1001 Planets [Space]

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I am getting a distinct sense that these worlds were not all generated in strict compliance with the many, many, many, many detailed pages of star system creation rules in GURPS Space.

C'mon guys, they filled over a quarter of the book with rules to painstakingly generate realistic uninhabited ice balls and gas giants -- you could at least use them.

Hey I randomly generated Ereshkigal, Gilgamesh, and the Eresh and their whole binary system. It's just that the rest of it is pretty boring.

[ericthered]

This is almost strait from my game notes:

Borlo

Gravity: 0.9
Average Temp: -5
Hydrographics: 62%
Air Pressure: 1.06
Size: 0.81

Borlo is a cold world, the native life growing slowly on it. most human habitation was originally around the equator, in a belt of perpetually tropical not freezing. Farther north is dominated by glaciers and ice caps. While Borlo is almost 40% land, most of its life lives in the oceans. Borlo's atmosphere is almost perfect for earth life. gravity is a little lower and air pressure just a touch higher.

In a strange quirk, Borlo's seasons are quite close to those of earth -- in timing at least. The year is 364 earth days (one less than earth) and its day about 12 minutes longer than 24 hours, giving it 360 days in a year. The seasons are thankfully a touch less extreme than on earth, but due to reasonably high eccentric orbit there is a temperate side of the planet and a seasonal side of the planet. The original colony and capital is on the seasonal side.

Borlo has what seems to be a fully mature set of organisms with a long fossil history -- most of which is locked in ice.

One of the strangest creatures is the octopus ball-- a spherical core surrounded by six dozen (72) tentacles that can be formed into a variety of shapes. Some float through the ocean filter feeding, while others are vicious predators. The 'medusa's head' is a particularly fearless creature that grows up to 6 feet across.

Lower land life is dominated by worm-like forms with large manipulators just before their heads.

Higher land life generally has six limbs, an agile trunk, and a long tail. The skeleton is mostly internal but built as porous plates and tubes. Eggs are laid in a stash of food which is then slathered over with a hardening protective layering from organs near the mouth.

-------------------------------------------

In the campaign in which it was used, Borlo was the site of an alien colony, with its remnants now locked in ice and scattered over the planet. Artifacts from the aliens sold for large amounts. This could fit any role in a setting from being a source of well-established precursor artifacts to being the only planet with signs of alien existence.

Yes, it was generated with space. Or rather picked from a collection of worlds generated with space.

[Astromancer]

Pollyhymnia

Earthlike Garden world.

G 1.04
Atm. Psi 16
Y 0.97 Std
D 1.1 Std

Pollyhymnia, named for the muse of sacred song, is a reasonably Earthlike world. There is a higher percentage of land to ocean than Earth, but only about four-fiths as much arable land. There are no fossil fuels known and useful ore deposits are vanishingly rare. The seasons are somewhat more intense than Earth's because of a thirty-two degree axil tilt. Still, the climate, if less comfortable, is manageable. If Pollyhymnia weren't so far off the main trade routes, it would have massive enthusiastic human settlement.

Instead, Pollyhymnia is a dumping ground for disruptive and criminally annoying religious and philosophical groups. These people fall between annoying but leave them in peace groups and clearly criminal groups. These people are neither raping and murdering their neighbors nor are they merely nuisances. These people are always disruptive trouble and constantly breach the civil liberties of their neighbors. Being exiled to Pollyhymnia is always a long process. Before a group is exiled to Pollyhymnia Civil Liberties groups always fight to make sure the merely obnoxious are never sent, only those that truely make the lives of their communities impossible but aren't a danger to themselves.

To put it mildly, no one wants to vacation on Pollyhymnia.

[AlexanderHowl]

I'll'ha (Standard Garden World)

I'll'ha is the homeworld of the I'll'ha'ma, an exothermic species that bears a rather charming resemblance to the duck-billed platypus. Early in their history, their servitor robots, the I'll'to'fo, decided that they could handle things better than their creators and gently made their creator bio-trophies. As bio-trophies, the I'll'ha'ma live a life of extraordinary ease as their every need and every want is granted by the I'll'to'fo (generally resulting in the I'll'ha'ma being stoned out of their gourds while engaging in sexual orgies). On occasion, one of the I'll'ha'ma will actually be driven to do something, and the I'll'to'fo will indulge their requests because they are still geniuses (the average I'll'ha'ma possesses IQ+4 and Gadgeteer, so inventing is as natural to them as breathing, they just got bored with everything when they reached TL12 millions of years ago).

I'll'ha possesses a lower density but large radius than Earth, so it possesses equivalent gravity. It's primary is a F4 star, but I'll'ha is distant enough to have a Cool climate. The entire system is highly developed and dominates an interstellar polity with a radius of 50 ly that includes 1400 systems.

[Astromancer]

Poimandres

Poimandres was a deity of initiation. After it was discovered that the bizaar Piezoelectric properties of the local minerals made learning or improving psi-powers easier, e723-Wolf1246z 4 was renamed Poimandres. The star e723-Wolf1246z was renamed Trismegistus.

Poimandres is on the edge of being to cold and dry to be a Garden world. The planetary radius is 79% of Earth's. Not that far above the bare minimum to retain a molten core, a magnetosphere, and an atmosphere. Poimandres in many ways resembles a pulp fiction/space opera take on the planet Mars. No planet wide canal systems, ten legged lions, or naked princesses (well some people, mainly women, dress up as Dejah Thoris. Normally it isn't pretty).

The planet is mainly divided into New Age resorts where the rich go to become psions. Some of these are effective! And bases that study psi-powers.

The New Agers are tolerated as screens and distractions that create enough noise to hide the real research. There are also genuine spiritual seekers and mystics on the planet too. They tend to support themselves as staff at the New Age resorts. Yes, the wait staff is more likely to be composed of real mystics and psis than the Gurus.

Life on Poimandres can be surreal.

[PTTG]

Barren, Small (Rock)
Trace atmosphere, 0% hydrographic coverage
Average surface temperature 236K, or -270f
Blackbody Temperature: 245K

Density: 0.7 Earth Densities (3.86 g/cc)
Diameter: 0.53 Earth Diameters, or 4250 miles (6840 km)
Surface Gravity: 0.371 G (3.6 m/s/s)
Mass: 0.104 Earth Masses

Atmospheric Pressure: Trace
Resources: Very Abundant (17 on the dice, I swear to god)
RVM +2, Habitability 0.

Outpost by fiat.
Population 25,000.
World Govenmnet; Caste-based society. No special conditions.
CR5 by fiat to fit a caste-based society living on a barren rock.
Per-capita income: G$21,000; Typical Wealth: Struggling.

Binary Star System
Old Population I Star System. 6.8 Billion years old.
Very Close Orbit, .15 AU radius. 0.5 Eccentricity, 0.075 to 0.225 AU separation.

Primary Mass: .45 Sols
Primary: M1 (3600K), Main Sequence. Luminosity 0.07.
Radius: 0.00316 Solar Radii

Secondary Mass: 0.1 Sols
Secondary: M7 (3100K), Main Sequence. Luminosity 0.0012.
Radius: 0.00055 Solar Radii

I = 0.045 AU
O = 18 AU
Snow Line = 1.28 AU

Going to skip a lot of this because it's now clear that anything within the snow line would get disrupted by the companion. Does anyone really want me to generate a couple dozen frozen rocks orbiting a pair of dim red stars?

As far as the settlements go, the planet is very much like a large Ganymede, making it pointless for most purposes. It might have some exotic ices represented by the high resources, but maybe new technology has advanced past the need for them, leaving the colony behind. Meanwhile, they were already out of date thanks to being a bit of a backwater, so today they mainly get by on exporting meager amounts of ices and metals and survive on nuclear fission using local radioactives.

[Daigoro]

A planet write-up from one of the collaborative threads:

Spoiler:  

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 97 by (E)
Whats the most infamous port/habitat/planet when it comes to illegal activity and piracy?

Answer
Pirate Haven- Repouso da Sinhá
The Yami system contains a jump port at its 4th world, Yamaniratha, and a population base on its first planet, the world of Repauso, which is a world of contrasts, both physical and societal. It is where pirates and privateers come for improvement to their own body or their ship's.

Mining Colony
First known as Sengupta-Bennet Survey SBR-2709-091a, this medium-sized, close-orbiting, tide-locked chthonian planet was initially developed in the 28th century by Adhikari Sector Materials for stellogenic tritium collection and harvesting crustal and magnetosphere-borne exotic matter created by coronal mass spallation. That is, the heat and energy of ions streaming off the extremely close-by star would produce useful particles in the planet's surface and fly into its magnetosphere to be collected.

The colony grew steadily and uneventfully, gained some manufacturing plants for hyperplasma inverter components, and began to be referred to as Yami Ankha by its majority Hindi and Gujarati inhabitants. The main base of Dholavira was located near the dark pole, with other blister habitats spread around the dark hemisphere. Deployment stations for the giant rolling crustal harvesters were stationed just along the terminator behind tall rock embankments, while great towering funnel-like magnetic particle traps were set up at the planet's magnetic pole. Normally, an industrial world of this nature would build a space elevator, but being tidally locked there wasn't the required centrifugal force to do so. Other in-system industrial infrastructure demands were met by a jump port and fuel refinery/depot at the gas giant 091d, Yamaniratha, and a modest orbital starship component manufacturing industry followed.

Pilgrimage Site
Being an industrial world in a harsh, dangerous, hot environment, most workers chose various levels of chromosomal tinkering, but were not seriously politically aligned with Diverger sentiments. But that all changed considerably in 2855, with the arrival of Sinhá Amelzita. Amélia Filomena Goto de Sena, aka Sinhá Amelzita, aka Sinhá de Bambu, founder of her own spiritual movement promoting "harmonic geneplexes," the Bosque de Bambu- an emerging major Diverger cult- arrived on Yami Ankha as the 10th stop on her Path of Willows quest she says was revealed to her in a hyperspace dream. On each of the previous worlds along her quest she was able to find an individual with a perfect, harmonically beautiful geneplex and declare them as immaculate Willow Trees standing in a profane forest of bamboo. However, upon arriving on Yami Ankha and meditating for three days in the main square of Dholavira, she declared that there was no Willow Tree to be found among the populace of 800,000, but that planting a real willow here would one day bring such an individual to find it. She mixed a willow seed with the DNA from her own blood and saliva, and planted it at the planet's dark pole under a small plexi-dome, exhorting it to flourish, before continuing on to the nine further worlds of her quest.

A community of Bosquenhos gathered at the site of the tree to tend to it, soon going as far as siting an orbital mirror at the overhead L2 point to provide it with continual light. This middle world in the 19-stop Caminho do Salgueiros pilgrimage, now known as Repouso da Sinhá, grew to become a major religious site over the next 30 years, into the 2890s, with more Willow Tree pilgrim ships visiting the world than ore carriers. As such, a shrine, temple complex, meditation halls, lecture halls, hotels, souvenir shops, a gallery of Sinhá Amelzita's multisensual artworks, starports, state-of-the-art "harmonic genetics" clinics and other tourist-oriented infrastructure sprang up around the now 35-metre tall willow tree.

Pirate Rule
Security in the Yami system, however, was minimal, and over the course of the 90's the stream of pilgrim ships became a favoured target for bandits and pirates, utilising their whole gamut of tactics- hit+run, scan+slam, kidnapping, camping and raiding. The planet was especially vulnerable to raiding, with bandits setting up for weeks or longer, imposing a de facto tariff for any pilgrims wishing to land, either until pilgrim numbers slowed or until the bandits were chased off by a police patrol or a larger bandit crew.

By this time Adhikari Sector Minerals had sold off their holdings to the sect, so pretty much everything on the world not privately owned was controlled by the tender of the willow tree, the Third Cuidador do Salguieros, and the world's cashflow, industrial and tourist, took a severe hit with each consecutive pirate raid. In 2898, the desperate Cuidador made a deal with one particular bandit crew- the Kompeni Guntur. This gang were ex-military, a renegade special forces unit from Sumpask (Sumatera Pasukan Khusus Squadron Pasifik Commonwealth) who had deserted from a CommPac strategic task force the previous year and who had been building a fearsome reputation in the piracy community. In exchange for protection of the pilgrims coming to Repauso, Komander Guntur Gunawan's company could take advantage of the planet's ship support facilities and genetic enhancement techniques. In 3001, Gungun and the Third Cuidador formalised their mutually profitable ruling partnership as a contracted diarchy, both in charge of roughly equal parts of the commerce and security of the whole Yami system.

Today
The intervening century saw a variety of coups and upheavals in the world's leadership, but any deviation from a balanced partnership resulted in losses of income to the world, so the political system has achieved a kind of dynamic equilibrium. In 3116, the world of Repauso is now a haven for rogues and pirates looking to trade, repair their ships or upgrade. Divergers come for high-quality genetic enhancement, particularly military style mods such as muscle grafts, squid-skin camo, manta ray stingers, or the world's specialty- Sumatran tiger claws and stripes; members of the Bosque de Bambu on their Caminho do Salguieros pilgrimage worship at their sect's most important religious site; and unemployed criminals or ex-military try to hook up with a crew that will take them.

Repauso has a steady population of around 5 million, with another 3 million in short term visitors at any time- pirates, pilgrims and genemod customers. Dholavira and Willow Tree are a combined city of 3.5 million permanent inhabitants under a single atmospheric canopy, lit by a small constellation of L2 orbital mirrors, while the remaining 1.5 million citizens reside in smaller habitats for industrial use or connected to shipyards. The culture is a blend of Gujarati, Brazilian, Malayan, Indonesian and Diverger elements from across its varied history.

Anyone causing trouble knows they'll be dealt with summarily by Gungun's Awaks, who act more like thugs than police, and whose favourite form of execution is staking someone out on the sunny side of the world. Gungun corvettes also patrol the Yami system with remarkable paramilitary precision, protecting as much from pirate attack as from pirate-pursuing law-enforcement.

And in Willow Tree, you will often see Bosquenho priests walking around in bamboo clothing- cloth spun from bamboo fibre and bamboo straw caps, with bamboo staves in hand, and they will preach the parable of the Willow in the Bamboo Forest to any who stand still too long, before trying to convince you to come and join a meditation circle where rhythmic chanting can harmonically align your geneplex into a purer form and unleash your willow seed. Failing that, a brochure shows how a course of mods can achieve the same genomic cultivation in a nearby clinic.

[Astromancer]

This world is form a Transhuman Space game set a few decades after the normal setting and with FTL drives.

Cyrenaica:

Named for the land of the Lotus eaters this planet is busily being terraformed. The simple fact that Cyrenaica is a far better candidate for terraforming than Mars ever was (there was open water when the planet was discovered) combined with the decades of improvements in both biotech and terraforming technology has made astounding progress on this world possible. But the atmosphere isn't breathable yet.

The planet was opened to settlement by people from the shores of the Indian Ocean (with the exception of Australia). And there is a local population of about ten million people. The terraformation engineers are from all around the Earth and the Solar System. Which is becoming a problem.

The newly opened university system, which is vital to training new terraformers and other technicians also have to please Earthbound political mandates. These mandates are set up to deal with Earth's political issues not Cyrenica's needs. Some of this is good. There are excellent opportunities to study the fine and performing arts, history, the human sciences and the Liberal Arts generally. But certain Earthly scholars aren't as useful .

The Majority cultures movement has become powerful here and obnoxious. Anti-Colonial Theory (Mainly Nietzsche and Adorno relabeled as Marx) dominates the local cultural scene. The local oligarchs promote this as a means to bog down any demands for democracy by labeling it "Westtoxification." Having the Universities shout out and riot for "Afro-Asian values" sustains the rule of the corperate elites very nicely indeed.

Large numbers of locals want to leave ASAP! The Terraformation engineers realize they can't educate their children here, if they got into a university, they'd simply be driven out. And they don't feel safe either. As the society becomes more repressive skilled people leave and the economy slows and fathers.

All of this would collapse the economy ruining the plans of both the oligarchs and the literati, so both groups oppose such flight. The local colonial authority hates the idea too. They've got nowhere to send the refugees without taking large shares of other people's worlds from them. The technicians can get jobs elsewhere, many worlds would snap them up. But if Cyrenica loses all her technicians and engineers the planet's terraformation would reverse and the life support systems and argricultural systems would collapse. Meanwhile, smugglers helping people flee are making good money.

[Astromancer]

This world is form the same game as the one before, but it fits more settings.

Meroë:

Named for an ancient capital of Ethiopia, Meroë is mainly a mining planet. The local gravity is 0.89G. Which is odd in a body about the size of Mars. The sheer density of this high metal planet explains this.

Odder by far than the planet's density is its orbit, which is radically outside of the plane of the eliptic that the other planets of Meroë's system orbit in. Meroë seems to be a captured planet from a star system with a far higher metalic content than the stars in Sol's neighborhood.

There seem to be signs that humans weren't the first to mine this planet. If so, this mining world will attract scholars in droves. Everyone is looking for ancient alien ruins.

Careful what you look for. You might find it!

[PTTG]

Here's a thought: What sort of solar system would you get with cursed dice that always roll as high as possible? As low as possible?

Minimus:
Standard (Chthonian)
Trace vaporized metal atmosphere
0% hydrographic coverage; 0% lava seas.
Average temperature 530K

Maximus:
Large (Garden)
Marginal (Inert Gasses) atmosphere
100% hydrographic coverage.
Average temperature 340K

The general gist seems to be, "not very habitable at all."