Impossible UWPs

[ThisIsZen]

I've currently about halfway through to considering the skeleton of the Sector I'm working on finished - I've got all the planets rolled up, but I still need to roll bases and assign trade codes, meaning I'll be going back to the UWPs a bit and mucking around with them. Now, in the time I've spent lurking around here and reading things, I've come to a greater degree of appreciation for realism in the UWPs, since I have around 550 planets and while explaining a few anomalies might be fun, explaining a hundred would get old pretty fast.

Now, in the time I've spent here I've picked up a few pointers (size 3- worlds shouldn't have breathable atmospheres) but before I go back over all my UWPs as I work with them, I was hoping I could get some other guidelines as to what constitutes an unrealistic or impossible UWP. Anyone willing to educate me?

 

[aramis]

Look in the core rules (or the SRD) for Mongoose Traveller... it includes the guidelines for correcting such anomalies.

 

[ThisIsZen]

Are you referring to the Space Opera/Hard Science generation variants available on page 180? They do appear quite helpful, the Space Opera gen at least, and I'll definitely consult them while I'm going back through my UWPs. Thanks for bringing them to my attention!

 

[aramis]

Are you referring to the Space Opera/Hard Science generation variants available on page 180?

Yep! They eliminate the most egregious ones.

If you want a better world gen, 2300 has a very different take (size and density determine minimum retained molecular mass, from which determine what's in the atmosphere mix...) But it requires much more math.

 

[Vile]

It's a bit confusing, because the MGT 'Space Opera' options actually make the system more realistic. And the 'Hard Science' even more.

I think GURPS 4th Edition Space is pretty cool, but takes a while. Someone on these boards posted some software, though.

 

[robject]

It's a bit confusing, because the MGT 'Space Opera' options actually make the system more realistic. And tha 'Hard Science' even more.

Maybe a bit. 'Space Opera' as described by Babylon 5, perhaps?

 

[rancke]

Maybe a bit. 'Space Opera' as described by Babylon 5, perhaps?

Or Jack Vance. I'd advice the original poster not to throw every single impossible UWP away. See if you can figure out a fun way to explain a few of them. Jack Vance's Rigel Concourse (26 worlds orbiting in Rigel's life zone) and his Big Planet (Earthlike, very large but metal-poor with very low density) are fun because they're rare and unique[*] -- even if they are extremely low-probability or even impossible.

[*] Not to mention, and this is the point I want to emphasize, FUN.​

Hans

 

[ThisIsZen]

I've got no particular intention of vetting every single one of my impossible UWPs - it'll all depend on any particular inspiration that strikes while looking at a given planet, of course. I just wanted some notes handy for the times lightning didn't strike, as it were.

That said, between the Space Opera rules and the looking I've done into GURPS Traveller: First In, I think I've probably got enough information to tweak abnormal results I come across, and probably come up with a lot of extra information on those planets I feel like taking deeper looks at besides.

(An aside: the fact that it was called Space Opera was pretty much the exact reason I skipped over that variant box, since I mentally connect the concept of space opera with less realism. Going back, I saw that wasn't the case.)

Just as an interesting point of discussion related to the original topic, what exactly do you think a "good" number of anomalous mainworlds would be?
Personally, I'm leaning on between 0 and 3 per subsector, though of course I doubt I'll strictly adhere to that because I like extrapolating how X planet came to be and how it is. It's turned out some decent results for me in the past (though granted, the past I'm referring to was before I even knew about the various stellar types for stars ).

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

When all else fails, blame the Merchant's guild for trying to keep a 'goldmine' secret, or the Navy for wanting to discourage exploration without the attention that an interdiction would bring, or the Scouts for getting it worng in the first place.

 

[far-trader]

When all else fails, blame the Merchant's guild for trying to keep a 'goldmine' secret, or the Navy for wanting to discourage exploration without the attention that an interdiction would bring, or the Scouts for getting it worng in the first place.

And another dodge option is to treat the UWP as just the data entry for the TAS Guidebook. In MTU the Scouts don't get it wrong, and the data they have is much more detailed than a simple string of a few hex-coded alphanumerics

That's what I've long treated it as. Just the TAS Library entry for the world, abbreviated and condensed, and not always accurate or up to date. Just like you find in many Traveller Guidebooks for real world destinations.

PC 1 "But the UWP says... "

PC 2 "Well they obviously got it wrong. We're here and it most definitely is NOT what the UWP says. I told you we should have asked a Scout before trusting the Library entry."

 

[Vile]

Nothing wrong with weird worlds, just as long as they're not habitable or populated by tens of billions of people.

 

[rancke]

Missed this question the first time around.

Just as an interesting point of discussion related to the original topic, what exactly do you think a "good" number of anomalous mainworlds would be?

The way I would handle it would be to give every odd UWP a "saving throw against oddity" depending on how unlikely I considered the oddity. If it made the throw, I'd spend some time trying to come up with an explanation that might include low-probability events and unlikely (but possible) concatenations of circumstances. If I failed to come up with anything, I'd give it a second saving throw and, if the UWP made that one, consider Ancient intervention and once-in-a-universe coincidences.

If I still couldn't come up with anything, or if any of the throws failed, I'd adjust the UWP in the way that made most sense (or had the most interesting roleplaying ramifications).


Hans

 

[Ulsyus]

If you want a better world gen, 2300 has a very different take (size and density determine minimum retained molecular mass, from which determine what's in the atmosphere mix...) But it requires much more math.

Spot-on. It's a great system, and I used it some years ago to generate the detail for particular systems while leaving the general spread of systems described with UWPs.

The detail comes at a time cost though...

 

[BwapTED]

Another possibility is to populate the weird world in whole or part with aliens adapted to such conditions.

Maybe a vacuum world with a population of billions has been colonized by vacuum dwelling, small, eusocial/hive aliens?
The population stat doesn't have to represent humans.

 

[Carlobrand]

Another possibility is to populate the weird world in whole or part with aliens adapted to such conditions.

Maybe a vacuum world with a population of billions has been colonized by vacuum dwelling, small, eusocial/hive aliens?
The population stat doesn't have to represent humans.

I was under the impression the population represented sapients, as with Andor and Candory, the two Droyne worlds.

 

[Timerover51]

If I can come up with some sort of halfway reasonable reason for the world characteristics, at least size/atmosphere/hydrosphere, I will keep it, so it is strange, not weird.

When I cannot do that and still keep it, then it is weird.

 

[BwapTED]

I was under the impression the population represented sapients, as with Andor and Candory, the two Droyne worlds.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's right.

I'm suggesting colonies of sapients that can live outdoors/aboveground on a vacuum world.

 

[rancke]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's right.

I'm suggesting colonies of sapients that can live outdoors/aboveground on a vacuum world.

I'm trying to control my knee-jerk rejection-of-new-ideas impulses and to tell myself that "this is Science Fiction, darn it", but I find it very hard to believe in vaccum-dwelling sapients, especially sapients capable of interacting in any meaningful way with humans.

If someone did come up with such a race, I think it would be one of those once-in-the-lifetime-of-the-universe things.


Hans

 

[aramis]

I'm trying to control my knee-jerk rejection-of-new-ideas impulses and to tell myself that "this is Science Fiction, darn it", but I find it very hard to believe in vaccum-dwelling sapients, especially sapients capable of interacting in any meaningful way with humans.

If someone did come up with such a race, I think it would be one of those once-in-the-lifetime-of-the-universe things.


Hans

Photosynthetic, and a closed respiratory cycle, augmented by occasional ingestion of ices.

They'd need to use either sign-language or psionics. And if it's psionics, they need not even move.

similar races exist in several franchises.

In Traveller, they're likely to be an engineered species...

 

[mike wightman]

For communication they have several other options: bioluminescence, electric field sensitivity, direct tactile contact...

There are probably a few other ways a vacuum dwelling species could communicate with one another without invoking psionics.