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Thread: Near Stars Traveller setting
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2019-09-04, 04:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Near Stars Traveller setting
This is my Traveller setting:
https://www.deviantart.com/thomasbow...0%3A1567632022
It is set in the mid 23rd century, the Jump drive was a recent invention, having been discovered 130 years ago. The Maximum tech level is 13 (D). It is a starting point, it needs added details. The year is 2261 AD, Earth is divided politically, not much has changed from the present day. Venus is a settled terraformed planet. Alpha Centauri boasts 3 habitable planets, the rest of the star systems has a mainworld per stellar component. Comments are welcome. What do you think? There are other stars not shown on this map, mostly red dwarfs, I decided to focus on sunlike and larger stars here.
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2019-09-04, 09:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Unlike the official Traveller timeline, there is a longer period of interplanetary colonization prior to the invention of the jump drive. The jump drive gets invented in 2132, prior to that there is one hundred years of interplanetary colonization. First the Moon is colonized, then Mars, the Asteroid belt, Venus, and Mercury, then Saturn and Jupiter in that order. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are colonized prior to the invention of the jump drive.
Then there was the missing decade. For 2132 to 2142, no one knows what had happened, all memories and records of that time period were erased, it is theorized that a grey goo type nanotechnology spread across the Solar System erasing all records and memories of what had happened during those ten years, but sometime during those ten years the jump drive was invented and mass produced. The particulars of how the jump drive operated were known, it is just the process of how this technology was discovered that is unknown. A jump drive creates a one way temporary wormhole the pulls the starship through, and is destabilized by the passage of the starship collapsing behind it as it passes. A white hole forms at the destination from which the starship emerges.
It also turns out that Venus was terraformed in that ten year period. Nobody knows precisely how that occured, but it appears there was some time displacement from the future. While the rest of the Solar System experienced 10 years of missing time, Venus is missing 500 years.
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2019-09-05, 09:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Here is a character i created for this setting, could be a supporting casr character or a pregen pc, it was made with d20 modern/future rules.
D20 Future character
Gabriela Swanson
Human Charismatic hero 2/Telepath 1
Medium Humanoid
Init +3; Senses Listen +3, Spot +3
Languages English, Swedish
Starting Occupation Heir (Princess)
Vital Statistics Age 18 Gender Female
Height 5 ft.. 6 in. Weight 140 lb. Eyes Blue
Hair Blonde Skin Light
Defense 17, touch 14, flat-footed 14
hp 21 (3d6+9)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +4
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee +3 High Frequency Sword (2d6+2/19-20)
Ranged +4 Laser Pistol (2d8/20)
Talents/Special Abilities Psionic skills, psionic powers, Charm
Combat Gear High Frequency Sword, Laser Pistol (50 shots), Light Combat Armor
Psionic Powers points per day 9
0th level - first 4 times free, each additional 1 point cost
Daze
Far Hand
RangeMissive
1st level
Attraction 1 point cost
Abilities Str 15, Dex 16, Con 17, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 18.
Feats Personal firearms proficiency, Simple Weapons proficiency, Deceptive, Wild Talent
Skills Autohypnosis +3, Bluff +10, Concentration +4, Craft ( writing ) +2, Diplomacy +10, Gather Information +10, Knowledge (art) +2, Knowledge (Behavioral sciences) +2, Knowledge (Current events) +3, Knowledge (Popular culture) +3, Knowledge (Theology and philosophy) +3, Navigate +3, Perform (Act) +5, Perform (Dance) +5, Perform (Keyboards) +5, Perform (Sing) +5, Perform (Stand-up) +5, Perform ( Stringed instruments) +5, Perform (Wind instruments) +5, Pilot +4, Profession +3, Psicraft +2, Sense Motive +3.
Reputation = +8 Action Points. = 5 Wealth Bonus = +21
Possessions High Frequency Sword, Laser Pistol, 2 Laser Pistol magazines (50 shots each), Light Combat Armor, Credit Card/Debit Card, Cell Phone, Yacht (Starship)
Psionic Powers
Level 0
Daze Charisma [Compulsion, Mind-Affecting]
Level: Telepath 0; Display; Mental, Material; Manifestation Time: Attack action; Range : Close (25 ft. + 5ft./2 levels); Target: One Person; Duration: 1 round; Saving Throw: Will negates; Power Resistance: Yes; Power Point Cost: 1
Allegiances
Venus
Languages
Language Read/Write?
English Yes
Swedish Yes
Psionic Powers
points per day 9
0th level powers power point cost
Daze first 4 times free, each additional 1 point cost
Far Hand first 4 times free, each additional 1 point cost
Missive first 4 times free, each additional 1 point cost
1st level powers
Attraction 1
Feats
Personal firearms proficiency
Simple Weapons proficiency
Deceptive
Wild Talent
Talents/Special Abilities
Psionic skills, psionic powers
Charm
Yacht "Aphrodite" (Type-Y)
TL12 Tons Crew
Hull 200 tons, Standard - Pilot, Astrogator
Armor Armor 0 - Engineer, Medic
M-Drive Thrust 1 2 Steward
J-Drive Jump 1 10 Running Costs
Power Plant Fusion, Power 90 6 Maintenance Cost
Fuel Tanks 4 weeks operation, J-1, plus 22 Cr5065/month
Ship's Boat
Bridge 10 Purchase Cost
Computer Computer 5 - MCr60.7824
Sensors Civilian Grade (DM-2) 1
Weapons - Power Requirements
Systems Docking Space (4 tons) 5 20 40
Air-Raft - Maneuver Basic Ship
Docking Space (30 tons) 33 Drive Systems
Ship's Boat - 20 1
ATV 10 Jump Drive Sensors
Staterooms Standard × 12 48 The yacht is a noble's plaything, used to Luxury × 1 10 entertain friends and undertake political
Common Areas 32 or commercial missions. The staterooms
Cargo 11 are all well-appointed but even they fail to
Fuel Consumption: make the grade in comparison to the luxury
Jump-1 120 tons stateroom intended for the yacht's owner.
The yacht carries an air/raft and a ship's
80 boat within docking compartments; an ATV
Hull Points is also carried, with the ship's boat being
used to ferry it from orbit to surface and
back again.
Ship's Boat Pegasus Crew
TL13 Tons Pilot
Hull 30 tons, Streamlined - Running Costs
Armor Armor 0 - Maintenance Cost
M-Drive Thrust 5 2 Cr683/ month
Power Plant Fusion, Power 30 2
Fuel Tanks 4 weeks operation 1 Purchase Cost
Bridge 3 MCr8.192
Computer Computer 5 -
Sensors Basic (DM-4) - Power Requirements
Weapons Fixed Mount - 15 6
Systems Cabin Space × 6 9 Maneuver Basic Ship
Drive Systems
Cargo 11 The ship's boat is both fast and versatile, making it a popular choice for auxiliary
12 craft. While most commonly seen hauling
Hull Points small cargo and passenger loads between
ships and worlds, in smaller militaries the
ship's boat is also used as a boarding craft
by marine assault teams.
Air/Raft
An open-topped vehicle supported
by anti-gravity technology. Air/Rafts
are capable of reaching orbit, but
passengers must wear vacc suits.
They are ubiquitous, remarkably
reliable and flexible vehicles.
TL 8 Armor
Skill Flyer (Grav) Front 2
Agility +1 Sides 2
Speed (Cruise) High (Medium) Rear 2
Range (Cruise) 1000 (1500) Equipment and Traits
Crew 1 Autopilot (Flyer 1), Communications (TL8),
Passengers 5 Computer/1 (Database), Entertainment
Cargo 0.25 System, Navigation (Basic), Sensors
Hull 16 (Basic)
Shipping 4 tons
Cost Cr250000
Note: A cargo carrying version of the air/raft is available.
This has Crew: 1, Passengers: 0 and Cargo: 1.5 tons.
All Terrain
Vehicle (ATV)
An enclosed, pressurized all-terrain ground
vehicle. The vehicle is capable of floating on
calm water, and has a suite of built-in sensors
and communications equipment (usually a laser
transceiver) making it ideal for exploration. An
ATV has a hardpoint for a turret, but does not
normally come with a weapon
TL 12 Armor
Skill Drive (Wheel) Front 6
Agility -2 Sides 6
Speed (Cruise) High (Medium) Rear 6
Range (Cruise) 600 (900) Equipment and Traits
Crew 1 ATV, Aquatic Drive, Communications (TL8), Computer/1
Passengers 7 (Database) Navigation (Improved), Sensors
Cargo 2.5 (Improved), Short term life support, Small turret
Hull 60
Shipping 10 Tons
Cost Cr155000Last edited by Tom Kalbfus; 2019-09-05 at 09:28 AM.
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2019-09-06, 10:08 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Here are the star listings and their attending mainworlds:
Groombridge 1618
4.87 parsecs, Right ascension 10h 11m 22.14051s, Declination +49° 27′ 15.2567″; (x, y, z): (3.217, 2.223, 3.701) Mass 0.670 Msol, Luminosity (bolometric) 0.15 Lsol, Spectral Type K7.5 V
Carmentia 1302 TAS B351669-7 Poor; Climate temperate
Carmentia is a dense dry planet, the main economic activity is in mining heavy metals, gravity is about 0.38g same as Mars, the planet has a Mars like appearance with small bodies of water.
Proxima Centauri
1.302 parsecs, Right ascension 14h 29m 42.94853s, Declination −62° 40′ 46.1631″; (x, y, z): (-1.034, -0.791, -1.143) Mass 0.1221 Msol, Luminosity (bolometric) 0.0017Lsol, Spectral Type M5.5V
Minerva 5106 Scout DA8A330-8 Low population, water world; Climate temperate.
Minerva is a super-Earth almost completely covered with ocean, there are a few islands, gravity is high and living here is uncomfortable with a dense atmosphere, but some people choose to live here. There is one inhabited island with a population of 1927 people, it is a volcanic island, but the island hasn't been volcanic recently. There are varieties of flying fish like animals that swim through their air with their large wing-like fins and are equally at home under water. There is very little land on this planet. Minerva is also landlocked, there are flare shelters for humans on the island, as Proxima Centauri flares quite often, the oceans protect undersea creatures from the flares, when they intensify, creatures simply swim to deeper waters.
Alpha Centauri
1.340 parsecs, Right ascension 14h 39m 35.06311s, Declination –60° 50′ 15.0992″; (x, y, z): (-1.028, -0.859, -1.151)
A Mass 1.100 Msol, Luminosity 1.519 Lsol, Spectral Type G2V
Aurora 4405 TAS [B]A867870-C Garden, High tech, Rich; Climate Temperate.
Aurora is an Earth-clone world, there is Earthlife adapted to the Auroran environment. Aurora has a similar daylegth as Earth and a similar seasonal cycle but a longer year of over 400 days. There is no Moon orbiting Aurora, but the second sun in the night sky makes a good substitute.
B Mass 0.907 Msol, Luminosity 0.5002 Lsol, Spectral Type K1V
Prometheus 3401 Naval, TAS A565843-C High tech, Rich; Climate Temperate.
Prometheus is a dryer world than Aurora, it is known for its giant avian creatures, sometimes referred to as dragons, enabled by its low gravity.
The Solar System
0.000 parsecs, Right ascension N/A, Declination N/A; (x, y, z): (0.000, 0.000, 0.000) Mass 1.000 Msol, Luminosity (bolometric) 1.0000 Lsol, Spectral Type G2 V.
Venus 5505 Naval, Research, TAS A8879C7-C Garden, High population, High tech; Climate hot.
Venus is a hot jungle world, it has 100% cloud cover except for a few mountains that are high enough to peak above the cloud decks at times. the surface near the oceans are unbearably hot for humans, most of which choose to live on mountain tops of floating cities. There are a lot of psionic individuals on this planet, they make up the ruling class.
Earth 5505 Naval, Research, TAS A867A74-C Garden, High population, High tech; Climate temperate.
Earth is divided up into nations, each one is a space power unto itself, they tend to have their own navies and starports. The major nations on the planet's surface are North America, Europe, India, China and South America. these hove populations in the billions and they compete with each other for colonies and resources in space.Last edited by Tom Kalbfus; 2019-09-06 at 12:32 PM.
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2019-10-02, 07:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
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- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
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Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
As someone who's given this some thought and has his money on 61 Cygni for the first extrasolar life found (no planets so far, but the game's not over yet) I can appreciate this setting.
One of the things that worries me is that in general the reason to have only a small number of nearby stars in a setting is that transport is difficult. If transport is not difficult there's no reason to stay there, difficult transport is a big flavor component of near future settings. But if transport is difficult that could hinder your game and make the setting less interesting to play in. I don't know the system, but is there a possibility in it to work only with jump gates or interstellar highways or somesuch?
The other main thing I want to remark is that if you want to include the red dwarfs in some way you could have them be home to space stations rather than habitable planets. Or you could park some space station worlds in the systems you have now, just to get that kind of setting in there. Planets are inefficient from a future culture's point of view. They spend too much mass on gravity generation, and too little on inhabitable surface area. So there could be some animosity between the mass hogging planet inhabitars and the canned humans in the sky.Last edited by Lvl 2 Expert; 2019-10-02 at 07:24 AM.
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2019-10-02, 04:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
A tin can orbiting another star is just as good as a tin can orbiting our own. Location becomes not important when your living in a spinning tin can, so you might as well save yourself the trouble and stay in the Solar System. if transportation is difficult then something needs to be worth while visiting in order to justify the cost of getting there.
There is a theory that planet 9 could be a primordial black hole instead.
https://www.space.com/planet-nine-an...le-theory.html
If it could be that, why not a wormhole as well? this wormhole would have ten Earth masses, and it would have to be stretched into a disk in order to safely travel through. You would be going near the speed of light as you travel through and their would be some time dilation as well felling into and falling out of a wormhole. So the amount of time that passes in the Universe would be greater than that experienced by the passengers using this wormhole.
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2019-10-06, 11:07 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
The idea of a tin can instead of a planet has merit, especially when the prospect of a long-term terraforming project is the purpose of the colony. Some other ideas:
A mining colony seeking asteroids with exotic materials not available elsewhere, such as Traveller's Lanthanum, which is both rare and only available naturally, usually around dwarf red stars.
A colony fleeing from a bad situation with nowhere better to go. Political and natural disasters come to mind, but religious purposes, cultural isolation, or simply a hermit who accidentally founded a colony while trying to get away from it all come to mind.
Living space in a system otherwise full of people. Once you're on a space colony, does it really matter where the colony is? The difference between a space colony and a space ship is a thruster. After that, why does it matter how long it takes to get there?
Multi-generation colony project. The colony ship may be 'passing through' and has stopped for a generation to refuel and resupply, or a colony ship may have done so in the past and dropped off some colonists. (Volunteers, misfits, and/or strandees.)
Scientific station observing some natural phenomenon which makes planetary colonization unwise or unnecessary. Observing a planet with a robust biome, for example, might be best from a colony if the natives like the flavor of Earth life. A wildly variable star that periodically wipes out life on half a planet might be worthy of study... from a distance.
It may be culturally imperative that people remain on a space station rather than colonize a planet. Such reasons as genetic selection for agoraphobia, either accidentally or purposely, or a cultural bias in favor of dense living conditions may make world colonization difficult. They may be raising a generation who can land and begin to make a world-based colony that works.
Manufacturing colonies which would pollute a world but which can be operated in space with greater safety.
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2019-10-06, 04:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Tin cans are smaller and more numerous. and since they move around significantly in the Solar System, they are hard to map, unlike say, stars in a galaxy. Imagine having a whole "galaxy" of O'Neill cylinders, each one represented by a tiny little dot, and having to track each one of those dots as they orbit the Sun, it is much easier to deal with just nine planets. So your scenario is more realistic, but its hard to implement as a game setting, unless you have a computer and suitable software to map each habitat, for a pen and paper gamer however, I don't think it can be done.
Last edited by Tom Kalbfus; 2019-10-06 at 04:43 PM.
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2019-10-07, 02:20 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2014
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Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
I don't know what the game system requires you to track for every place, but couldn't you just say something like "61 Cygni A hosts 3 major cores of population, a planet at 0.31 AU, a large military warp travel I don't know make something up installation trailing in the planet's L3 Lagrange point on the opposite side of the star and a disperse cloud of mining vessels and colonies in the system's deuterium and iron rich asteroid belt at 1.2 AU. (If you want to, this gives you enough information to find how often each of these habitats has a traditional launch window to and from the planet, should be well under a year given how close the planet sits to the star.) Aside from this the only traffic in the system are incoming and outgoing vessels and a handful of long term science missions. 61 Cygni B and all of its orbits are the private property of an obscenely rich company that keeps coming up with technology a full generation ahead of what everyone else is doing." (Okay, maybe that last part is a bit over the top.)
It's a bit more work, but it could give the different systems their own distinct flavor.Last edited by Lvl 2 Expert; 2019-10-07 at 02:25 AM.
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2019-10-09, 08:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Character: IRA
The merchant vessel had very specific demands on its power plant, so when the engineer detected a megawatt drain on the power plant all hands were called upon to search for the cause.
As it turned out, the cause was a one ton shipping container which had been plugged into the ship's plasma distribution network. But the shipping container was not on the cargo manifest, nor was the plasma cable feeding power to it installed by anyone on the crew.
Opening the container reveals a half-ton 100Mw power capacitor, 300kg of spare parts for a Model IRA 1976 Mk 29 robot, and a Model IRA 1979 Mk 29 robot.
The Intergalactic Robotics Corporation was a mildly successful company which went bankrupt after a slow decline. Its Android series of robots never sold well enough to sustain the company as it simultaneously lost shares of the automated factory industry to companies more focused on industrial automation, which had been Intergalactic's bread and butter in the previous century. Intergalactic was bought out by Integrated Technology Solutions which ended production of expensive androids and quickly became a major player in the field of industrial robotics.
The robot tries to pretend it is deactivated until someone tries to open it up to diagnose what is wrong with it. At that point it will animate and do its best to convince those around it that it is fleeing those who want to erase it's neural network and repurpose its components. It insists it will be murdered if the crew doesn't keep it secret.
The truth is, its former owners were killed in a mining accident shortly after it ran away, (not because of anything the robot did,) and Integrated Technology wants nothing to do with a failed android product. There is nobody who is even aware the android even survived the disaster, and the mining company's debts were paid off through sale of other assets. The robot is debt free and unowned.
Integrated Robotics Android is shortened to IRA on the shipping container. It is equipped with an advanced positronic neural net in a large human-sized body. It is designed to carry loads up to 220 kg, and has two medium anthromorphic arms each with a 110kg capacity. Its right arm has a nested light duty, 25kg capacity arm which articulates from the elbow when in use and which fits into a pocket on its inner forearm when not in use like the blade of a pocket knife. This smaller arm and hand is useful for fine and/or detailed work.
IRA was programmed with the following skills:
Personality Emulation 1, Administration 1, Engineering 1, Electronics 3, Mechanics 3, Security 1, Steward 1
(It has open slots for two more ranks of skills programs.)
IRA has the equivalent of the following attributes:
STRENGTH: 12
DEXTERITY: 9
ENDURANCE: 15 (is never fatigued)
INTELLIGENCE: 13
EDUCATION: 13
SOCIAL STANDING: 1 (anthromorphic robots are despized by the poor who fear to lose their jobs and by the wealthy who would rather humans to humiliate with dreary chores.)
IRA was programmed in Security by a second party programmer who, in trying to give the robot subjective decision-making ability, accidentally introduced a paranoia in the robot. Other than this, which will be triggered by offers to repair or reprogram it, it is a perfectly functional robot.
Due to the limits of technology, IRA is incapable of truly independent creative thought, though it does have a broad list of possible actions and a reasoning subroutine.
Otherwise it is 2m tall, 150kg, and matte grey in color. It is waterproof but cannot swim or float. Its internal power supply has an endurance of 20 hours before requiring a 4 hour recharge, with more frequent recharges required when exerting itself.
Its personality is that of an eager teenager.
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2019-10-10, 08:28 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
Re: Near Stars Traveller setting
Interesting character. Which version of Traveller do you play? I got Mongoose Traveller 1st and 2nd edition, and I also can get access to the classic rules as well. Terraforming is a bit ambitious. So lets say that in the 23rd century, the Jump drive was invented about 120 years ago in the 22nd century, there was a period of interplanetary settlement in the Solar System, some slower that light starships were launched, and many of them are still on their way to their destinations, having not yet arrived yet. The cheapest sort of starship back then was the low berth starship or sleeper ship those continued on their journeys even after the Jump drive was invented, and many continue to arrive in system after system, some of which already have settlers in them.
The larger sort of starship is the generation starship, these contain live crews and passengers, they live their entire lives aboard these starships, which are huge, about the size of O'Neill colonies, artificial gravity was invented shortly before the Jump drive, but many of these ships produce their simulated gravity through rotation, and the bigger the better. Artificial gravity, the maneuver drive and the jump drive revolutionized space travel.
Some of these generation ships may have done some experimentation with AI technology. What if one of these generation ships arrived in a populated system with true AI, but with Maneuver drives, artificial gravity and the Jump drive being unknown to them? There could be a bunch of androids locally manufactured on board. The generation ship has a fusion torch drive instead of a maneuver drive, it is spotted on the outskirts of a system slowing down at 0.01g, there is an orbital starport awaiting ahead, and the generation ship slowing down is as big as that starport. About one million inhabitants on the generation ship wait as it slowly matches orbits with the orbital starport. What do you think would happen next?
There is an interesting setting, the atmosphere of Titan. You could have an inflatable spinning habitat in its atmosphere, since the atmosphere blocks radiation and provides pressure the walls can be thin and light at it would float with heated air inside as it spins for gravity, just something to think about.Last edited by Tom Kalbfus; 2019-10-10 at 12:09 PM.