As I mentioned before, the Gama Subsector was created while I was at the Viola
da Gamba Society of America's annual convention in 1990. I dusted it off
recently when the discussion of TNE started to bore me, as a change from
designing vehicles. (Seriously--I'e got enough of them now that I don't feel
a real need to do any more any time real soon...) The problems involved in
GMing any subsector seem to me to be about the same, whether the subsector is
from a published source, or randomly rolled, and whether the rules are Classic
Traveller or MegaTraveller (or TNE?).
I'm very much interested in adventure ideas which the subsector and its worlds
suggest to you, and anyone who can create and upload a computer transmittable
_map_ would receive my gratitude, as having a map in front of you might make
this discussion easier.
Anyway, here are the worlds of:
THE GAMBA SUBSECTOR
Hex# Name UPP Bases Trade GG?
- ------------------------------------------------------
0102 Violone C778867-3 S Y
0103 Vielle E322335-8 NI, P Y
0105 Fantasia A99A522-8 NI Y
0106 Galliard A100505-E N NI Y
0109 Motet C898735-3 AG Y
0110 MADRIGAL B7989DE-6 S IND Y
0205 Ricercar X67759B-3 NI, AG Y
0206 Pavane C84379A-4 S P Y
0210 Canzona C765673-3 NI, AG, R Y
0301 Treble D655242-4 S NI Y
0302 Tenor E446411-6 NI Y
0308 Haydn D455273-8 NI Y
0309 Bach C525442-7 S NI Y
0402 Bass D223302-9 S NI, P Y
0405 Lawes EAC9200-8 NI N
0407 Marais B1225A6-B NI, P Y
0408 Forqueray A353546-B N NI, P Y
0501 Pardessus A114523-E S NI Y
0506 Byrd E460256-8 NI Y
0509 Abel D779443-5 NI Y
0605 Simpson A74A369-D NI Y
0606 Gibbons C474620-5 NI, AG Y
0607 Lassus A250687-D NI, P Y
0704 Morley C452633-6 NI, P Y
0705 Jenkins E87A000-5 -- Y
0708 SUSATO E584A67-5 Y
0709 Adriano A668125-C NI Y
0710 AGRICOLA E56A976-9 Y
0803 Weelkes C112888-A S NA Y
0805 Baldwyn A625343-A S NI Y
0806 Brade C8B7410-7 NI Y
0808 Attaignant E236200-8 NI Y
Interesting Facts:
The highest technology level is E (14) at Galliard and Pardessus.
The highest population level is A at Susato.
The only industrial world is Madrigal, at TL6.
The three high population worlds have TLs of 6, 5, and 9 respectively,
and starport types of B, E, and E respectively.
There are two balkanized planets, Agricola and Canzona.
Only one system (Lawes) has no gas giant.
Early assumptions made:
The subsector capital was placed at Lassus, with a TL of 13, a class A star-
port, and a central location.
The worlds are distibuted in the form of a "main" of sorts at the right hand
side of the subsector, three clusters of worlds at the bottom, and an isolated
world, a cluster of two, and a cluster of three worlds at the top.
Placing IISS X-boat routes to connect class A starports, naval bases, and the
capital, I drew links between Galliard, Forqueray, Lassus, Baldwyn and then
off the map to the right.
The assumption of native populations was made to account for the two high
population worlds with class E startports and relatively low tech levels.
Susato was chosen as the home of a minor human race, since we know that there
are 40-odd of them, and only a few have ever been described, and Agricola was
chosen as the home of a race of aliens, since I didn't think that the 100%
water surface was conducive to a large human population.
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.
So, only Lassus can build anything bigger than a Scout ship. It is my inten-
tion to stick to Book 2 starship designs for this exercise, which makes things
a little easier overall, since Jump limits are based on hull size rather than
tech level.
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. 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. Weelkes would have a shipyard capacity of 120,000 tons, and
would be rated as an industrial planet if its population was 9 instead of 8.
Adventure Potential:
Psionics Institutes were rolled for, and none appeared. This can always be
altered later if necessary.
With only one industrial planet, and that at TL6, high tech "goodies" are also
going to be expensive, hard to maintain, and hard to replace. Just something
to keep in mind...
With most of the planets (24 out of 32) having a trade code of "Non-
industrial", merchant characters with ships are going to be hard pressed to
make a living in speculative trade, especially if we elect to use the Merchant
Prince trade system (i.e., the MegaTraveller trade system.)
Balkanized worlds prevent some of the best opportunities for espionage and
military adventure, in my opinion, and there are only two in the subsector.
One of them is the world I already designated as the home of a minor alien
race, making it potentially difficult for players to become interested in
their politics, depending on how alien they get to be...
There are no inhabited asteroid belt mainworlds, but that doesn't mean that a
belt can't be added to a system if it would be interesting.
So, does anyone have any ideas yet?
I looked at this subsector for quite a while and was unsure of what I would do
with it. A lot of the worlds look pretty useless, and I can't imagine at the
moment why some of them were inhabited at all. The generally low populations
lead me to decide that the subsector is fairly "young" as these things go,
which gives me some notion of how to start thinking about the worlds.
In the next installment, I'll discuss the brief world descriptions that I
wrote up for each of the 32 worlds, and then ask if these seem reasonable.
Rob Dean
[email removed] or
[email removed] or
R.DEAN14 on GEnie.