In which I crowdsource a subsector

[Minty]

A long (long) time ago I created my own Subsector to run games in. Subsector Elan. I rolled all the dice (fudged the results until they were less crazy), made a map and all that good stuff. Wrote out little precis for each world etc.

Like you do.

Then later I created another Subsector, next door. Subsector Arclight. Same deal, except Arclight's not part of the Imperium, so it's got a far wilder, more frontier feeling.

Arclight was a longish time ago too.

I want to do it again, but with a little help now. your help.

I've made a map rolling randomly for which hexes have worlds. Two Subsectors in the same Sector as Elan and Arclight. The Sector is called the Riftspan Reaches, but ignore everything about the canonical Riftspan Reaches. This is very IMTU. I just likes me the name.

Here's where you come in. I want to get a little outside influence here. Pick a world and do your own thing with it. Post it here. Roll for random UWP or create it directly. Up to you. Write a little - just a little - about the world, 1-4 paragraphs, no more is needed. A little about the history, culture, geography, whatever you like.

I'll use it, and whoever else wants to can too, in their own games.

There are only a few rules:
1)Only worlds down to XX16, and right to 06XX are members of the Third Imperium. (all worlds need detailing, though)
2) Not EVERY world in that area is a member of the Imperium but most are.
3) No TL 15+
4) No world has been a member of the Imperium for more than ~150 years.

5... Nothing too loopy. You know what I mean.

A few notes - My TU is a bit more Dune-like than most. All systems have a Baron - and a lot of barons rule their systems directly - holding fief over the system (Government code A or B depending on how popular he is.)

Scout Waystations are a lot less impressive than normal. Literally any place an X-boat stops gets a waystation.

Apply Trade Codes, if any, based on what you imagine the planet actually is nd does, not by the raw UWP.

Um, that's the important stuff, I think!

Map time.



The solid worlds are ones that have been well scouted. The PCs (in my game(s)) will be able to find information on them fairly easilly, even if the world isn't part of the Imperium. The Unkown Worlds are exactly that. They still need info, but if the players want to learn it, they will have to go there. Exploring the unknown!

I'll kick of with the Subsector Capital, Prospero.

If anyone wants to see Subsectors Elan and Arclight - for inspiration of for use in your games, I'm happy to share.

 

[Minty]

0213 (Prospero)

A9809B5-C Desert, High-Tech, Industrial, Non-Aggricultural, Rich
Mean Solar Day: 27 Hours
Sidereal Year: 417 Days
Governer: Baron (Marquis) Ushullan Mon-Mallon
Local Navy: ~400Kt
Berthing Fee: KCr.4/Kt HIGH,- KCr.3/Kt LOW

Prospero was not the first world of Subsector Prospero to join the Imperium. However, when she did join she rapidly eclipsed the first worlds and today gives her name to the Subsector and is still very much amongst the primary worlds, culturally and economically. Part of this is her ideal choke-point location. Partly it's the wealth that can be, and so easily is mined from her rich desert sands and low, rugged mountains.

She is a desert world. A dry world. A world which hung on only with difficulty through the Long Night. But like a desert plant, needed only the barest chance to spring into bloom. Upon joining the Imperium, and gaining access to off-world trade, to food and imported, and markets for export she flourished. Her population exploded and her economy boomed. Indeed, continues to do so - carefully husbanded though it is.

The capital city, Lookout, occupies the top, sides and surroundings of a large, low plateau in the southern tropic. It's by far the most convivial spot on-world so far as outsiders are concerned. there's even a small sea. Well, Prosperans call it a sea... They're funny like that. It's shallow and small and so salty that nothing lives in it, but on worlds like this, they take what they can get.

Nevertheless, the wealth and confidence of Lookout, and Prospero as a whole is not to be mocked, even by those made soft by more hospitable worlds. It's an article of faith amongst Prosperans that all offworlders are just a bit weaker, just a bit softer. Just a bit less worthy than those born here. It's obvious really, how else could Prosper have come to pre-eminence?

 

[simonh]

1113 (Frankenwald)

Although Frankenwald is a water world, the shallow waters at the poles are frozen and so the planet has extensive ice caps, populated by tribes of nomadic hunters who's lifestyle is remeniscent of the Inuit of old Terra. The locals are adpated to the tainted atmosphere, but visitors should wear breathing masks. The planet has a rich ecosystem of sea life, and some animals adapted to life on the ice caps. There are few islands, and most that do exist are litle more than outcropings of volcanic rock. There is one island chain that extends across a third of the planet, starting with ancient eroded islands at the equator, curving up to a handful of islands up to 20km across at the edge of the northern ice cap, some of which are still volcanically active. Most other volcanic activity is underwater.

The dominant authority on the planet is the FDC, or Frankenwald Development Corporation, funded by a consortium of offworld investors to exploit the planet's rich oceanic resources. The corporation has several bases on the planet but do not make their port facilities available to uninvited visitors, hence the low starport rating for the world. However if a visiting vessel is doing business with the corporation it's facilities count as Class E, but they are working on building that up to Class D at Hytropia, the corporation's headquarters. About half of the corpopration's employees operate enormous highly automated fishing vessels, or the hunting boats that track down and do battle with the planet's oceanic mega-fauna. The rest operate the processing, administrative and loading facilities for shipping the corporation's products off-world.

While the local inhabitants are distrustful of offworlders thanks to bad experiences of dealings with the corporation, they have strong traditions of hospitality and if given gifts and approached peacefully and respectfully they will welcome visitors. The corporation on the other hand is jealous of it's prerogatives on the planet and shuns uninvited guests, who will be warned off and possibly shot at if they insist on approaching company facilities or survey teams. The FDC usualy has a handful of armed ship's boats and a modular cutter available, as well as a few dozen closed-hull grav vehicles, in addition to any visiting vessels which mostly consist of Subsidised Merchants or similar. Anyone staying more than a few days is harassed by a security team using the ship's boats and grav vehicles, who insist the corporation has exclusive trading rights on the planet, negotiated with the natives. This is true, but the treaty was made many years ago under duress, without the native chiefs that agreed to it really knowing what it was about.

Starport: X None
Size: 7 11,200km
Atmosphere: 9 Dense, Tainted
Hydrographics: A Almost entirely water
Population: 5 Hundreds of thousands
Government: 6 Captive government
Law Level: 7 Controlling
Tech Level: 1 Bronze/Iron Age

Trade: Lt NI Wa
Asteroids: Yes
Gas Giant(s): Yes

Starport
No facilities for landing spacecraft are available.

Size
A medium sized planet, slightly smaller than Earth, with a diameter of 11,200km and surface gravity of 0.9G

Atmosphere
A dense, tainted atmosphere with surface pressure from 1.5 to 2.49 atm. Requires the use of a filter.

Hydrographics
A water world with no significant land formations. Hydrographic percentage 69%-100%.

Population
Average city. Population in the range 100,000+.

Government
Governmental administration by leaders imposed by an external authority such as a colonial power or military proconsul.

Law Level
Weapons: Shotguns.
Drugs: All narcotics.
Information: Library programs, unfiltered data about other worlds. Free speech curtailed.
Technology: TL 7 items.
Travellers: Citizens may not leave planet; visitors may not leave starport.
Psionics: Use of psionics forbidden.

Tech Level
Bronze or Iron Age. Most science is supersition, but they can manufacture weapons and work metal.

EDIT: Generated on my iPad using the sector generator/editor I'm working on. Sorry the stat block doesn't follow the format you used above, but I'm not sure how to generate some of your stats such as year/day length.

 

[Minty]

Perfect, and very adventure-friendly. Thank you.

Absolutely feel free to contribute more, if you want to. If you want to keep putting your generator through the loops.

The format of the UWP etc doesn't matter, I can reformat that when I put the info into my player handouts. Same with things like orbit characteristics.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name:Corinth
Hex # 0412
UWP: A000655-E
Starport: A Excellent Quality, Berthing Cost Cr6,000, Refined Fuel available
Size: 0 Asteroid/comet Belt/Orbital Complex
Atmosphere: 0 None
Hydrographics: 0 None* but see below
Population: 6 Millions of inhabitants
Government: 5 Feudal technocracy
Law Level: 5 Personal concealable weapons, Anagathics, Expert programs, TL 11 items restricted
Tech Level: 14 (E) Average Stellar
Bases: Scout Base
Trade Classification: Asteroid, Industrial
Zone:
PBG: 822
Population: 8 million inhabitants at installation, population of belt unknown.
Planetoid/comet belts: 2 One belt extending to orbit of Large Gas Giant from 30 AU to 45 AU. Comet Belt begins at 70 AU and extends outward to 1 light year surrounding the system as a comet belt.
Gas Giants: 2 one large gas giant (48 AU), one small gas giant (62 AU). Both in the habitable zone.
Allegiance: Third Imperium
Stellar Data: M3.5 III (Luminoscity 1500 times Sol, Radius 84 times Sol, Mass 1.3 Sol)
Habitable Zone Inner limit 34.85 AU, Outer Limit 65.84 AU
Colony Orbit: Orbit 9 - 38.73 AU (5,808,000,000 km)

Exterior View
Colony Administrator:
Baron Charles Perot BC848C Age 50 Male Human, Height 165 cm, Mass 69 kg, Army (Infantry) Lance Sergeant, Nobility (Administrator) Minister, Admin 2, Advocate 1, Animals (riding) 1, Athletics (co-ordination) 1, (endurance) 1, (strength) 1, Carouse 1, Diplomat 1, Drive (Tracked Vehicle) 1, Gambler 0, Gun Combat (slug rifle) 0, (energy rifle) 2, (shotgun) 0, Heavy Weapons (Launchers) 1, (Man Portable Artillary) 0, Leadership 3, Melee (Unarmed combat) 0, (Blade) 2, Persuade 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 1, Vacc Suit 1.
Equipment:
Vacc Suit (TL 12) 6
Laser Rifle (TL 11) +4 5d6+3 P(-3) C(-1) S(+0) M(+0) L(+0) VL (-2) D(-4) 100 shots with power pack/ 6 without.
Laser Rifle Power Pack (TL 11) , Yacht, Air/raft, Ship’s Boat, ATV, Cash on Hand: Cr 7,000,000, Ship’s Monthly Payment Cr 210,487.50. Rivals 2 Baron Frederick Barnes, Baroness Callisto McCree

Augusta McCree 7C787C Female Human Chief Noble (Administrator) {Wife of Charles Perot} Admin 1, Advocate 0, Broker 0, Carouse 2, Deception 2, Diplomat 0, Leadership 2, Melee (blade) 1 Persuade 1, Vacc Suit (TL 12) 6, Broadsword +3 4d6, Encumbrance 14 kg, Cash on Hand Cr14,000,000, Height 165 cm, Mass 65 kg, Age 34.

Chief of Security
Timothy Colson A76877 Male Human Sergeant Agent (Law Enforcement) Admin 1, Athletics (strength) 1, Computers 0, Drive (Tracked) 0 (Wheeled) 1, Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) 0 (Slug Pistol) 0 (shotgun) 0, Investigate 0, Recon 0, Streetwise 1, Tactics (Military) 1, Cloth (TL 10) 5,
Gauss Pistol +0 3d6 P(-1) C(+0) S(+0) M(-2) L(-4) 40 rounds
Gauss Rifle +0 4d6 P(-3) C(-1) S(+0) M(+0) L(+0) VL(-2) D(-3) 20 rounds
Shotgun +0 4d6 P(-2) C(+0) S(-1) M(-2) L(-3) 10 rounds
Scientific toolkit
Light Encumbrance 21.5 kg DM -1
Cash on Hand Cr14,230, Height 170 cm, Mass 73 kg, Age 30

Military Advisor
Patrick Wren BA8478 Male Human Lance Sergeant Army (Infantry) Athletics (Co-ordination) 1 (Endurance) 1 (Strength) 1, Drive (Tracked Vehicle) 1 (Wheeled Vehicle) 0, Gambler 0, Gun Combat (Slug Rifle) 0 (Energy Rifle) 2 (Shotgun) 0, Heavy Weapons (Launchers) 0, Leadership 2, Melee (Unarmed Combat) 0 (Blade) 0, Persuade 1, Recon 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 1, Vacc Suit 1
Vacc Suit (TL 12) 6
Laser Rifle (TL 11) +3 5d6+3 P(-3) C(-1) S(+0) M(+0) L(+0) VL(-2) D(-4) 100 shot with power pack/6 without
Power Pack for Laser Rifle
Unarmed Attack +1 1d6
Encumbrance 17 kg
Cr7,000, Height 171 cm, Mass 73 kg, Age 34

This red giant system is a thriving mining colony, the capital is a pair of O'Neill Cylinders linked together for stability. This facility orbits the star within the habitable zone at a distance of 38.73 AU. Besides the two gas giants there is a Size C rockball orbiting at a distance of 10 AU which used to be a small gas giant but is no more. the government has jurisdiction over the colony itself, the rest of the belt is ungoverned, various mining facilities operate all over the system, Most of the asteroids here contain water, as the star has only recently entered the red giant stage, much of the water has not yet erupted to the surface and boiled off. As you might of guessed much of these asteroids were formerly comets. The Colonial Administrator is a former Army veteran, who rescued a princess and ended up marrying her, and inheriting her father's estate when he passed away the Baroness he's married to is Augusta McCree, Callisto is her younger jealous sister, and Baron Frederick Barnes is Callisto's significant other.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Jaspar
Hex: 0112
UWP: C311353-8
Starport: C - Routine Quality, Berthing Cost Cr500, Unrefined fuel available, Shipyard (smallcraft repair)
Size: 3 - Small World (4,800 km)
Atmosphere: 1 - Trace
Hydrographics: 1 - 10% water coverage
Population: 3 - Thousands of inhabitants
Government: 5 Feudal technocracy
Law Level: 3 - Heavy Weapons Prohibited, Combat drugs illegal, Intrusive Programs (Viruses), TL 15 items regulated, Landing only at starport and other authorized sites, Use of telepathy restricted to government approved telepaths.
Tech Level: 8 - Pre-Stellar.
Bases: Research Base.
Trade Classifications: Ice-Capped, Low Population, Non-Industrial.
Zone: Green.
Mainworld Orbit: 3 - 1.09 AU.
Population: 7,000.
Planetoid Belts: 2, inner one 1 orbit outside of main world (Orbit 4) 1.6 AU, outer one beyond small gas giant.
Gas Giants: 1 small gas giant 2 orbits outside of main world (Orbit 5) 2.8 AU.
Stellar Data: G0 V
Colonial Administrator: Frederick Barnes
Callisto McCree {Wife of Frederick Barnes}
More to be added later.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Tolkein
Hex: 0219
UWP: 2-sided ringworld. (8,000,000 km radius, 12,800 km wide)
Starport: X - No Starport. (Remains of class A Starport, but not currently operating)
Size: 1000 - 16,000,000 km diameter by 12,800 km wide (Centrifugal Force -= 1g on underside, 0.2 g on top.
Atmosphere: 6 Standard (on both sides)
Hydrographics: 7 - 70% water coverage
Population: B - Hundreds of Billions
Government: 0 - No World Government
Law Level: 0 - No World Law Level
Tech Level: 1 - Middle Ages (with tech level 15 artifacts and various ruins on surface)
Bases: No functional bases
Trade Classification: Agricultural, Garden, High Population, Low Technology (but with high tech artifacts)
Population: 300 billion
Planetoid Belts: 1 (Oort Cloud)
Gas Giants: 0
Stellar Data: Solo White Dwarf Class DA (bluish-white white dwarf star)

Surface area of top and bottom ringworlds is equal to 1250 Earths each, the bottom ring rotates around white dwarf once every 1.875 days at a velocity of 310 km/s providing acceleration of 1g away from the central star, the top ringworld doesn't rotate at all, and the acceleration due to gravity is at 0.2g towards the central star. Above the top ringworld is a ring array of mirrors at orbital velocity around the white dwarf (126.5 km/s) which rotates around the star once every 4.6 days, those mirrors reflect light from the white dwarf onto the upper ringworld surface. Below the bottom ringworld is a ring of shadow squares, the shadow squares block light from reaching the bottom ringworld surface intermittently to produce night, the upper mirror arrays have gaps in them which for periods of time do not reflect light onto the top ringworld producing night. Total surface area for both top and bottom ringworlds is equal to 2500 time Earth. Despite the high population, with all this surface area population density is low varying from medeaval to prehistoric levels of population in different areas.

 

[simonh]

Which Traveller rulebook did you use to generate your Ringworld? I don't see them in the tables in the world generation system in the main rulebook. Maybe it's in the errata?

Simon Hibbs

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Which Traveller rulebook did you use to generate your Ringworld? I don't see them in the tables in the world generation system in the main rulebook. Maybe it's in the errata?

Simon Hibbs

Just an idea in my head I had to get out there. Ringworlds are mentioned in the T20 book.

World Size: The generation tables assume that the world in question will be a solid matter sphere. Some alternatives are possible, although they are rare enough to require implementation by the referee. These include:

Rosettes: Three or more equal masses (worlds) set at the points of an equilateral polygon, and with the correct equal angular velocities about their center of mass, will have a stable orbital configuration. In fact no central star is required for the group. Rosettes will almost never occur naturally

Ringworlds: 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 surface area equal to about 3 million Earths.

Sphereworlds: Using materials similar to those in a ringworld, and adding gravity generators where necessary for strength and comfort, a spherical shell could be used to completely enclose a star. Such a shell would then trap all stellar radiation for use by the civilization. With a radius of about 93 million miles, the internal surface area would equal about one billion Earths.

The ringworld discussed here is different from the one talked about in the book, this one is 8 million kilometers instead of 93 million miles in radius, and 12,800 km wide instead of 1 million miles wide, it also is made out of ordinary matter, not the super-strong stuff talked about in that book, because their is another ringworld on the outside, who's gravitational attraction to the star, because it is not rotating, holds the inner one together as it races around the star on its track. The thing that makes this possible is the ratio of brightness to gravity is much less for a white dwarf than for an ordinary star, this one has the mass of our Sun but only 1/360th of its brilliance, that way the ringworld can be build much closer without vaporizing.

I was originally thinking of a Sphereworld of about 8 million km in radius, trouble is at this distance, which is the habitable zone of this star, the gravity at the surface of the sphere is only 1/5th of Earth's. If I wanted a full Earth gravity at the sphere's surface, it would have to be less than one half that radius and would have to deal with 5 times the radiation on its under-surface, some means would have to be used to shed all that excess energy to keep the surface habitable. I thought of giant radiator fins, and mirrors to reflect all that excess radiation into space through holes in the sphere, and then I decided just to chuck it and build a ring world, actually two. One rotates to simulate 1 full Earth gravity on its inner surface, the other does not rotate at all, and its mass has to be 5 times that of the inner rotating ring. This arrangement doesn't rely on structural strength at all, it doesn't even need tech level 15 technology, it is all build with physics we understand today, though its physical size is still daunting, it doesn't require artificial gravity generators or super strength materials, it could be made of ordinary matter such as steel, and of course you need superconducting magnets to keep the surfaces of the two ringworlds separate so they can slide past each other without friction at 310 kilometers per second.

The weight of the outer sphere at 1/5th gravity pushes inward on the rotating sphere and also holding it together, together these ringworlds have the surface area of 2500 Earths, about 1250 Earths for each one, though of course the outer ringworld is slightly larger so it can fit around the inner one, this is more on the scale of what exists in Traveller, I'm keeping the inhabitants primitive so they don't affect the surrounding area too much. Don't like it, Minty can chuck it, I just thought I'd share the idea here. I try to show as many creative ideas as I can, make up some interesting adventure ideas. Obviously this structure calls for investigation, someone built it, the Imperium might like to know, an obvious adventure for a Scout.

this map could be used as part of the inner surface of the bottom Ringworld, it represents 1 Earth worth of area.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Moving On
Name: Korrin
Hex#: 0113
UWP: X776762-2
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 7 - 11,200 km
Atmosphere: 7 - Standard, Tainted
Hydrographics: 6 - 60% water coverage
Population: 7 - tens of millions of people
Government: 6 - Captive Government (Prison Planet)
Law Level: 2 - Portable energy weapons except ship-mounted weapons restricted
Tech Level: 2 - Renaissance level technology
Bases: Scout Base - Scouts basically serve as prison guards for the inmates on this planet.
Zone: Red Travellers are advised to avoid this planet
Trade Classifications: Agricultural, Red Zone
Population: 40 million
Planetoid belts: 2
Gas Giants: 3, 2 large and 1 small
Stellar data: Solo G5 V

This is basically a prison planet where the Imperium dumps its criminals, industrial facilities are restricted. It is thus a red zone.
A Mobile Space Station serves as the Scout Base, it monitors the planet and makes sure none of the criminals sent there escape.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Doran
Hex: 0114
UWP: D000374-D
Starport: D - Poor, Unrefined fuel only available, Limited Repair, Berthing cost Cr30, No bases present.
Size: 0 - Asteroid in belt
Atmosphere: 0 - Vacuum
Hydrographics: 0 - no water present
Population: 3 - Thousands of inhabitants
Government: 7 - Balkanization, the entire belt is balkanized, in effect there is no established authority, several space stations have up to 50 inhabitants, the one including the class D Starport has 500 residents.
Law Level: 4 - Typical law level per space station although this varies, 4 is the average law level.
Tech Level: D - Average Interstellar
Bases: None
Zone: Green
Trade Classifications: Asteroid, Vacuum, Non-Industrial
Population: 9,000
Planetoid Belts: 1
Gas Giants: 5 - 3 Large, 2 Small
Stellar Data: Solo K5 V

 

[simonh]

> and of course you need superconducting magnets to keep the surfaces of the two ringworlds separate so they can slide past each other without friction at 310 kilometers per second.

I've no problem with the concept of Ringworlds, Larry Niven is one of my all time favourite SF authors, but pretending that they are feasible without something like Scrith is taking such enjoyable fantasies a bit far. If we're going to talk about real materials, we also need to start talking about structural stresses, tolerances, vibrations, induction effects, materials degradation, maintenance and repair, and so on.

Apart from actualy constucting the thing, and finding enough energy to spin up the inner ring, this is the killer. No known materials are going to meet the tolerances and required rigidity to be stable in a configuration like that. Then there's the problem of the magnetic fields from the maglev system causing inductive currents in the materials of the two rings, causing a braking effect. Even if you were able to shield it so the effect is minuscule, at that scale and with those relative velocities even in inifinitesimal fraction of the field getting through the shielding will cause massive problems. Practically speaking, anything like that made from real materials will just tear itself apart. Any imprecision or failure of any component throughout the spin-up and operation of the ring, and the whole thing is history. In fact, even variations in the gravitational field of the star itself would probably cause enough of a variance in the pressure the outer ring exerts on the inner ring to cause oscilations in it's spin and destabilise the whole structure. If the inhabited surface of the inner ring isn't perfectly homogenous and static, variations in it's mass distribution is going to cause instability and oscilations as well. Real materials just aren't capable of dealing with forces at this scale.


Simon Hibbs

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

> and of course you need superconducting magnets to keep the surfaces of the two ringworlds separate so they can slide past each other without friction at 310 kilometers per second.

Apart from actualy constucting the thing, and finding enough energy to spin up the inner ring, this is the killer. No known materials are going to meet the tolerances and required rigidity to be stable in a configuration like that. Then there's the problem of the magnetic fields from the maglev system causing inductive currents in the materials of the two rings, causing a braking effect. Even if you were able to shield it so the effect is minuscule, at that scale and with those relative velocities even in inifinitesimal fraction of the field getting through the shielding will cause massive problems. Practically speaking, anything like that made from real materials will just tear itself apart. Any imprecision or failure of any component throughout the spin-up and operation of the ring, and the whole thing is history. In fact, even variations in the gravitational field of the star itself would probably cause enough of a variance in the pressure the outer ring exerts on the inner ring to cause oscilations in it's spin and destabilise the whole structure. If the inhabited surface of the inner ring isn't perfectly homogenous and static, variations in it's mass distribution is going to cause instability and oscilations as well. Real materials just aren't capable of dealing with forces at this scale.

Simon Hibbs

There is a difference between an engineering problem and a physics problem. A physics problem for example is not being able to go faster than the speed of light, or in the case of a ringworld requiring material with the bonding strength of an atomic nucleus to hold the ringworld together, and having to come up with magic matter to solve the whole problem, these are physics problems because we don't know if such matter exists. Sounds like what we need are "shock absorbers", but then what this is, is science fiction, we assume we are dealing with technologies greater than our own. So some future scientist solved this problem, I don't know what he did as it is in the future, but it is solved. If we had solved every problem involving space travel, we'd be flying spaceships now instead of playing a role playing game about it.

My solution solves the problem of needing scrith, by applying he downward gravitational weight of one ringworld against the outward centrifugal force of the other, I made a larger problem into a smaller problem which can be solved with future clever engineering. If you ask me how they did it, I don't have an answer for you, that you can't poke holes in, because I am not that future scientist. I solved the big problem, there are lots of little engineering problems that need to be solved before we can actually build it, that is not my problem, this is science fiction.

There are lots of little problems that need to be solved before we can built a space elevator as well, although we have a material called carbon nanotubes which are theoretically strong enough, enough problems have been solved to make a space elevator a valid concept, in a similar manner a double-sided ringworld is also a valid concept, engineering problems are for engineers to solve when they actually build it. I don't think you actually want me to include a technical manual as to how to actually construct a ringworld do you? I don't ask you to explain how artificial gravity works. The problem of scrith is the nail that stuck out, which I just pounded in, other problems are less obvious.

The Traveller setting includes other fields which might be used in place of magnetism. For instance, I did list the ringworld as Tech Level 15, make the outer ring a giant grav vehicle pushing inward on the inner ring as it rotates around the white dwarf star, force still balance out and the structure holds together. Another way to solve it is to suspend a hot plasma between the two rings with magnetic fields containing it, the plasma exerts pressure on both rings by pushing on the magnetic field which contains it, and in turn the plasma acts as a spring, it can be compressed and expanded, the magnetic fields prevents the plasma from making contact with the undersides of both rings. Since one ring is sliding past the other at 310 km/sec, that plasma will undoubtedly be very hot, if its hot enough it might even undergo fusion, I don't know that it is. Suffice to say, there are a number of ways to solve this problem, and I don't know which one it is, lets just say one of them works for the sake of argument, there is no way for you to say there isn't a way to solve this engineering problem without doing actual experiments.

Lets talk about the energy needed to accelerate this ringworld up to the proper spin rate, I am sure the white dwarf would contain enough energy to do this, it is modeled after a real white dwarf called Sirius b for example, which has the mass of the Sun compacted into a volume the size of the Earth, it is white hot, and will take billions of years to radiate out all of its stored energy, and the mass of the ringworlds are tiny compared to it, remember that this is much smaller than Niven's ringworld which had the mass of Jupiter, though the material its made of is not known to us. Smaller mass means less energy to accelerate. A white dwarf will radiate for billions of years, so long in fact that the Universe is not old enough to have any black dwarfs.

Tolkein's mass is much less than Niven's ringworld, as we're talking only an 8 million kilometer radius versus a 150 million kilometer radius of Niven's ringworld, the width of Tolkein is the same as the diameter of our Earth, which is around 12,800 kilometers, both ringworlds have these approximate dimensions, top and bottom, though of course the top ringworld has to have a slightly larger radius to fit around the bottom spinning ringworld. I can probably calculate the mass of this. The first question to ask is how thick is it, Unlike Niven's ringworld, the bottom of each ringworld is flat, it has to be to allow both ringworlds to slide smoothly past one another Earth's topographical features range from about 5 miles above sea level to 7 miles below, so thats around 12 miles with an average thickness of 6 miles converting to kilometers this is 9.6, but lets go for an even 10 kilometers for the inner ring and 50 kilometers for the outer ring, since it is only the inner ring that we are spinning lets concern ourselves with the mass of that. Using the volume of a cylinder equation:
V=pi*r²*h
I'll use the radius of 8,000,010 km, and a width of 12,800 km to determine a volume of
2,573,599,135,806,530,000 cubic kilometers and I'll subtract the volume of a cylinder that is 8,000,000 kilometers in radius by 12,800 km wide to get -2,573,592,701,820,760,000
=6,433,985,776,128 cubic kilometers (6.43 trillion cubic kilometers). The density of steel is 8.05 metric tons per cubic meter, and their are 1 billion cubic meters in a cubic kilometer, so it is 8.05 billion metric tons per cubic kilometer or 8.05*10^12 kg per cubic kilometer multiply this by 6.43*10^12 cubic kilometers and we get a mass of the inner ring equal to 5.47*10^25 kg. The mass of Uranus, our smallest gas giant is 8.686*10^25 kg, as I promised this is less than the mass of Niven's ringworld weighing in at 1.9*10^27, and my ringworld is much thicker than Niven's. The outer ringworld will have to be 5 times that amount which is 2.73*10^26 kg, this is over twice the mass of Neptune which is 1.024*10^26 kg.
Kinetic energy is:
Ek = ½*m*v²
Plugging in the above mass and a velocity of 310,000 meters per second we have a kinetic energy of 1.31*10^37 joules of energy. The Sun's energy output is 3.846 × 10^26 watts Since Sirius b has 1/360th of that output that is 1.07*10^24 watts and a watt is a joule per second, so using the radiative output of a white dwarf it takes 12,259,485,981,308 seconds to accelerate the ringworld to the required velocity that is 388,746 years of using the total output of the white dwarf to accelerate the inner ring to 310 kilometers per second. meters. There are other tricks up our sleeve. For example the ring won't start as stationary, Orbital velocity is half that. Now if you look at the size of the project and what you are doing, that is not too bad. Humans were around 388,746 years ago, the construction project could have begun back then. (I had to correct the math, there was a type where I had a 4 instead of a 6 in total mass.)

Assume some medium between the two ringworlds that attenuates the variations and perturbations between these two ringworlds, and lets fuzz them out for the sake of game play.

 

[Minty]

Wow!

You're really going to town, Tom.

I've added your worlds to my world library. I can tell you right now that I will get some flak from my group when they see a words called Tolkien... I already have a reputation as a fanboy there.

I think it might be my favourite so far, though. The idea of using the outside of a ringworld for anything is too rare a thing in SF, methinks. Not that it's ever really needed. Honestly there's very little difference between 'all the space you could ever need' and 'twice that much space'.

The engineering problems of even so small a ringword are Brobdingnagian, but certainly not beyond the might of the ancients. I think Tom does a good job of differentiating physics problems from 'mere' engineering problems.

 

[simonh]

to accelerate the ringworld to the required velocity that is 50,972 years of using the total output of the white dwarf to accelerate the inner ring to 310 kilometers per second at an acceleration rate of 1.93*10^-7 meters per second squared. Now if you look at the size of the project and what you are doing, that is not too bad. Humans were around 51,000 years ago, the construction project could have begun back then.

Assume some medium between the two ringworlds that attenuates the variations and perturbations between these two ringworlds, and lets fuzz them out for the sake of game play.

So they first need to construct a Dyson Sphere to collect enough energy over 51,000 years before they can finish their ringworld. Oh, well if that's all it takes...

Simon Hibbs

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

It is a "small Dyson" though 8 million kilometers in radius, and it doesn't have to be particularly
thick just for the purposes of collecting energy, and don't forget it was once a red giant, a typical
red giant shines 1500 times as bright as our sun. Before it collapses into a white dwarf it sheds a
lot of its outer material into a huge planetary nebula, that is probably where much of this material
to build this ringworld comes from, it has a very extensive Oort cloud.

Wow!

You're really going to town, Tom.

I've added your worlds to my world library. I can tell you right now that I will get some flak from
my group when they see a words called Tolkien... I already have a reputation as a fanboy there.

I think it might be my favourite so far, though. The idea of using the outside of a ringworld for
anything is too rare a thing in SF, methinks. Not that it's ever really needed. Honestly there's very
little difference between 'all the space you could ever need' and 'twice that much space'.

The engineering problems of even so small a ringword are Brobdingnagian, but certainly not
beyond the might of the ancients. I think Tom does a good job of differentiating physics problems
from 'mere' engineering problems.

Thank you, I much appreciate it. A niven ringworld is 3 million Earth's worth of surface area, my
humble little ringworld is only 2500 Earth's worth, but still that is plenty, about a quarter of all the
Worlds in the Imperium, half of those are under one fifth gravity the other half a full gravity. The
conditions on the habitable surfaces are much like those of Niven's in that we have a fallen
civilization, it is somewhat recovered and at a native tech level of 1 or 2 at most, gunpowder
hasn't been invented yet in most places, their are sailing ships on the ocean, the 10 kilometers
thickness is mostly artificial bedrock with some soil, water and air on top, this is the bottom
ringworld under a full gee, the top ringworld is 50 kilometers thick, and it has mountains that are
five times as high and oceans that are 5 times as deep as the bottom ringworld due to the one
fifth gravity, there are huge trees and giant animals roaming around on the top ringworld, this
would effectively make a normal human seem 15 inches tall by comparison. Human would walk
about by skipping and leaping about about much as the Apollo astronauts did on the Moon, no space suit is necessary
though as the atmosphere is a standard 6, lots of large flying creatures though, giant birds, some
of them are the equivalent to Hawks and Eagles, a human has to watch himself if he goes for a
walk on the top ringworld and look up, because death has wings! Trees could be easily 100 to 200
meters tall! The bottom world is more Tolkeinesque, medieval technology is prevalent, there are
some artifacts that are pretty much treated as magic by the locals, and their are 300 billion of
these locals, but spread over 1250 Earths worth of territory, the population density works out to
around 250 million per Earth worth of surface area, and that is not even getting into the low
gravity top ringworld, there might be as much as 600 billion inhabitants on both sides, its not like
a census has been recently taken. If a Scout has surveyed the place, he can only get an estimate
based on the local population density and extrapolating that over the entire surface to get an
estimate of the entire population. Medieval methods of agriculture are entirely adequate to feed
that number of people over that entire surface, and one section of that ringworld includes a map
of Earth distorted to fit an equal-area cylindrical projection of course. Other continents are
unknown and seem to be either random or of unknown planets.

The top and bottom edges of this map are actually the atmosphere retaining walls of the bottom
ringworld, to the left and right are fractically generated continents modified by rivers and streams.
We'll assume these ringworlds are at least 50,000 years old, the humans found on the surface are
modern humans, some neanderthals, and more primitive Cromagnons, the animals are from the
Pleistocene, though more modern types exist. Most of the land is wilderness with pockets of
medieval civilization in between. There are some offworlders here as well, most of the civilizations
haven't been contacted yet. Or you can have the PCs discover this thing, either way works.

Oh I should mention, the map of Earth is where the Earth life forms were originally introduced
They have since migrated across the ringworld, there are biologically compatible life from other
worlds as well, The climate generally gets colder as one moves towards one of the atmosphere
retaining walls. The shadow Squares I mention are actually a continous strip where light is filtered
through, the black parts are where the light is completely blocked off producing night, but the
light from the white dwarf is more filtered towards the edges of the ringworld than at the center,
and the amount of filtering varies over a 365 day period producing alternating seasons for what
would be the North and South hemispheres if this was a planet. So where you see ice and snow
on this map, there is actually ice and snow. the land or water adjacent to these atmosphere
retaining walls is very cold simulating arctic conditions, alot of the technological artifacts are to be
found in these frozen waste lands adjacent to these walls, there are even defunct starports, which
could serve as operating starports if sufficiently repaired. the Starports are on top of the retaining
walls, there are landing pads, hangars for spacecraft and long elevators running down the the
surface, and there are also subway tunnels which when operating could rapidly transport
passengers from the wall starports to the center of the ringworld strip, currently they are
nonfunctioning. Most of the natives don't venture near the walls except for the local equivalent of
Inuits, that hunt and fish on the sea ice.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Kemper
Hex: 0116
UWP: E675435-5
Starport: E - Frontier Installation
Size: 6 - 6,900 km
Atmosphere: 7 - Standard, Tainted
Hydrographics: 5 - 50% water coverage (On the day side)
Population: 4 - Tens of thousands of inhabitants
Government: 3 - Self-perpetuating oligarchy
Law Level: 5 - Personal concealable weapons restricted
Tech Level: 5 - Industrial (Early 20th century, vaccuum tubes, internal combustion engine, propeller driven airplanes)
Bases: None
Zone: Yellow due to pirate activity and illegal smuggling in this system and in the Belt.
Trade Classifications: Agricultural, Non-industrial.
Population: 70,000
Planetoid Belts: 1
Gas Giants: 2, 2 Large
Stellar Data: Solo M4 V
This world is tidally locked to its red dwarf primary. The colonists here live in a single town of 70,000 people, their are stragglers and frontiersmen living farther out. The law level is restricted to the town limits. This town which by default is also the capital of the planet, as no one else lives here, is called Kempertown. It was founded by Samuel Kemper, a drug smuggler and sometime pirate who is still alive and running it today, though he is now approaching 60 years of age. Samuel Kemper is a Rogue pirate and an enforcer, he enforces a rough sort of justice in this town, taxes are irregularly collected, based upon the government's need at the time, bad things happen to people who don't pay their taxes. It is really a sort of protection racket, people pay money to the government in order not to have their businesses or homes burnt to the ground by thugs, only hunting rifles are allowed, mostly to hunt critters that wander onto people's property and to provide meat for the table.

The red dwarf sun looks swollen and is always seen as half-way towards its Zenith, the Sun stand motionless throughout the year, it never sets nor rises further. Most people's homes are equipped with shades to block out the reddish sunlight so they can get some sleep. The planet has a single ice cap made up of glaciers and sea ice covering its entire dark hemisphere, the pressure of all this ice slowly pushes the glaciers across the terminator onto the day side where it melts runs off and evaporates thus competing the water cycle. The settlement is some distance from these glaciers near a river of meltwater runoff that pours into a nearby ocean. There are no season, the climate hovers around room temperature and is similar to Florida, except it never varies. The taint in the atmosphere comes from volcanic emissions that gives a slight but unpleasant "rotten eggs" odor to the atmosphere, there is acid rain, but the crops grown are genetically altered to resist this, the fruits produced are edible and exportable, so the town prospers by exporting food to local belter settlements elsewhere in this star system. The Star System is fairly small, the local asteroid belt is within 1 AU of the primary and outside are two large gas giants with a couple large moons each. The swollen appearance of the sun in the sky has more to do with its closeness rather than its size. Generally the sky appears dark blue, the color of the vegetation is very dark green almost verging on black.

The town is ruled by a council or lords, basically a group of warlords each has a fiefdom within the town limits and each is responsible for his part in defense of the colony, mostly they got the guns so they run the place. The colony is visited frequently by pirates and smugglers, besides foodstuffs their is a vigorous trade in illegal narcotics which grow very well on this planet's surface and thrive in this tainted atmosphere and in the acid rain.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is just for fun, see if you can recognize the source.
Name: Cyrannus
Hex: 0420
Planets orbiting
Cyrranus Alpha G2 V Luminoscity 1.0, Mass 1.0, Habitability zone 0.95 AU to 1.67 AU
Distance from local primary: 0.2 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha I
UWP: X30A000-0
Size: 3 - 4,800 km
Atmosphere: 0 - vacuum
Hydrographics: A - Global ocean of magma
Population: 0
Government: 0
Law Level: 0
Tech Level: 0

Distance from local primary: 0.95 AU (Orbit 3)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha II
UWP: X868000-0
Size: 8 - 12,800 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard Atmosphere
Hydrographics: 8 - 75% water coverage
Population: 0? - population is unknown, signs of ruined cities very old!
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0? - ruins indicate probable 7 to 8 level civilization once existed on this planet, skeletal remains indicate a human population, radio-carbon dating indicates them to be 153,000 years old with a +/- certainty of 2000 years, signs of highways, and other artificial structures covered up with vegetation, traces of artificial elements, plutonium found in subsurface soil radioactivity is down to trace amounts, suitable for colonization (Imperial Scout Survey)

We found this emblem among the ruins on this planet, we suspect it might be a national flag, since it is displayed so prominently among what appears to be government buildings, still working on deciphering the language. From studying the ruins in the area, it appears fishing might be among the major industries here. We sampled some of the aquatic life forms, and found some Tuna and cod, a species native to Terra, we suspect some Ancient involvement in seeding this planet with life. Saw a statue of a fish tailed man with a trident, a survey member told me it appears as an ancient Terran god named Poseidon, such gods are no longer worshipped, but there was an ancient civilization called Greece, but the temple was 152,000 years old, so it must be a coincidence.

Distance from local primary: 1.01 AU (Orbit 3)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha IIIa
UWP: X867000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,800 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 7 - 72% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0? ruins at 7-8 level of technology
Like Cyrranus Alpha II, this planet has signs of a previous Human civilization that is now destroyed, presumably by a nuclear war. This planet is also the slightly larger member of a double planet, both of who's members are nearly equal in mass and orbit around a common center, average distance between the two is 983,000 km orbital period is 28.2 days, the rotation rate of Cyrranis Alpha IIIa is fairly close to an Imperial Standard Day. Genetic analysis of some of the human remains indicate human cloning occured here, apparently the clones were on one side of the war and non-clone humans were on the other, extensive robotization was used on one side, the issue over which this war was fought is unknown. Attempts at translation of the various ruins is ongoing.

This was the main emblem displayed among the many government buildings on this world, the planet has seven continents including one situated on the South pole, its rotation rate comes very close to 24-hours, and its gravity is almost equivalent to Terra's. I saw a bald Eagle soaring in the skies above a harbor to the west of the continent we studied, a Bald Eagle! There was a huge city here, mostly piles of bricks and concrete under soil now One of the Survey members said it was almost like being on Earth, except for that "blue moon" in the sky which is actually a planet. This would be a nice place to settle someday, and it is a hugely valuable garden world to boot! The main difficulty is crossing the 4-parsec gap to get here, most starships we know of don't have Jump-4 Our survey vessle is the 500-ton Far Reach model, it comes with a Jump-4 engine, and so we were assigned to explore this system because of its "far reach!" It is a fairly large vessel, like a giant-sized version of the more standard 100-ton Scout/Courier that is so common throughout space.

Distance from local primary: 1.01 AU (Orbit 3)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha IIIb
UWP: X865000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,200 km
Atmosphere: 6
Hydrographics: 5 50% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0? Again signs of ruins of a previous human civilization, evidence of humaniform robots found on this plant. This planet is highly mountainous and rugged unlike the other of this pair, it is also a dryer world with only 50% water coverage.

There were a lot of temples and Idols on this planet, the above image is their flag I believe.

There is this emblem as well, we think its a stylized representation of a Phoenix rising out of the ashes, but we are not sure, after doing some exploration though the various cities on this rugged planet we came upon the remains of another temple, this one had no idol at all.

Instead it had this "infinity symbol" if that is what it is. There seems to be a lot of connection between these planets and ancient Greek culture on Terra, but I don't know how this can be. Well onto the next planet.

Distance from local primary: 1.6 AU (Orbit 4)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha IV
UWP: X963000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 9 14,400 km
Atmosphere: 6
Hydrographics: 3 30% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
As in the other planets mentioned, this planet indicate evidence of a nuclear war having occured in the past, radioactivity levels is down to a suitable level, Human skeletal remains, some clone some not found at various archaeological sites, extensive robot remains found as well.

After rumaging through the ruins of this dry and desolate planet, we turned up this symbols as being the probably national flag. I don't know what it is about this place, the gravity is sort of high, it has more land than water, and there seems to be all these temples to this war god, that we think is Ares, maybe there is some connection between them and Earth history, what it is, we don't know yet. As I said this planet is dry and desolate, it is on the edge of habitability while remaining habitable, the atmosphere is parched and dry in most places, that 30% hydrographic has got a lot of work to do in oxygenating this atmosphere. I wonder it it was this world that triggered this system wide holocaust of humans, one can only speculate until we can get a good translation. Maybe we will have better luck with ruins in space, since those don't seem to be effected as much by the elements as what's on the surface of these planets. However as far as habitable planets go, this planet's dry climate preserves them better than most.

Distance from local primary: 2.8 AU (Orbit 5)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha V
UWP: X000000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 0 - Asteroid Belt
wreckage of various spaceships found in the belt, some apparently were mining ships

Distance from local primary: 5.2 AU (Orbit 6)
Name: Cyrannus Alpha VI
UWP: Large Gas Giant

Cyrannus Beta K1 V Luminoscity 0.5, Mass 0.79, Habitability zone 0.56 AU to 1.1 AU
Distance from local primary: 0.4 AU (Orbit 1)
Name: Cyrannus Beta I
UWP: X200000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 2 3,200 km
Atmosphere: 0
Hydrographics: 0
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: 0.7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Beta II
UWP: X866000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,400 km
Atmosphere: 6
Hydrographics: 6 60% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
More ruins were found on this planet, some kind of system-wide war was going on, seemed to have wiped out all of the humans on these planets, more of the robots were found, We don't know what relation these robots had with the war going on, or who employed them, more remains of the human close were discovered, interesting thing, the clones were all of 7 individuals, can't quite make it out, but the DNA evidence of the bones we found were unmistakable. interesting thing is, all the radioactivity should have wiped out other high level life forms on the planet, or else some of the humans should have survived, why they didn't we don't know. There is just too much ground to cover here and we're barely adequate to the task. We didn't expect to find 12 garden worlds in one system! I'll have to flag thus system as yellow, cause we don't know what wiped out all the humans in this system, for all we know the danger could still be present, however unlikely it may seem, since the events were talking about occurred 152,000 years ago. Sometimes, I get the feeling we're being watched, nothing on the sensors, must be just my nerves getting to me I guess.

This seems to be the symbol of this world, a perusal of the ships library indicates that these symbols are astrological symbols, this one represents the constellation of Leo as seen from Terra What could that mean, a view of the sky around here doesn't indicate these constellations at all!, We've even regressed the stars constellations 150,000 years and we still don't come up with these constellations! I just don't get it!

Distance from local primary: 0.7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Beta IIIa
UWP: X410000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,900 km
Atmosphere: 1
Hydrographics: 0 0% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
Orbit inclined 30 degrees to the local ecliptic.

Distance from local primary: 0.7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Beta IIIb
UWP: X000000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 0 asteroid belt
Atmosphere: 0
Hydrographics: 0 0% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: 1.00 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Beta IV
UWP: X869000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,700 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 9 90% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
Planet has one large moon size 2
This is getting depressing, more evidence of destroyed cities on this planet too, more evidence of radioactivity, it doesn't make sense! Our Geiger counters all tell us the residual radiation levels are within acceptable levels, but still I get a creepy feeling here, I'll tell you one thing, I'll be glad hen this mission is over! As beautiful as these planets are, there is something sad about them as well.

This planet has lots of lovely forests, where it doesn't have ocean. There are no deserts at all! Those places where deserts would normally form, there is no land, the land we do find is forested, forests have grown over the ruins of these cities, we've found some temples to the goddess Aphrodite here we suppose, and Artemis was well, a whole pagan society, and I thought the Greeks invented it all!

Distance from local primary: 0.7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Beta V
UWP: Large Gas Giant with 2 moons

Cyrannus Gamma G9 V Luminoscity 0.41, Mass 0.89, Habitability zone 0.557 AU to 1.06 AU

Distance from local primary: 0.2 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma I
UWP: X869000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 5 8,000 km
Atmosphere: B - Corrosive
Hydrographics: 0 0% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: 0.4 AU (Orbit 1)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma II
UWP: X000000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 5 Asteroid Belt
Atmosphere: 0
Hydrographics: 0
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: 0.7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma III
UWP: X867000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,000 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 7 70% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
another beautiful planet, more dead human remains, all bones partially fossilized of course. Today we found a frozen corpse high in the mountains, don't know what she was doing there, she had a slug thrower pistol and was wearing something that looked like a white lab coat underneath a parka, she was tall and beautiful once and one of the clones.
More dead cities, they are visible from space, but from the ground you can hardly see them at all, you see the odd brick lying around in the soil and the occasional piece of plastic. We found more robot parts today, looks like somebody attacked them with slug thrower weapons, is my guess.

It is hot here, I guess only a scorpion could love the place! Seriously, I think this planet is at the edge of a runaway greenhouse effect, there are lots of lizards and reptiles, and a few larger than normal insects. I guess I ought to blame the high oxygen content of this atmosphere for that better be careful with matches!

Distance from local primary: 0.85 AU (Orbit 2.5)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma IV
UWP: X866000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,500 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 6 60% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
More ruined cities here, more nonfunctional robots, we've been gathering parts from one type of robot, I think we can get enough together to see what one looked like, I can see it has a slug thrower pistol in a built-in holster in its hip, long spindly metallic fingers too, stands about 2 meters tall, maybe a bit more than that, these things give me the creeps! I doubt if it could be made to function again, the electronic parts are too far corroded to work is my guess. Found one of those robot fighters, no room for a pilot, I don't know what controlled it from that empty compartment, but I don't see any controls in there.

Lots of government buildings here and a few libraries as well, as for the natural landscape it is so so, some mountains, a few deserts, not much different from Caprica really although the Sun is a bit yellower here, and the planet sports a ring system instead of a moon!

Distance from local primary: 1.00 AU (Orbit 3)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma V
UWP: X852000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,100 km
Atmosphere: 5 - Thin
Hydrographics: 2 20% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Very dry here. the places that aren't dry are like the plains of Africa, lots of savannah. The city ruins indicate a lot of small family domiciles, and vast empty spaces where there was nothing at all, poorly built structures do not stand the test of time.

Distance from local primary: 1.6 AU (Orbit 4)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma VI
UWP: Small Gas Giant

Cyrannus Delta K2 V Luminoscity 0.34, Mass 0.74, Habitability zone 0.47 AU to 91 AU

Distance from local primary: .2 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Delta I
UWP: X310000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 3 4,700 km
Atmosphere: 1 - Trace
Hydrographics: 0 0% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: .4 AU (Orbit 1)
Name: Cyrannus Delta II
UWP: X000000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 0 Asteroid Belt
Atmosphere: 0 - Trace
Hydrographics: 0 0% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from local primary: .7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Delta III
UWP: Small Gas Giant

Distance from local primary: .7 AU (Orbit 2)
Name: Cyrannus Delta IIIa
UWP: X869000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 13,000 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 8 80% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
This planet is located in the previous Gas Giant's Trojan Point 60 degrees ahead in its orbit.
Nice planet, one of our crewmates went missing today, I don't know what happened to him, we're forming a search party, so far no luck. As far as what we found here, you guessed it, more dead cities! Note: Never found Paul, damn! I really hate writing these letters to their parents!

Aside from our misfortune with our comrade, this looks like it was once an agricultural planet, judging by the feral fruit trees we keep finding in its forests, The land is smooth and the geographic features are not very exciting, good place for growing crops though, once we clear some forests!


Distance from local primary: .7 AU (Orbit 0)

Name: Cyrannus Delta IIIb
UWP: X869000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,800 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 9 90% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?
More dead cities, and a pirate base, not one of the locals unfortunately, have to inform the Navy about them, once we get out of here! this planet is located 60 degrees behind the gas giant.

lots of lovely beaches here, no chance of getting a decent suntan here though, not with an orange sun!. I have a feeling that with the few important buildings and lots of empty spaces and poor urban development, we are looking at another poor society, lots of hovels that didn't stand the test of time, this is mostly a water world, lots of island, palm trees, and is that a parrot? Why yes it is! You know I have a feeling someone visited this place after the holocaust that wiped out the humans, there are some mechanical remains that date sometime after the holocaust happened, the fossil records indicate the reappearance of species that previously disappeared due to the war. No that's not quite right, the new species are more closely related to Terra than the ones that disappeared.

Distance from local primary: 0.9 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Delta IV
UWP: X869000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 8 12,500 km
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard
Hydrographics: 9 90% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

This cold world has just one cresent-shaped continent with volcanoes at both ends, and it has a pair of very large ice caps at both poles, there are a bunch of insignificant islands in the equatorial ice free ocean as well, as far as we can tell the same fate befell the humans on this planet as in all the others, digging through the ruins we found this last symbol of this world.

Distance from local primary: 1.1 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Delta VI
UWP: X6A5000-0
Starport: X - No Starport
Size: 6 9,600 km
Atmosphere: A - Exotic
Hydrographics: 5 50% water coverage
Population: 0?
Government: 0?
Law Level: 0?
Tech Level: 0?

Distance from Gamma-Delta Epicenter: 110 AU (Orbit 0)
Name: Cyrannus Gamma-Delta I
UWP: Large Gas Giant
Derelic orbital installation found orbiting this gas giant, some examples of a new kind of Jump drive now under study by Scout Survey, radiation environment plays havoc with ships sensors, ionized gas cloud found within this gas giant's magnetic field. On this station we found some recorded messages, hard to believe, but their are some optical disks here. After doing some experiments, we were able to play them. (I don't know why they cut corners into these disks to make the octogonal shaped.) We got to listen to some music and saw some entertaining videos, our linguists are studying them, hoping to decipher their language and their alphabet so we can do some translation. Our computers are parsing their recordings and hopefully we'll get a translation program going soon!

Bases: Pirate Base on Cyrannus Delta IV
Trade Classification: Barren, Garden Worlds (12)
Zone: Yellow because of pirate activity in this star system
Population: 0?
Planetoid Belts: 4
Gas Giants: 5, 3 Large, 2 Small

Stellar Data: Quadruple Star System (Cyrannus Alpha G2 V, Cyrannus Beta K1 V), (Cyrannus Delta G9 V, Cyrannus Gamma K2 V) The distance between the Alpha-Beta epicenter and the Gamma-Delta Epicenter is 10,091 AU. (0.16 light years) The distance between Cyrannus Alpha and Beta is 126 AU, and the distance between Cyrannus Gamma and Cyrannus Delta is 140 AU. There are 12 garden worlds in this System, they are as yet unnamed so they are given names based on the orbits they are found in.

Stepping out of character:
Just thought I'd mention, if you want to look at a map of this system, with all the planet's actual names, though the PCs at first won't know them, the map can be found here:
http://media.battlestarwiki.org/images/9/98/Quantum_Mechanix_The_Twelve_Colonies_of_Kobol.jpg
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Colonies_Of_Kobol

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Myrandia
Hex: 0313
UWP: D548A69-5
Starport: D - Poor, Berthing cost Cr30, Unrefined fuel available, limited repair
Size: 5 - 8,000 km
Atmosphere: 4 - Thin, Tainted
Hydrographics: 8 - 80% water coverage
Population: A - Tens of billions
Government: 6 - Captive Government of Duvalia
Law Level: 9 - All weapons are restricted
Tech Level: 5 - Industrial, Early 20th century equivalent
Bases: Scout
Trade Classifications: High Population, Industrial
Zone: Yellow - Travelers are encouraged to stay within the starport district and not to venture forth into the planet itself!
Population: 40 billion
Planetoid Belts: 1
Gas Giants: 3, 2 Large, 1 small
Stellar Data: Solo G8 V
This system has been wracked by religious dissent, with a number of terrorist attacks and guerrilla forces causing havoc to Imperial run starports, and this has been a source of piracy and kidnappings as well, in order to make the trade routes safe, Admiral Kimberly Wade was placed in direct rulership of this overpopulated planet, she rules from nearby Duvalia where there is also a Naval Base that she is in charge of, she puts a subordinate in charge of the day to day operations of military rule over this planet, by a show of force, things are kept in order, but patroling the streets is very dangerous work for the Imperial Marines.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Name: Duvalia
Hex: 0314
UWP: B000699-B
Starport: B
Size: 0
Atmosphere: 0
Hydrographics: 0
Population: 6 - millions of inhabitants
Governmant: 9 - Impersonal Bureaucracy
Law Level: 9 - All weapons restricted
Tech Level: 11 - Early Stellar
Bases: Navy
Trade Classification: Asteroid, Vacuum, Industrial
Zone: Yellow
Population: 9 million
Planetoid Belts: 1
Gas Giants: 4, 2 large, 2 small
Allegiance: Imperial
Stellar data: Solo K1 V
Duvalia has a military government under Admiral Kimberly Wade, to oversee the naval construction yards of Duvalia and to keep order in the restive and rebellious neighboring system, where their has been much religious strife. Normally the Imperium would get involved in directly ruling a planet, but unfortunately this one is right along a trade route, and the Imperium had no choice but to step in.