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ng76
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I’ve been running a Traveller campaign set in the Foreven sector for a little over a year now. I’ve generated the basic UWP data for all of the worlds (see this previous post), but other than a few special locations, I don’t have a complete detailed picture of every world.
As the campaign continues, I’ve building the details of each world just ahead of the player’s visits. It’s lot like a video game that generates the scenery just before the player sees it.
I’ve found I don’t really need to generate the societies of each world in as much depth as I’ve been doing. The players generally aren’t spending that much time on any particular planet. All I need to do is sketch out the basic nature of each world, and provide a few adventure seeds. Here’s a little three-world empire I’ve created.
The Sovereignty of Moutrouni is a small pocket empire in the Eisengrim subsector.
Currently ruled by the House of Moutrouni, who claim (with little evidence or scholarly support) to be descendants of the Zhunastu Dynasty, founders of the Third Imperium.
The empire is currently ruled by Her Sovereign Empress Francesca Wilhelm-Chang Moutrouni.
The idea behind the Sovereignty is to have a small Ruritanian-style empire with ridiculous, pompous noble families that can serve as either patrons or antagonists.
Starport: Excellent quality installation. Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance overhaul available. Shipyard capable of both starship and non-starship construction present.
Size: 11,200km, 0.9G
Atmosphere: Very Thin – Vacuum 0.10-0.42 Very Thin requires a respirator. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0.1 to 0.42 atmospheres, which requires the use of a respirator to ensure sufficient oxygen.
Hydrosphere: Wet World, 26 – 35%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Pre-High, 100 Million to just under 1 Billion (P00,000,000)
Government: Impersonal Bureaucracy – Government by agencies which are insulated from the governed.
Law Level: High Law – Blade Weapons Controlled, open display of weapons prohibited
Tech Level: Basic Fusion Age – 2120 CE – Lifters, anti-virals, fluidics.
The capital of the Sovereignty of Moutrouni. Due to the thin atmosphere, various domed cities and palaces are scattered across surface of the planet, connected by a monorail system. From orbit, it looks like a web of jewels.
Moutrouni is plagued with dozens of noble houses constantly competing for power and influence. The constant scheming is arcane and endless. The actual dull day-to-day affairs of government are handled by the Imperial Bureaucracy.
Her Sovereign Empress Francesca Wilhelm-Chang Moutrouni: Rarely seen in public these days, she spends much of her time floating in tanks of expensive anagathic fluids.
The Watchful Eye: The secret police of the House of Moutrouni have a reputation as a fearsome, all-seeing organization with vast capabilities. In fact, years of neglect have left them as a hidebound den of incompetence, more concerned with internal politicking than any actual intelligence work.
The Big Ball: Prince Phemulous Boule will be attending a ball, one of the endless social events the many nobles of Moutrouni use to while away their days. It’s fashionable to have off-worlders as part of their retinue, so the Prince will pay the players to attend the ball, acting as bodyguards.
A rival prince will attend, and the two minor nobles will try to outdo each other in an escalating series of stunts and displays, which may lead to danger or violence.
I’ve actually run this one, and will write it up at a later date.
Starport: No starport. Class X starports are generally indicative of an interdiction. No provision is made for any starship landings and such landings are probably prohibited.
Size: 8,000km, 0.45G
Atmosphere: Thin – Thin 0.43-0.70 Shirtsleeve World: No survival gear required. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0 43 to 0.70 atmospheres. The atmosphere is a standard oxygen/nitrogen mix, which is breathable without assistance.
Hydrosphere: Average Wet World, 46 – 55%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Moderate, 1 Million to just under 10 Million (P,000,000)
Government: Captive Government/Colony – Government by a leadership answerable to an outside group, a colony or conquered area.
Law Level: Moderate Law – Shotguns prohibited
Tech Level: Neolithic Age – 6000 BCE – Polished tools, fire, agriculture.
A world dominated by a rich ecosystem, consisting entirely of mushrooms, lichens, and various fungi. The Sovereignty uses this world to provide much of its food.
The official name, Phylliana, was given to honor for a favored daughter of the current Empress. Locals call the world Stench, due the strong smell of the fungal ecosystem.
Large automated fungal collectors roam the planet, collecting fungus that is processed and exported as protein, providing the majority of the food supply to the Sovereignty. As there’s no proper starport, packages of fungi are attached to large cargo balloons and are released into the upper atmosphere, where they’re collected by passing starships with tethered skyhooks.
Prince Oswin Moutrouni, a minor relation of the Empress, has been named the Imperial Prescence of Phylliana. He’s widely viewed as a popinjay and an idiot.
The main settlement is the city of Plentiful, where most of the fungal processing plants are located. Prince Oswin maintains his imperial compound here, commonly known as the Perfumed Palace, due to the various fragrances the Prince’s staff pumps into the air to mask the planet’s odor.
The Sovereignty has plans to construct a proper starport here, but they’ve been postponed for years.
Fungi Pirates: A band of bandits as seized control of a number of harvesters and are collecting the fungus for themselves. They’ve established a base deep in the wilderness.
They travel across the planet in airships constructed from stolen repurposed cargo balloons. A substantial bounty has been placed on their heads.
Meet the Mushrooms: Unknown to the local humans, there’s a native sentient species on Phylliana. They’re a fungal-based semi-humanoid species that generally avoid direct sunlight. They mostly dwell in caverns or heavily shaded valleys.
They’ve avoided making contact until now, but the increasing number of automated harvesters has them concerned. They’ve decided to make contact by travelling to Plentiful, grabbing some locals, bringing them back to their caves, and speaking to them reasonably. Unfortunately, the Phyllians can only communicate by spewing spores into each other’s faces, which makes talking to humans difficult.
A panicked Prince Oswin is looking for someone to retrieve the townsfolk. I’ve run this one as well, and will write it up at a later date.
Starport: Frontier installation. Essentially a bare spot of bedrock with no fuel, facilities, or bases present.
Size: 1,600km, Triton, 0.05G
Atmosphere: Very Thin – Vacuum 0.10-0.42 Very Thin requires a respirator. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0.1 to 0.42 atmospheres, which requires the use of a respirator to ensure sufficient oxygen.
Hydrosphere: Wet World, 36 – 45%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Moderate, 10,000 to 99,999 (P0,000)
Government: Company/Corporation – Government by a company managerial elite, citizens are company employees.
Law Level: Low Law – Portable Energy Weapons prohibited.
Tech Level: Basic Fusion Age – 2120 CE – Lifters, anti-virals, fluidics.
Grandia is a mining world that provides most of the wealth for the Sovereignty. It’s run by the Grandia Wealth Collective, a privately held corporation. All of the shares of the corporation are held by Moutrouni nobility, with the lion’s share being held by the Moutrouni family itself.
Much of the automated mining equipment is of Darrian manufacture and are well above the technical ability of Moutrouni technicians to repair or even understand.
The Big Dig: Delver-78 is the largest and deepest automated mining station on Grandia. The humans that maintain it live and work on the upper levels, rarely descending into the lower levels. The last few technicians who went down to the lower levels have disappeared. Also, the output of the mine has declined. The company will hire the players to investigate.
The problem is that an obscure, emergency subroutine deep within the stations complex computer system has been activated. It’s now in a wartime mode, using the mining material to construct robot defenses and capture or kill any intruders.
Continue reading...
As the campaign continues, I’ve building the details of each world just ahead of the player’s visits. It’s lot like a video game that generates the scenery just before the player sees it.
I’ve found I don’t really need to generate the societies of each world in as much depth as I’ve been doing. The players generally aren’t spending that much time on any particular planet. All I need to do is sketch out the basic nature of each world, and provide a few adventure seeds. Here’s a little three-world empire I’ve created.
The Sovereignty of Moutrouni
The Sovereignty of Moutrouni is a small pocket empire in the Eisengrim subsector.
Currently ruled by the House of Moutrouni, who claim (with little evidence or scholarly support) to be descendants of the Zhunastu Dynasty, founders of the Third Imperium.
The empire is currently ruled by Her Sovereign Empress Francesca Wilhelm-Chang Moutrouni.
The idea behind the Sovereignty is to have a small Ruritanian-style empire with ridiculous, pompous noble families that can serve as either patrons or antagonists.
2225 Moutrouni A733898-A Ph Na Po 623
Starport: Excellent quality installation. Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance overhaul available. Shipyard capable of both starship and non-starship construction present.
Size: 11,200km, 0.9G
Atmosphere: Very Thin – Vacuum 0.10-0.42 Very Thin requires a respirator. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0.1 to 0.42 atmospheres, which requires the use of a respirator to ensure sufficient oxygen.
Hydrosphere: Wet World, 26 – 35%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Pre-High, 100 Million to just under 1 Billion (P00,000,000)
Government: Impersonal Bureaucracy – Government by agencies which are insulated from the governed.
Law Level: High Law – Blade Weapons Controlled, open display of weapons prohibited
Tech Level: Basic Fusion Age – 2120 CE – Lifters, anti-virals, fluidics.
The capital of the Sovereignty of Moutrouni. Due to the thin atmosphere, various domed cities and palaces are scattered across surface of the planet, connected by a monorail system. From orbit, it looks like a web of jewels.
Moutrouni is plagued with dozens of noble houses constantly competing for power and influence. The constant scheming is arcane and endless. The actual dull day-to-day affairs of government are handled by the Imperial Bureaucracy.
Her Sovereign Empress Francesca Wilhelm-Chang Moutrouni: Rarely seen in public these days, she spends much of her time floating in tanks of expensive anagathic fluids.
The Watchful Eye: The secret police of the House of Moutrouni have a reputation as a fearsome, all-seeing organization with vast capabilities. In fact, years of neglect have left them as a hidebound den of incompetence, more concerned with internal politicking than any actual intelligence work.
Adventure Seeds for Moutrouni
The Big Ball: Prince Phemulous Boule will be attending a ball, one of the endless social events the many nobles of Moutrouni use to while away their days. It’s fashionable to have off-worlders as part of their retinue, so the Prince will pay the players to attend the ball, acting as bodyguards.
A rival prince will attend, and the two minor nobles will try to outdo each other in an escalating series of stunts and displays, which may lead to danger or violence.
I’ve actually run this one, and will write it up at a later date.
2325 Phylliana X555667-0 Ag 301
Starport: No starport. Class X starports are generally indicative of an interdiction. No provision is made for any starship landings and such landings are probably prohibited.
Size: 8,000km, 0.45G
Atmosphere: Thin – Thin 0.43-0.70 Shirtsleeve World: No survival gear required. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0 43 to 0.70 atmospheres. The atmosphere is a standard oxygen/nitrogen mix, which is breathable without assistance.
Hydrosphere: Average Wet World, 46 – 55%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Moderate, 1 Million to just under 10 Million (P,000,000)
Government: Captive Government/Colony – Government by a leadership answerable to an outside group, a colony or conquered area.
Law Level: Moderate Law – Shotguns prohibited
Tech Level: Neolithic Age – 6000 BCE – Polished tools, fire, agriculture.
A world dominated by a rich ecosystem, consisting entirely of mushrooms, lichens, and various fungi. The Sovereignty uses this world to provide much of its food.
The official name, Phylliana, was given to honor for a favored daughter of the current Empress. Locals call the world Stench, due the strong smell of the fungal ecosystem.
Large automated fungal collectors roam the planet, collecting fungus that is processed and exported as protein, providing the majority of the food supply to the Sovereignty. As there’s no proper starport, packages of fungi are attached to large cargo balloons and are released into the upper atmosphere, where they’re collected by passing starships with tethered skyhooks.
Prince Oswin Moutrouni, a minor relation of the Empress, has been named the Imperial Prescence of Phylliana. He’s widely viewed as a popinjay and an idiot.
The main settlement is the city of Plentiful, where most of the fungal processing plants are located. Prince Oswin maintains his imperial compound here, commonly known as the Perfumed Palace, due to the various fragrances the Prince’s staff pumps into the air to mask the planet’s odor.
The Sovereignty has plans to construct a proper starport here, but they’ve been postponed for years.
Adventure Seeds for Phylliana
Fungi Pirates: A band of bandits as seized control of a number of harvesters and are collecting the fungus for themselves. They’ve established a base deep in the wilderness.
They travel across the planet in airships constructed from stolen repurposed cargo balloons. A substantial bounty has been placed on their heads.
Meet the Mushrooms: Unknown to the local humans, there’s a native sentient species on Phylliana. They’re a fungal-based semi-humanoid species that generally avoid direct sunlight. They mostly dwell in caverns or heavily shaded valleys.
They’ve avoided making contact until now, but the increasing number of automated harvesters has them concerned. They’ve decided to make contact by travelling to Plentiful, grabbing some locals, bringing them back to their caves, and speaking to them reasonably. Unfortunately, the Phyllians can only communicate by spewing spores into each other’s faces, which makes talking to humans difficult.
A panicked Prince Oswin is looking for someone to retrieve the townsfolk. I’ve run this one as well, and will write it up at a later date.
2326 Grandia E134412-A Ni 210
Starport: Frontier installation. Essentially a bare spot of bedrock with no fuel, facilities, or bases present.
Size: 1,600km, Triton, 0.05G
Atmosphere: Very Thin – Vacuum 0.10-0.42 Very Thin requires a respirator. The atmosphere has a pressure of 0.1 to 0.42 atmospheres, which requires the use of a respirator to ensure sufficient oxygen.
Hydrosphere: Wet World, 36 – 45%, It is a normative (wet) environment.
Population: Moderate, 10,000 to 99,999 (P0,000)
Government: Company/Corporation – Government by a company managerial elite, citizens are company employees.
Law Level: Low Law – Portable Energy Weapons prohibited.
Tech Level: Basic Fusion Age – 2120 CE – Lifters, anti-virals, fluidics.
Grandia is a mining world that provides most of the wealth for the Sovereignty. It’s run by the Grandia Wealth Collective, a privately held corporation. All of the shares of the corporation are held by Moutrouni nobility, with the lion’s share being held by the Moutrouni family itself.
Much of the automated mining equipment is of Darrian manufacture and are well above the technical ability of Moutrouni technicians to repair or even understand.
The Big Dig: Delver-78 is the largest and deepest automated mining station on Grandia. The humans that maintain it live and work on the upper levels, rarely descending into the lower levels. The last few technicians who went down to the lower levels have disappeared. Also, the output of the mine has declined. The company will hire the players to investigate.
The problem is that an obscure, emergency subroutine deep within the stations complex computer system has been activated. It’s now in a wartime mode, using the mining material to construct robot defenses and capture or kill any intruders.
Continue reading...