[Stargate SG-1] World designation: how does it work?

[SurfMonkey01]

I've been looking through (and loving) the Stargate book... as I read, I keep getting all kinds of neat adventure ideas. There's something I can't seem to figure out, though. How does the SGC come up with the designations for worlds? For example, where does the designation given to Tollan -- P3X-7763 -- come from? Are the designations related to the gate address, stellar coordinates, or something else entirely? And how do I take all of these things into account when making and designating my own worlds?

 

[Brisk-sg]

I've been looking through (and loving) the Stargate book... as I read, I keep getting all kinds of neat adventure ideas. There's something I can't seem to figure out, though. How does the SGC come up with the designations for worlds? For example, where does the designation given to Tollan -- P3X-7763 -- come from? Are the designations related to the gate address, stellar coordinates, or something else entirely? And how do I take all of these things into account when making and designating my own worlds?

How the designations are created doesn't seem to be available anywhere. However, if you look at the list of designations on page 82 you can draw some logical conclusions.

Example: M4C-862

M likely stands for moon. Most of the designations use P (likely for planet). This is the only designation in the list that uses M at the beginning, and the Notes say it is in fact a moon.

The 2nd character (always a number*), is normally 2, 3, or 4. In my mind, this likely a descriptor of which orbit the object is in. In this case the moon is likely orbiting the 4th planet from the sun.

The rest of the character I have no clue about. Likely coordinates that deal with some sort of galacti map.

This is all a guess of course. They could also be totally random #'s thrown out the by the system, with only the 1st character meaning anything (I think it obviously is used for a Planet/Moon/other type designation).

<EDIT: * Correction, not always a number. Some of the designations don't fit the pattern I outlined. Except for the planet/moon descriptor, I am not sure about the rest>

 

[swrushing]

How the designations are created doesn't seem to be available anywhere. However, if you look at the list of designations on page 82 you can draw some logical conclusions.

i always thought the six character designation was the code for the stargate addresses.

 

[Brisk-sg]

i always thought the six character designation was the code for the stargate addresses.

I like the idea, but I don't think its the case because the majority start with P, there are several that are 7 characters long instead of the standard six, and why put a dash after the 1st 3 characters?

 

[dpmcalister]

A similar thread took place on the official forum about a month ago. My answer then was:

I've nothing to back this up (other than my own "hunch") but I think the designation breaks down as follows:

Letter (Planet, Moon, etc - I don't think I've seen any M type designations but I think it makes sense )
Number (type of world, e.g., 1 ice world, 2 desert world, 3 temperate world, etc)
Letter (status of world, uneXplored, Goa'uld stronghold, Tokra base, etc
Next available Number (like you said, 433 would be the world found after 432).

So, P2X-431 would be a desert planet that is currently unexplored...

Of course, this could all be complete rubbish

The original thread can be found at: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2926&highlight=planet+designations