My Wormhole Map: Traveller

[Thomas Bowman]

So ... a uniform 2D map would either need to flatten the galactic disc, or would have to give up putting nearby stars (in real space) close to each other in the stargate graph. Or, the map could give up uniformity, say, making “panes” of close regions, but assembling the planes randomly, or by having a single designated center which began with nearby stars being close in the graph, but more and more separating stars as 3D volumes overwhelmed the 2d space available to fill. Flattening the galactic disc would look random locally, but would put a cap on the ratio of 2d distances relative to 3D distances.

Thx!
TomB

Yes there is that, but my stargate map doesn't include all the stars, a lot of red dwarf stars were not included, though some are, this avoids the problem of having 90% red dwarf stars on my map, if we're doing it realistically, and I think players would grow tired of seeing an enourmous red dwarf in the sky than never rises nor sets. We could have a few planets like that, but lets not go crazy! Also these wormholes also cross the barriers of time. There is no reason why some of these stargate couldn't lead to a planet outside our galaxy. How about a planet with a nice view of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the spiral arms and core hub completely visible in a dark night sky that just has other galaxies in it? the future and past mingle with each other as well.

 

[tomBitonti]

Yes there is that, but my stargate map doesn't include all the stars, a lot of red dwarf stars were not included, though some are, this avoids the problem of having 90% red dwarf stars on my map, if we're doing it realistically, and I think players would grow tired of seeing an enormous red dwarf in the sky than never rises nor sets. We could have a few planets like that, but lets not go crazy! Also these wormholes also cross the barriers of time. There is no reason why some of these stargate couldn't lead to a planet outside our galaxy. How about a planet with a nice view of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the spiral arms and core hub completely visible in a dark night sky that just has other galaxies in it? the future and past mingle with each other as well.

How many stars are included isn't the issue*. The problem is the conversion from 3D to 2D. Either you end up with more or less random connections between stars, or you loose uniformity (basically, there being a center to the map, which more or less puts close stars close to each in the 2D map, but loses that property as you move away from the center).

(*Actually, since the galactic disk is about 1000ly across, and an most usual distance between stars in the disk at about 6-7ly, I'm thinking you could take about 1/150 stars and have a flat map, absenting the core of the galaxy, and absenting globular clusters, both of which are a lot denser than the rest of the disk.)

There is no problem if there is no correspondence between 3D distances and the 2D placement on the star map. However, that does make for problems if you need to physically transport the worm hold endpoints between 3D endpoints to setup a worm hold route.

I kindof like the idea of having "cells": smallish regions of space which have a flattened map centered on a single star in the region, and, then having connections between regions only at the core star, with a 3D lattice between the core stars.

Thx!
TomB

 

[dragoner]

The issue with flattening the galactic map, is that after about 12 light years out from the Earth, you start to get crowded, and that stars that sit in one hex next to each other are in fact 12 light years apart. However, Omer and the folks over at Stellagama Publishing did do a good job making a near stars 2d hex map: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192332/Near-Space?

 

[Thomas Bowman]

The issue with flattening the galactic map, is that after about 12 light years out from the Earth, you start to get crowded, and that stars that sit in one hex next to each other are in fact 12 light years apart. However, Omer and the folks over at Stellagama Publishing did do a good job making a near stars 2d hex map: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192332/Near-Space?

Yes I realize this, but if you skip over the red dwarfs this eliminates some of the problem, and you can be selective about which stars you include in the network as well, some of the non-garden worlds that are inhospitable to life aren't included in this network. the stars that are closer to Sol have planets that were terraformed, so the frequency of habitable planets is higher there, further out there are just natural garden worlds, and they aren't as frequent, some non-garden worlds are included including worlds of all sizes vacuum worlds included, but the frequency of garden worlds is actually much rarer in real space The Traveller rules for generating mainworlds gives a much higher frequency of worlds with breathable atmospheres than would actually occur, so the wormhole network skips over a lot of the "duds" as it were, so crowding is not actually a problem, and if you go far out enough, the Galaxy flattens at about 3,000 light year thick spiral arms, at a large enough scale, the Milky way is 2-d.

 

[dragoner]

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.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Yes they can be interesting, when taken in moderate amounts, however 90% of all stars are red dwarfs, it gets kind of monotonous after a while, I like to balance those out with other kinds of stars even though they are less common, and having a wormhole network gives me a good excuse to do that rather than creating a real space map showing an unrealistic percentage of type K, G, F, A, B, and O class stars, I also managed to get a few red giants in there, and they aren't very common at all. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. I'm going to look at your map in a little bit. One of the advantages of the wormhole network is that it is a build thing, some kind of intelligence went into its construction, and every system is connected to it for a reason, its not just random happenstance, in this instance it was built by aliens 1 billion years before the campaign begins.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Here it is as a download link, it is meant to be near future, realistic star map around Earth (over 100 star systems) all plotted and stat'd out with UPP's -

http://dragonersdomain.com/forum/download/file.php?id=739

It's a work in progress, but it will be my next campaign I run with Classic Traveller/Cepheus Engine or M-Space.

I loved that Buck Rodgers TV program as a kid, and it seems like you have highly detailed your setting, next is probably adventure hooks for it?

I have to say, Wow, that's a lot of work!
My setting is based on the 1970s television show Buck Rogers in the 25th century, but perhaps with a bit less of the "cheese" and the women throwing themselves at Buck Rogers like he some sort of superstar, one thing is true however Princess Ardala, a planetary ruler of Mars in the Sol System did bring Captain Rogers out of Cold sleep, her dad is the Ruler of the Draconian Empire, who's capital is Draconia in the Sigma Draconis system. The Earth is recovering from a nuclear war which happened in the mid-21st century, a nuclear war with the invading forces of Draconia, after the destruction, the Draconian forces decided not to occupy Earth itself, the junk belt created by the war, and the destruction and devastation on the Earth's surface was too much for the Draconians to deal with, so they settled for colonizing Mars instead, and the Draconian princess Ardala was put in charge of it. Ardala had this idea of using Captain Rogers to gain control of Earth itself. the Draconians over the following centuries lost interest in Earth itself, all except Ardala, who is one among many heirs to the throne on Draconia, she is trying to gain the attention of her father by conquering or colonizing Earth itself for the greater glory of Draconia, and so that she may gain suitable favor and become Empress herself when her father dies, she also has a crush on Captain Rogers and wishes to marry him, but he does not return that affection and does not wish to be a political pawn, not to rule as a regent of Earth by the princess's side, he is grateful for the rescue, but has eyes on someone else.

The Earth has a representative government with a leader Director Huer, and Captain Rogers wants no part of Ardala's scheme to overthrow that or conquer it. Ardala does love Captain Rogers, but is a bit forceful and demanding, and is a spoiled princess with a very big ego and a short temper, thus Captain Rogers is a bit eager to stay out of her clutches and has feelings for General Wilma Dearing instead. the General herself is a bit standoffish, and a bit suspicious of Captain Rogers because Princess Ardala was the one that brought him to Earth as part of a diplomatic deception to takeover Earth.

The Capital of Earth is in New Chicago, an Archology built upon the ruins of old Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan. the Terran forces have begun recolonizing the Solar System, and have taken back the Asteroid Belt and Venus with the Princess still holding on to Mars itself, she feels neglected by her father, but feels that if she asks for too much help, then the Imperial Throne will go to one of her sisters or brothers instead of her, she feels she has to prove she is worthy of the throne and believes that capturing Earth will do it for her.

 

[dragoner]

I have to say, Wow, that's a lot of work!

Thanks, and there is a lot more, I have developed Universal Planetary Profiles for every planet in every star system with maps, much of it basic by going through Heaven and Earth. It started from a desire to have two things: A realistic, useable in game star map, and have a future that doesn't start with Earth dying.

If using 70's TV Buck Rogers, I would leave much of the cheesiness in, as that is much of it's charm.

 

[Morrus]

The issue with flattening the galactic map, is that after about 12 light years out from the Earth, you start to get crowded, and that stars that sit in one hex next to each other are in fact 12 light years apart. However, Omer and the folks over at Stellagama Publishing did do a good job making a near stars 2d hex map: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192332/Near-Space?

I took that and ran with it.



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.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Thanks, and there is a lot more, I have developed Universal Planetary Profiles for every planet in every star system with maps, much of it basic by going through Heaven and Earth. It started from a desire to have two things: A realistic, useable in game star map, and have a future that doesn't start with Earth dying.

If using 70's TV Buck Rogers, I would leave much of the cheesiness in, as that is much of it's charm.

I like the first season better than the second, the second adopts the "Star Trek format". The first season deals with intrigue between the Terrans fighting to maintain their independence and the Draconian Empire which wants to conquer them. So this campaign is based more on the first season Buck Rogers than the second, one feature of the first season is this dependence on stargates for interstellar travel, I like it first because it addresses the problem of interstellar travel, there are a system of stargates which the heroes use to move from planet to planet. One oversite is that the heroes don't go to any other part of the Solar System besides Earth, we know very little about what the rest of the Solar System is like, also the stargates in the television series appear closer than the ones I placed on my map, basically around single star systems, they are the approximate distance as Pluto. it take a while to get there even if accelerating at 1-g. Buck Rogers seems to use his Starfighter for every thing, he makes personal trips in it, he fights bad guys in it, it might as well be a starship, and it travels through stargates just fine. Being stuck in a cockpit for days at a time is a little annoying, but not unendurable, this is no worse than that faced by the Mercury astronauts after all.

I think certain concepts within the show need to be updated. You have Doctor Theopolis, that is an AI in a medallion that is carried around by a miniature anthropomorphic metallic robot named Twiki. Basically they are droids just like in Star Wars except Doctor Theopolis has no arms and legs. The concept of an internet seems to be lacking in this series. So what happens if we make Doctor Theopolis a free willed disembodied AI program? That way he gets to live on the internet instead of in one particular piece of hardware such as that Medallion that Twiki carries. Living in a body that has no arms and legs and being unable to travel through the internet is something of an inconvenience. In a more modernized version Doctor Theopolis would be uploading and downloading all over the place, maybe he is a virtual human, that is a human simulated by software, lives in a virtual house with a virtual wife and children and eats virtual food, though that may be going a little far. the story takes place more in real space that in cyberspace, and Theopolis is a supporting character. Twiki, well I don't know what to do with him, I suppose he could be a sort of maintenance robot much like R2D2.