OK, Rob, here are a few rough ideas about Gamba subsector.
First a map:
_______________________________________________________________________
World signatures: Travel zones:
* T-norm or T-prime o Green
+ Breathable air & land/sea mix (o) Amber
0 Waterworld [o] Red
O Desert world
o Vaccuum or Non-breathable atmosphere
- - Corrosive or Insidius atmosphere
: Asteroid Belt
Bases:
! Imperial Naval Base
$ Scout Base
% Local Naval Base
_____ _____ _____ _____
/ \ / D o\ / A o\ / \
/ \_____/ $ * \_____/ $ o \_____/ \_____
\ / \Treble / Pardessus \ / \
\_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \
/ C o\ / E o\ / \ / \ /
/ $ * \_____/ + \_____/ \_____/ \_____/
\Violone/ \ Tenor / D o\ / \ / \
\_____/ \_____/ $ o \_____/ \_____/ \
/ E o\ / \ Bass / \ / \ /
/ o \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/
\Vielle / \ / \ / \ / C o\
\_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ $ o \
/ \ / \ / \ / C o\Weelkes/
/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ + \_____/
\ / \ / \ / \Morley / \
\_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \
/ A o\ / \ / \ / E o\ /
/ 0 \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ 0 \_____/
Fantasia/ X o\ / E \ / A o\Jenkins/ A o\
\_____/ [*] \_____/ - \_____/ 0 \_____/ $ o \
/ A o\Ricercar \ Lawes / E o\Simpson/ \Baldwyn/
/ ! o \_____/ \_____/ O \_____/ \_____/
Galliard/ C o\ / \ Byrd / C o\ / C o\
\_____/ $ + \_____/ \_____/ + \_____/ o \
/ \Pavane / \ / \Gibbons/ \ Brade /
/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/
\ / \ / B o\ / A o\ / \
\_____/ \_____/ o \_____/ O \_____/ \
/ \ / D o\Marais / \Lassus / E o\ /
/ \_____/ + \_____/ \_____/ + \_____/
\ / \ Haydn / A o\ / \SUSATO / E o\
\_____/ \_____/ ! + \_____/ \_____/ o \
/ C o\ / C o\Forqueray D o\ / A o\Attaignant
/ + \_____/ $ o \_____/ + \_____/ * \_____/
\ Motet / \ Bach / \ Abel / \Adriano/ \
\_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \
/ B o\ / \ / \ / E o\ /
/ $ + \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ 0 \_____/
MADRIGAL/ C o\ / \ / AGRICOLA/ \
\_____/ * \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \
\Canzona/ \ / \ / \ /
\_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/
_______________________________________________________________________
Then some ideas:
Hex# Name UPP Bases Trade GG?
- - ------------------------------------------------------
0102 Violone C778867-3 S Y
T-prime planet with viable population, yet pre-industrial tech.
Perhaps a regressed colony rediscovered by Scouts and put under
surveillance and protection. This jibes with the Scout base.
No interdict. Propably recently lifted, perhaps when TL became
3. Limited trade and contact permitted by the Scouts, but there
are restrictions on what kind of tech you can import.
0103 Vielle E322335-8 NI, P Y
Small non-viable population on undesirable world. Either a
mining outpost or a dirt-poor, struggling colony of pilgrims
(religious or political).
0105 Fantasia A99A522-8 NI Y
Large waterworld with either large colony or small independent
population. Could be a co-op seaharverster outfit.
0106 Galliard A100505-E N NI Y
Really undesirable dirtball with large colony/small independent
population and a Naval Base. No government, moderate law. I think
most if not all of population employed at naval base. Shipyards are
propably larger than population indicates. Try adding Imperial taxes
of all Imperial worlds in sub-sector and figure out how many tons of
warship that would buy. This shipyard should be able to maintain at
least that many Naval ships. The base propably guards the Imperium
from hostiles to the left (sorry, spinward).
0109 Motet C898735-3 AG Y
Another large population with low tech. Maybe another regressed
colony (so why no Scout base? (Add one?)).
0110 MADRIGAL B7989DE-6 S IND Y
Another regressed colony, but one that has been open for some time.
(If Imperial presense is fairly new then a population level of 9 is
propably due to locals rather than immigrants).
Who is paying for the Class B Starport? The tech level is too low
to support starships, so someone is importing the technicians and
parts to keep it going. The local government? An independent
starport corporation? A subsector-wide trading company? A trade
conglomorate? Starport can be whatever size you want; it dosen't
necessarily serve the whole planetary population.
0205 Ricercar X67759B-3 NI, AG Y
Prison planet (run by who?) with artificially restricted technology.
Population is forced to sell agricultural products to home planet
for low prices.
0206 Pavane C84379A-4 S P Y
Mainworld, regressed colony (There's a lot of them, isn't there?
Possibly there once was a small interstellar community that had
a bad case of civil war).
0210 Canzona C765673-3 NI, AG, R Y
Another regressed colony (but where's the Scout base?)
0301 Treble D655242-4 S NI Y
Outpost of some kind (But why the low TL? Outposts are usually
placed by starfaring people. Can't use the Prison Planet again).
0302 Tenor E446411-6 NI Y
Struggling colony.
0308 Haydn D455273-8 NI Y
Outpost.
0309 Bach C525442-7 S NI Y
Young colony. What's that Scout Base doing here?)
0402 Bass D223302-9 S NI, P Y
Outpost. Again, what's the Scout base doing?
0405 Lawes EAC9200-8 NI N
Low-budget scientific outpost studying the ecology of this
insidius atmosphere world.
0407 Marais B1225A6-B NI, P Y
What is there to attract several hundred thousand people to this
low-G, near-vacuum pleasure resort? A garden world it ain't.
0408 Forqueray A353546-B N NI, P Y
Secondary naval base for this sub-sector. Naval shipyard capacity
could be split between this base and Galliard Base. The base have
enough imported high-tech spare parts to repair and maintain navy
ships, but civilians are restricted to local (TL 11) services.
0501 Pardessus A114523-E S NI Y
Main Scout base for the Sub-sector. Most of population is Scouts,
ex-Scouts, Scout's families and Scout Base support industry.
0506 Byrd E460256-8 NI Y
Another scientific outpost?
0509 Abel D779443-5 NI Y
Struggling colony.
0605 Simpson A74A369-D NI Y
Why would anyone place a Class A starport in a system with a few
thousand inhabitants? And no bases to explain it. I'd drop the
classification to B, I think.
The world is the property of the Simpson Memorial Foundation. The
Simpson Academy of the Arts and Sciences is build on the single
sizable island on the planet. The island has an area of 2.500
square kilometers and supports roughly 800 Fellows and Associates
of the Academy plus about ten times as many family members and
support personel (There's actually little distinction between
these two categories). The Academy owns a small fleet of research
vessels and the main business of the starport is maintaining these
vessels. The various scientific outposts in the subsector are
very likely Simpson Academy projects. The captive government
classification reflects the economic strings to the off-planet
Simpson Foundation.
0606 Gibbons C474620-5 NI, AG Y
Another regressed colony?
0607 Lassus A250687-D NI, P Y
Mainworld. Propably mostly Imperial immigrants and their
descendants. This desert world must have some valuable
ressources to attract settlers. I'd give them a local navy
base.
0704 Morley C452633-6 NI, P Y
Mainworld.
0705 Jenkins E87A000-5 -- Y
I'd drop the TL to 0.
0708 SUSATO E584A67-5 Y
Do yourself a favour and drop the population level to 9.
Otherwise this world will contribute more to the subsector
naval budget than all the other worlds together, despite the
unfavourable exchange rate.
0709 Adriano A668125-C NI Y
Highly desirable planet with Class A Starport and only a few
score inhabitants? How to make sense of that? I would up the
population level to 6, 7 or 8, making it a very important world
locally (And give them a local naval base).
One alternate idea occured to me: A short while ago this was a
thriving world, but a plague wiped out the entire population.
Present population is a medical research team, the world is
quarantined and the starport is not functioning at the moment.
The research team would propably be larger; An unoccupied
T-norm planet with intact housing, high-tech industry and
starport facilities for millions of people would be a prize
beyond the dreams of avarice, and the pressure to find a cure
for the plague would be immense. Expect the political infighting
over control of this planet to overshadow any other concerns.
PCs getting involved in this would have an interesting time
(in the ancient chinese sense). (And how did that plague start,
anyway?)
0710 AGRICOLA E56A976-9 Y
The natives would have to be aquatic, not just amphibious. Good
luck working out their technology. It must be radically different
from human.
Or you could make them airbreathers (or humans for that matter) by
covering the world with hugh, thick floating mats of plant stuff
(shades of Jack Vance's Blue World) where 'land' beasts have
evolved. The mats would have to be hundreds of meters thick and
many hundreds of kilometers across. Some mats would be anchored
to undersea mountain chains, others would drift around.
Political history would be quite fascinating. "In the year 456
a storm broke off the province of Ervorveu which drifted across
the Western Deep and finally joined the Giorgad Mat in 513".
Talk about the changing face of maps!
0803 Weelkes C112888-A S NA Y
Another of these punk worlds with huge populations. This time I
think it must be a mining colony that got cut off by the fall
of that interstellar community and managed to survive. Personally
I would cut the population level down to 6 or 7 anyway, possibly
simultaneously increasing the population of a more hospitable world
correspondingly.
0805 Baldwyn A625343-A S NI Y
Again a Class A starport without the population base to support it.
I'd cut the starport class down to C and put an Ancient Base being
investigated by the Scouts here.
0806 Brade C8B7410-7 NI Y
Company world. Law level non-existent. I think any company would
maintain dicipline, so I'd interpret that as "Law not enforced
outside starport compound" (Starport is owned by company - in
fact, it IS the company building). So how does the company make
money? Independent hunters or collectors goes out into that
corrosive atmosphere and collect something valuable (what?). The
company has a monoply on buying. They couldn't care less that
one hunter/collector kills another for his haul, they get the
stuff in the end, anyway.
0808 Attaignant E236200-8 NI Y
Scientific outpost? Mining outpost?
_______________________________________________________________________
Some additional ideas:
>If you use the Classic Traveller description of class A starports as the only
>facilities containing ship yards, and the shipyard capacities from Trillion
>Credit Squadron, you reach the conclusion that there are only four potential
>commercial shipbuilding sites in the subsector, at Galliard (TL14), Pardessus
>(TL14), Forqueray (TL11) and Lassus (TL13). The total "drydock" capacity of
>these four sites is 150 tons, 150 tons, 150 tons, and 1200 tons respectively.
Could be larger if the population multipliers for these worlds are high.
>Assuming a reasonable ship life, and a need to perform maintenance for two
>weeks out of each year, we find that Lassus can support a total fleet of
>shipping, military and civilian, totalling around 19,000 tons.
The one (roughly) ton shipyard capacity per 1000 inhabitants in TCS is
naval capacity only. No mention is made anywhere about civilian shipping.
My own rule of thumb is two ton of commercial shipping for each ton of
warship.
>Ships are either going to come from beyond the subsector, or be fairly
>scarce, or both. I don't know that this would work, so I have designated
>Weelkes as a potential ship source.
If you up the population of Adriano to something sensible you get your
ship source there. If you introduce the plague you get a ship source AND
a really desperate merchant community. Where are they going to get their
ships overhauled now? You could even make a ship overhaul the reward of an
adventure...
>So, does anyone have any ideas yet?
Not really... Well, perhaps a few more ;-)
History: Remains of some fleet arrives and settles on Susato, a planet
with a minor human race that have reached TL 7 or 8. Susato recieves a
technological boost that catapults them into the space age. Pal Gamba,
the nation that the fleet took over - eh, settled in, conquered all
of Susato and proceeded to colonize most of the good planets in the
subsector. The Greater Gambarian Empire held for a couple of generations,
but internal tensions were too great and a civil war destroyed the industry
on Susato and shattered the economies of the colonies. Plunge into
their own personal Long Night. A couple of centuries ago the Scouts
surveyed the subsector and slapped interdicts on most of the inhabited
worlds. Other worlds were colonized, however, and over the last century
the Scouts have been pressured into lifting the interdict on most of
the worlds. They still maintain import restrictions and the relationship
between the Scouts and the Traders is strained, to say the least.
Powerful organizations:
The Scouts Retrenching, but they fight to maintain their hold.
The Navy Moved in to guard against the neighbouring Whobahs.
GITT Gamba Interstellar Trade & Transport LIC. Subsector-wide
company trying to poke their sticky fingers in every-
where they can get away with it. The greasy profiteers
you love to hate. Headquartered on Madrigal and
presently engaged in upgrading the starport.
SAAS The Simpson Academy could be a useful patron in many
situations. They have connections back to the Sector
capital to trailing (The Simpson foundation is
incorporated there), and can (in time) procure high-
tech equipment and bring political pressure to bear.
Well, let me know what you think.
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir