RE: [OFFICIAL] Colony lists? (was:Re: Locations of Stars etc.)

On Friday, 27 November 1998 17:38, Ground Zero Games
[SMTP:jon@gzero.dungeon.com] wrote:
> 1) What do we want? ("We" being the list membership, as a particularly
> enthusiastic cross-section of FT/DS/SG players). A star map/colony
list
> that is as close to known astronomical data as possible, or one that
> applies a bit of artistic licence (as most SF authors do) and allows
> there
> to be planets wherever they best suit the storyline? If the latter, do
> we
> stick to "real" stars only, or make the whole thing up once we get
past
> a
> few LY out?

I would prefer that the we stick to the real universe as much as
possible, with any bendings being few and far between.	I am not opposed
to the idea of a Terra-type world around an M class star, I just don't
want them to be common.  Also, there is an extensive list of known
planets around some of the closer stars that could be useful in starting
to flesh out the game universe.

> 2) Of those people who use the "official" background, or a minor
> modification of it (on the assumption that those who hate the
background
> won't be interested in all this anyway!), do you actually WANT to see
it
> defined in this sort of detail, or left loose (as we have done so far)
> to
> allow more freedom to come up with your own colonies, campaigns etc.?

A little of both.  Define the major planets/systems, designate some
colony worlds (basically, just locate them on the map), and not also
something in the way of '...and 5 smaller resource systems around nearby
M class stars, and each player can determine where they are according to
their needs.

> Would
> you want to see detail of specific events/places in the timeline, and
> exhaustive lists of whose settlements are on which worlds etc.? This
> sort
> of background "fluff' is fairly easy to produce once you get it
rolling
> (provided it is carefully cross-checked for contradictions - I'm sure
> you
> guys (and girls - sorry Beth....) will gleefully go through it all
with
> fine-tooth combs... <grin>), but I am aware that some people can also
> see
> it as too restrictive on their creativity.

Not exhaustive, but a good core beginning.  For a more concrete example:
the detail in 2300AD Colonial Atlas is a bit too much for each world,
although I would like that detail on the main worlds (Core worlds and
capital worlds), while most other worlds should get a couple of lines,
like the worlds in GURPS Behind the Claw.

> Realspace "speed" will depend on frequency of jumps -  once out into
> interstellar space each jump is probably around 2  light-years for
> Military
> drives, 1 for Merchants. 

This is a great start, we can formalize these numbers fairly easily.  I
would prefer layovers to be more frequent than not, with warships
travelling faster than normal cruise speed needing more frequent
layovers.

vargr1							 UPP-8D9B85
---------------------------- Omnia dicta fortiora, si dicta latina.
Meyers-Briggs personality type: ENTJ		    vargr1@jcn1.com
"...the ENTJ is not one to be trifled with."	  dmoody@bridge.com