Deadends and Hellholes of the Traveller universe

Back when I was way more active on forums, I got involved in the Mogoose Traveller Playtest.  Part of which involved me rolling up a BUNCH of worlds (100K ) to look for anomalies and outliers generated by the process.  Long story short, I was left with quite a few planets with wildly odd stats - and as I was trying to make the point that creativity is a function of what you put into it, I started posting interpretations of the UWP -a bland string of letters and numbers, to make the point that traveller Plangen wasn't an unsupervised planet generator, but rather a generator of a minimum amount of info to hand a more elaborate story on.   

So, I've decided to post a bunch of those here, to get back into the whole pro-traveller mindset, to get them to a wider audience (safe from the No Fun Allowed lobby that seems to spring up on any forum) and generally to make it easy for me to get me into the habit of posting again -the lazy way.

First up:






Occulus:  X723571-2




This is a world that has already been inflicted on my scout campaign. This is the classic post catastrophe survey planet, with several distinct mysteries: what actually caused the disaster, what made the survivors decide to attempt to return, and the biggie, the fact that the increasing taint and decreasing fertility almost guarantee that this is the last generation of inhabitants. Related to this is the cause of the fertility decrease, and some unexpected historical findings about the original base on the moon.




I must note that this is a UWP that would be either zeroed out or elevated due to the problems with the low tech and the atmosphere; instead, I decided to see if it could be made plausible, if not realistic, as a medium-term challenge for a scout crew.



This one does play fast and loose with the way an atmosphere would work in this situation- and the recovery of the planet post impact (ie cooling off). is highly atypical. As regards the atmosphere, it's a cheat. As regards the catastrophe....let’s just say that it is a big clue that what happened wasn't necessarily your standard everyday asteroid impact.....another clue (if noticed) is the atypical formation of the crater -no central peak, which is very unusual, especially when this recent. Although it must be noted that there are very few other examples on this scale to draw conclusions from.




Oculus is currently named for its appearance from Space. A barren greyish rockball, the planet’s sole habitable area is a massive impact crater with a denser atmosphere allowing mostly circular weather patterns to form, giving it the appearance of an immense eyeball. Unofficially it is known as “Bullseye”. There are a wide variety of local names for the planet, although, interestingly, none of them translate as “home”, for reasons which may become made apparent when the planets history is considered.



The last known records of the planet are from approx -1779, just prior to the collapse of the second empire and indicate that its original name was Famideii. At that time, the planet was petitioning the remains of the central government for aid and succor; they reported that the planet was in severe economic and technological distress, and may have been involved in a local conflict with neighboring star systems. There is no evidence that the petition was acted on, or indeed, ever seriously considered.



The area was superficially surveyed and annexed, approximately 215 years prior to the present, and while the project was terminated (and never restarted) by the , the history of the planet since last contact was partially pieced together.



Best estimates are that the planet fared as did many smaller and isolated settlements in this area : poorly. However, an essentially habitable environment kept the colony from dying out, and apparently enough of original technology and/or knowledge was available to enable recovery to begin once the crisis years had passed. By at least 900 years previous to the present, well before recontact, Oculus seems to have been an excellent example of an abandoned colony well on the road to recovery. The original physical UWP of Oculus is estimated to have been C756. Population code is estimated to have been in the 7 - 9 range, with a local tech level of 7-8; government type and Law level are unknown, but it is likely that the society may have been either Balkanized or Oligarchic, due to the later history. It is known that the society had a fairly extensive orbital presense, as well as semi-permanent bases on its moon, and at least one of the inner planets. (Vacuum rockballs –Luna & mercury type)



Unfortunately, at this point, the planet suffered a massive catastrophic event; most evidence suggests that the planet was struck by a massive long orbit comet or asteroid. The surface of the planet was devastated and rendered uninhabitable; at least 90% of the planet’s atmosphere was lost, and likely a similar amount of the water. The resultant impact crater is approximately 15% of the surface area of the planet; it is clear that the planet came very close to complete fragmentation.



It is unclear if the civilization had any warning of the event, but even if so, it would have had limited capacity to respond. It appears that a major project to construct self supporting settlements on the inner planet and the moon were in progress when the impact occurred, and may have been prompted by the approaching event, possibly carried out by a subset of the planetary polities (if balkanized), or a ruling elite (if oligarchic). It is likely that the orbital presence was destroyed or crippled by the secondary effects of the event, and the local moon base also damaged to a lesser extent.



Post disaster, it appears that the extraplanetary surviving population (perhaps population 3-4) attempted to consolidate into one of the two off planet bases, and managed to struggle to survive for several hundred years.



At some point, at least 500 years before the present day, the survivors decided to attempt to recolonize the Mainworld. It is suspected that the attempt to maintain a civilization in the face of the challenges of a low grav and zero atmosphere planet proved insoluble or finally collapsed. It is likely that the return to the home planet was a last ditch attempt to survive a massive system collapse and die off. Currently, the extraplanetary bases are completely abandoned, and have been extensively stripped of all useful goods.



At this point, some semblance of habitation was possible on the remains of the homeworld. The remaining atmosphere had partially largely settled into the impact crater, giving a barely breathable thin atmosphere on the floor, and below that, a series of deep canyons formed as the lava flows of the crater floor cooled gave a denser if tainted (volcanic outgassing) atmosphere.

Genomic data suggest that no more than 2000 related individuals returned to the planet. The current ecosystem is entirely artificial, and likely only survives due to intense husbandry. As perhaps six species of non-human domestic animals are known to exist, as well as a wide variety of domesticated food plants, it is surmised that the surviving extraplanetary population had access to stored ova, or cloneable resources; this is the clearest evidence that some subgroup of the original inhabitants may have had warning of the impending disaster. On the planet nothing more complicated than lichen and bacteria survived the calamity.





The returning survivors have managed to survive, although with a severely regressed society and in a very precarious situation. The colonists seem to have dispersed into two cultural groups, nomadic tech 1 dwellers on the floor of the crater, and more numerous and somewhat more advanced tech 2-3 city dwellers in the deep canyons. The nomadic population is estimated at pop 4, and the city dwellers at pop 5.





The planet is still wracked by frequent quakes and volcanic activity, as well as a greatly elevated rates of meteoric impacts resulting from the debris thrown off planet by the initial impact. Further, as a result of the continuing volcanic activity, is possible that the low atmosphere taint will increase to a point where survival in the canyons is impossible.



Contact with the inhabitants has been limited as the population has only recently been identified.



Both floor and canyon cultures are extremely insular and balkanized, the nomads by tribe, and the canyon dwellers by city and village. The canyon dwellings are essentially pueblo style settlements, seldom with more than 1000 inhabitants. No central or unifying polity has arisen, likely due to the lack of surplus resources and the constant struggle to maintain agriculture. Culturally, the inability of the local infrastructure to support a leisured or professional class has led to most of the canyon dwellings to develop an essentially unstratified society, although there are exceptions.



The inhabitants suffer from a variety of environmental problems, including UV exposure, lung damage, and decreased fertility. Starvation and famine are common in the canyons, and the extremely hard life of the crater floor above has led to more than one tribal group to simply die out. For both groups, but especially the canyon dwellers, survival requires an immense amount of cooperative effort, particularly with regard to agriculture, which produces almost no surplus. Wars are infrequent due to the desperate emphasis on agriculture and food gathering, but raiding, particularly between the floor and the canyon dwellers, is frequent.



Currently, the world is not interdicted, but contact is discouraged, while a debate rages in the Imperial administration about the best way to deal with the situation: evacuation, technological uplift, or cultural quarantine.



 

Hellholes and Dead Ends of the Traveller Universe Episode 3

And now, a break from rants and raves, with some gaming content.  As noted before, a common criticism of Traveller is that its world generation creates "impossible planets", generally hellholes or improbable mixes of technology and environment.  So, in addition to providing the usual arguments* , I decided to simply generate a bunch of words, and pick the weirdest and most likely to be superficially dismissed by the "Anti-Worldgen Society of Perfect Scientific Truth for Exquisitely Detailed Gaming" and make them good places to have players interact with...

*that it never was meant to be used as is without GM input, that it intentionally stresses anomaly as a way to generate adventures, and that it isn't a truescience planet generator but rather a plot setting generator for an RPG with spaceships, and it does take a bit of imagination to use -so it shouldn't be used if you want everything all real horrorshow and NGC compatable, that a system isn't broken because it  doesn't work the way you want it to in a way it was never intended for, etc etc.

And so, I present:

UWP E101789-4  
Mongoose Traveller, basic worldgen -90% compatable with Classic Traveller worldgen

Starport : E . No facilities, unimproved flat spot.

Physical: 1= 1000 miles diameter, 0=no atmosphere, 1= 10% hydrosphere, 

Social: 7=tens of millions population, 8=civil service bureaucracy, 9=extremely high  law level (complete weapons ban, intrusive, controlling)

Technology: TL 4:=(Industrial) The transition to industrial revolution is complete, plastics, radio, mass production, industrial economy and basic internal combustion or electrical transportation. Early twentieth century: 1900-1920.
Travel: Amber Zone (law 9+)

Trade codes: Ice capped non-agricultural, non-industrial , low tech , vacuum

Scout  base

Likely Anti-Worldgen Society complaint: 

• Unreasonable number of people in an unlivable hellhole; 
• TL insanely low for survival; 
• Stupid and unlikely place to be the main colony in any solar system.  
• AWS Conclusion: Broken, stupid and unrealistic.

My interpretation: 

Castaway E101789-4 

Perhaps one of the most isolated colonies ever founded by mankind, Castaway is aptly named, and was founded entirely by accident.

Castaway seems to be the result of a disastrously failed generation-style colonization effort. The colony, only recently located by the scout service, is on, or rather within, the sole iceball moon of a rogue gas giant/brown dwarf at least x parsecs from the nearest actual star system.

The moon is essentially a mico-Europa, with a large internal liquid water layer sustained by internal heat generated by the massive tidal forces generated by its companion. The main habitations are anchored to the bottom of the external ice layer, which are several kilometers thick. The actual surface is hard vacuum at near absolute zero. The water/ice zone covers a roughly circular area approximately 10% of the surface of the planet, and is likely the result of an early impact/meld with an ice body, possibly during planetary formation.

The colony as a whole is a loosely federated Polis, with full citizen participation in important decisions; otherwise, most of the habitations are governed by a changing board of expert technologists and biologists, who are quite ruthlessly and unforgiving tested for competence and fired for failure.

Little is known of the circumstances surrounding the no doubt desperate situation that necessitated the colonization of Castaway. It is clear that access to the liquid zone was obtained by impacting the asteroid based colony ship into the ice surface, hopefully after it was stripped and evacuated. Several beacons and at least one decommissioned shuttle have been found in orbits around both the primary, and Castaway, apparently in an attempt to mark their presence, as once the ice layer reformed no contact with the moon's surface was possible.

The original colonists, who seem to have been a fraction of the original colonists and crew, did have access to a large store of prefabricated and varied high tech colonizing equipment.  Most technological equipment is adapted and recycled colony equipment; almost no new production is possible due to both the environment and the resource-poor nature of the moon. 

The locally manufactured technology is approximately TL 4, barely sufficient to support and maintain life in a sub aquatic, low temperature microgravity environment; but sufficient to maintain and operate the remaining  equipment (at approximately TL 7) , which has become absolutely required for simple survival and maintaining the living habitats.

Almost all other resources available are scavenged from the wreckage of the original colony ship, and it's asteroid hull. A few fusion plants are still active, along with a makeshift geothermal technology to provide heat and power to the habitations. Food is entirely based on either thermal based plant forms apparently introduced by the colonists, or vat grown protein and plants.

The habitations tend to be as self sufficient and dispersed as much as possible, but an extensive communication system and submersible transport has maintained a mostly cohesive society, likely a testament to the constant struggle to survive.

This is not a permanent situation. It is crucial to note that the resource and maintenance cycles are completely closed, and are slowly running down without any input or production; the situation is guaranteed to fail catastrophically in perhaps a century or three.   However, with minimal input from the outside universe, the scavenging and recycling technologies developed would allow Castaway to survive indefinitely.  There are, unfortunately severe cultural problems complicating any such contact.

The colonists have not lost memory of their origins, nor of the outside universe; however, it appears that the impetus for the initial colonization effort was to create a hidden haven for the human race, an ethos that is still strongly in existence. Accordingly, the society is extremely exophobic and xenophobic, and so opposed to any external contact, or off planet travel by the inhabitants. They essentially believe that they are the last true humans in the universe, and that an unspecified "evil empire" (physically resembling humans) has eliminated earth and all other colonies.

The central goal in the society is survival and efficiency, and as a result individuals are very strictly tracked and monitored by the central committees, and each other, and observation is almost ubiquitous. This has become so ingrained in the population that the concept of privacy is almost non-existent; rather, the concept of "oversight" is taken as a basic human need. This observation is seldom if ever used for political or social manipulation goals; indeed such use of "oversight" is strictly taboo. Rather it is used to safeguard individuals in a very dangerous and unforgiving environment, and to allow constant refinement of working techniques. Indeed, given the strong social restrictions on oversight as a method of supervision or control, most inhabitants are acutely uncomfortable in its absence, and are highly agoraphobic when alone.

Population levels are strictly limited and limited to replacement. Life expectancy is low, and the population is as a whole fairly young. Education and training are universal, and begun at a very early age. Most individuals will be working for most of their waking hours, for most of their life.

Resources and property, as well as all production is entirely held in common, and strictly rationed and distributed on a strictly per capita basis; material goods or access to same is not used as a reward or benefit. Private ownership is limited to clothes, and, oddly, musical instruments and religious items.

Waste of resources or failure to recycle is considered a major criminal and moral offense. Interestingly, human life is also considered a scarce and perhaps the most vital resource (after power) needed to preserve the colony (and thus the human race). Even the worst of crimes have no death sentence; however, the societies concept and implementation of "forensic resource recovery" would give even hardened criminals pause before offending.

Finally, it must be noted that the population has diverged significantly from the original human population, primarily due to adaptation to a constant microgravity environment. It is unclear if the colonists are aware of this divergence, and if so, what part it plays in their hermit/survivalist ethos.

The initial effect is that it is impossible for a baseline human to infiltrate their society.

Interestingly, all information suggests that the colonists are unaware of the orbital beacons that attracted the initial survey expedition; it is possible that this is the remnant of early, perhaps initial, schism in the colonist society.

The classification as an E starport is due to the scout presence on the surface. A semi permanent post has been created, as they anticipate a long, long period of study before contact, if it is ever deemed to be necessary.