Traveller Ringworld

[TKalbfus]

This idea appears in many Traveller books. In the T20 Traveller Handbook: "An incredibly strong band may be set rotating about a central star, making a ringworld which uses centrifugal force to provide a simulation of gravity. Such a ringworld, of 93 million miles radius, and with a width of 1 million miles, has a usable area equal to about 3 million Earths." Pg 380.
Converting to the MKS system it would be a 300 million km diameter, and a width of 1.6 million km.
What if we were to actual include 1 such ringworld in the Traveller Universe? Perhaps we could place it in the Glimmer drift Reaches or just beyond. The Imperium has 11,000 worlds and the ringworld has the equivalent of 3,000,000 worlds. Such a find would be a big prize for any political powers in the area. Lets say such a ringworld was built by the ancients and it has a tech level of 17, but it doesn't use artificial gravity because of the enourmous power requirements. The ringworld would contain many known species found in other regions of charted space including many varients of humans and other Traveller aliens. The ringworld itself is at TL17, but the societies inhabiting it are at lower Tech levels. Much as was the case in Larry Niven's Ringworld.
The safe Jump distance from this artifact would be 200 AU as this is 100 times the Ringworld's diameter. Grav Vehicles might not work on the inner surface of this ringworld since there is not much gravity to push against. Manuever dives would work since they are reactionless engines. Substitutuing for grav vehicles would be maglev vehicles that levitate off the ringworld's superconducting inner surface. Each category of grav vehicle would have its own equivalent varity of maglev vehicles. There would be maglev air/rafts, maglev carriers, maglev speeders, and a maglev belt.

 

[pauldrye]

Originally posted by Tom Kalbfus:
What if we were to actual include 1 such ringworld in the Traveller Universe? Perhaps we could place it in the Glimmer drift Reaches or just beyond.

Somebody beat you to it by about a decade. Leenitakot (1423 Hinterworlds), just to rimward of the Glimmerdrift Reaches, has a partially completed ringworld around it.

I believe it's, canonically, the only one in the known Traveller Universe.

The catch is that it's in Gniivi space. Colloquially known as "The Outcasts of the Whispering Sky", they're not fond of visitors

 

[T. Foster]

I'm pretty sure the writeup of Hinterworlds sector (the sector directly rimward of Glimmerdrift Reaches) in Challenge #39 mentions a ringworld (unfinished IIRC) somewhere in the sector. I'll have the check back to see if I'm imagining this (unless someone who knows wants to save me the trouble ... hint, hint).

Edited to thank Paul Drye (who was even kind enough to do it preemptively! )

 

[shield]

Its over near the Hive Federation 1 or 2 sectors over from the Hinters. Its the Leakoti system (spelling?). It was built by the ancients, and some of the very high tech ancient robots are still functional. There is also a very alien race their called the Inheritors - See GURPS aliens 2 (the one with the hivers). I will get it out of the loft later and get the proper co-ordinates (and spelling).

CT canon has it in the same place.

Don't forget their is also a Dyson sphere somewhere - see challenge adventure with lost solomani ship and ancient terminator T1000 robot, and a multi rosette pf worlds in the Vargr extents at Tireem.

Cheers
Richard

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by RichardP:
Its over near the Hive Federation 1 or 2 sectors over from the Hinters. Its the Leakoti system (spelling?). It was built by the ancients, and some of the very high tech ancient robots are still functional. There is also a very alien race their called the Inheritors - See GURPS aliens 2 (the one with the hivers). I will get it out of the loft later and get the proper co-ordinates (and spelling).

Mmmm... Sorry to but in, but I'm just reading GURPS Traveller Alien Races #3, the one about the Hivers, Droyn, Inheritors and yet another that I don't remember.

IIRC reading the back cover, they say the Inheritors are on a Dyson's Sphere, not a Ringworld.

I'll check up on it tonight.

 

[Fulminata]

The Inheritors occupy an incomplete Dyson Sphere with a flourine atmosphere in the Nooq sector, which is five sectors directly trailing of the Hinterworlds. This is according to GURPS Alien Races 3.

The structure in the Hinterworlds is a ring in the Leenitakot system. Secret of the Ancients describes it as circleing a dim M1V star at about 30 million kilometers. the ring is 100,000 kilometers wide and appears to be unfinished, without soils, atmosphere, or any other life support.

These are the only structures of this type that I know of that have been established in canon.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Paul_Drye:
Leenitakot (1423 Hinterworlds), just to rimward of the Glimmerdrift Reaches, has a partially completed ringworld around it.

I believe it's, canonically, the only one in the known Traveller Universe.

Canonically, yes. The TML PbeM game started out as a quest to explore a newly-discovered, fully-functional ringword. It morphed into a trapped-in-mysterious-pocket-dimension campaign when the ringworld ran away and we fell into the 'hole' it left behind. It was a terrific game. I say was, but it is theoretically still on. However, it has been on hiatus since 1998, so I'm beginning to lose hope...

This website documents the game so far. You may find it of interest:

http://www.ssgfx.com/traveller/

Enjoy!


Hans

 

[TKalbfus]

An incomplete ringworld with a florine atmosphere? Sounds kind of like the Star Trek Dyson Sphere with everthing dead inside. I suppose it would be good for a few adventures, but the full potential of a living ringworld is not realized in these cases. The most interesting worlds to explore are those with living creatures on them. There's no reason why there couldn't be a complete ringworld with a standard atmosphere at the edge of charted space. I have an idea what it could be built out of too. A Larry Niven Style ringworld requires the mass of Jupiter to construct. Hydrogen when compressed becomes a metalic solid at a certian pressure and temperature, this substance may also have superconducting properties. I don't know how strong metallic hydrogen is, but it is the stuff Jupiter is made of. Perhaps an unknown technology is used to strengthen the intermolecular bonds of the hydrogen atoms so it could support a ringworld. This material is also a superconductor of heat as well as electric current. A laser blast might vaporize a bit of it, but intelligent nanites among the material could move bits of hydrogen around to heal the damage caused by weapons fire or meteor damage. The material is nearly indestructable because of these properties, but when bits of it are destroyed those bits convert to hydrogen gas. The base of the ringworld is made of 100 meters of this material, on top of which is loose soil, and rocks which support vegetation and an atmosphere. Perhaps this ringworld was built as a companion to the one with a Florine atmosphere to support the oxygen breathers of the galaxy while the other supports Florine breathing life forms. The current inhabitants of the ringworld have difficulty rising above Tech Level 2 due to the lack of mineral deposites and fossil fuels in the soils. All metals found come from scrap or the occasional meteorite. The metallic hydrogen of the ringworld floor is unworkable with their primitive technology. Everything that is made is made out of wood, fabric, rope, or of stone and glass containing little extractable metal content. The pockets of high technology depend on artifacts and on scrap metal, they might even scavenge a Player Character's Spaceship if they find it. There is one out that can be used in case the existance of a ringworld unbalance the game. A ringworld is a king of spacehip, it has an inner ring of shadow squares to produce day and night for the inhabitants of the outer ring. This inner ring can induce the central star to flare slowly pushing the system through the Galaxy, this is its maneuver drive. Also the shadow squares collect and store solar energy, perhaps accumulating enough over time to power a gigantic jump drive capable of carrying the entire system through jumpspace. Everthing inside the jumpgrid, ringworld, star and all is carried through jumpspace and to a different part of the galaxy. So its possible for this ringworld to suddenly appear in the midst of known space and to suddenly disappear just as abruptly. A ringworld with 3 million worlds worth of inhabitable space is bound to affect the local political struggles of the current region that it inhabits.

 

[El Darbo]

OK, scanning thru my fading memory, I believe that there are actually 3 ring worlds mentioned in various published sources. One of them was an old Judges guild thing that has been striped of its canon. I'll have to dig thru and see what I find. If I recal correctly, there was not only one in the hinterworlds, but also coreward of the trojan reaches/vargr domains. A phone conversation with a friend led to there possibly being one that was somehow involved with the Zhodani core expeditions, but he was hazy on where he had read it. Again, Ill dig thru my stuff...

 

[shield]

Its worth reading the ringworld books and may be rendevous with ramaby arthur c clark for manufactured eco systems.

Don't forget you need mountains at the side of the ring to stop the atmosphere spilling off, and it probably needs to be thicker (substantial rotational forces on this thing) and you need some depth if you are putting in any rivers / lakes /seas, or significant terrain contours.

a superconductor as a base could be a problem, it would play merry hell with grounding electrical equipment. I am sure you could solve the problem at tl20+ but primitives are going to have trouble. it might be easier to go with the tl17 coherent superdense.

Happy world building

Cheers
Richard

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by RichardP:
Its worth reading the ringworld books and may be rendevous with rama by arthur c clark for manufactured eco systems.

Or just for the read

Originally posted by RichardP:
Don't forget you need mountains at the side of the ring to stop the atmosphere spilling off...

<snip>

And to keep animals, small children, and the occasional explorer from falling off the edge

 

[TKalbfus]

A ringworld is a campaign setting all in its own right with 3 million worlds worth of land area. Then there is the walls that hold in the atmosphere, each one is 1,000 km high and about 100 meters thick. The could be a door built into it with an airlock and a docking port on the otherside. A ringworld can be used in two ways. One way is to introduce Traveller Characters to the ringworld. They have a scout ship, and land it somewhere inside the ringworld and explore or they can dock at a docking port if they are afraid of a meteor defense system built into the shadow squares. This is the approach Larry Niven used. The opposite arc would be to create ringworld characters, barbarians basically, who encounter the atmospere retaining wall and enter the world of Traveller. Which is basically the rest of the Universe. Hopefully the Ancients left some starships behind.

Tom

 

[vegascat]

Larry Niven wrote the novels Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, sct. He put a lot of thought into the science behind a ringworld. Be sure to read them before trying to use one.

 

[kafka47]

There are several Ringworlds and Dyson spheres in the OTU. They seem to be abandoned by the Ancients. I have always speculated what if there was an entry point into the pocket universe where Grandfather stuck his children. What sort of spillage, in terms of high tech wonders could we imagine.

Security leak once did an article on the Islands in Jump Space, where a pocket universe was populated by the misjump victims and High Tech Droyne from the time of the Ancients. I never got around to running it as part of a campaign, put, it certainly would have the potential as any Ringworld saga and bring back some of that Wonder factor missing in Traveller when it is played as Traveller : Modern. Although, Traveller : Modern does have some advantages, by grounding players in a reality that they are immediately familar with.

 

[TKalbfus]

I'm not familiar with Traveller Modern. Is it like D20 Modern. Traveller at Tech Level 8? A Ringworld is like a pocket universe without necessarily having to warp space around itself. The trouble with those pocket universes is that you need supertechnology to get out of them. With a Ringworld you just need a spaceship. I kind of share the Traveller philosophy of keeping the superscience of the periphery rather than in the center of the action. The OTU needs a jump drive for example to allow travel between the stars, but the center of the action is at the destinations themselves rather than in Jump space. One reason for the 100 diameter jump limit is to keep the superscience away from the planets or in this particular case the ringworld. In the area around the planets we try to keep hard science fiction as operative as possible. Using super science only as a last resort. I don't think we should ever see any "Shrink Rays", "Freeze rays", or "soul transference machines" in Traveller. Nor do I think there should be any "ghost traps". The matter transporters at tech level 17 should have a sending booth and a receiving booth, and should not operate the way they do in Star Trek, in open air. That's just my philosophy however. If you want to have "body snatchers" in your campaign go right ahead.

 

[kafka47]

Traveller Modern is a shorthand

 

[ninthcouncil]

With respect to Leenitakot (the Hinterworlds ringworld), what's the deal with the UWP, which is
X77A6BB-1?

Even given the difficulty of representing a non-planetary body using the standard UWP codes, this doesn't bear any relation to the actuality. Worse, the full system description shows it as a double star system (K3V M7D), which I'm sure would royally mess with the gravitational dynamics.

I don't immediately have access to the relevant issues of Challenge, but I don't think the issue is clarified there.

 

[TKalbfus]

With respect to Leenitakot (the Hinterworlds ringworld), what's the deal with the UWP, which is
X77A6BB-1?

The first 7 could represent apparent gravity only as measured in eighths of a G. The diameter of a Ringworld is on order of 100,000,000 miles. Since diameter in the Traveller system is Measured in intervals of 1,000 miles, the official diameter of the ringworld would be 100,000. the stat would read. X(100,000-7G)7A6BB-1. I have trouble with the social data of the UWP. Apparently the ringworld has only Millions of inhabitants who are ruled by a single non-Charismatic leader with a law level of B with Extreme, ridgid control of civilian movement and they do this with 1 - Bronze Age to Middle age technology and by the way they breath a type A Exotic Atmosphere. Does this make much sence to you? it sure doesn't to me.

 

[WarriorKnight]

Originally posted by Tom Kalbfus:

The first 7 could represent apparent gravity only as measured in eighths of a G. The diameter of a Ringworld is on order of 100,000,000 miles. Since diameter in the Traveller system is Measured in intervals of 1,000 miles, the official diameter of the ringworld would be 100,000. the stat would read. X(100,000-7G)7A6BB-1. I have trouble with the social data of the UWP. Apparently the ringworld has only Millions of inhabitants who are ruled by a single non-Charismatic leader with a law level of B with Extreme, ridgid control of civilian movement and they do this with 1 - Bronze Age to Middle age technology and by the way they breath a type A Exotic Atmosphere. Does this make much sence to you? it sure doesn't to me.

Actually the atmosphere is a 7-Std.,tainted. The A is the hydrographic %-100%, a water ringworld.

 

[Jame]

Wouldn't a Ringworld be more efficient than a Dyson Sphere, if only because the Ringworld concentrates on the habitable part of an orbit (or something like that)?