores and the rabid vegans. Game over, man!
ScrunchedSpace.jpg
 
How about this appoach? just some thoughts floating.

How many weeks (jumps) across do you want your empire to be? How many weeks (jumps) away do you want the races to be? From the borders of empire? From their capital?

I used travellermap and used their route function. At J-3, From Capital it is around it is 54 weeks (jumps) to Regina and 50 to Terra (using J1 and J-2 yielded no route). Im not taking into account refueling, and all that. Just getting a measure on on sizes.

As an example Kirur to Zhdant is 137 weeks.
Reducing to quadrants only halves the distance (63 weeks)
Reducing to subsectors quarters it. 36 weeks.
 
Here is another- retain the entirety of the map and relations, but alter the hex distance while retaining the jump drive number parsec rating.

At its simplest, each hex is 1LY, and a J1 ship has a range of 3, J2 6, etc.

Conversely, alter the jump drive to a desired multiple of range.

Either way, be prepared for significant trade and naval warfare changes.
 
Yeah, forgot to mention that I prefer J2 as the ultimate limit except 100-200t which can reach J3. Nothing greater. So the smaller map is also just as 'large' in the time to travel almost.

This idea definitely envisions a more chaotic, less cohesive vision of Charted Space. Which is what I'm liking about it. There's a great quote from one of the Traveller books, I'll dig it out. But it describes an Imperium that is just... "over there" when it comes to authority and governance.

I really have a hard time grokking a 'government' that can control 100 planets let alone 1000 or 11,000. IMTU, that type of government would need to be incredibly hands-off. Custodians of the spacelanes and such, as the Imperium is described but not as it is usually implemented. I definitely like the OTU Imperium but prefer things more unsettled. As an example, like in Rome, citizens would often identify with their province/planet before the Imperium. So that's what I was kinda going for... which is the reason for the non-contiguous borders.

Sometimes I get the wrong mindset looking at the Travellermap. If you have the borders up or especially colored in, it gives the false impression of monolithic governance. The Confederation explicitly has a number of independent planets within its borders. Its hard to see that from 100 parsecs away but I really like the way that description feels. It feels more operable to me... and it opens up a ton of more gaming options when the Great Game may be playing out intensely from system to system.

The ATU I've been working on for awhile is built along the same lines although I injected the "Rebellion" to make things worse...:cool: Of course, this new ATU we're kicking around is possibly going to suck time away from that project again.
 
One can make them all Human too:
Zho's: Zen-sufi mystics
Aslan: Ziggy Stardust, samurai pizza cats
Vargr: Post apoc biker chic
Hivers: Cyber phreaks
K'kree: Militant vegetarians, could be wiccan

... and so much more!
 
Dragoner said:
One can make them all Human too:
Zho's: Zen-sufi mystics
Aslan: Ziggy Stardust, samurai pizza cats
Vargr: Post apoc biker chic
Hivers: Cyber phreaks
K'kree: Militant vegetarians, could be wiccan

... and so much more!
Click to expand...
That has kind if a "Red Dwarf" feel, there...
 
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