Random Subsector Generator

Anyone that has played any version of the Traveller RPG is familiar with subsector maps. These relatively small portions of space. Subsectors are areas of space 8 parsecs across by 10 parsecs down. One parsec is approximately 3.26 light years. An entire subsector covers an area about 26×33 light years in size. A four-by-four grid of subsectors is a sector.

I created a subsector that I am considering using for my campaign. Using the Random Subsector Generator over at The Zhodani Base, it created some ascii output of the subsector stats for me as well as a map. There are several options for output format, so I decided to get the map as a Postscript file, then converted the map from .ps to some images. I have generated many subsectors by hand, but using this tool took only about a minute. The Star System Generation rules from Book 6 Scouts was available and that is what I went with.

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Here is the map I generated w/ some custom options:

Sidhe Subsector (click for larger image)

Here are the Universal Planetary Profiles of the worlds contained in the Sidhe Subsector:

Subsector Format: name, some whitespace, coordinates (four digits between 0101 and 0810), some whitespace, starport (A-E or X) size (0-9 or A) atmosphere (0-9 or A-F) hydrographic (0-9 or A) population (0-9 or A-C) government (0-9 or A-F) law level (0-9 or A-L) a dash, tech level (0-99) optionally a non-standard group of bases and a gas giant indicator, optionally separated by whitespace: pirate base (P) imperial consulate (C) TAS base (T) research base (R) naval base (N) scout base (S) gas giant (G), followed by trade codes (see below), and optionally a travel code (A or R). Whitespace can be one or more spaces and tabs.

Trade codes:
Ag Agricultural Hi High Population Na Non-Ag
As Asteroid Ht High Technology NI non-Ind
Ba Barren IC Ice-Capped Po Poor
De Desert In Industrial Ri Rich
Fl Fluid Oceans Lo Low Population Wa Water
Ga Garden Lt Low Technology Va Vacuum

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Hopefully this will be of some use to me in the near future. There are many subsector and sector generators out there, but this seemed to suit my needs.

I noticed there were a lot of Red Zones (star systems that are forbidden entry by the Imperium or whatever explorers that charted them).
Red Zones can be anything from quarantine worlds, prison worlds, to low-tech systems that are not to be interfered with, etc. All of the best fun seems to be had in Red Zones!

The letters A-E and X denote the quality of the best Starport in the system with A being an excellent facility and E being a marked patch of ground. A Starport rating of X means there isn’t one present.

“Newer” subsector maps use slightly different color/symbol coded map key:

There is a Traveller Developers Pack available for FREE here: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/travdevpack.zip
It includes a lot of SRD material for the current iteration of the Traveller RPG, including information on subsector specifications.

In my first Traveller campaign, I played  a Scout character. He seemed to get into a lot of scrapes, but my luck held with me, as far as his survival was concerned. His reputation, however, went from respected space explorer to traitor of the Imperium and enemy of the Zhodani Consulate . Eventually he slipped away into uncharted regions to avoid the wrath of the humanoid races. After a few misadventures among new alien species (including a 2 year imprisonment for violating a highly advanced species’ turf), my Scout headed even further into unknown space and whatever happened to him in the end is a mystery. He most likely met a very colorful and tragicomic demise outrunning alien pirates dangerously close to a black hole or misjumping a pulsar or something.

I have a new subsector map… now all I need is a bucket of bolts used Scout ship, a few credits and some jump coordinates!

-Jeff
“Retro”