What are your favourite Imperial sectors?

[77topaz]

What are your favourite Imperial sectors? You can select as many options as you like.

There are several reasons I decided to make this poll:

• To see which sectors are more popular and what makes a sector popular, similar to what BerKA did with the subsectors of the Spinward Marches a few years ago. I already have some ideas about which sectors will be more popular, but numerical confirmation is nice.
• To see which sectors could are (out-of-universe) underdeveloped and could use more attention. Again, I already have some ideas on this from looking at the credits of the sectors listed on TravellerMap.
• I'm considering making/working on some Imperial sector (or part-of-a-sector) books a la Encyclopedia Dagudashaag, for which knowing the two above points is relevant.
• Polls are fun!

 

[Timerover51]

None of the above. I am building my own sector, totally isolated from the Imperium, and much more of a wide open affair.

 

[Enoki]

I have a preference for the "other" side of the map and do little or nothing with the Spinward Marches or that area of it.

 

[BRJN]

I can see wanting to play in / run different metaplot campaigns, which require different settings.

Daibei - human / Aslan interface: the aliens have a sense of self-control and defined circumstances when you will break it
Solomani Rim - civilized for a long time, most of the area is "safe", some politics but not overwhelming, corruption is limited by the need to keep on your toes on a military frontier
Spinward Marches - frontier atmosphere, able to 'skirt the edges' and 'cut corners' using corruption to get around an official No, unique non-Evil antagonist group, still unknown facts about the universe to discover.

 

[agorski]

I think Reaver's Deep is more interesting than many listed. I'd vote for that.

 

[77topaz]

I think Reaver's Deep is more interesting than many listed. I'd vote for that.

It's under the "Partial Imperial sectors" option at the bottom (see "Reav"). I could only have 20 options in the poll, so I put those sectors with only a small number of Imperial worlds together under that option.

 

[The Pakkrat]

I would have voted for Empty Quarter save that I've not had the opportunity to play there. It does have some very good coverage in Stellar Reaches.

 

[77topaz]

Some analysis of the current state of the poll, with 15 votes having been submitted:

• The Spinward Marches being by far the most popular is no surprise to me, as it was the first sector to be detailed in canon and it has the most adventures and other later books set in it. It also benefits from lying at the border of multiple larger states and containing several pocket empires, which creates diversity and opportunities for intrigue, which, looking at the rest of the poll, generally seems beneficial to a sector's popularity.
• The Old Expanses being the second most popular option, ahead of the Solomani Rim (which was the second sector to receive a dedicated book, generally has a fairly large amount of published materials, and contains Terra), was a surprise to me. I actually do consider it one of my favourite sectors, but that's just from looking at the Classic Era T5SS data on TravellerMap, and as far as I'm aware this sector was only really prominent in TNE materials. Because of this, the Old Expanses was one of the "first tier" of sectors I'd been considering writing about, though it being the second most popular Imperial sector actually makes me slightly nervous to. People who voted for the Old Expanses, do you use the Classic Era or TNE version of the sector?
• The interior sectors of the Imperium (those not directly bordering another polity or balkanised space) are vastly less popular than the rest - apart from Core (2 votes out of 15 cast so far) and Zarushagar (1 vote), none of them have received any votes so far. o: I'd expected these sectors would be less popular due to the lack of border intrigue and relative lack of diversity (the latter doesn't even apply to every interior sector), but I hadn't expected it to be such a large disparity. For one thing, I'd expected there'd be votes for Dagudashaag (because of Encyclopaedia Dagudashaag) and Gushemege (because of the diverse Lancian Cultural Region), and Lishun also has no votes despite bordering the Vargr Extents.

 

[aramis]

For me, it's the Judges Guild 4 sector cluster (Ley, Glimmerdrift, Maranath-Alkahest, and the Crucius Margin.

The Spinward Marches come next.

 

[77topaz]

For me, it's the Judges Guild 4 sector cluster (Ley, Glimmerdrift, Maranath-Alkahest, and the Crucius Margin.

Really? That's interesting, and it makes me wonder, what is actually the reason those sectors were decanonised? I'm not particularly familiar with them, but just from looking at their maps on TravellerMap I'm guessing they were considered too silly/unrealistic for the setting?

 

[aramis]

Really? That's interesting, and it makes me wonder, what is actually the reason those sectors were decanonised? I'm not particularly familiar with them, but just from looking at their maps on TravellerMap I'm guessing they were considered too silly/unrealistic for the setting?

I'm not entirely certain — but decanonized they were by Atlas of the Imperium. (Speculation: JG didn't want to relinquish copyright at end of license, so they were decanonized. Note that, as recently as 2008, JG still had physical copies in stock... which Hunter got when he bought the rights.

They were neither silly nor bad, but the physical product quality was poor.
Each introduced a few new aliens; none of the aliens had character generation.
The maps showed only star presence, borders, and routes.
The UWP lists were CT-standard pre-Bk6 (so no stellar types).
The blurbs were slightly longer than in CT's two sector books, but only slightly.
There were different encounter tables in a couple of them.
They included rumor tables.
They included color images of several worlds on standard icosahedral projections.

But the paper was low-acid white newsprint-grade. The booklets were coverless, and the map stock was identical weight to the book stock.

 

[whulorigan]

• The Old Expanses being the second most popular option, . . . was a surprise to me. I actually do consider it one of my favourite sectors, but that's just from looking at the Classic Era T5SS data on TravellerMap, and as far as I'm aware this sector was only really prominent in TNE materials. Because of this, the Old Expanses was one of the "first tier" of sectors I'd been considering writing about, though it being the second most popular Imperial sector actually makes me slightly nervous to. People who voted for the Old Expanses, do you use the Classic Era or TNE version of the sector?

Actually, the Old Expanses was first detailed in the 5 High Passage publications from the early 1980s. It is one of the oldest sectors with published materials and adventures.That is also why the old Black & Red physical copy of the Traveller Map of Charted Space from the early 1980s has Old Expanses as one of the few named sectors labelled on the map.

 

[77topaz]

Actually, the Old Expanses was first detailed in the 5 High Passage publications from the early 1980s. It is one of the oldest sectors with published materials and adventures.That is also why the old Black & Red physical copy of the Traveller Map of Charted Space from the early 1980s has Old Expanses as one of the few named sectors labelled on the map.

Oh, I see. In that case, the current data from the poll suggests the largest factor in a sector's popularity is simply for how long out-of-universe it has been developed and/or how many publications there have been about it; hence, the sectors that show up as least popular in the poll would be the best first "targets" for the new sector material/books I'd been thinking about, as they would benefit the most from it.

 

[The Pakkrat]

Underdeveloped Sectors

They are not on the list, but I’ve taken the time to develop on the Wiki the following:

Knoellighz, Angfutsag, Gzaefueg, and the two polities of Ksinanirz

I’ve written small bits into:

Gvurrdon, Kharrthon and have an interest in seeing more of Meshan Sectors.

A sector doesn’t have to be on the list to be liked or sought after to play in or run games in. This has been a fun poll to respond in though.

 

[77topaz]

Yeah, I just picked Imperial sectors because of the limit on the number of options in posts, and because the Imperium is the most commonly used part of Charted Space. I may might a separate poll for non-Imperial sectors; another poll I might make is for which sector people would most like to see new material.

 

[Golan2072]

My favorite OTU sector is non-Imperial - the Dark Nebula. Solomani-Aslan border. I prefer setting it during the Long Night, with 2nd Imperium successor pocket-empires vs. the nascent Aslan Heirate.

 

[Ulsyus]

My favorite OTU sector is non-Imperial - the Dark Nebula. Solomani-Aslan border. I prefer setting it during the Long Night, with 2nd Imperium successor pocket-empires vs. the nascent Aslan Heirate.

That would be a great setting for a Pocket Empires game!

 

[Golan2072]

That would be a great setting for a Pocket Empires game!

Indeed! That is my intention!

 

[Kilgs]

You show your Core biases, blueblood!!

Glimmerdrift FOREVER!!!

 

[aramis]

You show your Core biases, blueblood!!

Glimmerdrift FOREVER!!!

But which version?