B
Black Globe Generator
Guest
The T5 forum thread on population distribution in the Imperium got me thinking about high population worlds generally. Very late last night I scribbled a few notes in my campaign notebook on Hi worlds IMTU, and I'd appreciate a hand from my fellow Travellers in cleaning up my fuzzy thinking. This will be fairly disjointed I'm afraid, and I beg your patience.
Ideally most Hi worlds should be "garden" or "T-prime" worlds, or close to it - a marginal world with a population in the billions or tens of billions should be the interesting exception, not the rule.
Hi worlds may represent natural growth of the indigenous population over time, or the deliberate results of colonization or immigration. Some (many?) Hi worlds, initially settled under the Ziru Sirka or the Rule of Man (and a few earlier still by the Ancients) passed through the Long Night without succumbing to a catastrophic event (i.e., war, planet-wide natural disaster, et cetera), and their population reflects long-inhabitance.
Hi worlds settled during the Third Imperium most likely reflect deliberate colonization or the consequences of in-migration over centuries. Colonization projects initiated either by the Imperium or the megacorporations are the most likely candidates for achieving a population of a billion or more - most planetary or private colonizers are unlikely to achieve the same results due to lack of requisite resources. Colonies are deliberate attempts to harness the resource of a world - it seems to me that these are the best candidates for Hi population on an otherwise marginal world, representing access to critical resources that make overcoming the challenges associated with hostile conditions worthwhile (and presumably profitable).
Immigration as a source of population growth will be driven by the quality of life on the destination world (the "pull") or by the hostile conditions on the the source world (the "push") - a large influx of refugees to a world from neighboring worlds can push the population up and also create some interesting social stratification and tension. Some worlds with extensive resources may actively recruit migrants on other worlds to increase the pool of available workers, offering incentives for resettlement.
(As an aside, there should also be former Hi worlds scattered here and there, the results of catastrophes or outmigration - think Kansas for the latter...)
Population growth will be greatest between the time that medical advances decrease infant mortality and the point at which economic affluence no longer provides an incentive for large families. The interesting exception could be worlds where there is a religious or other social imperative toward large families - these worlds may also be a good source of colonists for other worlds.
Old Hi population worlds (those during or prior to the Rule of Man) likely served as the centers of pocket empires or, at the very least, relict trade networks through the Long Night. This will give them influence beyond their obvious economic and military power relative to their neighbors - it gives them the weight of history as well.
Neighbors of Hi worlds likely represent the sources of raw materials that add fuel to the economies of the more populous world. These may be colonies established under the direct or indirect auspices (that is, through influence over the Ministry of Colonization) of the Hi population world, while others may represent colonies established by public or private speculators seeking to capitalize on the market opportunities represented by the Hi world. A high-tech Ag world which will produce far more than it consumes makes an excellent neighbor for a Hi population world, for example, while Ni worlds focusing on natural resource extraction specifically focused on the needs of the more populous world may be fairly common - the latter systems may also be subject to the most egregious sort of waste in resource extraction as capital flows in to tap the current needs of the market, and then dries up as the demand changes, leaving behind a scarred planet and decaying infrastructure.
I know I'm missing a whole lot of interesting points, and I'm sure that the Citizens will bring up many concepts that I missed.
As a side project the other day, I created a new map of the Judges Guild Ley sector which forms the basis of my TU. I represented each system with a graduated circle representing the mainworld population code - the smallest circle represented Pop 1 or 2, the largest circle pop 9 or A, with barren systems represented with an 'x'. I knew the JG sectors were not generated entirely randomly, but seeing the results laid out like they were gave me some good insight into just how well the sector was put together.
According to the sector notes, subsector A (Ikhnaton) was populated during the Ziru Sirka, with the rest of the subsectors in Imperial space were established later, from the Rule of Man onward - interestingly enough this matches pretty closely with the map of the Ziru Sirka provided in DGP's Vilani & Vargr. (V&V is the only non-CT book that I use for my game.) As one would expect, the highest concentration of Hi worlds are to coreward and spinward, with almost none along the rimward or trailing edges of the sector. In these long-settled regions dating back to the First and Second Imperiums (or Imperia?), one finds as many as seven Hi worlds in each subsector - in the case of Ikhnaton, most of these worlds are surrounded by pop 7 and 8 worlds, further reinforcing the idea of long inhabitance throughout the that particular corner of space.
I also generated a list of all of the Hi pop world UWPs in the sector - most are T-primes, with only a couple of marginal oddballs in the lot. The distribution of Hi worlds in the sector makes sense on several levels.
From the map and list I can flesh out the history of the sector to show which worlds persisted through the Long Night, how waves of colonization and migration have affected the population distribution, draw the boundaries and write the histories of now-defunct pocket empires, and detail trade relationships between the more populous worlds and their neighbors - this also gives me lots of suggestions on how these neighboring systems are settled, and why. Taken together, this all becomes fodder for adventures, or allows me to more creatively improvise when the players (inevitably!) go off the page.
Ideally most Hi worlds should be "garden" or "T-prime" worlds, or close to it - a marginal world with a population in the billions or tens of billions should be the interesting exception, not the rule.
Hi worlds may represent natural growth of the indigenous population over time, or the deliberate results of colonization or immigration. Some (many?) Hi worlds, initially settled under the Ziru Sirka or the Rule of Man (and a few earlier still by the Ancients) passed through the Long Night without succumbing to a catastrophic event (i.e., war, planet-wide natural disaster, et cetera), and their population reflects long-inhabitance.
Hi worlds settled during the Third Imperium most likely reflect deliberate colonization or the consequences of in-migration over centuries. Colonization projects initiated either by the Imperium or the megacorporations are the most likely candidates for achieving a population of a billion or more - most planetary or private colonizers are unlikely to achieve the same results due to lack of requisite resources. Colonies are deliberate attempts to harness the resource of a world - it seems to me that these are the best candidates for Hi population on an otherwise marginal world, representing access to critical resources that make overcoming the challenges associated with hostile conditions worthwhile (and presumably profitable).
Immigration as a source of population growth will be driven by the quality of life on the destination world (the "pull") or by the hostile conditions on the the source world (the "push") - a large influx of refugees to a world from neighboring worlds can push the population up and also create some interesting social stratification and tension. Some worlds with extensive resources may actively recruit migrants on other worlds to increase the pool of available workers, offering incentives for resettlement.
(As an aside, there should also be former Hi worlds scattered here and there, the results of catastrophes or outmigration - think Kansas for the latter...)
Population growth will be greatest between the time that medical advances decrease infant mortality and the point at which economic affluence no longer provides an incentive for large families. The interesting exception could be worlds where there is a religious or other social imperative toward large families - these worlds may also be a good source of colonists for other worlds.
Old Hi population worlds (those during or prior to the Rule of Man) likely served as the centers of pocket empires or, at the very least, relict trade networks through the Long Night. This will give them influence beyond their obvious economic and military power relative to their neighbors - it gives them the weight of history as well.
Neighbors of Hi worlds likely represent the sources of raw materials that add fuel to the economies of the more populous world. These may be colonies established under the direct or indirect auspices (that is, through influence over the Ministry of Colonization) of the Hi population world, while others may represent colonies established by public or private speculators seeking to capitalize on the market opportunities represented by the Hi world. A high-tech Ag world which will produce far more than it consumes makes an excellent neighbor for a Hi population world, for example, while Ni worlds focusing on natural resource extraction specifically focused on the needs of the more populous world may be fairly common - the latter systems may also be subject to the most egregious sort of waste in resource extraction as capital flows in to tap the current needs of the market, and then dries up as the demand changes, leaving behind a scarred planet and decaying infrastructure.
I know I'm missing a whole lot of interesting points, and I'm sure that the Citizens will bring up many concepts that I missed.
As a side project the other day, I created a new map of the Judges Guild Ley sector which forms the basis of my TU. I represented each system with a graduated circle representing the mainworld population code - the smallest circle represented Pop 1 or 2, the largest circle pop 9 or A, with barren systems represented with an 'x'. I knew the JG sectors were not generated entirely randomly, but seeing the results laid out like they were gave me some good insight into just how well the sector was put together.
According to the sector notes, subsector A (Ikhnaton) was populated during the Ziru Sirka, with the rest of the subsectors in Imperial space were established later, from the Rule of Man onward - interestingly enough this matches pretty closely with the map of the Ziru Sirka provided in DGP's Vilani & Vargr. (V&V is the only non-CT book that I use for my game.) As one would expect, the highest concentration of Hi worlds are to coreward and spinward, with almost none along the rimward or trailing edges of the sector. In these long-settled regions dating back to the First and Second Imperiums (or Imperia?), one finds as many as seven Hi worlds in each subsector - in the case of Ikhnaton, most of these worlds are surrounded by pop 7 and 8 worlds, further reinforcing the idea of long inhabitance throughout the that particular corner of space.
I also generated a list of all of the Hi pop world UWPs in the sector - most are T-primes, with only a couple of marginal oddballs in the lot. The distribution of Hi worlds in the sector makes sense on several levels.
From the map and list I can flesh out the history of the sector to show which worlds persisted through the Long Night, how waves of colonization and migration have affected the population distribution, draw the boundaries and write the histories of now-defunct pocket empires, and detail trade relationships between the more populous worlds and their neighbors - this also gives me lots of suggestions on how these neighboring systems are settled, and why. Taken together, this all becomes fodder for adventures, or allows me to more creatively improvise when the players (inevitably!) go off the page.
