Huiha Esoyatre - an Aslan Minor State Part 3

I needed to create new Aslan terms to describe some of the larger formations deployed by the Trekhyair of Huiha Esoyatre. Using Space Corsair's Word Generator, I added to the word list I had already found:

Trokh Word List
aikoho	"many ships", fleet
afeahyalhtow	popular Aslan pet; flying carnivore/killer
ayakyuir	carnivore native to Kusyu, noted for speed and ferocity
Akoaft	"Far Throwing" - artillery
Khoiaya	armor
Soarl	"elite"
Trekhyair	"land protector" clan military force
Areiale	"they who sprint" – marines
Hraye	"wanderer" – scout
Ekho’ear	"armed family" – squad
Ahr’eah	"armed pride" - platoon or company
Hryo	"half dozen" - a squadron
Huih’eal	"armed clan" – battalion or regiment
Ahr'ekhaoa	"pride brotherhood" – brigade
Huih'aisai	"dewclaw of the clan" – division
Kheheasoikhir	"gathering of warriors" – corp or army

With terminology established for the higher echelons of the Trekhyair, and a basic plan of unit assignments worked out, I began thinking how large Aslan forces might be mustered.

While I otherwise enjoy and use the material in GURPs: Traveller Alien Races 2, I am reluctant to accept that the Aslan military is essentially based around Light Infantry formations. Perhaps this is how clan military units operate in the Aslan Hierate, but in the RimWorlds, Aslan ground forces face opponents who do not follow the Rules of War and Honour. Consequently, the Aslan of the Huiha Esoyatre have evolved formations that match those that they come into conflict with.

Given that Aslan forces are clan based, and that Aslan culture shares parallels with Medieval and Early Renaissance Japanese culture, I had a brief look at some famous Japanese battles of the Edo Period, such as Sekigahara. I also looked at another clan-based military culture, that of the Scots and their order of battle at Culloden. It occurred to me that the name of the officer who leads a formation might be significant in Aslan culture, as names accrue power in a culture that values individual prowess.

This made me consider a culture in transition between the individual prowess of heroic feudal leaders
and the mass produced, die stamped military of the machine age of total warfare. If the Huiha Esoyatre is currently working its way through this process, we might see the numerically inferior, but dominate, Esoyatre Clan producing the numbered regiments of a modern society, while the numerically superior clans that owe fealty to the Esoyatre muster battalions or regiments of various sizes under the personal names and banners of their Colonels. And even the Esoyatre, in their elite formations, may still know their brigades by the Brigadier-Generals who take control of the groupings of battalions, much as Americans recall the brigades of their Civil War.

So, a first pass at part of the Huiha Esoyatre's elite formations:

1st TL14 Elite Amoured Corp			Kheheassoikhir Soarl fyo Esoyatre Khoiaya
1st Armoured Division			Alr Huih’aisai Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
	Ahr’ekhaoa fyo Ye'oa'ai (Ye’oa’ai’s Brigade)
		1st Elite Regiment Scouts of Yuwe				Alr Huih’eal Soarl Hraye fyo Yuwe
		Taulauh’s Elite Armoured Regiment				Huih’eal fyo Taulauh Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		Waoeha’s Elite Armoured Regiment				Huih’eal fyo Waoeha Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		1st Elite Infantry Regiment of Yuwe				Alr Huih’eal Soarl Khir fyo Yuwe
		1st Elite Artillery Regiment of Yuwe				Alr Huih’eal Soarl Akoaft fyo Yuwe
		Ahr’ekhaoa fyo Khteaes (Khteaes' Brigade)
		2nd Elite Regiment Scouts of Yuwe				Hlai Huih’eal Soarl Hraye fyo Yuwe
		Koaaiea’s Elite Armoured Regiment of Yuwe				Huih’eal fyo Koaaiea Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		Hkehealr’s Elite Armoured Regiment				Huih’eal fyo Hkehealr Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		2nd Elite Infantry Regiment of Yuwe				Hlai Huih’eal Soarl Khir fyo Yuwe
		2nd Elite Artillery Regiment of Yuwe				Hlai Huih’eal Soarl Akoaft fyo Yuwe
		Ahr’ekhaoa fyo Ealeiktyes (Ealeiktyes’ Brigade)
		3rd Elite Regiment Scouts of Yuwe				Kheh Huih’eal Soarl Hraye fyo Yuwe
		Uikhaiw’s Elite Armoured Regiment of Yuwe				Huih’eal fyo Uikhaiw Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		Eariylu’s Elite Armoured Regiment of Yuwe				Huih’eal fyo Eariylu Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe
		3rd Elite Infantry Regiment of Yuwe				Kheh Huih’eal Soarl Khir fyo Yuwe
		3rd Elite Artillery Regiment of Yuwe				Kheh Huih’eal Soarl Akoaft fyo Yuwe
		Syehoiye's Brigade Artillery				Ahr’ekhaoa fyo Syehoiye Akoaft
		4th Elite Artillery Regiment of Yuwe				Hryeh Huih’eal Soarl Akoaft fyo Yuwe
		1st Elite Esoyatre COACC Regiment of Yuwe				Alr Huih’eal fyo Esoyatre Soarl Afeahyalhtow fyo Yuwe

The First Armoured Division, Alr Huih’aisai Soarl Khoiaya fyo Yuwe, is an Elite formation raised from E'kho Hleahayaou on Yuwe. As E'kho Hleahayaou is a progressive family, and is the dominant family within Huiha Esoyatre, the Huih'aisai has adopted the progressive fashion of numbering individual battalion-regiments, at least within their elite formations. Brigades are still known by the name of their commanding Brigadier.

Huiha Esoyatre - an Aslan Minor State Part 2

Trokh is the main Aslan language and has remained fairly constant across both millenia and parsecs of space. In the RimWorlds, the three known Aslan states are at least 10 parsecs distant from each other and rarely interact. Each Huiha speaks Trokh but with slight local variations. I discovered a partial Aslan dictionary online which has some useful terms, and which seems to either be derived from the word list in MegaTraveller Alien Vol 2: Solomani and Aslan - the Rimward Races, or to have helped form it, as well as a word list in GURPs Traveller: Alien Races 2: Aslan, K'kree, and Other Races Rimward of the Imperium. Further Trokh words will need to be generated as required from Space Corsair's excellent Traveller word generator programme.

Trokh Word List
aikoho	"many ships", fleet
khoiaya	armor
afeahyalhtow	popular Aslan pet; flying carnivore/killer
ayakyuir	carnivore native to Kusyu, noted for speed and ferocity
Akoaft	"Far Throwing" - artillery
Soarl	"elite"
Trekhyair	"land protector" clan military force
Ahr’eah	"armed pride" - platoon or company
Areiale	"they who sprint" – marines
Ekho’ear	"armed family" – squad
Hraye	"wanderer" – scout
Hryo	"half dozen" - a squadron
Huih’eal	"armed clan" – battalion or regiment

This list of words provides some useful starters, but I think I will have to generate more.

The Personnel figures I generated for each Huiha and E'kho of the Huiha Esoyatre in part 1 of this article were drawn from the populations of each of the Aslan worlds within the hasoi of Huiha Esoyatre. Consulting Alien Races 2 and Solomani and Aslan I determined that 10% of the population, or population resource equivalent, were currently available for Military service. This is a little higher than normal, but the Huiha Esoyatre shares border space with two potential enemies - the Imperium and the Kalar-Wi - and annexed a Kalar-Wi system only four years ago, so political tensions are elevated.

I had earlier determined, using the tables in GURPs Traveller Ground Forces, that the Huiha Esoyatre had some 3000 battalion equivalents available for offworld deployment as a Tech Level 12 force. The choice was made by the Huiha government to upgrade part of this force to Tech Level 14, and this produced 3 Elite Corps, 3 Elite Divisions and two Elite Independent Regiments equipped to TL14, and 10 Corps, two Independent Divisions and one Independent Brigade equipped to TL12. The equipment upgrade reduced overall numbers to about 1000 battalion equivalents.

When I looked at the Geithurian Republic Table of Organization, I essentially started with the first formation and then assigned battalions to it, before moving on to the next formation. With the Unified Imperial Army Gamelea Command, I worked out possible ranges of unit numbers across all Imperial Subsectors in the RimWorlds, and then assigned units to each formation within the Gamelea and Miazan Subsectors from the available units for those Subsectors. The Huiha Esoyatre, however, was a little different.

.With essentially a feudal form of government, each E'kho is required to contribute personnel and units towards the trekhyair, or "land protector", force of the Huiha, or clan, and each lesser clan is required to contribute units toward the trekhyair of the dominant clan of the Huiha. All these subordinate forces remain under the control of the contributing E'kho or Huiha, even if they fall under the command of the senior E'kho or Huiha. To begin to untangle this knot, I had to know how many personnel each E'kho was able to contribute; work out the percentage of the total trekhyair this represented; and then work out what percentage of the 1000 battalion equivalents already determined as making up the Huiha trekhyair each E'kho's contribution actually numbered.

Did I really need this information? No. But I did want to capture the flavour of an Aslan force, and creating this background material contributes to the richness of the mileau. Also the numbers, as they came up, posed questions as to how politics within the Huiha Esoyatre actually worked, and answering these questions gave me a clearer picture of the Huiha as a whole.

After a little number crunching, I arrived at the following raw figures:

Huiha or Clan	Battalions by system
Huiha Esoyatre	Yuwe: 18 Battalions; Yuakteisye: 192 Battalions; Faiwawhwe: 75 Battalions
Huiha Uahwil	Yuakteisye: 1230 battalions; Faiwawhwe: 72 battalions
Huiha Aiaihfa	Yuakteisye: 600 battalions; Faiwawhwe 66 battalions
E’kho Hraktiskear	Atlasiykh: 1 battalion
Huiha Hwouwoahiw	Faiwawhwe: 132 battalions
Huiha I’iyheas	Faiwawhwe: 141 battalions
Huiha Eakteaei	Faiwawhwe: 153 battalions
Huiha Awuahra	Faiwawhwe: 150 battalions
Huiha Htualraluikh	Faiwawhwe: 144 battalions
E’kho Hroukhteftai	Yaitlaorail/Kidan: 1 battalion

As these battalion equivalent numbers were based on the original TL12 3000 battalions, I decided that I would arbitrarily reduce the strength of the larger clans by a third to reduce the over-all total of battalions to better match the formations I had originally generated from GURPs Traveller Ground Forces. One thing that did give me a little wriggle room was the fact that the Aslan don't have set sizes for various units - squads, for example, can vary between 4 and 12 soldiers.

Huiha Esoyatre is both the dominate clan of Yuwe, and the clan that dominates the wider hasoi, even though in military numbers Huiha Esoyatre falls behind Huiha Uahwil and Huiha Aiaihfa. However, Esoyatre's strength may lie in the fact that its four families work more in harmony under the leadership of E'kho Hleahayaou then the eight familes of Huiha Uahwil and the seven families of Huiha Aiaihfa work together under their leading E'khos. Add in political and traditional ties between E'khos of the Great Huihas, as well as alliances with the Lesser Huihas of Faiwawhwe, and interfamily and interclan relationships, and the political landscape of the Huiha becomes a scintillating web of connections. A web that can become an armoured sphere around the hasoi in the event of outside aggression.

Next: A look at the Huiha and E'kho tables of organisation.

Imperial Army - Gamelea Subsector

Following on from my earlier post on the Miazan Subsector Imperial Unified Army, I decided to continue the process by working up the UA for Gamelea Subsector.

As before, I am using GURPsTraveller: Ground Forces by Douglas Berry as my guide. Ground Forces postulates that all Imperial planets above a certain population and Tech Level produce "Battalion Equivalents" from a percentage of their population. These "Battalion Equivalents" can either be grouped into Battalions and higher formations at the producing planet's tech level, or traded-in/amalgamated into Elite formations, or higher Tech Level formations. In the latter case, the assumption is that the planetary Government imports higher Tech equipment, which makes individual formations more efficient, which permits the Government to enlist fewer soldiers.

Firstly, to determine the number of Battalion Equivalents each planet produces, the Battalion Equivalent Table is used. This table is my adaption of the original Classic Traveller table that appeared in Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society Issue 10, rather than the one from Ground Forces as it is easier (for me) to use.

Defence Battalions or Battalion Equivalents (BEs)
Population	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A
TL
3	-	1	10	1C	1K	10K	50K	100K
4	-	1	10	1C	1K	2K	20K	200K
5	1	2	3	30	3C	3K	30K	300K
6	1	2	3	30	3C	3K	30K	300K
7	-	1	2	20	2C	2K	20K	200K
8	-	1	2	20	2C	2K	20K	200K
9	-	-	1	15	150	15C	15K	150K
A	-	-	1	15	150	15C	15K	150K
B	-	-	1	12	120	12C	12K	120K
C	-	-	1	12	120	12C	12K	120K
D	-	-	1	10	1C	1K	10K	100K
E	-	-	7	7	70	7C	7K	70K
F	-	-	-	5	50	5C	5K	50K

Working with these figures and applying them to Gamelea Subsector, we begin to see the following emerge:

Gamelea Subsector Imperial Worlds
Planet	Port	Pop	TL	BEs	Reserve	Raw BE	Units
Varch	B	5	B	1	-	1	1 TL11 Infantry Battalion - 1st A'Varchi Ranger Battalion
Acorlis V	C	6	7	20	30	10	1 TL12 Infantry Battalion, 2 TL7 Armoured Battalions, 2 TL7 Infantry Battalions
Julnar	A	5	F	-	-	-	Nil
Leminkainen	D	5	4	10	15	5	1 TL8 Infantry Battalion - the Freedom Militia
Anthorann	C	9	B	12K	18K	6K	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Brigade, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Brigade, 1 TL12 Elite Armoured Corp, 2 TL12 Armoured Corps, 2 TL12 Infantry Corps, 2 TL11 Armored Field Armies, 4 TL11 Infantry Field Armies, 1 TL11 Armoured Corp, 1 TL11 Elite Infantry Brigade, 2 TL11 Infantry Divisions
Kerak	C	0	B	-	-	-	Nil
Rimbaud II	B	4	D	-	-	-	Nil
Tulvan	C	7	8	20	30	10	1 TL12 Armoured Battalion, 1 Elite TL8 Infantry Battalion - the Civil Guard, 3 TL8 Infantry Battalions
Kalath	B	4	9	-	-	-	Nil
Feor	A	8	9	15C	21C	8C	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Brigade, 2 TL15 Elite Infantry Divisions, 2 TL12 Armoured Brigades, 2 TL12 Armoured Regiments, 4 TL12 Infantry Divisions, 1 TL12 Elite Infantry Battalion
Vanvlack VII	B	5	B	1	-	1	1 TL11 Infantry Battalion - The Vanvlack Volunteer Defence Force
Gamelea	A	A	F	50K	75K	25K	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Field Army, 3 TL15 Elite Infantry Field Armies, 100 TL15 Armoured Field Armies, 200 TL15 Infantry Field Armies
Ventura	B	9	C	12K	18K	6K	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Division, 1 TL15 Elite Armoured Brigade, 1 TL15 Elite Armoured Battalion - the Parliamentary Guard, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Corp, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Division, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Regiment, 6 TL12 Armoured Corps, 24 TL12 Infantry Corps
Bryak	D	A	9	150K	225K	75K	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Field Army, 2 TL15 Elite Infantry Field Armies, 27 TL9 Armoured Field Armies, 56 TL9 Infantry Field Armies
Canblyne	A	5	D	1	-	1	1 TL13 Infantry Battalion - Citizens' Defense Battalion
Gilanda	B	4	3	1	-	1	1 TL3 Infantry Battalion - Republican Guard
Lymethius Subsector Imperial Worlds - part of the Duchy of Gamelea
Ouron	C	4	7	-	-	-	Nil
Finduil	C	8	8	2K	3K	1K	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Brigade, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Brigade, 3 TL8 Armoured Divisions, 2 TL8 Infantry Corps, 3 TL8 Infantry Divisions, 1 Elite TL8 Infantry Battalion - the Finduilan Rangers
Por'via	D	5	8	1	-	1	1 TL8 Infantry Battalion
Anar	A	7	A	15	21	7	1 TL15 Infantry Battalion, 1 TL10 Armoured Battalion
Unified Imperial Army Units for Gamelea Subsector
Personnel for each Field Force of the Unified Imperial Army are recruited from all Imperial planets within the subsector the Field Force is assigned to.						3366	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Division, 1 TL15 Elite Armoured Regiment, 2 TL15 Elite Infantry Divisions, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Brigade, 2 TL15 Elite Infantry Commando Battalions, 6 TL12 Armoured Corps, 3 TL12 Armoured Divisions, 3 TL12 Armoured Regiments, 2 TL12 Infantry Field Armies, 3 TL12 Infantry Corps, 3 TL12 Infantry Divisions

It is Imperial policy to equip all Unified Imperial Army Units to at least Tech Level 12 standard. This ensures a unity of equipment across formations. Subsector Army Commands are permitted to upgrade units under their command to higher Tech Levels, but the cost for this upgrade is to be born at Subsector level.

House Juharl-Zarquestuir have been Dukes of Gamelea since the beginning of the Ninth Century. It was Duke Petron IV (reigned 1041 - 1065) who, following the Ulanor succession to the Sector Duchy in 1044, began to upgrade the Gamelea Unified Army to Tech Level 15. This was partly in response to increased activity by the Outrim Alliance, and partly in response to the shift in power amongst the Houses Major of the Rimward Subsectors.

The major Imperial recruiting grounds in Gamelea Subsector are Bryak, Gamelea, Ventura, Anthorann and Feor. Duke Petron encouraged the system Governments to upgrade a portion of their Planetary Defense Forces to Tech Level 15 even as he ensured funds were available for the Unified Army. Duke Pahran continued his father's initiatives but his death in 1080 at the beginning of the 4th Outrim War delayed further progress as the Unified Army found itself heavily committed to resisting incursions by the Outrim Alliance.

In spite of the political lethargy that paralyzed the Gamelea Subsector government under Duke Petron's grandson, Adryos Urzov IV (reigned 1080 - 1105), the current Subsector Duke, Kolin II Andralistain, has indicated that he intends to complete Duke Petron's plans to upgrade the Gamelea Subsector Unified Imperial Army formations to Tech Level 15 over the next five years.

Imperial Army - Miazan Subsector

Dick Hentz' evocative mid-Tech trooper
from Book 4: Mercenary

Following on from the design work I did on the Imperial Marines assigned to Miazan Subsector, I next decided to examine the regular ground forces - the Army.

To guide me in this task, I turned to GURPs Traveller: Ground Forces by Douglas Berry for ideas and suggestions.

As an initial assumption, Ground Forces postulates that all Imperial planets above a certain population and Tech Level produce "Battalion Equivalents" from a percentage of their population. These "Battalion Equivalents" can either be grouped into Battalions and higher formations at the producing planet's tech level, or traded-in/amalgamated into Elite formations, or higher Tech Level formations. In the latter case, the assumption is that the planetary Government imports higher Tech equipment, which makes individual formations more efficient, which permits the Government to enlist fewer soldiers.

Ground Forces has a Battalion Equivalents table but, as this is a GURPs table, it makes my head hurt doing the mental arithmetic to convert it into Classic Traveller.

Looking through my stack of books, I found a copy of Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #10 - one of the issues that came out around the time the 5th Frontier War board game was released. I'm pretty sure that this table has appeared in various forms since then, but this is my version of it.

Defence Battalions or Battalion Equivalents (BEs)
Population	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A
TL
3	-	1	10	1C	1K	10K	50K	100K
4	-	1	10	1C	1K	2K	20K	200K
5	1	2	3	30	3C	3K	30K	300K
6	1	2	3	30	3C	3K	30K	300K
7	-	1	2	20	2C	2K	20K	200K
8	-	1	2	20	2C	2K	20K	200K
9	-	-	1	15	150	15C	15K	150K
A	-	-	1	15	150	15C	15K	150K
B	-	-	1	12	120	12C	12K	120K
C	-	-	1	12	120	12C	12K	120K
D	-	-	1	10	1C	1K	10K	100K
E	-	-	7	7	70	7C	7K	70K
F	-	-	-	5	50	5C	5K	50K

Working with these figures and applying them to Miazan Subsector, we begin to see the following emmerge:

Miazan Subsector Imperial Worlds
Planet	Port	Pop	TL	BEs	Reserve	Raw BE	Units
Exxilon	C	8	9	150	225	75	1 TL12 Elite Armoured Battalion, 2 TL12 Armoured Battalions, 1 TL12 Elite Infantry Regiment, 1 understrength TL12 Infantry Regiment (4 Battalions), 1 TL9 Infantry Division
Bromus	C	7	7	200	300	100	2 TL7 Elite Armoured Regiments, 1 understrength TL7 Armoured Regiment, 1 TL7 Elite Infantry Brigade, 1 TL7 Infantry Division, 1 TL7 Infantry Brigade
Golus	A	5	D	1	-	1	1 TL13 Infantry Battalion - 1st Aldeed Golus Scout Battalion
Janda	B	4	D	-	-	-	Nil
Hydrot	B	3	7	-	-	-	Nil
Omega Vasali IX	C	3	7	-	-	-	Nil
Miazan	A	9	C	12000	18K	6000	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Corp, 1 TL15 Armoured Corp, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Corp, 1 TL15 Infantry Corp, 2 TL14 Armoured Corps, 1 TL14 Elite Infantry Corp, 2 TL14 Infantry Corps
Celephais	B	6	B	12	18	6	1 TL11 Armoured Battalion, 1 understrength TL11 Infantry Regiment (4 Battalions)
Byer's Planet	B	4	A	-	-	-	Nil
Nakaya	C	9	7	20K	30K	10K	1 TL12 Elite Armoured Corp, 3 TL12 Armoured Corps, 2 TL12 Elite Infantry Corps, 3 TL12 Infantry Corps
Epoch	D	1	5	-	-	-	Nil
Naltor	D	6	4	100	150	50	1 TL10 Infantry Regiment, 1 TL10 Armoured Battalion
Cabria Subsector Imperial Worlds - part of Duchy of Miazan
Lo-Taisang	C	5	9	1	-	1	1 TL9 Infantry Battalion
Tonivar	C	5	8	2	3	1	1 TL8 Infantry Battalion, 3 TL8 Reserve Battalions - organised as an under-strength regiment
Unified Imperial Army Units for Miazan Subsector
Personnel for each Field Force of the Unified Imperial Army are recruited from all Imperial planets within the subsector the Field Force is assigned to.						405	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Division, 1 TL15 Elite Armoured Brigade, 1 TL15 Elite Infantry Brigade, 2 TL15 Elite Infantry Battalions, 1 TL14 Infantry Corp, 1 TL14 Elite Armoured Division, 1 TL14 Elite Infantry Division, 1 TL12 Infantry Corp, 1 TL12 Armoured Division, 1 TL12 Infantry Division, 1 understrength TL12 Infantry Regiment
Kamperelian Republic
Ektra	B	6	8	20	30	10	1 understrength TL11 Infantry Regiment (4 Battalions)
Floranna	B	6	C	12	18	6	1 TL12 Armoured Battalion, 1 understrength TL12 Infantry Regiment (4 Battalions)
Kamperel	A	A	B	120000	180000	60000	3 TL15 Elite Armoured Corps, 3 TL15 Elite Infantry Corps, 3 TL15 Elite Infantry Divisions, 58 TL11 Infantry Field Armies, 3 TL11 Infantry Divisions, 1 TL11 Infantry Brigade, 29 Armoured Field Armies, 1 TL11 Armoured Division, 1 TL11 Armoured Regiment
Kamperelian Republic Ready Reaction Force
Personnel for the Kamperelian Ready Reaction Force are primarily recruited from Kamperel						2801	1 TL15 Elite Armoured Division, 5 TL15 Elite Infantry Divisions, 3 TL15 Elite Infantry Battalions, 2 TL11 Armoured Field Armies, 5 TL11 Infantry Field Armies, 3 TL11 Infantry Corps
Independent Worlds
Lithia/Miazan	C	7	4	1000	1500	500	2 TL13 Infantry Regiments, 1 TL13 Infantry Battalion, 1 TL13 Armoured Battalion
Huop/Miazan	C	5	8	2	3	1	1 TL8 Infantry Battalion, 3 TL8 Reserve Battalions - organised as an under-strength regiment

It is Imperial policy to equip all Unified Imperial Army Units to at least Tech Level 12 standard. This ensures a unity of equipment across all formations. Subsector Army Commands are permitted to upgrade units under their command to higher Tech Levels, but the cost for this upgrade is to be born at Subsector level. During the period when the Miazan Subsector Dukes were also Sector Dukes of the RimWorlds (999 - 1031), Miazan Subsector Unified Imperial Army formations were regularly re equipped with the best technology available, and deployed as a Sector Reserve against the hostile coalitions along the Imperial Border. Even after suffering heavy losses during the 4th Outrim War (1080 - 85), at least a third of the formations assigned to the Miazan Subsector UIA are still equipped to Tech Level 14 standards.

As the bulk of the personnel serving in the Miazan Subsector UIA are recruited from Miazan itself, there is a tendency for the lines of authority between Ducal oversight of the Miazan PDF and the Miazan UIA to become slightly blurred. A portion of the Miazan UIA formations have now been upgraded to Tech Level 15 equipment and these units tend to train with and deploy with Miazan PDF formations.

Notes:
Exxilon has an Exotic Atmosphere (Atmos A). This reduces the number of Battalion Equivalents available (by effectively moving Exxilon's population one column to the left). In Exxilon's case, the Baron of Exxilon has decreed that the Exxilonian Baronial Household Force and six battalions of the Planetary Defence Force would be equipped to basic Unified Imperial Army standards. While this has further reduced the number of units under arms, it has increased the effectiveness of the Planetary Defence Force of this frontier world.

Golus - The 1st Aldeed Golus Scout Battalion has a reputation for producing exceptional desert fighters. Cadres from the battalion are in demand to provide desert warfare training throughout the Sector.

Miazan - As the Subsector capital, Miazan has been the seat of House Geyukthi, Dukes of Miazan and past Sector Dukes of the RimWorlds, for two centuries. The Miazan Planetary Defence Force, equipped to the highest standard, is built around the Household Cavalry Division - part of the Elite 1st Armoured Corp - and the Guards Corp.

Nakaya - Given Nakaya's isolated position, and the proximity of the hostile Kamperelian Republic, the Baron of Nakaya required that the Nakayan Planetary Defence Force be re equipped to Unified Imperial Army standards. This two-decade long project is now in its final stages.

Naltor - The upgrade of the Naltorese Planetary Defence Force has not been as successful as similar projects on other worlds. The megacorps involved in exploiting Naltor's natural resources have been reluctant to contribute to the long term defence of the planet. Consequently, the small Naltorese Defence Force consists of a Light Infantry Regiment and a wheeled Armoured battalion.

Ektra - The raising of a regiment of "loyal" Ektrans was an attempt by the Kamperelian Government to devolve security and reduce tensions on Ektra. The Ektran People's Defence Regiment is equipped and trained to Kamperelian Line Regiment status but morale remains low and the Loyal Ektrans have difficulty in recruiting and retaining personnel. Consequently, the Regiment is only able to muster four battalions.

Floranna - The devolution of planetary security by the Kamperelians on Floranna was slightly more successful than on Ektra, and a battalion of upgraded Miirhorn IV/B Battle Walkers was quickly raised. A four-battalion short Regiment of Florannans was also raised but has proved harder to keep up to strength.

Kamperel - The Republican Guard have become an army within the army on Kamperel. Currently numbering six Corps, with an attached Commando Division and two Marine Divisions, the Republican Guard dominates political and civil life on Kamperel. A further six divisions, with three Commando Battalions, form the nucleus of the Kamperelian Republic Ready Reaction Force. The realization by Imperial Intelligence that the Repubican Guard had been secretly reequipped to Tech Level 15 standards proved a nasty surprise for Imperial military planners. The source of this high tech material has yet to be traced.

Lithia - The Purvion inhabitants of Lithia have settled upon a Tech Level of 4 for their day-to-day lives, in keeping with their relationship with the planetary ecosystem. Their Planetary Defence Force, however, is equipped to TL13 standards with material, it is believed, imported from the Purvion colony world of Tallu/Lymethius.

---

From these figures, the notes emerge. And from the notes, scenario ideas and background colour begin to emerge. And from a gaming point of view, I now have an idea of the size of the ground forces of the Miazan worlds, and an idea for wargames set in this Subsector.

T5 now in Kickstarter

A link popped up on Facebook yesterday that took me through to this Kickstarter page. After over a decade in development, it looks as if Traveller 5, or T5, is almost complete. From the blurb:

“This is Traveller’s 35th year, and Marc has worked for several years on what he calls the Ultimate Edition: Traveller5. It includes so many things that players have asked for, or that have been imperfectly handled previously. In fact, Marc recently said there are now systems and chapters that he didn’t know how to design way back then. But he does now, and they are included. T5 has technology beyond TL 15, clones, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, QREBS (!), alien senses, Flux. It has a whole series of easy-to-use Makers: GunMaker, VehicleMaker, ArmorMaker, RobotMaker, SophontMaker, ThingMaker. It includes mapping of star systems and worlds; there's ever the MOARN caveat: Map Only As Really Necessary, or referees would spend all their time just making maps of worlds and systems. There's a rationalized section on Psionics, and more, much more.”

Now, I was initially a bit sceptical about the final coming of T5. I still have all my Classic Traveller books, so being required to pledge $US140 (including postage to West Auckland) for a new, 600-page hardback version of the rules seemed a little steep. And while I like Mongoose Traveller, and have a lot of the MongTraveller supplements, I have yet to play it – so, again, is $US140 for a new version of the game really worth it to me?

Having watched Marc Miller’s pitch video on the Kickstarter page, I’m now in two minds about T5 – the Maker systems sound very interesting; like taking the design systems from High Guard, Striker, and Fire, Fusion and Steel and expanding them to cover all sorts of systems. The expansion of Tech Levels beyond TL 15 allows for items of Godtech to exist within your game, on a rational basis with other systems.

Part of me says, “we always just sketched it and winged it, because you do not need to count all the rivets to tell a story”, and part of me would really like some decent design tables.

I may very well end up taking the $US51 support option and get the rules on CD-ROM, or wait until they come out in print. Panzerboy Discontent is the only other blogger, I am aware of, to have mentioned the T5 Kickstarter, though there is a topic on the Mongoose Traveller Forum and on the Steve Jackson Games GURPs: Traveller forum.

More Fun with Accountants in Space – the Space Corsair’s Return

Cover of GURPs: Far Trader - slightly altered

While retrieving files from my old computer, I came across the link to one of my favourite Traveller language generator sites - Space Corsair's Word Generator.

During the development of Classic Traveller, a lot of work was done developing unique phonologies for the languages of the various Major Races, and some of the Minor Races as well. Originally, the results were published in phonology tables where, by working out the vowel/consonant ratio of a syllable, a series of dice rolls would generate completed syllables. These could then be strung together to form words and sentences. If you could remember the pronunciation guide, you could even get a feel for how the language might sound.

This was fun as far as it went, but was also rather time consuming.

Then one day while pootling around on the internet, I stumbled across Space Corsair’s Word Generator.

Control Panel of Space Corsair's Word Generator

As you can see, this programme has a nice, clean and simple front page.

Language selection - 12 on offer

It allows you to select from any one of twelve languages; the Major Race Languages of Vilani and Zhodani, Gurvin (the Hive Federation Common Language), K’kree, Gvegh (one of the major Vargr languages), Trokh, and Oynprith (the Droyne language). The Minor Race languages of Ael Yael, Te-Zlodh (Darrian), Bwap, Ithklur, and Sword World Icelandic are also included, as these are, in all likelihood, the most commonly encountered Official Traveller Universe Minor Races.

Twenty separate two-syllable words generated

With a language selected, the programme allows you to generate multiple words of multiple syllables, or generate sentences of multiple words.

A six-word sentence is generated

The words so generated can be copied from the generator and pasted into a Word Document or Note Pad for later use. I keep a file of one, two and three syllable words which I can access when I need, say, a word in Trokh for a type of drink Aslan prefer, or a Gvegh name for a common household pet.

Unless I am working with existing root words or grammar, (and I have only really explored this in work I have done on Arrghoun – an ancient Vargr language that appears in Alien Module 3: Vargr and which I have adopted for the Vargr of the Hunt of Rronurl in Cabria Subsector) then I usually don’t concern myself with relationships between generated words and possessives or tenses or all those other bits of the structure of language that I really wished I had paid more attention to at school.

Being able to slip some authentic sounding words from another language into the course of your game, especially when your characters are in a multi-species situation, always adds to gaming experience, and it’s even more fun if your Galanglic-speaking Player Characters start picking up and using loan words from their non-human companions.

Accountants in Space: Fun with Spread sheets

Jamison is a Traveller character from
the very first edition of the game

Within Traveller the roleplaying game, there are a series of metagames and minigames. These can be lots of fun and help scratch the Traveller itch if, like me, you find it difficult to get a regular crew together for a game. It’s not like I’m Nigel No-friends, it’s just that organizing games can be a bit like herding cats these days, with kids and families and work all competing for time.

The character generation process is actually a little game all of its own. Unlike a number of other roleplaying games from the mid-to-late 70’s period, characters in Traveller begin their adventuring later in life. In basic Book 1 Character Generation, the character’s pre-adventuring career is resolved in a series of four-year terms. In the later career books, starting with Book 4: Mercenary and Book 5: High Guard, and in various third party career books, such as SORAG from Paranoia Press, the four year term is broken down further into one year assignments. What this all means is that at the end of the character generating process, it is possible to marry up a character’s career against the larger history of the campaign and see whether he or she was present at significant historical events.

Cool starship discovered on the Internet

And while this is fantastic from a character’s backstory point of view, it’s also actually quite a lot of fun just rolling the dice and seeing where your characters end up. I have a notebook of characters from various career paths that I have generated in gaming downtime to use as NPCs as required.

Traveller wouldn’t be Traveller without starships and one of the things Traveller has always been known for is its material design systems – a toolbox of components and rules that allows you to create and define “stuff” like planets, planetary systems, and starships.

High Guard Shipyard

I used to use the starship design sequence and design ships on notepaper  – listing the components I wanted and their volumes and costs, adding it all up and then pulling things out or downgrading them until the volume of the components matched the volume of the starship hull – but this was all a bit fiddly and time consuming.

A few years ago, I discovered that a very clever countryman of mine had created a lovely little computer programme that did all the heavy figuring for you. As freeware, the programme, High Guard Shipyard, is available for download from Andrew Vallence’s website . Essentially, he put all the volume and cost parameters into a spreadsheet and then linked this data to a little interface screen containing all the required formulas.

Text report showing volume and cost of
components for a ship design.

So now, I can enter in the performance details I want my ship to possess, and the programme will make all the required calculations. And this means that if I change a parameter, all the other calculations are updated as I go. It will also provide me with a printable data card of the final ship, as well as a text file that elaborates on the actual components chosen. It actually took me longer to make up these screen shots than it did for me to make the ship!

The design sequence for generating planetary systems uses a lot of variables – everything from planetary diameter to atmosphere type to population to government. These are hard to figure into a spread sheet without some form of random number generator. Fortunately, there’s another bit of freeware called Heaven and Earth, specifically designed for Traveller, available on the Internet.

Heaven and Earth

This piece of software will generate subsectors and sectors, using several different design systems, as well as fleshing out entire star systems and mapping them. It also has a fairly useful edit function that allows you to enter existing worlds into your master sector map. So, all in all, a pretty powerful piece of software with a few annoying quirks – such as not allowing you to name a system’s primary star separately from the main world.

Sometimes, you just need an estimate of how much money your polities have to spend – especially if you’re looking at Sector and Subsector Fleet budgets, and trying to work out the size of available ground forces. To calculate how much money the armed forces have, you really need to know what the Gross Planetary Product of each system is and work out how keen the system government is at slicing off a chunk for the military. As economics bores most people rigid, the Traveller designers came up with a quick little calculation that produces a number. What’s neat about this is that by plugging the Universal Planetary Profile (UPP) values (generated when each planetary system is created) into a simple Excel spreadsheet, you can generate system, subsector, and Sector military budgets, as well as shipyard capacity values for all A and B Class Starports.

Supplements such as Sector Fleet (for MongooseTraveller) and Ground Forces (for GURPs: Traveller) offer suggestions for how these armed forces might be structured which allows the Games Master to slice and dice his or her budgets as is deemed appropriate.


By automating a lot of the design calculations, a Games Master can extract information more quickly from the raw data, and can have more faith in the numbers being generated. By taking out the drudgery, the fun factor is increased which, after all, is why we do this.

Trade Makes the Galaxy Go Round

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.

Interlude

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.

Droyne and Hivers

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.

Aslan and K'kree

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.

Humaniti

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.

My! You are very tall!

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

Nobility

I have always felt that the table of Noble titles, as presented in Classic Traveller, was a little too flat. A successful Naval Officer for example, could become a Duke before entering play. And realistically, there’s little chance His Grace would then be hanging around in seedy starport bars with his deadbeat mercenary chums, hustling for cargo for his Free Trader. The guy in charge of a planet, or a system, or several planets a) wouldn’t be allowed to do such a thing; b) would be too busy; and c) it probably wouldn’t occur to him to become a merchant in the first place – except, perhaps, at the boardroom level.

Looking at ways to curb potential power gamers (“I’m the Duke, I want that battlecruiser, I want it painted puce, and I want it now”) while allowing me the freedom to have noble player characters in my Traveller campaign, I began to consider what part the Nobility actually plays in Traveller. There are few clues in the Little Black Books and Supplement 4 and few pointers elsewhere in canon until you reach the very fine GURPs Traveller: Nobles supplement. From the Science Fiction that inspired Traveller, The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle reads as if it was a major source both for Traveller and the role of the Traveller nobility, while H. Beam Piper’s Star Viking, and the Federation and Empire collections of short stories, and Poul Anderson’s Dominic Flandry stories offer further insights and inspiration.

In the end, it was Frank Herbert’s Dune that lead me to envisage a two-tier form of nobility – the Siridar or Great Nobility, the Houses Major, who rule entire planets, systems and groups of planets; and the Houses Minor who hold fiefs on planets and make up the planetary banking, industrial, military, political and scientific elites. This also fitted in with my concept of how the RimWorlds were settled and developed. In this concept, the initial exploration and settlement was very much driven by a Private Venture Capital Company, in the fashion of the Merchant-Adventurers of Terra’s Sixteenth Century. Scions of Noble Houses put capital and resources into the exploration company and, in return, received planets, systems and clusters in fief to the leader of the expedition who, with the support of his nobles, became the first Sector Duke.

Politics in the RimWorlds, at the planetary, subsector and sector levels anyway, is very much like that of Belisarius and the Foederati of Sixth Century Byzantium, in that factions form around strong, powerful leaders and grow, or decline, as the perceived status of the leader alters through time. Vargr xenologists find this behaviour rather predictable.

Rules for Noble Player Characters
Player Characters who roll a high Social Status characteristic, or end up with high Social Status due to the Character creation process, are from a House Minor.

The Social Status ranks for Houses Minor:
Knight (B)
Baron (C)
Marquis (D)
Count (E)
Houses Minor that advance beyond the rank and title of Count have been elevated to House Major Status.

The Social Status ranks for Houses Major:
Siridar-Lord (B)
Siridar-Baron (C)
Siridar-Marquis (D)
Siridar-Count (E)

House Major ranks extend beyond those of Houses Minor as follows:
Duke (F)
Sector Duke (G)
Arch-Duke (H)
Emperor (J)

House Major ranks have the same titles as House Minor ranks, but with the prefix ‘Siridar’ – ‘Great’. The one exception is that of Social Status B Knight. The corresponding House Major title is Siridar-Lord and is the lowest rank of the Great Nobility to be assigned rulership responsibilities for an entire planet. Very few Siridar-Lords actually hold such positions and to many Houses Minor, merely obtaining the status of Siridar-Lord is the culmination of decades or centuries of effort. It should be noted that the titles of Duke (usually the short form of either Subsector or Sector Duke) and Archduke are not available to Houses Minor in the Imperial Rank system. Consequently, there is no need to prefix the title with ‘Siridar’ because if one is fortunate enough to encounter an individual of this rank, then one should be assured that one is in the presence of the ruler of a Subsector, a Sector or a Domain and act accordingly.

The elevation of a House Minor to House Major status can occur in one of several ways: Meritorious Service - a member of the House Minor has performed some service of such value that a House Major will stand sponsor for the House Minor’s elevation before the Conclave of Houses Major; Marriage Alliance – a House Minor successfully marries into a House Major and then inherits the House Major’s title and estates upon the failure of the direct line. Such successions usually set off lengthy court battles as any House Major heirs, of any remove, would seek to block the elevation of parvenu blood in such a fashion; Wealth & Power - a House Minor has accumulated sufficient wealth, prestige and political power to literally buy a House Major to stand sponsor for the House Minor’s elevation. Meritorious Service and Wealth & Power are the two most common means by which Houses Minor elevate themselves to House Major status.

Finally, a system for assigning benefits to nobles by Ian MacKinder, based on the articles ‘Sceptre and Starship' and ‘Robe and Blaster' by Ahnre and Stuart, and located on Ian’s Website. I have not fully explored all the ramifications but I would look at either increasing the number of benefit rolls for Houses Major, or look at smoothing the results while importing some of the results from GURPs Traveller: Nobles.

An example: Sir James Fabian Fairweather, a Naval Officer from Kartivia/Gazul, was invested with the Barony of Lukaskow on Kartivia in 982 by Liarb IX, Duke of Gazul. Now styled Baron Lukaskow, James had lifted House Fairweather’s status from where it had languished, as mere knights, for some three centuries. An ironic element of the investiture was that the Fairweathers were descended, on the distaff side, from House Crensea, Siridar-Counts of Daxam. House Crensea eventually numbered Dukes of Gazul, and Sector Dukes of the RimWorlds amongst their members. Duke Liarb IX of Gazul, a Crensea, was in fact a (very) distant relative of Baron James. The Fairweathers eventually acquired both the Marquisate of Chaquarg and the Barony of Holon on Kartivia, and by the Twelfth Century (current campaign date) had become a fairly wealthy and influential House Minor on their homeworld, with a Social Status of D in the senior line (the Marquis of Caquarg).