Worlds

Not sure if anyone wants worlds or not, but just in case. Some are from Fractal Terrains then exported to GIMP to map to a sphere, the gas giants are pure GIMP from a tutorial. Need to get back to the other fractal system I sometimes use.
I used to have a few ISS maps and things back on the old art forums. I can plop them back here if anyone want them. I just like making up worlds (then go way beyond the MOAR principle, but hey, we each get our fun where we can!)

 

[Straybow]

A fix I thought about implementing was to redefine the size stat. Instead of size = diameter in 1000 miles, it would be size = radius in 1000 km.

Ah, that would work. But then we wouldn't be using freedom units... tough choices.

That would cut down on the the tiny planets holding onto atmospheres they have no business holding onto quite a bit. Downside is you need to restat canonical homeworlds. (e.g. Terra becomes size 6.)

It would also allow for larger terrestrial worlds than 16000 km diameter.

But then again, almost every world in the entire Traveller Map could use a tweaking... more tough choices.

 

[Straybow]

Of course, I immediately had to work out an exponential scale in nice, friendly miles instead of Stodgy Inimical units. Exp(index*3/10) rounded to nearest half, in thousands.

Index​	Diameter​	​
0​	1,000​	​
1​	1,500​	Pluto 1.k5​
2​	2,000​	​
3​	2,500​	​
4​	3,500​	Mercury 3k​
5​	4,500​	Mars 4.2k​
6​	6,000​	​
7​	8,000​	You know​
8​	11,000​	Largest safe terrestrial?​
9​	15,000​	Largest terrestrial?​
10​	20,000​	​
11​	27,000​	​
12​	36,500​	Uranus 31k​
13​	49,500​	​
14​	66,500​	Saturn 75k​
15​	90,000​	Jupiter 88k​

This covers essentially the entire range. Jupiter's 88k is very close to the biggest possible diameter. More massive planets actually get a bit smaller due to gravitational compression.

At a little more than 11k radius surface gravity would be around 2G at Earth-like density. That's probably the highest surface gravity human physiology could adapt to without significant modification; falls would be extremely dangerous. At 15k, with Earth-like density, gravity would be just enough to retain hydrogen. With Mars-like density it would be just a bit less massive to retain hydrogen.

Meh, I guess it gets too big too fast for 2d6.

 

[Tobias]

Ah, that would work. But then we wouldn't be using freedom units... tough choices.

I'm not an American, so...
Anyhow, Classic Traveller (at least from 1980 on) used metric for basically everything. Except that, so switching to km would clean up that leftover non-metric artifact as well.

 

[Tobias]

Meh, I guess it gets too big too fast for 2d6.

Another tweak I've been pondering in order to allow more super-earths: If size = A (i.e. a roll of 12-2), reroll as 1D+9. Doesn't tackle the problem of small size worlds with atmospheres, though.

Then again: The final word is apparently not spoken on that. This article seems to suggest that under the right conditions, a Mercury-sized world (size 3 under standard Trav rules, size 2 with my metric twist) could hold a life-supporting atmosphere and liquid water.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Then again: The final word is apparently not spoken on that. This article seems to suggest that under the right conditions, a Mercury-sized world (size 3 under standard Trav rules, size 2 with my metric twist) could hold a life-supporting atmosphere and liquid water.

Consider that Venus (for all intents and purposes an "Earth twin" in terms of diameter, density and surface gravity) has an atmosphere 90x times pressure at the surface than the atmosphere here on Earth.

Saturn's moon Titan has an atmospheric pressure that is 1.5x that of Earth.

CLEARLY it is possible to smaller bodies to retain atmospheres of higher pressure at the surface than what Earth does.
While the planetary/moon diameter can influence the atmospheric density and pressure, it is obviously not the sole determining factor. In gaming terms that means that the world size parameter is a DM but not a single determination factor exclusively unto itself.

 

[coliver988]

Oriryu (TravellerMap) was the destination for my short-lived (but may get back to) Traveller Bounty Hunter game.

Figured it had been a while since I posted a planet...

 

[coliver988]

MTU world

 

[coliver988]

D'Arlee, the namesake of the D'Arlee Quadrant

 

[coliver988]

Guess I could try the media channel as I do have access to that, but the thread works. These are all part of MTU which started way back in college in the 80s. I was running a game in MTU a few years back so decided to do some detailing. As always, I sometimes get a bit carried away!

A link hopefully to the Iac Guide on my OneDrive

 

[coliver988]

I'll note that MTU, I have the League of Independent Planets which uses some of the Cepheus stuff I've picked up when I started re-doing the old stuff. They have the Space Patrol so that is the sort-of equivalent of the Navy & police. Sort of. Anyway, I was playing with the color palette for this
one (and sadly have lost that particular color map). The planet has a TL-G or so medical technology, and the little blurb references the autodocs from Merchants & Merchandise. All the cities are underground ones, for some reason looking a lot like the city in Metropolis.

So happy that the Travellermap has such great API & pages to plop your own stuff in!

 

[whartung]

I really like the system schematics of these.

 

[coliver988]

I really like the system schematics of these.

I played around with a lot of different "forms" and never settled on any specific format.
Llamma PDF on my OneDrive here

 

[Spinward Flow]

I really like the system schematics of these.

System schematics do A LOT of heavy lifting for being able to understand the arrangement of planets (and their moons) within a star system.

 

[coliver988]

System schematics do A LOT of heavy lifting for being able to understand the arrangement of planets (and their moons) within a star system.

They do though not often really needed in Traveller games as, at least in my experience, most players just deal with the main planet or wherever the starport is unless I add stuff needed out there (the planet of the week trope). Which is sad really, because as pointed out by a lot of people here, you could spend years exploring a single system.

But yes, when Book 6 came out, I went overboard on designing the entire system. Though I usually rely on Heaven&Earth now for most of that, but I will use the simple tools on Google draw to make my own system maps usually, based on the H&E results.

 

[coliver988]

For some reason, Mont does not have a system map. I started the map using Fractal Terrains, and then starting zooming in.

 

[coliver988]

Pax Stellar has a system map OneDrive link to the PDF system documentation

 

[Bartleby]

27 pages for one system. Love it. Inspirational.

How did you design the system orbit image? By hand?

 

[coliver988]

27 pages for one system. Love it. Inspirational.

How did you design the system orbit image? By hand?

Google Draw with a lot of circles for the orbits and smaller circles for the planets, then just cut a portion of that out basically. So yes, essentially by hand.

edit: lots of (mostly free) tools. near the beginning of this thread, I give tutorials on how I do a few of these things.

 

[Bartleby]

It looks great. Love your work.

 

[coliver988]

hmm, another without a system map!