Traveller Sandbox: Filling In The Blanks...

Good Afternoon, All:

Step Eight in the process of developing a sandbox setting for the Traveller Sandbox Experiment is to fill in the blanks, making sure that any obvious holes are covered. Sometimes, a cool world might fall through the cracks in the above process, and should be added into the mix as color for the setting. By reviewing the UWPs, we can make sure that we didn't leave anything out.

While we could probably run a great game with what we have, there are likely a few additional systems we might want to detail, just because they're likely to spark a player's interest. To determine these, I look through the UWPs, looking for the worlds that stand out that we haven't touched yet. Being familiar with Rob Conley's fantastic article, How To Make A Traveller Sandbox, I want to at least consider worlds with the following characteristics:

• All High Population worlds (not previously covered at Cultural Hubs)
• All High Tech worlds (that haven't been identified elsewhere in our process)
• All systems with Class A and Class B starports (that haven't been identified elsewhere)
• All Red Zone systems (that haven't been described elsewhere)

Here's a quick list of the worlds that fit those criteria that we haven't touched yet:

Amida         2606 B8B7402-D  S Fl Ht Ni        A  204 Ks F4 V
Beltane       2115 BA9A532-A  A Ni Wa              201 Ll G5 V
Chedenoman    3201 A300569-C    De Ht Ni Va        303 Na M4 II M8 V* [M5 II]
Gamab         2611 B410431-C    De Ht Ni           903 Ja M9 V* M9 V
Hachiman      3005 B5A2400-8  N Fl Ni           A  100 Ks M5 V* M8 V
Hulene        2213 B754644-6    Ag Ga Ni           912 Na K2 V
Idaten        2604 B610565-A  N De Ni              501 Ks M0 V
Izanami       2906 B7B7410-9    Fl Ni           A  721 Ks M1 V
Jiskorko      2102 B5798AB-9                    A  711 Na K0 V* M3 V
Kannon        2603 B410400-B  N De Ni           A  412 Ks K6 V
Mawu          2211 B520420-A  S De Ni Po           800 Ja K5 V
Melody        2119 B767565-7  S Ag Ga Ni           803 Na F2 V
Mingert       2719 B410783-8  M De Na              600 Na K4 V
Misdariva     2012 B766537-8    Ag Ga Ni           512 Na G9 V K0 V M3 V*
Ninigi        2904 B410476-9    De Ni              120 Ks M4 V* M4 V
Onora         3011 B7A7523-B    Fl Ni              514 Na K2 III* F5 V
Seshat        1907 B69A8A8-9  N Wa                 202 Se G2 V* M5 V
Zandis        3217 B623422-8  A Ni                 801 Na M0 V
Zinsu         2308 A621533-B  N Ni Po              600 Ja F9 V* M6 V

That's twenty worlds we haven't covered, all of them falling into the Class A or Class B starport category. Some fall into other categories, too. An enterprising Referee could detail all of the above worlds. However, I think I'm probably only going to need to touch a few of them for the sake of campaign development, and the others can be handled by the Referee on the fly later.

Obviously, since Seshat (Segin 1907 B69A8A8-9) has been mentioned repeatedly in previous posts, I should detail that system. Of the rest, I definitely want to cover the High Tech worlds of Amida (Segin 2606 B8B7402-D Amber Zone), Chedenoman (Segin 3201 A300569-C) and Gamab (Segin 2611 B410431-C). There are no High Population worlds or Red Zones in the list. The only remaining Class A starport on the list would be Zinsu (Segin 2308 A621533-B), so I'll add that in to give me an additional five worlds to detail.

At this point, I'm not sure I really need to go through the exercise of creating world details here. I'd probably determine a System Origin for each one, and perhaps a System Function or System Resource, to help me flesh out the Library Data entry I'd create. Otherwise, I'm okay with a simple four or five sentence write-up to capture some flavor in case the players ask some questions about the place. If you want me to write any of them up, please feel free to say so in the comments. Otherwise, I'll simply move on to the final step in the process.

Step Nine is simple reviewing the setting that I've created and see if there's any rules additions that I should introduce to help personalize the campaign experience. I'll cover some specifics in the Step Nine post.

Happy Travelling,
Flynn