The Zhodani Base

It is now time for the second Summer Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest. For those who thought last years prize was just for collectors, I have something for you that I hope everyone (and your kids) can enjoy. This years first prize is “The Space Warriors” by Stewart Cowley, who also wrote the TTA books.

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

Last years winning patron (by Raz) can be found here:

• Universal Health Care

Two of my own patrons can be found here:

• Deliver Medicine
• Environmentalist Demonstration

The contest starts now and ends 30 Sept 2010. Write as many entries as You like.

After the 30:th of September 2010, 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) for 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 may use the version of the Foreven Sector that can be found here at the Zhodani Base. (You don’t have to use this version.)

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.

Some help: (That you don’t have to use.)

• Foreven Sector Maps
• Foreven LBB style Maps
• Foreven WriteUps

You may use Mongoose Traveller rules to design something for your patron, since the Zhodani Base now has a Foreven Free Sector License.

Since I think these ideas were quite good, I’ll repost them here. It is probably quite difficult to dig these up from the OTEATP group where I first posted them.

These are just some of my thoughts about how to build a simple adventure, and not meant as criticism to anyone. Take a look at at, and tell us what You think and add Your own ideas to it, and then we will eventually have an adventure cookbook.

So, when we run out of ideas, lets have a look at this: (Don’t follow the parts of the recipe that You don’t like!)

1: There is a theory that there are only 36 different dramatic situations. (Hey, 36 You say, then we can toss the coyns, very CT indeed, or use the red dice white dice thingie…) These situations are listed here.
Use one or two of them…

2: Adapt the situation to the CT universe.

3: Use an encyclopedia, and look up two or three words at random, and include these in the adventure.

4: Look in an online newspaper, and pick two or three minor events, and adapt these to the CT universe.

5: Use an idea from Your favourite television action program. (But not from “Murder she wrote”)

6: Use a really strange idea from your favourite television sci-fi program.

7: ???

8: ???

etc…

99: Put it all together.

Thoughts or ideas?

Image copyright expired. Public Domain.

The big long-distance ski-race Vasaloppet is on today. It is run from Sälen to Mora (9o km). This has inspired me to think about a long distance space race.

We are all familiar with the planet Mora in the Spinward Marches. That should be the goal. As far as I know there is no planet named Sälen, But there is a planet named New Salen in Vland Sector. That should be the start of the race.

Some ideas for the race. All the ships should start at the same time from the ice-caps of New Salen. The first ship to land on the main starport at Mora is the winner. There could be hundreds or even more ships in the race. There should be a huge prize for the winner, since the ships has to spend several months in this race. It should be sponsored by Megacorporations and by nobles at the planet the race passes. There can be a number of classes depending on jump-drive. To avoid that ships try to do a “controlled” misjump, there should be a number of mandatory planets that has be be passed (in order and within a time limit). No violence (or other forms of cheating) will be allowed during the race.

The mandatory planets to visit might be Vland,  Twophur, Kaasu and Deneb. The fastest ships in the race would usually just refuel and continue. The slower might stay for a few days, making repairs and going to parties. A tradition in the race could be to pick up a cargo of Vilani ale at Vland, and on every planet where the ship makes a longer stop, contribute with a part of the cargo to the local race party.

Image from Traveller Map.

Adventure ideas:

The PC’s are taking part in the race in the J-3 class. This year there is a special prize. The winner of the J-3 class will get a contract to deliver all ale from a Vland brewery for a year. Since this is a very nice price for a fast independant ship, there will be some cheating. By others, that will slow down the PCs ship. And by the PCs, as a revenge. Will the PCs win, or will they be disqualified?

The PCs could be hired for a rescue mission, when one of the ships has tried to do a “controlled” misjump and missed the deadline of one of the mandatory checkpoints.

The PCs can be part of a team of ships that each will try to do a “controlled” misjump with the hope that one of them will go in the right direction and win the race. Then the PCs can end up wherever the referee wants them.

Yet another book that I recently read was Stranger in a Strange Land (the 1991 version), by Robert Heinlein. I bought this at the Fantasy Centre last time I was in London.

This is one book that I know I ought to have read a lot earlier, but as always there is never time enough to do everything I want to. Since this is one of the most well known books by Heinlein I felt that I had to read it. It is also important since this is the book where the word “grok” was invented.

The first part of the book is very interesting. The human Valentine Michael Smith, who has been raised by martians has problems with the Terran humans and their rules and cultural values. The martian ways of doing things are very different. This can be an inspiration when dealing with aliens in Traveller.

The second part of the book is just a religious rambling (with lots of sex). For me this part of the book was just silly, but others have founded religions based on it.

Finally, there is the Ultra-Condensed version.

T Pyxidis is a star that we have heard about in the news recently. The scientist Dr Sion claims that it will go supernova quite soon and threaten the earth. Other scientists say that this is not the case.

In any case, T Pyxidis is an interesting object that will be interesting to study. Especially in the Far Future when we can go there. It is only 1000 parsecs away. It will only take about 4 years to go there with an average speed of jump-5. So lets equip a 100-kton scout-cruiser and go there! It will be an epic adventure.

Image from NASA. Public Domain.

Only referees should read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

What is the point of having a Zhodani Base page at Facebook?

I hope that this will be a good way to get in contact with the readers and users of the Zhodani Base. I hope we can share ideas. I hope I can get some input on what I will post, before I actually post it here on the Zhodani Base.

Join the Zhodani Base at Facebook, so that You will get the latest news of what is going on, and so that You will also have a chance to influence what I am writing here.

Cool, a new traveller product to review.

First we need to understand that Twilight Sector is not located a few sectors rimward of the Solomani Rim. It is not even located in the Official Traveller Universe. It is located in an entirely new Alternative Traveller Universe.

How dare they? Heretics!

Well, this is actually a good thing. I have hoped for a long time now that someone would dare to make a commercial product for a new TU. The reason for this is all the problems there are with the OTU and that there are always some whining canon-heads that complains when you try to do something creative.

There have been other attempts to create other alternative traveller universe to get around the problems with the OTU. Two examples are Proto-Traveller and Dark Hunter. I have even tried to make my own traveller universes. One based on the Elite game, and one based on history.

In the Twilight Sector Campaign Setting Sourcebook we get a very good description of the history of this universe and of the Major powers. There are also many pages of library data in the end of the book. This is very useful since it is a new setting, and no old library data can be used if you want to play in this TU.

There are a few interesting differences from the OTU. First, there are no aliens (but there have been one or more ancient races). There are mutants instead. Maximum jump range is 8 (not 6). There are also interstellar radio with messages travelling up to 8 parsecs in a week.

Since the book is called Twilight Sector, I would have guessed that it would be a bit like other sector books (Rim of Fire, Behind the Claw or Gateway to Destiny.) But it wasn’t. There is no full description of a traveller sector with maps and UPPs for every world. Instead we get a very good description of half a subsector (6 worlds and two space stations). That was a bit of a disappointment when I had hoped for something else.

One of the worlds described is a copy of Earth called Terra/Sol. Even though a copy of Earth seems a bit silly, I am looking forward to read about why and how it was made. The ancients in this TU must have been much more powerful than Grandfather in the OTU. Maybe even as powerful as Slartibartfast.

In the book there are many nice images. Some are in colour. Some (like the cover) are a bit sexist. The worlds described have nice isodecahedron worldmaps and nice system maps. But the subsector map is quite ugly and not at all of the same quality as the other illustrations.

I really hope that Terra/Sol games will publish more books about this interesting TU. I also hope that this will inspire other publishers to make their own Traveller Universes.

Image used with permission. Part of Twilight Sector Carnival at Atomic Array.

Want to learn more about Twilight Sector? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Twilight Sector (Atomic Array 034)
• Game Cryer: Review by Chris Perrin
• Apathy Blogs: Something New For Traveller
• Rogue Puppet: A Role Player’s Dream is Discovered
• Examiner.com: Review by Michael Shorten

Drop by Terra/Sol Games today!

Review written as part of the Twilight Sector Carnival at Atomic Array.

The votes have been counted. The winner of the first Summer Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest is Raz with his Patron called “Universal Health Care“. w00t!

Image from wikimedia. License: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0

In the free download form Hell Creek Sanitarium there was a map with a printable background. Here is the not so printable version of the map for those who like a darker background.

This map is based on the data (by Dylango) of Rull Subsector of the Foreven Sector found at the Zhodani Base. The differences are that the borders have moved a bit and that there are trade routes added.

You may now vote on which of the “Patrons” you think are the best.

The Patrons You can vote for are:

• Luck Handi by Jeff
• Universal Health Care by Raz
• The Hermit by Matt

Only registered users and participants in the competition may vote on the entries they like the most. Everyone else may still express what they think by posting comments.

Give the best “Patron” 2 points, and give the second best “Patron” 1 point. The participants may not give their own entries any points. Send in your votes using e-mail.

The voting ends on October 24:th.

Image from wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License