The big, Big, BIG picture

A thread of 2 messages, 11 March 1991 to 14 March 1991, in the order they were sent.

#2212 The big, Big, BIG picture

[unnamed sender] · 11 March 1991

Just for grins, I took some time this weekend and drew up a map of the
known Universe as known in the Traveller mythos, using sector names
scrawled in tiny print on a sheet of graph paper, one sector per square
centimeter. It was a big damn map, y'know that? Between the veiled hints
we've gotten in the Zhodani, Aslan, Hiver and K'Kree Alien Books, to say
nothing of the Vargr map that was recently expanded upon in the DGP
Dullboys'n'Doggies thicky, there is a chart of space approximately 18
by 11 sectors in a rough rectangle, spilling off the edges of the famous
GDW promo poster showing The Whole Shmear, as it were. Impressive. What's
also impressive are the incredible, aggravating HOLES in this map-- I
rated each sector on a scale of 0 to 3:

0-- nothing known, other than a sector name (e.g. RimReach or Gmbiir!!k)
1-- Star Map published in the Atlas of the Imperium, no other data out
2-- Sector data available, pre-Imperial (i.e. the GEnie archives)
3-- Current data available (via GDW for Hinterworlds, Spinward; DGP for others)

The resulting map is patchy as hell. We have "good" data for the Hinterworlds,
courtesy Challenge magazine; the Spinward Marches, courtesy the MT rules; and
Massilia, whoops, also courtesy GDW via "Knightfall." We also have DGP maps
for Trojan Reach, Riftspan reaches, Reft, Verge (I think), Corridor, and
Deneb. The rest of the IMperium relies on the GEnie archives, not including
the tiny bits of Lishun and Zarushagar and Windhorn that have been published
in various adventures and the Vland sector in the DnD book. Note, though, that
while Ealisiyiw in the Aslan Hierate is modern and we at least have an old
map for Gvurrdon (the Vargr book), there are FIVE SECTORS in the Imperium
and surrounds for which there is no available data at all: Ilelish, Zarushagar,
Dark Nebula, Reaver's Deep and Magyar. This is inexcusable!

So, open question for you completists and archive raiders out there: anyone
know where I can get extant official data for any of the sectors not listed
above? And would anyone like to see a schematic view of the BIG BIG picture
here in the TML? Thrills! Excitement! Learn to answer burning questions like
"What do the Zhodani call the Spinward Marches?" (answer: Tloql) and "How
many official names does the Windhorn have?" (answer: at least three--
Galanglic, old Vilani, and Gvegh-Aek) And so on....

Your ramblin' kinda historian kinda guy,

metlay				|  "It is not easy to get a Prophet T8 to
				|  'shimmer.' One tends to get shimmering
[email removed]                 |  *BLAAAAAAT*."
[email removed]        		| 				       zrgynl

#2222 Re: the big Big BIG picture

Pauli · 14 March 1991 · reply to #2212

>Subject: (2220) Re:  The Big BIG Picture....

>Yes, it would be interesting to see what people know about Charted Space
>in Traveller.  There are so many things about the map that we know little
>about; the Lesser Rift area...the Hive Federation...heck, just the sector
>spinward of the Marches.

I'd like to find out a little more...


>Still, it's hardly impressive in comparison to the seven great Core
>Expeditions of the Zhodani.  According to the Ref's Manual, they've
>roughly explored (probably not surveyed!) a corridor some thirty
>parsecs wide and SEVEN THOUSAND long toward the galactic core!  Even
>assuming that they aren't straying much from a subsector-wide area
>near the middle, that's still a corridor about 175 sectors long!!!
>I figure that it would take a ship able to Jump 6 parsecs every two
>weeks over 44 years to reach the far end, one-way.  No wonder they're
>still planning the eighth one...you wouldn't want to leave anything
>behind....

It is worse than that, the Zhodani only have Jump-5 ships (since they
are TL=14!).  This makes the one-way trip about 53 years (closer to 54)!
And it would be safe to assume that the early trips were made at a
lower TL than the later ones.


>Still, it would make for some interesting adventure possibilites for
>Zhodani parties.  Besides, who knows what they're going to run into
>way out there?  You can't exactly call for reinforcements. :)

Could be kind of fun running into some high-tech xeno-phobic planet
along the way (one that was marginally industrial the previous time
through, could be capable of putting up decent resistance on the way
back).  The supplies required would be HUGE, they mustn't have sat down
and worked out the specific details when the figures in the ref's guide
were invented ;-}

I think it would make a VERY good scenaro.  A couple of supply ships
mis-jumping about 1000 parsecs out would cause lots of 'fun' problems.




        						Pauli
seeya

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