Alternate World Codes

[Tom Kalbfus]

Here is an alternate World Code system, for a project I'm working on, it requires the use of dice other than d6s.
First do the usual determination of whether each hex in the subsector is occupied or not, 50% chance of something in each hex, then roll a 1d12, on a 1 the world is an asteroid belt otherwise roll 1d20 to determine the size of the world according to this table:
Digit World Size
0 0 km
1 800 km
2 1600 km
3 2400 km
4 3200 km
5 4000 km
6 4800 km
7 5600 km
8 6400 km
9 7200 km
10 8000 km
11 8800 km
12 9600 km
13 10400 km
14 11200 km
15 12000 km
16 12800 km
17 13600 km
18 14400 km
19 15200 km
20 16000 km

Then roll 3d6-10 + World Size Code to get Atmosphere according to this table:
Digit Atmosphere
0 None
1 Trace
2 Trace
3 Very Thin, Tainted
4 Very Thin, Tainted
5 Very Thin
6 Very Thin
7 Thin, Tainted
8 Thin, Tainted
9 Thin
10 Thin
11 Standard
12 Standard
13 Standard, Tainted
14 Standard, Tainted
15 Dense
16 Dense
17 Dense, Tainted
18 Dense, Tainted
19 Exotic
20 Exotic
21 Corrosive
22 Corrosive
23 Insidious
24 Insidious
25 Dense, High
26 Dense, High
27 Thin, Low
28 Thin, Low
29 Unusual
30 Unusual
Then roll 3d6-10 + World Size Code to determine hydrographic percentage according to this table:
Hydrographics
Digit Hydrographics
0 0% 2.5%
1 3% 7.5%
2 8% 12.5%
3 13% 17.5%
4 18% 22.5%
5 23% 27.5%
6 28% 32.5%
7 33% 37.5%
8 38% 42.5%
9 43% 47.5%
10 48% 52.5%
11 53% 57.5%
12 58% 62.5%
13 63% 67.5%
14 68% 72.5%
15 73% 77.5%
16 78% 82.5%
17 83% 87.5%
18 88% 92.5%
19 93% 97.5%
20 98% 100.0%
The first percentage is the low end of the hydrographic percentage range, the second is the upper limit for a give hydrographic code.
Then roll 1d20 for population according to this table:
Population
Digit Population
0 0 4
1 5 9
2 10 49
3 50 99
4 100 499
5 500 999
6 1,000 4,999
7 5,000 9,999
8 10,000 49,999
9 50,000 99,999
10 100,000 499,999
11 500,000 999,999
12 1,000,000 4,999,999
13 5,000,000 9,999,999
14 10,000,000 49,999,999
15 50,000,000 99,999,999
16 100,000,000 499,999,999
17 500,000,000 999,999,999
18 1,000,000,000 4,999,999,999
19 5,000,000,000 9,999,999,999
20 10,000,000,000 49,999,999,999
Then roll 3d6-10 + Population code for Government type
Then rolle 3d6-10 + Government for Law Level.
I have yet to make tables for Government or Law Level, but basically they are similar to the Atmosphere codes table. I would need new tables to determine tech level, which is still going to be from 0 to 15 in a standard campaign.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I was going to punch this into my world gen app to see how it runs. But then I saw the linear roll for population and lost interest right away. 40 billion people living on planetoid gets tiresome having to explain why it is to players.

Sure I can just press GEN again and get a new world. But what strange population will it have again?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I was going to punch this into my world gen app to see how it runs. But then I saw the linear roll for population and lost interest right away. 40 billion people living on planetoid gets tiresome having to explain why it is to players.

Sure I can just press GEN again and get a new world. But what strange population will it have again?

Your forgetting something, when you roll 1d20, the smallest size is 800 km. You know a planetoid that size has very little gravity, one can live 3-dimensionally within that planetoid. 50 billion people could easily live within it, or the material can be dug out to make thousands of colonies which could each hold a population of one million each. Size 1 is the larger end of size 0 in the old code, you could easily have an asteroid belt with 50 billion inhabitants as well, besides using the old system will produce some of these same results, the population is completely independent of the World Size in either system, the main difference is my system cuts off at 50 billion, the old system will allow you to have up to 99 billion inhabitants, the chance of that is 1 in 36 the chance of having 10 to 50 billion under this system is 1 in 20, also under my system the chance of an asteroid belt is 1 in 12 as opposed to 1 in 36 under the old system, you have more places for belters to live! The average population for a pop 20 world would be 25 billion, and you can assume that is the population of the star system rather than just the mainworld.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I was going to punch this into my world gen app to see how it runs. But then I saw the linear roll for population and lost interest right away. 40 billion people living on planetoid gets tiresome having to explain why it is to players.

Sure I can just press GEN again and get a new world. But what strange population will it have again?

Your forgetting something, when you roll 1d20, the smallest size is 800 km. You know a planetoid that size has very little gravity, one can live 3-dimensionally within that planetoid. 50 billion people could easily live within it, or the material can be dug out to make thousands of colonies which could each hold a population of one million each.

Now you just need to explain the why part.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I was going to punch this into my world gen app to see how it runs. But then I saw the linear roll for population and lost interest right away. 40 billion people living on planetoid gets tiresome having to explain why it is to players.

Sure I can just press GEN again and get a new world. But what strange population will it have again?

Your forgetting something, when you roll 1d20, the smallest size is 800 km. You know a planetoid that size has very little gravity, one can live 3-dimensionally within that planetoid. 50 billion people could easily live within it, or the material can be dug out to make thousands of colonies which could each hold a population of one million each.

Now you just need to explain the why part.

You get more world sizes with 20 instead of 10. also rolling 2d6 gives you a pyramidal distribution curve while a d20 is flat, you get more large and small worlds and fewer medium-sized worlds. 2d6 gives you a lot of size 5 worlds, fewer Earth Size 8 worlds, with a 1d20 you get more worlds that come closer to being Earth-sized, also the average population with 2d6 is 500,000 people for a whole entire planet, this is less people than Washington DC! That is the average for my system as well, but 2d6 gives you more planets with a population of half a million than my system. There is a 1 in 6 chance of getting a world with half a million people in the old system, under my system the chances are 1 in 20, there is also a 1 in 20 chance of having a world with 25 billion people and a world with just 2 people.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

You get more world sizes with 20 instead of 10. also rolling 2d6 gives you a pyramidal distribution curve while a d20 is flat, you get more large and small worlds and fewer medium-sized worlds. 2d6 gives you a lot of size 5 worlds, fewer Earth Size 8 worlds, with a 1d20 you get more worlds that come closer to being Earth-sized, also the average population with 2d6 is 500,000 people for a whole entire planet, this is less people than Washington DC!

But why are there 40 billion people on a planetoid?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

You get more world sizes with 20 instead of 10. also rolling 2d6 gives you a pyramidal distribution curve while a d20 is flat, you get more large and small worlds and fewer medium-sized worlds. 2d6 gives you a lot of size 5 worlds, fewer Earth Size 8 worlds, with a 1d20 you get more worlds that come closer to being Earth-sized, also the average population with 2d6 is 500,000 people for a whole entire planet, this is less people than Washington DC!

But why are there 40 billion people on a planetoid?

The planetoid is just the main world, I am sure you realize there are people who live in the system who aren't on the main world don't you? If the mainworld is just an asteroid, I am sure there are a lot of other inhabited asteroids as well, and the numbers of all those other people could easily add up to 40 billion, and in fact this is realistic for a space-faring society, and any society that lives on an 800 km wide asteroid would have to be space faring wouldn't they. In Traveller, the government is by system, the mainworld is where the capital of that government is, and usually where the starport is too. A size 0 would could simply be a starport floating in space, there doesn't have to be a natural body associated with that.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

The planetoid is just the main world, I am sure you realize there are people who live in the system who aren't on the main world don't you? If the mainworld is just an asteroid, I am sure there are a lot of other inhabited asteroids as well, and the numbers of all those other people could easily add up to 40 billion, and in fact this is realistic for a space-faring society, and any society that lives on an 800 km wide asteroid would have to be space faring wouldn't they. In Traveller, the government is by system, the mainworld is where the capital of that government is, and usually where the starport is too. A size 0 would could simply be a starport floating in space, there doesn't have to be a natural body associated with that.

If you house-rule or referee that way.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The planetoid is just the main world, I am sure you realize there are people who live in the system who aren't on the main world don't you? If the mainworld is just an asteroid, I am sure there are a lot of other inhabited asteroids as well, and the numbers of all those other people could easily add up to 40 billion, and in fact this is realistic for a space-faring society, and any society that lives on an 800 km wide asteroid would have to be space faring wouldn't they. In Traveller, the government is by system, the mainworld is where the capital of that government is, and usually where the starport is too. A size 0 would could simply be a starport floating in space, there doesn't have to be a natural body associated with that.

If you house-rule or referee that way.

Yes its a house rule of course, it would need its own setting as well, if we were to use these world codes.