[Zozer Games] World Creator's Handbook

[Mithras]

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/145362/World-Creators-Handbook

'Build Better Worlds'

The World Creator's Handbook provides advice and resources for any Traveller referee wanting to flesh out the bones of a Universal World Profile (UWP). Turn a random string of numbers into a memorable and exciting scenario setting. The need to interpret the UWP data and fill in the blanks, has no doubt dissuaded many Traveller referees from creating their own subsectors for their own roleplaying universe. Here then is a step by step handbook to world creation in Traveller and it goes without saying that you will need a copy of the Traveller Main Book on hand. Don't expect a technical treatise on planetary physics, though. You won't be dealing with albedo values, Bode's Law or complex square root calculations to determine the length of the world's orbital period. This book comes at world generation from another angle - from the perspective of plot. The aim of World Creator's Handbook is to assist the referee in creating believable descriptions of his worlds, useful for referees who are putting together a scenario, and for players who want to get their heads around the world quickly, so that they can make informed decisions in-game. There is no set worksheet that must be slavishly filled in by the world creator because every planet will be unique.

• Follow the creation of three very different worlds through the book.
  Build unique worlds, inspired by their UWP characteristics.
  In depth sections discuss Size, Atmosphere, Tech Level etc.
  Dozens of comparisons with real and fictional planets.
  Step by step process, allowing the referee to see the method in action.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

As a Die-Hard Science Geek who LOVES to do all those mathmatical calculations about orbital period, albedo and Black Body Temperatures etc. I have to say, I LOVE this book and it doesn't have ANY of those things in it!

This is NOT a science book about planetary creation. This is a book about PLOTS on planets and I love it.

Another Great Job from Zozer Games.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Orbital sounds interesting, one of the settings I'm working on could use a hard science fiction approach.

 

[Mithras]

Orbital sounds interesting, one of the settings I'm working on could use a hard science fiction approach.

It is available on Lulu, and arrives as a nice, meaty softback

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Orbital sounds interesting, one of the settings I'm working on could use a hard science fiction approach.

It is available on Lulu, and arrives as a nice, meaty softback

I decided to adapt the Orbital Material for my Triplanetary Setting
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=86671&p=862194#p862194
In it I've replaced the Orbital versions of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn with my own. The main differences are that Venus, Mars, and Saturn are habitable, the Earth is politically Balkanized instead of under a single Earth government and the year is 2015 as in today, except the tech level is 9, a couple of interlopers from the Traveller OTU interfered with history, during this Earth's World War II, the two interlopers canceled each other out and World War II ended the same, but the tech level of the planet as advanced by their interferences, this has enabled them to colonize both Venus and Mars, both planets already have native humans and other species on them, Saturn is inhabited too, it is a split world, an inhabited planet sized wormhole actually, the Saturn side of it is cold and mostly lifeless, though some arctic animals do crawl on its dark frozen surface, underneath is a water ocean, and the midpoint of the wormhole called the gravity plane and on the other side is another faux gas giant that the humans from Earth have labeled Kronos (The Greek name for Saturn), it is the Kronos side under a red giant sun, which is inhabited by humans clinging to floating rock islands. Take a look.

 

[Mithras]

Wow, that is a mind-blowing setting.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Yep, Venus comes with Dinosaurs and cavemen and women. Mars hosts an ancient declining civilization with a lot of canals girding the planet. Saturn is a wormhole leading to Kronos, a map, I made and posted shows Kronos' location relative to the charted OTU map. Many of the Worlds in the Kronos Sector map, could use the supplement, the World Creator's Handbook to further detail them, this is a wilderness sector without a proper name, I just arbitrarily gave the sector the name of its most important world in this setting, no one else other than the two thieves who stole the starship know that it or the wormhole exists, not counting the natives of the Triplanetary setting.

 

[phavoc]

I liked the book. The name is kind of confusing (when compared to other titles like World Tamers, etc), but it's something nice to have in the referee toolbox.

I posted my review of it on DTRPG. To me it seemed a couple of the sections could have used more details, like the zones and bases sections. Zones have always been a weak spot because there are a LOT of planets that seem to get them and not always do the details list why. Plus zone-busting (and living to collect your payday) is right up the alley of a group of PC's!

Any chance on an update?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I liked the book. The name is kind of confusing (when compared to other titles like World Tamers, etc), but it's something nice to have in the referee toolbox.

"Planets as Plot Hooks" is confusing?

 

[phavoc]

I liked the book. The name is kind of confusing (when compared to other titles like World Tamers, etc), but it's something nice to have in the referee toolbox.

"Planets as Plot Hooks" is confusing?

Nah, not those words. I was referring to the TITLE of the book, not the subtitle. Yanno, those other three words that occupy about a third of the cover real estate.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Nah, not those words. I was referring to the TITLE of the book, not the subtitle. Yanno, those other three words that occupy about a third of the cover real estate.

I get it now. You were making a joke about the title.

 

[phavoc]

I get it now. You were making a joke about the title.

Nope. There was the World Builders Handbook & World Tamers handbook. Now there is the World Creators Handbook. A continuation on the variation of the title but not the content.