A Heretical Traveller Universe

[Cryton]

Heresy? Far from it!

I always felt that "canon" completely frustrated the whole purpose of Traveller, which was to give you a loose framework of rules within which to construct your own sci fi adventure universe.

The Imperium et al were only ever suggestions; and the supplements were to give you scenarios, characters and ideas which you could adopt wholesale if you hadn't the time to do otherwise, adapt to your own requirements if you did, or simply draw on for inspiration.

So good for you, I say ... you're doing your own thing, and doing it well so far as I can see.

Nicely said!

 

[nobby-w]

[ . . . ]
I always felt that "canon" completely frustrated the whole purpose of Traveller, which was to give you a loose framework of rules within which to construct your own sci fi adventure universe.

Marc Miller once said something to the effect that 'Canon is for publishers.' It exists primarily to stop publishers from writing material that clashes with each other. Sometimes, as a franchise manager you have to say 'No, it doesn't matter how cool your story arc is, we're not letting you kill off Spider Man.'

As a DM, or as publisher of any setting but the OTU, Canon is irrelevant, with the possible exception of con games. I certainly don't think @timerover51 should have to apologise for deviating from stock OTU or describe his 'verse as heretical.

 

[MichaelSTee]

Given the worlds that I am building, along with the added skills from The Traveller Book and Supplement 4 in terms of Water Craft, I am going to have to work up a basic nautical shipbuilding system, and maybe an aircraft system. For that, I think that I will just take existing historical types and adapt that to the Traveller format.

The complex design sequences in MegaTraveller are one of the things that I greatly disliked, so the focus will be on Keep It Simple Stupid. However, there does exist the design sequences in T5 for a wide range of vehicles, and for aircraft, there is the design system in COACC for MegaTraveller. I do hope to improve on those.

Have you looked into the Mongoose 1E vehicle rules SRD? They may be a bit simplistic for what you want, but as it is an SRD, you can modify them to be closer to what you want. And then include them in your own CE variant rules.

 

[Timerover51]

I have not been here in a while, so I will need to back and re-read what I have said earlier.

Have you looked into the Mongoose 1E vehicle rules SRD? They may be a bit simplistic for what you want, but as it is an SRD, you can modify them to be closer to what you want. And then include them in your own CE variant rules.

I have Mongoose 1st Edition. I am still working on Cepheus Engine, but probably will simply use as many Real World vehicles as I can. A lot of the worlds in my new sector are of lower Tech Level.

 

[Carlobrand]

Parallel universes that proceeded along slightly different tracks are an accepted and rather fun paradigm of science fiction.

 

[Timerover51]

Parallel universes that proceeded along slightly different tracks are an accepted and rather fun paradigm of science fiction.

H. Beam Piper based his entire Paratime series on the concept of parallel timelines moving at different rates. It does give one a lot of freedom as to what you can do story-wise.

 

[SanDragon]

I don't care how cool your screenplay is, you're not resurrecting Kirk... again!

 

[Timerover51]

I don't care how cool your screenplay is, you're not resurrecting Kirk... again!

Goodness no. I respect the Original Star Trek too much to even consider playing around with it.

You could have a lot of fun playing with parallel but divergent time lines with the Official Traveller Universe though.

 

[SpaceBadger]

One thing that I do not understand is your desire to place Piper-Norton Sector at a certain location within the OTU - I believe the most recent location that I saw in this thread was immediately to rimward of Canopus Sector?

With your many changes of how ships function, how Jump works, what sophont/sapient species exist, the size of various interstellar government areas - surely your work stands as an ATU or Alternate Traveller Universe rather than simply a distant location within the OTU?

Or am I missing something?

 

[wellis]

One thing that I do not understand is your desire to place Piper-Norton Sector at a certain location within the OTU - I believe the most recent location that I saw in this thread was immediately to rimward of Canopus Sector?

With your many changes of how ships function, how Jump works, what sophont/sapient species exist, the size of various interstellar government areas - surely your work stands as an ATU or Alternate Traveller Universe rather than simply a distant location within the OTU?

Or am I missing something?

From what I remember, it was an ATU. For example, there are no Zhodani and Sword Worlders, several aliens aren't around, and the Terran-Vilani Imperium Wars resulted in the Imperium breaking up into two states that each call themselves The Imperium but each with a different capital:

Aliens: There are no K’kree or Hivers. The Aslan are genetically modified Terran lions courtesy of the Ancients, who were fooled by their social behavior on the African savannah into thinking that they would make good servants. As carnivores, the food requirement rapidly became a problem, as did the territorial drive of both the males and females. The maximum density of population on Aslan planets is 5 per square mile or 2 per square kilometer of land surface. (This is a lot denser than actual Terran populations in African national parks). They fare poorly on non-earthlike planets and fragment even worse than the Vargr. They control a significantly smaller volume of space than per canon, and are much less of a threat than per canon. They do make good mercenaries, but victory dinners featuring their former employers as the main course are not unheard of at all.

The Vargr as per the standard Traveller version, but planetary populations again are lower than humans, and limited on non-earthlike planets. The Ancients did a fair amount of terraforming for the home planets of the Aslan and Vargr, considerably more than they did on Vland.

The Droyne are around, keeping a low profile, but handled with caution by every one. They have access to some Ancient technology, and will use it if pushed. They are actively seeking out Chirper populations and bringing them into the full Droyne community.

Humans: With respect to human types, there are no Zhodani (two human groups modified by the Ancients is one too many, plus I am not a fan of psionics at all as used in the game), and no Sword Worlders as depicted in canon (regretfully, but I cannot get a bunch of Icelandic-speaking Terrans to the Spinward Marches in any sort of comprehensible way).

There is something calling itself the Imperium centered on Capitol in what is called the Core Sector, with an effective radius of control of about 30 parsecs. There is another Imperium centered on Vland, which contests control of the intervening space with the Core Imperium. The Vland Imperium is very much concerned with racial purity, and viewing any Solomani blood as contamination. DNA testing is mandatory.

The Spinward Marches are just that, the frontier area. Lip service is paid to Vland, but no effective control is possible, and the March worlds pretty much view the Imperium as something so far away as to be meaningless. Local confederations of planets exist, and you periodically have someone try to transform one of them into an Empire. That is not viewed with favor by the overall community.

The Terran Confederation is centered on Terra, and also has effective control out to about 30 parsecs or so. The Imperium never conquered Terra, and disintegrated in the attempt to do so. The Terrans have fanned out throughout what canon calls the Solomani Rim, settled by various groups seeking to run their own affairs. Think of planets called New Texas, New Quebec, New Alaska, New Boston, New Berkeley, etc. I can put the Icelandic-speaking Sword Worlders in this area, roughly between the Terran planets and the Aslan area, happily raiding both.

 

[Timerover51]

One thing that I do not understand is your desire to place Piper-Norton Sector at a certain location within the OTU - I believe the most recent location that I saw in this thread was immediately to rimward of Canopus Sector?

With your many changes of how ships function, how Jump works, what sophont/sapient species exist, the size of various interstellar government areas - surely your work stands as an ATU or Alternate Traveller Universe rather than simply a distant location within the OTU?

Or am I missing something?

Greetings SpaceBadger. I initially was thinking that, but the more I thought, the less likely that was going to be to work. Wellis pretty much has it right that it was going to be an ATU, more like the Clement Sector, and using the Cepheus Engine as the basic rules set, with a "fair" number of modifications by me.

I was putting out a lot of ideas as to a possible alternative setting, mainly because I was looking to put some exploration and new world finding into the game. Heading farther out seemed to be the way to do it, while leaving some connection to the rest of Traveller. The problem is that the established canon really only works for the rules edition that it was written for. Plus, being a fan of H. Beam Piper, getting rid of personal energy weapons and all of the heavy combat armor was going to be a big change, along with allowing for things like magic and for stuff to wander if from other Alternative Universes. Track down a copy of A. Bertram Chandler's The Rim Gods with Kinsolving's Planet and you will get the idea. Chandler has a lot of stuff drifting into our Universe from other ones, and that does not show up in Traveller at all, but I like the idea. Also, the possibility of a group of players finding themselves in another dimension, like E. R. Burrough's "Barsoom" or the Universe of Space: 1889, or sucked through the Bermuda Triangle to somewhere else entirely, appeals to me. That would not fit in the OTU either.

The problem is, that stuff like that should be possible in Traveller, and included in the canon. The original books were not tied to any one view of the Universe, and left it up to the referee as to how things went. "Fenris" of Four Day Planet should be one possible location for a Traveller adventure, or Jack Holloway's "Zarathustra", or the "New Texas" of Lone Star Planet, or "Sargol" or "Witch World" of Andre Norton. Now, to pull some of those in, you have to work up an Alternative Universe, as there is no place for them in the OTU.

What to you mean there are no personal energy weapons or battle armor? I WANT MY TECH LEVEL 15 COMBAT ARMOR AND FUSION GUN OR I AM GOING TO GO HOME!!!!

I should post some of the names of planets in my Piper-Norton sector, and let people look up what they might imply. I think that I will do that under the Cepheus Engine. Also, my ideas as to heresy have evolved a bit too.

 

[SpaceBadger]

I think you know very well from our various discussions that I would be one who would enjoy adventuring in this setting no matter where it was located; it just seems to me more like an ATU than a sector of the OTU. I've wanted to visit Fenris since I was 10 years old! And Uller, for a chance to meet King Kankad and his people! Wow!

 

[mike wightman]

I'm on record already on this thread saying how much I am enjoying timerover51's work on this thread.

I agree it is more fitting to be an 'ATU' rather than a distant region of the OTU - but with reality manipulation at high TLs in T5 anything really is possible within the OTU

As a homebrew setting I think it highlights how CT was meant to be used back in the day - use your favourite sci fi for inspiration to create your own universe. CE not only allows you to do that, but it also allows you to re-write the rules themselves to exactly match the setting you want.

 

[Timerover51]

I guess one reason for the creation of a Piper-Norton sector (Universe) was to give myself and anyone else interested the ability to play on the worlds described so vividly in the novels, along with the works of other writers. The idea of things drifting in from other Universes I picked up from A. Bertram Chandler in his John Grimes series. Conversely, things can drift out, and a ship might find itself orbiting E. R. Burrough's Barsoom. Are there Wyverns on Warlock? Can you fidn sunstones and Fuzzies on Zarathustra? Why is Grimm's World called Grimm's World? Is Captain Nemo sailing the seas of the planet Nemo or Nautilus? What are the odd physics of the planet Pelias (see your Conan library) where magic apparently works, and at times is a terribly uncontrolled manner (see Harold Shea for how this might work)? There is an entire sub-sector devoted to the Kalevala. Do you characters make themselves such a major headache that they get Väinämöinen ticked off at them and coming for a visit? If you thought Conan was tough, you have not seen anything yet when it comes to Väinämöinen. Then, of course, there is the Inverdahl system. Is there a habitable planet there or not, or is it sometimes there and sometimes not, or are the Witches paying a visit to another system? Do any of your characters have an undiscovered ablility to handle "Vatches" or perhaps the reverse and getting them really ticked off?

There is a vast Universe out there that has been around for over a 100 years.

Explore It!!!!!!!!!

 

[Timerover51]

Vinland Sword Sub-sector P-N Out Rim Sector

I debated where to put this, either here or the Cepheus Engine forum, and this thread won out. It is an initial write up for the planet Vinland in the Sword Sub-sector of the Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector. I put it up on my blog, with some ideas for handling Trade Goods, and then decided to put it here to give an idea of my thoughts. This is a draft only, so do not assume that it is cast in very hard granite, but more like a changeable sandstone.

0506 Vinland C968534-3

Take the planet Vinland, in the Sword Sub-sector. It is an Agricultural planet, with a population in the hundreds of thousands and a Tech Level of 3. The planet has been settled by a mixture of Amish and Old and New Order Mennonites. Whlle the Amish and Old Order Mennonites limit their use of technology, the New Order Mennonites do make use of steam power, and all will use modern communications equipment, i.e. cell phones and walkie-talkies for emergencies. Being pacifistic, preserving life has a high priority for them. However, the planet is under the protection of the Space Vikings, and woe to be anyone who thinks that the planet population are push-overs. While they use black powder, which they can readily make on their own, their weapons do use metallic cartridges and repeaters are plentiful. Some heavier weapons are around as well, along with some armored road engines.

There is a canning planet using metal cans, along with a large number of small canning operations using Mason jars. They also make quite a lot of cheese, and smoked and salted meat products. The quality of their products is extremely high, and a brisk trade is carried on with the surrounding worlds. Their primary import needs are for metal sheeting and tin for the cannery, along with Mason jars, although many jars are recycled from the trading planets. Side Note: In Door County, Wisonsin, there are a couple of family-run farmers markets that produce an incredible amount of very high quality canned goods in Mason Jars, to the tune of several tens of tons of goods. I view the same type of operation on Vinland by your more outlying farm groups.

A couple of side notes on Vinland. One, the planetary government has retained the services of a number of Space Viking mercenaries to assist in planetary defense. On occasion, a citizen of the planet will join the policing group, while at the same time members of the policing group become planetary citizens. While strongly against using violence, if their wifes or children are threatened, the planet's population will take action, and plenty of black powder weapons are available. There is also the Space Viking force which is not at all interested in having their planetary paradise shot up. The Space Port is rated at "C". The Tech Level there is a tad higher than the rest of the planet. A satellite communication system is in use, along with space-based detection units.

Second, there is a small group of Old Order Mennonite faith healers that have demonstrated incredible abilities to heal subjects without using standard medication or medical techniques. Attempts by outside groups to kidnap one of these have been uniformly unsuccessful, either as a result of violent action being taken by the planetary populace, or by other, as yet, unexplained disasters visited on the kidnapping party. You have been warned.

The following is a really basic write-up that I did based on the SectorMaker data that produced the planet. I did make some changes, all right, more than some, and I am debating keeping the A Primary. That may change.

An agricultural planet with a low Technology level, but highly productive with the very long growing seasons resulting from the planet’s long orbital period with respect to the A primary. The Mennonites that settled the planet take the attitude that men have to eat, regardless of what they do, and trade actively through intermediary traders with the Space Vikings, along with Megin-giord. Much of the agriculture is carried out using horses and mules. The settlements are concentrated on one of the larger continental islands that has a good water transportation system. Although large, the surface gravity is only slightly higher than Terra due to a slightly lower planetary density.

Hopefully, there will be no problems with naming the religious groups that have settled on the planet. If a moderator decides that there is, let me know and I will make the needed changes.

Edit Note: It looks like mentioning specific groups has survived moderation, but still watching it.

 

[Timerover51]

El Paso Visitors Guide Draft

This is the draft of a visitors guide that I put together for El Paso, another planet in the Sword Sub-sector. It would be transmitted to all star ships prior to landing and would be distributed to all on board. The ship's Purser is responsible for delivering signed copies indicating that all on board have read and understnad the guide prior to anyone debarking.

El Paso Visitors Guide and Essential Information

El Paso has been raided three time by the Space Vikings in the past 20 years, and as such, our residents are a might touchy of anyone off of a starship that is not from New Texas (and some of us are a might touchy of them as well). The following items need to be kept if mind if you expect to depart the planet still living.

Do not get off of your ship armed! You will be shot. If you are wearing body armor, you will be shot by a Hotchkiss gun. Body armor does not stop those shells at all. They just explode in your chest.

Be Polite. A fair number of the people you encounter have lost friends and relatives in the Space Viking raids. They bear ill will towards outsiders, but be polite to them and them will be polite back. A bit of respect goes a long way.

We like our food spicy. If you do not, tell the waiter or waitress in the cafe that you want the mild stuff. Cafes are not required to give refunds on meals that are too hot, and we do not mean temperature wise.

We are carnivores. If you are not, get ready to eat a lot of beans, or eat on your ship.

Liquor is no excuse! If you get yourself inebriated, and end up in the jail, you will be judged according to our standards. Drunk and disorderly gets you ten days at medium labor, cleaning up the town. Drunk and beaten to a pulp gets you carried back to your ship.

Do not harass our women! Depending on what you do, you might be the featured guest at an impromptu necktie party. If you do not know what that means, make sure you read the glossary carefully. Ignorance is no excuse either.

Lastly, if you have a problem, see the sheriff. He will listen to your problems, and actually try to solve the problem. He is paid to be polite to visitors and ship crewmen.

VISITOR INFORMATION:

On landing and disembarking, head to the bank to exchange your money. The bank exchange rate is 10 Credits to the El Paso Dollar. Merchants will take your Credits, but at at an allowed rate of 15 Credits to the Dollar. El Paso uses primarily coins for currency, so you may wish to consider a coin pouch or purse to carry them in. The denominations are $20, $10, and $5 gold coins, silver $1 coins, along with silver 50 Cent, 25 cent, and 10 cent coins. There are nickel 5 cent pieces and copper 1 cent pieces. The $20 gold piece and the Silver Dollar each weigh one ounce, with the rest of the silver and gold coins scaled down from there. You may carry the coins off-planet without a problem, but it is generally better to convert them back into Credits before you leave as some planets will not accept them. New Texas does not have that problem, so if traveling to there next, no change of currency is needed.

 

[Timerover51]

I probably will look at this is the Cepheus Engine also, but I have just figured out that mixing Jump Drive and two different speeds of Hyperdrive is going to cause some problems with life support costs. Jump Drive is pretty much the same, as the ship is in Jump Space for one week between ports, at least sort of. Further out into the sector, ports start getting spread out a bit. The problem is Hyperdrive.

I am looking at using two different speeds, one parsec a month and one parsec a week. That means more oxygen consumed and more food eaten to begin with, along with probably more water carried. The advantage to the Hyperdrive ships is range. That is limited by crew endurance and how much life support do they have. That is especially true for the one parsec a month ships, or Hyperdrive-1. I have them as pretty cheap ships to get, with a fair number of surplus hulls around, but for food, the costs are going to run somewhere around 150 to 300 credits a month for food, although the 10 creidts a day means pretty good eating. Water is a good storage place for oxygen, and a cubic meter does weigh one ton metric. A lot of that is oxygen. I think that budgeting a kilogram a day per person for oxygen is adequate, but I will need to check that.

The Hyperdrive-2 ship at a parsec a week will be easier on short runs, but will conform to the slower ship on longer runs. I will just have to work up two tables then, and maybe adjust stateroom prices for passengers to get them to take the slower ships. It does mean a bit more work.

 

[Timerover51]

What I need to get back to and finish working on is my bestiary for both the Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector, and Traveller/Cepheus Engine in general. As the Ancients apparently scattered humans all over the place, I am going with them also scattering Terran animals all over as well. After all, the humans need to eat something with protien, plus the possibility of further genetic engineering would be better served by a wider distribution of animals. Then there is the possibility of zoo planets. In the Out Rim, several groups were apparently spreading Terran creatures around, between the Baldies, the Krell, and a few other, as yet un-named groups and entities. Anyone remember some of the original Star Trek episodes when then encountered advanced individuals playing god? Consider that as one possible reason for Terran creatures to appear elsewhere besides Terra. I will probably add a section of beast of burden and pack animals, just to get some accurate data out there on said creatures.

I will try to have only those animals I have good images off, but my image collection, both black and white and color has been growing by leaps and bounds, so I will have a goodly range. I suspect my main problem will be limiting it to a manageable file size. That could mean more than one book, which would not be so bad. One critter that I would like to include is Piper's "Marsh Pigs" from Space Viking. I sort of visualize them as a pygmy hippo with a head resembling that of a wart hog, but quite tasty and fat.

 

[Timerover51]

Given the discussion on Aslan and slavery in the Lone Star forum, I may have to do some rethinking of the Aslan in my Piper-Norton Out Rim sector universe, and of course, my universe in general. Here is my initial thoughts from the first post.

The Aslan are genetically modified Terran lions courtesy of the Ancients, who were fooled by their social behavior on the African savannah into thinking that they would make good servants. As carnivores, the food requirement rapidly became a problem, as did the territorial drive of both the males and females. The maximum density of population on Aslan planets is 5 per square mile or 2 per square kilometer of land surface. (This is a lot denser than actual Terran populations in African national parks). They fare poorly on non-earthlike planets and fragment even worse than the Vargr. They control a significantly smaller volume of space than per canon, and are much less of a threat than per canon. They do make good mercenaries, but victory dinners featuring their former employers as the main course are not unheard of at all.

I had not really thought of slavery, particularly human slavery, on the part of the Aslan, but I have been doing some thinking. My basic premise for the P-N Out Rim was that small to medium size humans groups would head outward for unexplored spaces rather than coreward towards the already occupied area of the Imperium. I do allow for Aslan being around, as they would settle on primarily Terran-type planets, they should be somewhat spread out. In the course of Aslan heading towards the Rim, they would likely comes across small human colonies trying to make a go if it with limited resources. Clearly, these would be the prey of the Aslan. Now, while humans are omnivorous, they do eat a fair amount of plants, and to boost Aslan populations. some sort of domestication of animals and increase in carrying capacity for herbivores is needed to support the Aslan population. As I have a hard time visualizing an Aslan with a rake or hoe, humans clearly would be the answer. Plus, they are edible as well, along they take an awfully long time to mature. Improved varieties of hay, corn/maize, potatoes, turnips, rutabaga/swedes, and grains all could significantly increase the numbers of herbivores for the Aslan to consume, all of which they could get from the humans, along with the manpower (so to speak) to produce them.

I am still developing this, but it does pose some interesting possibilities. Slaves released by a Space Viking raid on an Aslan planet informing the Space Vikings of more lucrative targets. A human group bitterly opposed to slavery supplying weapons and trainers to human slaves on an Aslan world to start a revolution or resistance movement to eliminate the Aslan. Aslan raiding expeditions where the main object is to acquire some more human breeding stock to avoid too much inbreeding of their slaves.

 

[wellis]

Do hyperdrives and jump drives utilize the same dimension? Or do they each utilize different spaces?