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Non OTU: Visions of Empire Redux!

LBB3 "realism" house-rules for worldgen in this setting.

-Atmospheres 1 or A+ can only exist on worlds of Size 3+. If not, Size is bumped to 3.
-Atmospheres 2-5 can only exist on worlds of Size 4+. If not, Size is bumped to 4.
-Atmospheres 6-9 can only exist on worlds of Size 5+. If not, Size is bumped to 5.
-If the Population is zero, the Starport is set to X and the Government and Law Level are set to 0; bases are never present with such a low population.
- Barren worlds (i.e. no population) do not recieve the Ni trade code.
- Inhabited worlds with Atmospheres 4, 7 and 9 must have at least TL5. If not, TL is bumped to 5.
- Inhabited worlds with Atmospheres 3- must have at least TL6. If not, TL is bumped to 6.
- Inhabited worlds with Atmospheres A or B must have at least TL8. If not, TL is bumped to 8.
- With rare exceptions (i.e. exotic "Minor Races"), inhabited worlds with Atmosphere C must have at least TL9. If not, TL is bumped to 9.
- Worlds with Starport A must have at least a Population of 5 and TL9. If not, Population is bumped to 5 and TL to 9.
- Worlds with Starport B must have at least a Population of 3 and TL7. If not, Population is bumped to 3 and TL to 7.
 
The Gardeners
Approximately 65 million years ago a sentient species formed an interstellar civilization in an area of space not far from Terra, or so it is hypothesized. They apparently had a habit of terraforming worlds and transplanting creatures from various "interesting" (to them that is) worlds and spreading them across a number of terraformed worlds, perhaps creating menageries or hunting preserves or simply tailoring the local biosphere to their tastes. They did not perform much genetic engineering (if at all), but rather engaged in planetary and biosphere engineering and life-form importation.

Now they are long gone. The vast bulk of their technology and cities were eventually reduced to nothing but anomalous concentrations of elements in the soil and the rock. None of their machines survived in an even remotely opertable form. Some of their artefacts - more commonly, trash - were fossilized; there are also fossilized bones which may or may not be fossiles of the "Gardeners".

However, their true legacy is not fosslized archeological artefacts but terraformed worlds and a wide spread of certain life-forms across multiple worlds. Some worlds failed and reverted to their pre-terraformation forms; others survived; all were changed by the passing of 60-70 million years. Some life-forms were extinct at the same time as the "Gardeners" or in the intervening millions of years; others survived virtually unchanged; yet others continued to evolve. And on at least one world, transplanted organisms reached sentience. The so-called Gardner Hypothesis suggests that the biological similarity between many of the known sentient and non-snetinet species across known space arises from their evolution from imported stock, some of which may have been Terran in origin - in its most radical form, this hypothesis claims that the Chuwak and possibly even Cicek and Reticulans have evolved from Terran animals imported to their prospective homeworlds approximately 65 million years ago.
 
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Generally speaking, most people (and aliens too!) prefer to live in a "shirt-sleeve" environment. This means that a world with a thin, standard or dense breathabel atmosphere (and in many ways its tainted version) will get most colonists, while rockballs and hellholes will usually be lightly populated. The exception would be various gold-rush rockball mining worlds, but even then the population rarely exceeds a few million inhabitants, and usually much less.

I classify systems similarly to the Dark Nebula boardgame into Primary, Secondary and Tretriary systems.

Primary systems have a Terra Prime world - atmosphere 4-9 and hydrographics 4+. They get the biggest populations.

Secondary systems have at least one world with hydrographics 1+ and Atmosphere A-, though I'm not sure if "Fluid" (non-water liquid) oceans fit here; Ice Caps definitely do; alternatively, asteroid fields with rich minerals (5-6 on 1d6) and no planets (these attract major belting operations). They can get some population, though rarely more than a few millions.

Tretriary systems are all the systems with waterless rockballs and/or hell-worlds (atmosphere B+) and poor asteroid belts (4- on 1d6). They rarely get any population unless they are VERY mineral-rich (10+ on 2d6), which yields a small mining colony, or if they are on a trade and/or communication line, which results in a refuelling outpost.
 
Here is a work-in-progress of the Terra Subsector for my Visions of Empire setting. The base data is similar to what I used to create Outer Veil six or seven years ago, but this is a new map, with its own data, and based solely on known near-Earth stars, with my extrapolations, "flatenning" or 3D real space into a traditional Traveller 2D hex grid and imagining what kind of worlds and gas giants would be found out there. Exectp for Terra (which should be named Sol after ist primary star), all star-names are real. Feel free to use this if you want a somewhat "realistic" near-Earth Traveller subsector.

This also allows me to extrapolate quite a lot about the Terran Liberation War. Reticulan Subsector Capital was at Keid, with strong local Reticulan colonies at Procyon, Kapteyn's Star and Epsilon Eridani. The old EFA (Earth Fedeal Administration - a client-state of the Reticulans) based on Terra had major colonies at Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, Barnard's Star, Ross 154, 61 Cygni, and Epsilon Indi - and several other outposts; all of these were quickly taken into the new UTR (United Terran Republic) when we Terrans revolted against the Reticulan overlords.

As at TL13 (by the "Little Black Books 2" and 3 version of the Classic Traveller rules), maximum jump for serious naval combatants (1,000 tons and above) is Jump-3, in order to protect Mother Terra from significant Rericulan naval raids, the Terrans ahd to quickly seize Sirius and UV Ceti, which soon became major battlegrounds of the War. Since the mineral-rich Tau Ceti 5 was already an mining world with the highest colonial population outside the Sol system (approximately thirty million inhabitants), it became a major strategic asset and thus a major battleground as well - some sort of a "Stalingrad of the stars". Late war concentrated on Procyon and Epsilon Eridani, and the war culminated in the capture of Keid and the dethroning of the Reticulan House Thiragin.

Terra_WIP by golan2072, on Flickr
 
Now on to Flying Saucers :-D

The two most ubiquitous small craft in known space are the Civilian Saucer (Slow Boat in Book 2 terms) and the Military Saucer (Ship's Boat in Book 2 terms) used by the Reticulans for centuries. These trusty "UFOs" share most parts and design, though the military version has a much more powerful engine (and corresponsding power plant). They are easily reconfigured for widely varied missions, from cargo and personnel transport to combat to military assault landing to scouting (and specimen abduction!). With top-of-the-line TL13 expensive electronics, the military version becomes a super-heavy fighter/dropship capable of swift evasion and highly-accurate fire with its laser and missile-rack all while allowing for the potential transportation of a warbot-reinforced squad. A 3,000 ton Mothership carries dozens of these and is a massive military asset for the Reticulans. The saucer's electronics outclass those of the Wasp-class Terran fighter (Book 2 fighter) and are slightly better than those of the Dragonfly-class Terran heavy fighter (20 dton fighter with better electronics than those of the Wasp), but the Terrans can field three wasps or one and a half Dragonfly for the same tonnage of a Military Saucer, so this becomes a abttle of quantity vs. quality.

Saucers are a very old and ubiquitous design, so a Reticulan technician repairing one gains a +1 DM to any relevant Mechanic, Electronics, Computer or Engineering roll.

The version which crashed at Rosewell, New Mexico, Terra in 1947 AD was a Scout variant, a Military saucer with a Model/2 computer and mostly defensive (and survey) software, enhanced sensors, TL13 advanced low berths for specimen collection and a crew of four Reticulans - pilot, gunner, sensor operator and science officer.
 
Also the "Standard Hulls", Reticulan version, are all classic UFO shapes :-D

100 dton - triangular "saucer"

200 dton - horseshoe-shaped

400 dton - egg-shaped/oval

600 dton - diamond-shaped

800 dton - spherical

1,000 dton - cigar-shaped/culindrical
 
A thread on CotI by Supplement Four which is of great inspiration for my setting. Though things would be less extreme in my version, non-habitable worlds would draw very little populations. Especially waterless and/or corrosive/insidious hellholes - Tertiary systems. Secondary systems have surface water, either liquid or easily accessible ice. Primary systems have atmosphere 4-9 and hydrographics 4+.

Usually a Tertiary system, barring major mineral wealth, would only have a tiny outpost if it's in the way to more interesting worlds, or even be uninhabited (and not too thoroughly explored) if it does not stand on a trade route. Of course, strategically important Tertiary systems might have a more significant presence, usually a military base or fort of some sort. Secondary systems usually have a colony of some sort, but it is rarely large as most people won't be interested in living in such a place - this rarely goes above a few million inhabitants even if there is vast mineral wealth around. Most people live on Primary worlds.
 
Here is the whole sector "Dot map" which I'll use to plan out the astrography.

Blue worlds have liquid surface water.

Grey worlds lack surface liquid water.

Purple worlds have non-water surface liquids.

White caps indicate surface water ice and no significant surface water.

Multiple dots denote an asteroid belt main-world.

Starburst is a star system with no significant bodies or asteroid belts (typically bright stars).

A black dot on the upper right side of the hex denotes the presence of local gas giants.

Most worlds were "flattened" from real-life astrography; some (the ones without names) were hand-generated and handwaved to represent worlds orbiting hypothetical dim stars we haven't detected yet as per 2015.

Dataset was similar to what I used to generate the Outer Veil map, but I did make significant changes to this map.

UTRverse Base by golan2072, on Flickr
 
Full starmap, now with 2261 borders. Notice how the Cicek (allied with the Terrans) managed to grab up Reticulan territory and how the UTR conquered much Reticulan and Sselessian space and colonized several worlds both in its war-time resource-rush and in an attempt to secure teh Cicek Run (wartime supply route between the two powers.

All polities other than the Terran and the Cicek are still Reticulan client-states.

These Stars Are Ours by golan2072, on Flickr
 
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By the way, which subsector looks like good adventuring ground in this setting? Terra Subsector itself has a frontier, but no alien worlds on it (but just across the border), Castor* Subsector has both Terrans and Cicek and adjacent Zhuzzh but not much settlement, Alpha Mensae* subsector is mostly Cicek but also has Terran and Reticulan presence, but not much new open space to expand to...

* Possibly temporary subsector names.
 
Oh, I forgot: Terra Subsector has conquered Reticulans! I'm strongly leaning towards using this as the main setting subsector.
 
Also there is an "internal frontier" in the Terra Sector, as many worlds have sustained extensive war damage, especially in its Rimward portion.
 
Some Thoughts:

The "core" alien species I really like and who always enter my ideas, plot and parts of this setting are only three (apart from us Terrans, that is) - the Reticulans, the Cicek and the Zhuzz. The rest are far less central to the setting concept, even the Chuwak. One idea I had was to keep only these (and maybe the Chuwak as the Reticulans' arch-enemies) as the Major Races and relegate the rest - Fanja-Kanja, Ssellassians, Phnunk, Klaxx and so on - to the status of "Minor" Races with a few planets each (usually just the homeworld and the occasional off-world individual or colony). The map can also be changed so that the "interesting space would be the Terran "quarter" (or quadrant) of the map showing Terra, many Terran colonies, the Reticulans, Cicek and Zhuzz; the Reticulan Empire (and later Technate) would mostly exist off-map, as well as most of the Minor Races. This will help the setting get an important focus.

What do you think?
 
My idea is this: let's focus on what's relevant to the setting core, i.e. Terran space. At its heart, VoE is always about Terrans, and their interactions and relations with aliens. What goes about, for example, on the other side of Reticulan space, and their long war with the Chuwak Holy Dominion, is another story for another time, part of the background, but not the main story here.

So I was thinking about a quadrant worth of space, 2 x 2 subsectors in size, with Mother Terra at its center or close to its center (this map would actually be easy to make from my old map using Paint.NET). Reticulan space is on the Trailing-Rimwardpart of this, Cicek on the Rimward, and Zhuzh on the Trailing. Terran Space is open to a frontier on the Coreward and Spinward. Alien space extends far beyond the borders of this area, and might eventually get a dot-map, but is not "core" to the story at hand.
 
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