My Wormhole Map: Traveller

[Thomas Bowman]

Type M's can have some interesting bodies, look at the Trappist system:

Seven temperate terrestrial planets have been detected orbiting the star, a larger number than detected in any other planetary system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1

Pretty good for M8V.

I would be leery to state the galaxy is 2d, I understand what you are trying to say though, except even if one took a pixel of an average picture of it, that space would contain tens of thousands of stars; space is big. That bigness is also an advantage, 2d hex maps are fine w/ high ease of use, section out what you want from the galaxy, put the stars that you want on it.

Yes, there is that. One idea I had was to name those planets after the Von Trapp Family children, I believe he had seven of those one for each planet. We could use either the fictional names they made up for the musical, "The Sound of Music", or the actual family names.

here is a photo of the actual Von Trapp children, their names are Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina in descending age order.

or we can use their fictional names. Leisl, Freidrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Which set of names do you like better?

 

[Morrus]

I published a supplement about Trappist. Each planet populated, all developing within sight of one another (although not reach).

 

[dragoner]

I took that and ran with it.

View attachment 97304

This is all the *named* stars (I decided that would be my filter - if it had been given an actual name, I'd include it).

Ignore the setting specific info on top of it, but the stars are all accurate.

View attachment 97305

Those are great maps.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

I published a supplement about Trappist. Each planet populated, all developing within sight of one another (although not reach).

Yep, a planet orbiting such a small star within its habitable zone does not need moons, technically it can't have moons really, the gravitation gradient is too strong, having rings in low orbit is the most you would get. But the neighboring planets are so close they would appear as disks in the sky instead of "wandering stars" as you see them in our Solar System.

Jeez, these planets are close! I like the fictional names instead of letters of the alphabet.

b: Leisl, c: Freidrich, d: Louisa, e: Kurt, f: Brigitta, g: Marta, and h: Gretl​

So the planets "Louisa", "Kurt" and "Brigitta" have potential for life. I would use names like that in my fictional campaign, not c, d, and f! I think the top chart made a mistake in labeling, "Freidrich" doesn't look at all hospitable to life.

 

[dragoner]

Which set of names do you like better?

The actual names.

I published a supplement about Trappist. Each planet populated, all developing within sight of one another (although not reach).

Sounds cool, it could be done with a Tekumel/Lost Colony vibe too.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

The actual names.



Sounds cool, it could be done with a Tekumel/Lost Colony vibe too.

So you like Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina.

You know I could use those star maps from Sidereal Traveller, since I am using the same stars in my setting as you are using in yours, the planets orbiting those stars may be different of course. I have a lot of die rolling ahead of me! I clue you in on how I generate these systems.

On the other hand, maybe I'll just transpose what I got I'll find the stars these systems have in common with your map, and do a substitution. Might be fun.

Hex AO B1 ​

Tanfana:

Starport C- Routine quality; Diameter 6 - 5,768 miles (9,281 km); Atmosphere 4 - Thin tainted; Water surface 9 - 92%; Population 3 - 4,714 humans; Government 3 - Self-perpetuating oligarchy; Law level 0 - No prohibitions; Tech Level 9 - Interplanetary era; Distance from primary 6.35 AU; Primary type B0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 200 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/regulus3.htm

Hex AO B2 ​

Hretha:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 4 - 4,365 miles (7,023 km); Atmosphere 1 - Trace; Water surface 4 - 35%; Population 1 - 97 humans; Government 0 - No government structure; Law level No prohibitions; Tech Level 8 - Fusion era; Distance from primary .29AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 720 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/cm-dra3.htm

Hex AO B3 ​

Hathor:

Starport D - Poor quality; Diameter 5 - 5,086 miles (8,183 km); Atmosphere 4 - Thin, tainted; Water surface 5 - 48%; Population 8 - 584,240,471 humans; Government 8 - Civil service bureaucracy; Law level 8 - All weapons prohibited; Tech Level 5 - Industrial era; Distance from primary 15 AU; Primary type A0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 300 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars3/xi-sco5.htm

Hex AO B4 ​

Thoth:

Starport X - No Starport; Diameter 5 - 4,673 miles (7,519 km); Atmosphere 3 - Very thin; Water surface 1 - 5%; Population 0 - 0 (uninhabited); Government 0 - No government structure; Law level 0 - No prohibitions; Tech Level 6 - Atomic age; Distance from primary 0.026 AU; Primary type K0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/lhs1565.htm

Hex AO B5 ​

Beyla:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 8 - 7,821 miles (12,584 km); Atmosphere 7 - Standard, tainted; Water surface 9 - 92%; Population 5 - 914,092 humans; Government 7 - Balkanization; Law level * - Varies with nation; Tech Level 9 - Interplanetary era; Distance from primary 0.43 AU; Primary type G0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 130 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/hr4458ab.htm

Hex AO B6 ​

Anuket:

Starport E - Frontier installation; Diameter 3 - 2,734 miles (4,399 km); Atmosphere 0 - Vacuum; Water surface 2 - 22%; Population 5 - 748,035 humans; Government 5 - Feudal technocracy; Law level 2 - Portable energy weapons restricted; Tech Level 9 - Interplanetary era; Distance from primary 1.5 AU; Primary type G0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/lam-ser.htm

Hex AO B7 ​

Gullveig:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 7 - 7,167 miles (11,532 km); Atmosphere 7 - Standard, tainted; Water surface 6 - 62%; Population 0 - 8 humans; Government 0 - No government structure; Law level 0 - No prohibitions; Tech Level 7 - Information age; Distance from primary 1.1 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/dpavonis.htm

Hex AO B8 ​

Melii:

Starport B - Good quality; Diameter 4 - 4,230 miles (6,806 km); Atmosphere 3 - Very thin; Water surface 1 - 14%; Population 1 - 15 humans; Government 0 - No government structure; Law level 0 - No prohibitions; Tech Level A - Interstellar era; Distance from primary 0.06 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/gl176.htm

Hex AO B9 ​

Isis:

Starport D - Poor quality; Diameter 6 - 6,064 miles (9,757 km); Atmosphere Thin, tainted; Water surface 4 - 36%; Population 3 - 7,117 humans; Government 6 - Captive government; Law level 8 - Long bladed weapons are controlled; Tech Level 2 - Iron age; Distance from primary 1.1 AU; Primary type G 0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/rho-crb.htm

Hex AO BA ​

Medros:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 2 - 1,774 miles (2,854 km); Atmosphere 1 - Trace; Water surface 3 - 27%; Population 1 - 76 humans; Government 2 - Participating democracy; Law level 3 - Military weapons restricted; Tech Level 6 - Atomic age; Distance from primary 0.7 AU; Primary type G0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/85peg3.htm

Hex AO BB ​

Coeus:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 8 - 7,793 miles (12,539 km); Atmosphere 8 - Dense; Water surface 4 - 35%; Population 6 - 6,798,115 humans; Government 9 - Impersonal bureaucracy; Law level A - All weapons are prohibited; Tech Level 3 - Renaissance; Distance from primary 0.064 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU;​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/gl849.htm

Hex AO BC Brown dwarf: N/A. ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/u722-05.htm

Hex AO BD ​

Nanna:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 5 - 4,821 miles (7,757 km); Atmosphere 9 - Dense, tainted; Water surface 8 - 84%; Population 9 - 2,092,693,385 humans; Government 4 - Representative democracy; Law level A - All weapons are prohibited; Tech Level 7 - Information age; Distance from primary 0.93 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 750 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/ross154.htm

Hex AO BE ​

Gabrus:

Starport B - Good quality; Diameter 5 - 5,428 miles (8,734 km); Atmosphere 8 - Dense; Water surface 3 - 27%; Population 7 - 27,578,688 humans; Government 7 - Balkanization; Law level * - Varies with nation; Tech Level 9 - Interplanetary age; Distance from primary 14 AU; Primary type K0-9 III, II, Ia, Ib; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://solstation.com/stars2/aldebaran.htm

Hex AO BF ​

Hariassa:

Starport D - Poor quality; Diameter 2 - 2,309 miles (3,715 km); Atmosphere 0 - Vacuum; Water surface 0 - 0%; Population 1 - 24 humans; Government 5 - Feudal technocracy; Law level 5 - Concealable firearms are prohibited; Tech Level 6 - Atomic age; Distance from primary 0.19 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/la21185.htm

Hex AO BG Brown dwarf: N/A. ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/wise0855.htm

Hex AO BH ​

Horus:

Starport B - Good quality; Diameter 8 - 7,781 miles (12,520 km); Atmosphere C - Insidious; Water surface A - 100%; Population 9 - 7,210,893,812 humans; Government D - Religious dictatorship; Law level A - All weapons are prohibited; Tech Level 7 -Information age; Distance from primary 0.8 AU; Primary type K0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 80 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/70ophiu2.htm

Hex AO BI ​

Crius:

Starport A - Excellent quality; Diameter 8 - 8,003 miles (12,877 km); Atmosphere 8 - Dense; Water surface 8 - 79%; Population 9 - 9,193,640,136 humans; Government B - Non-charismatic leader; Law level 9 - No weapons are allowed outside of one's residence; Tech Level A - Interstellar era; Distance from primary 12 AU; Primary type M0-9 III, II, Ia, Ib; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/gacrux2.htm

Hex AO BJ ​

Forseti:

Starport E - Frontier installation; Diameter 7 - 6,860 miles (11,038 km); Atmosphere 5 - Thin; Water surface 9 - 92%; Population 2 - 214 humans; Government 0 - No government structure; Law level 0 - No prohibitions; Tech Level 5 - Industrial age; Distance from primary 0.54 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/barnards.htm

Hex AO BK ​

Freyr:

Starport C - Routine quality; Diameter 6 - 5,523 miles(8,887 km); Atmosphere 8 - Dense; Water surface 5 - 50%; Population 3 - 2,765 humans; Government 4 - Representative democracy; Law level 1 - Body pistols and poison gas are prohibited; Tech Level 7 - Information age; Distance from primary 0.74 AU; Primary type K0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 1200 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/83leo2.htm

Hex AO BL ​

Loki:

Starport B - Good quality; Diameter 9 - 8,511 miles (13,694 km); Atmosphere 7 Standard, tainted; Water surface A - 100%; Population 5 - 755,780 humans; Government 1 - Company/corporation; Law level 1 - Body pistols and poison gas are prohibited; Tech Level 8 - Fusion era; Distance from primary 1.3 AU; Primary Type G0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars2/hr8734.htm

Hex AP B1 ​

Saegon:

Starport B - Good quality; Diameter A - 9,505 miles (15,294 km); Atmosphere 8 - Dense; Water surface A - 90%; Population 4 - 69,656 humans; Government 5 - Feudal technocracy; Law level 6 - Most firearms are prohibited; Tech Level A - Interstellar era; Distance from primary 0.45 AU; Primary type M0-9 IV, V, VI; Distance of wormhole from primary 50 AU; ​

http://www.solstation.com/stars/gl229.htm

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Here's a start:

 

[Thomas Bowman]

The setting date for Earth is 2491 AD the same as the first season of Buck Rogers in the 25th century. A few tech items are not available, no jump drives and no artificial gravity, and their are no reactionless thrusters. The bulk of the "fuel" carried by starships is reaction mass, the space that is normally allotted to jump fuel, but since we don't have a jump drive, there is no need for reactionless thrusters either, this keeps the cargo area for standard starships about the same, there is a separate fuel tank for the power plant. The power plant provides the energy for the maneuver drive. Since there is no artificial gravity except for the spin kind, then a lot of space colonies look like O'Neill cylinders. Typically these cylinders rotate inside hollow cavities within asteroids for radiation protection.

All the standard races are available in this setting, they started out less technologically advanced than the humans, but the wormholes connect up and down the timeline as well as to different places, in one world the years is 11,800 AD, that would be the planet Forsetti which orbits Barnard's star, about 3.8 light years from that is a ringworld in the Sol System, there is no wormhole leading to the Sol System in that time, so people wishing to go their will need a slower than light starship and a lot of patience, or low berths to conserve on life support resources to get there, this I leave up to the GM, if he wants to include this ringworld in his campaign, he could make a suitable starship available to the PCs for getting there, and if not, then the PCs can't get there and the ringworld is not a campaign consideration. All of the wormholes were made by ancient aliens called "the Others" this is a technology beyond the sophonts of today so no more wormholes are in prospect. Antimatter starships are an expensive option for small starships, most of the price goes into manufacturing the antimatter, the containment issues are insignificant compared to the price of the fuel, the other option is a black hole starship, black holes are used to power military starships, they are analogous to the nuclear reactors powering the aircraft carriers of the US Navy, their big advantage is it allows a starship to accelerate continuously for longer than a fusion powered ship, because of the physics of small black holes only large billion credit starships are large enough to channel the decaying black hole's power into thrust. A military expedition to investigate the ringworld seems likely, but that would also mean making the capital warship unavailable for military missions for the number of years it would take to get to the ringworld, and since the top speed is 50% of the speed of light, a round trip is about 8 to 9 years.

 

[dragoner]

Here's a start:

My philosophy behind my maps is that it could fit on a page and not be super tiny, and white background for easy printing. I thought about using a hex graphic, but that's just chrome, no more meaning for why there originally were hexes. Everything is charted with Cartesian coordinates so that Earth/Sol is 0, 0, 0; with other star systems positioned off Earth/Sol as the center, that means that from any two points using a distance calculator app online, one could find the distance. A whole map can be found at various places, Wiki, Atlas of the Universe, so that everything from this map is on there, I've just sectioned it out to make it more useable, as well as charted systems with Traveller UPP's and maps of some places such as Tau Ceti Prime: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Nearby_Stars_(14ly_Radius).svg

 

[Thomas Bowman]

My philosophy behind my maps is that it could fit on a page and not be super tiny, and white background for easy printing. I thought about using a hex graphic, but that's just chrome, no more meaning for why there originally were hexes. Everything is charted with Cartesian coordinates so that Earth/Sol is 0, 0, 0; with other star systems positioned off Earth/Sol as the center, that means that from any two points using a distance calculator app online, one could find the distance. A whole map can be found at various places, Wiki, Atlas of the Universe, so that everything from this map is on there, I've just sectioned it out to make it more useable, as well as charted systems with Traveller UPP's and maps of some places such as Tau Ceti Prime: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Nearby_Stars_(14ly_Radius).svg

That's great where distance matters, in my campaign, distance doesn't matter so much. You can move the ends of a wormhole around, but the internal distance through each wormhole remains the same, so I decided that a hex format makes the map more compact, and I can add more star systems to it. The internal distance through each wormhole is by the way, 18,289,152 kilometers and if a starship accelerated at half that distance turned around and decelerated the other half, it would take 1 day, which by the way, takes 1 minute for light or electromagnetic radiation to travel through. It takes on average about 7 hours for a radio transmission originating from a habitable planet in a system to get to a stargate, plus 1 minute for every wormhole the transmission gets sent though, and then another 7 hours to travel from that stargate to the receiving habitable would in the system, assuming a sun like single star in both cases. News travels much more quickly in this setting that in standard traveler with Jump drives.

For a starship accelerating at a constant 1 g with a mid point turnaround, it takes 20 days to travel 50 AU which is the standard distance of a stargate with wormholes, assuming a midpoint turnaround and slow down before entering the wormhole, as its not safe to enter a wormhole at speed as there is likely too much traffic inside at any given moment, and you only have 500 meters of width to the wormhole throat. So we're talking about 40 days plus 1 day for each wormhole traveled through to go from mainworld to mainworld. Slower than using a standard jump drive for travel, but faster for communication using that same jump drive. One can get there faster if they are willing to accelerate faster than 1-g and go into low berths so that acceleration is not felt. Starships tend to be tail landers, rather than winged affairs or wedge-shaped vehicles that land on their bellies rather than their tails, though their are analogs for each standard Traveller Starship.

Obviously a starship that traveled 50 AU from mainworld to Stargate needs to refuel at the station over there, 20 days acceleration and deceleration, uses about two thirds of the fuel for a standard operating duration of four weeks. The fuel gets mined from nearby comets and gas giants, fusion fuel, Helium-3 and deuterium gets mined from gas giants almost exclusively fortunately fusion fuel is not as bulky as reaction mass. One can tank up with twice the standard amount of fusion fuel and be able to cruise for 60 days assuming one can refuel their reaction mass (hydrogen) at mid point. So there is brisk business in fuel sales at the starport adjacent to the stargate, and the spaceports at each planet. Ships are constructed mostly at spaceports on planets or orbiting planets because that is where much of the workforce lives. spaceships can be repaired at starports, the repair bill us usually more expensive at a starport than at a spaceport, and few starships are ever constructed at a starport, because you don't have much of a workforce that lives there, so wages are high.

The planets and who lives there are much the same as you described in your PDF, the histories are somewhat different. Unlike your timeline, the Jump Drive was never invented, and artificial gravity involving the generation of artificial gravity fields was never a thing, everything else is the same however, but this does means that large space stations rotate to produce gravity. Only ships built with interstellar technology can accelerate constantly for up to four weeks, that would be tech level 10. At tech level 9, interplanetary era, spaceships accelerate up to a cruise velocity and take months to years to reach another destination within a star system, these are powered by solar energy, atomic fission or fusion, but their reaction based maneuver drives aren't as good. Freighters that move bulk goods where travel time is not as important, don't accelerate constantly at 1-g either, some of those freighters deliver fuel, mined from gas giants, to the fuel stations at starports and planet based spaceports.