Hi there,
At the suggestion of Rodge Sanger, I'm posting world write-ups I have for
Aramis subsector. Due to work load, I'll probably send one a week.
The format is homegrown, and this is what my players see; there is some
more detail which I don't have on computer.
Aramis Subsector Spinward Marches
World ID: Aramis 3110 A-6B0556-B A Ni,De,Cp,Ng
Distances: Main World to Jump Point = 963,000 km
Main World to Gas Giant = --
Jump Point to Gas Giant = --
Physical: Diameter= 9500 km, Atmosphere= 10 atm, Corrosive;Methane,
cold,
Gravity= 0.77 g, Hydrographics= 1 %, Ammonia Ice
Demographic: Starport= Ay, Population= 619,000
Government=Feudal Technocracy; headed by the Marquis of
Aramis, Law Level=Six
Trade: Classifications=Non-industrial, Desert
Base Cargo Cost= Cr 452 per klitre
Major Exports
Raw= Precious Metal Ores, Ferrous Metal Ores.
Agricultural= --
Processed= --
Manufactured= Electronics.
Comments: Aramis is the capital of the subsector to which it gives
it's name. This has come about not through the usual process
of economic and cultural dominance which determines the site of most subsector
capitals, but simply because of the world's proximity to Rhylanor subsector,
from which the region's government is directed. The world itself is ruled
directly by Marquis Leonard of Aramis, and all major contracts and posts are
held at his sufferance. Almost the entire world population lives within the
underground city of Leedor, which the Marquis holds as his fief from the
Emperor. This city grew up in the wake of the mining which carved the caverns
it occupies. The mining continues beyond the current city boundaries, and
still provides a major source of export. During the Civil War, the mines were
briefly occupied by Imperial Marines to ensure continued production. When the
world was scheduled for inclusion in the X-boat network, a period of great
growth came about. The scout base was established at this time, and Naasirka
underwrote the starport upgrade, taking control of the shipyards. Much of
the original X-boat infrastructure for the region was built here as a result.
In the late 700s, the increasing strategic importance of both the subsector,
and the X-boat route through the system, lead to the establishment of a naval
base on the world. The world had by then developed into a trade and commerce
centre. As the subsector population increased, calls came to move the capital
to a more central position. This has been resisted up to now, and Aramis'
pre-eminence has been aided by the fact that six major transport lines run
scheduled services through the system. In addition, the world's starport
remains the only major source of overhaul for starships operating in the
subsector.
Subsector D Deneb Domain
Those of you who have read this may have noticed that the distance to
jump point is more than 100 planetary diameters. This is because of a
modified ruling I use for determining the Jump Point, which I introduced
purely to allow accessible, habitable planets orbitting big stars.
We've discussed jump distances before on TML, and I originally suggested
that the distance you should use was the point at which gravitational
acceleration became the same as it is 100 diameters from Terra.
Unfortunately, as someone pointed out at the time, if you work out the
algebra, because a star/planet/whatever's mass increases faster than the
gravity reduces, the result is that you end up with even greater jump
distances; for the big star I was looking at, the jump point became
something like 400 diameters, which took months to travel to.
After this, I came up with a different method; I assumed that the jump
point was at the distance where the 'radial gravitational spatial gradient'
was the same as at 100 diameters from Terra, i.e. the rate of change of
gravitaional acceleration as you move away from the central mass. This
gives the following formulae for the jump point distances:
Star
distance = 117.5 x (cube root of star's mass) million km
with the star mass in Solar masses (as in Scouts)
Planet or gas giant
distance = 1.28 x (cube root of mass) million km
= 160 x (cube root of density) x (UWP size digit) thousand km
where the planet or gas giant's mass is in Earth masses.
This gives planetary jump points of roughly the same size, but reduces
stellar and gas giant jump points. Provided you are willing to live with
the reduced gas giant distances, I think this gives a reasonable method
of reducing the jump point distances for large stars. It also has the
interesting effect of allowing straships to emerge from jump within the
star if the astrogator is careless in plotting his jump vector.
If you don't like this, or my write-up, please don't flame me, as I don't
care :-) Your welcome to post alternatives, but this is what I use, and
I'm happy with it.
Sorry, Rodge, I appear to have been semi-conversationalist in this post ;-}
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Traveller Done Wrong
- Let's get the Fiction back into Science Fiction Roleplaying"
Stewart N.R.A.L.
Jodrell Bank
Macclesfield
[email removed] Cheshire
[address removed]
____________________________________________________________________________