Worlds and Governments to play on

[bobpartdeux]

I think that I would like to run a game of traveller (or something set in a similiar setting)

are their any, mostly human, governments (the star empires) in Traveller where the empire is on the order of TL 9 or 10?

I would want something where there was a FTL trade and the like, but not a lot of it, and the ships would be old

there could be big empires in the distance, but I wouldn't want TL15 ships to be common place

Jon Miller

 

[alanb]

Write your own.

Really. Traveller's rules are setting independent.

You can steal bits from the OTU, if you can't be bothered writing everything from scratch.

Failing that, set your game during the Long Night, set it at the edge of mapped space, or simply tweak the setting to match your tastes.

Trust me, which ever way you want to do it, the game police aren't going to be knocking on your door.

 

[bobpartdeux]

well, I was thinking (and what I wuold sort of like to do) is do an Alliance-Union setting

but a number of rules would need to be modified (that is the thing with playing in any setting that you don't just make up, you have to try and get the rules right)

now, I don't have to think too hard about the traveller setting, so that is a plus

Jon Miller

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by bobpartdeux:
well, I was thinking (and what I wuold sort of like to do) is do an Alliance-Union setting

but a number of rules would need to be modified (that is the thing with playing in any setting that you don't just make up, you have to try and get the rules right)

Yeah.

There is an alternative, though, and that's not to do an exact copy of the setting, and instead create a "homage" to it.

That is, you steal most of the setting, and change the names and any bits that are inconvenient. This is sometimes referred to as "filing off the serial numbers".

But still, I see your point about an Alliance-Union setting. I've considered lifting it myself, if only because I vaguely prefer the idea of "stations" rather than the casually habitable worlds that clutter many settings. (No comment about Cyteen.)

I'm not sure exactly how you could maintain the feel of the setting. Perhaps you might want to start with 2300AD, rather than Traveller. 2300 has 3-d maps, but then, Cherryh's setting doesn't really use 3-d maps either, but rather a network system.

Replacing J-Drives with other FTL systems is no big deal - there are a couple of old books with suggestions for alternate FTL technologies, and there are plenty of people here who would happily talk to you about it. On the other hand, there are some very serious issues regarding the economics of the whole thing. Oh, and the ships in Cherryh's universe are very big, but that's not a major drama.

But, in any case, as I said before, I think you probably should be designing for feel, rather than literally translating Cherryh's universe.

Aside from anything else, it ensures that you know more about the setting than your players.

 

[bobpartdeux]

well, I am a huge Cherryh fan (Read all but a couple of her books, many in the 7 times range) and most of them have read a book at most (and no one, to my knowledge, has read Union-Alliance)

so that is no concern

I am not as sure how the FTL works in Cherryhs universe (like its respective size, I know that it works better the smaller the ship, and that it uses energy from the power plant, not fuel, I also know that it is between masses, not points in space)

I don't actually want to do an area that she has written about, just an area referenced (I was thinking about some time after the Chanur series)

there are actually a lot of aliens and worlds in her setting (Compared to what is actually the case) it is just that most inhabitable worlds, are inhabited by aliens, andthere are a lot of stars that do not have a habitable world arround them

where did you get the information on ship tonnage in the A-U universe? I don't really want to change to much (would be too much work for me)

Jon Miller

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by bobpartdeux:
I also know that it is between masses, not points in space)

...

where did you get the information on ship tonnage in the A-U universe? I don't really want to change to much (would be too much work for me)

I suggested that a network map would be best because there's not all that many places to go! While there are, no doubt, an infinite number of cold dark rocks to visit, there's little point in doing so. Even if you do want to hide out, at some point you will need some kind of contact with civilisation (even indirect) in order to resupply, convince your crew not to cut your throat, and keep in touch with what is going on.

You could probably get lost for a while in or around any system you care to choose, so mapping a zillion rocks probably doesn't serve much purpose.

On ships: I'm partly confusing the sub-light and FTL vessels, but I have a definite feeling that a lot of the merchant vessels carried lots of crew and lots of cargo. That makes them big. The sub-light ones would be especially so, of course.

I'm not sure about the warships.

As for changing things: only change things if it is less work to change things than to not change them! Specifically, if you can't find something in the sources, make it up! As long as you file off the serial numbers, nobody will care.

 

[bobpartdeux]

Merchanters Luck could be handled by one man

now it was a small merchanter, and the large ones could hold a couple hundred

but remember, it was families and clans on the merchant vessels, not just the minimum to run them

(the culture was sort of unique and arrose from the SubLight history)

Jon Miller

 

[bobpartdeux]

although she did like writing about clannish starships

humans I beleive have no inbuilt need as far as FtL ships in her universe are concerned

in fact, I believe that the Union ships were often not Family, I would expect Union's Merchanters to not be Family in a little while, and Earth's never to be, while Alliance's would last longer because of tradition (there actually might always be Family ships playing a big role there)

Jon Miller