Seeing some references to World Builders Handbook here recently reminded
me of some problems that I noticed with it, that were not (as far as I
know) corrected in any errata:
1.Size related details step 9 (p 62) states "P" is in standard
days; should be hours, as in the example that follows it.
2.WBH strongly implies that the orbit number of a satellite is in
central planet diameters (e.g. step 8a on page 62); it is in fact radii
(e.g. MegaTraveller Refs Manual, old Book 6). The same error also
appears explicitly in Travellers Digest (e.g. TD 19 p 35). So halve
orbital distance in radii to get distance in diameters.
3.The definition of gas giant size is inconsistent with TNE,
MegaTraveller Refs Manual [e.g. p17), old Book 6, and other DGP
publications (e.g. Terra system writeup). Small gas giants should range
in UWP size from 20 to 74; large gas giants should range from 75 to 140;
brown dwarfs start above that. I use the table below which corrects
these problems (as far as I know!). It also categorises gas giants from
the Terra system correctly (i.e. matches previously published official
writeups). Saturn (UWP size about 80) and Jupiter (about 90) are large
gas giants; Uranus and Neptune are small gas giants (UWP size each about
30). Previously, even Jupiter was a small gas giant according to WBH.
Don't use brown dwarfs without reading up on them first - they are
complex beasties (e.g. the more massive they are, the smaller they get).
Gas Giant Size
Small Large
Die UWP Die UWP
(1D+1) Size (2D) Size
2 20 2 80
3 30 3 80
4 40 4 80
5 50 5 90
6 60 6 90
7 70 7 100
8 110
9 120
10 130
11 140
12 Brown Dwarf
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Grant Sinclair "Cream rises to the top...
[email removed] but so does scum..."
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