Waystar High Port

Jump Transitions

2012-01-22T00:05:00.007+13:00

I have started marking some of the trade links I generated, using GURPs: Far Trader, onto my sector map. So far, I’ve worked through all the Main and Feeder Routes for Lymethius, Gamelea, Cabria and Miazan Subsectors. I have a feeling that I’m not quite doing it right as I’m working off the BTN numbers, rather than the WTN numbers, as these seemed more logical to use.

The thick red lines, such as between Yuakteisye/Lymethius and Gamelea/Gamelea, are 10.5 BTN Main routes. This represents GCr50 – GCr100 (GigaCredits), or 5 – 10 million tons of trade per year, or 100 thousand – 500 thousand tons of trade per week.

The thinner red lines represent the 10 BTN Main routes, which see 50 thousand – 100 thousand tons of cargo per week and are worth ‘only’ GCr10 - GCr50 per annum.

The thick blue lines represent the 9.5 BTN Feeder routes while the thinner blue lines represent the 9 BTN Feeder routes. 5000 – 10 thousand tons of cargo needs shipping along the 9 BTN Feeder Routes each week, while 10 thousand - 50 thousand tons are shipped weekly along the 9.5 BTN Feeder Routes.

These numbers make interesting reading when trying to work out how many ships, and of what size, might be plying the trade routes of the sector. When the numbers are plotted on a map, we begin to see places where ships of a considerable size might be required just to move the available freight economically.

For example, if 100 thousand – 500 thousand tons of trade per week needs to be moved between Yuakteisye/Lymethius, in the Huiha Esoyatre, and Gamelea/Gamelea, in Imperial Space – or Bryak/Gamelea, as this system is part of the 10.5 BTN route – then how many ships ply this route? And looking more closely at the route, I see a problem. In this case, trade is supposed to stage through Nearo – Jump-3 from Yuakteisye – except there is a small problem. Nearo is a dead system; all higher life forms on its primary world were destroyed in a nuclear and biological attack during the 1st Outrim War, 200 years ago. Oh, and there are no gas giants for refuelling in the system, either.

Bother.

It looks like I will have to swing the Yuakteisye – Bryak route rimward through Kidan, Kalar-Wi and Varch. This has the advantage of reducing the stages to Jump-2 as well as ensuring refuelling is available, but exposes Huiha Esoyatre/Imperial trade to the vagurities of Kalar-Wi factional politics.

More thought required, as well as a map redraw.

Widening the View

2012-01-13T21:37:00.007+13:00

My cunning plans for finishing off a bunch of figures crashed and burned today as I was called upon to be dutiful son-in-law. I did manage to finish off a project I started last night - an updated sector map of the RimWorlds with all statted systems named. I also added Outrim Void Sector, as some systems in the Hunt of Rronurl lie rimward of Cabria Subsector, and some of the spinward trade routes from the rimward end of Gazul Subsector pass to rimward of Miazan Subsector.

With this map in place, I can begin adding some of the trade routes I have been working out, using GURPS: Far Trader.

Once again, I generated the Outrim Void Sector map using Heaven and Earth. I set the initial system distribution to "Rift", which represents a 4% coverage. For the "B" and "C" subsectors, I regenerated these with a "Sparse" system distribution (16% coverage) which allowed me to link from spinward to trailing. I then added the extra systems I needed, rimward of Breknor/Cabria, to complete the Vargr polity of the Hunt of Rronurl, and another one further rimward to allow J-2 access out as far as "J" Subsector, some 30 parsecs rimward of Breknor.

I probably need to add a strip of at least two subsectors to spinward of Entorth Subsector to fully flesh out some of the Outrim polities I have mentioned in my notes, and give them sufficient depth to resist Imperial encroachments, while also allowing some Rift space around the edges.

Harook! Again!

2012-01-09T22:12:00.007+13:00

After the epic fail of yesterday's photos, I took another batch today in natural light. They came out a lot better but I really need to make a proper lightbox.

Again, you can see the difference in height between a Harook and a Basic/Human/Solomani. If the GZG UNSC Marine is about 5'10" (1.78m), then the Harook must be around 8'6" to 9' tall (2.7m).

Getting the flash to work did not help with picture clarity.

Pallet used: GW Liche Purple for the body armour; Tamiya Olive Green for crest/facial "feathers" and tail; GW Scab Red and Tamiya Red for tips of crest and tail feathers; GW Blazing Orange for beaks; Tamiya Medium Blue for weapons; GW Scab Red for fingers and toes; Tamiya Metallic Grey over Black undercoat base (street/tarmac mix); GW Yellow eye orbs. GW Badab black wash over armour and faces. Squad flashes on left shoulder.

Not a terribly sophisticated pallet when I see some of the works of art that Sonny of Imitation of Life or Spacejacker of Tiny Solitary Soldiers create, and my style is more "colour inside the lines", but I'm happy with how the Harook came out, and I'm looking forward to gaming with them.

I've been thinking further about the Matchbox Smart Car I used in the previous post, and am wondering how it would look if I ripped off the wheels and replaced them with GZG grav plates and whacked a load of filler around to make it a bit more aerodynamic. I could end up with the grav equivalent of the bumblebee (insect, not Transformer) which could be rather cool.

Harook!

2012-01-08T22:25:00.004+13:00

First pictures of some of my completed Harook from Mad Robot Miniatures.

Of course, my camera then decided to play up and by the time I took these shots with my wife's camera, I discovered that the two angle-poise lamps I was using had a distinctively yellowy-orange cast. I'll try and take some more shots in daylight tomorrow.

The Harook are very nice models, standing around 20mm in height and towering over my UNSC marine.

They do, however, make this slightly oversized Matchbox Smartcar look almost in scale.

Website Update #14

2012-01-04T23:06:00.004+13:00

Finally finished of my Khurasan Chewks today and spent the rest of the day (in and around running the father-in-law about) updating my modelling log and then getting everything uploaded.

The Chewk pictures are a little soft but the light was bad due to scattered showers. Harook to come in a day or so, I hope.

I have been pondering how the Chewks might fit into my Traveller campaign and there is a desert world in the Cabria Subsector with an indigenous, invertebrate-like intelligent species which could be a match. I will have to reread my notes and see if the Chewks are a fit.

Christmas War - Tinkering with the rules

2011-12-31T23:40:00.008+13:00

I posted a couple of questions to the Two Hour Wargames discussion list tonight, just to see if I was at least in the same country, let alone ball park, regarding some of my character generating assumptions for 5150: New Beginnings.

It appears to me that, as I have chosen to create a new Alien race for 5150: New Beginnings, for my sins I also have to design the Generator and Profession tables. As the Rimbaur are pretty much like any other people in my Traveller universe, I have pretty much adapted the Basic and Zhuh-zhuh Professions tables, while skewing them slightly for a high tech society.

Rimbaur:
Rimbaud II/Gamelea B-434478-D
Attributes:
Agile +1d6 on any Physical Challenge involving agility
Slight –1d6 in melee
Leap can leap onto single story buildings or 6” distance from a standing start by taking a Physical Challenge.

Rimbaur Generator (2d6 added together)
#	REP	FIT	PEP	SAV	SCI	WPN
2	5	4	0	5	3	None
3	4	4	2	3	0	MP
4	4	3	0	4	2	P
5	5	5	4	3	0	BAP
6	4	3	4	2	0	BAP
7	4	3	2	4	0	None
8	4	3	4	2	0	P
9	3	2	1	3	0	None
10	3	2	0	1	3	None
11	5	5	4	3	0	BAMP
12	3	2	1	0	3	P

Rimbaur Professions
LWC	#	Profession
2 - 5 Blue Service	1	Delivery Driver
	2 - 3	Culinary
	4 - 5	Store Owner
	6	Service Staff
6 Dependents	1 (1 - 4)	Children
	1 (5 - 6)	Elderly
	2 (1 - 2)	Religionist
	2 (3 - 6)	Student
	3 - 4	Homemaker
	5	Student
	6	Trophy Wife
7 (1 - 5) Exotic	1 (1 - 3)	Pilot
	1 (4 - 5)	Resistance Recruiter
	1 (6)	Patron
	2 - 5	Mercenary/Resistance Fighter
	6	Gunslinger
7 (6) Government	1	Diplomat
	2	Government Asst.
	3 - 5	Office Holder
	6	Secret Police (roll again for Cover Profession)
8 Labourer	1	Farmer
	2 - 3	Manufacturing
	4	Mechanic
	5	Miner
	6	Power Supply Tech
9 Technical	1 (1 - 3)	Engineer
	1 (4 - 6)	Doctor
	2	Scientist
	3	Professor
	4 (1 - 3)	Med Tech
	4 (4 - 6)	Lab Assistant
	5	Data Analyst
	6	Computer Specialist
10 - 12 White Service	1	Translator
	2	Broker
	3	Accountant
	4	Courier
	5	Attorney
	6	Corporate Exec.
Criminal Element	#	Profession
	1 (1 - 2)	Dealer
	1 (3 - 6)	Black Marketeer
	2 (1 - 3)	Thief
	2 (4 - 6)	Smuggler/Transporter
	3	Escort
	4 - 5	Net Runner
	6	Ganger
Law Enforcement	#	Profession
	1 - 5	Police Officer
	6	Police Sergeant

Note: Under the Kalar-Wi occupation of Rimbaud II, Rimbaur Police are despised by the general populace and are considered to be lackeys of the occupiers. Either Kiang or Kalar-Wi fill all Police ranks above Sergeant.

Edit: Have bitten the bullet and reconfigured the table in HTML.

Christmas War – Off with his head!

2011-12-26T22:55:00.006+13:00

The Harook from Mad Robot Miniatures are undercoated and ready for their transformation into Rimbaur; I have ten Ventaurans from Eureka Miniatures painted up already as Kalar-Wi; and I’m thinking that the Kalar-Wi might also deploy some of their Kiang allies, for which I will use Rebel Miniatures Kurgan.

This evening I successfully completed my first head-swap as I converted a Ventauran trooper into Inspector-Lieutenant Adra’kal Dreseka.

It was rather easy to remove the Ventauran’s head and then I drilled a small pilot hole where his neck would have been. Widening the hole, the neck plug for one of the pointy-eared heads I bought from Astro Miniatures just dropped straight in. Easy peasy.

I bowled the base of the Ventauran’s head/helmet and glued it to the figure’s waist, so Dreseka has his helmet hooked to his belt. Nice, simple conversion, and it looks really good.

Painting day tomorrow - I hope!

Christmas War - backgrounding

2011-12-24T17:14:00.004+13:00

Over on Dropship Horizon, Chris K has posted the skeleton of a Christmas War campaign and invited all readers to join in. Several things have come into alignment for me, and I suddenly thought, "I can do this."

Recently, I finished painting a squad of Eureka Ventaurans. With the proof-of-concept uniform details finalised, I can probably knock out another squad fairly quickly.

And then, two packs of Harook arrived from Mad Robot Miniatures a couple of days ago. These are lovely, crisply cast miniatures, and one of the few avian alien races available in 15mm.

And finally, I have almost finished reading through my copy of 5150: New Beginnings from Two Hour Wargames.

I was already thinking about playing some 5150: New Beginnings within the existing frame work of the RimWorlds. The concept for that game is to follow the career of a shady young man making his way through the twists and turns of the criminal underworld. His adventures take place in the years following the death of the Boss of Bosses of an interstellar criminal network, the Black Comet Organisation in 1097 – some 12 years before the current campaign date.

While I’m tempted to play this game for the Christmas War, the arrival of the Harook figures reminded me of another incident in the history of the RimWorlds – the conquest and liberation of Rimbaud II.

The Kalar-Wi have been enthusiastic supporters of House Juharl of Gamelea, Fleet Admirals of Gamelea Subsector, in their struggle with House Zarquestuir, Siridar-Dukes of Gamelea. Playing a key role in the defence of Imperial space during the 1st and 2nd Outrim Wars, Kalar-Wi ambition fell afoul of Imperial policy, and the union between Houses Juharl and Zarquestuir, in 1022 during the brief, yet hard-fought, Klorin Asteroid War. Kalar-Wi remained in possession of the Varch system following the war, though out of Imperial favour, in spite of service during the 3rd Outrim War of 1025 – 1038.

Kalar-Wi intervened in the Rimbaud War of 1042 – 1044, occupying the devastated planet of Rimbaud II and endured veiled Imperial threats of retaliation for the attempted genocide of the native Rimbaur Minor Race. From the Kalar-Wi point of view, their intervention on behalf of one of two Rimbaur factions ended a bitter civil war that had already turned biological and which actually briefly went nuclear. Kalar-Wi was to continue to occupy Rimbaud II until 1105, and defeat at the end of the Kalar-Wi War. By this time, Kalar-Wi and Rimbaur Climatic Engineers had stabilised the shattered Rimbaud climate, and had even decontaminated small areas of the equatorial continent, though the bulk of the surviving Rimbaur population still dwelt in the high northern latitudes. In these settlements, some Rimbaur still waged a ‘war of liberation’ against the Kalar-Wi ‘oppressors’.

The Christmas War campaign I’m thinking of playing involves a Rimbaur Liberation Army (TkUK – Tre’kuorm Ureekai Kho) cell seeking to locate a captured TkUK leader and freeing her, and then staging an all-out attack on a Kalar-Wi garrison.

The first scenario takes place on the Eve of Puranthea Malathu, a Kalar-Wi religious festival recalling the birth of Malathu’kal Sourka, the first Warlord of Kalar-Wi who united the clans and turned them outwards into space. Traditionally a time when Kalar-Wi military units stand down and celebrate their lineage and battle honours, on this Eve of Puranthea Malathu Inspector-Lieutenant Adra’kal Dreseka of the JKW/22 (Jourlaki Kalar-Wi Unit 22 – Kalar-Wi Command Force Unit 22, or Kalar Wi Military Intelligence) has been tasked with interrogating a captured TkUK leader in an effort to roll up a local TkUK organisation.

Meanwhile, TkUK Cell leader Vras Srakaal has been ordered to rescue the recently captured Region Overofficer Kouss Shubar who is being held in the local town by the Kalar-Wi oppressors. Srakaal must locate and capture JKW/22 Inspector-Lieutenant Dreseka and extract Shubar’s location from him.

Well, that gives us the first scenario, so things to do include painting up some Harook as Rimbaur, converting and painting up a figure for Inspector-Lieutenant Adra’kal Dreseka, painting up some more Ventaurans as Kalar-Wi, and prepping up a play area. I might also have a look at some of the PEF tables and see if I need to modify them for my Traveller campaign.

What fun!

On Still, Clear Waters ...

2011-12-07T14:18:00.004+13:00

... ducks drift, while beneath the surface little webbed feet are flailing frantically.

Feels a bit like that, at times. I have managed to finish some figure painting, including the first squad of Ventaurans from Eureka Miniatures. I have painted up my Ventaurans as Zhodani proxies/Kalar-Wi.

I have managed to finish a couple of other little painting projects as well as move a few closer to completion - and have finally made some more scatter terrain from some rocks I picked up at Maraetai nearly a year ago. All this should be up on my website over the next few days.

I'm still plugging away at trade figures for the RimWorlds and have had some further thoughts on Gazolan Subsector. If Real Life slows down, I might even be able to write something about it.

Sector Fleet

2011-11-15T22:09:00.002+13:00

Sector Fleet
by Martin J Dougherty
Mongoose Publishing

Marc Miller first examined the Traveller Imperial Navy in detail in MegaTraveller’s Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium. This book expanded on the Classic Traveller Supplement 9 Fighting Ships, which was purely a collection of ship stat blocks, to include a small section on the Fleets of the Imperium, and how they were organised. It also examined how this organisational structure had adapted to the Imperial Civil War era of the MegaTraveller setting.

In 2006, Martin Dougherty published Grand Fleet, the first comprehensive work on the Imperial Fleet, its composition, mission, and organisation, through Avenger Enterprises. In 2010, Martin expanded upon his earlier work and released Sector Fleet for the current version of Traveller from Mongoose Publishing. As Sector Fleet is about twice the page count of Grand Fleet, it is obvious that Martin has given the subject of the Imperial Navy, the way it recruits and functions, its facilities and resources, and the way it interacts with the Imperium, considerable thought.

Sector Fleet gives a Gamesmaster a comprehensive picture as to how an institution like the Imperial Navy might function – not as a deux ex machina, but as a series of systems that follow their own internal logic and traditions based upon experience and the demands placed upon them by the government that they serve.

As a bonus, Martin provides a pretty comprehensive breakdown as to how the Spinward Marches Sector Fleet is deployed just prior to the 5th Frontier War, and what its structure looks like. Even if you don’t game in the Spinward Marches, or use the 3rd Imperium Background, this section is invaluable for the insight it provides a Gamesmaster with an interest in running a Naval campaign. From Martin’s baseline numbers, it is possible to extrapolate upwards or downwards, depending upon whether you favour a small ship or a large ship campagn, or even just compare Trillion Credit Squadron-derived budgets against.

This supplement is well worth getting, even just as another tool in a Traveller Gamesmaster’s toolbox.

5150: New Beginnings

2011-10-28T21:47:00.004+13:00

5150: New Beginnings is a Science Fiction immersion game from Two Hour Wargames, and the first immersion game that I have bought. While I’m still reading the rules, I like what I see.

I’m not sure if “immersion game” is a tagline that THW has coined for their games, as I have not come across it before but, essentially, it describes a type of game that sits between a tabletop skirmish game and an RPG. By using reaction rolls, the characters in the game are meant to act and react to events as they unfold in a way that is more natural and logical than the traditional “I go, You go” of tabletop wargames.

What I really like is that there is an extensive campaign side to the game, and that the game can be played solo as well.

I first came across the game either on TMP or on one of the many blogs I follow. I joined the Two Hour Games Yahoo Group and read a couple of very entertaining After Action Reports written by guys fumbling their way through character creation and initial encounters. What sold me on the game was that I could easily see myself using my Traveller campaign as a setting, and actually getting to play with some of the figures I have been painting. My initial plan is to set the game in the Border Worlds – along the Lymethius and Gamelea Subsector borders – as this is an area of friction and conflict, which tends to generate good stories.

I elected to get the printed version of the rules from Two Hour Wargames, rather than the pdf, and it came, spiral bound, on a nice weight of paper with a colour card cover. The spiral binding made sense after my initial surprise as the book is going to spend a fair amount of time open when in play. I intend to rebind it, adding clear plastic covers to protect the very nice cover art, as I have access to a spiral binding machine.

I will post some updates on this soon, I think.

Trade Makes the Galaxy Go Round

2011-10-15T22:45:00.000+13:00

I’m still crunching away at the trade figures for the RimWorlds. At present, I have covered most of Lymethius and Gamelea Subsectors and already some interesting patterns are beginning to emerge.

GURPs: Traveller - Far Trader works by creating a World Trade Number for each main world – derived from that world’s Tech Level and population, and modified by the Starport type. An individual planet’s World Trade Number ranges from 0 to 6.5.

The World Trade Numbers of two worlds are added together, modified by Trade Classification type, if applicable, and by the distance in parsecs between the two worlds. The resulting number is called the Bilateral Trade Number and represents the amount of trade between the two worlds in question. What we are looking for is the existence of Major, Minor and Feeder Trade Routes associated with Bilateral Trade Numbers of 10+, 9+ and 8+.

Where GURPs: Traveller - Far Trader is quite clever, is that the distance modifier uses a logarithmic scale. This means that while the serious negative modifier of –2 kicks in at 10 parsecs separation, it is still possible to have a Major Trade Route between two planets up to 19 Parsecs apart, assuming each had a World Trade Number of at least 6 and both were members of the same polity. If there are sufficient High Tech/High Population worlds, they will naturally daisy chain and create lucrative Mains.

Where this information becomes useful from a gaming point of view is when you want an idea of how much traffic, and of what tonnage, is likely to be in a system, and how much freight and passengers are likely to be hanging around, waiting for a ride.

Be prepared however, if you want to use GURPs: Traveller - Far Trader as an economic mapping tool, for a lot of initial work. While parts of the job can be auto-calced by a bit of cunning Exel-fu, there is a lot of tedious manual matching of pairs of WTNs with distance modifiers to arrive at BTNs. Though, if you stick to the formula rules, you can quickly correct any initial calculation errors – such as happened to me this evening when I realised that Acorlis V’s WTN was wrong; once this was fixed, the BTNs I had laboriously calculated all corrected themselves – which was a relief – and the trade routes I had noted leading to Acorlis V all disappeared as the BTNs had dropped below the Feeder Route threshold – which makes sense as Acorlis V is best described as a dusty pest hole the inhabitants are too poor to leave.

Fifty Followers - a mile stone

2011-09-26T21:04:00.003+13:00

I discovered today that fifty people now follow this blog. This fact is in equal parts humbling and terrifying - humbling that fifty people care enough about what I write to subscribe to my blog, and terrifying that they might find out I have no idea what I'm going to write about next!

My thanks to you all for your support - I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

Website Update #13

2011-09-25T22:02:00.002+13:00

While work on Gazolan Subsector has ground to a halt, I'm still plugging away at trade routes with GURPs Traveller: Far Trader. Due to the slightly cock-eyed way one reaches inter-system Trade volumes, there is room for error and I had to redo a chunk of stuff when I realised I was deducting the distance factor twice.

On a happier note, I have almost finished painting a nice little crawler flatbed and some figure conversions. More here.

2011-09-11T20:16:00.003+12:00

Issue 4 of Brett's Traveller fanzine, 'Into the Deep' is now available as a free .pdf from here.

With a focus on Reavers' Deep Sector, 'Into the Deep' also provides useful background information for Brett's Classic Traveller PBeM, Reavers' Deep. The game is coming up on its third anniversary and is still going strong.

"The Department" Enters Its Final Week of Fundraising

2011-09-10T00:04:00.002+12:00

I have been following developments of the science fiction/film noir themed Skirmish Wargame/RPG "The Department" with interest. With influences as diverse as Blade Runner and the computer game Syndicate, it could be an interesting way of playing out those noir-style Traveller scenarios.

Joseph Dragovich, lead writer on this project, is using an interesting fundraising mechanism, akin to Eureka Miniatures 300 club, where interested parties in effect pledge some cash to ensure the project gets to press.

Joe says,

"We're entering our final week of our Kickstarter drive and we're well on our way to getting to our funding goal.

We have raised over $2000 so far but we still need more pledges if we are going to make our funding goal.

Kickstarter uses an all-or-nothing funding model, so if we do not meet our $3800 goal by the 16th of September, the game will not be produced.

We have a lot of great rewards for backers, such as t-shirts, posters and signed copies of the rules. We're offering Kindle, Ebook, Pdf versions of the game.

Our Kickstarter page

You can learn more about Kickstarter's all or nothing funding here

I've signed up for a copy of the rules as this looks like a game I would really enjoy.

Design Notes - Incremental Progression

2011-08-28T22:36:00.002+12:00

With new figures to paint and a full diary, progressing development of Gazolan Subsector has temporarily stalled. I have, however, located the current (1109) subsector capital, Thiroor, at 2213.

Thiroor lies on the “lower lip” of the Wedding Cup, Miigaurshish and, incidentally, was one of the early systems in Gazolan Subsector to be occupied by the Imperium. House Hendrian of Thiroor, Subsector Dukes of Gazolan, have been slowly increasing their power and influence since the Sakul Wars of the late Ninth Century. With the death of Sector Duke Edenar in 1097, Akansair Hendrian was able to present both himself and his House as the most suitable candidate to succeed to the Sector Duchy. Akansair I was succeeded by his son Mekal in 1104. Mekal was succeeded by his brother, Akansair II, in 1107.

I need to re-examine the systems of the Wedding Cup as these would appear to be the core worlds of Gazolan Subsector – the centre of power that House Hendrian as protected and nurtured since the Sarkul Wars. It is these worlds that have given House Hendrian the wealth and resources to replace House Ulanor as Sector Dukes, and to hold their own against their enemies – both internal and external.

Interlude

2011-08-21T20:56:00.002+12:00

As often happens when I’m working on a project, instead of continuing with the development of Gazolan Subsector I suddenly decided that I needed to re-examine the economics of the RimWorlds using GURPs Traveller: Far Trader. This then involved trying to beat the various GURPs economics formulae into a spreadsheet. After much swearing and Googling, I developed a semi-automatic method for generating the various World Trade Numbers, and then a manual method for linking them together to generate the Bilateral Trade Number.

Currently, I have worked up numbers for Lymethius Subsector and have just started moving out into Gamelea. I am starting to see the beginnings of trade routes, though the Far Trader rules demand relatively high values for routes.

Heaven and Earth would generate the trade routes for me, but it doesn’t seem to present all the World Trade Numbers. Also, I’m finding the exercise useful in getting me to see different patterns in my subsectors. I’m looking forward to extending the numbers up the Julnar Reach into Gazolan Subsector to see if the story I was beginning to create about the Reach in my last post is backed up by the economic data. Lastly, generating these numbers, while useful for the background of a trade game, will also give me a feel as to the true volume of shipping travelling the routes of the Subsector.

Gazolan Subsector #4 – Dealing with Randomness

2011-07-31T19:35:00.004+12:00

Heaven and Earth is a mighty programme for generating systems and sectors and I have used it to sketch out the subsectors of my Sector that I never got around to mapping back in the day. I used it again to map out Gazolan Subsector for me when I decided that I needed to take a closer look at this region of space. Then, when I sat down to look at the UWPs for Gazolan Subsector, I experienced the same feeling of “blurg” that I experience whenever I look at any of the OTU Sector maps and their endless lists of UWPs – basically, I feel no connection with these strings of numbers.

For me, part of the fun of system and subsector creation is the story telling that goes along with it. A vocal portion of Traveller players/referees moan and whinge about the “inaccuracies” of Traveller world generation and “how is it that a billion people live on an airless rock while a garden world a parsec away has a population of a couple of hundred people?” My answer is, “So, how is that? Tell me the story of settlement of this region of space. Tell me of the hopes and dreams of the people who came to this place, or evolved out of the mud of this place, and I’ll tell you why these people are here”.

So, I sat down and rolled my own UWPs, and here they are:

Hex No.	Planet	UPP	Bases	PBG	Trade
1712	Gampir	B-98A69A-B	Nil	621	Ni/Ri/In
1714	Iir	B-232884-C	Nil	010	Na/Po
1715	Baladar	C-5036A8-C	S	632	Na/Ni
1717	Kekhi	A-A69879-C	Nil	320	Ri
1718	Lediginkuurga	B-886673-6	Nil	800	Ag/Ni/Ri
1720	Shimurii	A-6619B9-C	N	901	-
1814	TBA	E-7B36A9-7	Nil	540	Ni
1818	Ishmagshaka	X-351531-0	Nil	740	Ni/Po
1819	Simamingigshis	C-7A4210-A	S	630	Ni
1915	TBA	B-337857-C	Nil	230	Na
1917	Malasadasad	E-334795-4	Nil	400	Na
1919	Khilu	C-5459AA-5	Nil	432	In
2013	Udsha	E-262547-7	Nil	522	Ni
2014	Ghima	A-437541-F	Nil	330	Ni
2020	Zekhiipkuka	C-550456-8	Nil	230	Po
2117	TBA	B-667676-9	N	522	Ag/Ni/Ri
2120	Karpathurnal	C-542672-A	S	710	Ni/Po
2211	TBA	C-466573-A	Nil	900	Ag/Ni
2213	TBA	B-232733-A	N	441	Na/Po
2214	Ir	A-444752-B	Nil	440	Ag
2216	TBA	D-302787-7	Nil	630	Na
2217	TBA	C-5656AA-7	Nil	502	Ag/Ni
2219	TBA	B-243551-A	Nil	831	Ni/Po
2312	TBA	E-430788-8	Nil	111	Na/Po
2314	Aguus	E-462400-3	Nil	720	Ni
2316	TBA	A-783533-A	Nil	611	Ni
2319	Giirmuum	B-669667-B	N/S	030	Ag/Ni/Ri
2320	Agarkhiki	D-140753-8	Nil	542	Po
2412	Dupi	A-410854-C	N	131	Na
2413	TBA	C-535775-6	Nil	500	Na

Looking at what I came up with, my heart sank. The story is that Gazolan was a rich subsector – that’s why Kolin I pushed into that part of space, even against opposition - and here I was rolling up Poor worlds, and Low Tech worlds, and crappy starports and next to no bases - almost time to dump the home rolls and go back to Heaven and Earth. And then it struck me, Gazolan was a rich subsector in the time of Kolin I, some five hundred years ago. It has also been fought over in various civil wars and border wars since then.

Looking at the systems that make up the new and extended Julnar Reach, I was struck by the number of Poor worlds, especially towards the Rimward end of the constellation. Kerak (1922) and Tulvan (2021) in Gamelea Subsector are already noted as economically depressed worlds, due to the Odinite mines paying out in the 1090’s. Perhaps Zekhiipkuka (2020) and Karpathurnal (2120) in Gazolan were also depressed mining worlds? Giirmuum (2319), a Rich world, and Julnar (1823), a High Tech world, dominate the economy of the Reach, with Tech Level 15 Julnar taking the economic lead over Tech Level 11 Giirmuum.

Suddenly, the columns of numbers I had rolled up were beginning to tell me a story, and it looked like that it might be a different one to what I had been expecting.

Gazolan Subsector #3 – The Reach that Ate the Main

2011-07-09T17:05:00.011+12:00

Back in Accidents in Astrography: Gamelea Subsector #2, I indicated that the Kerak and Tulvan systems in Gamelea Subsector were part of the Julnar Reach, a broken reach that extends into Lymethius Subsector. Looking at the freshly generated map for Gazolan Subsector, I see that Kerak (1922) and Tulvan (2021) are actually the Rimward extensions of the seven-system Main (G). I toyed with the idea of including Main (G) in the Julnar Reach, but then decided against it. The stars of the Julnar Reach will all have the same proper motion and inclination to the Galactic plane which, in spite of the Jump-2 gap between Julnar and Por’via, will indicate that they are all members of the same group. I have yet to decide whether Run (H) in Daltharmai Subsector is also part of the Julanr Reach

So, Kerak and Tulvan are now members of Main (G), which links them culturally to Rimward Gazolan as is evident by the fact that Cassingal – a dialect of Gazolan Imperial Basic - is spoken on both worlds as well as along Main (G). At the moment, I’m mulling over whether to merge the map
I created for the BurrowWolf webcomic with the existing maps. Doing so will introduce two new systems to the Gamelea/Gazolan Subsector border area; Acorlis V at 1822 and Shinurii at 1720. Shinurii does not cause any problems and expands Run (F) by a system but Acorlis V, on the other hand, links Julnar and Leminkainen to the Main (G) and effectively writes the Julnar Reach out of the story.

As an alternative, and just to show what coming back to a problem after a couple of weeks can do, if Main (G) and the Julnar Reach do merge with the addition of Acorlis V, an idea that I discounted above, there is no reason why Main (G) should not become the Julnar Reach. This would create a ten-system constellation stretching from Leminkainen in Gamelea Subsector to the system at 2319 in Gazolan Subsector.

Julnar, itself, is the homeworld of the Julnari Minor Race who, in 1109, enjoy a high tech TL15 society on their water world. Their population isn’t very large, though, numbering only some 830, 000 natives in 1109. For the Reach to be named for the system, there is the implication that either the system’s culture dominates the constellation, or the system is associated with some astronomical feature that makes the constellation recognisable.

Oloro is the native language of the Julnari, though Cassingal, an Imperial Basic dialect, is the dominant language of the Julnar Reach. I did have some early thoughts about the Julnari perhaps having a pocket Empire that was absorbed by Imperial expansion but I think that whatever influence the Julnari may have had along the Reach has waned and that lower tech, but higher population worlds elsewhere now dominate commerce and culture in the Reach. At present, my thinking is that some feature either in or near the Julnar system is sufficiently detectable at distance to have leant its name to the constellation.

Gazolan Subsector #2

2011-06-18T22:47:00.006+12:00

With the basics of the map for Daltharmai, Gazolan and Thurgandarn Subsectors laid out in Heaven and Earth, I sketched in the current Imperial Border (A). While I have been discussing the expansion of the Imperial RimWorlds Territory – later the RimWorlds Sector – under Sector Duke Kolin I Venuraski in the 540’s, I have also had to keep an eye on the RimWorlds Sector of 1109 (the current campaign date) as I have to ensure that two ends of my historical account actually meet up. The current Imperial Border, for instance, actually marks a slight decrease in Imperial penetration of the Sector. Daltharmai Subsector was basically a wedge driven Spinward by the Imperium between the Klarthur Confederacy in Riinu Subsector and the Outrim Alliance in Lymethius and Per Vulia Subsectors. With pressure coming from both Coreward and Rimward on Daltharmai, exposed and lightly held worlds have been abandoned as the Imperium has sought more defensible borders.

Astrographic features of Gazolan Subsector:
A – Imperial Border (1109)
B – a three-system cluster
C – the 11-system constellation Miigaurshish (pronounced ‘me – e – ga – ur – shish’) – the Wedding Cup.
D – the ten-system Daltharmai Main running to Spinward into Daltharmai Subsector.
E – a four-system cluster.
F – a five-system Run.
G – a seven-system Main running Rimward into Gamelea Subsector.
H – a three-system Run in Daltharmai Subsector.

Given that the Imperium was restricted to Jump-3 capable starships in the 540’s, Gazolan Subsector would have been entered from Kaorin Subsector through either the three-system cluster at (B) on the Gazolan/Daltharmai border, or through the Coreward “rim” of Miigaurshish (C) – the Wedding Cup – on the Gazolan/Thurgandarn border, or through the “stem” or “base” of Miigaurshish in Thurgandarn Subsector. It is likely that within these two astrographical features “great mineral resources were discovered in the Gazolan subsector and these fuelled the rapid expansion of the Duchy. This expansion was not unopposed.”

Looking at the map, I suspect that Kolin’s scouts did not actual come across any major opposition until they crossed over to the Daltharmai Main. A pocket empire based on the Daltharmai Main, with Jump-2 technology, could access the five-system run (F) to Rimward, and the three-system Run (H) and the Main (G) to Spinward and Rimward of (F). They could have also secured the Rimward rim of Miigaurshish and it is likely it was here that the Imperium encountered their second major polity in the RimWorlds.

Gazolan Subsector – Graveyard of Sector Dukes

2011-06-13T22:20:00.005+12:00

After having fun fleshing out the Venuraski Sector Dukes, I realised that to round off this section of the History of the RimWorlds I really needed a brief account of the conflict in Gazolan Subsector that claimed the lives of both Kolin I and his son Metch. And to write about this conflict, I needed to map the subsector.

This would be the first subsector I have mapped for my campaign in something like 15 years. As I began setting up for it, I decided that I would sketch out the basics in Heaven and Earth, and then edit and move systems as required for the narrative. While the actual system generation rules would be from Classic Traveller, I wanted to take the opportunity to look at the Mongoose Traveller world generation rules to see whether they added anything to the mix.

As I have been going through my six extant subsectors, I have found it very helpful to look at the starmap in Quadrant form (more properly sextant form, I guess). At this higher-level viewpoint, constellations of stars form and logical local polities and cultural/language areas become obvious. So, having run the generator, I picked out the Jump-1 groups and marked up the current Imperial frontier.

With seven groups, I had a couple of good candidates for the location of a wealthy pocket empire or confederation, that might give Kolin I grief when he came calling in the middle of the sixth century. Though, looking at the current starports, either the subsector had really fallen on hard times, or I was going to have to do some serious editing work.

Characters who can Drive the Story #3

2011-06-11T22:18:00.005+12:00

In my last post, the finger of suspicion was pointing in the direction of Dentian Venuraski, later Sector Duke Dentian I, as the murderer of Sector Duke Kolin I in 550.

To recap, in 550 Kolin I, at the age of 72, was on campaign in Gazolan Subsector, attempting to pacify a hostile and potentially dangerous pocket empire rimward of the Klarthur Confederacy. His son and heir, Metch, was, we have decided, serving as a theatre commander in Gazolan Subsector – possibly in a Ground role, but more likely as a Task Force Commander - with a Fleet Admiral and a Ground Force Commander to keep him from making any serious mistakes.

So where was Kolin’s nephew, the future Sector Duke Kolin II? While pondering this question, I re-read this passage from Origins of the Rimworlds Sector 497 - 557

“As tensions eased along the Spinward frontier, Viceroy Kolin turned his eyes Rimward and set his scouts in motion again.

“Following the path of least resistance, Imperial colonisation moved Rimward from Berimar’s Sceptre Subsector into Thurgandarn, and then into Nolgor Subsector. In 540, the years of planning and effort paid off. The Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds was formerly established with its initial capital on Raelamr/Thurgandarn and Kolin Venuraski was invested as its first Sector Duke.

“Great mineral resources were discovered in the Gazolan subsector and these fuelled the rapid expansion of the Duchy. This expansion was not unopposed. Ten years into his reign, Sector Duke Kolin I’s driving ambition led his downfall when he was killed on campaign. Gazolan subsector was to claim the life of his son and successor, Metch (reigned 550 – 552), before being finally pacified.

“The Perrsherrik Rift in Nolgor Subsector halted the march to the Rim for a few years, but by 552 Imperial forces under Sector Duke Kolin II Venuraski had penetrated the Coreward end of Gazul Subsector.”

So, contrary to what I suggested had happened a couple of posts back, expansion Rimward began soon after Kolin I signed the Treaty of Choraptur with the Klarthur Confederacy in 530. Imperial forces encountered little or no resistance as they moved through Thurgandarn Subsector and the Coreward end of Nolgor Subsector, advancing about a parsec a year until, sometime in the mid/late 540’s, Kolin’s Scouts ran into the Perrsherrik Rift. The establishment of the first Sector Duchy capital at Raelmar (Thurgandarn 0808) in 540, close to the advancing wavefront in Nolgor Subsector, and handy to the increasingly problematic Gazolan Subsector to Spinward, would seem to indicate the choice of capital was governed by the proximity of perceived flash points.

The Perrsherrik Rift was to hold up the Imperial advance for several years until Antoi Perrsherrik’s original crossing point through the Thrisk and Lotarf systems was secured. Imperial expansion then continued Rimward, encountering progressively stiffer resistance from the Zoni of Lur and the Dokari Diarchy in Core-Spinward Gazul Subsector until Kolin II’s reign when the 1st Rimward War was finally fought.

It was on this front – the march to Rimward – that Kolin Venuraski would gain command experience and why, I believe, he fought the 1st Rimward War. To Kolin I would go the honour of establishing the RimWorlds Sector. Kolin II sought his place in history by taking the Imperium to the edge of Intergalactic Space. With this goal in his mind, the war in Gazolan was a distraction for Kolin II, robbing him of the fleet elements he needed to put down the Zoni and to break up the Dokari Diarchy.

The transition between Kolin I’s administration and that of Metch, in the midst of the Gazolan War, would have effectively stalled Kolin II’s Rimward campaign. It is likely that Kolin II was required to be present for Metch’s investiture, which would have taken him out of the Gazul theatre and his conflict with the Dokari Diarchy. Given his Rimward focus, which he returned to with a vengence after Metch’s death, I am inclined to believe that Kolin II did not murder his uncle.

So, where was Dentain during this time? If Kolin II was in his fifty’s when he died in 557, and Dentian was five or six years younger, then that would make Dentian somewhere between 46 and 50 when his brother won the 1st Rimward War and was killed at the Battle of Gorth. This would make Dentian between 39 and 43 when Kolin I was murdered in 550.

Given that by 550 the conflict in Gazolin Subsector had been under way for upwards of five years, and that Dentian’s brother already had the Rimward front in hand, I suspect that Dentian – the younger of the refugee cousins - would have been put to work in some fashion in Gazolin, as another Venuraski theatre commander may very well have been of use there.

Was there some military disaster associated with Dentian, or one of his entourage in 549 – 550? A public dressing down, or similar humiliation by Kolin I, may have been the tipping point where a “disgruntled gardener” sought to do service, or regain face, by removing the Sector Duke. As Dentian did not immediately stake a claim to the Sector Duchy, nor was executed by Metch, Kolin’s successor, could it be that Metch supported his younger cousin in the face of accusations over the deeds of a minion? Metch had a war to fight, and with only two years to live, he may have taken Dentian’s word instead of waiting for the findings of a formal inquiry, which would have taken time to deliver a verdict. The murderer’s identity was discreetly buried, possibly along with his body, and Metch took the Ducal coronet.

And here’s a thought – was the indomitable Kolin I in failing health at this time? The stress of command in an increasingly bloody war, coupled with the onset of some form of age-linked neurological disorder, coupled with some form of setback that caused the Sector Duke to fly into a public rage? While TL 13 medical technology might be able to cure such things, if the patient is in a borderline state and is then suddenly pushed over the edge, the harsh words and decrees might be issued before the medics could make a difference.

I think we have processed this inquiry about as far as we can, without coming right out and making a definite statement. By examining the character and times of one individual, and it must be admitted that Kolin I Venuraski is one of those exceptional individuals, we have been able to cast some light of a personal nature upon events five hundred years before the current campaign time. This, in turn allows us the possibility of artefacts, or people, with links to those far distant times who, in turn, will have value or motivations of their own which can set events in motion even in the current time.

Characters who can Drive the Story #2

2011-05-30T22:29:00.004+12:00

When attempting to solve a murder mystery, see who gains.

Sector Dukes of the RimWorlds

House Venuraski of Raelmar/Thurgandarn
Kolin I 540 – 550†
Metch 550 – 552†
Kolin II 552 – 557†
Dentian I 557 – 594 Abdicated

Kolin’s son and successor, Metch, inherited both the Sector Duchy and the war in Gazolan Subsector following his father’s death in 550. Given that Kolin was 72 when he died, Metch was probably in his 40’s or 50’s when he succeeded his father, assuming Kolin married and had issue in his 20’s or 30’s. Metch held the Sector Duchy for two years, dying on campaign in Gazolan Subsector in 552. Metch was succeeded as Sector Duke by Kolin II who finished the Gazolan War, and pushed Imperial expansion Rimward as far as Kasimir in Gazul Subsector before his death at the conclusion of the 1st Rimward War in 557.

Apart from the suddenly truncated timeline – three Sector Dukes within seven years, a war in Gazolan Subsector and a Rimward War, and a 15 parsec advance of the Imperial border after years of little or no progress – we also have the interesting question of the Ducal Succession. This is interesting in light of the question of who killed Sector Duke Kolin I.

My original Sector Ducal list is a sequence of Houses, names and reigns. The actual relationship between the various holders of the title and office was left rather vague, though hints of various relationships are evident in the accompanying initial draft of the Imperial History of the RimWorlds. While some Houses might still practise primogeniture, I reasoned that the council of elders of most Houses Major would collectively nominate the House’s most able member to fill such roles as might be granted to the House by the Emperor. And while such councils would have their own internal politics, as a clan or corporate body, the seniors of the House would strive to maintain the honour and status of the House above all else.

In the case of House Venuraski, Kolin I was such a dominant, and domineering force, that, unexpected death or not, his will dominated the political thinking of his time. In the middle of a conflict to pacify a subsector, a sudden change of leadership, or leadership policy, could be catastrophic to the war effort. Given his age, it is more than likely that Kolin’s son Metch was already an experienced Ground or Space Commander and serving in that conflict. It would not take much, when Kolin’s death was announced, for the military to rally behind Metch, and for the politicians to then submit to the fait accompli.

Then two years later, the war in Gazolan was almost over and Metch was dead. If Metch had murdered his father, or had his father murdered, then he had gained little from that heinous crime that he would not have received in due time and in the usual fashion, given that his father had, in effect, already secured the Sector Duchy for him. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Metch was involved in the death of his father.

This leaves the last two Venuraski Sector Dukes – Kolin II and Dentian I – as possible suspects. While turning over in my mind the relationship between these two and Kolin I, I recalled that Kolin I was initially described as “the head of a cadet branch of the House of Deneb”. My initial assumption had been that Kolin II, at least, and perhaps Dentian I, were younger sons of Kolin I. Now, I wondered if Kolin II and Dentian I were not in fact nephews, fostered in Kolin I’s Sector Ducal court to advance their careers.

Almost nothing is written about Kolin II directly; even his age and birthdate are not recorded. I picture him being of a similar age to his cousin Metch – in his mid-to-late fifties. He is active in command roles in the middle years of the 6th Century, both in the expansion of Imperial territory (more on this in my next post) in the Trailing Subsectors, the conclusion of the conflict in Gazolan Subsector and the 1st Rimward War – which costs him his life. Metch’s sudden death in 552 thrust Kolin II into the role of Sector Duke, which while unexpected, did not find him completely unprepared.

The character of Dentian I is drawn in slightly more detail, more for the latter part of his reign and his enforced abdication. He was a strong-willed individual, standing very much upon the points of the original charter of Kolin I’s Private Equity Company. Described by his opponents as more concerned with his own power and prestige than ruling justly, he sounds both vainglorious and tyrannical.

Could Dentian I be our murderer? I have decided that he is Kolin II’s younger brother. If Kolin II was in his 50’s when he died, perhaps Dentian I was five or six years younger. Having been in Kolin I’s Sector Ducal court for a decade, plus in his Vice-Regal court for at least a further 15 years, Dentian I had spent over half his life as a dependant of his uncle. As Kolin I manoeuvred his way between political hazards, did Dentian come to resent him and his real politik? And did he resent him enough to have him murdered?

Characters who can Drive the Story #1

2011-05-17T22:46:00.003+12:00

At the end of my previous post, I briefly discussed the death of Sector Duke Kolin I Venuraski in 550. As you may recall, his brief biography in the Library Data ends Kolin’s driving ambition led to his downfall when he was killed on campaign in the Gazolan Subsector, killed, it is said, by a disgruntled gardener. I concluded that Kolin’s death at the hands of a gardener had the hallmarks of a historical myth – the mighty brought low by the humble – and left it at that.

A day or so later, I read a post on the Fire Broadside Blog about Oniwaban – ninja attached to the Court of the Tokugawa Shoguns who acted as intelligence agents and bodyguards. Martin at Fire Broadside had pretty much cribbed the fluff from the Infinity game site (as he’s busy painting up Infinity figures) but a quick Google on Wikipedia uncovered further information about these special agents that got me thinking.

Back in the day, I used to be a fan of Cerebus the Aardvark. At one point Cerebus, while working as Head of Security for Lord Julius, was given the title of Kitchen Staff Supervisor. Lord Julius was a great believer in impenetrable bureaucracy and miss-direction by mislabelling. He had a theory that a job title did not define the job and, in fact, it was better from a security point of view if a person’s job title actually had no relation to their actual job.

So, an interesting scenario presents itself. Sector Duke Kolin I is on active service in Gazolan when he his killed, not in battle, but by someone in his entourage. This person becomes known to history as a disgruntled gardener, in effect written out of history even though they have just killed a Sector Duke. When examined with a slightly suspicious mind, this could hint at a deliberate blurring of events to protect … whom?

Like double cream, the plot suddenly thickens.

History of the RimWorlds #10 – Missing Years

2011-05-01T22:17:00.004+12:00

A chronology is a series of date pegs that one hangs events from. A history takes these date pegs and attempts to construct a narrative that carries the reader along with it. The problem with the latter approach is that without enough of the former, the story moves in fits and starts, just like a jerky piece of film. And, just like a jerky piece of film, when you look closely, you realise that there are pictures missing.

When we last left Viceroy Kolin Venuraski, the Treaty of Choraptur, settled in 530, had reduced tensions with the Klarthur Confederacy along the Spinward Frontier of the Imperial RimWorld Territories. This enabled Kolin’s exploratory missions to begin to move Rimward again.

“Following the path of least resistance, Imperial colonisation moved Rimward from Berimar’s Sceptre Subsector into Thurgandarn, and then into Nolgor Subsector.”
- The Origins of the Rimworlds Sector 497 - 557

What is interesting, here, is that the Chronology states:

History of the RimWorlds

497	First Imperial presence in the RimWorlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
525	Lord Kolin Venuraski is created Viceroy of the RimWorlds by Imperial Patent.
526	First Imperial contact with the Klarthur Confederacy in Riinu Subsector.
530	Treaty of Choraptur defines the border between the Klarthur Confederacy and the Imperial RimWorld Territories.
540	Sector Duchy of the RimWorlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraski is first Sector Duke.
552 - 557	1st Rimward War. Sector Duke Kolin II extends Imperial Rule into the Gazul Subsector against the opposition of the Rimward Coalition.

Whoa! In 540, Kolin Venuraski becomes Duke Kolin I of the RimWorlds Sector, and twelve years later Sector Duke Kolin II is fighting the 1st Rimward War in Gazul Subsector. Besides taking twelve years to move the frontier 14 parsecs, what happened to Kolin I whose career has played such a part in the Imperial narrative of RimWorlds history for the last 55 years?

The Origins of the Rimworlds Sector 497 – 557, quoted above, is part of a longer essay, entitled The RimWorlds Sector: An Imperial Overview, which I wrote to bring together all my notes into some sort of coherent form. It is still a work in progress as I add to it. It picks up the narrative thusly:

In 540, the years of planning and effort paid off. The Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds was formerly established with its initial capital on Raelamr/Thurgandarn and Kolin Venuraski was invested as its first Sector Duke.

Great mineral resources were discovered in the Gazolan subsector and these fuelled the rapid expansion of the Duchy. This expansion was not unopposed. Ten years into his reign, Sector Duke Kolin I’s driving ambition led his downfall when he was killed on campaign.

Gazolan subsector was to claim the life of his son and successor, Metch (reigned 550 – 552), before being finally pacified.

The Perrsherrik Rift in Nolgor Subsector halted the march to the Rim for a few years, but by 552 Imperial forces under Sector Duke Kolin II Venuraski had penetrated the Coreward end of the Gazul Subsector.

So, we learn a little more about Duke Kolin’s fate, but not much.

At some stage I wrote a brief biography of him for my Library Data:

Kolin I Venuraski
Kolin Venuraski (478 - 550†), Sector Duke of the Rimworlds 540 - 550. Head of a cadet branch of the House of Deneb, Kolin saw, early on, the possibilities for expansion into the Rimworlds. Through deft manoeuvring, Kolin succeeded in having himself appointed to head the Imperial Commission that considered the Scout Service reports on the Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre Subsectors. Shamelessly exploiting his position, Kolin was made Viceroy of the Rimworlds in 525. Pooling the resources of his immediate family, and tapping the fortunes of his cousins, Kolin organised the massed settlement of the Thurgandarn Subsector. Part of his success lay in his ability to recruit talented younger members of the other Houses Major of the Greater Deneb Sector and skilfully exploit their skills and resources to achieve his own great aim. In 540, the years of planning and toil paid off with the creation of the Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds and the investiture of Kolin Venuraski as its first Duke. Ten years later, Kolin’s driving ambition led to his downfall when he was killed on campaign in the Gazolan Subsector, killed, it is said, by a disgruntled gardener.

Hmmm, death by gardener. Sounds a bit like a myth, especially with the “it is said” qualifier, but still a suitably delightful end to such a colourful character.

Having drawn together such threads as exist, I feel the urge to flesh out the narrative a little as there was obviously a major conflict in the Gazolan Subsector which I want to learn more about, and I want to develop Kolin's relationship with Kolin II. But, that’s a project for another day.

Website Update #12

2011-04-25T21:01:00.005+12:00

A long and wet weekend enabled me to finally get some painting done and I managed to finish my Imperial Marine platoon.

I still have to finish the vehicles for the unit, as well as find or convert some officer figures. More pictures and notes can be found on
my website in the Modeling log.

AE: Bounty

2011-04-16T21:31:00.003+12:00

AE: Bounty
by Matthew Hope
Darkson Designs

One of the Bloggers whose blog I follow recently purchased AE: Bounty. He was still in the process of reading the rules and hasn't commented further.

As I was also looking for some skirmish rules, I decided to order a copy for myself. I sourced my copy from The Book Depository in the UK - delivery time to New Zealand was 12 days and postage was free.

So, a nice 98 page, A5, softback book, nicely presented. I am finding the small print and grey/burgundy page background a little difficult to read under artificial light, though. At the moment, I'm still wading through the game background, though I did have a quick flick through the rules mechanics earlier. The basics seem relatively simple, with a series Abilities, and a choice of weapons options, to modify the basic characters.

I'm quite looking forward to playing this, so I hope to report back with an update in a couple of weeks.

History of the RimWorlds #9 – A last look at the Klarthur Confederacy

2011-04-07T22:20:00.003+12:00

This brief examination of the Klarthur Confederacy has answered some questions, but has raised more.

We know that the dominant race within the Confederacy is the H’ran – an aggressive bipedal reptilian species uplifted to sentience by the Thongaloros Empire and used by them as enforcers and shock troops. We know that the H’ran State managed to retain some of the Empire’s shipping during the Empire’s collapse, and that they used this shipping to dominate a small group of systems in the Aemilor Subsector. We know that, while militarily successful, the H’ran lacked the technological know-how to maintain their precious fleet so that within a couple of decades, their Pocket Empire was on the verge of collapse as their ships failed, one by one. We know that the H’ran encountered, and conquered the less aggressive, but more technologically-savvy Gherlach prior to this collapse, and that the Gherlach, while initially treated as servitor-technicians, actually took over the running of the H’ran State. And finally, we know that the Gherlach were still secretly in touch with, and ruled by, an isolated clan of Tsalur who had survived the collapse of the Thongaloros Empire.

The Tsalur clan The Talon of Dra’kken, working through their Gherlachi servants, initially encouraged the further expansion of the H’ran State. Then slowly, over a period of a century and a half, the Talon changed the H’ran’s relationship with neighbouring states from one of mutual hostility to one of mutual assistance. As alliances were strengthened, the Klarthur Confederacy came into being, named for the bright nebula that dominates Aemilor Subsector. The arrival of large numbers of human settlers in the RimWorlds, set in motion by Lord Kolin Venuraski’s Chartered Private Equity Company, quite probably disrupted long range plans for turning the Confederacy into a Second Thongoloros Empire.

This state of affairs would not have been apparent to the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service as it began exploration of the RimWorlds, nor would it have been apparent to Lord Kolin’s initial follow-on expeditions. First contact with the Klarthur Confederacy took place in the Choraptur system of Riinu Subsector in 526, 19 years after the First-In Scouts began moving into Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre Subsectors.

Discovering a large, organised stellar polity sprawled across four subsectors came as something of a shock to Viceroy Kolin Venuraski and Lord Saaroi hault-Creaso, his Vice-Regal Minister for Exploration. After initial skirmishes as scouts from both sides ran into each other, and each other’s installations, the vague outlines of a frontier zone began to emerge.

Fortunately for Viceroy Kolin’s future ambitions, Lord Saaroi was ably served by his chief Xenologists, Albathar Moranth and Htaukhealaiw Iyfa. Professor Moranth quickly realised that the H’ran State dominated the Confederacy Supreme Council, and that while the H’ran appeared to be in charge, it was actually their Gherlachi servants who made things happen. Professor Iyfa was then able to crack the social codes that enabled Lord Saaroi to deal directly with Humblest-of-the-Humblest-and-Guide-of-the-Masses Cliirumpurathaal, the Gherlachi Chief Servitor.

After several false starts, the Treaty of Choraptur, concluded in 530, defined the official border between the Imperial RimWorld Territories and the Klarthur Confederacy, splitting Riinu Subsector evenly between the two states and strictly limiting Imperial expansion into Daltharmai Subsector.

As tensions eased along the Spinward frontier, Viceroy Kolin turned his eyes Rimward and set his scouts in motion again.

History of the RimWorlds

103	Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.
114	The H’ran State in Aemilor Subsector declares its independence from the Thongaloros Empire and begins to expand.
139	The H’ran State in Aemilor Subsector, on the verge of collapse, conquerors the Gherlach. Gherlach technological skill saves the H’ran State.
290	The Klarthur Confederacy established. Initially based in Aemilor Subsector, the Confederacy expands into Riinu, Nantarn and Daltharmai Subsectors.
323	Ftaioiaftew/Gazul settled by Aslan of Huiha Weakhayuwikhye.
497	First Imperial presence in the RimWorlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
525	Lord Kolin Venuraski is created Viceroy of the RimWorlds by Imperial Patent.
526	First Imperial contact with the Klarthur Confederacy in Riinu Subsector.
530	Treaty of Choraptur defines the border between the Klarthur Confederacy and the Imperial RimWorld Territories.
540	Sector Duchy of the RimWorlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraski is first Sector Duke.

'Into the Deep' Issue 3 released

2011-04-04T20:23:00.003+12:00

The third issue of Into the Deep, a Traveller fanzine that focuses on Reavers' Deep Sector, was released mid-March. I've only just got around to downloading it as I've been flat out, myself.

Once again, Brett has done a great job. Into the Deep is available as a free download from Brett's website.

History of the RimWorlds #8 – Expanding Time

2011-04-02T23:03:00.002+13:00

I have just spent a bit of time updating my time line and library data files on my website. Cross referencing everything, and trying to ensure that there are no glaring errors, is a bit like remodelling a jungle-gym - connections have to be tested, and links/return links checked out otherwise you end up in a tangle.

So, the expanded timeline, going forward from the beginning of the Imperial presence in the RimWorlds, now looks like this:

History of the RimWorlds

497	First Imperial presence in the Rimworlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
525	Lord Kolin Venuraski is created Viceroy of the RimWorlds by Imperial Patent.
526	First Imperial contact with the Klarthur Confederacy in Riinu Subsector.
540	Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraski is first Sector Duke.

While this may not appear to be a huge breakthrough, it does represent a move forward in the development of the Sector.

Interestingly, when the Sector capital is established on Raelmar/Thurgandarn some fourteen years later, Kolin Venuraski is sufficiently confident in the security of his Spinward Border, that he establishes his capital some 17 parsecs from the terminus of his Whisp Route supply line in Berimar’s Sceptre Subsector and 16 parsecs from the nearest Confederacy outposts in Riinu Subsector. While ideally placed to oversee Rimward expansion into Nolgor Subsector, being at least four weeks behind the news to Spinward would be a major disadvantage if this frontier remained a flash point. At this point, I can only conclude that Venuraski’s Imperial Officials managed to reach some form of accommodation with the Confederacy Supreme Council.

History of the RimWorlds #7 – The Klarthur Confederacy: scratching at the surface.

2011-03-21T23:02:00.005+13:00

“And later in the bulletin, we will have an extended interview with Lord Saaroi hault-Creaso, Vice-Regal Minister for Exploration, on the implications of Klarthur Confederacy claims to systems in the Riinu and Daltharmai Subsectors to further Imperial expansion in the RimWorlds Sector. But first, results just in from the Berimar’s Sceptre Aeroball League …”

In spite of resistance by the Klarthur Confederacy, the Imperium continued to expand into the RimWorlds. Following the path of least resistance, Imperial colonisation moved Rimward from Berimar’s Sceptre Subsector into Thurgandarn, and then into Nolgor Subsector. The Perrsherrik Rift halted the march to the Rim for a few years, but by 552 Imperial forces under Sector Duke Kolin II Venuraski had penetrated the Coreward end of the Gazul Subsector.

Design Notes:
And this brings us back to the thorny issue of the Klarthur Confederacy. After some thought, I have come to the following conclusions:

The Klarthur Confederacy is named for a nebula – the Klarthur Nebula - in Aemilor Subsector.

The dominant species in the Klarthur Confederacy is the H’ran, an aggressive bipedal reptilian race that were originally raised to sentience under the Thongaloros Empire. Serving as ground forces and shipboard marines for the Empire, the H’ran secured sufficient interstellar shipping during the collapse of the Thongaloros Empire to extend their sway over several systems in the Aemilor Subsector. The H’ran State was on the verge of collapse, as it lacked the industrial base to construct its own starships, when it overran the Gherlach, a much less aggressive but technology-savvy reptilian race.

The Gherlach were assimilated into the H’ran State as a servitor-technician caste but, soon, the Gherlach began to dominate the councils of the H’ran as they were in contact with an isolated clan of Tsalur, the ruling race of the Thongaloros Empire. The Tsalur were content to rule the expanding Klarthur Confederacy through their Gherlach servants, while the H’ran were directed to, initially, wage wars of expansion, and then to resist Imperial expansion where they could.

Have Spaceship, Will Travel

2011-03-21T20:52:00.004+13:00

Venture Class Frontier Courier
by Dave Blalock and Arthur Pollard

Recently, I met Dave Blalock through the wonders of the Intertubes. Dave has been steadily publishing Traveller and Traveller-related material for a number of years now, under either his D. B. Gamesdesign imprint, or as part of Hell Creek Sanitarium. Talking to him reminded me that I had actually bought one of his products a couple of years ago, the Venture Class Frontier Courier and deck plans.

Statted for Mongoose Traveller, the Venture Class Frontier Courier is a 150 ton, Jump-2, Manoeuvre-2 vessel. Used mainly as a courier or mail ship in backwater frontier regions, it’s designed for endurance, cost-efficiency, and ease of maintenance.

The bulk of the booklet consists of two very nice deck plans and accompanying descriptions. There are also several very nice exterior drawings that give the reader an idea of what the ship looks like, as well as how large it actually is. Three adventure hooks complete the presentation.

The deck plans are also available separately, which is a bonus if you like to use miniatures during your gaming session.

Being 50 tons larger than the Type-S Scout Courier, though with similar performance parameters, makes this ship design just that more viable as a PC owned vessel – 47 tons of cargo space goes a long way towards paying the bills. With cabin space for three crew and three passengers, a standard PC party can be accommodated aboard easily. At a squeeze, the life support system will support up to fourteen passengers and as well as three crew. This extends the vessel’s potential usefulness into the realms of small-scale striker mercenary actions. Finally, you have got to admire a ship design that includes a garden and pool with full height view ports giving the patio area impressive views of space.

I really like this supplement. It is cleanly presented and nicely illustrated. I noticed a couple of typos but I understand that these were corrected in the pdf. If you haven’t seen the Venture Frontier Courier, then check it out.

History of the RimWorlds #6 – A Pocket Empire with Teeth: the Klarthur Confederacy

2011-03-11T23:12:00.006+13:00

“In breaking news, Imperial Interstellar Scout Service sources have confirmed that the loss of the survey vessel, IISS Joralanii, in the Choraptur system in Riinu Subsector, was due to hostile action. This contradicts earlier statements by Lord Saaroi hault-Creaso, Vice-Regal Minister for Exploration, that the Joralanii had suffered catastrophic decompression following a collision with ring material during a refuelling run around the main Choraptur system gas giant.

“IISS sources further confirmed that the Scout Service, as well Vice-Regal officials, have been aware for nearly six months that a large and reasonably technologically advanced Pocket Empire has a presence along the Spinward border of the Riinu Subsector. Believed to be centred in Aemilor Subsector, this Pocket Empire has, so far, disputed Imperial claims to systems in Riinu and Daltharmai Subsectors.”

In my last post on the history of the RimWorlds, I was happily writing along when this last paragraph fell out:
Expansion was rapid and successful, and Kolin began to dream of a Sector Duchy. And then his advancing wavefront of scouts ran into a technologically competent Pocket Empire, the Klarthur Confederacy.

While chronologically and spatially logical, we are currently in the 497 – 540 period and, as seen below, it’s nearly 150 years before the Klarthur Confederary boots the Imperium out of most of Riinu Subsector. So, what happened, and who are the Klarthur Confederacy?

History of the RimWorlds

103	Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.
497	First Imperial presence in the Rimworlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
540	Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraeki is first Sector Duke.
690 - 699	Reign of Sector Duke Morthar II the Weak. Imperial control of the Sector, disrupted during the Civil War of 602 – 610, continues to weaken. Morthar is assassinated by his cousin, Deserai, who succeeds him as Neal Zuro II. During Morthar’s reign, Riinu Subsector is mostly lost to the Klarthur Confederacy.

The Klarthur Confederacy is one of those things in my sector history that I have never made a decision upon. And now it has slipped up and bitten me.

So, options –
· A Thongaloros Empire successor state. Though, this is a “confederacy”. This could mean a number of Tsalur clans working together at an interstellar level, though independent at a planetary/system level, and possibly jockeying for status within the Confederacy. On the face of it, it doesn’t sound particularly strong – strong enough to hold off Kolin and his mates.
· A true confederacy that happens to include some Tsalur worlds with their higher technology. If the Tsalur dominate the fleet, with their high tech heritage and past control of Jump tech, this may explain their stubborn, yet long-term approach to resisting Imperial expansion into Confederation space.

I need to think on this and post in a couple of days.

Droyne and Hivers

2011-03-07T20:49:00.004+13:00

GURPs Traveller: Alien Races 3

by David Pulver, David Nilsen, Andy Slack, and David Thomas

Volume 3 of this series examines the Droyne and Hiver Major Races, considers the links between the Droyne and the Ancients, and presents the Inheritors and Lithkind Minor Races. Amongst the general information on the Hiver Federation, we are given very limited snapshots of the Ithklur (Federation Reptilian Stormtroopers), Gurvin (providers of the Federation spoken and written language) and Za’tachk (the Federation’s Bwaps) Minor Races, plus the tantilising hints that there are human-settled worlds within the Federation, and that there are a number of other Minor Races (the Young Worlds) settled along the Federation’s Rimward subsectors.

I’ve always quite liked the Droyne – what’s not to like about Psionic winged reptiles with compound eyes that prefer living in a pre-Industrial Age bucolic paradise, and may just have access to serious God-Tech? I’ve always liked how GDW first introduced the Chirpers, and then the Droyne, and then hinted at a link between the two until that became canonical.

The Secret of the Ancients Adventure from GDW tied the Droyne to the Ancients and the mysterious figure of Grandfather, though as an adventure, it quickly turned into a magical, mystical railroad ride in that the players had few options except to follow mysterious guides around or get destroyed. Story-wise, fascinating set points; adventure-wise, dull. I can just imagine some of the players from my old group attempting to steal something or blow something up just so that they’d feel like they were doing something, only to then invoke a Total Party Kill from the 300,000 year-old defence systems made by a guy who could disassemble planetary systems and create folded space-time.

If the concept of Elder Races, or Ancients, is your thing, but you dislike the Ancients as laid out by GDW, then I would recomend David Brin’s Uplift series of novels. The basic idea that a sponsor race will uplift a client race to sentience and beyond is quite fascinating. The idea that these sponsor/client relationships can form a chain stretching over millions of years is mind blowing. And the fact that there might have been a Progenitor Race seems totally logical.

The biggest attraction for having Ancients in your campaign is the opportunity to introduce limited quantities of God-tech – matter transporters, disintergrators, ships that use other forms of drive to cross interstellar distances.

So, does your Progenitor Race have to be the Droyne? Of course not. Cannonically, the Geonee Human Minor Race are convinced that they are the Ancients. In my Traveller Campaign, there was a mysterious Interstellar Empire, ruled over by hexapedal reptilians, which dominated local space but collapsed completely 500 years before Humaniti from the 3rd Imperium arrived. As this empire controlled Jump technology in the volume of space my campaign is set in, its fall destroyed any over-all picture of what the empire as a whole was like and so there are conflicting memories amongst the Minor Races who outlasted it as to the nature of the Empire. But you can still have fun sending your players chasing off after Droyne, looking for the missing link to mysterious Progenitor Races, if you so wish.

The Hivers have never been a favourite Race of mine – cannocially too far away from where I set my games, and just plain weird. The Hiver Federation, on the other hand, is quite a fascinating area of space. You have a bunch of curious, voiceless, non-aggressive starfish-like dudes whose main strength is their ability to analyse other people/species and then work out how to persuade them to follow a different set of goals to those held beforehand. It must work, as the Hiver Federation controls some 16 Sectors and has fought only one external interstellar war in the last 3000 years, which it won by turning militant vegetarians into meat-eaters, much to the horror of the K’kree Major Race.

Of the two Minor Races presented in detail, the Lithkind, apart from some rather gruesome practises that make me seriously wonder about them as a viable, high-tech species, are not that really exciting or new – forest pixies have been done elsewhere – though they are presented in quite a logical manner.

The Inheritors, low-gravity Chinese dragon-like creatures, I actually find more interesting. That is, apart from the fluorine-based metabolism. The latter is just so hard to fit into a campaign that, to me, it rather limits their usefulness. If they had been methane breathers, then the whole C.J. Cherryh Compact Space story arc could have kicked in. But fluorine? Having said that, I may adapt them for my game anyway, if only by crossing out "fluorine" in the text and writing in "methane".

So, a bit of an uneven book, but the snippets of information on some of the supporting cast for the Hivers is well worth looking at, particularly if you are contemplating a campaign in the Crucis Margin or Glimmerdrift Sectors.

I seem to recall that I got my copy from Steve Jackson Games’ Warehouse 23, as it came with a separate sheet of Droyne Coyns, printed on light card. I believe that this book is no longer available from there, and it does not seem to be available from Steve Jackson Games’ e-23 ebook repository, either, which is a shame. I would suggest either bugging SJG until they put the ebook up, or watching ebay for a copy to come up.

Website Update #11

2011-03-01T21:51:00.004+13:00

Trying to come back up to speed after the Field Guide project, and then a dose of the 'flu, with something to hand that didn't require much brain power. So, updated my modelling log with some average photos and heart-felt praise for figures by Splintered Light Miniatures and Ground Zero Games.

Field Manual

2011-02-21T20:40:00.004+13:00

I had barely emailed off the last of the proofs for Field Manual - that proofing job that has basically eaten a month - when John at Spica had the book up on DrivethruRPG and, I believe, at LuLu.

There's an anouncement at the Spice Publishing site.

It's hard to review something I've been working very closely with (and I haven't seen the final product yet), but Bryan and Dan have laid out a rich background, sketched out an adventure scenario, and basically said, "Go for it". This is the type of scenario I like, and close to the way I run my own games - let the players loose, but know the landscape well enough that they can't catch you out or leave you flat-footed.

Well worth a look, if your players like more military styled games.

Egad! Zhodani!

2011-02-17T13:23:00.002+13:00

It's my birthday today, I'm four pages from the end of a massive edit job I've been doing for Spica Publishing, I have the day off and the weather is beautiful, and Tony from
Eureka Miniatures has just emailed me to see if I'm still interested in the 15mm versions of the Ventaurans that have been in the Eureka Miniatures' 300 Club since 2007!

It would appear that there has finally been sufficient interest, and sufficient people, that Eureka is looking at possibly getting Mike Broadbent to sculpt 15mm versions of the Denizen 25mm figures. Fantastic!

From what Tony says in his email, it would appear that the helmeted figures are a definate "go". I, personally, would like the helmetless figure as an officer as well. No word on the droids, so perhaps these are not the droids we are looking for.

If the Ventaurans look like the sort of armoured trooper you've been waiting for, I would suggest getting over to the Eureka site and pre-ordering some to help ensure they get into production.

Design Notes and Digressions

2011-01-31T20:20:00.004+13:00

I am not a big fan of empty drum blogging - the sort where the blogger commits himself to x number of posts in y time and then proceeds to burn bytes by telling his followers that he actually has nothing to post about.

My plans to continue with the history of my Traveller Universe, the RimWorlds, became slightly derailed this month when I took on a proof-reading job for Spica Publishing. The manuscript, while good, requires a lot more work than first anticipated and this has been eating most of my evenings. The end is, however, in sight - possibly much to the relief of John at Spica who had hoped to get the book out fairly soonish.

Once the book is done and dusted, I should be free to continue with the History of the RimWorlds, plus have another review to post. So, an empty drum post this time, but substance to come.

Dilettante

2011-01-06T00:13:00.003+13:00

Mongoose Traveller Book 8: Dilettante

by Peter Nash

Want a character with access to great steaming piles of cash? Need a Patron who puts the “rich” back into “filthy rich”? Then, this character class expansion book from Mongoose could just be the thing for you.

As with previous expansion books, Dilettante adds seven career paths and 21 specialisations to the growing galaxy of Traveller Character Generation options:

· The Adventurer, through the specialisations of Explorer, Hunter and Archaeologist, is driven to be first-in, or to be first to shoot/tag a new creature, or to discover and explore ancient ruins.

· The Aristocrat - Courtier, Chevalier or Paramour - is one of the entourage of the Great and Good.

· The Celebrity specialises in either Actor, Musician, or Luminary – the latter being famous for being famous.

· The Competitor, be he/she Sportsman, Athlete or Gamer, strives for fame through the game –carrying the hopes and dreams of the masses with him (or her).

· The Connoisseur – Critic, Artisan or Collector values art in its myriad forms.

· The Dilettante can be a Wastrel, a Socialite, or a Philanthropist. Money is usually no object and the Dilettante spends it.

· The Humanitarian, whether an Idealist, a Raconteur or an Investigator, has the cash to bring the injustices of the Galaxy to light.

What I was struck with initially was how evocative these career pathway titles were for scenario ideas. While there is the temptation to run some sort of interstellar Jeeves and Wooster game with lots of Hooray Harrys, a closer look reveals quite a broad swathe of character possibilities. These can range from the “self-funded-Heinrich-Schliemann” type of gifted amateur archaeologist with fusion cutter in hand; to the high-profile sophonts’ rights activist; to the loyal retainer battling to protect the honour, status and good name of her noble employer; to the socialite who is always in the news feeds but of whom no-one can quite remember what exactly she is famous for.

In Dilettante, the author concentrates on the Social Status character stat, showing how it can be used as an indication of exactly how famous a famous person is – their reputation – and how far this recognition can extend. Ways that a character might increase their Social Status, either temporarily or permanently, are suggested, as well as the possibility that a character’s Status can mean different things at different times depending upon the social context.

Wealth – a dilettante needs it to maintain the lifestyle that he or she has become accustomed to. Deftly, the author has replaced the Cash benefit roll in the character generation section with a Portfolio roll. This has the effect of supercharging the mustering out cash benefits a character can receive. First, one discovers the nature of one’s Portfolio investment from each term – whether it consists of Business Investments, an Estate, a Pension, Property, a Stipend or Stocks - and then one rolls the value of that particular Portfolio Asset. Portfolio Assets range in value from Cr10,000 to MCr5.0 per roll. Social Standing Modifiers are added to the Value roll which, in theory, can push the cash value up to MCr50.0 per roll. From this Portfolio, the character receives a monthly income.

For those interested in the metagame, the character can adopt a more hands-on Portfolio Management style and attempt to accelerate their financial growth. This, of course, can all go horribly wrong.

There is a nice section that examines the pros and cons of Fame (high Social Status) and how the Dilettante can use high Status to their advantage, though this is balanced with a section of pitfalls that can trap or otherwise damage our socialite.

Along with the usual section on Equipment (which includes several starship deck plans), there is a look at ways of separating the unwary Dilettante from their wealth (or at least trimming it) through events and clubs.

Lastly, a chapter on campaigns looks at possible roles for Dilettantes, from patron to enemy to wild card, as well as possible Dilettante campaigns.

Dilettante, or at least the first printing, suffers from what can only be described as crap proofreading. I do not know if this is because deadline crunch forced the latest file to go to the printers before the proof-reader was finished, or whether the editor and proof-reader just aren’t up to the job, but to copy and paste the Book 6: Scoundrel cover tagline onto the cover of Book 8: Dilettante, and then miss-spell the book’s title on the contents page is pretty poor form. There are a number of spelling mistakes through the book that are just plain annoying. If Mongoose is still replacing faulty copies, as they should, then this shouldn’t be a problem – but it must be costing them so you’d think they’d sort this sort of thing out. I believe the typos were corrected for the second printing but I have not seen this.

But on the whole, Dilettante is a good work and could easily open up new and fertile fields for referees and players. If I were to buy a dead-tree version, I would check it out in the shop, first, but Pete Nash has done a fine and fascinating job in offering Players the chance to play high rollers, while offering Referees some mechanisms that help not to blow their campaigns apart with excess cash.

Alien Minor Race: The Johdari

2010-12-31T17:28:00.004+13:00

During a couple of days holiday out at the beach at Maraetai, I finally had a chance to play around with “Flynn’s Guide to Alien Creation” that I reviewed back here.

It is a very quick and simple system to use, and I really enjoyed playing with it. I did find that having a vague idea of the alien race you wished to create enabled you to visualise the created alien more easily. Below is the second alien race I created – the Johdari – a member species of the Outrim Alliance and the race of the character Kephar Oanneshhu, the Engineer in the Webcomic “The BurrowWolf”.

The Johdari
Johdari are a humanoid Minor Race descended from nocturnal arboreal Omnivore/Hunter stock and are native to the planet Johunshhizair/Entorth A-886883-C.

Johdari are warm-blooded, have two genders and are egg-layers. Of Medium Build, though smaller and slighter than humans, they possess bilateral symmetary; have a pair of arms ending in two-fingered hands; and a pair of legs ending in two-prehensile toed feet, each with an apposable gripping spur. They are Fast, moving at 9m, Natural Climbers with Notable Dexterity (2d6+1), and posses a prehensile tail. Built for short, quick chases, they soon tire, having a Weak Endurance (2d6-1). Razor sharp teeth (Natural Weapon – Teeth) and Low Light Vision enabled primative Johdari to dominate the jungles of Johunshhizair, traits that their star-faring descendants still posses.

Maturing at Age 18, Johdari start aging around Age 38 (5 terms) and then slowly (DM+1 to aging rolls). All Johdari benefit from their government’s advanced education system and have Notable Education (2d6+1).

Skin colour ranges from dark brown to jet black and the skin is covered with a fine, downy, fur of a similar colour.

Website Update #10

2010-12-26T23:00:00.003+13:00

I have finally updated my modelling log and my Traveller pages on my website.

There are many Works In Progress.

History of the RimWorlds #5 – Enter, the Imperium

2010-12-22T16:50:00.007+13:00

The Veil - created by the passage of a starcluster through the plane of the galaxy some 100,000 years ago, the Veil stretches up out of the plane of the galaxy, originating in the Spinward March / Trojan Reach section of published maps, and trailing up towards the open starcluster.
- Chris Harrod: MetaTraveller

The creation of the Veil by my friend Chris enabled us to sidestep the increasing clutter around the Spinward March, while still permitting us to use interesting “official” material without too much trouble. The divergence of our campaigns into the Veil was the beginning our divergence from the GDW-driven timeline of the 3rd Imperium, though the on-going campaign development jumped backwards and forwards chronologically, as well as moving from the macro metagame to the micro scenario.

Writing up the Imperial History of the RimWorlds in 2008, I began to flesh out my theories of a comitatus-style development of the RimWorlds and the character of that initial swashbuckler, Kolin Venuraski, started to emerge:

History of the RimWorlds
103 Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.

323 Ftaioiaftew/Gazul settled by Aslan of Huiha Weakhayuwikhye.

497 First Imperial presence in the Rimworlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.

540 Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraeki is first Sector Duke.

The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service mapped their way up the Whisp and into the Coreward Subsectors of Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre in the mid-490s. The Whisp Route was, by its nature, difficult to navigate with the Tech Level 12 equipment available to the Imperium at that time. Several Rifts, with multiple, barely sustainable, Jump-3 passages across them, challenged the Scout Service Exploration Service. Eventually, massive fuel refineries orbiting sullen and isolated M-Class stars kept the route open.

Having run the Whisp, the Scouts discovered that the Coreward Subsectors of the RimWorlds, Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre, possessed a relatively dense population of vibrant, younger stars, perhaps remnants of the original starcluster that burst through the disc of the Milky Way some 100,000 years earlier. Unlike the barren stars of the Whisp, these stars possessed planetary systems rich in resources.

As the exploration reports filtered back to the IISS Domain Command Centre Deneb, Lord Kolin Venuraski, the young, ambitious, head of a cadet branch of the House of Deneb, caught wind of this new and, as yet, unexplored region. Deftly manoeuvering through the rocks and eddies of Domain Court politics, Lord Kolin, the younger son of Count Metch Venuraski of Fornice/Mora, succeeded in having himself appointed to head the Imperial Commission considering the Scout Service reports on the new sector.

As the Imperium was already heavily committed to the exploration and settlement of the Spinward March, the prospects of colonising a remote pocket of space, accessed via a hazardous and difficult passage, held no immediate attraction to the members of the Commission. Except for Lord Kolin Venuraski. Proposing to explore and exploit the RimWorlds for the betterment of the Imperium through the agency of a Chartered Private Equity Company, thus avoiding any direct commitment of sparse Imperial resources, Lord Kolin shamelessly exploited his position as Head of the Imperial Commission to be commissioned Viceroy of the RimWorlds Sector. The patent of Viceroy was struck in 525, 28 years after the initial scouting missions.

Venuraski had not been idle during this time. Early on, he had reached the conclusion that the Imperium or, more specifically the Domain of Deneb, with expansion in the Spinward March under way, lacked the resources to fully exploit the Rimworlds. In his capacitiy as Head of the Imperial Commission, he was able to ensure that the Scout Service purchased refinery stations for the Whisp Route that vasty exceeded the Service’s requirements. That a large percentage of the refinery construction work was farmed out to heavy engineering corporations on Fornice, or in the Mora Subsector with connections to House Venuraski, passed unnoticed at the time.

As the Imperial Commission’s deliberations dragged on, Venuraski put together a team of trusted advisors who analysied the confidential Scout Service reports and then began drawing up a colonisation plan for the RimWorlds. With this plan in hand, Lord Kolin began marshalling the resources of his immediate family and his wider House. A casual conversation at a soiree opened his eyes to the fact that there were a number of younger siblings of the Houses Major who felt that they were being excluded from the Spinward March development. Frustrated, yet in control of reasonable resources in their own names, these restless young nobles numbered talented, yet untested, members amongst their ranks.

By the time Lord Kolin became Viceroy Kolin of the RimWorlds in 525, he had a strong, multitiered organisation behind him. The moneyed timid, as well as the short-changed adventurer, had all found places in his Chartered Private Equity Company, as silent shareholders or as divisional chiefs and managers. The first colonies were already established in Thurgandarn Subsector in the Coreward RimWorlds even as the ink dried on Kolin Venuraski’s letter patent as Viceroy.

Expansion was rapid and successful, and Kolin began to dream of a Sector Duchy. And then his advancing wavefront of scouts ran into a technologically competent Pocket Empire, the Klarthur Confederacy.

History of the RimWorlds – Design Notes

2010-12-19T00:14:00.002+13:00

When I began constructing the subsectors that were to become the core areas of my Traveller campaign, I had no idea of their history. Later, as I learned more about GDW’s 3rd Imperium campaign setting, I envisioned my campaign area as being “just off the map” of the Spinward March. Later again, when I discovered that the Trojan Reach had overwritten “my” bit of space, I ignored the entire issue of interlinking until my friend Chris came up with the concept of the Whisp and the Veil. In the interim, for the RimWorlds I had developed a List of Sector Dukes, Subsector Duke Lists for the four Imperial Subsectors of Gamelea, Nolgor, Miazan and Gazul, and family trees of the Houses Major that held these four Subsectors.

In 2008, as I began writing up my Traveller material for my website, I worked up a History of the RimWorlds from the 1984 chronology. This, in turn, led to an expanded Imperial History of the RimWorlds. As this History grew longer and longer, I eventually broke it up into the various sections, or chapters, that it now appears in. The Imperial History of the RimWorlds drew heavily on the Sector and Subsector Ducal Lists, and as I came to consider dates and events in the chronology, and what was actually happening behind the scenes at those times, having the family trees proved a real bonus. In one place I suddenly had a cast of characters, in the relatives of the ducal encumbrants, who had their own motivations and desires and whose actions and reactions could also reverberate both forwards and backwards in time. This was all some years before I discovered T4’s Pocket Empires, but the principle was very much the same.

The current power structure in the RimWorlds dates back to the initial Imperial colonisation of the Sector by Lord Kolin Venuraski of Deneb and his Chartered Private Equity Company in the early Sixth Century of the 3rd Imperial era. This is very much based on a form of the comitatus system, similar to that used and understood by Count Belisarius in the Sixth Century AD on Terra, crossed with the merchant-adventurer company common in England in the Sixteenth Century AD. Under this system, Houses Major and Minor contributed resources to Lord Kolin’s exploration and settlement of the RimWorlds in return for resources and land (ie planets or systems). Under Lord Kolin’s leadership, the Houses Major and Minor agreed to contribute military forces for the mutual defence of the territories claimed for the Imperium and to support such Imperial Forces and agents as were assigned to the RimWorlds.

So in the RimWorlds, unique amongst Imperial Sectors, the Subsector, or Colonial, Fleets are the first line of defence and maintain law and order within the various Subsector Duchies. The nine Imperial Subsectors share between three and four Imperial Fleets amongst them, so these fleets tend to act as a strategic reserve under Sector Ducal control. RimWorlds Subsector and Sector Dukes have traditionally led their forces from the front and the chronology and family trees are filled with the premature deaths of senior figures during various battles. This becomes understandable if one is also aware that many members of the Houses Major and Minor also hold senior command positions, either within their Household forces, their Subsector forces or the Sector Command Structure.

Traditionally, most Houses Major practised patrilineal inheritance for their major titles and offices. Daughters tended to receive minor holdings and offices and were married off to secure alliances between Houses. Heiresses often found themselves in the position where they could hold command rank in the military but were somehow considered incapable of holding a political position in their own right. House Hikisaku of Gazul/Gazul was unique amongst Houses Major in that they practised primogeniture inheritance. This policy was attributed to Admiral Alleen hault-Hikisaku, Governor of the Trans-Nolgor Territories, who was confirmed as Subsector Duke Alleen I of Gazul Subsector in 593, upon the elevation of his family to House Major status. Amongst Houses Minor, patrilineal, matrilineal and primogeniture inheritance all find their supporters and adherents.

In reviewing the Imperial History of the RimWorlds document on my website, I feel disinclined to cut and paste it into this blog as this would be, I feel, lazy blogging. Instead, I will endeavour to précis what I have already written and, perhaps, expand upon it so that readers of both sources will see a campaign’s deep background unfold and grow before them, hopefully for the betterment of my on-going game.

History of the RimWorlds #4 – Setting the Scene for the Imperium

2010-12-14T22:33:00.003+13:00

Two centuries after the Fall of the Thongaloros Empire, discussed in my previous blog entry, the following event is recorded:

-143 Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius.

103 Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.

323 Ftaioiaftew/Gazul settled by Aslan of Huiha Weakhayuwikhye.

Huiha Weakhayuwikhye settled at the Rimward end of the Rimworlds, four hundred years after Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou colonised systems in what are now Lymethius and Cabria Subsectors. While there seems to be a sense of relationship between Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou, with Huiha Weakhayuwikhye there is a sense of separation – the only common element is that all three Huiha are Aslan.

While current records aren’t clear – ie I haven’t done any development on the subsector Rimward of Gazul – I would assume that Huiha Weakhayuwikhye in fact ended up occupying several worlds over the Rimward border for, as we shall see, Huiha Weakhayuwikhye eventually played a fairly crucial role in the Rimward Coalition and this, in turn, implies that the Huiha had sufficient resources to successfully resist Imperial expansion.

And then finally the 3rd Imperium steps on stage in the RimWorlds.

History of the RimWorlds #3 – Vanished Empires

2010-12-10T23:52:00.005+13:00

And then we come to this entry in the chronology:

103

Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.

A single line of text that manages to say both much and nothing at the same time. “Outrim Barbarians”, by the way, was an early term used by me to describe non-Imperial peoples living beyond the Imperial frontier. This term is similar to one that appears in early GDW Library Data and which is used to refer to Zhodani and Vargr in particular. As with the GDW term, “Outrim Barbarians” has fallen out of favour as I continued to develop the RimWorlds.

By the time I was constructing my website, I had expanded the one line reference above to a Library Data entry that read as follows:

Thongaloros Empire
Stellar Empire that extended through much of the Rimworlds sector and which collapsed in 103. The dominant sophonts of the Empire was a hexepedal reptilian race called the Tsalur. Small pockets of Tsalur survive on Xcothal/Nolgor and in the Hand of Ssra'ka Aissr in Cabria Subsector. Artifacts and ruins from the Empire still turn up from time to time.

This entry actually drew together two threads of RimWorlds development.

During the initial Traveller campaign I ran, which centred on my friend John’s ex-Scout character Ezra Weinbach, I introduced the Tsalur Minor Race. The Tsalur Warriors were a hexepedal reptilian people living in caverns beneath the surface of the nearly airless planet Xcothal in Nolgor Subsector, and were actually based on a 25mm Fantasy figure I had inherited.

At about the same time, the chronology entry concerning the fall of the Thongaloros Empire was made. Shortly after that, I began to wonder about this early Empire – who were the people (probably not human as 3rd Imperium humans only showed up in the RimWorlds some 400 years after the Empire had collapsed, and any earlier human populations were refugees or sublighters, and in fairly small numbers)? How big had this empire been? Why had it collapsed? What traces had it left? Was I entirely happy with the name of the Empire (the answer to this question is ‘No’, but it is a name that Imperial researches have tried to extract from the records of a dozen different Minor Races, as well as Empire inscriptions, with no apparent surviving pronunciation guides)?

The linking of the Tsalur to the Thongaloros Empire was a bit of an inspired joke on my part. What if researchers discovered records of a vanished stellar empire? And what if different researchers discover and study a fairly primitive and aggressive Minor Race? Would they necessarily link the two together, particularly if the Tsalur Minor Race is only extant on one planet within Imperial space, and the ruins of the vanished Empire are only found on a handful of worlds along the Imperial border?

I saw no need to DGP the situation to death. Not knowing all the answers is part of the fun of being a Referee. When you come to write a scenario, the process of mapping it out, and then running players through it, serves to answer the questions for you.

In Classic Traveller, the Ancients tend to get blamed for everything, from population movements to Rosette systems. In the RimWorlds, the Thongaloros Empire did do some impressive stuff, though only using Tech Level 13 or 14 technologies – they had a pretty forthright labour policy, for example, and were not shy about shifting fairly massive population numbers about as required for various projects. They also controlled all Jump Drive technology within the Sector for a period of at least 500 years – restricting subject races to non-Jump capable ships that were carried between systems on gigantic Carriers. This explains some of the unusual population distributions within the Sector, the fact that there are fairly substantial Minor Race populations mixed together on certain worlds, and the fact that some Minor Races no longer know for certain what or where their system of origin was.

As to the fall of the Empire, the basic explanation would appear to be that a thinly spread, technologically advanced master race-society crumpled and collapsed when fresh, Jump-capable migrants moved into the Sector and refused to accept the status quo. Aslan ihatei had settled Yuwe/Lymethius some two hundred years before the fall of the Empire, and Yuwe is deep within the Sector. If the ihatei had been rewarded with land for services, it may have been deemed advisible to move them as far away from the Coreward Whisp as possible to reduce the temptation for them to side with any newcomers, especially if the Tsalur had not realised that settled Aslan will drive off incoming ihatei as a matter of course.

So, the identity of the destroyers of the Empire is still unknown – it may have been an alliance of Minor Races rising up to pull down the oppressors, it might have been newcomers coming up the Whisp from the Spinward March, it might have been a combination of the two. Suffice to say, the Tsalur survive as savage primitives on Xcothal/Nolgor and as a fairly powerful Pocket Empire in the Hand of Ssra'ka Aissr in the Cabria and Entorth Subsectors. The Thongaloros Empire is no more, but occasionally tunnel systems are found on certain out of the way planets, and strange starships are discovered orbiting barren moons, and odd step-pyramids are located deep in the jungle. Teleportation devices have been found, and strange plasma weapons, as deadly now as they were a thousand years ago.

In short, a secret box of puzzles and plot-hooks.

History of the RimWorlds #2

2010-12-06T22:35:00.005+13:00

The dating system used in my Traveller campaign is the same as that used in Classic Traveller – ie it has been some one thousand one hundred and nine years since Cleon I founded the Third Imperium. To put this into perspective, if today’s year, 2010, equals Third Imperial Year 1109, then Cleon I ascended the Iridium Throne in 901 AD. On Earth at the beginning of the Tenth Century AD, Harald Finehair ruled a united Scandinavia, the Kievian Rus dominated Russia, and historians traditionally viewed this period as the darkest part of the European Dark Ages.

The first entry in my History of the RimWorlds is intriguing:

-3410

Maasubi Religion founded by the Prophert Ragarn

The Maasubi Religion is the faith of the Most Excellent Order of Tijur, Talur and Belesarn – known as the Tijur Monks – of Lotarf/Nolgor. Of Ragarn’s story I know as little now as I did when I first pencilled the entry into my notebook sometime before December 1984.

Ragarn’s religious mission, if I have the date correct, takes place at the height of the 1st, or Vilani, Imperium, nearly one thousand years before the Solomani achived space flight. When I recently rechecked this date, my first reaction was that I had placed Ragarn’s story too early in the timeline. After playing around with several alternate interpretations of the date entry, I found that the decider here was whether Maasubi owed its origins to Vilani or Solomani mysticism. As I write this, I find myself beginning to come down on the side of the Vilani for several reasons:
· The word ‘Maasubi’ appears to me to have a certain Vilani flavour to it with the long first vowel;
· There are relics of Vilani culture and language scattered around the edges of Imperial space in the RimWorlds – such as the Rimward Coalition trade tongue Khishsuun, the Vilani/Solomani language Mersim spoken by the inhabitants of the Khedivate of Nutharal/Cabria, the Old Vilani dialect Siikharsim spoken in the Dathynan Concordance in Gazul Subsector, and the Vilani dialect Khasikha spoken in the Geithurian Republic;
· Plus given the brevity of the 2nd Imperium, the most likely pre-Third Imperium human migrants into the remote RimWorlds are Vilani, fleeing “something” –Vargr incursions or persecution by the Bureaux - by moving across Corridor Sector and into the Spinward March. Some of the Vilani exiles lingered in the March, while others pressed on, seeking to put more distance and time between them and whatever it was that had set them to flight. When the 3rd Imperium began moving into the March in the 4th Century, the Vilani exiles who had remained behind either submitted, or started running again, eventually passing up the Whisp towards Intergalactic space in the wake of the earlier migration.

This last point neatly explains the various Vilani dialects in various parts of the RimWorlds Sector, as they are indicative of several migrations of isolated populations over a period of perhaps one thousand years. This time frame is important as it neatly straddles the mysterious Thongaloros Empire.

In concept, Maasubi appears to be a meditative and martial monastic religion, something akin to Shoalin Buddhism. Additionally, Tijur Monks, particularly from Lotarf/Nolgor, are attributed Psionic powers. By 1109, Lotarf, Shenn and Thrisk are the sole remaining strongholds of Maasubi in the Rimward subsectors of the RimWorlds, though other monestary planets may exist in the Coreward subsectors, towards the Whisp route back to the Spinward March.

-609

Droyne colony ship reaches Yuar/Cabria.

Droyne turn up all over the place. I quite like Droyne, and really should re-read the material I have on them. Yuar/Cabria is an interesting system for them to be occupying as it controls the Jump-3 route across the middle reaches of the Uedhkinthuez nakhae – The Black Beast – a Rift running Rimward from Gyffd and Gaidon in the Cabria Subsector. The Yuar Droyne are only Tech Level 12, but have a population in the billions. It is assumed that they arrived in the RimWorlds prior to the rise of the Thongaloros Empire but what their relationship with the Empire was like is unknown.

-143

Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius.

There are three known Aslan Clans in the RimWorlds; Huiha Esoyatre, Huiha Khysokhou and Huiha Weakhayuwikhye. Of the three, Huiha Weakhayuwikhye is the most isolated at the Rimward end of Gazul Subsector, and the last to settle in the RimWorlds Sector, arriving some four hundred years after the other two Huiha. Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou are both member-states of the Outrim Alliance and Huiha Esoyatre has been taking a greater leadership role within that alliance since the 4th Outrim War of 1080 – 85. It is possible that Huiha Khysokhou owes its origins to Huiha Esoyatre ihatei who struck out on their own to seize new lands.

Huiha Esoyatre and Huiha Khysokhou appear to have settled Yuwe/Lymethius during the Thongaloros Empire period of RimWorlds history. It is possible that the Huiha were welcomed as mercenary soldiers and given the land they craved in returned for serving the Empire as soldiers. When the Empire began to weaken, the Huiha expanded into whatever niche they could find, and fought to hold what they already had.

Given the date of settlement, it would appear that the ihatei that formed Huiha Esoyatre left Hierate space early on, crossing the Great Rift and the Trojan Reach before finding their way up the Whisp to the RimWorlds.

A History of the Rimworlds

2010-11-28T21:53:00.004+13:00

My original “History of the RimWorlds” consists of two and a half pages of pencilled dates and brief notes in a 1B4 School Exercise Book. This list of dates has further additions in the margins and other spaces. A typed version of this list, including all the pencilled additions, is included in the notebook and is titled “Fourth Draft of the Complete History of the RimWorlds” and dated 22 December 1984. It was typed on my Grandmother’s Empire typewriter, the same machine I used for many of the articles I wrote for Grim Reaper magazine.

The typed version of the “History” served as the template for my website “History of the RimWorlds” when I began developing the website Traveller pages in 2008 – 2009. While writing the ‘Accidents in Astrogation’ articles for my blog in 2010, I further expanded and updated this “History” as I developed a few new ideas and personalities.

So, this is where the story of the RimWorlds begins, in the basic organisation of its history as a series of 'chapter headings'.

History of the Rimworlds
Imperial expansion into the Rimworlds has been, from the very first, sporadic and under resourced. Consequently, the Sector Dukes were forced to rely heavily upon their Subsector Dukes and the planetary and subsector navies at their command.

Such Imperial Naval units as were assigned to the Rimworlds Sector from time to time were very much used as a mobile reserve to shore up the various fortress worlds that were used to dominate volumes of space.

Berimar’s Sceptre, Gazolan and Thurgandarn were the most stable of the Rimworlds subsectors and, apart from the confusion of the Seventh Century Civil War and the Sarkul Wars of the Ninth Century, enjoyed an extended period of peace. Kaorin Subsector, after the loss of Riinu Subsector to the Klarthur Confederacy in the late Seventh Century, has also developed a thriving economic and industrial base.

Daltharmai, Gamelea, Nolgor, Miazan and Gazul Subsectors have always been under resourced and have faced increasingly well-organised and technologically adept alliances of non-Imperial states.

Table of Dates and Events
-3410	Maasubi Religion founded by the Prophert Ragarn
-609	Droyne colony ship reaches Yuar/Cabria.
-143	Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius.
103	Thongaloros Empire falls to the Outrim Barbarians.
323	Ftaioiaftew/Gazul settled by Aslan of Huiha Weakhayuwikhye.
497	First Imperial presence in the Rimworlds in Kaorin and Berimar’s Sceptre subsectors.
540	Sector Duchy of the Rimworlds established with its capital on Raelmar/Thurgandarn. Kolin I Venuraeki is first Sector Duke.
552 - 557	1st Rimward War. Sector Duke Kolin II extends Imperial Rule into the Gazul Subsector against the opposition of the Rimward Coalition.
557	Admiral Alleen hault-Hikisaku appointed Governor of the Trans-Nolgor Territories by Sector Duke Dentian I.
572	Ftaioiaftew/Gazul joins the Rimward Coalition.
573	Korbal/Gazul is settled by Aslan ihatei from Huiha Weakhayuwikhye of Ftaioiaftew/Gazul. Korbal is renamed Ikhyowou as the ihatei consolidate their hold on the planet.
593	Act of Recognition passed by Sector Duke Dentian I reorganising the Trans-Nolgor Territories as Gazul Subsector, and confirming Governor hault-Hikisaku as Subsector Duke Alleen I of Gazul.
594	Sector Duke Dentian I is forced to abdicate. The Sector Duchy passes, by Imperial Writ, to House Zenartoria of Heriem/Thurgandarn.
602 - 610	Civil War. Death of Sector Duke Dentian II in 610 and fall of House Zenartoria. House Maranth of Daltharmai/Daltharmai becomes Ducal House and brings stability to the Rimworlds.
652	Colonisation of Kasmir/Gazul.
690 - 699	Reign of Sector Duke Morthar II the Weak. Imperial control of the Sector, disrupted during the Civil War of 602 – 610, continues to weaken. Morthar is assassinated by his cousin, Deserai, who succeeds him as Neal Zuro II. During Morthar’s reign, Riinu Subsector is mostly lost to the Klarthur Confederacy.
768	House Hikisaku of Gazul/Gazul succeeds House Maranth as the Sector Ducal House.
793 - 794	2nd Rimward War in Gazul Subsector. A cease-fire establishes a Demilitarised Zone through Ftaioiaftew/Gazul, Gorth/Gazul and Dathyna/Gazul.
794	Battle of Dathyna. Final battle of the 2nd Rimward War. Sector Duke Karthundal Hiksaku is killed when his flagship is lost with all hands.
800	Arkuru Sethlemarl, Fleet Admiral of Miazan Subsector, is made Governor of Celephais/Miazan.
810	Sector Duke Liarb II Crensea is killed in fresh fighting in the Lymethius Subsector against the rising Outrim Alliance.
841	The Sector fleet revolts against the policies of Sector Duke Neal-Zuro III.
842	Death of Sector Duke Neal-Zuro III and the outbreak of the Sarkul Wars.
842 - 906	Sarkul Wars
844	Colonisation of Tulvan/Gamelea.
845	Battle of Sleipner. Sector Duke Admiral Konyor Tiable is killed. Grand Admiral Stalmar Carlslein reigns as sole Duke until 847.
847 - 850	The Dual Sector Duchy. With the proclamation of Admiral Kranan hault-Lerneister as Sector Duke by his fleet, the Sector is split between hault-Lerneister and Stalmar Carlslein. By 849 each has successfully put down all rivals within his Domain.
851	The Pilgrims, a religious sect, purchase and settle Omega Vasalai IX/Miazan. Sector Duke Admiral Kranan hault-Lerneister, the last of the Sector Admirals, dies on Rorena.
852	Emanon/Gazul settled by colonists from the Dathynan Concordance capital Dathyna/Gazul.
882	3rd Rimward War. The Rimward Coalition takes advantage of the Sarkul Wars to expand its borders. By treaty, the Demilitarised Zone now consists of Kralkor II/Gazul, Ikhyowou/Gazul, Arnak/Gazul and Emmanon/Gazul. Ftaioiaftew and Dathyna rejoin the Rimward Coalition.
884	Governor Arkuru III Sethlemarl of Celephais takes the title of Viceroy.
885	Odinite discovered on Tulvan/Gamelea.
906	Leonid I ‘the Great’ Trumer of Ulvar/Kaorin receives Imperial support as Sector Duke of the Rimworlds. In a rapid campaign of bluff and intimidation, he pacifies and unites the Imperial portion of the Sector. Chi’leur Geyukthi, Leonid’s aide de camp, is made Duke of Miazan Subsector. Lanyard I Sethlemarl is confirmed as Viceroy of Celephais.
925 - 930	1st Outrim War. Nearo/Lymethius is devastated by nuclear and biological attack.
954 - 962	2nd Outrim War.
959	Colonisation of Solaris/Nolgor.
975	Colonisation of Feor/Gamelea.
999	Alexuv III, the last Trumer Sector Duke, dies. House Geyukthi of Miazan/Miazan inherits the Sector Duchy.
1007	Colonisation of Auru/Lymethius.
1022	Klorin Asteroid War. Varch/Gamelea is conquered by Kalar-Wi/Gamelea. Viceroy Odulu Calon Sethlemarl-Geyukthi of Celephais/Miazan and Subsector Duke Petron III of Gamelea/Gamelea are killed in the fighting.
1025 - 1038	3rd Outrim War. Fall of House Geyukthi.
1025	Subsector Duke Tolarman of Gamelea/Gamelea is killed in the opening weeks of the 3rd Outrim War.
1031	Fleet Admiral Yuri Sethlemarl, Viceroy of Celephais/Miazan, is elected Sector Duke by the Fleet and charged with winning the 3rd Outrim War.
1031 - 1032	Rivokul War on Kamperel/Miazan. The People's Justice Army overthrow House Rivokul, Siridar-Barons of Kamperel, exposing their corrupt practises.
1037	Siege of Gamelea/Gamelea by Outrim forces during the 3rd Outrim War.
1039	Colonisation of Breknor/Cabria by the Hunt of Rronurl, a Vargr band.
1041	Death of Sector Duke Yuri Sethlemarl.
1042 - 1044	Rimbaud War.
1044	Duke Olgarthi Ulanor of Nolgor/Nolgor becomes Sector Duke of the Rimworlds following the abdication of Sector Duke Arkuru Sethlemarl (Viceroy Arkuru VI) of Celephais/Miazan.
1046	Birth of Iroioah Foesplitter, Patriarch of E’kho Tlanoweas of Khekheawaoh/Cabria.
1051	Ektran Rebellion. An uprising against Kamperelian businesses dominating the economy of Ektra/Miazan leads to Kamperelian military intervention and the annexation of the system.
1053	Birth of George II Fairweather von Lukaskow of Kartivia/Gazul.
1054	Birth of Ezra Weinbach.
1062	Birth of Bulgor Ramon.
1072	Anoth/Cabria colonised by the Hand of Ssra’ka Aissr, a Tsalur warrior clan.
1079	Zhodani mercantile base established on Eurl/Cabria.
1080 - 1085	4th Outrim War.
1082	Conquest of Florana/Miazan by Kamperel/Miazan.
1084	Rebellion of Pheidos/Gazul. Subsector Duke Calib IV of Gazul/Gazul is assassinated during a state visit to Pheidos.
1085	Battle of Anthorann/Gamelea. Grand Admiral Odg’tal Alveuk leads the Kalar-Wi Planetary Navy to a crushing victory over Outrim Alliance forces (4th Outrim War). The Black Comet Organisation (B.C.O.), a loose federation of pirates and revolutionaries, rises to power in the aftermath of the war.
1087	Kerak/Gamelea is abandoned in the aftermath of the 4th Outrim War.
1089	Hasku/Gazul is opened up for settlement.
1090 - 1095	Zoni Wars.
1090	Count Liarb X of Daxam/Gazul is killed in a Zoni attack on Kartivia/Gazul. Colonisation of Fiona/Lymethius.
1091	Battle of Pheidos. Count Yohanus VII of Daxam/Gazul is killed in battle against the Zoni Raiders. Count Dana of Daxam/Gazul is killed during the 1st Siege of Lur/Nolgor.
1092	Annexation of Thrisk/Nolgor by Lotarf/Nolgor.
1093	Declaration of Independence by Naos VI/Nolgor.
1097	Death of Sector Duke Edenar Ulanor and the end of House Ulanor of Nolgor. A Black Comet Organisation Starfleet defeats the 112th Imperial Task Force at the Battle of Waldak/Nolgor. Later this year, battles at Sleipnir/Nolgor and Jotham/Nolgor occur before the B.C.O. pirate fleet is finally defeated.
1098	Death of Jarmata Zaparino, leader of the B.C.O., in a gunfight in Canblyne Startown, Canblyne/Gamelea.
1099	Annexation of Gaidon/Cabria by Kalar-Wi/Gamelea.
1100	Death of Jan Brenlsky, nominal head of the B.C.O., on Vanvlack VII/Gamelea.
1101	Nuclear war forestalled on Feor/Gamelea by Imperial intervention.
1103 - 1105	Kalar-Wi War. Following the defeat of the Kalar-Wi, the systems of Varch/Gamelea, Anthorann/Gamelea and Rimbaud/Gamelea are reclaimed by Imperial authorities. Warlord Vran’kal Youka of Kalar-Wi flees into the Outrim and Kalar-Wi is forced to accept an Imperial garrison.
1105	Death of Duke Adryos Urzov IV of Gamelea/Gamelea.
1106	Occupation of the Kalar-Wi colony world of Kidan/Lymethius by the Huiha Esoyatre.
1107	Death of Sector Duke Mekal Hendrian and the accession of his brother as Akansair II.
1109	Major war breaks out on Welthor/Lymethius. Subsector Duke Mah’radys IV of Miazan is deposed and executed by a military junta. Civil war breaks out on Miazan/Miazan. The Imperial garrison on Kalar-Wi/Gamelea is withdrawn and Warlord Vran’kal Youka returns to power.

Design Notes

2010-11-23T22:30:00.003+13:00

The series of basic overviews of the six developed subsectors of the RimWorlds, collectively known as “Accidents in Astrography”, has been a lot of fun for me to write. I have taken the opportunity of both revisiting these subsectors after many years, and gleaning information for my website – in particular Languages and Library Data – as well as creating some new material, such as some historical and Astrography details.

What is interesting is that I can still see the early development layers, and what Science Fiction was influencing me, as I wrote up the three original subsectors of Gamelea, Nolgor and Miazan. Gazul Subsector came next, but was only partially developed (and only one game was set there, from memory). Lymethius Subsector was developed to provide a little background for the Outrim Wars, and for a late period Esra Weinbach game – so named for the longest serving character in the RimWorlds - while Cabria Subsector was fleshed out to provide a bigger battleground in which to resist Imperial expansion. A recent, abortive, attempt to run a PBeM game resulted in me expanding the Hunt of Rronurl and Huiha Khysokhou.

One of things that enrich a campaign, in my opinion, is a deep background. Things on the surface happen for a reason; and the reason, or reasons, lie back in time. Like creating a character for a novel, a lot of this material will never see the light of day, but if the novelist or Referee has worked out this detail, he/she will know why things are happening that effect the Player Characters.

I’m a firm believer that a campaign needs both a chronology and a macro-map. The former can be just a series of bullet points collecting together significant events, or it can be an in-depth account of all events that have gone before, while the latter can just shows a high-altitude view of the campaign area, or a meticulous survey of the all regions surrounding the campaign area.

A chronology fixes the game in time, and gives reference points for the character – if the players know that the Imperium defeated the Kalar-Wi Empire in 1105, and they encounter a Kalar-Wi warship in the Border Worlds in 1109, it is possible that this ship is a relic of the war. The Kalar-Wi lost three systems to the Imperium in that war, as well as having their homeworld occupied. If the ship is wrecked it might have a treasure horde, looted from one of the worlds the Kalar-Wi lost, but if it is cruising, it could be an “unsurrendered” raider bent on revenge attacks. Likewise, a sector map showing subsector capitals allowed me to write up the likely course of the Sarkul Wars of 842 – 906 when I came to that section of the Imperial History of the RimWorlds. Up until that time, I had no idea what the Sarkul Wars were about; except that they were some form of civil war and that they disrupted the RimWorlds for sixty years. The character of Principle Secretary Lissa Sarkul only emerged as I began to write that section – and my love of Byzantine History allowed me to create the Byzantine levels of that conflict – where the clannish Subsector Dukes and Admirals actively resisted the centralising Sector Duke. The seeds of the war were planted two centuries prior to Lissa Sarkul, but her policies in the name of her Sector Duke revived the centrifugal nature of the original ‘gentleman-adventurer’ nature of settlement of the RimWorlds.

For my next series of articles on the RimWorlds, I’m going to look at the history of the region, and possibly do a little exploration into the Outrim Void to map the worlds I’ve hinted at in my accounts of Lymethius and Cabria subsectors.

Accidents in Astrogation – Cabria Subsector #2

2010-11-15T21:48:00.003+13:00

Cabria Subsector is home to four Minor Races; the Kiang of Gaidon, the Ly-ly of Gyven's World, the Gdemiar of Naird, and the Ta'tero of Wyern; as well as systems settled by migrant populations of Aslan, Vargr, Purvions, Tsalur, Kalar-Wi, Solomani sub-lighters, Zhodani merchants, Darrian exiles, a Hiver Society, Sword World miners, general misfits and Droyne. With such a collection of divergent races within such a small amount of space, a variety of languages are spoken within the Subsector:

Aerrghvi: – Vargr dialect of Gvegh, one of the major Vargr language groups, spoken by the Vargr mercenary clan settled on Lo-Taisang/Cabria and who trade regularly along the Miazan Main.
Arrghoun: – Ancient Vargr language, spoken by Vargr of the Hunt of Rronurl, indicating that their ancestors left the Vargr Extents some 2,000 years ago.
Dwerk: – Dominant language of the Gdemiar Minor Race of Naird.
Fahlok: – Dominant language of the Ly-ly Minor Race of Gyvern’s World.
Igzgal – Vargr dialect spoken by the Vargr mercenary clan settled on Tonivar/Cabria and who trade regularly along the Miazan Main.
Kassuriik: - Main language of the Purvion Minor Race of Lithia/Miazan and spoken on the Purvion colony worlds of Pythor and Klearo.
Khasikha: - Vilani dialect used as the official language of the Geithurian Republic in Lymethius Subsector.
Mersim: – Vilani/Solomani language spoken by the inhabitants of the Khedivate of Nutharal, settled on Nutharal and Brol.
Miazan Imperial Basic: - Dialect of Imperial Basic spoken along the Miazan Main, and on worlds to trailing of the Uedhkinthuez nakhae Rift.
Oynprith: - Main language of the Droyne colony of Yuar/Cabria.
Rur’ur’lm: – Main language of the Ta'tero Minor Race of Wyern/Cabria.
Shtanzhret: – Dialect of Zhodani spoken by the small Zhodani enclave settled on Eurl/Cabria.
Te-Zlodh: - Main Darrian language as spoken by the Darrian exiles settled on Withor/Cabria.
Trade Lingo: - A pidgin language commonly used by merchants moving to and fro across the Imperial Border. Using base words from Imperial Basic, Gvegh and Trokh, Trade Lingo can convey basic concepts around buying and selling goods and passing news.
Trokh Khysokhou: - Dialect of Trokh spoken by Aslan of Huiha Khysokhou of Awakea, Khekheawaoh and Heaohwiy in Cabria Subsector and Salau and Kahuai in Entorth Subsector.
Trokh Esoyatre: - dialect of Trokh spoken by Aslan of Huiha Esoyatre in Lymethius Subsector.
Tsalui: - Native language of the Tsalur Minor Race of Xcothal/Nolgor and of the Hand of Ssra'Ka Aissr Pocket Empire in Cabria and Entorth Subsectors.
Vriok: - the main Kalar-Wi language spoken on Kalar-Wi/Gamelea and the worlds of the old Kalar-Wi Empire such as Loa-Wi, Gaidon and Yolurlund.

Aslan and K'kree

2010-11-13T22:14:00.003+13:00

GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2
by Andy Slack, David Thomas and David L. Pulver

The second in the GURPS Traveller line of Alien books examines the Aslan and K’kree Major Races in some detail. Having recently read the Mongoose Traveller Aslan book, I was interested to compare the two works, particularly as I still refer to the original GDW Aslan Alien Module for guidance for the Aslan character I am playing in a Classic Traveller PBeM.

Of the three works, the sketchiest is the original Aslan Module – the Aslan were still in a state of development and, consequently, were treated in a broad-brush fashion. Andy Slack appears to have been the lead writer on the GURPS version and, as he says in his notes on the Steve Jackson Games support site, he was very conscious of both the Classic Traveller Aslan, and the reworked Aslan of Digest Group Publications MegaTraveller. With the latter material subject to copyright issues, the GURPS material had to walk a fine line between regurgitation and rewriting, while still offering something new for players who had moved on to GURPS Traveller from the earlier versions of the game.

And I think Andy and his co-writers pull it off. There is a warmth about the telling of the Aslan story that indicates to me the writers know their subject well and have an affinity for it. There are nice, new little cultural touches, as well as broad-brush considerations of the Hierate, its politics and why Aslan in this book may differ from earlier accounts. Some nice starship deck plans round out the Aslan section.

The K’kree section, in contrast, feels a little more mechanical. A species of militant claustrophobic vegetarians who dislike technology but who are bent of galactic conquest does take a pretty big hit on the believe-o-meter. While the material from the original GDW Alien Module is worked over nicely, and there are some good tips for Refereeing K’kree (like being careful the K’kree player doesn’t treat his compulsory entourage as a skills grab bag), I find that I would probably only use K'kree in my campaign as NPCs as there are a number of downsides to them that could make them very frustrating to play as Player Characters.

This book concludes with two minor races, the Inyx and the Devi Intelligence. Of the two, the latter – a dimorphic intelligent fungoid species – actually interests me the most and is a race I would seriously consider adding to my game. The Inyx, on the other hand, a race of aquatic ergovoric parasites, don’t interest me as much. In some aspects, they are so alien that I can see very little scope for interaction between them and Humaniti or any of the other Major Races, which for me lessens their usefulness as characters in a Traveller game.

Finally, comparing GURPS Aslan with Mongoose Traveller Aslan, I find myself wishing to graft the cultural elements of the GURPS version onto the Mongoose Version, and this is simply for story telling reasons, as I do like what Mongoose has done with Aslan.

Sadly, GURPS Traveller Alien Races 2 appears to be out of print from Steve Jackson Games – I seem to recall that I picked up my copy through eBay UK – though it is available as a pdf from Steve Jackson Games’ e23 e-shop and would make a valuable addition to a Traveller Referee's toolkit of ideas.

Accidents in Astrogation – Cabria Subsector #1

2010-11-08T22:01:00.007+13:00

Spinward of Miazan Subsector and Rimward of Lymethius Subsector, Cabria Subsector consists of the Tonivar and Suarya Clusters, the Crown of Brol and the Par Vera Main constellations.

Lying across the Trailing border of Cabria Subsector, and Jump-2 from the Kalar-Wi Cluster, the Tonivar Cluster consists of the Imperial controlled system of Tonivar, the Kalar-Wi colony world of Yolurlund, and Gaidon, homeworld of the Kiang Minor Race and a member world of the Kalar-Wi Pocket Empire. At the Rimward end of the subsector the six-system Suarya Cluster, controlled by the Vargr-dominated Hunt of Rronurl, sprawls over the Rimward border into Kfukskho Subsector. Suarya, capital of the Hunt, and Breknor, colonised within the last century, lie within Cabria Subsector while Akhvooel, Ingvouks, Rigvinghue and Taghdo lie further Rimward. The four-system Crown of Brol runs in an arc from Pythor on the Spinward border of the subsector, through Klearo, Naird – homeworld of the Gdemiar Minor Race, to Brol, part of the Solomani dominated Khedivate of Nutharal.

The most dominant astronomical feature of Cabria Subsector is the Par Vera Main. From Wyern, homeworld of the Ta'tero Minor Race, on the Rimward border, the Main passes through Heaohwiy, Khekheawaoh and Awakea (with a side spur to Hteiwekhoi in Entorth Subsector), member worlds of Huiha Khysokhou; then the independent worlds of Gyvern’s World, homeworld of the Ly-ly Minor Race, Juchis, Eurl and Withor; before looping through Nutharal, capital of the Khedivate of Nutharal; and Par Vera and Anoth, member worlds of the Tsalur-dominated Hand of Ssra’Ka Aissr. From Par Vera and Anoth, the Par Vera Main turns Spinward, running into Entorth Subsector for six parsecs before terminating at Sh’tok.

The second most dominant astronomical feature in the subsector is the Uedhkinthuez nakhae – the Black Beast – a Rift running to Rimward from Gyffd and Gaidon into Kfukskho Subsector. At its narrowest, the Uedhkinthuez nakhae is Jump-3 across, and this has historically restricted trade and communication across the subsector.

Cabria Subsector contains twenty-seven worlds with a total population of 13.198 billion sophonts. The highest population, 9, is at Par Vera, Yuar and Gaidon, and the highest Tech Level, E, is at Par Vera. Only two systems, Lo Taisang and Tonivar, are under Imperial control and are administratively part of the Duchy of Miazan; thirteen worlds belong to no interstellar polity – either due to choice, as in the case of the Droyne colony world of Yuar or the mixed-race colony of Waystar, or due to poverty or lack of technology; and twelve worlds belong to either the Aslan-dominated Huiha Khysokhou, the Vargr-dominated Hunt of Rronurl, Kalar-Wi, the Human-dominated Khedivate of Nutharal, or the Tsalur-dominated Hand of Ssra'Ka Aissr. Most systems in Cabria Subsector have been, or are still, members of the Outrim Alliance and have been involved in the various Outrim Wars against the Imperium.

Cabria Subsector is home to four Minor Races; the humanoid Kiang of Gaidon, the octopedal desert-dwelling Ly-ly of Gyven's World, the diminutive Gdemiar of Naird, and the hexapedal Ta'tero of Wyern.

Purvions from Lithia/Miazan established colonies at Pythor and Klearo during the Long Night, while Kalar-Wi colonies were established on Loa-Wi and Yolurlund within the last eight hundred years. Darrians, Zhodani and Hiver have also established relatively small and weak colonies at Withor, Eurl and Julchis, while the ancient Droyne settled world of Yuar enjoys both population and tech level superiority over many neighbouring worlds.

Accidents in Astrogation – Lymethius Subsector #2

2010-10-23T22:22:00.005+13:00

The Fourth Outrim War (1080 – 85) was the last major conflict along the Spinward Frontier of Gamelea Subsector prior to the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. Once again, Outrim Alliance fleets penetrated Imperial Space, wrecking havoc in the Jump Zones of lightly held Imperial worlds and, once again, Imperial and Subsector Task Forces stopped Alliance Fleets cold in the approaches to High Population worlds. Once again, Alliance Ground Forces were landed on individual Imperial worlds and, once again, they took Low Population worlds and were defeated on High Population worlds.

Konzevr Zdiea Edlchtel of Appaer/Lymethius, acting in his capacity as President of the Geithurian Republic, forced the war vote through the Republican Council in early 1080. In the months leading up to the war vote, Edlchtel and his advisors had become increasingly alarmed at reports from Republican Intelligence - Iqro' Zhdable. Iqro' Zhdable Section 4 (IZd 4) - Counter Intelligence - had noted the trending upwards of separatist actions and activities on various member worlds of the Republic. Investigations indicated possible Imperial Intelligence involvement as agents provocateurs or in providing material assistance and training. As the separatist movements gathered strength and sought to paralyse the Republic’s military forces, President Edlchtel felt driven to strike back against them and against their Imperial masters.

Assured of the support of the Esoyatreko Tlehiui V of Yuwe/Lymethius and of the Huiha Esoyatre, President Zdiea Edlchtel moved quickly to bring other member states of the Outrim Alliance into the impending war. While Huiha Khysokhou remained neutral in the ensuing conflict, the other members of the Alliance began to mobilise.

The deaths in quick succession of Imperial Sector Duke Kanus II and Duke Pahran of Gamelea in 1080 should have paralysed the Imperial defence as Alliance Fleets crossed the border but, in both cases, Imperial forces were much better prepared than had been predicted. This state of readiness was no accident. Sector Duke Kanus II and his Head of Imperial Intelligence, Siridar-Lord Elmar Hendrian of Pashur/Gazolan, had been actively working to neutralise the Geithurian Republic by encouraging the centrifugal political forces suppressed by President Zdiea Edlchtel to tear the Republic apart. Part of their planning factored in Edlchtel’s possible need for an external war to retain power, and to this end the bulk of the RimWorlds Imperial Naval units were already on-station in the Gamelea Subsector when war was declared.

Kanus’ death in 1080 on the eve of the war threw the Subsector Fleets into turmoil as various political factions began jockeying for influence with his uncle and successor, Edenar of Nolgor. Lord Elmar managed to keep Kanus’ plan on track by pulling squadrons into Gamelea Subsector from Gazul, Gazolan and Thurgandarn Subsectors but Duke Pahran’s death was a complication unplanned for. Fortunately, Lord Elmar’s brother, Duke Akansair of Thiroor/Gazolan, persuaded Duke Pahran’s son, Adryos Urzov, to move faster than required by protocol. Ordering the Gamelea Subsector Navy under his brother, Admiral Lord Talarman Juharl-Zarquestuir, into action, Adryos Urzov went personally to meet Duke Edenar’s Nolgor Subsector Fleet at Canblyne to urge them on towards the crucial first battlegrounds at Julnar.

Sector Duke Edenar was far more cautious and far less imaginative than his nephew, Kanus II, and so the war ground on with Imperial Forces grimly attempting to hold the border while Alliance raiders attempted to cut their supply lines. During this time, Lord Elmar continued his secret war in the Geithurian Republic, while trying to provide the intelligence that Sector Duke Edenar demanded, yet never paid any attention to. Elmar’s greatest coup of the war was the reactivation of the alliance with the Kalar-Wi which had fallen away after the Klorin Asteroid War of 1022.

In 1085, Kalar-Wi Grand Admiral Odg’tal Alveuk lead the Kalar-Wi Planetary Navy to a crushing victory over a predominantly Geithurian Republican fleet at Anthorann/Gamelea. The member governments of the Republic, sick of the war, promptly recalled President Zdiea Edlchtel’s Council and the Republic was effectively out of the war. Sector Duke Edenar’s Fleet Admiral Colleen von Aachol-Kalan-Salvan defeated an Outrim Alliance fleet at Gaidon/Cabria a month later and Admiral Chi’leur Baron Culvenia led the mopping up operation that chased the last of the raiders out of the Border Worlds by 1086.

Sakliavr Edlchtel became Konzevr of Appaer/Lymethius in late 1085 and President of the Geithurian Republic two years later, but his tenure as President was marred by a political malaise that threatened the collapse of the Republic.

Lord Elmar’s secessionists had struck deep roots amongst some of the populations of the Republic, roots that IZd 4 could not pull out. Such were the divisions in the Republican Council that when the Kalar-Wi War broke out in 1103, nearly twenty years later, the Republic took four months to issue a political position on the war, and then couched in such terms as to be mostly irrelevant. With the Geithurian Republic’s attention focussed inward, Huiha Esoyatre has assumed defacto leadership of the Outrim Alliance. Esoyatreko Tlehiui V of Yuwe/Lymethius, 79 in 1109, remains firmly in control of the Huiha but has shown little interest in managing the complex relationships within the larger Alliance.

Website Update #9

2010-10-18T12:29:00.003+13:00

Finally updated my modelling log on my website. With that done, I can get back to the article I'm writing on the Lymethius Subsector for this blog.

At present, I'm trying to match figures to the various alien races I have in my Traveller campaign. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to use GZG Alien Mercenaries SG15-X05 and X08 as Kalar-Wi. And now that I have painted up some Kurgan from Rebel Minis, I have a match for the Kiang, a Minor Race that the Kalar-Wi use as cheap ground troops.

More to come.

Visualising Characters

2010-10-05T21:19:00.009+13:00

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to play in several PBeM Traveller games and at one stage I was playing in three games at the same time. PBeM games are very heavily dependant upon the enthusiasm and commitment of the Referee and two of the games I was playing in foundered when the Referee become distracted by Real World issues.

The most successful game, and the one that is still going, is the Classic Traveller campaign set in the Reavers’ Deep and is run by a friend of mine, Brett, who is based in Queensland, Australia. With players in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe, we have times when there is a lot of activity, and times when Real Life slows us down. Brett’s enthusiasm for the game keeps things moving and is such that he is even producing a Traveller Fanzine, Into the Deep.

PBeM games are, in reality, exercises in group creative writing. To help me settle into the character I have created, I enjoy creating a picture of that character. As I am not a very proficient artist, I have discovered the fun of compositing a character portrait from various Internet elements in MS Paint and tweaking the picture through PhotoStudio 2000.

The picture at the top of this article is of my character in the Reavers' Deep game, the Aslan pilot Ahkalhyo Ftaohkoi. The picture is constructed from a publicity still of Aslan from the film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (and my little pun), and the space suit from a Science Fiction film with the female occupant’s face removed – I can’t recall the film that the space suit came from but, again, I found a publicity still online.

Akaiin Esaarti was an Intelligence Agent/Rogue Mongoose Traveller character I generated for a game set in the Spinward Marches. We managed to get a little adventuring done before the Referee disappeared. He did attempt to restart the game some months later but by that time I had other commitments and couldn’t continue. Akaiin’s portrait is built up around a still of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface. The planet in the background is a piece of random Science Fiction art I found on the Internet while the monitor bank is actually from a still of a television control room – the monitor bank is copied and reversed for a longer run, with the join hidden behind the character. The gantries to the left and right are cut from some technical picture and fitted together.

Balziac Gervaisor was a Classic Traveller Book 7 Merchant Engineer created for another PBeM set in the Spinward Marches. We had a lot of fun getting the party aboard a liner and then battling hijackers during Jump, and then the Referee just sorta got bored with the game and dropped out. One of the players sort of took over the game but the reboot didn’t work and that game fizzled out, too. Balziac’s portrait on the Engineering deck is built up around a still of the actor John Goodman. The background is built up from various stills of a ship’s engine room and various other industrial pictures. The text is actually a Vilani font I found on the Internet.

I had so much fun with Balziac that I created another picture of him from a still from the film The Big Lebowski with a background of a starport that I found on the Internet.

Like Scrapbooking and Sampling, compositing character pictures takes existing elements and presents them in a new light. It's lots of fun and adds another layer of enjoyment to a Traveller game.

Shiney New Stuff

2010-09-17T21:08:00.004+12:00

I stumbled across a notice about the impending release of this Compendium by Jon Brazer Enterprises a week or so ago. We had a power cut just before I could finish this post and I only rediscovered this draft a couple of days ago.

Going back to check my source material, I could not find the Compendium listed on Jon Brazer Enterprises' website nor on any of my usual gaming haunts. And then a link popped up on Facebook today, indicating that the Compendium was at the printers and almost ready to go.

If you follow this link to Jon Brazer Enterprises' website, you should be able to read a brief review of what's in the Compendium (hint to review writers: "stuff", while succinct, is not terribly helpful - "usefull stuff" is not much better) in the News and Blog section.

Basically, the d66 Compendium brings together in one place a series of d66 tables, such as JBE has been releasing over the last little while - tables for generating Aslan Female Names, Random stuff found in the Ship's Locker, Orbital Facility Names, etc - which give Referees another little tool in their tool box to help keep their games rolling when players suddenly ask, "what bar should we meet at?" or "what ships are in port?"

Website Update #8

2010-09-17T20:53:00.003+12:00

Slowly catching up - posted two updates to the Modeling Log of my
website, showing some figures I've finished, including some John Bear Ross HAMR Suites from Rebel Minis.

Also featured are further updates to the Library Data of my Traveller page, mainly resulting from work I've done on this blog.

Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals

2010-09-12T17:11:00.003+12:00

Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals:
A sourcebook for Mongoose Traveller
By John Griffiths, Richard Hazlewood and Daniel W. Hammersley

I must say first up, that my wife and I had the privilege of proofing an early version of Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals, and I have just spent the last week or so working on a final proof and edit for this book, the latest offering from Spica Publishing.

The ACER project started somewhere around the beginning to middle of last year and then dropped off the radar for a time. A couple of months back the project fired up again and before I knew what was happening, there was a release date. With the release immanent, John sent me an updated manuscript to proof. The timing was bad for me, but I finally got it done, dusted, and emailed yesterday.

The book as a whole is a very useful Referee’s tool. Alongside a collection of basic stat block characters, in the grand tradition of Classic Traveller’s 1001 Characters, there are 24 characters fully worked up as Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals as per the Mongoose Traveller rules, as well as a free trader and crew; a Detached Scout and crew; a PsiTac Team; six individual NPCs; and the crew of a mercenary cruiser and their mercenary platoon – a total of 62 characters plus a 40 strong combat platoon, as well as a further 48 ‘red shirt’ basic stat block characters.

So, very good value for money, well presented and available either through DrivethruRPG as a pdf, or via Spica’s Lulu store for a print copy – both links are on the Spica Publishing site, linked to above.

Vilani Word Dump

2010-08-28T20:56:00.006+12:00

Sometimes, a Vilani word or name dropped into conversation during a game is useful in enhancing the players’ experience of life in the Far Future. Inspired by Jon Brazer Enterprises’ d66 compendia and with access to Space Corsair’s language generator, I present two d66 Vilani word tables – one of two syllable and one of three syllable words. Roll 1 d6 for ‘tens’ and a second for ‘ones’.

Suggested uses include personal names, names of items, and elements of language such as greetings, curses and expressions.

Vilani Word Table – 2 Syllables

11	agu	31	gigash	51	khuas
12	aii	32	gunim	52	kimdii
13	aim	33	idkuu	53	kuurgi
14	air	34	ima	54	lirlish
15	akha	35	irbik	55	mauush
16	ankhish	36	irka	56	nauur
21	bamu	41	iskur	61	nuus
22	daiir	42	kadlan	62	sagli
23	dasnii	43	kagshi	63	shagu
24	ega	44	kalur	64	sheki
25	eka	45	karnug	65	shiimrar
26	gaii	46	kharnaa	66	unshi

Vilani Word Table – 3 Syllables

11	adia	31	iidkilud	51	mashshadkhad
12	agdurgi	32	iishmiimgu	52	meiirgag
13	dakuip	33	indaarku	53	narkiir
14	dargishga	34	kaamgu	54	niishdenu
15	diugas	35	kakai	55	remnigin
16	gaaamkhi	36	kasiki	56	sashkaka
21	geau	41	khuikhum	61	shamiigi
22	geugli	42	khuuamdi	62	shikubi
23	gisharu	43	kuaksham	63	shishkuis
24	gupipdii	44	liirluma	64	umkhagaa
25	iankhim	45	luurauush	65	urkhandig
26	igarshu	46	magiilur	66	zashdikhish

Accidents in Astrogation – Lymethius Subsector #1

2010-08-21T22:19:00.006+12:00

Spinward of Gamelea Subsector lies Lymethius Subsector. Astrographically, Lymethius consists of the Tallu, Kalar-Wi and Yuakteisye Clusters and the Julnar and Aaron Reaches.

Ouron, Finduil and Por’via are Imperial worlds and are considered part of the Julnar Reach and, along with Anar, are part of the Duchy of Gamelea, while the Aaron Reach, named for the bright F5 primary of the Lysarnor System, contains the bulk of the population of the Geithurian Republic at Appaer, Geithur and Lysarnor.

The Tallu Cluster is divided between the Imperium, with its toehold at Anar; the Geithurian Republic, holding Jul’ni and Coroson; and the independent systems of Tallu, Auru and the dead world of Nearo. Only Kidan and Masaad of the Kalar-Wi Cluster lie within Lymethius Subsector. Kidan was seized by Huiha Esoyatre ihatei in 1106 following the collapse of the Kalar-Wi State at the end of the Kalar-Wi War. Now known as Yaitlaorail, the 40,000 Kalar-Wi of Kidan are seeing a massive influx of Esoyatre Aslan moving onto their planet. Yuakteisye Cluster consists of the four systems settled by the Aslan Huiha Esoyatre and lies across most of the trade routes between Lymethius and Cabria Subsectors.

A scattering of systems along the Spinward edge of Lymethius Subsector provide routes further Spinward into Per Vulia Subsector.

The 2nd Rimward War (793 – 794) in Gazul Subsector blunted Imperial consolidation of the Julnar Reach route around the end of the Perrsherrik Rift. The Geithurian Republic and Huiha Esoyatre formed an alliance to prevent further Imperial expansion through the Tallu Cluster and Huiha Esoyatre then became the driving force behind what is now known as the Outrim Alliance. The Outrim Alliance has fought four wars with the Imperium since the early 10th Century to contain Imperial expansion and fix the border fairly much where it is today.

Lymethius Subsector is home to two Major Races – humans of mixed Vilani and Zhodani stock, and Aslan – and three Minor Races: the ursoid Purvions of Tallu, while related to the Purvions of Lithia/Miazan, have a comparatively High Technology civilization and have successfully maintained their independence for nearly 1000 years; the diminutive psionic Aaronites from the warrens of Lysarnor are valued mechanics and crafts-sophonts; while the Tharoysa of Dysa Metharoth have a reputation as shrewd merchants.

There are a number of languages current in Lymethius Subsector:
Cassingal: - dialect of Gazolin Imperial Basic, Cassingal has spread over the coreward border of Gamelea Subsector and is spoken on all the worlds of the Julnar Reach - Tulvan, Julnar, Leminkainen, and Ouron, Finduil and Por'via in the Lymethius Subsector. Gamelea Imperial Basic speakers and Cassingal speakers can understand each other, though quietly laugh at each other’s accents and spelling conventions.
Gamelea Imperial Basic: - spoken on Anar, and by Gamelea Ducal officials on Ouron, Finduil and Por'via.
Kassuriik: - main language of the Purvion Minor Race of Tallu and related to the Kassuriik spoken by the Purvions of Lithia/Miazan.
Khasikha: - Vilani dialect used as a native language by the inhabitants of Appaer/Lymethius and subsequently adopted as the official language of the Geithurian Republic.
Lhosuwha: - main language of the Tharoysa Minor Race of Dysa Metharoth/Lymethius.
Phijudas: - main language of the Aaronite Minor Race of Lysarnor/Lymethius.
Trokh Esoyatre: - dialect of Trokh spoken by Aslan of Huiha Esoyatre of Yuwe, Atlasiykh, Faiwawhwe, Yuakteisye and Yaitlaorail in Lymethius Subsector.
Vriok: - main language of the Kalar-Wi Minor Race spoken on Kalar-Wi and the worlds of the old Kalar-Wi Empire, including Kidan and Masaad in Lymethius Subsector.

Lymethius Subsector contains twenty-six worlds with a total population of 186.202 billion sophonts. The highest population, A, is at Appaer and Yuakteisye, and the highest Tech Level, C, is at Appaer, Yuwe and Tallu.

Scoundrel

2010-08-15T21:16:00.003+12:00

Mongoose Traveller Book 6: Scoundrel
By Gareth Hanrahan

Taking the Rogue and Drifter career paths from the Mongoose Traveller Core rules, this supplement expands them in a similar fashion to what has been done with other careers in previous books in this series. Also covered are Barbarians and Belters, two other marginalized groups.

Career paths for Scoundrels can be:
Intruder: which divides into Hacker, Burglar and Faceman (Facebeing?).
Smuggler: which includes Blockade Runner, Bootlegger, and Smuggler Crew.
Organised Criminal: Assassin, Enforcer, or Co-ordinator.
Pirate: Corsair, Boarder, or Jumpcusser.
Scavenger: Wrecker, Salvage Expert, or Tombrobber
Wanderer: Hitchhiker, Vagabond, or Bandit
Barbarian: Warrior, Tribesman, Shaman.

Imprisonment can be an occupational hazard for a Scoundrel, particularly during Character generation. A nice little metagame about Incarceration features just after the chargen section and can see your Scoundrel put away for up to 4 terms, especially if the Scoundrel’s lawyer isn’t much use, and the DMs are against you! Adventure 2: Prison Planet apparently has a Prison skill section that one’s character can use while inside or alternatively, there is a Prison Skills table attached to the Incarceration section to ensure that all is not completely lost while the character is doing time.

Criminal organisations are examined from a game point of view, and some of the concepts used to develop Intelligence agencies in Book 5: Agent feature in the fleshing out of such organisations, particularly the concept of Trust. The more Trusted a criminal is within his or her organisation, the more likely he or she will receive aid and assistance in performing heists or being extricated from a sticky legal situation. Of course, membership of such an organisation can be a source of future adventure hooks, particularly if the character thinks he or she has ‘left that life behind’. Several sample Organisations, ranging from the criminal, through the Political to the Religious, are presented to demonstrate how such organisations can be detailed for one’s own campaign

Piracy is looked at in some depth and both the pro and con arguments concerning piracy, particularly in a Traveller setting, are presented, including the fact that the practicalities of space piracy have been a long-running debate amongst Traveller fans. While the writer seems to needlessly split pirates into specialities (and some pretty artificial specialities at that), there is a nice reminder of one of Science Fiction’s more enduring pirate types, the raider or Star Viking.

There’s a nice little ship encounter table for pirates hunting prey near a main world, and a modified table for pirates working the Belt or outsystem. A pirate attack on merchant shipping is broken down into a series of tasks rolls which allows the process to be metagamed or played out in detail as required, and there are sections on Pirate Hunters, Pirate Bounties, and how to factor Pirate Loot.

The Intrusion section describes how a heist can be broken down into a series of skill rolls, allowing several jobs to be run in a session. Alternatively, the task rolls can be expanded upwards again as part of a roleplaying session. Helpfully, various security features for various tech levels are also considered as part of fitting out the target of the heist. Computer Hacking and how this works with the Traveller Core computer rules is also covered in some detail and a ‘sample target’ is described in sufficient detail to be lifted wholesale and dropped into a session.

The mechanics of smuggling are considered, including suggested levels of security checks at starports, and how a successful smuggler might go about subverting them. This section also includes several small scenario ideas that both describe a situation and then put several twists on it.

And then finally there’s a section on fencing illegal goods that, much in the way that the trade tables work, allow various DMs to influence the final price that the criminal gets for the loot.

An extensive equipment section, featuring a variety of clever little gadgets, leads into the starship section which features 11 ship designs, with floor plans, for pirates, belters and scavengers, their prey, and those who seek to bring down the villains.

Small sections on Belt mining, odd jobs for Drifters, Scavengers, gambling and con games, and Barbarians round out the book.

When I started to write this review, I must confess that I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic. But going back through the book again, I began to realise that there were quite a lot of very good ideas in here. Little things, like how much a pirate might make from a looted ship, or how to work out a criminal’s standing within an Organised Crime Group and what level of support that organisation might consider granting to that member, are just so useful when the GM is trying to be consistent, yet provide a challenge without stacking the deck against the player.

I do find some of the career path subdivisions baffling in their terminology and wonder if the writers have got themselves locked into a template that doesn’t always quite fit. Though having said that, the career path names can sometimes be quite evocative. And once you start thinking in that direction, they can be a good aid in working out the psychological worldview of the character.

Over all, I think Scoundrel is a good book, and one I intend to buy in hard copy when the opportunity presents itself.

Accidents in Astrogation – Miazan Subsector #2

2010-08-07T23:00:00.003+12:00

Miazan Subsector, as an Imperial political entity, is slowly evaporating. Over 80% of the subsector’s population is located in the Kamperelian Cluster and has been effectively lost to the Imperium since the end of the Rivokul War in 1033. The Cabria Subsector systems of Lo Taisang and Tonivar, long attached to the Duchy of Miazan, were settled by demobilised Vargr mercenary clans and while these populations bravely resisted both Outrim Alliance and Kalar-Wi aggression over the last century, their total population still numbers just slightly over a million sophonts. While this is often enough to slow down small numbers of raiders, their low Tech Levels (TL 9 and 8 respectively) and poor port facilities preclude the long term stationing of more effective Naval elements in-system.

Within Miazan Subsector proper, Nakaya, Exxilon and Miazan systems support the bulk of the Imperial population – 6 billion sophonts in the relatively isolated low-tech Nakaya system, 5 billion sophonts in the Miazan system, and another half billion in Exxilon system. Of the three High Population systems, Miazan maintains a Tech Level of 12, while Exxilon has a Tech Level of 9. Nakaya lags well behind the times with a Tech Level of 7. The Tech Level D worlds of the subsector, Golus and Janda, have high tech research or production facilities with very small populations.

In the two decades since the end of the 4th Outrim War in 1085, the Miazan Subsector Dukes have had to cope with a shift of Sector political power away from the Outrim Frontier; the growing threat of the Kamperelian Republic squarely across Imperial supply lines; and the unification and growth in power of the Hunt of Rronurl, a Vargr polity of some six to eight worlds lapping around the Spin/Rimward end of the Miazan Subsector. With only the Naval Bases at Miazan and the fortress world of Celephais, the Miazan Subsector Navy has recovered slowly from losses suffered during the 4th Outrim War and replacement units have been restricted to Miazan’s Tech Level 12 Naval Yards. Falling behind in numbers, and loosing the technological edge that the Imperium has traditionally enjoyed, military planners on the Ducal staff are experiencing sleepless nights as they await deployment decisions at the Sector level.

Accidents in Astrogation – Miazan Subsector #1

2010-08-03T22:15:00.004+12:00

Lying Rimward of Gamelea Subsector, Miazan Subsector contains two stellar constellations and a small scattering of stars along the edge of the Rimward Deep. The Miazan Main runs Rimward along the Spinward edge of the Miazan Subsector from the Tonivar Cluster in Cabria Subsector to Hydrot, while the Kamperel Cluster dominates the Coreward centre of the subsector.

Miazan Subsector contains seventeen systems with a total population of 65.6777 billion sophonts. The highest population, A, is at Kamperel, and the highest Tech Level, D, is at Golus and Janda. Twelve of the seventeen systems are members of the Imperium, the three systems of the Kamperelian Cluster are members of the Kamperelian Republic, and the systems of Lithia and Huop are non-aligned.

House Rivokul, loyal retainers of the House Geyukthi Dukes of Miazan, had been Siridar-Barons of Kamperel/Miazan since the middle of the 10th Century. Outrageously corrupt, they mercilessly exploited the enormous population of their small, poor, world. During the 3rd Outrim War (1025 – 1038) the Outrim Alliance smuggled arms to various resistance groups on Kamperel and a popular uprising, known as the Rivokul War, broke out in 1031. After a bitter 18-month struggle, the People’s Justice Army of Kamperel emerged victorious as the dominant rebel faction, House Rivokul’s Mercenary force had been smashed, and all members of House Rivokul had been executed.

By the time the 3rd Outrim War had been concluded in 1038, House Geyukthi was in decline, a new Sector Duke was on the throne, the People’s Justice Army ruled Kamperel with an iron fist, and the Van Zaquerl family was in total control of the People’s Justice Army. Within fifty years, Kamperel had gained control of Ektra and Floranna, the other two systems in the Kamperel Cluster, while relationships with the Imperium continued to sour.

During the 4th Outrim War (1080 – 85), the Kamperelian Republic sided with the Outrim Alliance, effectively paralysing the Miazan Subsector Fleet until the Kalar-Wi Navy smashed the main Outrim Alliance force at the Battle of Anthorann in 1085. Since the war, most trade traffic from Gamelea Subsector has been rerouted via the Kalar-Wi and Tonivar Clusters to avoid Kamperelian space. Relations with Kamperel thawed enough to provide an alternate route during the Kalar-Wi War (1103 – 1105) but most regular shippers still prefer the Kalar-Wi/Tonivar route for Jump-2 ships.

Merchants wishing to avoid Zoni space in Nolgor Subsector favour the route from Celephais via Byer’s Planet and Naltor to Dariak/Gazul, though this route benefits merchants out of Gamelea more than traders from Nolgor Subsector.

Lithia is an non-aligned world that has established strong commercial links with the Imperium through the pharmaceutical industry, while Huop is a non-aligned world that has been essentially settled and developed by three Imperial mega-corporations. It remains vulnerable to incursions by Outrim raiders.

Miazan Subsector is home to two Minor Races; the humanoid Olkathi of the deserts of Golus and the ursoid Purvions of the rain forests of Lithia.

There are three main dialects of Imperial Basic spoken in the Miazan Subsector:
1) Gamelea Imperial Basic: - spoken on Celephais, Byer’s Planet and Naltor.
2) Miazan Imperial Basic: Dialect of Imperial Basic spoken along the Miazan Main, and on Nakaya and Epoch.
3) Kampereli Basic: - Dialect of Miazan Imperial Basic spoken on Kamperel, Ektra and Floranna in Miazan Subsector.

Other languages spoken in the Miazan Subsector include:
Sahsah sai – Main language of the Olkathi Minor Race of Golus/Miazan.
Aerrghvi – Vargr dialect of Gvegh, one of the major Vargr language groups, spoken by the Vargr mercenary clan settled on Lo-Taisang/Cabria and who trade regularly along the Miazan Main.
Igzgal – Vargr dialect spoken by the Vargr mercenary clan settled on Tonivar/Cabria and who trade regularly along the Miazan Main.
Kassuriik: Main language of the Purvion Minor Race of Lithia.

Accidents in Astrogation: Gazul Subsector #2

2010-07-17T21:51:00.003+12:00

Gazul Subsector is an artificial construct. The bulk of the subsector’s Imperial population dwells in a system midway between the two political hubs of Dokar in the Dokar Main and Gazul in the Gazul Run. The political astuteness of House Hikisaku brought Gazul Subsector into existence and House Crensea has maintained it for the last three centuries as an independent Imperial political division, not just as a frontier zone of Nolgor Subsector. During this period, two Gazul Subsector Dukes wore the Sector Ducal coronet and Gazuli Naval units defended both their own Rimward frontier as well as the Spinward frontier in Miazan and Gamelea Subsectors in various border wars, which, considering that the bulk of the Gazul Subsector Navy operates with Tech Level 11 or 12 equipment, is no small achievement.

Website Update #7

2010-07-14T21:12:00.004+12:00

After a bit of a painting drought, brought on by short winter days, I finally got a bunch of figures finished, including 30-odd of these fine fellows - Crusties from Ground Zero Games.

I also received some figures from Rebel Minis which will bolster my Kamperalian Republican Force when painted. Full details are on my painting log.

Accidents in Astrogation: Gazul Subsector #1

2010-07-04T22:41:00.005+12:00

The Gazul Subsector is made up of several distinct astrographical regions; the Dokar Main, consisting of 13 systems at the Spinward/Coreward end of the Subsector; the Gazul Run, a broken Main to Trailing/Coreward; and the Rimward Arc, a scattering of non-Imperial systems across the Rimward end of the Subsector.

The Imperial population of Gazul Subsector has always been low. Even after some 500 years of settlement, Imperial citizens still only number some 8.674 billion, scattered over eighteen systems, out of a total population of 68.939 billion sophonts for the twenty-six worlds of the subsector.

The most populous system in the subsector is Dathyna, capital of the Dathynan Concordance, and one of the prime movers of the anti-Imperial Rimward Coalition. 55 billion sophonts of, mainly, Vilani ancestry loyally support the Charismatic Oligarchy of the Concordance and fill the ranks of the Coalition’s ground forces. The next most populous system is Daxam, lying midway between the Dokar Main and the Gazul Run. With a population of just over 8 billion sophonts, Daxam is a fortress world, protecting Imperial communications between the Spinward and Trailing frontiers of the subsector. Daxam’s relatively low Tech Level of 9 has prevented it from becoming more dominate than it is in Gazuli politics, though economically it outperforms all other Imperial planets in the Subsector put together, by several orders of magnitude.

Axal, Xudar and Gazul, all at Tech Level D, are the most technologically advanced systems in the Subsector, and all are members of the Imperium. The most advanced non-Imperial systems are Ftaioiaftew and Ikhyowou at Tech Level B, with Dathyna at Tech Level A close behind.

Sector Duke Kolin II began the process of Imperial expansion into Gazul subsector in the mid 6th Century. The badly organised Rimward Coalition, consisting of a number of small polities, actively resisted this expansionistic drive through a series of three Rimward Wars.

The 3rd Rimward War was concluded in 882 and an uneasy peace has ensued along the Demilitarized Zone running through Kralkor II, Ikhyowou, Arnak and Emmanon. Dariak, on the Spinward end of the Dokar Main, has never been formally incorporated into the Imperial portion of Gazul Subsector, even though it is used as a fueling point for ships bound into the Miazan Subsector. The 8,000 or so frontiersmen who have settled on Dariak have shown little interest in accepting invitations to join the Imperium, and it is rumoured that certain commercial interests prefer the current state of affairs just as they are.

There are two main dialects of Imperial Basic spoken in the Gazul Subsector:
1) Spinward Gazuli Basic: Dialect of Gazuli Basic as spoken along the Dokarian Main in Gazul Subsector, and on Meklin in Nolgor Subsector.
2) Gazuli Imperial Basic: Dialect of Imperial Basic spoken along the Gazul Run, and on Daxam, Kasimir and Kothgar.

Other languages spoken in the Gazul Subsector include:
Trokh Weakhayuwikhye – a dialect of Trokh spoken by the Aslan of Ftaioiaftew and Ikhyowou.
Siikharsim – a dialect of Old Vilani spoken in the Dathynan Concordance.
Unturran – main language of the dominant cultural group of the regressed human colony of Kralkor II.
Khishsuun – Vilani dialect/pidgin language used as a trade tongue by worlds of the Rimward Coalition.

Website Update #6

2010-06-22T14:12:00.002+12:00

Received a figure order from Khurasan Miniatures yesterday and spent a very pleasant afternoon assembling Sea Wasp grav vehicles and Orca Assault Troopers.

Great figures and good service, check them out for unusual aliens and interesting vehicles. Full details of the order and what I received are on the Modeling and Painting log page of my website.

Accidents in Astrography: Nolgor Subsector #2

2010-06-14T00:22:00.004+12:00

Cursed with a Ducal House with lofty ambitions and insufficient resources, Nolgor Subsector has often seen its armed forces drawn away, either in pursuit of, or in support of, the Sector Ducal crown. This constant drain has contributed to the inability of the Subsector authorities to maintain control over the worlds within the Subsector. Of the twelve Naval bases in the Subsector, seven remain under Imperial control. The loss of the huge Tech Level 12 shipyards of Naos VI reduced the Subsector Navy’s ability to recover from losses quickly. The next largest yards, at Nolgor, are only Tech Level 11 and have only 1% of the capacity of the yards at Naos VI. Imperial Naval units assigned to Nolgor have to be serviced at Gamelea, as this is the nearest Tech Level 15 facility, and once sent out of theatre for servicing often don’t come back again as they’re promptly reassigned along the Outrim frontier or sent into Miazan Subsector.

Nolgor Subsector consists of 20 systems. Weak and divided, only 14 systems are under Imperial control. The Hegemony of Lotarf, controlling Lotarf, Shenn and Thrisk; the Zoni of Lur; and the Voivodate of Naos VI, controlling Naos VI and Sleipner, effectively divide the subsector in two. With a total subsector population of 9.87 billion sophonts (9.8*10^9), of which less than 0.5% are non-Human, 135.5 million are Imperial citizens, 156.2 million are subjects of the Hegemony of Lotarf, 34.5 million are estimated to inhabit Lur, and 9.5 billion dwell within the borders of the Voivodate of Naos VI.

The highest Tech Level in the subsector, Tech Level E (14), is at Meklin, while the most densely populated planet is Naos VI. Lotarf, with a population of 107 million, is the next most populous planet. Zovanta and Kuan-Ti are Red Zones, Zovanta on account of its primitive inhabitants and Kuan-Ti as it has been incompletely explored. Tarkos IV is an Imperial Prison Planet.

There are three main dialects of Imperial Basic spoken in the Nolgor Subsector:
1) Nolgor Imperial Basic: - spoken along the Nolgor Run to Trailing of Gamelea Subsector.
2) Spinward Gazuli Basic: Dialect of Gazuli Basic as spoken along the Dokarian Main in Gazul Subsector, and on Meklin in Nolgor Subsector.
3) Thurgandarni Basic: Dialect of Imperial Basic common in the Thurgandarn Subsector, Coreward of Nolgor Subsector, and spoken on Solaris, Slepnir and Naos VI.

Other minor languages include Tsalui, the native language of the Tsalur Minor Race of Xcothal; Zyaos, the native language of the Zoni Minor Race of Lur; Algrath, the native language of the Shenni Minor Race of Shenn; Veultaqual, language of the regressed human Visi people of Fingalna.

Aslan

2010-06-12T22:03:00.006+12:00

Alien Module 1: Aslan
by Gareth Hanrahan

“You know, I like cats -- and lesbians -- but I really hate the Aslan more with each new reincarnation of the Trav setting/rules. Their whole Cat People of Mongo (Wherein It Rains) thing is one detraction, but what really puts me off is this whole cod-samurai shtick that's been accreting over years. All this freakin' "honor!" yelping - it's like some horrible Tekumel session staged with stuffed animals swiped from a Disney gift shop.”
- The ‘Sayat Menace’ on the Traveller Mailing List

I’ve never met the ‘Sayat Menace’, but I enjoyed his thoughts on the Aslan as quoted above – completely without permission – from a post on the Traveller Mailing List. This was prior to the publication of Alien Module 1: Aslan by Mongoose Publishing as part of their ‘The Third Imperium’ Traveller line.

Of the Classic Traveller Major Races, I’ve always liked both the Aslan and the Vargr as they appeal to different aspects of my own personality – the Vargr as anarchic, rough and tumble, go from here to there via all the nooks, crannies and byways types and the Aslan as calm, controlled, honest, honourable and upright. I enjoyed the Classic Traveller Alien Module 1: Aslan and so was rather intrigued to see what Mongoose would make of the information about the Aslan that has accumulated over the last couple of decades.

At 228 pages, Mongoose’s effort is no light-weight, and offers Aslan-orientated Character Generation (including clan, pride and family and the Rite of Passage; extensive notes on the Aslan Race (including Aslan Society, the importance of land to male Aslan, duelling and honour); Aslan History; typical equipment; starships (including stats and deckplans for a variety of ship types); encounters – Patrons, NPCs and animal encounters; Aslan World generation; and notes on roleplaying Aslan.

70-odd pages of this module provide a fairly good over-view of the Trojan Reach Sector, largely drawn from the work of Mike Jackson in the Third Imperium fanzine, as a backdrop for adventures featuring Aslan. Trojan Reach lies Rimward of the Spinward March and includes Aslan states both large and small, the Florian humanoid/Human Minor Race, Imperial worlds, Imperial Client States and independent worlds and polities.

Even if you do have access to the Classic Traveller Alien Module 1: Aslan – reprints are available from Far Future Enterprises – this new work is still worth getting, in my opinion. I particularly like the notes on both roleplaying Aslan, and GMing Aslan in a campaign where the author has, in fact, set out to offer alternatives to the “cod-samurai shtick” bemoaned of by The Sayat Menace.

Points where I think further work could have been done are in the section on Trokh, the Aslan language; in some of the artwork used within the book; and in the editing of the Trojan Reach material.

In the latter case, the text meanders between the use of the term ‘subsector’ and ‘sector’ to describe the individual subsectors of the Trojan Reach sector. To me, this feels more akin to the fanzine material of the 1980’s when such terms were still becoming fixed, rather than current useage.

Book artwork is always a subjective thing - you either like the pictures or you don't - but considering that Aslan have a natural blade weapon in their dewclaw, and it is stated in the text that blade weapon skills are fairly rare amongst Aslan, I began to get annoyed at the number of illustrations showing sword-weilding Aslan.

In the case of Trokh, while letter frequencies, syllable construction and pronunciation are discussed; the word generation tables of the Classic Traveller module are not reprinted. I do not know if this is an IP issue or not, though with the sound frequency table it is possible to make your own. Nowadays, I tend to generate my Trokh words using Space Corsair’s excellent word generator anyway, but it would have been nice to see those old tables again.

So, minor quibbles aside, another good book for Traveller.

Issue 2 of 'Into the Deep' fanzine released

2010-06-07T20:38:00.004+12:00

Issue 2 of this Classic Traveller orientated webzine has just been released. Available for the bargain price of free from here, it is well worth a look. You will have to join the Yahoo group, but fifty other people appear to have managed that task roll so it shouldn't be much of a chore.

I should mention that a revised and expanded version of my blog post on 'Nobles' does appear in this issue of 'Into the Deep' but the magazine is still a good read, anyway.

Accidents in Astrography: Nolgor Subsector #1

2010-06-04T22:07:00.005+12:00

From Gilanda and Canblyne in Gamelea Subsector, the Nolgor Run crosses Nolgor Subsector from Xcothal to Shenn and Lotarf, skirting the Rimward edge of the J-3, or Canblyne, Rift. Astrographically, Nolgor Subsector is fragmented and resource-poor. The Nolgor Run, which should have become a major trade route enhancing the economic development of the subsector, has instead become a dismal tour of a series of Non-Industrial and Agricultural worlds with moribund economies.

After serving as a forward base during the Rimward Wars of the late 7th Century, Nolgor Subsector stagnated as the colonies further rimward in the Imperial-controlled Coreward half of Gazul Subsector developed and prospered. Home to a native Minor Race, a transplanted Minor Race, a regressed human colony, and an Imperial Prison Planet, Nolgor Subsector has never lost that feeling of being a wild frontier. This is in spite of being surrounded by more economically successful, and politically stable, Imperial subsectors.

The crustacean-like Zoni Minor Race of Lur proved incredibly difficult for the Imperial authorities in Nolgor Subsector to deal with. Alternatively neutral and hostile, the Zoni consumed a disproportionate amount of subsector resources in containment and pacification efforts, none of which proved effective in the long run. Even Admiral Kranan hault-Lernester’s famous ‘Pounding of Lur’, during his ‘March to the Rimward Border’ campaign in the early part of the Sarkul Wars, only bought a century of respite from Zoni raids. And this was after hault-Lernester had systematically destroyed every single shipyard and ship repair facility in the Lur system, and then bombed every heavy industrial site on the planet. This on-going commitment to contain the Zoni became a serious drain on the economies of the Imperial planets of the subsector, hampering efforts to stimulate trade and technological development, while political mismanagement heightened resentment at the planetary level.

The saurianoid Tsalur of Xcothal acknowledge that they are not natives of the world they currently call their own, and that they have lost all records of where their homeworld might be. They appear to have been settled on Xcothal by the Thongaloras Empire over a thousand years ago and survived the fall of that empire as well as the subsequent turbulent centuries prior to the arrival of the Imperium in the RimWorlds in the early 6th Century. With a fierce warrior culture, the Tsalur respect strong leadership and will willingly follow even non-Tsalur if they demonstrate this quality. This has lead some xeno-anthropologists to theorise that the Tsalur were culturally manipulated to fill some form of slave-warrior niche within Thongaloras society, and that this imprinting still survives some 900 years after the imprinting society vanished from the Galactic stage.

Little is known of the Shenni of Shenn apart from the fact that they are humanoid and have a fighting caste that wears chitin-like armour and serve the Theocrats of Lotarf with fanatical loyalty. Within the last decade or so it has become apparent that the Shenni are actually a Zoni Hive that established itself on Shenn nearly a thousand years ago, and who were subverted by early members of the Order of Saint Belesarn of Lotarf some four hundred years later.

Fingalna is the homeworld of the Visi, a regressed Human colony. Sometimes known as the Aulteltec, the Visi seem to have appeared in the RimWorlds during the Late Thongaloras Empire, perhaps aboard Long Night period sublight ships. On the dozen or so planets where Aulteltec settlements have been identified, they are characterised by the existence of massive stone step pyramid structures in the centre of settlement areas. Fingalna is the only known planet where Aulteltec culture has survived as a living entity.

Political fragmentation during the 11th Century caused the Voivodate of Naos VI and its colony of Slepnir to refuse to acknowledge the subsector leadership of the House Ulanor Dukes of Nolgor. At a stroke, nine and a half billion sophonts and the subsector’s only industrial world were removed from the moribund economy, plunging the subsector into economic depression. When the Theocracy of Lotarf, with its daughter worlds of Shenn and Thrisk, followed suit, only 135 million sophonts on 13 worlds still remained Imperial citizens, under one and a half percent of the subsector’s population of 9.8 billion.

Humaniti

2010-05-21T17:37:00.004+12:00

GURPs Traveller: Humaniti
Compiled and Edited by Loren Wiseman and Jon F. Zeigler

A lot of Traveller people don’t like GURPs as a roleplaying system and, consequently, never considered GURPs Traveller for their Traveller needs in the dark years between the fall of GDW, when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the Geese of Mong. Funny thing is though, a lot of other people love GURPs and play GURPs Traveller, as is evident by the very active GURPs Traveller board that Steve Jackson Games hosts. Interstellar Wars, the first GURPs Traveller product for GURPs 4e, did not, apparently, sell as well as was hoped and this has, sadly, rather put the kibosh on further Traveller products, but SJG still keeps much of their existing Traveller product line in print. GURPs Traveller: Humaniti is one such item and I was fortunate enough to pick it up a year or so ago from SJG’s excellent Warehouse 23.

For the Traveller fan, sixteen Human Minor Races are presented in Humaniti in sufficient detail to make for interesting, and alien additions to a Traveller campaign. Most of these Minor Races have appeared in earlier Traveller publications, such as the original Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society or Challenge magazine, but this is the first time that they have been brought together in one place and examined in detail.

The origins and history of each race are presented, along with their physiology and appearance. Languages; naming conventions; society and government; and technology and trade are all considered, and maps of the homeworlds of several of the races are included. Finally, each race is presented as a template for GURPs Traveller character generation, which is fairly easy to convert to other versions of Traveller with a little thought and some common sense. It should be stressed that this is a very rules-lite Traveller supplement and its value lies chiefly in its text.

I am very satisfied with GURPs Traveller: Humaniti and look forward to being able to introduce some of these Minor Races into my campaign.

Accidents in Astrogation: Gamelea Subsector #3

2010-05-02T23:04:00.003+12:00

Gamelea Subsector consists of 17 systems, 16 of which are part of the Duchy of Gamelea and under Imperial control. The 17th system, Kalar-Wi, while nominally under Imperial occupation, is in the process of being returned to local rule under the terms of the treaty that concluded the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

The subsector has a population of 142.7 billion (1.427 x 10^11) sophonts of which 99% are human, or of human descent. The three minor races native to the subsector; the Kalar-Wi, the Rimbaur of Rimbaud II, and the Julnari of Julnar, only number some 92.3 million, of which 91 million are Kalar-Wi.

The most densely populated world in the subsector is Bryak with a population of 99.9 billion. The next most populous world is Gamelea, the subsector capital, with a population of 29.3 billion. The highest tech systems are Gamelea and Julnar with a Tech Level of 15 (F). Syndon IV is a Red Zone and an Imperial reservation. Interdiction satellites, deployed to protect the Tech Level 2 native culture, orbit the planet. The Kerak system was abandoned in the 1080’s, and its main starport mothballed, when the marginal mineral deposits paid out. This retrenchment caused the fragile economy of neighbouring Tulvan to slide into a three-decade long recession.

There are two main language groups within the Gamelea Subsector, Vriok - the main Kalar-Wi language spoken on Kalar-Wi and the worlds of the old Kalar-Wi Empire, such as Varch, Anthorann and Rimbaud II – and Imperial Basic – the standard language form of the third Imperium. Imperial Basic is further divided into regional dialects that are drifting apart through the natural evolution of living languages.

There are three main dialects of Imperial Basic:
1) Gamelea Imperial Basic: - spoken in the Gamelea Cluster (Kalath, Feor, Vanvlack VII, Gamelea and Ventura), and on Varch, Anthorann, Rimbaud II and Bryak. Both Anthorann and Bryak have strong local accents and the Anthorannis have picked up a lot of Vriok loan words after some 70 years of Kalar-Wi rule.
2) Cassingal: - a dialect of Gazolin Imperial Basic, Cassingal has spread over the coreward border of the Gamelea Subsector and is spoken on all the worlds of the Julnar Reach. Gamelea Imperial Basic speakers and Cassingal speakers can understand each other, though quietly laugh at each other’s accents and spelling conventions.
3) Nolgor Imperial Basic: - spoken on Canblyne and Gilanda and indicative of these two worlds cultural links to the populations of the Nolgor Run to Trailing of Gamelea Subsector.

Other minor languages include Kalton, the native language of the Rimbaur Minor Race of Rimbaud II; Arkord, the native language of the primitive humanoid Arkordi of Syndon IV; and Oloro, the native language of the amphibian Julnari of Julnar.

Would you like some Science with your Fiction?

2010-04-27T16:22:00.003+12:00

A good friend of mine works for a certain large media organisation in London. Today, he kindly sent me a
Link to a rather nice resource page.

Enjoy.

My! You are very tall!

2010-04-25T22:45:00.005+12:00

Character Height and Mass

While reading the GURPS: Traveller supplement Humaniti I came across a nifty system for establishing the height and mass of a player character. This article is a conversion from GURPs: Traveller to Classic or Mongoose Traveller for Human or Humanoid characters.

First, work out the character’s Height and Mass based on his Strength score. Adjust these in accordance with any racial descriptors.

Strength	Height	Mass
2	5’1”/152.5 cm	110 lbs/55 kg
3	5’2”/155 cm	120 lbs/60 kg
4	5’3”/157.5 cm	130 lbs/65 kg
5	5’4”/160 cm	130 lbs/65 kg
6	5’5”/162.5 cm	135 lbs/67.5 kg
7	5’6”/165 cm	135 lbs/67.5 kg
8	5’7”/167.5 cm	140 lbs/70 kg
9	5’8”/170 cm	145 lbs/72.5kg
10	5’9”/172.5 cm	150 lbs/75 kg
11	5’10”/175 cm	155 lbs/77.5kg
12	5’11”/177.5 cm	160 lbs/80 kg
13	6’0”/180 cm	165 lbs/82.5 kg
14	6’1”/182.5cm	170 lbs/85 kg
15	6’2”/185 cm	180 lbs/90 kg

For each 1”/2.5 cm of height over 6’2”/185 cm, add 10 lb/5 kg to average mass. For female characters, subtract 2”/5cm from height and 10 lbs/5 kg from mass.

Determine the surface gravity of the race’s homeworld and the character’s birthworld. Surface gravity is defined as heavy (more than 1.5G), normal (0.71 to 1.5G) or light (0.7G or less). The formula for working out surface gravity of a planet is G=K*(D/8) where G = Gravity at planetary surface, K = Density of planet (Earth has a density of 1)and D = Diameter of planet (as per UWP).

Once the surface gravity of the race’s homeworld and birthworld have been determined, adjust the character’s Strength and Endurance, and Height and Mass in accordance with the following comparisons:

Heavy Homeworld Gravity, Normal Birthworld Gravity
Reduce Strength by 3 and Endurance by 1
Increase Height by 20% and decrease Mass by 20%

Heavy Homeworld Gravity, Light Birthworld Gravity
Reduce Strength by 5 and Endurance by 2
Increase Height by 20% and decrease Mass by 20%

Normal Homeworld Gravity, Heavy Birthworld Gravity
Increase Strength by 3 and Endurance by 1
Reduce Height by 20% and increase Mass by 25%

Normal Homeworld Gravity, Light Birthworld Gravity
Reduce Strength by 2 and Endurance by 1
Increase Height by 25% and decrease Mass by 20%

Light Homeworld Gravity, Heavy Birthworld Gravity
Increase Strength by 5 and Endurance by 2
Reduce Height by 33% and increase Mass by 60%

Light Homeworld Gravity, Normal Birthworld Gravity
Increase Strength by 2 and Endurance by 1
Reduce Height by 20% and increase Mass by 25%

Sources:
GURPs 3e by Steve Jackson - Steve Jackson Games
GURPs: Traveller by Loren K. Wiseman - Steve Jackson Games
GURPs: Traveller Humaniti by Loren K. Wiseman and Jon F. Zeigler - Steve Jackson Games
The Traveller Book by Marc W. Miller - GDW

A Random Entry

2010-04-22T09:12:00.001+12:00

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a d10: You are analytical, rational, and logical. You see the world around you as a succession of problems that can only be navigated via insightful and elegant solutions. You insist on precision are often forced to waste valuable time correcting others. Your attention to detail is extraordinary, and will sometimes focus all your attention on details that others consider unimportant. You are not so interested in doing the right thing, as you are in finding the best way to do it. In other words, you're a complete nerd.

Hmmm, not sure if this is accurate or not.

Uzlatsizurtou? How do you pronounce that?

2010-04-06T21:58:00.006+12:00

Some thoughts on Languages in Traveller

I still fondly recall the Cantina scene from the movie Star Wars (or Star Wars: A New Hope). Aside from the plethora of aliens in the taproom, there is the famous encounter between Han Solo and the Rodian bounty hunter, Greedo. While Solo speaks “English”, Greedo answers him in an alien language (Huttese, I believe), but both can obviously understand each other. The reason for this may be as simple as that they are both running translation programmes on their handcomps and listening to the translation through an ear bug. Alternatively, Solo may very well understand Huttese (described elsewhere as a criminal dialect) but can’t, or won’t speak it, while Greedo, for similar reasons cannot, or will not, speak “English”.

I am not a linguist, but I admire the work of those who are, especially those who have chosen to invent their own languages. An imaginary language that has been conceived of as a series of vowel, consonant and syllable sounds, and that follows logical rules for grammar and structure, can add depth to a story or a roleplaying game. Anyone can call a planet ‘Myxpltic’, and the name may even look okay on the page, but roleplaying games are essentially language games and if you can’t pronounce the name you’ve created, or can’t imagine how the word sounds, then it might as well be called ‘Mud’ as far as your players are concerned.

Traveller has a number of Alien Major Races, and innumerable Minor Races. And just as it is important that these aliens should “look” alien, and not just ‘people in rubber suits’, so they should have languages that reflect both their culture and history, as well as how they physically form sounds to communicate. Several of the Classic Traveller Alien Modules – Aslan, Vargr, K’kree, and Droyne – explored the concept of languages for these races and even went as far as defining the frequencies of vowel and consonant sounds which, in turn, suggested how these languages would sound. Handy little random tables were included in the original Modules that allowed players and referees to construct syllables in the various languages and, by stringing these syllables together, to construct words.

As far as I’m aware, it was only in Alien Module 3: Vargr that we saw extensive treatment of an alien language – in this case Arrghoun, an obscure Vargr dialect – complete with rules for grammar and a Vocabulary. While working on scripts for The BurrowWolf webcomic, I decided that I wanted to have some Vargr characters speaking a Vargr dialect, with English subtitles. Therefore, I shamelessly borrowed the Arrghoun Vocab and converted it into a searchable document. I then added words to the Vocab, as I needed them for my story, by simply generating blocks of one, two and three syllable words with Space Corsair’s Traveller Alien Language word generator, stacking the word blocks in another file, and then using the words I liked the look of.

When a certain critical mass of words had been generated and defined in my vocab, I began to notice two effects. The first was that I was consciously trying to put myself into the mind of a Vargr and think how he might describe something, what expressions or turns of phrase might be Vargr cultural shorthand for expressions we use such as “How’re you going?” or “What’s happening/what’s up?” The second effect was that faced with the need for a new word, I would carefully look through my Vocab for synonyms. Could an existing word have two meanings, depending upon context, or could there be a root word that, with a different ending, would become the new word I needed? For example, vonutoea is Arrghoun for ‘star’, vonutoe dzourrgh is ‘starship’ and vonutoevargr is ‘starfarer’. Therefore vonutoelouthghu is ‘starport’, and my contribution to the work of Messers Keith, Miller and Harshman.

Arrghoun is a very simple language and pretty much works on a straight word substitution method – there a couple of simple rules for conjugations, person, adjectives, and plurals, but it is consistent, and fun to use. More importantly from my perspective, it allows me to introduce something a little exotic and alien into my Traveller campaign. The downside of this approach to language is the shear amount of work required to build a half decent vocabulary. With several other Major Races active in my campaign, as well as over half a dozen Minor Races I could quite easily spend the rest of my life fooling around with words and never have any time for playing.

Another approach to language is that which I’ve used for my Aslan character Ahkalhyo in the Reaver’s Deep PbEM game I’m playing in. From what I understand from Classic Traveller Alien Module 1: Aslan, Gurps Traveller: Alien Races 2, and the MegaTraveller Solomani and Aslan book, Trokh, the Aslan language, is a very complicated communication form, with layers of meaning, subtle status indicators and non-verbal components involving tail and ear positions and stance. I have found a very limited Aslan Vocab on-line, but it was not a lot of use for what I wanted to do.

Fortunately, Ahkalhyo is working as a pilot for a human crew. By attempting to use a formal narrative style for his in-character posts, I have tried to indicate that his grasp of Galanglic is not very broad or colloquial. I have also had a bit of fun creating Trokh words for favourite foods, holo-vid dramas and other such personal things that would leak through into his narrative. All new words, with their meanings, are noted in a list I keep on his character sheet so that I keep the references consistent, and can find the words again for later posts. With this collection of Aslan technical and personal terms I can, again, introduce something a little exotic and alien into the game I am playing in.

If your Traveller Universe has some form of the Third Imperium (or other large stellar Empire), then you probably already have some form of “standard’ language – be it Galanglic or, in my Traveller campaign, Imperial Basic. All citizens of the Stellar Polity will speak the main language but, to add a little colour and flavour to the campaign setting, they may very well speak it with a regional or cultural accent. In the Third Imperium there are various cultural areas, reflecting historical ethnic settlement, now rolled into the Empire. For your campaign, look for possible settlement patterns in the history of your subsectors, or for possible centres of economic power. A High Population world will probably dominate the worlds within Jump-2 of it by shear numbers, a High Tech/High Population world might dominate all worlds within Jump-4 of it, while a High Tech/High Population world with an A Class starport may extend its cultural domination up to Jump-6, or along a Reach or Main. By shear weight in numbers and by economic might, the world in question will act as a focus for culture and power, and possibly as a point of origin for the populations of smaller colony worlds.

For example, in the Gamelea Subsector of the RimWorlds all Imperial citizens speak Basic. In the Gamelea Cluster, which is dominated economically and by population by the Tech Level 15 system of Gamelea (something like 90% of the population of the cluster are resident in the Gamelea system), and where all the worlds within the Cluster are Jump-1 from Gamelea, the Gamelean dialect of Imperial Basic predominates. Both Ventura and Feor, with large populations of their own, have their own accents, but their populations still speak Gamelean Basic. Bryak, Jump-2 from Gamelea, actually has a larger population than Gamelea but is only Tech Level 9. Therefore, its ‘area of dominance’ is pretty much restricted to its own system – Bryakis speak Gamelean Basic but with such a heavy accent that Bryaki Basic is a strong contender to be considered as a separate dialect.

So, how might we reflect languages and dialects in game mechanic terms? How can languages be made to work in your Traveller game? Mongoose Traveller has a Language Skill and one can take levels in a language (becoming more fluent at the language), or acquire more languages. No such skill exists in Classic Traveller but I would be inclined to permit a player to convert one level of Steward or Carouse Skill into Language Skill. In this case I am interpreting Language Skill as ‘having a facility to learn languages’.

A character will have a native language to Level 3. Characters with Education of 9+ automatically increase their native language to Level 4 at no cost. Characters with Education 12+ automatically increase their native language to Level 5 at no cost.

Having gained a ‘facility to learn languages’, the character averages her Intelligence and Education stats to produce a point pool. This point pool can be used to buy languages, or to increase the character’s fluency in an already purchased language.

Fluency levels are measured thusly:
Level 1: Basic Communication – “Where this?” “How much?” “Where food?”
Level 2: Average Communication – “ I needs hydropump for this many days” “You want how much for that?” A poorly educated native speaker (Education 3 – 5) with limited vocabulary. Otherwise, speaks with a heavy accent of origin and tends to mangle syntax or grammar.
Level 3: Good Communication – Native speaker with average education (Education 6 – 8) and vocabulary. Otherwise, speaks like a native, though still retains accent of origin.
Level 4: Excellent Communication – Native speaker with advanced education (Education 9 –11) and expanded vocabulary. Otherwise, speaks like a well educated native and able to debate history, art, poetry, politics, etc. Still retains a trace of accent of origin, though usually not noticeable to a native speaker.
Level 5: Superb Communication – Native speaker with superior education (Education 12 – 14) and extensive vocabulary. Otherwise, speaks like a well-educated native. Has possibly studied older forms of the language and can make allusions to classical authors, etc.

For example, Eeather gains Language Skill during character generation. She has Intelligence 9 and Education 8. Averaging her two stats, she has a point pool of 8 to play with. As a native of Feor, she already speaks Gamelean Basic (with a Feorian accent) to Level 3. Eeather is a Merchant and decides that picking up a couple of extra languages could be a good career move. Passage through Kalar-Wi space opens markets in the Cabria and Lymethius subsectors so she decides that taking Kalar-Wi to Level 2 for two points is a good starter. Beyond Kalar-Wi lies the Aslan Huiha Esoyatre in Lymethius subsector, so Eeather takes Trokh Esoyatre to Level 4 for four points, as Aslan, while pretty touchy about matters of pride and honour, respect someone who respects their language and culture. With her final two points, Eeather takes Trade Lingo, a pidgin language commonly used by merchants moving to and fro across the Imperial Border.

In summary, Eeather speaks:
Gamelean Imperial Basic Level 3 (Feorian accent)
Kalar-Wi Level 2 (Heavy Feorian accent)
Trokh Esoyatre Level 4 (Minimal Feorian accent)
Trade Lingo Level 2 (Heavy Feorian accent)

As a Merchant Broker or Factor, she will be an asset to any ship crossing the Imperial Frontier.

Characters without Language skill can learn a new language, but only at the same rate that they would learn any other new skill. Such characters also have a Language points pool of the average of their Intelligence and Education stats. They can only spend their pooled Language points as they have time to learn a level of language – this can be from a native speaker or from tape or wafer, and real time or through hypnosleep. The best time to learn new languages is obviously during the enforced idleness of a space trip.

If one of the first actions of your players when they hit dockside in your Traveller campaign is to check out the chipware markets for language chips for their handcomps, or to start haggling with the local chandlers in their own dialects, then language has become a flavour beyond vanilla in your story telling.

And Uzlatsizurtou is an Arrghoun word meaning ‘to be certain’ and is pronounced:
“uz-lo-sur-zur-tow” (the last syllable rhymes with ‘pow’).

Agents

2010-03-23T00:09:00.005+13:00

Mongoose Traveller Book 5: Agent
By Bryan Steele with additional text by Gareth Hanrahan

After thoroughly enjoying Mongoose Traveller Book 4: Psion, I was really looking forward to Book 5: Agent. And now that I’ve nearly finished it … I feel a little disappointed. On the whole, Book 5: Agent is a good book, and there are a lot of useful ideas and metagame pieces throughout it, but some of the incidental writing really puts my teeth on edge. It would appear to be written by someone with little idea of what an Agent might possibly do, outside the obvious Law Enforcement and Spy fields.

Taking the Agent career from the Traveller Core Rules, with its three assignments of Law Enforcement, Intelligence and Corporate, as its starting point, Book 5 expands this to six career tracks – each with three specialisations. The career tracks are: Law Enforcement; Investigator; Spy; Analyst; Corporate; and Bounty Hunter.

And therein lies the first problem – terminology. To me, Investigator and Analyst are actually specialisations that should be slotted into one of several of the other four career tracks. The context in which the term Analyst, for example, is used within the generation system implies a Political Agent/Police role that is rather at odds with the geeky, pattern recognising, glasses wearing, egghead we expect to see, especially with the Handler specialisation of the Analyst career path being described as a political bodyguard.

A nice touch, as part of the character generation tables associated with the new Careers/Specialisations, is the characteristic Trust. Trust is a measure of how well regarded and in good standing the Agent is with his/her agency – this translates into how much good kit/support the Agent can pull down as required for a mission.

After a confused section on Agencies, which manages to be both vague and uninspiring, but which does give nice examples in how Trust might be used by Agents working at various levels and in various Agencies, we reach ‘The Law in Traveller’ chapter. Again, after a rough introduction, there are a number of nice little abstract mini-games which allow an Agent character to accumulate evidence in a case and run the case through trial to sentencing – perfect for play-by-email or downtime housekeeping when the rest of the group is gearing up to do something else.

The following Espionage section attempts to round out Espionage agents in a similar fashion and, again, while there are good ideas, the writer seems rather unclear about how he envisions Espionage Agents to operate in wider society – ranging from extreme cynicism through a confused ramble about whether Espionage Agents serve the state or the politicians, and then rephrasing the role of Espionage Agents under several different terms and headings. Again, the mini-game that accompanies this chapter salvages it from being thrown across the room in frustration.

And then we come to the Corporate Agent. The writer assumes that corporations will wage war upon each other like medieval city-states, complete with mercenary assaults and corporate assassinations, and so completely misses the standard Traveller/Science Fiction trope of the corporation strong-arming the weak government - colonial or otherwise. Again, there are nice ideas buried in this chapter that can be sifted out, but the writer’s version of corporate wars owes little to any science fiction I’ve ever read.

By the time I got to the Bounty Hunter section, I was mentally prepared for the dumb-ass intro. The writer makes the assumption that Bounty Hunters are some form of Government Agent, missing the point that Bounty Hunters are actually licensed contractors, or sub-contractors, doing the messy work that Government Agencies don’t have the manpower to do. Why would a government agency pay a bounty to an employee? A government agency pays a bounty to a licensed contractor because the contractor carries all the overheads for the mission. Again, there are nice mini-game elements for working out how long a Bounty Hunt mission might take, and getting the character to roll skill rolls to accumulate effect numbers to solve the case is neat, too. But I still prefer the Bounty Hunter character career from Spica’s Career Book 1.

The Agent Technology chapter had some nice new toys, as well as a neat system for rolling up Q-type technological gadgets for the Agent to trial in the field. The tech section is rounded out with deck plans for a couple of starships that agents might find useful.

So, Book 5: Agent is, in my opinion, a mixed bag. The metagame elements are nearly worth the price of admission in, and of, themselves, yet other parts of the book lack depth and thought and leave me with the sneaking suspicion that there was a deadline crunch and Mr Hanrahan had to step in to get the project to press. Of course, this is pure supposition on my part here, and I may be very wrong.

I would suggest getting the pdf as a matter of course so that one can take advantage of the very useful metagaming elements in one’s own campaign. Shelling out for the hardback book is a closer call. I would suggest having a look at the book first and seeing if it meets your needs before dropping cash on it.

Website Update #5

2010-03-18T22:25:00.005+13:00

Finished off some figures this afternoon - 15mm Crusaders from 15mm.co.uk - and updated my modeling log.

I now have a light platoon of three squads - each squad consists of two fire teams (including a support weapon) and a weapons team.

My long term goal is to build a second platoon - two packs of Crusaders and a Heavy Weapons pack - and round out the resulting light company with a Crusader Command pack.

These Crusaders will be serving as Geithurian Republic Marines. The Republican Marines get the best equipment available - Tech Level 12 - which still leaves them ill-equipped to confront Imperial Marines head-on, though squad support is provided by imported PGMP-13s.

Geithurian Republic Marines are deployed in positional assaults, planetary assaults and ship actions.

Website Update #4

2010-03-13T21:13:00.005+13:00

It’s taken several days, but I’ve finally updated my modelling log and my webpage.

I’m quite pleased with how my Ground Zero Games Heavy Battlesuits have come out, and I like the Rebel Minis Earthforce Marines – now doing duty as Kamperalian infantry. The evolution of the Kamperalian Ground Forces as a distinctive Tech Level 11, non-Grav using army has been quite fun, as well.

Checking my notes, I see that both Floranna and Ektra, the other two worlds in the Kamperal polity, have similarly restricted operating areas for armed forces as Kamperal, itself. Floranna is a water world, with the population of some 7 million sophonts living in domed undersea settlements, while Ektra, a small, waterless and nearly airless world supports nearly 9 million sophonts in various subterranean warrens. In both cases, the Kamperalian Heavy Battlesuits should easily support the infantry in their patrol and garrison duties, while the Combat Walkers will be able to winkle out any serious resistance.

Accidents in Astrography: RimWorlds Sector

2010-03-04T21:58:00.012+13:00

This is the original sector map of the RimWorlds Sector, as drawn by me back in 1984 or 1985. Gamelea Subsector occupies the K region of the sector.

The light green area of the map shows the part of the sector under Imperial control. The blue area in the Lymethius subsector (Subsector J) is the Geithurian Republic, a human-dominated but anti-Imperial polity.

In Subsector L (Nolgor Subsector), Lur (homeworld of the insectoid Zoni), the Theocracy of Lotarf and the splinter state of Naos VI are all resisting Imperial control, while in Miazan Subsector (Subsector N), the Republic of Kamperal has become increasingly hostile to Imperial control to the point that the Miazan Subsector Duke is preparing to declare that a state of rebellion exists within the borders of the Imperium.

Gamelea, Nolgor and Miazan subsectors are all beset with political weakness, stagnant economies, corruption and hostile neighbours. Each subsector has its own unique flavour and all offer challenges to adventurers.

'... for when you absolutely, positively, have to go trans-uranium on somebody's ass.'

2010-02-26T20:02:00.008+13:00

A chap on the Stargrunt-Full Thrust Yahoo discussion group wanted to know how large the new 15mm Cyclops Battle suits from Ground Zero Games were. The short answer is that the battle suits stand about 30mm tall, or approximately 12' or 4 meters tall in RL.

Here are a couple of WIPs comparing the battle suit with 15mm figures from Ground Zero Games and a 25mm Samurai from Eureka Miniatures (the only 25mm figure I have to hand).

I was initially sceptical about the whole 'walker' thing until I realised that the battle suits actually have two 'mechanical toes' for balance, rather than the metal 'boot' mechs are often depicted with. This little design touch suddenly made them believable to me - that and seeing the battle suits in Avatar.

Just remembered to snap a shot of the battle suit along side one of my Sydites - up until now the largest figures in my Traveller collection (well, non-vehicle figures). I think I had worked the Sydites out at twice man-height (which is a little larger than in the T20 rule book, but the Sydites in the RimWorlds eat all their greens and that's why they're so tall). The Cyclops tops them in height, and bulk.

I'm currently painting them up as support weapon platforms for my Rebel Miniatures Earth Force Marines - the latter are going to be ground forces for the Republic of Kamperal in the Miazan Subsector. Kamperal is a small, poor, high population world of moderate tech level that controls two neighbouring systems. My theory is that lacking small grav units, and with predominantly urban terrain to fight in, the Kamperalians opted for walker-type heavy weapons and armour as these can manoeuvre and fight more easily in tunnel systems and arcologies.

Website Update #3

2010-02-15T22:51:00.005+13:00

Updated my website tonight, adding pictures to the modelling log and painting guide pages.

Five 15mm Citadel Aslan, that I won on eBay, arrived today, as well. Even 20-odd years on, they are still very nice miniatures - even if they look vaguely like very dangerous hippies.

The Felids from Khurasan Miniatures are taller, and more angular than the Classic Aslan sculpts, but appear to fit in - I'll know better when I've got a few painted up so I can compare them.

Accidents in Astrography: Gamelea Subsector #2

2010-02-13T23:15:00.009+13:00

Gamelea Subsector actually consists of several discrete regions; the Julnar Reach, the Gamelea Cluster, the Kalar-Wi Cluster and the Nolgor Run.

The Nolgor Run is a band of stars lining the edge of the J-3 Rift and stretching across Nolgor Subsector to include Gilanda and Canblyne at the Trailing edge of Gamelea Subsector. Canblyne has an A Class Starport, a Naval Base, and a Tech Level of 13. Canblyne’s small population has precluded it from becoming a fortress world, but its economy is still built around heavy engineering.

The Gamelea Cluster is separated from the Nolgor Run by the J-2 gap between Canblyne and Syndon IV, on the Trailing edge of the cluster. Syndon IV is a Red Zone and has been posted as such since the initial exploration of Gamelea Subsector in the early-to-mid Sixth Century. The Red Zone classification, and designation of the planet as an Imperial Reserve, was to protect the native humanoid inhabitants who have a late Iron Age culture. With sensitivities over access to the Syndon system already running high, most traffic between the Gamelea Cluster and the Nolgor Run is carried in J-3 capable vessels, staging out of either Ventura or Vanvlack VII. Vanvlack VII, a notable tax haven, is probably one of the most corrupt planets in the subsector and has little to recommend itself, apart from its almost non-existent regulatory system. Ventura’s Civil Service Bureaucracy on the other hand, is very efficient. With a B Class Starport, a Tech Level of 12 and an extensive naval base, Ventura suffered from several heavy assaults during the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. Gamelea, subsector capital, is a rosette system with three world masses equipoised in the same orbit. The origin of this artefact is still unknown, even after nearly six centuries of study. With an A Class Starport, a Tech Level of 15 and the primary Naval Base of the subsector, Gamelea dominates the subsector economy. As seat of the subsector Duchy, Gamelea should also dominate politically, but under the weak and corrupt rule of House Juharl-Zarquestuir subsector government has become lethargic. Feor is a mineral-poor system and was not settled until 975, after the 2nd Outrim War. With an A Class Starport, a large population and a Naval Base, Feor has become one of the fortress worlds of the Gamelea Cluster in under 150 years. Technologically, Feor still lags behind most of the rest of the Cluster with a Tech Level of 9. The little ice world of Kalath has always been used as a refuelling point on the J-3 route to Leminkainen.

The Kalar-Wi Cluster extends across the borders of the Gamelea, Lymethius and Cabria Subsectors. Kalar-Wi, the capital of the Kalar-Wi Pocket Empire and homeworld of the Kalar-Wi Minor Race, lies within Gamelea Subsector and was occupied by Imperial forces after the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

The Julnar Reach is actually a broken Reach. Leminkainen and Julnar, a water world and homeworld of the amphibious Julnari, are separated from Kerak and Tulvan, within Gamelea Subsector; and Ouron, Finduil and Por’via in Lymethius Subsector by J-2 gaps. Kerak has been largely abandoned and Tulvan has suffered severe economic recession since the Odinite mines closed in the mid 1070s.