The Zhodani Base

It is now time for the first Summer Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest. First prize will be something for a traveller collector, the old Paranoia Press supplement “Merchants and Merchandise“. (Printed by Games Workshop)

The style of the entries should be in the style of the patrons in CT Supplement 6, 76 Patrons.

Some of my own examples can be found here:

• Extra Imperial Grav-Ball
• Sophonts Rights
• The Restaurant
• Deliver Medicine
• Environmentalist Demonstration

The contest starts now and ends 30 Sept 2009. Write as many entries as You like.

After the 30:th of September 2009, all entries will be posted on the Zhodani Base. Registered users (on the 1:st of July) and participants in the competition may then vote (using a points system) on the entries they like the most.

By entering the contest You allow your entry to be posted at the Zhodani Base. All entries might also be posted in PDF format as a free down-loadable file at the Zhodani Base.

All entrants will be given credit for their work and will retain the copyright on their entries.

Some general guidelines:

1, Each entry should be less than 1000 words.

2, One image may be used in each entry. You must either have the right to the image, or it must be used under some sort of free licence. Wikimedia Commons is a good place to find an image that You can use. Please provide information about the image. (Is it Yours? If not, where have You found it? What license is used?) Note: You don’t need to use an image.

3, Each patron should offer 6 options.

4, Each patron should be placed in the Foreven Sector. You can use the version of the Foreven Sector that can be found here.

5, Please don’t force the PCs to sign up for (what they think are) illegal activities. It is better if they find that out later, or in some way are forced to take illegal action…

6, Please use a spell checker!

Send Your entries by e-mail. Please use plain text format and attach the image, if You select to use one. Word files will not be accepted!

As an alternative, contributors to the Zhodani Base may log in and write their entries here. Entries posted that way will be made visible when all other are.

Please include a preferred nickname (that can be Your real name) to show on the Zhodani Base. If You expect to win, include an address to send the first prize to.

Two new big blank subsector maps has been added to the site. One with dark blue background, and one printable version. Both was made using QuickHex.

HexGIMP is a GIMP tool by Isomage that will help You make pretty maps.

I have used it to replace the abstact map in my Trading on PYLKAH adventure. This map might be more fun for the players, since they now have the option of taking alternative routes (which their guides will not recommend).

I thought I should try a variation on the big hex style. This time for an important star system in the Spinward Marches.

All planets (except Cipango) was made with GIMP plug-ins. The Cipango ring system was made with the planet rings GIMP plug-in. The planet Cipango was made from an old texture that I have used for other maps of Cipango.

The distances for the planets from their “sun” Cipango-Taiyoo is calculated using a modified Titius-Bode law. Using the formula below for the Cipango system:

a = 0.7 + 0.2 · 2 ^m

For our solar system the formula is:

a = 0.4 + 0.3 · 2 ^m

Where a is the distance in AU, and ^m is the orbit number. (Where ^m is 1 for Earth.) The modification of the Titius-Bode law was needed to fit two planet orbits into the habitable zone. This gives the Cipango system a total of 3 garden worlds.

Agatsu77 has now been promoted to “Contributor” at the Zhodani Base.

With the suggestion for a new hex style, I need a way to produce images of gas giants. I can do this (for free) with the gas giant plugin for GIMP.

Travelling between different places in a solar system takes time. Sometimes it will even be faster to make a micro (in-system) jump than using the M-drive.

When jumping to a system, it might be important to know where to get free fuel. If you have a cargo or passengers for the main planet, then it might not be economical to go to a gas giant (to get free fuel) in the outer system as well. Even if the main planet has oceans, you might not be allowed to refuel in these. If you don’t have any cargo or passengers or any other business to the main planet, then you might want to jump directly to the gas giant instead. There you can refuel and jump to the next destination.

How can you plot all the relevant information for a system in a hex on the subsector map? My idea is to divide the hex in six triangles, and show the most important planets with the important moons in each triangle. If there aren’t enough important planets, just leave some triangles empty. But as a minimum 2-3 triangles should have planets. I have put the gas giants in the right part of the hex, just like where the gas giant icon is usually placed.

This is my example for the Terra system. What do you think?

The first issue of the fanzine Frontier Report can be downloaded from the children of earth website.

It is really good. I am looking forward to the next issue.

There was some very sad news about JR Mapes, (a contributor to the Zhodani Base).

At his traveller blog You can find his cleaned up Spinward Marches data and some other goodies.

His posts at the Zhodani Base:

• Classic Traveller Game - S.E. Kansas - Starting June 2007
• GRiP Classic Traveller Game Starting May 2007
• Counters Rendering Machines

For his big contribution to the traveller community, the planet at position 1234 in Foreven Sector is now called Mapes. I selected this planet since it is a peaceful place. When we visit it, we will think of him. New version of Harem Subsector below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The biggest problem with this planet is that has TL-G and a population of zero. In the maps here at the Zhodani Base that uses data from Galactic, the population has been modified to reflect the situation a few years later. But in the original source (AM-3 Vargr) the UWP is:

0439 A000002-G     Lo nIn As   220Va  K8 V  M7 D

Okay, so we got 2 Vargrs running a class A starport at TL-G. That seems a bit unlikely… It might be that they have lots of robots running the starport and the TL-G production facilities. Where did all those TL-G robots come from?

Another idea is that the only thing they produce at their asteroid base is coffee, and that they once visited Darrian and bought an old coffee machine. When the Impie Scouts visited Aek Elakfough they noticed that the only thing produced was coffee from a TL-G coffee machine. So these scouts followed their scout protocol and noted that this was indeed a TL-G world… They also noted that the two Vargrs were engineers and could (if they wanted to) overhaul starships on their asteroid base. Voila, it must be a class A starport…

Another problem with TL-G for Vargrs are that on page 29 in AM3, the maximum TL for Vargr is F. But on the other hand, that is the same page that have a table for Aslan Morale.

Roger Malmstein has also tried to answer the questions about Aek Elakfough and has written a document about it.