Colonization in Traveller

[Condottiere]

Let's say our nearest neighbour was two parsecs away, and we're stuck at tech level nine.

You could take a two hundred tonne hull, equip it with extra fuel, even a collapsible tank, and allocate fifty percent of total tonnage to fuel (plus solar panels).

So you jump into an empty hex, look around and empty a bladder, and jump again; scout the system, then jump to the empty hex again, and calculate a route for the voyage home.

 

[Reynard]

"??? Cargo space DOESN'T need retrofitting to carry fuel bladders."

If you read the entire statement, it's modifying space that was intended for other use.

However, I sat down to see what a prototype TL 9 Exploratory ship would look like and there are surprises. Not too many changes using the Primitive and Advanced rule. Less Hull and Structure, bigger power plant. The size of the ship actually allows fuel for three jump 1, plenty to make surveys flexible though it doesn't cover extra P-plant fuel.

This is for performing pre-jump assessment, outer system arrival and system overview and overall system description (Scouts page 88-89) which can take up to eight weeks plus a week for the jump. Ten weeks fuel for safety per survey. The ship normally carries 30 weeks life support supplies (Beltstrike page 21) for three surveys plus extra life support can be carried as needed to make return trips to port.

This vessel is not intended to perform the mainworld description or anomaly description phases as that can take two to eighteen months. This is left to other vessels so equipped but the ship has surface landing capability (also for wilderness gas giant refueling) and air/raft for special events.

TL 9 Prototype Explorer (MCr77.706)
Hull 2 200 tons Streamlined, aerofins H2 S2
Armor 0
J-drive A J1
M-drive 1G
P-plant R1
Fuel 65 tons Endurance 10 weeks and 3 x jump 1
Standard bridge
Computer Model/1 Rating 5
Software Maneuver/0, Jump control/1, Library
Electronics Basic civilian
State rooms 13 - 3 pilots, 1 navigator, 1 engineer, 1 officer,1 medic, 6 scientists
Fuel scoops and fuel processor 20tons fuel per day
Laboratory 6 labs, 1 medical bay
Life support hold 3 tons (Full crew 10 weeks plus spare)
Air/raft x2
Ship's Locker
Cargo hold 5 tons

 

[dragoner]

So you jump into an empty hex, look around and empty a bladder, and jump again; scout the system, then jump to the empty hex again, and calculate a route for the voyage home.

Realistically, they would take enough fuel to get back, so that the empty hex would probably be staged.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

First thing I realize the homeworld will start at TL 9 and have a starport A to build starships. Unless the world is balkanized, there will probably be only one space program. The big this for an exploratory and colonization is conservation od resources.

The homeworld will be, by virtue of only Jump 1, only scouting the local Main, all the worlds connected by one parsec. The first explorer will be a 200 tonner. It won't be until TL 11 they discover Jump 2 engines will fit on 100 tons. Until the race reaches TL 11 decades or centuries away, the main cluster will have their most mature colonies. A 200 ton explorer will have the room as both explorer and surveyor gathering as much initial system and planetary data as possible before moving on. Once the main is surveyed, boards will analyze the information for which worlds offer the most potential for colonization establishing a priority of settlement. A world at the far end of a main might be far more attractive than three around the homeworld.

The predecessor to traders will be colony ships built to haul materials, equipment and colonists to establish the initial outpost which, hopefully, will grow to a colony and beyond. Some worlds may only need outposts to serve a function such as a small refueling port in a system with no other importance. Once an outpost is established, dedicated freighters will ferry more people and materials for growth and development. By the way, all these colonies will have the same TL as the home world. Differing TLs would only occur with maturing colonies that become research centers leading to breakthroughs or disasters that cause collapse.

Once colonies are well established, freighters will move resources and goods to and from the homeworld and colonies. Entrepreneurs can begin to build trading companies and trade vessels to take advantage of markets not served by the larger freight haulers such as luxury items. There would be no need for commercial vessels to carry hardpoints and weapons at these early stages unless some entrepreneurs somehow discover 'jumpcussing'.

Rather than planetary defenses, unless there is an actual outside threats, economy of force will have small squadrons of travelling security vessels that patrol the colonies making ports of call and presenting the flag plus reacting to unrest. These vessels carry 'marine' forces for both boarding and ground security. If the homeworld was originally balkanized, there may be colonies of different nations and incidences might call for higher states of security.

And lets say the Homeworld was balkanaized like it is today and their were various nations like now, and sometime in the 21st century, the Jump Drive was discovered, and alien humans from the Vilani Empire are contacted, so all the Earth nations pull together under the auspices of the United Nations to form One World Government, the Capital of which is in New York, and all the nationalists and conservatives who don't like the idea of one world government get together and decide they don't want to lose their cultures and their national identities, they spot some worlds way out their, pool their resources and buy some starships and they head outward toward the Rim and colonize 8 worlds and call it the Old Earth Union, they move in a direction opposite to that of the First Imperium, and hope they won't be disturbed by them for the forseeable future. An Oceanic Garden World they name Christchurch is the first one settled, as it is most Earthlike despite its nearly global ocean, there is enough land to settle, about the size of New Zealand, and because there is so little land, there is few land based life to compete with the Earth life they want to introduce there. They are surprised to learn of the Rule of Man, but they see it as more big government, and they are not surprised when it collapses and the Long Night occurs, which to them is not such a bad thing, because then they will be left alone.

 

[F33D]

so all the Earth nations pull together under the auspices of the United Nations to form One World Government, the Capital of which is in New York,

That right there would ensure that nothing EVER left the ground.

Except maybe some receipts for hotels and hookers... :lol:

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

so all the Earth nations pull together under the auspices of the United Nations to form One World Government, the Capital of which is in New York,

That right there would ensure that nothing EVER left the ground.

Except maybe some receipts for hotels and hookers... :lol:

The Solomani Government is based on the United Nations government, they have a General Secretary and a General Assembly. Maybe some people in the 21st century who did not love the UN when this was being established decided to start their own colonies somewhere else, like at the edge of Charted Space.

 

[F33D]

The Solomani Government is based on the United Nations government,

I'm talking the REAL U.N. NOT the FICTION Marc wrote. :roll:
Marc knows as much about the actual workings of the U.N. as I know about extra-terrestrial life forms. Or, he has a wicked sense of humor...

 

[Reynard]

I think Marc was writing an enjoyable role playing game rather than a historical documentary based on our Earth instead of an alternate reality. So different.

Tom, interesting ATU in which Earth doesn't unite in the face of the Villani and begins to fracture as the various groups, if not nations, set out to find their places probably anywhere but the direction of Bernard's Star. Villani, plodding as usual, take little notice of the squabbling newcomers who seem more a threat to each other than their empire. We might see the Solomani sphere with the wedge but no Imperium. Should be interesting when the kitties arrive.

 

[F33D]

I think Marc was writing an enjoyable role playing game rather than a historical documentary based on our Earth instead of an alternate reality. So different.

Agreed. He has a good sense of humor.

 

[Condottiere]

The kitties would probably still continue to play with themselves a while longer, since they reverse engineered a human jump drive.

 

[Reynard]

Oooo, that's right! If terrans don't spread as they did during the rule of man and beyond the ship wouldn't be found by aslans who would become a minor race. If terrans don't colonize coreward, they might expand spinward into what would have been aslan territory.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I think Marc was writing an enjoyable role playing game rather than a historical documentary based on our Earth instead of an alternate reality. So different.

Tom, interesting ATU in which Earth doesn't unite in the face of the Villani and begins to fracture as the various groups, if not nations, set out to find their places probably anywhere but the direction of Bernard's Star. Villani, plodding as usual, take little notice of the squabbling newcomers who seem more a threat to each other than their empire. We might see the Solomani sphere with the wedge but no Imperium. Should be interesting when the kitties arrive.

Who said they don't, but there always is a minority that disagrees with the majority, a Jump Drive gives them a choice not to be assimilated by the majority. Terra isn't far from the edge of charted space. Just look at the map, and how else would a pocket empire be established called the Old Earth Union? I would say the founders of the Old Earth Union were following an agenda, they had a reason for establishing that pocket empire.

 

[Reynard]

Using colonization rules at the beginning of terran space exploration would be a great Alternate History exercise. I can't remember why the Vilani originally stopped expansion just a few parsecs away from Earth but they did. Let's say cooler heads prevailed and Earth didn't freak out. With subversive colonization and a very lackadaisical Vilani attitude at this far end of Vilani space, the slightly circular Terran Confederation could exist or Terra decides not to wake a sleeping giant and colonizes into Magyar, Canopus, Aldebaran, Neworld and Alpha Crucis to start then later the adjoining sectors including Dark Nebula but stopped trailward by Hiver space. Aggressive exploration could have all the sectors rimward as part of a greater empire too. Can you imagine the Aslan as vassels or citizens of a terran government?

To add to the flavor, Tom's breakaway Earth Union (EU?!) carves out it's territory as a rival entity probably having a grudge at losing control of the mother world. Colonization efforts at the earliest historical period will determine its location, size, resources and power. The evolution of both colony efforts would weave the shape along mutual borders.

Confederation ships with aslan ground troops assaulting Solomani style EU outposts.

 

[simonh]

The Solomani Government is based on the United Nations government, they have a General Secretary and a General Assembly. Maybe some people in the 21st century who did not love the UN when this was being established decided to start their own colonies somewhere else, like at the edge of Charted Space.

That may be so, but it also closely paralels the governing structures of the Soviet Union. The Supreme Soviet consisted of elected delegates from the union's constituent soviets (regions). The actual title of the highest office was General Secretary, as head of the Politburo which equates to the Solomani High Council. You just replace the soviets with member worlds and voila. Need I even point out that both the USSR and the Confederation are/were one party states.

There are some differences. The USSR had a secretariat, but it was the administrative body of the party not the government as a whole. SolSec corresponds to the NKVD and later the KGB, which of course the UN has no equivalent to.

The EU has a sort of similar structure as well. Alternatively, you could say that the UN is a communist conspiracy so it's all the same thing anyway

I have several jokes threads in the Lone Star on COTI and most of my Solomani and Vilani jokes are adaptations from soviet era Russian jokes. The jokes depending mainly on rigid bureaucracy and sucking up I adapted to the Vilani, while the ones on oppressive state control and snooping I adapted to the Solomani.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I don't much like forms of government where the head of state is a secretary.

isn't it interesting how secretaries became male when it becomes a position of some importance General Secretary Gorbachev wasn't afraid to put on lipstick and wear a skirt when he got his secretarial position with the Communist Party.
At least the Imperium has an Emperor, and not a secretary running things. Even the United States has a President. Since the Roosevelt Administration set up the UN and didn't give it a President but a secretary, then I guess FDR was ashamed of his title of President. Why do you suppose secretaries who aren't running things got their titles changed to "Administrative Assistant" but the UN still has a General Secretary?

 

[Condottiere]

Originally, Secretaries were men; then women got into the act and were awarded the title, like Stewardesses.

Now Secretary has some prestige again, we've demoted them to administrative assistants and flight attendants.

 

[Reynard]

One thing I notice about science fiction stories especially visual one as in movies and tv is the biology of alien worlds. Yes, we understand the cost of special effects yet what we experience in them colors our interpretations. How many out there believe most alien worlds are covered in redwood pine and deciduous forests or grasslands? Some very alien planets are dry, craggy places of weeds and emaciated bushes. I'll give Avatar a thumbs up attempt for a glow in the dark rainforest.

Traveller often, and we're all to blame too, has planets teeming with familiar life mostly plants. At least the game gave us the life form generation system for the more threatening encounters. A large number of worlds are still very terran friendly considering how nearly every world with shirt sleeve environments look like there was a lot of transplantation from Earth.

Makes me wonder if Grandfather and his kids had an obsession with terran lifeforms to seed many other worlds almost anticipation of humanity. Another theory is mankind makes it a life's goal to bring home with them when they find a new world. Maybe the simplest terraforming is the plant and animal ecology with a very liberal dose of Weird Science to make the balance always work, no invasive species issues.

Using the Base Characteristics fro Tools; Biomass and biodiversity and such can be a game changer when building clean worlds from scratch and adding the an actual alien environment. Imagine a world inhospitable to farming because the life there makes the soil incompatible or outright deadly for plants and animals humans can use. This also means production of foods very compatible but also not what we're used to by sight or taste. The instance of life could also make a world too valuable for research to allow colonization exploitation. Remember that Pandora would be an excellent example of a Garden World that was given a typical Imperium treatment.

 

[Condottiere]

The Secret of the Vargr - Found in the deepest darkest dankest dungeon of a lost Vargr temple, guarded for eons by a secret but deicated order, committed to keep everyone Vargr and human, but especially humans, away from discovering it's secrets.

In Grandfather's Last Will and Testament, humanity does inherit the universe.

 

[F33D]

A large number of worlds are still very terran friendly considering how nearly every world with shirt sleeve environments look like there was a lot of transplantation from Earth.

Form follows FUNCTIONAL requirements. Even for biologicals. If you have an "Earth like" world. You will probably end up with life that gets structured accordingly...

 

[Reynard]

That suggests parallel evolution to an extreme where every other world have Douglas firs. Take a look at terran life and function is filled by great diversity of form. I'm not saying every life form must be wildly different from every other life but the universe can and should vary a little more that the backlot of Star Trek. If life does parallel so much in Traveller, does that mean the building blocks of all life have a particular code for such regular development. Reminds me of the Yeast from Niven's Known Universe to explain why life in the galaxy is so incredibly similar.

I still want to use 2300AD's Base Characteristic traits to judge the extent of a world's colonial habitation, if any.