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In this episode we discuss two of the systems generated by listeners in our Random Planet Generation Smackdown. We had considered doing more, but we’ll do two per episode until we’re done with them. We had got some nice mailbag comments, and we’ll do a recap of the last session of our Traveller campaign, Into the Void.  And of course we’ll hit a few Internet Finds.

Relevant links

• Basilisk Station: A Traveller Blog
• Art Gorski has made these awesome iPad apps for Traveller (mostly T5): https://naasirka.weebly.com/software.html
• Mongoose’s Traveller Fiction
• The Mighty Protectors page on Facebook – where you can find Weird News You Can Use !
• Gaming & BS Podcast

Jeff found some interesting items on the internet, and used them for inspiration for a planet and a game hook.

1. Inspiration:  Photo found on Internet of a small mining “island” at the bottom of a deep well.  Island is reminiscent of a sci-fi version of the computer game “Myst”
https://i.redd.it/94k99magyx541.jpg

Book 3 “Worlds and Adventures” (1981)
E – Frontier Installation (Marked spot on bedrock for landing)
Size: Asteroid
Thin atmosphere
20% water
0 inhabitants
No law level, no government
Abandoned outpost

2. Inspiration: Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators – Russian nuclear power sources for lighthouses, in great disrepair, but still radioactive.  Locating and transferring the cores to safety is very dangerous because of very short acceptable human exposure limits. https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/radioactive-waste-and-spent-nuclear-fuel/2003-11-radioisotope-thermoelectric-generators
Idea for session: The power source of a long-abandoned distant monitoring outpost is desired by a salvage company.

Random Planet Generation Smackdown

Krystian in the Chaste system
Submitted by Colin Turvey
X-260620-7, De,Ni,Ri,N

Orbits a class K5 star in its first orbit remarkably despite being a desert world it’s not just inhabited but bears a population in excess of 60 million mostly Belters as it’s a low gravity world with only one asteroid belt orbiting between it and it’s system’s sun.

It does have 3 gas giants it’s widely thought the massive amounts of oxygen permeating the system is the reason why Krystian remains inhabitable.

It was originally a prison colony particularly for political types despite the conditions the inhabitants and others continue to live here as a mark of defiance at their former oppressors.

The Naval base originally intended to prevent escapes now watches protectively over them such is the change of fortunes they have overcome.

Update:

Found a system generator the Chaste system now has a K5 type star with 8 orbits.

• Asteroid belt the main source of the Belters pay.
• Krystian
• Gas Giant
• Ember
• Gas Giant#2
• Leone
• Space Station (Naval base)
•  Gas Giant#3

Literally the molten remains of a much larger world the only residents live aboard the refinery station that orbits this dwarf planet as it literally has no solid landmass!

A Research base is also located aboard and is largely focused on discovering what happened to the Chaste system.

Aegle
Submitted by Ted Hale
C 454 227 9

Aegle was originally colonized by forced resettlement.  The colonists were families belonging to the “Salvation Tears” religion.   The organization’s rapid growth, and popular appeal was perceived to be a threat to several surrounding world governments.  The religion was designated a cult.

Aegle, an unpleasant hot world with a thin, toxic atmosphere, was also a world rich in unexploited bitumen and other petrochemicals.  Ling Petrochem saw an opportunity to fulfill a long unmet need for affordable labor on Aegle. The Subsector Duke and surrounding world governments wanted a politically acceptable means to rid themselves of the cultists.  A deal was struck between the Subsector Duke, Ling Petrochem, and the various world governments concerned. The cultists were rounded up and deported to Aegle.

Once settled, the colony went through a period of rapid, and sometimes violent, change in government form.  Theocracies gave way to autocracies, then dictatorships both popular and unpopular. Civil wars and bloody upheavals  left the remaining Aegle colonists with a disdain for violence and authority. The Aegle Colonists currently employ an informal participating democracy to govern themselves.  Their laws strictly prohibit firearms and violence. Spears are the most common form of weapon and are regarded as protection from local fauna, rather than from their fellow colonist.

Two generations later, the population of Aegle has dwindled.  Young people eschew the faith of their grandparents and yearn for easier lives.  Economic, academic, and social opportunities are quite limited on Aegle. Most Aeglians cannot afford passage out of the Aegle system.  It is widely held hat this is by design to benefit Ling Petrochem.

Aegle’s starport is little more than a Ling depot for the interstellar transport of Aegle’s petrochem commodities.  Ling and Aegle’s population are aware that the starport is a nexus for both human and illicit drug trafficking, but Ling Petrochem has not been inclined to address the problem, and Aegle’s government is ill equipped to stop it.