Far Companions and Mainworlds

[EvilDrGanymede]

Hopefully this is the right place to ask this sort of question here...

Let's say you have a binary star system, consisting of two stars separated by a few 1000 AU (usually referred to as system containing a Far Companion). Let's also say that both stars have their own planetary systems, and both have worlds that would be classed as 'Main Worlds' (MW).

From what I've gathered, it's usual in Traveller to just refer to one of these Main Worlds as the MW of the system. This strikes me as being a bit odd - although the two stars orbit a common centre of mass, they are basically two separate star systems, particularly as you need to microjump to get from one to the other in any practical timescale. In fact, in terms of travel time, they're not really all that different to being separate by a 1 pc hex on a subsector map. So why shouldn't the Main World of the far companion's system be considered important enough to put on a map?

Is this just an artifact of there being only one line on which to write the Main World's stats in the subsector data sheet? Or that one often creates a system around a given Main World rather than creating the whole system first?

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by thrash:
Both, I think, and there's no conventional way to depict two "systems" that are really Jump-0 apart.

I just got round that by writing the UWPs on consecutive lines on the subsector list, but with the same hex number

Canonically, Regina is one such system -- there's a detailed writeup in Book 6.

Part of my problem was that if you had two equally habitable worlds orbiting the two far-separated stars, then why would one be chosen for colonisation preferentially over the other? With Regina I think it's slightly different because you have three habitable worlds around one star, and the 'main world' around the Far Companion is a low pop, Mars like satellite of a gas giant.

Given the distance between far companions, is there really any social/political/military reason why they should even be considered as the same system? The Primary's Mainworld can only get to the Companion's Mainworld in a week anyway - as quickly as it can get to a world 1 parsec away.

 

[trader jim]

this question is one reason i like this forum!!!
i dont like to admit this...but i never even gave this any thought....explains a lot....something else i get to exploe and look for...thanx

 

[BigBadRon]

I think, in the case of Regina, there is a logical (in-game logical) reason for the choice of MW. It orbits a gas giant, so has a handy supply of raw fuel for refining at the starport.
For other systems it isn't so clear cut, the choice seems arbitrary (in reality it is the result of generating MWs first and expanding the system later).
In the game it's probably a result of Imperial bureaucrats insisting that a system can only have one main world, all other worlds must be secondary. They don't much care which world runs the system as long as they have somewhere to send the mail to.

If I was generating a sector from scratch, I think I'd list multiple MWs if they seemed appropriate.

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by BigBadRon:
[qb]I think, in the case of Regina, there is a logical (in-game logical) reason for the choice of MW. It orbits a gas giant, so has a handy supply of raw fuel for refining at the starport.
For other systems it isn't so clear cut, the choice seems arbitrary (in reality it is the result of generating MWs first and expanding the system later).

Regina's got a dense, breathable atmosphere going for it, as well as roughly earth-like gravity (yoinks - Assiniboia's satellites are *huge*!!). BUT - there are two other 'instantly habitable' satellites - Redes and Brumaire. Redes is very close to the gas giant, and has a Dense, Tainted atmosphere (probably due to volcanism, I imagine). Brumaire is a bit bigger than Mars, and has a Standard atmosphere and water - and is also a hell of a lot nearer the gas giant than Regina (put to scale, Brumaire is about as far from Assiniboia as Europa is from Jupiter, whereas Regina is the equivalent of about twice as far as Callisto is from Jupiter). I imagine the thing that tipped colonisation in Regina's favour was the higher gravity and large amount of water on the surface.

That said, given there are two very habitable worlds (and one slightly less habitable one) in very close proximity in the system, why would a wave of colonists necessarily pick just one world to go to? The implication is that initial colonisation occurred exclusively on Regina, then spread out to the other moons as time passed. Is this really all that likely? I guess with tax breaks for colonists or other such encouragement maybe it is, but heck, if enough colonists are coming in then why shouldn't they start settling the other habitable worlds as aggressively as the 'the main world'?

In the game it's probably a result of Imperial bureaucrats insisting that a system can only have one main world, all other worlds must be secondary. They don't much care which world runs the system as long as they have somewhere to send the mail to.

That doesn't quite follow though. If both stars are effectively separated by a week's travel in jumpspace, is there any sensible reason why they shouldn't be considered any different in any practical terms from two systems separated by 1 parsec? Assuming it would be profitable to do so (e.g. the Companion has a hi-pop world around it), why shouldn't the J-boat stop off at the Companion star on the way to or from the Primary Star, since it's a J1 hop to get there anyway? Especially given that it'd stop at a similar system a parsec away anyway.

 

[EvilDrGanymede]

Originally posted by thrash:
If the separation is 1200 AU or less, it's actually quicker to send messages back and forth in real space (via high-power laser, say).

OK. That's a good point. Though In Book 6 Scouts it suggests that Far Companions are 1d6*1000 AU away, so such a situation is uncommon - and even then a system at 1000 AU is only about 5.8 light-days away from the Primary, rather than 7 light-days - not a *huge* difference, though it'd probably still be cheaper to send a message by laser rather than J-boat (is it?).

Still, it's all very well sending messages back and forth between the systems by laser or radio or whathaveyou, but what if for example the people on the Companion Mainworld decide they've had enough of the tyrannical oppression they're getting from the Primary Mainworld? Even though they're relatively close to eachother (compared to system a few parsecs away), being in the same stellar system doesn't really give the Primary world any advantage over the Companion - the Companion may as well be a parsec away (or even six parsecs away, since travel times are always a week) in terms of getting anything out there to quell the rebellion.

 

[millican]

I think that the idea of using the same hex for each of the inhabited worlds in a far companion system is great. One could annotate this in the notes part of the description line as well - at least I would think.

I would also think that far companion in-system communication would be a local issue, not an Imperial one. I agree with the idea that Imperial bureaucrats want one address to which to send the mail. A postal union treaty between the inhabited worlds of the far companion system could oversee in-system mail delivery. The treaty could result in an in-system fleet of couriers, the previously talked about high-powered laser beam communicators, or contract out to merchants / adventurers (possible hook anyone?).

 

[Liam Devlin]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the settlement question, when an in depth development of a binary system comes up say(by random rolls, of course!) a better world than the "Main world/ MW".

I remember using the TNE system of World generation and came up with several within a dense star system (binary) with several habitable gas giant moons, as well as a captured planet almost the twin of the main world.

Fortunately, the MW was A-size, and the "twin in habitable orbit 3.6 was size 9. The MW pop was 9, so making the "twin" a very high pop 8 (nearly a 9/ 1 billion) wasn't a problem. The habitable cluster moons around the three gas giants in system were less heavily populated.

Since this was in the Old expoanses, I set the orginal settlement by the Vilani 1st Imperium on the MW, and twin. (given the need for 2 Gee of thrust to get off the MW High Gravity world). The 2nd Imperium resettled into the system at TL-12, and began populating the system with various ethnic groups (In this case the SE Eurpean & Asia Minor region).

Then the Long night came along..and the colonies held together in their own system, falling back to TL-9. By the Time the 3rd Imperium comes along, they have re-established a PE within their own system, the Two worlds (MW & Twin) competing to keep the colony worlds on the GG moons viable.

The Rebellion/Hard Times factored in, the system once the Solomani frontier was pushed rimwards again, found itself in the "Outlands", and took up its previous Long Night stance. Many of the outlying projects and terraforming of system settlement had been halted by the war, and as the clock drew down, and many were deemed doomed, the Twin world took it upon herself to evacuate these outer moons/ worlds, as the MW had become hopelessly balkanized from the factional fighting of the Rebellion into civil war unto herself.

In this instance, thru the 70 years of collapse, the Twin remained one of the few worlds to maintain space travel, and eventually linked up with the remaining worlds. The Main world remained hopelessly bogged down in civil war.

In such patterns of stellar creation, wherein canon worlds are: leave them be under the "just because" clause.

If in creating stellar dense systems with more than one habitable world (binary/ trinary systems),
I always try to find a plausible reason why the first/ Main world was the original colony, if the next world by the other star lies within its own habitable zone, and is "better-suited" than the MW. This may cause you to tweak some numbers, But anything that makes your system more plausible to you & your gamers should be utilized.

Its YTU, after all!
Heretically yours,