I would like to present an alternate setting I wrote up a year or two ago, when the discussion about MGP 2300 AD got me to read my copy of the GDW original. While I'd like to have it officialized, I don't think I'll get around to it - and I would like help actually expanding on it. So read on and enjoy!
The Manitou Cluster district lies upon the Spinward fringe of the New Federation. The worlds within it, though friendly towards the Federation, are not members. Some wish to join; many are wary of giving up their independence—or, at least, giving up their independence from the Federation. In order to prevent integration, or at least to mitigate the effects of it, the most populous and technologically advanced worlds have formed a Confederation in order to pool their political, economic and technological resources. One of their aims is to disseminate technology throughout the cluster against a war, even if their highest technology is, at TL13, a bit behind that of the highest TL of the Federation (16, even though that is limited to a few planets). Perhaps fortunately, the Federation does not want to have war again so soon, having fought a war against the Aslan (the Aslan are clan-oriented, but in a more organized sense. They prefer to have clans organized to respond in an organized manner to outside threats).
Most of the sector’s population is human, but as always, there are some Aslan, some Vargr, some Newts (Bwaps) and quite a few Goblins. Most other species are either poorly represented or not present. The aliens present are accepted almost everywhere, and are integrated into the local culture.
This region was originally settled by Humans about 1,250 years ago, during the last years of the Great Federation, just before the Civil War reduced it to a very small space around Earth. Most of the original settlers were of Spanish or Latin American descent, though naturally there were others (indeed, the settlers of United North American descent were among the loudest groups for their comparatively small size!).
For a time, the Cluster was ruled by a dynasty sprung from the last of the Governors (who was of Iberian-Spanish descent), but even here the drift towards dissolution was strong—with nothing coming from the retreated Federation except the occasional refugee ship or pirate, the worlds of the cluster decided that they’d had enough of interstellar government and began going their own way. Eventually a couple of worlds began looking to the stars again and produced new trade ships, and recontacted their neighbors and each other; while few of the other worlds were interested in much trading, these two began to trade, and they organized their policies and militaries to be compatible. Those few other worlds who were interested in resuming interstellar government joined one by one, and together they formed the Cluster Trade Authority. Two generations later, a scout from the New Federation (which claims that it’s merely the Old Federation, resurgent) arrived after a slight misjump. After an exchange of information, the scout departed to report to headquarters, and the Alliance heard nothing more for a time. However, this encounter prompted the Authority to reorganize and begin recruiting the other worlds. After about fifty years, the 34 most populous worlds were members, and another 15 of their close-dependent worlds were provisional members, but then as now two-thirds of the populated worlds within the district is unaligned; out of 371 suns with solar systems, only 100 are populated. The Confederation is trying to persuade the other worlds to join, because the Federation has proven itself willing to use any means necessary to gain more worlds—but best able to simply absorb them economically: it often encourages its smaller corporations and free traders to establish trade links on new worlds and in new districts. The Federation has set up a diplomatic office on the capital world, Golaffai. Even so, the Confederation is building several new military ships, which while capital ships for TL-13 are only battlecruisers in the Federation.
Of course, warships are never larger than 20,000 tons, because at larger sizes they become economically nonviable, and merchant ships are never larger than 100,000 tons: there’s no way to accelerate any vessel larger than that (not more than 0.001 G, anyways).
Point 1: TL-0 is stone age, TL-1 is bronze age, TL-2 is iron age, TL-3 is Medieval and TL-4 is the Renaissance. TL 5 is US Civil War to WW1, while the rest of the tech scale matches the standard Traveller technological scale.
Point 2: Ships travel faster than light through the utilization of the hyperdrive. Hyperdrives only cost the same volume and price as Jump Drives, but they do require fuel; calculate the total fuel for both hyperdrives and maneuver drives as for the driving power plant; keep in mind that the fuel for power plants, hyperdrives and maneuver drives are separate. Jump drives range from 1 parsec per day to 6 parsecs a day, although they are influenced by the maneuver drive—however, they do follow the standard Traveller drives in that J1 is available at TL9, J2 at TL11 and J6 is available at TL15 (and not before). Scientists theorize that higher jump numbers are possible, and research seems to bear this out; however, the TL16 J7 drive is incredibly fuel demanding and notoriously unreliable.
Point 3: Power plants do not require fuel. Their tonnage includes fuel for 200 years worth of fuel, which is roughly the same length of time that a vessel is expected to be usable (there is a way to get fuel into and out of a power plant, in case of leaks).
Point 4: Augments are as presented in the TMB and Mercenary book; however, they are introduced at TL-9 and are half the listed price.
Point 5: Psionics are rare, at ½ the equivalent population in the Third Imperium; further, cybernetic and mechanically-based augmentations are not acquired by psions except as punishment, because such devices disrupt the mind-body connection, and each received mechanical augment halves the number of available psionic points.
Point 6: Battledress is introduced at TL-12, and PGMP-13s and FGMP-14s do not need battledress to fire; they just need a tripod.
Organizations:
Work In Progress—to be completed upon overcoming laziness.
Worlds of the Manitou Cluster:
See note for Organizations, but note that most of the worlds have been lost, and if any want to contribute worlds (or to the overarching universe) feel free.
The Manitou Cluster district lies upon the Spinward fringe of the New Federation. The worlds within it, though friendly towards the Federation, are not members. Some wish to join; many are wary of giving up their independence—or, at least, giving up their independence from the Federation. In order to prevent integration, or at least to mitigate the effects of it, the most populous and technologically advanced worlds have formed a Confederation in order to pool their political, economic and technological resources. One of their aims is to disseminate technology throughout the cluster against a war, even if their highest technology is, at TL13, a bit behind that of the highest TL of the Federation (16, even though that is limited to a few planets). Perhaps fortunately, the Federation does not want to have war again so soon, having fought a war against the Aslan (the Aslan are clan-oriented, but in a more organized sense. They prefer to have clans organized to respond in an organized manner to outside threats).
Most of the sector’s population is human, but as always, there are some Aslan, some Vargr, some Newts (Bwaps) and quite a few Goblins. Most other species are either poorly represented or not present. The aliens present are accepted almost everywhere, and are integrated into the local culture.
This region was originally settled by Humans about 1,250 years ago, during the last years of the Great Federation, just before the Civil War reduced it to a very small space around Earth. Most of the original settlers were of Spanish or Latin American descent, though naturally there were others (indeed, the settlers of United North American descent were among the loudest groups for their comparatively small size!).
For a time, the Cluster was ruled by a dynasty sprung from the last of the Governors (who was of Iberian-Spanish descent), but even here the drift towards dissolution was strong—with nothing coming from the retreated Federation except the occasional refugee ship or pirate, the worlds of the cluster decided that they’d had enough of interstellar government and began going their own way. Eventually a couple of worlds began looking to the stars again and produced new trade ships, and recontacted their neighbors and each other; while few of the other worlds were interested in much trading, these two began to trade, and they organized their policies and militaries to be compatible. Those few other worlds who were interested in resuming interstellar government joined one by one, and together they formed the Cluster Trade Authority. Two generations later, a scout from the New Federation (which claims that it’s merely the Old Federation, resurgent) arrived after a slight misjump. After an exchange of information, the scout departed to report to headquarters, and the Alliance heard nothing more for a time. However, this encounter prompted the Authority to reorganize and begin recruiting the other worlds. After about fifty years, the 34 most populous worlds were members, and another 15 of their close-dependent worlds were provisional members, but then as now two-thirds of the populated worlds within the district is unaligned; out of 371 suns with solar systems, only 100 are populated. The Confederation is trying to persuade the other worlds to join, because the Federation has proven itself willing to use any means necessary to gain more worlds—but best able to simply absorb them economically: it often encourages its smaller corporations and free traders to establish trade links on new worlds and in new districts. The Federation has set up a diplomatic office on the capital world, Golaffai. Even so, the Confederation is building several new military ships, which while capital ships for TL-13 are only battlecruisers in the Federation.
Of course, warships are never larger than 20,000 tons, because at larger sizes they become economically nonviable, and merchant ships are never larger than 100,000 tons: there’s no way to accelerate any vessel larger than that (not more than 0.001 G, anyways).
Point 1: TL-0 is stone age, TL-1 is bronze age, TL-2 is iron age, TL-3 is Medieval and TL-4 is the Renaissance. TL 5 is US Civil War to WW1, while the rest of the tech scale matches the standard Traveller technological scale.
Point 2: Ships travel faster than light through the utilization of the hyperdrive. Hyperdrives only cost the same volume and price as Jump Drives, but they do require fuel; calculate the total fuel for both hyperdrives and maneuver drives as for the driving power plant; keep in mind that the fuel for power plants, hyperdrives and maneuver drives are separate. Jump drives range from 1 parsec per day to 6 parsecs a day, although they are influenced by the maneuver drive—however, they do follow the standard Traveller drives in that J1 is available at TL9, J2 at TL11 and J6 is available at TL15 (and not before). Scientists theorize that higher jump numbers are possible, and research seems to bear this out; however, the TL16 J7 drive is incredibly fuel demanding and notoriously unreliable.
Point 3: Power plants do not require fuel. Their tonnage includes fuel for 200 years worth of fuel, which is roughly the same length of time that a vessel is expected to be usable (there is a way to get fuel into and out of a power plant, in case of leaks).
Point 4: Augments are as presented in the TMB and Mercenary book; however, they are introduced at TL-9 and are half the listed price.
Point 5: Psionics are rare, at ½ the equivalent population in the Third Imperium; further, cybernetic and mechanically-based augmentations are not acquired by psions except as punishment, because such devices disrupt the mind-body connection, and each received mechanical augment halves the number of available psionic points.
Point 6: Battledress is introduced at TL-12, and PGMP-13s and FGMP-14s do not need battledress to fire; they just need a tripod.
Organizations:
Work In Progress—to be completed upon overcoming laziness.
Worlds of the Manitou Cluster:
See note for Organizations, but note that most of the worlds have been lost, and if any want to contribute worlds (or to the overarching universe) feel free.
