Fleshing out a World

[Spinward Scout]

:alpha:
Speeding away from Regina in their Detached Scout/Courier to the Jump Point, Joe Scout asks: “What’s on the next world?” Jim Traveller says: “I dunno – I thought you knew...”

And so it begins. That age old Travelling question “Why are we going here?”

Which is really the question: What is this World known for?

Reading through Supplement Four’s “Reading a subsector – Regina” thread (in the CT forum) got my juices flowing for figuring out the subsector details. Since fleshing out a world in complete detail would take quite a long time and as much material as contained in the Encyclopedia Britannica (et alors), I’ve come up with some questions to answer when you are figuring out what is on the next world (or anytime you are Travelling on this planet). Answering these questions before your crew gets to the next planet will give you a head start if you need to improvise a game session, plus it can give you background ‘flavor’ to throw at the players. That’s assuming your players Plan A isn’t just meeting your Patron at the Startown Tavern.

The first is, of course:

1.) What is this world known for?

2.) What is one thing that I absolutely need to see or do while I’m here?

3.) Is this a good place for a vacation or is it all business?

4.) Can I get a bit of culture while I’m here? (Arts & History)

5.) What kind of events, landmarks, or scenic views are here? (Attractions)

6.) Is there some great nightlife? (Entertainment)

7.) How’s the food? (Cuisine)

8.) Where am I going to sleep? (Lodging & Accommodations)

9.) How am I going to get around? (Transportation)

10.) Where is my towel? (Shopping & Gear)

11.) What’s the criminal element like? (GOV and LAW)

12.) What’s the wildlife like? (Bestiary)

13.) What do I really want to stay away from?

14.) Are there any special precautions I need to make?

Any other ideas?

Spinward Scout
mega:

 

[JKH1232]

Any other ideas?

What's the one thing that, absolutely, positively will get me killed, and no one will feel sorry for me? (Could be a physical hazard or a custom, or any other thing like that)

 

[Supplement Four]

DGP's Grand Survey and Grand Census is an excellent resource for this type of thing.

The MT version (and somewhat different version) of these two books is the World Builder's Handbook

TNE has the World Tamer's Guide, which is a similar, but also vastly different work (that focuses, of course, on TNE style worlds).





If you don't have any of these books, Heaven & Earth is an excellent program to generate loads of details about worlds in less than a minute. It's based DGP's World Builder's Handbook above and delivers like information.

I highly suggest checking it out. I find H&E indespensible (when I'm not using the books to play around with things by hand).

 

[Spinward Scout]

What's the one thing that, absolutely, positively will get me killed, and no one will feel sorry for me? (Could be a physical hazard or a custom, or any other thing like that)

Are you talking about a Darwin Award Recipient? That would probably fall under GOV and LAW.

If you don't have any of these books, Heaven & Earth is an excellent program to generate loads of details about worlds in less than a minute. It's based DGP's World Builder's Handbook above and delivers like information. I highly suggest checking it out. I find H&E indespensible (when I'm not using the books to play around with things by hand).

That's a cool program! Is there an input file I need to select?

 

[Supplement Four]

That's a cool program! Is there an input file I need to select?

If you want official UWPs, just select the "Load Sector" button, then load the sector you want. If you haven't updated to v1.08 of the program, then just check the different file types until you see the sector info.

Click on the map. Click on the world. See all sorts of stuff. The program will map the entire star system, and it will map the main world for you. Plus, it will give you all sorts of details about the world.

 

[jfetters]

Just make sure you are happy with what you want to pick from that process. The big problem with H&E is in that WBH code - a lot of the data (especially relating to temperature) has some odd bugs in it. It only really shows up when you mass-generate detailed worlds, though, so you will probably be fine if you use it for one-offs.

IMO, if you want to get into the nitty gritty detail of a world, you will do it by hand (mostly) anyway - just so that you can "step in" at certain points, if desired. (And this is for the detail generation process - the world mapping feature on H&E is way cool).

 

[Supplement Four]

The big problem with H&E is in that WBH code - a lot of the data (especially relating to temperature) has some odd bugs in it.

I've noticed this about a lot of Traveller programs, especially character generators. I haven't found a single Traveller chargen program yet that exactly duplicates the character creation process from CT. All of the ones out take liberties with the system.

 

[rancke]

I've noticed this about a lot of Traveller programs, especially character generators. I haven't found a single Traveller chargen program yet that exactly duplicates the character creation process from CT. All of the ones out take liberties with the system.

I won't swear to it, but I think the one in the computer game Megatraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients emulates it exactly. If not, it's very close.

Edit: No, I'm wrong, obviously. It emulates the enhanced character generation of MT.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

I've noticed this about a lot of Traveller programs, especially character generators. I haven't found a single Traveller chargen program yet that exactly duplicates the character creation process from CT. All of the ones out take liberties with the system.

I assume that you mean the Book 2 Character Generation and
not the Book 4+ systems.

How would you handle the part of the official system rules where
you select which branch to attempt to enlist in?

Should you try to enlist in different branch or risk the draft?

How would you handle the part of the official system rules where
you select which skill table you want to apply the random die roll to?

These do not lend themselves to a spreadsheet type of application,
and proper interactive computer coding is hard to check for
statistical errors.

 

[Supplement Four]

I assume that you mean the Book 2 Character Generation and
not the Book 4+ systems.

I mean both. Read the fine print on your favorite character generator. They all have problems/take liberties with the system.

 

[Supplement Four]

How would you handle the part of the official system rules where
you select which branch to attempt to enlist in?

Should you try to enlist in different branch or risk the draft?

Just as it's handled in the official rules. Haven't you used some of the Traveller character generators floating around? Typically, they'll ask you a question then make the calculation (like rolling dice).

The problem is, I guess, with the coding. Every character generator I've come across doesn't specifically emulate the method in the CT books (basic or advanced).

 

[atpollard]

I mean both. Read the fine print on your favorite character generator. They all have problems/take liberties with the system.

The Book 4+ systems each add pre-enlistment options that most people would see as suitable for inclusion with the other books. These choices could not be broadly included or randomized without impacting the 'exactness' you seek.

I encounter the exact same issue with starship design. If I remain 100 percent true to ANY design rule, it eliminates a lot of creative options and places me at a disadvantage relative to the other 'official' designs which have not followed the letter of their own rules. The Scout ship should have one engine - the Type A, which is the smallest available in the Book 2 system - and 15 dTons of dedicated engineering space clearly separated from the rest of the ship by bulkheads and used only for drives and power plants. See how 100% faithful starts to limit options. On the other hand, allowing a 1/2A drive to exist would allow a J1 scout ship to also exist - now we are not 100% faithful to the rules.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Book 4+ systems each add pre-enlistment options that most people would see as suitable for inclusion with the other books. These choices could not be broadly included or randomized without impacting the 'exactness' you seek.

That's not quite what I'm saying.

If you want to include college as an option for Book 1 careers, I have no problem with that.

People who don't want to include college should just be able to choose "no" and then go on with Book 1 chargen as written in Book 1.

But, that's not the issue. The issue is all sorts of liberties taken by the authors of the chargen programs. Check 'em out. You'd be surprised. All kinds of skewed results appear. Usually, the problems are listed in the program's readme.

For example, a program that purports to produce Book 4 advanced careers for CT also uses a "brownie point inspired system" to help the character pass Surivival throws. In practice, using that program, the characters stay in the career longer, and gain more skills on average, than if you would have diced this character by hand.

There's no way to "turn off" the "Survival help". If you use that program, you're getting unwanted (for me) DMs to help a character pass Survival.

There's all sorts of things like this in the various character generators that are floating around the net. They either have coding problems, or "house rules" that have been incorporated into them.

I've found exactly none that replicates Book 1 basic chargen or Book 4 advanced chargen as written in the books (meaning, you'll get, on average, different characters using the program than you will if you diced up characters by hand).

 

[Spinward Scout]

S4,

Is all of that Heaven and Earth information accurate? That must have taken forever to correlate. That will come in very handy.

Thanks!

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread migration.

 

[Supplement Four]

Is all of that Heaven and Earth information accurate? That must have taken forever to correlate. That will come in very handy.

As far as I know, it's from canocal sources. You can, of course, double check it. I know the Aramis subsector is correct (as my last campaign was set there).

 

[jrmapes]

Also as I think about it - was the H&E GRiP version ever made available? I have heard of it but have never actually seen it. Since I use GRiP for online games this would be very helpful.

 

[jrmapes]

Disregard ... upon upgrade to 1.08 I found the GRiP utility. I had never noticed it before on 1.04.

Since I don't have time tonight to play around and to possibly save some time down the road - has anyone ever got GRiP and H&E to work together properly?

Sorry for the thread jack now back to the discussion at hand...

 

[Spinward Scout]

Sorry for the thread jack now back to the discussion at hand...

I don't think that was a thread jack so much as it just moved in a different direction. Making NPCs (i.e. character creation) is part of Fleshing out a World. The thread just kinda went south for the winter, so to speak.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Ok, 2 more:

15.) What are the 7 Wonders of this world?

and from JKH1232

16.) What on this world would win me a Darwin Award?