The next sector book?

[Malenfant]

Total pipe dream, but it'd be a rather nice coup for Avenger if they could sign up Jon to produce the Aldebaran book...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Stranger things have happened...

 

[Pickles]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
The next sector book will be Spica.

snicker ...

 

[Plankowner]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
Quite. Personally I think the more work is done in the book and the less the GM has to do the better.

Ideally I'd like to see stats for all the milieu in a sector book, unless the book is written for a specific era. The fact that there is a TNE:1248 book on the way means that I see it as a very sensible idea to include post-collapse UWPs and timeline to use with that - this way, fans of the Gateway Era and TNE can get use out of the book and QLI can make more sales.

I absolutely agree. Given the (now) long timeline of the OTU, any Sector book should include all the published/played Eras. If the Sector is near Core, it should have M0, M993, M1100, M1200 and M1248. HOW the sector changes with time would be much more interesting to me than another page of UWPs.

Show the same subsector/sector as it ages, THAT is cool.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I don't think it's practical to have complete data for all eras.

Spica is aimed at M990, but will include notes on the history of the sector.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
Show the same subsector/sector as it ages, THAT is cool.

It's also a tremendous amount of work, at least if you want to do it properly. I've been working on the history of the Spinward Marches for most of a decade now (as a hobby). I originally planned to do a Galactic map for (roughly) every century from 0 to 1000; so far I have one reasonably complete one for Year 55, one not too far from complete one for Y125, and are working on Y200 and Y300. Note that the early maps have lots and lots of empty worlds that only requires a UWP. By Y200 the amount of information needed gets really heavy.

The last six months I've had a lot of fun doing a writeup of what I've dubbed The Outrim Frontier: District 268, Glisten, Egyrn, and Pax Rulin (or Subsector N of the Spinward Marches, District 214, and subsectors B and C of the Trojan Reach, as they called at the time) in Year 400. Right now I'm waffling about submitting three almost finished articles to JTAS (after finishing them, of course), or reorganizing the material into four articles (which will require writing some more material) before submitting. If you enjoy historical stuff, I think you'll like this.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
I don't think it's practical to have complete data for all eras.

Spica is aimed at M990, but will include notes on the history of the sector.

Let's see, that would be 1 pdf per sub-sector, times X subsectors, times $10 per PDF ...

... so the Complete Encyclopedia of the First through Fourth Imperiums should cost no more than a small apartment building.

[EDIT: If we extend the time frame back to the "Ancients" would that require data on changes in the spectral class of the stars as they mature?]

 

[Valarian]

I'd like to see sector UWPs for each of the game eras in a sector sourcebook. The sourcebook would be rules independent and describe the history, politics and culture of the sector in each era.

However, it's a lot of work. Approximately 40 pages per era (16 pages of subsector UWP, 16 pages subsector maps, 1 page sector map, 7 pages details and writeup) - this would be 240 pages for 6 eras. Another 20 or so pages to detail races and general information on the sector. That's a 280 page sourcebook.

The game eras being ...
Interstellar Wars
Milieu 0
Gateway (993) (Solomani Rim War era)
Classic (1105)
Rebellion (1115)
New Era (1248)

possibly also ...
Hard Times (1128)
Virus (1200)

 

[Plankowner]

Valarian, if you are going into that much detail, you might as well include a Long Night section, say 1/2 way between IW and M0.

It only adds another 40 pages...

 

[Klaus]

Missed out the First Civil War period too (600-620). An absolutely pivotal epoch that has been sadly neglected.

 

[robject]

I'd suggest that milieu-based UWP data should be published electronically primarily, so that the data may be pushed through the various sector-drawing programs that exist out here in the public domain.

Also, perhaps a tighter representation (or even a spreadsheet) can be used if space is an issue. But no big deal.

And I agree that the Barracks Emperors/Civil War era needs to be in the list.

Anybody thought about programmatic backdating of data?

 

[GypsyComet]

If a book is going to do the "all eras" thing, then single sectors are the way to go. The more area you include in such a work, the larger and drier it gets. We've seen "dry" already (T4 First Survey). The more an author looks at the numbers and adds life to them, the less likely it becomes for those numbers to be horribly wrong.

 

[Plankowner]

What if you took it down even smaller. Do a Sub-Sector in all eras. The Regina Subsector or District 268 in all eras could be very interesting and fill in a lot of data for whatever era was being played.

 

[kafka47]

My only problem with doing an all areas thing is that it just allows for a lifting of data elsewhere, as you can bet the first one done would be the Aramis Subsector or the Terran Subsector. I really want that we think large and go into potentially interesting space. Therefore, I stick by my intital suggestion of Illiesh & Verge circa 1121.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
What if you took it down even smaller. Do a Sub-Sector in all eras. The Regina Subsector or District 268 in all eras could be very interesting and fill in a lot of data for whatever era was being played.

A subsector might by doable. It would still be a lot of work, and a goodly slice of the work wouldn't actually make it into the book (You'd need to know at least a bit about what is happening in the neighboring subsectors and at the sector level).


Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by kafka47:
My only problem with doing an all areas thing is that it just allows for a lifting of data elsewhere, as you can bet the first one done would be the Aramis Subsector or the Terran Subsector.

And why would this be bad? By selecting a subsector where a lot of work has already been done, you start with a leg up on the work. Besides, the fascinating part of the Traveller universe (to me, anyway), is the gradual increase of knowledge about the place. I want some prior material to build on and I want new material to fit in with old material. Not that there's anything wrong with going elsewhere, but any work done elsewhere isn't being done in the Marches, and there's plenty of work left to do there.

I really want that we think large and go into potentially interesting space. Therefore, I stick by my intital suggestion of Illiesh & Verge circa 1121.

Since when has any subsector in the Spinward Marches not been potentially interesting? Not that Ilelish and Verge aren't potentially interesting too, but the Marches have potential enough for many, many books.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Hey, how about the Sword Worlds subsector for an all-milieus book?


Hans

 

[kafka47]

And why would this be bad? By selecting a subsector where a lot of work has already been done, you start with a leg up on the work. Besides, the fascinating part of the Traveller universe (to me, anyway), is the gradual increase of knowledge about the place. I want some prior material to build on and I want new material to fit in with old material. Not that there's anything wrong with going elsewhere, but any work done elsewhere isn't being done in the Marches, and there's plenty of work left to do there.

There is a growing chorus of critics who say that Traveller should be concentrating and doing something different. By setting it somewhere outside of where Traveller has not gone on before would resurect the idea of a frontier. Illesh for me would represent a nice sized polity to do all sorts of new things. And, Verge is the home of Transhumanism and a radically different vision of Traveller not yet seen.

Since when has any subsector in the Spinward Marches not been potentially interesting? Not that Ilelish and Verge aren't potentially interesting too, but the Marches have potential enough for many, many books.

I really like the work that you have done and admire large sections of what GDW had done. But, really the Spinward Marches are so very 1970ish and as I said set in a frontier that no one can expect and reinvent Traveller in the process.