Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds and Adventures, page 1

Okay, let's get this thing going! We begin with the section on Worlds. And the very first line of the book is: "The referee has the responsibility for mapping the universe before actual game play begins."

Holy crap. The whole universe? Do we have that much graph paper? Whatever happened to the old, 'start small and build as the campaign goes'? How did anyone ever start a game of Traveller in the first place?!

Sure, the next line reassures the reader that the whole universe isn't necessary 'immediately.' Still. That's a daunting task if I ever heard of one. Are we starting with just a small galaxy, then? No more than a million stars?

Oh, this is interesting. 'In unsupervised play, one of the player scan generate worlds and perform mapping on a turn-by-turn or adventure-by-adventure basis.' So, this is a distinction between the referee and the players, yes? So the players can be involved in the creation of the game setting on their own time? Okay, that would be cool. Show up to the game session, and Bill has a ream of paper filled with planets he put together over the weekend. Pick one, and let's play.

Alright, that's just the first paragraph. This should be fun. Next up, the universe gets broken up into 'sub-sectors.' Not a sector? Just a sub-sector. Oh, and there's one a couple of pages over. Should I break my rule and look ahead? Tempting...tempting...just a peek...

Ah, fine. So, on page 3 there's a hexmap, with the hexes conveniently labeled in a pattern. It looks like it's a four-digit label, the first two digits giving you the column and the last two giving the row. And the grid is 8 by 10 hexes, so there are eighty hexes in a sub-sector. And now, back to your regularly scheduled read-through.

Each hex represents a jump number of 1, so if your ship has a Jump-2 engine, you can move two hexes with a single jump. So the Scheherazade can do that, which gives it a better range than a Jump-1 which can only go to adjacent hexes. Each hex is one parsec in width, or 3.26 light-years. So, a sub-sector is about 26 x 32.6 light-years across. Not quite galaxy-sized, then. The Milky Way galaxy, at approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter, would be 3,067 x 3,846 subsectors. That works out to almost 12 million sub-sectors. I'm going to go out on a limb and say nobody actually mapped a whole galaxy using Traveller rules. It certainly puts that whole 'map the universe' concept into perspective, doesn't it?

So, we map hex-by-hex to see which ones have worlds in them, as well as what kind, if any, of a starport exists in the system. Then the jump routes, or space lanes, are determined. I notice that the focus is on a world (and its star system) rather than on a star and its attendant planets. I suppose that makes sense; when you're playing, you're going to want to go to where the action happens, which is on a planet, not the star. But that does take away the idea of multiple worlds in a single system. Too bad. Still, rules are made to be broken, right?

Next, we're advised that one or two sub-sectors should be sufficient for a campaign, and that a sub-sector averages about 40 worlds. Well, that's not too crowded, I suppose. Oh, but that one or two sub-sector thing is just the beginning of the campaign; eventually, you'll do more mapping as the characters travel to 'parts unknown.'

We're only halfway down the page, by the way. Next, we begin Star Mapping.

First up, is there a world in the hex? Roll a die, and if you roll high (4-6) mark a circle inside the hex. Otherwise, leave it blank. That's how you get 40 worlds in a sub-sector; roughly half of the hexes will get worlds this way. You can, if you wish, modify the roll to make it a more crowded or sparse sector; just apply a +1 or -1 DM to the roll across the subsector (or to a part of it). Again, the focus is on 'world,' not 'star.'

Next, the starports. We have a table! Roll 2D, and mark the circle with the starport's designated letter. A-E, or X are the options. The most common type will be C (7 or 8 on the roll). There are no DMs indicated, so it's a straight roll. 2-4 is an A, 5-6 is a B, 9 is a D, 10-11 is E, and 12 is an X. Oh, but you can create your own starport table if you wish, if the one here doesn't suit your campaign needs. I would comment on how the starport distribution might affect game play, but I don't know what the starport letters actually mean yet. They will be described later. We are told, however, that starports will often have naval or scout bases (good places for characters to originate from), with a wide range of facilities. And starports are considered extra-territorial by the local planets, and thereby not subject to local law.

So, that raises an interesting question. Is the starport on the planet itself, or in orbit around it? Is it even near the planet, or is it halfway across the system? And that raises another bunch of questions. How does the jump system work? Are you jumping to a fixed point in the system, in which case the planet might be on the other side of the star? Is the jump point in orbit around the star, like a planet? Is it orbiting a planet like a moon? Interesting ideas. On the other hand, you might be calculating the jump based on the calculated orbits of the various celestial bodies; to jump from Earth orbit to a planet orbiting Rigel, for example, your jump computer needs to know where in the galaxy Earth is, where Rigel is, and where the target planet orbiting Rigel is, so you don't accidentally jump into a gravity well, or into the planet's core.

I like how the jump mechanics aren't defined (yet, at least), so these questions can be interpreted however the referee wants them to be. A fixed jump point means that infrastructure can grow around it in space, safely away from any planetary orbits. And everyone knows that orbital infrastructure is a great place to have adventures.

Route determination is next, but only part of it is on this page. I'll simply mention that the space lanes are charted, so it's easy to tell where the commercial traffic is going. However, just because the lane isn't charted doesn't mean you can't make that jump. The rest of the paragraph is on the next page, so we'll look at that next time.