Re: Gamba Subsector

Hans Rancke-Madsen [email removed] writes:


> OK, here are a few rough ideas about Gamba subsector.
>
>
> First a map:

Thank you very much!  That will make this easier for everyone else.


> Then some ideas:
> 0102  Violone       C778867-3  S
>
> T-prime planet with viable population, yet pre-industrial tech.
> Perhaps a regressed colony rediscovered by Scouts and put under
> surveillance and protection.

As you see, I agreed with your assessment on this one.  There are certain
"classic" planet descriptions that seem to show up repeatedly in Traveller
literature, and this is one of them.

> 0106  Galliard      A100505-E  N        NI         Y
>
> Really undesirable dirtball with large colony/small independent
> population and a Naval Base.

Not a bad idea, but I put the "university planet" and the "ancient site"
here.

> 0110  MADRIGAL      B7989DE-6  S        IND        Y
>
> 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?

Probably that subsector wide trading company that dominates Weelkes in my
description.  I agree, definitely outsiders.  Potential friction?  The trading
company scheme has the advantage that it gives the GM an excuse for tying up
the otherwise fairly lucrative 1-jump trading system that can be developed
between Madrigal and the agricultural worlds Motet and Canzona.


> 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.

Prison planet might be OK, but the "who?" is a problem.  That's why I chose
this one for the "plague planet".

> 0302  Tenor         E446411-6           NI         Y
>
> Struggling colony.

Probably.  In my book, I almost always use the "mining colony" description
when given the government type 1.

> 0309  Bach          C525442-7  S        NI         Y
>
> Young colony. What's that Scout Base doing here?)

Supporting Type S couriers jumping back and forth from Madrigal to the Imperial
X-Boat route station at Forqueray...

> 0402  Bass          D223302-9  S        NI, P      Y
>
> Outpost. Again, what's the Scout base doing?

That was a tough decision to make.  What do you think of the explanation for
this one that I came up with?

> 0405  Lawes         EAC9200-8           NI         N
>
> Low-budget scientific outpost studying the ecology of this
> insidius atmosphere world.


That's what _they_ would like you to think, isn't it? (-: (-:

> 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.

My explanation is pretty similar.

> 0605  Simpson       A74A369-D           NI         Y
>
> The world is the property of the Simpson Memorial Foundation. ...

Not a bad idea, but I already used it to explain Galliard...

> 0705  Jenkins       E87A000-5           --         Y
>
> I'd drop the TL to 0.

Represents the TL of the automatic distress beacon...(-:  (5 is the minimum
to support broadcast radio, isn't it?)

> 0708  SUSATO        E584A67-5                      Y
>
> Do yourself a favour and drop the population level to 9.

Maybe so...we'll consider it again later...

> 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?
> One alternate idea occured to me: A short while ago this was a
> thriving world, but a plague wiped out the entire population.

I agree with you.  This one is difficult.  I decided to rate it as a start-up
colony, though you are most likely right about it being delayed by political
infighting among various groups attempting to gain control.  I used the
"plague world" explanation on Ricercar.

> 0710  AGRICOLA      E56A976-9                      Y
>
> 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 of floating plants is an obvious idea...my primary inspiration
was Schmitz, though I've read The Blue World.  I like the idea of amphibians
better than purely aquatic lifefroms because it will make it easier for
them to interact with humans, and the Agricolans are one of the few
potentially interesting things going on in an otherwise bland subsector.
Besides the mats, up to 5% of the surface could still be land under an A
hydrographics classification.

> 0803  Weelkes       C112888-A  S        NA         Y
>
> Another of these punk worlds with huge populations.

Yes, but luckily there's only one in this subsector to explain.  It doesn't
stretch credulity too far to think that there is one world headed toward
being industrial that started life as a mining colony, does it?  Emigration
could be a problem though--maybe resentment against the segment of the
population that wants to leave (What comrade, you wish to leave now before
the end of the current Five Year Plan?)?

> 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.

Well, I already put the Ancient site at Galliard.  Two might be too many to
put in this subsector.  Any other ideas?  As it stands now, the only important
thing that I know about this system is that it is on the X-Boat line.

> 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.

OK.  I like this, so it's now "official".  What are they collecting?
Anybody else got any ideas?

So, at least one other GM looks at this and decides that we need those standard
items: "the university planet", the "plague world", the ancient site, and the
"lost colony".  What subsector would be complete without all four?

Once we've discussed the explanations a bit more, we'll move on to the types
of adventures suggested by the worlds, and the combinations of worlds, in the
subsector.

Rob Dean
[email removed]        or
[email removed]           or
R.DEAN14 on GEnie