Filling gaps

[c_osborne]

Fellow Sophonts,

Can anyone here help point me in the right direction to fill in gaps for a local system history? I'm working with the OOtD Sourcebook as my only source of knowledge, and the broad strokes painted there provide a skeleton, but I suspect some of the folks here may know a bit more. I expect 90% of the detail will be creative work on my part, but I could use some guidance setting up the rough outline. Here's what I have so far.

Sector: Verge
Subsector: Arkhukamier
Hex: 0506
System: Ingarmurgi
UWP: B561667-A NiRi 503

Q1: The system is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. It was a captive government, but there are no obvious candidates for the 'captors', so I am guessing it was probably ruled by Keger (A6969BC-F HiIn 224), which is two subsectors away. Does that makes sense, or would another closer system fit better? I based my guess on starport and tech level.

Q2: On a related note, I assume that a captive government could be ruled by a noble? I'm not super familiar with nobility and how that might work, but I have a PC Marquis, and I was thinking he could be a descendant of the ruler (the planet will be balkanized in 1248, so the PC will not rule).

Q3: Now as far as the OOtD book goes, I see few references to this area. There was the war in around 1195. Is that all we know? From 1115-1195 and 1195-1248 it is wide open? Can anyone give me a rough idea of what might have happened to most systems in this area during that time? Maybe just filling a couple major regional details I am missing? I'm trying to understand what my life would be like if I lived there during that time period. Especially 1210-1248, when the PCs were raised there.

Q4: I'm thinking the locals will be slightly technophobic, but open to psionics. Does that fit okay?

The current situation on Ingarmurgi (E561777-9 Ni 903) is messy. There have been several major local wars, and the planet has become balkanized. But overall, there was just a slight increase in population, and a slight decrease in technology. [FYI - Keger (X696877-7 HiIn 824) is much worse.]

Basically, the PCs title would make him the leader of both planets (and possibly several other colonies), but due to the collapse and balkanization, his title has become somewhat meaningless. He is still technically the highest ranking person on the planet, but the governments have refused to aquiesce any authority, so his position is basically mute. He is a figurehead from the fallen Imperium. On the other hand, the government seeks to court his support to add legitimacy to their claims of planetary sovereignty, and he finds himself at an awkward impasse. He has no true authority, but everyone still kisses his butt. He will of course be allied with just one local government, and will receive limited support in return. The initial adventure will involve travelling covertly to another country on the planet to attempt to gain access to some advanced technology. He has to assemble a team and do this himself, because it is not a government-sanctioned mission.

Q5: Are there any major flaws in my thinking so far?

Basically I'm trying to set up a pocket empire campaign, with the PCs as major players. Instead of jumping around all the time, I'm planning to keep them in one area and develop it in much more detail than I am normally able to. Any last thoughts or advice?

Thanks!

Chad

 

[c_osborne]

Here is what I have come up with so far on my own. If anyone could poke holes in any of it (effectively showing me where I need to make adjustments) it would be greatly appreciated.

***********

Ingarmurgi

Snapshot from 1107:

B561667-A NiRi 503
Red Dwarf, Spectral Class M
Three Gas Giants and four other planets (besides mainworld)
Mainworld has two moons
Good quality highport with repair facilities.
Small (8000km) and Low-G (0.625)
Standard Atmosphere, Warm Climate
10% Hydrographics
Diverse indigenous life
5,000,000 inhabitants
Colonial government
Moderate law
Early Interstellar Technology

The system is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. It was a colony Keger (A6969BC-F HiIn 224), which is two subsectors away. It is a rich world, with lots of natural resourses (both animal and mineral).

The system was hit hard by vampire fleets from Kukuu in the late 1100's, when hold-outs fled there hoping to set up defenses. The battle was tremendous, and the highport was destroyed, along with the majority of ships. But in the end, a few heroes did manage to drive off or destroy the vampire fleet. Due to the loss of the highport and associated technologies, however, Ingarmurgi was left with just a few starships, and no ability to manufacture more. In the aftermath, the planet became balkanized, and in the following years pretty much lost contact with the outside universe. Since that time, there have also been several major local wars.

Snapshot in 1248:

D561777-9 Ni 903
Poor quality downports with limited facilities.
90,000,000 inhabitants
Balkanized government
Moderate law
Circa 2100 Technology

Ingarmurgi has recovered somewhat, and has recently reproduced limited J-1 capability. However, the two nearest known systems are Kukuu (a suspected boneworld, possibly virus-infected) and Kugankaalanshi (a suspected low tech world). The lack of desirable destinations and continued in-system warfare have kept the population from expanding beyond the system. The remote location has also prevented visitation from outside.

The locals are slightly technophobic due to virus attacks, and xenophobic due to isolation, but are somewhat open to psionics.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Chad--I've looked at every version of traveller sector/ subsector map of Verge Sector, and there is no 0506 system.

None on Berka's CT Galactic site, nor GT's Interactive Atlas of the Imperium..

http://zho.berka.com/data/CLASSIC/sector.pl?sector=VERGE
http://www.utzig.com/cgi-bin/iai/map_subsector.pl
http://www.travellermap.com/

There's a non-aligned world at 0410. Are you sure you're talking about Verge Sector? What side of the Great Rift is this place at?

Ya stumped even this heretic lad..

 

[Liam Devlin]

As a side bar note:

The AI-Virus was released at Omicron Station in the anti-climactic battle of Archduke Dulinor's "Coronation Fleet" on 079-1130 in Core Sector. By 001-1132 it had crossed the Solomani frontiers, Daibei, and well on into Aslan Hierate Space.

By 1133, every major Race's area of space was feeling the death knell curse of AI-Virus (K'Kree, the Vargr, the Zhodani, Aslan, Hivers, etc)...and the lights started going out, hard and fast.

Helpfully yours,

Liam

 

[Liam Devlin]

Okay Chad... I think I see what you're doing--tell me where I go off the page now, please?

#1.) Are you making a system up out of whole cloth where none was before? If so, more power to your creative genius son!

#2.) "Two Subsectors away lies Keger"--umm, which subsector & Sector is this? Verge-subsectors B & F are empty of systems. Does Keger also lie in Verge or in the Reft Sector to corewards? Or are your 2 subsectors away to spinwards?

#3.) Agreed/Concur.
Balkanized as she is, isolated as she is, and having suffered somewhat at Virus as she has, yes some technophobia and xenophobia won't be unheard of. The extremity of which you decide!

#4.) Psion-friendly? Quite possible given their isolation and having to rely on non-computer generated means from time to time to make ends meet. But with Balkanization comes a mistrust of a unity government, and one or more of your nation states may not approve of psions, where as one or more might. Like the planetary average Law Level of 7...Some of your nations may have more stringent laws than others; some will have less; but the sum total of your world's nations LL's/ # of nations = 7. So Psions as a general rule might have a neutral policy (averaging the nations towards them as it is).

#5.) A former Captive government (6). Hmmm. Could have been a militarily enforced occupation either by huscarles of the Noble family; could be a Megacorp's hired mercenary force to hold an unruly but productive asset like this world (Ni Ri leans me this way); or a combination of both.

Virus comes along and the law and order is set aside, and the planet devolves into chaos, from which order gets restored, but not all at once, and not the same kind of order everywhere, or else it wouldn't be balkanized.

Some starships are maintained, and J-1 capability (or repair TL9) has been regained recently. So far so good.

But you say Keger lies very far away, and the next nearest three worlds hold a boneyard, a low tech survivor world, and a third with a strongly suspected Vampire ship menace. Hmmm.

Looks like they'll be mending fences at home first before voyaging out to see the neighbors much. And trips to go see the neighbors will have to be important to risk valuable assets like starships--like a rare medicine for a once easily vaccinated disease that is now a planetary pandemic..or something.

Lots of room for intrigue among the world's individual nation states I see. There's also exploring their own system for stuff opportunities as well.

Heck, you could orchestrate years of gaming and never jump out of system!

Best of luck to you!

 

[c_osborne]

Here's the system I have been using.

http://jtas.net/travelleratlas/Sectors/Verge/Arkhukamier.html

On yours I found it listed as 526, with the name Durko or Grug. Making Keger in hex 2123.

I didn't realize there were so many different maps. Is one considered superior (more canon) to the others?

 

[c_osborne]

Liam,

Thanks for the input so far. I hope the map issue is cleared up, so I'll focus on your other questions.

Re #4.) Yeah, I was thinking the various nations will be widely different. For example, one will be a relatively stable democracy, and another will be a brutal dictatorship. I may toss in a few others. The noble will hold no true power, but will be supported by the dictator. So there will be some interesting politics, as the PCs probably won't like their supporter, and may find themselves in awkward situations when they travel to the other country covertly.

Psionics will be a local phenomenon introduced as a religious phenomena.

Re #5.) My thought was sort of like the colonies in South America. Plantations ruled by nobles, with the majority population being exploited laborers (pre-collapse). I'm thinking about using the two moons as military bases for the two superpowers.

The first few adventures will all be on planetary scale. The noble has a mothballed yacht, which they may eventually be able to get up and running, and I have plans for them visiting the boneyard. I may also implement your idea about special medicines from the low tech world.

At any rate, the idea was that they eventually end up in conflict with their supporter, and become instrumental in bringing the system together under a unity government. Then they are contacted from outside, or else find a ship capable of higher jump capability.

A lot of this is still fluid.

Chad

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Chad Osborne:
Here's the system I have been using.

http://jtas.net/travelleratlas/Sectors/Verge/Arkhukamier.html

On yours I found it listed as 526, with the name Durko or Grug. Making Keger in hex 2123.

I didn't realize there were so many different maps. Is one considered superior (more canon) to the others?

Aha. That's why I couldn't find it!
As for which to use...which is "more canon" etc..

I am using the latter one,
http://www.travellermap.com/
which includes the old Great big red white and black Big map of the Imperium, then gets smaller and smaller the more you adjust your controls. You can drag the sucker about as if plotting astrogation, which my players like.

There are however varying opinions. Even this site's map has errors which later map makers copied as well.

Example-Old Expanses, the borders seen at size 8 and then looking at allegiances when you get down to subsector size do not match up in subsector P, Sitah.

Many of the planets have no names--for names, default to Berka's Galactic version.

Your site is the only one placing those worlds there. It boils down to which has least errors and which agrees most with the others.
In our campaigns we used IAI & the one above. IAI's at least while its GT UPP data, gives the type of star, and systemn detail the others all lack--also useful for our Astrogating players (2).

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Chad Osborne:
Liam,

Thanks for the input so far. I hope the map issue is cleared up, so I'll focus on your other questions.

Yer welcome!

Re #4.) Yeah, I was thinking the various nations will be widely different. For example, one will be a relatively stable democracy, and another will be a brutal dictatorship. I may toss in a few others. The noble will hold no true power, but will be supported by the dictator. So there will be some interesting politics, as the PCs probably won't like their supporter, and may find themselves in awkward situations when they travel to the other country covertly.

Psionics will be a local phenomenon introduced as a religious phenomena.

Good examples--and good idea on the PSionics. Old TNE did that, calling such regimes Mystic Autocracies (MA's) or 'Mystic Dictatorships' (MD's) depending on the power sharing. Of course, a religion could also be used to form those governments as well. Even Scientologists!--(just kidding Mr Travolta!)Or Data-Priests as we called them could be an MA, or MD government.

Re #5.) My thought was sort of like the colonies in South America. Plantations ruled by nobles, with the majority population being exploited laborers (pre-collapse). I'm thinking about using the two moons as military bases for the two superpowers.

Again, makes sense. Good idea, balkanizing even the space power! Good point of planetary contention there.

The first few adventures will all be on planetary scale. The noble has a mothballed yacht, which they may eventually be able to get up and running, and I have plans for them visiting the boneyard. I may also implement your idea about special medicines from the low tech world.

At any rate, the idea was that they eventually end up in conflict with their supporter, and become instrumental in bringing the system together under a unity government. Then they are contacted from outside, or else find a ship capable of higher jump capability.

A lot of this is still fluid.

Chad

Sounds good thus far!

 

[c_osborne]

Originally posted by Liam Devlin:
Your site is the only one placing those worlds there. It boils down to which has least errors and which agrees most with the others.

Actually, the specific error on 'my' site is that all 16 subsectors have the numbers that should only belong to the 1st subsector. So there is no 0516, 0526, etc. All of 'your' maps have the worlds at 0526, which is correct. It seems the UWP is also the same on all maps, so I guess any of them would work. The reason I like 'my' site is because the maps are prettier.

Thanks again for the input. My main concern was that I didn't want to have a reality that diverges too far from the canon, because I plan to eventually have the PCs hook up with the 4th Imperium, and I'd like to use later canon materials when they come out, without having to rewrite history. You've been a great help.

Chad

 

[c_osborne]

Stepping down one level in detail...

A full rotation of Ingarmurgi (day/night cycle) is approximately 22.5 standard hours long. For reference, Ingarmurgi gets about 25% more sunlight than earth. Thus some form of ultraviolet protection is generally worn in most regions. The temperature varies from -35C (coldest mountaintop at night) to 65C (equatorial desert in the afternoon). Weather is mostly mild, although violent sandstorms are known in the desert regions, and occasional electric storms occur.

Pre-collapse Ingarmurgi was sort of like the colonies in South America. Plantations ruled by nobles, shipping valuable resources back to Keger. The planet itself is quite warm, and vast region around the equator are inhospitable. Thus the majority of the settlements were around the poles.

After the devastating battle with the vampire fleets, civilization was slow to recover, and the early new governments rising out of the chaos were quite brutal. Now, after more than a century of wars, the situation has reached a temporary impasse.

There are currently two major governments on Ingarmurgi, along with several minor powers. The northern hemisphere is ruled by the Free States of Ingarmurgi (a de-centralized democracy, governed by those who used to be laborers). The southern hemisphere is ruled by the Republic of Ingarmurgi (a dictatorship, ruled by remnants of the old establishment). These nations have had a sort of on and off war going for the last decade, although things are currently cool. However, there is always concern that things could heat up in the near future, as each side jockeys for an advantage over the other.

The two moons were occupied prior to the collapse, and currently serve as military bases for the two superpowers.

Psionics are known in both nations. In the Free States, it is a part of their religion. In the Republic, the state sponsors training for military purposes.

The PCs are living in the Republic, where they have served as fairly prominent members of society.

Technology is relatively equal between the two superpowers. The following are basic technological levels.

Personal Weaponry - laser rifles are the latest tech, but assault rifles are the mainstay. rumor has it the military is working on an advanced combat rifle
Armor - reflec is being developed, but is not available commerically yet. cloth is standard
Transport - air-rafts are available, but ground cars are more common
Defense - grav tanks, orbital combat vessels, and grav assisted fighter aircraft
Power - fusion power is the primary source

The initial mission will involve crossing the desert and going into enemy territory to find a technological cache under the ice at the north pole.

 

[Liam Devlin]

You're very welcome! Glad to be of some help rather than a wet blanket!

 

[c_osborne]

Even a wet blanket would be welcome, if it looked like I was lighting myself on fire.

Chad

 

[Liam Devlin]

Only in the emplacement of the system--but that's fixed now! Everything else is your cookie out there. Our campaign is set 1210, in Reft's subsectors L, O, & P, another vague GM-preserve area just at edge of 1248 4th Imperium, with some scattered Imperial regency worlds on that side..
(we are before the invasion of the Wilds there)