Are there any Traveller equivalents of the Free City of Greyhawk / Zobeck?

[Condottiere]

New cities built in more or less modern times, might be somewhat like the Azhantis.

You know, modular.

Possibly, streets and avenues at regularized right angles.

 

[IanBruntlett]

And perhaps with boulevards and roof gardens?

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Shardan13]

After a quick wiki read of the Azhantis and their homeworld. Their cities may have extensively more green space with more trees to provide shade to keep their cities cooler in temperature. Their buildings will likely be in lighter in colors to reflect the heat away. I need to check the internet to see what other possible tricks they could do to prevent their cities being heat islands.

 

[Condottiere]

Well, they do seem to be fond of high rises.

 

[Shardan13]

Sorry Condottiere, my bad. I assumed you were talking about the minor human race found on Irale, not the building found in Los Angeles. Since their govt type is bureaucracy and their high law level your comment about modules and enforced rights angles seem to fit them.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

We have been thinking about super-detailing a major starport, perhaps as a box set...

How about a box set that does:
Super detailing a major starport A Class (say Flammarion: Navy Base, Scout Base tie in to Marches Adventure)
Detailing a decent starport B Class (say Asteltine)
Detailing a starport C Class (say Walston as a tie in with Marches adventure)
Detailing a starport D Class (say Bowman)
Detailing a starport E Class (say 567-908 as a tie in with Marches adventure)

just a thought

 

[MonkeyX]

How about a box set that does:
Super detailing a major starport A Class (say Flammarion: Navy Base, Scout Base tie in to Marches Adventure)
Detailing a decent starport B Class (say Asteltine)
Detailing a starport C Class (say Walston as a tie in with Marches adventure)
Detailing a starport D Class (say Bowman)
Detailing a starport E Class (say 567-908 as a tie in with Marches adventure)

just a thought

A detailed star town too!

 

[CordwainerFish]

Detailing a starport E Class (say 567-908 as a tie in with Marches adventure)

A detailed schematic of a Class E starport:

 

[IanBruntlett]

When it comes to documenting Star Ports, it would be helpful to provide some tables, perhaps, to kit-bash the defined Star Ports so that similar but not identical Star Ports can be used in games.

Kit-bashing, for those who are new to the term, is what Star Trek special effects people did with physical models. They would take an existing model, change it around a bit, and add borrowed parts from modelling kits.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Incidentally, I have just started re-reading MGP3857 Starports and it is looking good so far.

In case you were wondering... both Starports and Supplement 13: Starport Encounters can be bought as PDFs from the Mongoose website as PDFs.

 

[GypsyComet]

'Why use the Traveller ruleset to play what is a fantasy campaign'. Sure, you could 100% do this, but you're not really playing Traveller any longer, unless you really finesse it. The players are Scouts, crashed on a primitive, Red zone world, and trying to survive while looking for a way to signal for rescue.

So the question is - are you actually playing Traveller, or just using the Traveller rules in another genre?

The answer is "yes". You seem to be coming from a Campbellian point of view, wanting to stick to stories that are only possible in the genre. As counter guidance, I offer a lot of literary SF. Jack Vance, Andre Norton, Jack Chalker, Alan Dean Foster, Keith Laumer, Anne McCaffery, and many others.

Jack Vance's Tschai, Planet of Adventure cycle, consisting of four books, is very reminiscent of the sort of world building that went into Greyhawk. A starter article for using it in Traveller was published in Space Gamer years ago.

Traveller is a flexible game, and features a big universe. There is plenty of room for both Niven's Neutron Star and Foster's Tar Aiym Krang, for The Outcasts of Heaven Belt and Curse on a Terran Inheritance, or for Islands in the Net and Majipoor.

 

[Vormaerin]

Nothing stops you from totally going deep on building a particular world and the star system around it in depth and running 100% in that. Traveller doesn't have a a /lot/ of examples of doing that. Tarsus in classic, in the rift box set there's Phobetor. Beltstrike if you want mainly asteroids and space ships.

But its super viable as a playstyle.

 

[Ol'Weedy]

Tartakover (Katanga), from the Spinward Extents book comes to mind. It's only TL11, but has a very Mos Eisely feel. The sort of place you could probably buy anything, and meet patrons from any race.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Tartakover (Katanga), from the Spinward Extents book comes to mind. It's only TL11, but has a very Mos Eisely feel. The sort of place you could probably buy anything, and meet patrons from any race.

Thank you for that Duly noted.

 

[Geir]

Tartakover (Katanga), from the Spinward Extents book comes to mind. It's only TL11, but has a very Mos Eisely feel. The sort of place you could probably buy anything, and meet patrons from any race.

That was my idea with it.
Was thinking of doing an adventure series based out of Tartakover, but that's way down on the list of things I haven't gotten done (sorry).

 

[IanBruntlett]

That was my idea with it.
Was thinking of doing an adventure series based out of Tartakover, but that's way down on the list of things I haven't gotten done (sorry).

Would be nice to have some scenarios in the Theev system in the Sindal subsector. Especially as Sindal is in the Core Rulebook.

 

[Geir]

Would be nice to have some scenarios in the Theev system in the Sindal subsector. Especially as Sindal is in the Core Rulebook.

Not in the new Core edition... but Theev has pretty good detail in Pirates of Drinax and in (less detail ironically) the The Theev Cluster pdf. There are some Theev adventure seeds in PoD. Theev always struck me as a bit of a give-me world (except for the Widows thing) - high tech no restrictions, back shops with battledress and fusions guns, maybe even a nuke or two sort of place where a Referee has to put extra care into preventing Travellers from loading up on a cornucopia of goodies. Well, unless that's what you want (or need) for the campaign.

 

[alex_greene]

I spent years running AD&D2e games in the Free City of Greyhawk. I read Fritz Leiber's Lanlhmar books. I am currently reading "Zobeck: Clockwork City", recently purchased, looking for inspiration to run Traveller adventures.
Are there any Traveller equivalents of these cities and their neighbouring polities?

The closest is Theev, in the Trojan Reach.
Might I recommend looking up Castrobancla? There's a link to it below, in my signature.

 

[dragon3r]

In my setting there is a world, Anterra in the Gliese 49/Wolf 46 system that is an outpost of a vastly superior Alien species (they are giving none of their tech away) not hostile in any way, they like to see the way we experience joy, though also to make sure we don't turn into a hegemonizing swarm entity. Their city is called Juliana, named so as the Vegans originally called them the Ju'ul, Juliana is sort of like Valerian's City of a thousand planets. The Ju'ul themselves are like crown of thorns sea stars, slow moving, similar in may ways the Ents, however they do use bio-simacrala that resemble the scramblers from blindsight. Humanity has a space station there called crossroads, and I have started a standard trader campaign from there a few times. It is also a good place to find a random alien species that a player wants to create.

There are other cities, Dinezar on Sigma Draconis, and El Centro on HR 511 also can be good cities for players to start from.