Jared Sinclair Dot Bear Blog Dot Dev

Simone Sector, or How To Make A Galaxy

Okay, so not actually a galaxy, but a sector. This is a small post to talk about how I use Traveller, and what I'm hoping to do with Simone Sector. It's not that complicated, mercifully.

Which Traveller?

First of all, I use Starter Traveller. Please, hold your applause. Yes, I am aware that 1977 is better. I'm also aware that the Facsimile Edition exists, and is better. But hear me out: I don't really care about all that. Starter Traveller has a few main advantages for me, specifically:

  1. I don't care for vector-based space combat. Starter Traveller is the only edition of Classic Traveller (that I know of) that does something else, and the range-band thing it does suits me just fine.
  2. I like the separate books, actually. I've printed off a few extra copies of the character generation pages from the "Tables and Charts" book that I can hand to players so they're not all stumbling over one copy to make their characters. Plus, the "Tables and Charts" book serves as a really useful GM screen of sorts, so I'm not flipping around in a (poorly organized) book looking for that one thing that I know is there, or trying to re-collate a procedure that's distributed over several pages in 77/81.
  3. I just think it's neat. It gives me B/X feels, and not only because it comes in a thin, letter-size box.

Second of all, I don't use Citizens of the Imperium. Cry about it. I like to run a slightly grittier version of Traveller, where being drafted into military service is a unifying experience among basically everyone you meet. There's a very particular, jaded texture that things take on when most people have been forced to serve a government that they find indifferent or even hostile to their lives and welfare. If I were running a more "fun" game, I'd consider Citizens, but I'm not.

In Which I Talk About Sector Generation

Question-raising is both a technique and a stance. Even if the “answer” (according to the author) is contained within the work, by creating distance between them we invite the reader to develop their own answers. When (if) they discover our answer, they are then able to disagree, to synthesise the two, or reject both and find another, novel answer to the questions raised in the text. Questions beget questions. Examples of this can be seen in using generators to ask questions (e.g. Traveller planet generation) rather than provide answers (e.g. SWN planet generation).

Luke Gearing, "Supplement V: Carcosa," Luke Gearing Dot Blot Dot Im

Luke already said the insightful bit there (and threw some strays at SWN lmao), so I'll talk specifics instead.

Traveller planet generation (the bulk of sector generation) is a strange beast. You really just generate eight integers that represent a variety of basic statistics for that planet: starport, planet size, atmosphere, hydrographics, population, government, law level, and tech level. The last three or four of those affect the players' experience of the place pretty directly. The others have a more... diffuse effect, we'll say. Of course, at the very extremes, even planet size (which seems largely irrelevant on first blush) can be a very present reality in play. But most of the effects these statistics have for the planet happen in the referee's boldness in synthesizing them all together.

For example, I might roll a planet with population in the millions—a middling result, perhaps. But on an especially small planet or an asteroid, that's a lot of folks; and on a gigantic planet, that's basically none. Maybe a corrosive atmosphere has that small population packed densely into only a few domed arcologies. Maybe the planet also has an especially low tech level, which seems at odds with the presence of sophisticated arcologies, so I decide that the domes are leftover tech from a recently previous, more advanced society—the people here are their barbaric conquerors. And look how quickly we've arrived at something interesting: an under-educated population quickly outgrowing their living arrangements in a hostile environment, unfamiliar with the technology that keeps them alive. The anxiety of that situation might drive some very powerful local officials to request help (in secret, so as not to show weakness) from any old wanderers who happen by carrying tech more impressive than a thirty-ought-six. From there, we just need to invent a handful of proper nouns and give them a purpose inside the established facts, and we've got a playable Traveller planet.

This is the basic "method," such as it is, for understanding what a planet is like in Traveller, at least for me. I let my focus go soft, and free-associate through the consequences of these specific integers coexisting in one place. It's no surprise to anyone familiar with Traveller, I'm sure, but it turns out that many people, tragically, are not.

For Simone Sector, which I'll start working on in earnest at some point in the near or distant future, this is the behind-the-scenes work that will produce the planet descriptions I'll be posting here. Those planet descriptions will likely be more specific and long-hand than I would typically do for an actual campaign. But that's what it's like when you're writing things for other people to read, and not just to remind yourself of your own absurdities.