"Bruce Pihlamae" [email removed] writes:
> Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that we've only got one set of generation
> rules that are trying to generate everything based on either too many
> random variables or restricting ourselves to too few variations.
If you're not adverse to going beyond the original six stats, there are
some additional variables which would be extremely useful to have. As a
quick background, we have the three physical stats of the world, which
describe it in terms of:
Size (independent)
Atmosphere (dependent on size)
Hydroshpere (dependenty on size and atmosphere)
It would be nice to have two additional stats to use in later generation
of the world's characteristics:
Resources (independent) - an indicator of the available natural
resources on the world. A high value indicates extensive,
high-quality, and/or readily exploitable resources (mineral, fossil,
vegetable, or animal - this is non-specific, except that it indicates
the presence or abscence of resources which otherwise aren't shown
in the UWP). Throw 2d6-2 for Resources; DMs subject to Referee whim
(for example, the Spinward Marches is known to be deficient in heavy
elements; perhaps a DM of -1 to the whole Marches to reflect this?).
Restrict the result to the range 0-F.
Life (dependent on atmosphere and hydrosphere) - A general index to the
prevalance and variety of life on the world. A low score would
indicate a barren world (your average asteroid or iceball "there isn't
enough life on this ice-cube to fill a space freighter!") while high
numbers indicate a thriving and diverse biosystem ("There's something
down there; massive life readings!"). Throw 2d6-2; DM-8 for Vacuum
Trace, or Insidious, -6 for Very Thin or Corrosive, -4 for Exotic,
-2 for Dense/High, Ellipsoid, or Thin/Low, No DM for Thin Tainted,
Standard Tainted, or Dense Tainted, and +2 for Thin, Standard, or
Dense. Apply a Hydroshpere DM: -4 if 0, -2 if 1, No DM if 2 through
5, +1 if 6-9, -1 if A. Other DMs can be used too: a +1 for worlds
within the Ancients, First Imperium, or Rule of Man (old colonies or
terraforming efforts). If Stellar Types are being used, an additional
DM for the suitability of the star might not be a bad idea. Restrict
to the range 0-F.
[Extra credit if you can identify the quotes]
The resources score can be used to justify settlements on otherwise
inhospitable worlds, and should server as a positive DM for population.
The ratinale is that there is *some* type of valuable resource present
(which doesn't otherwise show on the UWP), and therefore it is likeley
that someone has come (despite the hardship) to exploit it.
The Life score can be used to get a "feel" for the native biosphere, and
to gauge whether or not there is a native race to consider (throw Life
or less on 2d6 for a native sentient or semi-sentient race?).
For figuring out a world in the context of a long-standing interstellar
community, you can use Resources to represent the attractiveness of the
world to the "outside" starfaring cultures, while the Life score can be
used as a basis for determing if there is a "native" culture to interact
with.
Martin Snow writes:
> Anyway, if your planet is too close to its M5 V star, tidal stress will
> overcome the gravitational binding and the planet will break up. That's
> why there's a minimum distance for stable orbits for planets.
As I understand it, this is the "Roche Limit", and could be looked up in
an astrophysics textbook. Anybody out there want to provide some
serious numbers?
[email removed] (james vassilakos) writes:
> Hmm... this is an interesting idea. I guess the GM would have to decide
> whether or not such races exist before making a final call on this one.
> Since there are a variety of "taints", however, the race would be
> virtually "locked" to their one "homeworld". Unless they were genetically
> altered to survive there, I don't see how they might have come into
> being. And you still have the obvious question, why would anybody
> engineer a mutant race for a specific tainted atmosphere when there are
> non-tainted atmospheres out there? I guess we could come up with all
> sorts of rationalizations for this.
Huh? I wasn't thinking about a geneered human (or other) race as
colonists, I was thinking of the naturally-evolved-on-that-world, native
inhabitants. Even here on Earth, there are plenty of creatures which
have evolved to inhabit environments which would kill other creatures.
Simply because a world has a "tainted" atmosphere, there is no reason to
assume that life couldn't and didn't evolve on that world. And there is
no reason to assume that this life couldn't evolve into sentience.
Such creatures may or may not be "locked" into their environment; this
depends on the specific adaptations the creature has made to the
environment, and on the environment itself. Creatures which evolved on
a world with a relatively high concentration of sulfur dioxide in the
air may have a special body covering (hair, scales) that is resistant to
the effects of the acid rain, and lungs that happen to be immune to the
toxic effects of the "taint". Such a being might survive quite
comfortably in a standard oxygen-nitrogen atomsphere (but may have to take
periodic baths in a mild acid in order to etch off the unwanted dead
skin coverings.
> I like the idea, but I also think that it's unrealistic to implement
> it as a matter of course. Situations like this should be very rare.
That all depends on how prevalent this "life" stuff is. If life manages
to evolve on nearly any world capable of supporting it to any degree,
worlds with native sentient or semi-sentient races should be fairly
common, and worlds with some form of life should be pretty common.
On the other hand, some well-known writers have written a good chunk of
science-fiction having postulated that the only planet to achienve
sentient life was Earth. This is, of course, an extreme viewpoint, but
it illustrates the wide variation possible.
For most Traveller use, a "native" intelligent minor race at least once
a subsector seems reasonable, and several per subsector seems more than
possible.
> For a look at what I would call unrealistic, look at either of these
> two worlds:
>
> Pixie/Regina A100103-D Paya/Aramis A655241-9
In the case of Pixie (I've had to deal with this one, I have run quite a
few campaigns out of the Regina subsector), I've taken the approach that
the world is essentually all naval base. The only personnel ther (with
a handful of exceptions) are Navy personnel, their dependents, and
civillian contractors. The shipyard facilities are all run by
transients --- the entire population of the world is transient (and
therefore, there were only a handful of "inhabitants" when the world was
surveyed). There are tens of thousands of people there, almost all of
whom will be gone in two to four years (to be replaces with a new
batch). The civillian contractors there run shipyards, and aren't
adverse to doing work on non-navy contracts utilizing spare capacity
(thus the Class A rating).
I'd say that the original system (which presumably generated both of
these) was prone to such problems. Worlds like these *could* occurr,
but should be *much* more rare than the original system provides. If I
had a choice, I'd use your modified system and hand-modify the worlds
that I specifally wanted to be anomalous, rather than use the original
system and have to check each world for reasonableness.
[email removed]
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Science-Fiction Adventure
in the Far Future