Thinking about campaign settings. Opinions please.

[loudriver23]

So, I'm giving serious thought into using a more limited scope for my traveller campaign setting. Instead of the entire universe, I was thinking about having the majority of the action happen in "Our Suns" solar system. Having just watched the entire Cowboy Bebop series again, I think using this as a blueprint for the campaign setting might not only be interesting, but easier to control.
I could use the following worlds
Venus
Earth
Earth's moon
Mars
Ganymede
and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
With the possibility of including,
IO
Europa
Titan.

I could also build in Alpha Centauri, and it's worlds into the fold if I need some expansion.

What are your thoughts? Would this setting bore you? The lack of jump travel, new worlds, and alien contact, or do you think having a more consolidated and established setting, with Megacorps, crime syndicates and imperiumesque presence be attractive?
I'm looking for a few opinions, and/or ideas.
Thanks again,
Louis

 

[aramis]

you cold use J drive data as a sublight alcubierre type drive drive, and gravitic M-Drive cutoff at 100 diameters... then you get firefly like system travel...

 

[loudriver23]

Could you expand on that a little bit? I'm intrigued.

 

[Dragoner]

So, I'm giving serious thought into using a more limited scope for my traveller campaign setting.
Thanks again,
Louis

IMO, it almost sounds like the 2300 setup, which in that way you might be able to gather more players, there are some downsides to it though, the lack of availability of cheap ships for example.

 

[pendragonman]

IMO, it almost sounds like the 2300 setup, which in that way you might be able to gather more players, there are some downsides to it though, the lack of availability of cheap ships for example.

Maybe a "solar sail" drive type ship would be the Chinese junks of our solar system?

 

[MongooseMatt]

I would advocate taking a look at Beltstrike - not based in our Solar System, but it is limited to just one, with no jump travel (good adventures too ).

 

[Dragoner]

Maybe a "solar sail" drive type ship would be the Chinese junks of our solar system?

Sure, there are many inventive ways to circumvent the issue; imo with the paradigm differences of the 2300 'verse against the Traveller 'verse, is that "Free Trader" scheme is lacking. 2300 seems more focused around being a planetary romance, with more developed action on planet and in Traveller, the players can say: "screw this, we'll just go somewhere else".

 

[saundby]

I'll second Matt's comment on Beltstrike. It's one of my top favorite MGT books, and for the price it's great.

For the campaign, I'd recommend starting with the solar system, then holding out being able to reach Proxima Centauri and possibly the two stars of Alpha (A and B) as a stretch, or something to throw in if you need to spice things up later. Treat each of the three stars as a separate system at microjump range from each other.

The Alcubierre drive that Aramis mentioned is a sort of warp drive that can be used over short distances, reducing travel times between planets to hours or minutes rather than months.

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Alcubierre_drive.html

Basically the idea is to have a "speed up the plot" drive that works within a system rather than a jump drive that takes you between stars faster than you can get from planet to planet. M-Drive is nice, but even at M-6 the time limitations to travel make it hard to keep the game as fast-paced as it could be, especially if you like including the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud in the adventures, as I do (that's where all the really weird things hang out.)

So replacing a Jump drive in the ship with a mini warp drive can make an in-system campaign play better, and allow the use of more predesigned ships (rather than having to build them all from scratch because you don't have Jump, or Jump drives.) Just come up with a travel speed ratio for the different J-levels.

 

[savage]

Micro-jump drive

If your leaving OTU too much.. You could also use fractional jump drives. Assuming these are incredibly expensive (bleeding edge new tech). .5J for example. I put a couple ships together with that concept.

 

[Spinward Scout]

What are your thoughts? Would this setting bore you? The lack of jump travel, new worlds, and alien contact, or do you think having a more consolidated and established setting, with Megacorps, crime syndicates and imperiumesque presence be attractive?

You have almost 200 planets, dwarf planets, and moons in the solar system. Not to mention the asteroids in the Asteroid Belt (they estimate there could be billions of asteroids in The Belt), rogue asteroids, and comets. Then there's the Kuiper Belt and the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. If you get travel between them all at a quick pace, the stories could be easier. You can start to bring water (icy comets) to Mars and Venus for terraforming. Don't forget Mercury or Pluto for a hot or icy prison. The setting could be very Old West or Victorian after the invention of the Telegraph. Very Traveller-esque. Firefly, too. Communications between worlds limited by distance. Losing communications when a moon is behind a planet or the Sun. Unless you come up with a FTL comm. Interplanetary couriers - United Solar Parcel Service? Scouts could still explore worlds in Vacc suits as long as the environment isn't too hostile. Interplanetary Rescue Service? Hydrogen gas mining at Jupiter and Saturn. Methane bottling on Titan. Sulfur from Io. Iron ore mining in the Asteroid Belt. Evidence of ancient aliens on Mars?

There's so many possibilities. It would be great to see it when you're done.

Jovian Chronicles might be a good read for you.

Here's some real-life ideas for you:

The VASIMR drive is in the works currently with NASA. It supposedly could make it to Mars in about 40 days. Modified by science fiction, you could have it get from Earth to Mars in just a few days.

The Mach-Lorentz thruster is theoretical and if it ever works could get from Earth to Jupiter in about 6 days. Again, modified by sci-fi, you could make it able to reach the edge of the solar system in a week. And then you're zooming about.

 

[aramis]

Jovian Chronicles is a wonderful semi-hard setting.

Aside from the mecha, it's a hard sci-fi setting. And those are not actually all that integral to it.

 

[hiro]

You could also check out Zozer's Orbital, written by Paul Elliott (on here as Mithras)

Set in a pre jump TL9 Sol

 

[loudriver23]

Do you think borrowing from Cowboy Bebop and use warp gates between the planets would be a bad thing. that way the ships wouldn't need to have jump technology at all.

BTW, thank you all so much for your ideas, I'm really getting excited about this.

 

[Shonner]

You could also check out Zozer's Orbital, written by Paul Elliott (on here as Mithras)

Set in a pre jump TL9 Sol

I second that.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

As far as a setting goes, sounds ok. The main things would be any reasons as to why your planets/dwarf planets/planetoids would vary in physical characteristics from what is reported from currently as standard science/wikipedia reports. Here are today's UWP's. Sorry if someone can show me how to parse things better I would appreciate it. Any body not listed here would be smaller than size 1. Add at your leisure.

AU From Primary Kkm From Object Orbit Sub Orbit Body Alternate Designation UPP Gravity Cat
0.0 0 Sun G2V
0.4 1 Mercury X300000-0 Low Roasting
0.7 2 Venus X8B0000-0 Average Roasting
1.0 3 Terra E867972-8 Average Temperate
384.0 1 Luna Terra I X200000-0 Low Cold
1.5 4 Mars X410000-0 Low Frozen
2.7 5 Asteroid Belt X000000-0 Zero-G
2.8 7 Ceres 1 X100000-0 Low Frozen
5.2 8 Jupiter LGG High Frozen
421.7 1 Io Jupiter I X200000-0 Low Frozen
671.0 2 Europa Jupiter II X200000-0 Low Frozen
1,070.4 3 Ganymede Jupiter III X300000-0 Low Frozen
1,882.7 4 Callisto Jupiter IV X300000-0 Low Frozen
9.6 9 Saturn LGG
295.0 3 Tethys Saturn III X100000-0 Low Frozen
377.0 4 Dione Saturn IV X100000-0 Low Frozen
527.0 5 Rhea Saturn V X100000-0 Low Frozen
1,222.0 6 Titan Saturn VI X3A0000-0 Low Frozen
3,560.0 8 Iapetus Saturn VIII X100000-0 Low Frozen
19.2 10 Uranus SGG
190.0 1 Ariel Uranus I X100000-0 Low Frozen
266.0 2 Umbriel Uranus II X100000-0 Low Frozen
436.0 3 Titania Uranus III X100000-0 Low Frozen
584.0 4 Oberon Uranus IV X100000-0 Low Frozen
30.0 11 Neptune SGG
355.8 1 Triton Neptune I X200000-0 Low Frozen
39.2 12 Orcus 90482 X100000-0 Low Frozen
39.2 13 Pluto 134340 X100000-0 Low Frozen
1 Charon Pluto I X100000-0 Low Frozen
43.1 14 Haumea 136108 X100000-0 Low Frozen
43.4 15 Quaoar 50000 X100000-0 Low Frozen
45.8 16 Makemake 136472 X100000-0 Low Frozen
55.5 17 2002 TC302R 84522 X100000-0 Low Frozen
67.2 18 2007 OR10 225088 Snow White X100000-0 Low Frozen
67.7 19 Eris 136199 X100000-0 Low Frozen
518.6 20 Sedna 90377 X100000-0 Low Frozen

 

[Shonner]

Do you think borrowing from Cowboy Bebop and use warp gates between the planets would be a bad thing. that way the ships wouldn't need to have jump technology at all.

BTW, thank you all so much for your ideas, I'm really getting excited about this.

You can use Mongoose Traveller for pretty much any sci-fi setting.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Take out Jump Drive or other FTL does change things sure, but you can still have limited Interstellar Travel. Knowledge of Fusion power and gravity control could be kept as a campaign standard and you can have TL10 or higher. Just say FTL does not exist.

Within Mongoose rules, one COULD strap Fission Power Plants (whose requirements are rated in YEARS per ton of fuel, not WEEKS, look up Core Rules) to standard Maneuver Drives. Add Solar Panels to reduce fuel consumption (using the High Guard rules). Interstellar travel

With constant acceleration one could get to another star system within some years. Enough that a referee can make a permanent campaign change ("You travel to Alpha Centauri, the trip took 12 years, roll for 3 terms worth of skills) if everyone gets bored.

I do not have the specifics of travel times. Just trying to evoke a feeling or imagery. Hmm... I will go stat up travel times for light years or parsecs using standard Maneuver Drives tonight...

Just remember that if you are using semi-realistic star positions, the nearest stars are around 4 light years away. If you say you travel takes much less than 4 years, then you are de-facto saying you have an FTL method of some sort (unless you have factored your relatavistic travel time distances more or less)...

 

[Nathan Brazil]

OK I forgot how depressing. Just to Proxima Centauri, the nearest at a mere 4.2421 light years using standard Manuever Drives
01 G-1466 Years
02 G-1037 Years
03 G-847 Years
04 G-733 Years
05 G-656 Years
06 G-599 Years
07 G-554 Years
08 G-518 Years
09 G-489 Years
10 G-464 Years
11 G-442 Years
12 G-423 Years
13 G-407 Years
14 G-392 Years

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Do you think borrowing from Cowboy Bebop and use warp gates between the planets would be a bad thing. that way the ships wouldn't need to have jump technology at all.

Using Gates would be very cool but the thing to keep in mind is that before a gate can be used, someone has to get to the destination somehow and the build the gate at the other end. Maybe some ancient civilization built the gates before humans showed up (like in Fading Suns).
Even then one way around that is if the gates are one way and do not need a gate at the receiving end. Example: Build your gate at the Solar System, point it at Proxima Centauri and send ships through. The ships are now stuck at Proxima until the Proxima Gate is built.

If you need a gate at both ends, that would mean you have to slow boat it there to build the gate. In this case, your campaign will have gates in place to Gate to after 2612AD (send the ship to Proxima today at 6G, and instantly build it!). I assume civilization will be sending gate building ships all over the place though.

Whether your gates need a destination gate or not will make a difference in space warfare if you have fleets going from system to system or not.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Another idea is this:

Self contained Jump ships are exstremely expensive, while gates however are really cheap. So a Jump ship can be build for seed distance stars, but the cost would bankrupt a nation, so it has to be a global effort in resource and manpower as well. The second problem is that it takes 10 years to build the Jump ship which will get you there in 3.25 years. Installing, aligning the gate take another year. The gate it aligns with must be separate from the rest and at a fixed point in the solar system or have a very large orbit (Jupiter and beyond) in order to keep the two aligned with one another.