Cepheus Engine Piper-Norton Sector

[Timerover51]

I will be putting anything posted on the Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector here under the Cepheus Engine, as that is what I will be using to design the sector for the most part. I will not be responding to questions asked about it in the My Traveller Universe forum.

I had two "light bulb" moments today with respect to the sector. One was that I needed to switch the Beowolf and the Odin sectors in position, because of the way the planet Baldur was developing. I could have switched Baldur to an interloper in Beowolf, but that did not feel right. As I have not positioned any planets as yet, nor finished determining how many and what the names are of the planets in those two sub-sectors, it is not that big a headache. Marvelous things, word processing programs.

The second light bulb went off while I was reading a booklet I have on fantasy maps, appropriately enough, the one for the Bermuda Triangle. I have a planet called "Triangle" in the Rover Sub-sector, which is linked somehow, wormhole?, to the Bermuda Triangle. I hit me that I could have a party of adventurers on Earth, vacationing in the area of the Bermuda Triangle, maybe on the water fishing or what have you, suddenly find themselves way out on the Rim, on the planet Triangle. That would be a bit of a change in scenery. I definitely need to keep that idea in mind. It would be even better if it were a group of Imperial occupation troops taking a bit of leave, with not a lot of knowledge about the background of the area.

No fancy Combat Armor, no energy weapons, on high-tech electronic communications, just their survival smarts and what they happen to have on hand.

 

[Timerover51]

Sector Layout

The 16 sub-sectors of the Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector are labeled as follows, and I think that their position is set. At least, until another planet starts talking to me.

Top Row: Sword, Odin, Beowolf, Castaway
Sword and Castaway have all of their planets named, Sword has all of them located.

Second Row: New Texas, Tuatha, Topaz, Kalavela
Kalavela has all planets named, they still need to be located.

Third Row: Poictesme, Warlock, Marduk, Aegir,
Warlock and Aegir have all of the planets named, they still need to be located.

Bottom Row: MacBeth, Rover, Arth, Sargol.
MacBeth has all of the planets named, they still need to be located.

Short write-ups have been completed for some of them, with more coming. Baldur and New Texas will be two of the largest poplation planets in the sector, with Class A star ports. The Space Vikings primarily operate from the Sword sub-sector, but they do have a couple of bases in the Castaway sub-sector. They may show up almost anywhere in the sector, but have the lowest chance in the Sargol, Arth, and Aegir sectors.

Magic can work, portable energy weapons do not. You have been warned.

 

[mike wightman]

Will there be psionics as well as magic or just magic?

 

[Timerover51]

Will there be psionics as well as magic or just magic?

As I am not a fan of psionics, I do not plan to having them in the rule set to accompany the sector. However, the sector will be a free-standing one, not dependent on the additional rules. If someone wants to use it with the straight Cepheus Engine rules or with one of the Traveller rule editions, they should be able too. They will need some Jump-3 and Jump-4 ships though, and it will be much more of a frontier sector.

Magic will work on some planets, but not all. If a referee wants magic to work on all, that is up to them. If they do not want magic at all, that is up to them.

For that matter, the rules will be a free-standing set as well, for anyone who to use.

 

[Timerover51]

I just about have Sword Sub-sector laid out with Universal World Profiles for the planets as I envision them. SectorMaker has really speeded up the process. Now to write up more extensive world descriptions, and add some caveats to what SectorMaker fields I cannot change. This sub-sector is the primary one for the Space Vikings, settled by a large group of Scandinavians that really wanted to go "a-Viking" like their remote ancestors. This does not include the Finns, as they went in another direction, as did the Irish, and of course, the Texans.

Edit Note: The trade routes for Sword Sector are going it, along with locating the Rim Scout way stations and exploration bases. I just need a larger screen than the iPad has to make things a bit easier with SectorMaker.

 

[Timerover51]

One side effect of using SectorMaker for the development of the sector is that I am going to get really well acquainted with all of the world-building rules in Traveller 5. The "Dense-High" atmosphere is never really spelled out, so figuring out what it means has taken a bit of time today. What it looks like I am going to have to do is use one of my programs to extract specific pages from the Big Black Book, and put together a guidance file for all of the various abbreviations and definitions.

I did come up with a new type of atmospheric taint for one of the planets. The planet is warm and wet, so I have the trees producing an overwhelming barrage of attractive odors from the blossoms for pollinators to come too. The odors, while not the equivalent of "skunk spray", and individually would be fairly pleasant if a bit strong, in combination can trigger nausea and allergic reactions it some humans. This means that some form of filter mask is required, and also thorough washing of one's garments after wear in the forest and jungle. The savanna areas are not too bad, and the higher elevations are much better in terms of the odors.

I suspect that I will come up with more things as I go along. I will have to write up a short packet of atmospheric taints for Cepheus Engine as an add-on.

 

[aramis]

Dense-High and Thin-Low are defined in CT-Sup 10, in case one wants a textual description.

 

[Timerover51]

Will there be psionics as well as magic or just magic?

After giving your question more thought, I think that there will be some aspect of what might be called "psionics" in the sector. I will need to do some work on it, but it will likely be a bit different from the standard system given in the rules. There is none in the H. Beam Piper books, but Norton's have a fair amount of what I would call more of a "wild talent" appearing in characters. There is the "age sensing" used in one of the Time Trader books, which after being used as a plot device, vanished from further usage. That would be useful in this sector, given the ruins which are present. She also has a far number of characters with what I would call an "affinity" for animals, which is not in your regular system of psionics.

Then you also have James Schmitz "vatches" from Witches of Karres that I think will be part of the sector, just not called by that name, but the idea is there.

Basically, I would like to tap into some of the range of science fiction and fantasy that does not exist in the Official Traveller Universe as now constituted, but was there in potential in the original 1977 edition of the game. Then the OTU came into being, and walled that all off. I would like to get it back

 

[Timerover51]

Dense-High and Thin-Low are defined in CT-Sup 10, in case one wants a textual description.

Thanks for the information, although that seems to be a bit different from how "Dense-High" appears in T5. "Thin-Low" i have planned to use for Palo Duro in the New Texas sub-sector.

 

[mike wightman]

Basically, I would like to tap into some of the range of science fiction and fantasy that does not exist in the Official Traveller Universe as now constituted, but was there in potential in the original 1977 edition of the game. Then the OTU came into being, and walled that all off. I would like to get it back

The original CT rules were designed to tap into the golden age of sci fi and for referees to make up their own setting. The OTU came later and is just one interpretation of a setting you can mold from the rules - too heavily influenced by Star Wars and too many people think it is the one true way.
The OTU setting often does not use the rules as written.

I really like what you are doing with your sector.

Back to the psionic/magic thing - is there a link between psionic and magic potential or are they totally separate? Can you just re-task psi strength as 'magic points' with each spell costing a certain number of points?
Can the existing psi talents be re-tasked to the limited psi you want to include?

Will the magic be subtle changes or fireballs the equivalent of rpgs? Will the summoning of elementals or other otherworldy entities be possible?

Then again, is the 'magic' just sufficiently advanced technology?

 

[Timerover51]

The original CT rules were designed to tap into the golden age of sci fi and for referees to make up their own setting. The OTU came later and is just one interpretation of a setting you can mold from the rules - too heavily influenced by Star Wars and too many people think it is the one true way.
The OTU setting often does not use the rules as written.

I really like what you are doing with your sector.

Thank you for the kind words. I have often viewed the OTU as being a bit too constrictive when it comes to creativity. I understand that many people want pre-generated adventures due to the pressures of time, and every one of those adventures helps to set the OTU. The problem arrises when a referee really wants to create something new, which forces them out of the OTU.

Back to the psionic/magic thing - is there a link between psionic and magic potential or are they totally separate? Can you just re-task psi strength as 'magic points' with each spell costing a certain number of points?

I am working, as a starting point, with Zozer Games Fast Magic, developed for use with the Cepheus Engine. (Shameless plug for the booklet. Paul has some very good ideas.) I am not sure about that, as this is a work in progress, and I have been bouncing from one aspect to another of the sector.

Can the existing psi talents be re-tasked to the limited psi you want to include?

Probably to a degree. Definitely the "animal affinity" could be worked into the existing psi talents, which I would like to limit. Levitating would be another example that could be worked in. I sort of view "psi" as the potential out-of-control magic-user in D&D. If someone got really creative or good, they can massively unbalance the game.

Will the magic be subtle changes or fireballs the equivalent of rpgs? Will the summoning of elementals or other otherworldy entities be possible?

The magic will be a combination of both. As for the summing of elementals, probably not, otherworldly entities is a distinct possibility, but again, a work in progress. Some of the sub-sector and world names might give some clues as to what adventurers might run into.

Then again, is the 'magic' just sufficiently advanced technology?

Not really. While the Potion of Cuppachino might be viewed as sufficiently advanced technology, creating food and water is a bit beyond anything in Traveller. I am also drawing on Metamorphosis Alpha for ideas, as that has a blend of technology and what boils down to magic.

I am also posting progress updates in my blog if you want to check that periodically. That is a little less public for me to toss ideas out that are simmering on the back burners of my mind.

 

[Timerover51]

Dense-High and Thin-Low are defined in CT-Sup 10, in case one wants a textual description.

I did some more digging and found them also described in Book 6: Scouts on page 40. I was planning to use both of them for planets in the sector. I am making up a helper guide with all of the various abbreviations and definitions used in SectorMaker to better understand it.

 

[Independence Games]

I did some more digging and found them also described in Book 6: Scouts on page 40. I was planning to use both of them for planets in the sector. I am making up a helper guide with all of the various abbreviations and definitions used in SectorMaker to better understand it.

Have you considered using our system generator in Unmerciful Frontier: The CCA Sourcebook? I did a lot of work and research trying to get the latest science to work in concert with CE/CS:R.

 

[Timerover51]

Have you considered using our system generator in Unmerciful Frontier: The CCA Sourcebook? I did a lot of work and research trying to get the latest science to work in concert with CE/CS:R.

Greetings John, I was not aware that you had a system generator in one of your books. Right now, one of the benefits of SectorMaker is that it runs on an iPad, and gives me a visual representation of the entire sector and its planets. That is a big advantage as I can work on the sector with my legs up, and also while lying down. I sort of have an image in my mind as to how the sector looks, and having the ability to see the big picture and bring that in line with what I think it should look like is quite nice.

Thanks for the heads up. I will have to take a look at some of your Clement Sector material.

 

[Timerover51]

Coming up with suitable names for all of the planets in the sector is still a work in progress. I have a lot of them named, but then locating them and figuring out what the UWP should be that I envision is taking time, but coming along steadily. If I can get a dozen or so located, named, and approximate UWP determine per day, I feel that I have made considerable progress.

That also includes thinking of careers that will be around customized to the sector, how many Rim Scout bases to put it, and how many remnant human groups are out there. Some of them are from earlier colonization attempts, some of them are from groups transplanted by the Baldies as basically slave workers, and at least one case of they are not exactly sure how they got there.

Still pondering the planet Ptah in the Marduk sub-sector, I am not sure about that being a still existing static Egyptian Old Kingdom culture, a collection of Egyptian ruins with hieroglyphics which can be read indicating what happened to a degree, or something else. After all, Ptah is the Egyptian God of Outer Space, per the handbook on deities by another company.

Clearly, someone was messing with the sector a while back, as there are quite a few habitable planets, and some of them have Terran flora and fauna on them, along with the local variety. Still thinking about varieties of breadfruit trees, as I like the idea of cinnamon-raisin and sourdough loaves off of the tree. I can chalk them up to some demented Krell with a really wild imagination.

There will be 5 new careers, along with one slightly modified one, and two pretty much standard ones. The new ones are Rim Scout (with rank progression), Space Viking (ground combat skills), Sailor (the wet merchant navy), Rover (born under a wandering star), and Scholar (aka me). The modified one will be Settler, sort of a Colonist. The two standard ones will be Merchant and Navy. However, if someone wants to use standard Cepheus Engine careers or Traveller (any edition) careers, go right ahead. If using Traveller, I would suggest the Citizens of the Imperium supplement. I am not sure about a Barbarian career, and for the Mage, see Zozer Games Fast Magic for a starter.

 

[nobby-w]

Coming up with suitable names for all of the planets in the sector is still a work in progress. I have a lot of them named, but then locating them and figuring out what the UWP should be that I envision is taking time, but coming along steadily. If I can get a dozen or so located, named, and approximate UWP determine per day, I feel that I have made considerable progress.
[ . . . ]

Here's a link to a big list of names I compiled from various sources on the interwebs. This may be of use.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?p=595817

 

[Timerover51]

Here's a link to a big list of names I compiled from various sources on the interwebs. This may be of use.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?p=595817

That is an interesting list, and it includes a fair number of the Chicago suburbs, including the town that I grew up in. I am not sure I will use that name, but that does trigger another very similar name that I could use in the New Texas sub-sector. That does look like a very useful list of names. Thanks for posting it.

All of the sub-sector have somewhat of a theme for naming the planets, although there are exceptions.

 

[Timerover51]

Bestiary

I spent part of this afternoon while doing the laundry thinking about some of the beasts mentioned in Piper's and Norton's works.

For Piper, you have the Zarathustra Damnthing that nearly gets Jack Holloway but Little Fuzzy tips him off of the attack from behind. Then there is the sea life of Fenris, along with a couple of quite unpleasant land critters, and the Marsh Pigs of Colada, that I envision as something of a cross between a wart hog and a pygmy hippopotamus. Add the Venusian night hound from the Paratime series, and you have some interesting creatures to work with.

For Andre, there is the range of creatures on the planet Jumala, from Star Hunter, along with a very advanced computer intelligent that still had a long reach. Then there is Hosteen Storm's Terran sabotage team, with all Terran animals so no copyright issues. She has the crocodilian-like reptiles in Plague Ship, and Captain Jellicoe's memorable pet, the Hoobat. The wolverines of Storm Over Warlock and the foxes, kinkajou, and cats of Catseye can add to the mix. And I should not forget Murray Leinster's Kodiak Bears or the "Tormal" of his Med Ship series. While I do not have an image of the Hoobat, I do have images of about all of the Terran animals, so a Bestiary would not be simply text.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or encouragement out there? The Bestiary could easily be a stand alone supplement for Cepheus Engine along with Traveller.

 

[mike wightman]

I would start with the creatures you know about. What are their special characteristics and why do they need them to survive in the environment that supports them?

Write their name down and then think about where they fit in the food web of their environment.
Write these down too - names can come later.

Sketch out what they eat and what eats them and you have a lot more critters all linked and the beginning of a fleshed out ecosystem.

The CT tables were really good for this, I'll have to check how CE handles generating 'animal encounters'.

 

[nobby-w]

That is an interesting list, and it includes a fair number of the Chicago suburbs, including the town that I grew up in. I am not sure I will use that name, but that does trigger another very similar name that I could use in the New Texas sub-sector. That does look like a very useful list of names. Thanks for posting it.

All of the sub-sector have somewhat of a theme for naming the planets, although there are exceptions.

I compiled the list for naming cities, moons, other planets in a system and so forth - not just systems. It's a sort of attempt to be able to give everything a name quickly as needed.

Having said that, if you wanted a theme of (say) towns or regions in the Southwest it wouldn't be hard to compile one yourself with a bit of google-fu. That list took about an evening to compile so it's not as big a job as one might think.