The Zhodani Base

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

Patron: Civil rights activist
Required Skills: None.
Required equipment: None.

Players’ Information:
On a populated world, a guy whose job it was to monitor a dangerous natural / geological / biological situation has been abandoned by his former organization due to losing a war, but has continued on alone in his duties.

A ruthless and ignorant citizen of the conquerors has eyed his domicile and the compound he occupies for his own and intends to have the hermit removed by the new authorities.

Image from New York Public Library’s Digital Library. Public Domain

(more…)

Patron: Doctor, Surgeon
Required Skills: none
Required Equipment: Starship

Players’ Information:
The group is contacted by Dr. Annalise Nassline, a young medical doctor affiliated with a large medical center on Pylkan (Foreven 2834). She and her assistant seek passage to several of the less populated worlds in the Urnian Subsector.  They need middle passage for themselves and are traveling with an eight dton sealed standard shipping container.  She explains that the container is a mobile operating theater, and diagnostic lab.  The pair are on a mission of mercy, treating sophants on worlds with inadequate medical infrastructure.

 Image from Department of Defense. Public Domain

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Patron: Claims investigator/ISS Agent
Required Skills: Investigative skills and a total lack of psionic abilities.
Required equipment: None.

Players’ Information:
The characters are approached at any starport by a middle aged man in good quality casual attire. He has grey hair and an easy confident gait.

The man introduces himself as Gaillard Igsnakiir and says he has a job to offer. He says he is an agent of a legal claims company called “Spin for a Win”. He explains it is a small company and he is very stretched and needs some immediate help to tail and gather information about a man suspected of defrauding the company. He shows the Group a picture of a strange scrawny man wearing a Psi Shield helmet with a “lived-in” but intelligent face. The psi-shield has an unusual protrusion on the right hand side. He says the man is travelling under the name Eneri Fortune, but suspects that the man has used more than one identity.

He goes on to explain that the man took out a claim against the Imperial Secret Service for false imprisonment. The case went to imperial tribunal and Mr Fortune was awarded a large sum of money. During the tribunal Mr Fortune called a man named Liskaguur as key witness.

Gaillard Igsnakiir thinks he has been compromised and that Mr Fortune knows he is following him. The job is for the players to continue the investigation.

Image from wikimedia. This file is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

(more…)

The 76 Patrons Contest is over. The entries are posted above.

Registered users (on the 1:st of July) and participants in the competition may vote (using a points system) on the entries they like the most.

You can start sending in your votes now. Give the best patron 2 points, and give the second best 1 point. The participants may not give their own entries any points.

Today is talk like a Pirate day. How does a traveller space pirate talk?

Some say that pirates are not feasible in traveller. They say that the impies and/or other powers will swiftly crush any piracy.

I do not agree!

If we look at the planet earth, in the year 2009, we can see that piracy does happen in the most unexpected places. It doesn’t have to happen along the coast of a country in anarchy. It could even happen in the Baltic.

What happened (and why) to the ship Arctic Sea could absolutely be transformed into a traveller adventure.

Remember that a pirate could also be a privateer. Then the pirate would be a lot easier. A pdf-file about privateering in traveller can be downloaded here.

Pirates doesn’t only have to operate corsair ships built using book-2. They could also use old warships or government sponsored privateers build using book-5 rules. That would give the pirates a better fighting chance.

Alex Schroeder has made a very nice subsector mapping tool.

The interface is simple, and it produces nice looking svg maps.

IE might have problems showing the map.

Firefox will work fine.