Scout: Cartography, orbits help

[zero]

Hey there, its been a while

Recently, I've been getting back into a Traveller mood and I've managed to snag Scout, being I wanted to go for an Explorer/Survey feel for my new game/character... Also I can finally put to use the cartography rules I've been really wanting to take for a spin

Anyway, I have a few questions I'm hoping you resident experts can answer, as I'm confused on some points...

Now I get the Jump Shadow of the local star takes up a few orbits of the system as a whole... What happens with Significant Planets in the Orbits within the Jump Shadow (excuse my ignorance but I haven't played Trav in about 2 years now, so I'm rusty on my knowledge in places :lol: )?

Say I rolled up a Jump Shadow of 4 and then after I set my orbits, the habitable zone where most likely that system's main planet (ie the ones the PCs will be visiting and has the rolled up UWP) lies in is the 3rd orbit (say the hab zone is much like our own)... Does that affect anything?

==

Second point: The Trav Core, at least the one I have, only points out whether GGs are in a system, not how many... Though Cartography states to stop placing GGs in the system's Orbits when ones noted from seeing if there are any in the Core are placed.
My Core only says there are GGs in a system if you roll under 10 on 2d6, but doesn't mention how many there should be.

Thanks for any help on answering these questions

 

[sideranautae]

The jump shadow means that you can't exit jump inside the shadow. You have to exit jump at the edge of the shadow and use M-drives to get the rest of the way. Venus is inside our star's jump shadow. By quite a lot.

Sounds like Mgt's version of Scouts in incomplete. Grab an earlier Trav version of extended system generation.

 

[Jeraa]

Second point: The Trav Core, at least the one I have, only points out whether GGs are in a system, not how many... Though Cartography states to stop placing GGs in the system's Orbits when ones noted from seeing if there are any in the Core are placed.
My Core only says there are GGs in a system if you roll under 10 on 2d6, but doesn't mention how many there should be

The Core Rulebook is only concerned about generating the mainworld and the data that appears on the map. As such, it doesn't care how many gas giants there are, it just matters if one exists or not in the system.

Who ever wrote the Scout book apparently made a mistake, and didn't check to make sure the World Creation rules covered what he though they did.

The simplest answer (in that it does not require any additional rolls) is, when determining if a system has a gas giant using the Core rulebook, subtract 9 from the total rolled on the dice. So 1 gas giant on a roll of 10, 2 on an 11, and 3 on a 12. That means you still need to roll a 10 or higher on the 2d6 roll to get a gas giant. Not the best method, as even our solar system has 4 gas giants, but it works.

 

[zero]

@Jeraa;

Thanks for the advice on the second point... However, in my Trav Core, it says GGs are common and as such 10+ rolls mean there are no GGs in the system. I guess I'll ignore that rule that states to stop placing GGs if you run out of the number set and act as if there can be any number of GGs within the orbits they can come up in.

Another question;
One of the options for outer system orbits are iceballs, both big and small. Am I stupid for assuming planets like Uranus and Neptune could count as such in the Outer system orbits of other solar systems?
I would place them as GGs same as yourself, though the option of iceball makes me wonder what such an orbiting body could be?

Finally;
For our own solar system, would you class it as having 8 orbits (detailing our eight planets) or 10 including our asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt (as belts are also orbit options)?

Of course the latter option means our solar system has a Jump Shadow of at least 4, so I gather in that case a Jump could only be made from the Asteroid Belt.

An 8 orbit system leaves a Jump Shadow of at least 2, making Earth viable to be Jumped from. I'd err more here, though asteroid belts are an option for outer orbits... Though also the cartography rules state only significant orbits are shown in the rolled number, not neccessarily every one... Some opinions on that could really help

One more Note;
I'm just using our own system for examples... I'm not planning on setting a Trav game there, but understanding cartography compared to how our own system would be mapped out will really help when it comes to sorting out Exploration and Survey Missions in a random rolled subsector...

Anyway, thanks for all the help

 

[Jeraa]

@Jeraa;

Thanks for the advice on the second point... However, in my Trav Core, it says GGs are common and as such 10+ rolls mean there are no GGs in the system. I guess I'll ignore that rule that states to stop placing GGs if you run out of the number set and act as if there can be any number of GGs within the orbits they can come up in.

You're right. I missed the part where it says that 10+ means there are none in the system. Thought it was the other way around.

Another question;
One of the options for outer system orbits are iceballs, both big and small. Am I stupid for assuming planets like Uranus and Neptune could count as such in the Outer system orbits of other solar systems?
I would place them as GGs same as yourself, though the option of iceball makes me wonder what such an orbiting body could be?

A large chunk of frozen water or similar. As opposed to a gaseous planet (gas giant) or rocky planet (typical planet).

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

You can always try: http://evildrganymede.net/rpgs/worldbuilding/ you want the revised stellar generation document.

Be aware that he does know what he's on about, he's an astrophysicist... but IS evil (I believe he was he turfed off this board, yes/no?).

 

[zero]

I was sleepy last night, so thanks for not clapping me round the back of the head for saying to look up the Sun's diameter and x100 to find it's actual Jump Shadow (about 139.2684 billion metres, a little under one AU).

At least math-wise I was able to see Earth is not in the Sun's Jump Shadow and nor does it's planetary shadow overlap it (just barely if you figure about 9 billion metres is that :lol: ).

So at a JS confirmed of 2, our system would have 8 significant orbits and what do you know... We happen to have 8 significant planets in our system

Thanks for the advice everyone btw