We're feeling a bit restless, so we decided to try we haven't done for a while. Over the next few posts, we're going to randomly generate a planet using the Planet Generator rules in Chapter 26 of Starblazer Adventures. Today we're focusing on the random roles and the most elementary aspects of what those rolls mean. We'll be fleshing out this planet over a couple of posts, and the card from the Deck of Fate that I draw for tomorrow's Deck of Fridays will be part of the project.
You, Dear Reader, are invited to help build this world! Please comment and make suggestions to help flesh out the world we're creating. I've added some questions below each roll/result. Feel free to add your ideas in the Comments right below the post, or in G+ - whichever venue strikes your fancy.
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- Question: Is the dwarf planet orbiting close to the sun or further out in the system? Where is it?
ATMOSPHERE: I made four 1d6-1d6 rolls to determine the type of atmosphere; each roll came up 0, which means a breathable atmosphere. The rules say to re-roll results for dwarf planets that come up with a breathable atmosphere as the result, but after four successive rolls we're sticking with this result.
- Question: Why and how does this dwarf planet have a breathable atmosphere?
MOONS AND RING SYSTEMS: Two rolls here; our dwarf planet has a faint ring system, and several moons.
- Questions:
- What are the moons like and what are they made of? Let's assume the moons are smaller than the dwarf planet (otherwise, it would be their moon...)
- What is the faint ring system made of? Is there anything special about it?
POPULATION: Our roll for population size is -3; that indicates a population in the 1,000s. This is consistent with "Larger outposts/research stations, Newly settled worlds (terraformers)."
- Questions:
- What is the purpose of the settlement?
- Who lives here?
OK! That's probably enough for today! Post any ideas you have and we'll see where this dwarf planet takes us.
It's trap! Or the brown dwarf is actually the huge egg of a previously unknown metal entity/cosmic horror/eldritch abomination whose offspring needs a breathable atmosphere at this stage of their development. The "moons" are disguised sophisticated weapons used to clean off "bugs" (i.e the scientists /colonists) if they get too close. the ring is the remains of ancient (by our standards) humanoid sized alien colonists/scientists that got vaped by the moons.
ReplyDeleteWell, now this is certainly flavorful!
DeleteAnd I think there may be a couple of ways in which this place is a "trap".
DeleteThe settlement exists to figure out why this dwarf planet has an atmosphere, and to mine and commercialize the source of a peculiar electromagnetic property.
ReplyDeleteExtrapolating from Rhea: According to new data from the Cassini probe, the moon's thin atmosphere is kept up by the constant chemical decomposition of ice water on the surface of Rhea. It's likely that Saturn's fierce magnetosphere is continually irradiating this ice water, which is what helps to maintain the atmosphere. Researchers suspect a lot of Rhea's oxygen isn't actually free right now, but is instead trapped inside Rhea's frozen oceans (http://kotaku.com/5699149/saturns-moon-rhea-may-have-a-breathable-atmosphere)
The dwarf planet is on the extreme outer edge of the system, on the fringes of an asteroid belt. Some moons and rings are the result of collisions long ago; three have been affected by ancient technology to produce a peculiarly strong field which keeps the planet irradiated.
Yes, it is in the outer system, and the moons have shepherding qualities that lens radiation toward the planet.
DeleteGoing off of a tidbit in the dwarf planet description...
ReplyDelete...the breathable atmosphere is on the INSIDE. It's a hollow construct, like a mini-Dyson sphere. The ring is an orbital facility, as are the 'moons'. The population is explorers, researchers...or people with something to hide...or both...
I'm thinking there is breathable atmosphere on the inside, but maybe also some atmosphere on the outside, trapped in by the lensing shepherd moons.
DeleteI'm not sure the entire planet is artificial, but when people got here, they found some very finished layers underground.
I think you are also right that the population includes explorers and researchers, as well as people with something to hide.
Let's say it's as big as the moon. The moon has a low density, so the escape velocity is pretty low. This is one reason why the moon has no atmosphere. The other is the presence of the Earth which would skim some of the gas away by tidal forces. If the moon had the same density as the Earth (or a little higher) and did not have the Earth nearby, the moon might have a thin atmosphere. So, give this planet a large iron core.
ReplyDeleteThat was what I was thinking, too. Maybe it's an earth where the crust was stripped off, leaving an iron/nickel core (or something)
DeleteThen the settlement could be miners.
DeleteKind of like "Devil in the Dark"?
DeleteI would suggest that the moon had been "terraformed" several hundred years in the past. While it's leaking atmosphere since it hasn't been maintained, it will be quite some time before it returns to pre-terraforming levels.
ReplyDeleteYes, a lot of thinks are probably "running down" on this little ball.
DeleteFYI, folks: I'll be off to gaming shortly, so I'll be approving more comments and reading them later tonight!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not an astronomer so I don't know if any of this flies but:
ReplyDelete1) First thought was similar to earlier comments. It's frozen, at least on the outside, and it sublimates, creating the "atmosphere." Theoretically breathable, or it would be if there was enough of it, and if it didn't keep getting stripped away. In practice, it's not breathable. Except down at the bottom of some very deep fissures and crevasses, where just enough builds up, and some very interesting things live.
This planet was once much, much larger, but it is on a slow boil as the ice sublimates, leaving it a dwarf that is still slowly shrinking.
2) Second, its not an atmosphere so much as a very dense ice-fog. Almost a crystalline slurry. The entities that "breathe" it don't use lungs so much, more like the baleen of a whale. They strain the "atmosphere, filter, melt, and "drink" it. The waste product they leave behind extends like a bright blue trail through the ice fog behind each entity. There's nowhere for this waste to go, it just freezes and drifts there, and slowly builds up. Some parts of the "atmosphere" are now solid blue and the entities avoid these areas. One day, the whole surface will be blue and these entities will no longer be able to "breathe."
This can't have been going on for long, these entities must be recent arrivals. Perhaps mechanical? or biomechanical? They are only there to exploit some unknown resource, and by the time the "atmosphere" runs out, they will have moved on to greener pastures.
Either way, as you say, things are probably running out