The illegal colony plot

[dayriff]

As I've been writing up worlds in a subsector, I notice that I've repeated myself a few times in the "Plot Hooks" section for different worlds. Several times I've written (paraphrased), "A group is attempting to secretly establish a colony elsewhere on the world."

I think the reason is that often I find I've rolled up a more or less decent planet with a relatively small population. Even a few million people is, what, a dozen cities maybe? Sure they could be scattered in small communities all across the planet, but the odds are they're clustered relatively close together to maximize use of population to maintain their industrial base and exploit the planet's resources. A planet is a big place, and there might be entire continents where no one is doing much in particular.

The idea that another group of people from another, more populated world might want to grab some living space for themselves just comes naturally. One would suppose that this sort of thing is illegal under interstellar law, but one might also suppose that there's a point where it becomes a fait accompli and the new and old residents of the world have to work it out for themselves.

So is this something you've used in YTU? And if so, how much do you think it happens? How often is it successful?

 

[alexhawman]

I would say that depends on who the original inhabitants are. There are many worlds that in various reference books are described as "Owned" by a mega corp or interdicted by the Navy or Scouts in the case of preserve worlds. In the case of a world with less attachment to outside sources I have let colonies pop up from displaced populations or large pirate bands and such. In most cases there is some mercenary activity that results in a conclusion that only one side will find acceptable.

The Imperium wouldn't get involved unless it was 1) in their borders and they cared about the ruling body, 2) a world that mattered to them for one reason or another, or 3) Someone convinced the Imperium of #2 above. If the Nobles(s) responsible for representing that world were in collusion with the new arrivals than the Imperium would stay out of it most likely.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Don't forget that the UWP doesn't tell the entire story.

Take the following Garden World:

C768587-6 Temperate

Seems like a beautiful world with a very low population.

However, what is NOT in the UWP is that this world orbits an M2V Red Dwarf. The world is Tidally Locked to the star.

So everyone lives in the Terminator, a thin stretch of planet where the sun is right at the horizon. Dayside is too hot, Nightside is too cold.

80% of the terminator is water (maybe more), so the amount of usable land is quite small and the population may be all the world can actually support.

Temperate (or warmer) worlds orbiting K2V stars or dimmer (about 85% of all stars) will be tidally locked to the star, so they will not have a "day". That severely limits the amount of usable planet and will also limit populations. Most people don't like to live in perpetual twilight...

That is a plot device that can be used over and over since the reality is that the situation will be quite common.

That is the problem with having a world generation system that produces a lot of apparently habitable planets... they end up orbiting nasty stars and aren't as habitable as they first appear.

 

[darktalon]

Class M stars also have the issue that the habitable zone lies within the star's 100D limit, which adds to the journey time for ships visiting a planet as they need to travel further to reach a safe jump point. This would mean that traders may not find it as profitable to serve such planets, which would have an adverse effect on development.

 

[Galaga]

See, that is the kind of scientific/astrological/whatever info I wish I knew. It would make things a lot more interesting/"realistic".

 

[dayriff]

I wonder if folks are misunderstanding my initial post. I wasn't trying to make some sort of "realism" argument for why you'd see illegal colonies all the time. Lord no. As has been pointed out, there are a lot of ways to explain low populations on seemingly desirable (or not so desirable) worlds.

It's just.... I guess my take on Traveller is to try to keep in mind how enormous a place a planet is. So I like to play with ideas that play off worlds being big places rather than just a starport with a town attached. It's like the question I'm sure a lot of GMs have struggled with. What exactly are the Scouts scouting, if we're assuming a long-settled empire? My answer is that many worlds are ill-mapped places, known only by a few orbital photographs and the explorations of human residents around the area of their settlement. And that's a settled world, much less the rest of its solar system.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I hope I didn't confuse your question, I really was trying to answer it.

I was looking at a reason why a colony might be small and NOT have room for a hidden/illegal colony.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that has existed in Traveller since the beginning. There are these apparently earth-like worlds with hardly anyone on them right next to hellholes with billions stuffed on them. It doesn't make sense, but that is what the unfiltered rules will give you.

Personally, I ALWAYS filter the UWP numbers after rolling. Adding or subtracting population based on location, atmosphere, temperature or just because I came up with a cool idea. I rarely leave a UWP untouched. But, that's just me.