GURPS-Gygax75: Week 2

A couple of weeks ago, I began the Gygax 75 Challenge using GURPS to create an SF-inspired Universe for roleplaying. Today, I want to update you on the journey and share the outcome of Week 2.

Week 2: Surrounding Area

The main goal for Week 2 was to draw a large scale map. Because I am converting the Gygax 75 Challenge to an SF setting, I decided to interpret this as creating a Subsector Map in the style of Classic Traveller.

Honestly, I messed this up when I began to use the Traveller First In supplement to create my map. Essentially, I wasted a lot of time (maybe 2 hours) generating the details of stars before realising that the current GURPS Space supplement has a much more practical “build your worlds first” approach. Thus, I re-wound my process back and, after using First In to generate the subsector map’s star distribution, I switched to the GURPS Space approach to building worlds – in short, it starts with worlds first and allows an optional development towards the full details of the star system a given world is located within.

My subsector map (drawn in pencil in a Squarehex A5 campaign booklet) looks like this:

Using the GURPS Space Planetary Record and Worksheet, I have generated three Worlds – Arcadia, Io, and Muran.

Arcadia is my starting point world and a major colony that has survived the alien scourging of the whole Terran Empire. It’s the place that offers a settlement of significant size.

Io and Muran are two other settlements in the challenge:

• Io is a tiny iceworld with an outpost led by a Theocratic government.
• Muran is an asteroid field managed by a Corporate government.

My mysterious site to explore is a secret research station on Io. Rumours of the place have surfaced and adventurers might be tempted to take a mission to find out more.

My “dungeon entrance” is going to be on a huge asteriod within the Muran system. I envision an interesting exploration of a rock believed to have been previously inhabited by the alien invaders. I think I can offer some insight into the story of the war, plus a few cool surprises within the depths of the barren airless rock that more prudent folk steer well clear of approaching.

The final element is a major terrain feature. I am keeping an open mind on this but my initial thoughts have been to treat the large expanse of starless hexes trailing (that is, to the right of) Arcadia as Rift Space – an area hard to traverse with the Hyperdrive technology in use but also rumoured to be dangerously unstable. Who knows what horrors lie within?

Into Week 3…

The next task is to create 1-3 levels of a dungeon. This will be a mammoth task and might end up stretching into a two week project. That said, the encouragement is to at least graph out the first level by the end of the week.

This being SF, I’ll have to adapt the advice… but I am pretty excited to see what lies within the abandoned “alien base” floating deep within the Muran system.

Game on!