"The Department" Enters Its Final Week of Fundraising

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.