I picked up the Mongoose edition of Traveller and am very eager to run a game with it. It looks like I'm actually going to be running two games of it - one as an off-day game with my regular D&D crew, and as a regular game with my FATE crew (who have all recently gotten into EVE Online and thus are chomping to play). I've decided to set both games in a single setting - the Adrantis sector.

Basic idea: The Adrantis sector is about 10 parsecs by 10 parsecs across. It sits on the edge of known space, cut off from its coreward neighbours by the Adrantis Nebular Rift, a great cloud of dust and gas with few stars in it.

Because this will be both groups' first Traveller game, I wanted a relatively self-contained setting. I can't find any hex paper, so my plan is to use an Excel spreadsheet to contain all the information, with index cards spread out for the star map. Because of this, the size of hex paper is relatively unimportant. I initially wanted to make the sector 30 by 30 parsecs (just under a hundred light years) but I realised that I was creating a 3-D volume here, and that would mean information about 2700 hexes. 10 by 10 x 10 is only 100 hexes, much more manageable, and about the size I want.

Feel: I want Philip K. Dick meets Firefly. Aliens are truly aliens, spacefarers are riding the edge of rad-induced insanity and cybernetic dehumanisation, technology varies widely, with primitive and often clashing principles of design. Plenty of cored-out asteroid habs, orbitals around proto-planets, and generation / cryo-ships to be found in the dark between the stars.

Rules: As folks will recall from my previous design of a 4e campaign setting, I always set in place a couple of rules to guide my overall design of a setting, so that the individual pieces cohere with one another.

1) No standard Traveller aliens. All the PCs are going to be human anyhow, and none of the PCs are familiar with Traveller. The Traveller corebook aliens are the least interesting parts of Traveller for me, and they clash with the aliens-as-really-alien idea, so I'm going to leave them be for now.

2) Psionics can be more powerful than in the corebook (especially if augmented technologically). I want something of a W40K feel to psionics - rare, dangerous and powerful. People can take drugs that make them temporarily psionic, psionicists can use cybernetic augments to boost their powers, and so on. Psionic powers start off at the level where you can say, teleport yourself across the room, but teleporting ships between stars is at least theoretically possible with enough boosting technology helping a powerful psionicist.

3) Greco-Roman names, and gibberish names that sound like that (lots of O's and U's, K's and N's in names, names end in -um, -is, -os, -at) for planets and cosmic bodies.

4) Easily-inhabited planets are the exception. Most habitats are artificial and require upkeep of some sort.

That's all I want to use for now, since I'm not familiar with Traveller. I've only had the book for about a week and a half now, and this will be my first time creating planets and building ship designs.

Alien races of the Adrantis sector:

There are four prominent species in the Adrantis sector. Humaniti (in both Vilani and Solomani varieties), the Galomar silicate hive-mind, the Thera and the Prebosian Arthropods.

The Galomar silicate hive-mind is a collection of sentient silicon crystals found in the Galomar system (owned by the Habermas Corporation), which is a young system undergoing the process of planetary formation. The dust clouds have special interest for the silicate hive-mind, and they appear to be guiding the formation of the planets for unclear reasons. The hive-mind is not native to the Galomar system, and is of unknown origin and overall intent.

It exists mainly in microgravity and zero-gravity, and communicates through bursts and pulses of electromagnetic energy which it can generate through unknown means. Masses of the crystalline dust can be removed from the overall hive-mind and form autonomous intelligences until brought back into contact with the hive-mind. In human-normal gravity, the hive-minds remain conscious but relatively immobile piles of sand, though they interact with computers and technology when brought into direct contact with conduits.

Sorry, that was me at my buddy's computer, logged in under his account.

So what are the Mongoose Trav rules like, then? Redo of classic, or what?

And is the game universe 3d now, or is that just your version?

My version, though I'm going to give that up, I think, since I realised it gave me a thousand squares to fill, not just one hundred. I spent last night creating thirty-five planets and seriously considered going for a couple hundred, but I gave it up as folly. So the Adrantis sector is currently 10 x 10 and flat.

And yeah, the rules are supposed to be a redo of classic. I've never played Traveller before, so I don't know how close to the original it is, but it's a 2d6 roll over 8 system.

Cool! My girlfriend just bought me the rulebook for my birthday, and I've been reading it at every opportunity. Nice to see an alternate Traveller universe.  More ideas to steal... uh... be inspired by. Yeaahh...

Kyle, the rules are very close to Classic. Character generation by terms of service, but you can chage services. Failed survival rolls give a 'mishap', not death, although the 'Iron Man' option allows death:cool:.  A nice addition, each term you roll an event, which might give you extra skills or benefits, e.g. "You carry contraband cargo, gain Bribery skill". Mishaps have a table as well. The skills are regularized 2d6 roll 8+ is success. No skill gives a uniform -3 to most rolls, thus zero level skills are important. Standard starting packages give a broad base of level zero skills. There are more services, and each service has three specialties, which match up to the original 6 services and Supp.4, Citzens of the Imperium, plus a few new ones like "Agent":cool: .

Starship design is similar, but power plant fuel gives a week of operation. Thus, a standard scout with 20 tons of p-fuel can operate for ten weeks! Worlds are similar, too. another added goodie is a 'cultural quirks' D66 table, e.g. "Fashion: natives are very concerned with clothing. Proper attire is required, without it you are shunned or worse". Overall, it looks cool so far.

Planets and other cosmic features the players have encountered / inquired about so far so far. The two digits at the end of each entry are their xy coordinates in the 10 by 10 grid of the Adrantis sector.

1) Galomar: B000677-14 Trade Codes: As, Ht, Na, NI, Va. A young star still undergoing the process of planetary formation. Inhabited by the silicate hivemind. The humans of the system are currently engaged in a bloody civil war amongst the dust clouds and orbitals. Formerly governed by a concordat of corporate interests running the orbitals and bases, they have been challenged by a puppet government from the Archophantic Brotherhood. An obscure ship captain has also risen to prominence, leading a third faction through charisma. The Galomar system is a red zone due to the open civil war. 5:10

2) Plenum: A9B1311-13 Trade Codes Fl, Ht, Lo The homeworld of Dr. Jefferson Brodie, a genius and computer expert who worked for the Trilon Corporation. Trilon runs the Tri-Plenum Shipyards, the greatest source of spaceships, military and civilian, in the sector. Plenum itself is a marginally habitable world, with a corrosive atmosphere and oceans of liquid ammonia and metal that's mostly used as a source of cheap raw materials by Tri-Plenum. Most of the populace lives in orbitals and stations in the atmosphere. 10:7

3) Podos: B400330-16 Trade Codes: Ht, Lo, Va The homeworld of Gin Lever, a psionic mercenary and former detective, now the bodyguard of Dr. Jefferson Brodie. Podos' most prominent feature is its Imperial naval base. It is the sector's centre for Imperial military research, and technology can be found there that has no equal anywhere else in the system. The actual planet of Podos itself is somewhat obscure, and is a lawless, wild place home to smugglers, thieves and obscure alien artifacts. Podos is an amber zone - the Imperial navy interdicts at least half the system at any given time to protect the naval base. 8:2

4) Barbelo: B5449BD-4 Trade Codes: Ga, Hi, In, Lt The homeworld of Quentin McClane, a freelance pilot and former scout. A barely-habitable world at a low state of technical development, Barbelo's king has turned the place into world-factory for low-quality imitations of more expensive high technology. Barbelan origin is synonymous with shoddiness, and the common Adrantis sector expression "King of Barbelo" means "king of a shitheap". 6:2

5) Prebos: D9A3641-7 Trade Codes: Fl, NI Prebos has oceans of mercury and mercury derivatives, and a native race of arthropods who live in those mercury oceans. It is a good place to get lost for a few years and lay low, and the toxic rains have obscured more than one shady deal. A small, laissez-faire democracy runs Prebos, with limited voting rights for the native sapients. 5:7

6) Theron: B88A77B-13 Trade Codes: Ht, Ri, Wa Theron is engaged in a bloody civil war with many of the same players as in Galomar. A former stronghold of the Archophantic Brotherhood, Theron was once a rich, prosperous water world. Now, its native pseudo-cetacean species, the Thera have organised into a violent revanchist movement on Theron Prime; a corporate proxy government has claimed control of the outer satellites; and a charismatic former-captain is roving around the system with what's left of the former Theron system defence force. The Imperial navy has interdicted the system without much effect, as weapons dealers flock in faster than the navy can shoot them down. 1:10

7) Pieron: B120ADE-11 Trade Codes: De, Hi, Ht, Na, Po Ten billion people crammed onto a moonlet orbiting a gas giant, with five billion more in stations, massive city-ships and other artificial habs throughout the system. Pieron is run by the Cybersavants of Pieron, a totalitarian transhumanist religious movement. Pieron's high population is at least partially the result of cloning, with psionic ability disproportionately common as a result. The Cybersavants are at war with the Archophantic Brotherhood, though it's a cold war ever since the Imperial navy stepped in after a series of nuclear exchanges between the two groups. 9:3

Strego: B5A2ACB-15 Trade Codes: Fl, Hi, Ht A totalitarian state run by a revolutionary junta that seized power fifteen years ago, Strego is a military state closed to outsiders. It carries on a little trade in high technology in exchange for raw materials for its habs, but otherwise its citizens hunker down fearfully behind their crysteel walls as propaganda convinces them that all non-Stregans are preparing for invasion. 5:4

9) The Appearance of Glory: A massive city-ship traveling at sub-light speed between systems. While not completely lawless, it exists as a place for people to deal in commodities that are illegal almost everywhere else. Slaves, nuclear weapons, highly addictive drugs - these are all made, bought and sold on the Appearance of Glory. The AoG normally hides in the vastness of space, with its coordinates a highly guarded secret in the Adrantis underworld. In the first session, the Imperial navy uncovered its location, attacked it, and severely damaged it before it jumped to an unknown location.

Groups: The Archophantic Brotherhood is a human-dominated revolutionary communist organisation found throughout the Adrantis sector. They control the Hieron (5:5), Naburo (3:, Flenum (5:, and Trio (2:9) systems, with the Arkon (7:, Epheros (5:6), Gabaron (9:5) and Kurin (9:6) systems as protectorates and client systems. They currently contest the Theron (1:10), Nerys (3:6) and Galomar (5:10) systems. This means they have a significant presence in nearly 33% of the surveyed systems of the Adrantis sector, with agents suspected in most of the others.

They respect Imperial authority, and are not treated as a major threat because most of the worlds they control are of low technological development, and they lack major ship construction facilities. Outside of the systems they control, the Archophantic governments act as a syndicalist cooperative, trading extensively with other major corporations for technology they need. They are currently engaged in a cold war with the Cybersavants of Pieron and another with the Forge Lord of Koleron, as well as three "hot" wars in the Theron, Nerys and Galomar systems.

The Archophantic Brotherhood originated on Hieron, close to the centre of the sector and a key world on the Adrantis Main. Hieron remains the only highly industrialised world they control completely, and many of their other worlds are marginal, agriculturally oriented, or technologically primitive. The Archophantic uses Hieronian technology to improve life in the more primitive systems, buying loyalty through simple improvements in quality of life. In exchange, the more primitive worlds levy soldiers to fight and die in the Brotherhood's campaigns.

Edited: The systems they control, and added more info about their power bases. Misread the government listings.

I spent last night rolling up 35 planets to fill the 100 open slots in the Adrantis sector's space map. I had a pack of 100 index cards I'd previously bought which I set aside for this use. Today, before the game, I wrote out all the starmap information for each system on the card, then shuffled them for about 5 minutes and dealt them out into 10 stacks of 10 cards each. Starting from 1 and going to 10, I then gave each card the appropriate xy coordinates for its place in the stack.

When the time came to play, I set them out in a rough grid as the starmap / stellar database for the PCs to use as necessary. I think it worked quite well, though I intend to compress it a bit in future. I'm going to get ahold of some graph paper and make a simple star-chart for them to glance at more easily, since the cards took up a ton of space and to fit them all on the table I had to make some of them overlap. On the other hand, the cards will remain the stellar database - when a player wants to look up a planet or a sector, they can flip through the cards to find the entry they want.

One of the reasons I put so much effort into detailing 35-odd planets was that I've got two groups who will be using the same system. I've run one session for one group already, and on Thursday I'll run it for the other group.

With Game 2:

Worlds:

1) Epheros: C224237-8 Trade Codes: Na, NI, Po An autonomous colony of Hieron, Epheros is a moonlet orbiting Epheros Prime, a massive gas giant. It exists as a refueling station for ships traveling the Adrantis Main and is within two parsecs of about ten other inhabited systems, with three inhabited systems adjacent to it. While many other systems have smuggling problems, Epheros is home to the largest organised crime rings in the sector. 5:6

2) Klaros: D532452-4 Trade Codes: Lt, NI, Po The homeworld of captain Shazam Goon (I don't make the PCs names, I just write them up), a rich free trader and its prodigal son. Klaros is poor but free, with limited administration by colonial experts. The population is swelling with refugees from the Galomar conflict, many of whom are bringing advanced technology with them, disrupting the traditional Klaron lifestyle. 4:10

3) Koleron: C324AAC-11 Trade Codes: Hi, In The homeworld of Former Sgt. Arwin Dane. Koleron is a bulging, grotesque factory moon, with orbital stations connected to the surface by space elevators and rail guns firing hard-packed crates into low orbit for pick up by passing ships. Multiple asteroid belts provide vast supplies of raw metals for the insatiable forges. Gas giants are harvested for precious organic volatiles. Over 20 billion people live packed together with almost no privacy or freedom under the watchful eye of the Forge Lord, a ruthless dicator. The thousands of starships in the system are easy prey for pirates. Koleron is hostile to the Archophantic Brotherhood, who have declared that one Theron and Galomar are pacified, Koleron is next. 3:7

Groups: Stellar Alliance Holdouts. The Ompheron (6:7), Quentus (3:1), Sunal (1:9), Tiburon (1:1) systems are governed by the last remnants of the Stellar Alliance, a thousand-year old federation that once spanned the Adrantis Sector. These are four of the oldest and richest worlds in the sector, and they are generally seen as representing the Imperium's interests. However, they are scattered, and their governments treat one another as rivals more than allies. As well, the bureaucracy that once coordinated the efforts of a sector now stifles life to varying degrees in each of the four systems. With tens of billions of citizens, out-migration means that former Alliance citizens can be found everywhere and anywhere other than the Stellar Alliance.

Collectively, they are wary but not hostile towards the Archophantic Brotherhood. They have embargoed several of the more vicious regimes (Strego, Pieron, Somb), but lack the technology to do anything more.