There's been a resurgence of interest in Classic Traveller across the OSR blogosphere of late, with posts from Chaoclypse, friend-of-the-blog VDonut and and a whole... slew (?) of posts from Old Hawkeyes.It feels like a good opportunity to share the expanded system generation procedure I've adapted from a Mongoose Traveller supplement, The Deep Space Exploration Handbook. This expands the variety of systems that can be generated using the rules as presented in Book 3: Worlds and Adventures, primarily through the addition of unusual and anomalous stellar objects. This is also the system I used to initially populate the sector I generated for the Galaxy 24 project.
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| PIA23685: What is a Brown Dwarf? https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23685 Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not quite as massive as stars. Generally speaking, they have between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter. A brown dwarf becomes a star if its core pressure gets high enough to start nuclear fusion |
So – given that a) mechanics aren't subject to copyright and b) this corresponds to non-commercial, fair use of the IP in those books – I hope you can get some mileage out of my interpretation of the system generation procedure, adapted for Classic Traveller.
EXPANDED STAR SYSTEM GENERATION
Thus, though single star systems remain the most likely occurrence, there still remains the possibility of generating binary or trinary systems... or something even weirder.
Distant companions within star systems present the opportunity for independent systems within interplanetary travel distance of one another: are they cooperative, at war, or separated by a technological collapse? Conversely, a multiple-star system could be enduring a chaotic three-body problem style environment from which the inhabitants are desperate to escape.
Expanding, pre-giant stars are main sequence stars that have exhausted the hydrogen in their core and are transitioning into red giants. Roll 1D+2 for main sequence star type rather than 2D, but treat diameter and luminosity as one step higher (i.e. a Type M star with the luminosity and diameter of a Type K star).
Brown Dwarf System Substellar objects with greater mass than the biggest gas giants, but lesser than the least massive main-sequence stars: Brown Dwarfs (actually purple or magenta to the naked eye) are luminous but nowhere near as much as true stars.
Empty system: no planets. This does not preclude the existence of starports, navy bases etc.
White Dwarf Star: Inner System destroyed as White Dwarfs form from collapsing red giants.
Giant Star: these stars have diameters up to a few hundred times that of the sun (1.3927 million km). Otherwise, roll for main-sequence star tye below but assume there is no "inner" planetary system.
Unstable star: regular nova or supernova events deplete orbiting worlds of their atmospheres, irradiating them and making conventional organic life untenable.
Black Hole: Black Holes primarily represent an obstacle to commercial interstellar traffic. Their event horizons, once crossed, preclude interaction with the universe beyond. The impossible amount of energy required to escape also prevents the use of jump drives.
An "ordinary" stellar black hole might have a Schwarzschild radius (effectively the event horizon, for game purposes) of R = 2GM/c². A star the size of our sun collapsing into a black hole would have an event horizon of radius 3km (1.9 miles).
Research craft might wish to employ crews to investigate the effects of extreme time dilation, or energy generation via the Penrose Process. Adventurous crews might even seek to exploit the distortion of space time close the event horizon in order to jump to the far-future...
The Jump Shadow of a Black Hole is determined by the mass of the star which formed it: 1.6 Astronomical Units (1.6 x 149,600,000km or 239,360,000km) per Solar Mass (M☉, the mass of Earth's Sun).
Anomaly (eg. White Dwarf with life-bearing inner planets) The example listed in Mongoose is of a "White Dwarf with life-bearing inner planets". This could have been due to the intervention of an advanced alien civilisation, relics of which could be scattered throughout the system. On that same track, this could also comprise defunct megastructures such as archaic dyson spheres or caplan thruster around a main sequence star.
Highly complex multiple star systems Referencing the earlier note regarding multi-star systems, this could be a chaotic, Trisolarion scenario with similarly aggressive native civilisation.
Neutron Star The aftermath of a supernova where the surviving core has condensed into an extremely dense, rapidly spinning and super hot body with a powerful electromagnetic field. Planetary bodies within its orbit would be bombarded with high levels of radiation a (though lower levels of visible and UV light when compared to main sequence stars of the same mass), making them unlikely to support conventional biological life.
Again, they are of high interest to researchers owing to their unique properties and the tantalising presence of strange matter in their cores.
Main Sequence Star-Type
All the stars within a system have their star type calculated as follows:
- 2D for the system's primary star
- 2D-1 for a close companion
- 2D-2 for a distant companion
For brevity's sake jump shadow is measured in astronomical units (AU): 1 AU = 149,600,000km.
Planetary Bodies
- 2D for the system orbiting a primary star (and its close companion)
- 2D-4 for the planetary system orbiting a distant companion
- 2D-2 for the planetary system orbiting a brown dwarf
Satellites
Example procedure:
- Roll for System Type:
7 = solo star - Roll for Main Sequence Star-Type:
10 = Type G (Yellow); Jump shadow ~1.1 AU - Generate System Contents (as per CT LBB3):
6 = B Class Star Port; 5 = no naval base; 11-2 = scout base; 8 = gas giant - Roll for Planetary Bodies (in this instance a straight 2D roll)
5 = 1D+1 Planetary Bodies = 6 planets
1 of these planets is the gas giant, 1 is the "primary world", which I will assume (in this example) is an ordinary terrestrial planet - Generate Primary World:
- Size = 2D-2 = 6 = 6000 mile diameter world
- Atmosphere = 2D-7 + size = (8-7)+ 6 = 7 = standard, tainted
- Hydrographics = 2D-7 + atmosphere = (4-7) + 7 = 4 = 40% water
- Population = 2D-2 = A = Tens of Billions (let's 1D+1 tens = 60 billion)
- Government = 2D-7 + population = (8-7) + 10 = B = Non-Charismatic Leader. A previous charismatic dictator has been replaced by a leader through normal channels.
- Law-Level = 2D-7 + population = (5-7) + 11 = 9 = Possession of any weapon outside one's residence is prohibited.
- Tech Level = 1D +DMs = 1D +4 starport +4 pop = 13 = D
- Trade classification = industrial (tainted atmosphere, population > 8)
B674AB9 – D S Industrial - Other Planetary Bodies: Roll for Nature of Planetary Body (4 no. 2D rolls for the four remaining planets)
- 10 = Ice Giant (like Neptune or Uranus)
- 11 = Ice giant
- 7 = Terrestrial Planet
- 8 = Terrestrial Planet
For the two ice giants no further action is taken, I will now generate UPP for the two other terrestrial planets - Generate Secondary Terrestrial World:
- Size = 2D-6 (size of main world) = 5 = 5000 mile diameter world
- Atmosphere = 2D-7 + size = (4-7)+ 5 = 2 = Very thin, tainted
- Hydrographics = 2D-7 + atmosphere = (12-7) + 2 = 7 = 70% water
- Population = 2D-2 = 1 = Tens of inhabitants (let's 1D+1 tens = 20)
- Government = 2D-7 + population = (12-7) + 1 = 6 = Captive Government. Government by an imposed leadership answerable to an outside group. A colony or conquered area. (Sounds like a small penal colony?)
- Law-Level = 2D-7 + government = (6-7) + 6 = 5 = No prohibitions (they've been exiled here!)
- Tech Level = 1D +DMs = 1D +1 atmosphere, +1 pop +1 government= 9
- Trade classification = non-industrial (population > 7)
X527160 – 9 Non-Industrial (exiled political opponent: maybe the previous charismatic dictator?) - Generate Tertiary Terrestrial World:
- Size = 2D-6 (size of main world) = 2 = 2000 mile diameter world
- Atmosphere = 2D-7 + size = (5-7)+ 5 = 3 = Very thin
- Hydrographics = 2D-7 + atmosphere = (6-7) + 3 = 2 = 20% water
- Population = 2D-2 = 5 = Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants (let's 1D+1 tens = 200,000)
- Government = 2D-7 + population = (6-7) + 5 = 4 = Representative Democracy. Government by elected representatives
- Law-Level = 2D-7 + government = (5-7) + 3 = 1 = Portable energy weapons (laser
- carbine, laser rifle) prohibited. Ship's gunnery not affected)
- Tech Level = 1D +DMs = 1D +1 size +1 atmosphere, +1 pop = 6
- Trade classification = non-industrial (population > 7), poor
X232541 – 6 Non-Industrial
Links
Chaoclypse:
https://chaoclypse.blot.im/classic-traveller-e01-divinators-drugs-destruction
VDonut Traveller
https://vdonnutvalley.bearblog.dev/mytraveller-world-generator-trade-and-big-picture/
Old Hawkeyes' Classic Traveller Posts:
https://unturnedhovel.bearblog.dev/classic-traveller-will-fix-your-soul-aar/
https://unturnedhovel.bearblog.dev/in-the-lands-of-kings-and-robber-barons/
https://unturnedhovel.bearblog.dev/rocking-the-cradle-ct-aar/
https://unturnedhovel.bearblog.dev/classic-traveller-patron-homegrowns-alright-with-me/
NASA Brown Dwarf Slide:
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23685
Caplan Thrusters an dother stellar engines:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine
Strange Matter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_matter
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