CT Only: What's It Like Outside?

[Supplement Four]

As a Ref, how often do you concern yourself with temperature on a world? Do you put the time into creating temp charts for the worlds that your players visit?

When I first started playing Traveller, as a young-un and less sophisticated story-teller, I'd see a UWP that indicates an Earth normal atmosphere, and all of a sudden, that world was like a Star Trek stop--pretty much like Earth with maybe some local color thrown in to remind players that it wasn't.

When I purchased books that got me to thinking about local gravity and temperatures, that all changed. A world could have a code 6 Atmo and still be quite alien. It could be, for example, at the edge of the habital zone, and quite cold--colder than Antarctica. And, it could be a small world where the gravity is much less than that on earth.

So, I'm curious how you Refs out there handle this. Do you put the work into finding out these worldly conditions using Book 6, or DGP's Grand Census/Survey, or possibly importing MT's World Builder's Handbook or TNE's World Tamer's Handbook?

Do you use a program, like Heaven & Earth?

Do you just wing it? Decide with story conditions in mind?

What's your path?

 

[egor045]

As a Ref, how often do you concern yourself with temperature on a world? Do you put the time into creating temp charts for the worlds that your players visit?

When I first started playing Traveller, as a young-un and less sophisticated story-teller, I'd see a UWP that indicates an Earth normal atmosphere, and all of a sudden, that world was like a Star Trek stop--pretty much like Earth with maybe some local color thrown in to remind players that it wasn't.

When I purchased books that got me to thinking about local gravity and temperatures, that all changed. A world could have a code 6 Atmo and still be quite alien. It could be, for example, at the edge of the habital zone, and quite cold--colder than Antarctica. And, it could be a small world where the gravity is much less than that on earth.

So, I'm curious how you Refs out there handle this. Do you put the work into finding out these worldly conditions using Book 6, or DGP's Grand Census/Survey, or possibly importing MT's World Builder's Handbook or TNE's World Tamer's Handbook?

Do you use a program, like Heaven & Earth?

Do you just wing it? Decide with story conditions in mind?

What's your path?

I have some tools that given a star, orbit and UWP, use the book 6 tables to give me a temperature range for the world. It also reports cloudiness, as well as orbital period and apparent size of the star as seen from the world. I plan to make them generally available (via web) once I solve some packaging questions.

I think I should be able to do the same kind of thing with World Builder's Handbook, although it's a bit more complicated.

I've also tried using Stars Without Number's tags idea to add some non-climate detail. This hasn't been entirely successful, as many of the tags are tailored to SWN's campaign background.

 

[infojunky]

Honestly, it Depends.... :smirk:

When I am doing a recurring location for use in game I work out its specifics... Ok, I decide what its going to be like then go back and assign stats.

Though I have been known to roll up a world and figure out it's stats to see if there is anything interesting there as well.

 

[aramis]

I frequently use climate and weather descriptions. Less so in Traveller, as more often, it's set in weather-free environments, like Leedor on Aramis/Aramis.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

It depends.

IMTU, where there is atmosphere (ATM 4+), there is weather.

If a “canned” adventure calls for specific weather conditions, then I rarely alter them.

If the PCs are going to spend more than a couple of week on a world between jumps, then I might do a quick seasonal write up.

If they’re doing the standard two-week layover for fuel, cargo, and passengers, then a few rolls on a weather table will suffice.

If they’re just stopping by for fuel, a quick recalibration of the j-drive, and the passing of mail, then I may not even mention weather at all.

Otherwise, only if I’m really micro-detailing a world, do I even try to plot weather based on lattitude, terrain, axial tilt, season, albedo, stellar flux, and any of the myriad other variables that go into a daily weather forecast.

 

[Supplement Four]

I guess with gravity, most just use the standard numbers given in Traveller per Size of the world rather than rolling up the world's core and working out actual gravity?

 

[kilemall]

A big variable for me is world size vs. atmosphere- if there is an atmosphere then that means we have to have relevant gravity, possibly more density then just rock, and likely a core. Maybe less density and/or core if the atmo is under the size average.

The biosphere should also be a big part of why an atmosphere is what it is.

Otherwise it's what the story requires.

One of my rockballs has no gas giant and limited hydrographics so that is an unusual system. I rolled a religious facility as a point of interest and way low pop, so I ended up envisioning the refueling point as a monastery where the acolytes haul ice by dragging them on sleds to the refiner as part of their training and earning their keep.

As a result, the planet is cold by referee fiat independent of where random rolls may have placed it.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I been using Explanator to get more details about worlds.

 

[mike wightman]

I typically use GURPS Space 4th edition to detail worlds and then convert to Traveller terms.

 

[robject]

I have some tools that given a star, orbit and UWP, use the book 6 tables to give me a temperature range for the world.

I have this sort of thing too. It's a shorthand version of WBH using primary type, orbit number, and world benchmarks, which map to temperature range and damage taken to unprotected humans due to heat/cold/rad. I've tuned it from time to time.

I also had a web page... now somewhat broken... at http://traveller5.net/tools/worldbuilder/ ... that calculated things a bit more rigorously, but perhaps not better! It used to work with TravellerMap, but the TM interface has since changed, and I haven't changed with the times

 

[Ishmael]

Its a vital part of my own UWP houserule procedure for generating worlds. Not only does it affect atmosphere surface pressure, but its also needed to determine composition ala Jean's Escape. It also plays a part in mapping a world's biomes and ice caps/glaciers.

 

[khadaji2002]

I'm not really into world-building, so I stick with mostly pre-generated worlds. That said, I do check to see if the world's UWP suggests anything unusual. For PCs heading to a world's surface, finding yourself in the middle of a howling storm as you're trying to land can make the visit...dicey. I like keeping even routine things like landing/take-off to have enough spice to keep it interesting.

In one game I played in, the GMs used weather a couple of times to fold in twists to the existing plot lines. Enough so that my character wound up hating planets. He eventually opted to stay aboard ship at all times unless they docked at a station or vacuum world. If the world had atmo, he wasn't going to be in it. Good times.

 

[aramis]

I guess with gravity, most just use the standard numbers given in Traveller per Size of the world rather than rolling up the world's core and working out actual gravity?

It's not normally worth the effort for me. Half the time (worlds size A+ and 4-) the habs are almost always running gravitics for health reasons. And the rest are generally merely about temperature.

 

[Ulsyus]

Do you just wing it? Decide with story conditions in mind?

What's your path?

It's not normally worth the effort for me. Half the time (worlds size A+ and 4-) the habs are almost always running gravitics for health reasons. And the rest are generally merely about temperature.

I try to come at it from the perspective of how it impacts on the scenario. So I scope the setting first to see if the gross details are going to have a significant affect on anything. Then try to figure out if they'll enable some sort of action or effect that one of the NPCs is trying to achieve, as that will give the PCs a challenge - dealing with the unexpected (sorry '51).

Outside of that I look for the effect on the narrative during the game - atmosphere about the atmosphere if you will...

There haven't been a lot of planets I've developed a lot of details on because generally they haven't stayed anywhere long enough. Plus the hab and grav thing that Aramis mentioned.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

I resurrected this thread instead of starting a new one on essentially the same topic.

As I posted before, there is rarely any reason to detail the weather conditions for any world, unless the characters were going to be spending a long time (14+ days) on that world. It's always been enough to declare that the weather was clear, and that the the winds were calm. If there was any need for a change in the weather, then I put it in the local encounter table as an event.

CT's Tarsus module had an elaborate means of determining weather on a daily basis. Challenger #29 had a similar one for Twilight: 2000, and #30 had a simpler method using only three weather tables.

My question is: Has there been any canonical method of determining local weather on a day-to-day basis for any given planet?

Thank you.

 

[Timerover51]

I resurrected this thread instead of starting a new one on essentially the same topic.

As I posted before, there is rarely any reason to detail the weather conditions for any world, unless the characters were going to be spending a long time (14+ days) on that world. It's always been enough to declare that the weather was clear, and that the the winds were calm. If there was any need for a change in the weather, then I put it in the local encounter table as an event.

CT's Tarsus module had an elaborate means of determining weather on a daily basis. Challenger #29 had a similar one for Twilight: 2000, and #30 had a simpler method using only three weather tables.

My question is: Has there been any canonical method of determining local weather on a day-to-day basis for any given planet?

Thank you.

Mission to Mithril had a detailed table for determining the weather on that planet on a day to day basis. That could be adapted to a wider range of planets with a bit of work.

 

[Ulsyus]

I resurrected this thread instead of starting a new one on essentially the same topic.

As I posted before, there is rarely any reason to detail the weather conditions for any world, unless the characters were going to be spending a long time (14+ days) on that world. It's always been enough to declare that the weather was clear, and that the the winds were calm. If there was any need for a change in the weather, then I put it in the local encounter table as an event.

CT's Tarsus module had an elaborate means of determining weather on a daily basis. Challenger #29 had a similar one for Twilight: 2000, and #30 had a simpler method using only three weather tables.

My question is: Has there been any canonical method of determining local weather on a day-to-day basis for any given planet?

Thank you.

Wouldn't weather on a world vary from location to location?

I used analysis of weather on gas giants as a step to go through before picking where a ship would try to scoop, seeing as no-one wants to dive into a turn-hair-translucent-level cyclone just to refuel. There's got to be easier place to do it.

I'm not sure that there'd need to be individualised detail about weather from planet to planet, but having an idea for the ref to hang some narrative and tests off would be really useful to have before a session started.

 

[coliver988]

I've just done weather at the need of plot for the most part. And unless there is really good weather manipulation, my guess is that forecasts on most worlds won't be any better than they are here on Earth (I want a job where I can be wrong most of the time and still be employed! Of course, I live in the Appalachians and mountains really do through off weather prediction. And we have really localized cells - it can be pouring rain where I am, and q mile away sunshine and rainbows. About guaranteed if I am on the motorcycle - the rain just follows me!)

And if not plot-driven, I've just used the reaction roll basically, where 12 is hurricane/white-out, and 2 is a balmy day. DM semi-related to previous day's weather so there are not extremes.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Yes, local weather depends on a LOT of factors:

Fixed quantities:

• Stellar class and luminosity type.

• Orbital radius and eccentricity.

• Albedo and axial tilt.

• World size, atmosphere type, hydrographics

Variable quantities:

• Terrain type, winds, and humidity.

• Latitude, altitude, and season.

I'm not looking for a doctoral dissertation on meteorology; just something that produces a basic table from the Fixed quantities for any given world, to which the Variable quantities can be applied to derive DMs to a few simple die rolls.

If there is nothing "out there", then I'll have to build one for myself.

 

[Enoki]

I usually work this out for worlds the players will more than just be visiting the starport. But, it's almost got to be a case by case basis.

I think there's simply too much variation to make some easy to use table up for it. I suppose it's possible, but it'd be a pretty extensive thing to do.

Some of the stuff is already mentioned. Then you have to consider...

Planetary rotation time. This could be anything from tidal lock for some planet circling a smaller M type star, to counter rotation to what we're used to, to rolling along its orbit like Uranus does.

Is the world a satellite of a gas giant? This could be possible in some systems. That changes a lot, particularly what the sky would look like.

Temperature can be calculated fairly easy LBB 4 Scouts gives a basic formula for this. That would be the mean temperature and you can extrapolate the highs and lows from it.

For wind you'd need at least a Atmos 2 or 3 minimum. Anything less and there isn't enough there to actually feel it.

Then you'd have to have some idea what the planet was like as far as economy. For example, I had one that was populated by billions (A) and an industrial world. But, the Atmos was 0. So, industry wasn't worried about air pollution and they off-gassed all their pollutants from tall stacks under pressure. That is just forced the "smoke" out into space. So, the planet trailed a plume of industrial off-gassing and smoke like a comet's tail.

The companies also just piled their industrial waste that had no recycle value on the surface of the planet creating huge mountains of slag and tailings.

(Yes, high pop industrial worlds usually turn out as gritty nightmares).

Water worlds present problems with massive wave patterns particularly at extreme latitudes.

Then there's flora and fauna to consider. How prevalent and hostile are the local lifeforms?

I usually do this both to give the players some idea of what kind of gear they should be considering, rather than tell them what they need as well as to give them a visual picture of what the world they're on looks like to them.

I suppose for worlds I've done I should add that stuff to the Wiki for anyone to use.