Traveller System Tekla Prime

© Philipp “walkir” Schneider 2009.

Feel free to use it for your own games and universes.

Tekla Prime [coordinate] A678*998-B Ind Hi Wa (Lo) Naval, Scout, Research

*with the evil lens: A

100D of the main star is 0.653 AU, of the companion 0.6 AU.

Note: Law level (LL) of the Bureaucracy was set to 8, as LL 9+ outlaws TL3-tech. This is not only
silly (as TL3 is the industrial revolution), but lethal, as survival on a world with atmosphere 7
requires TL 3. LL 8 only outlaws TL5+ items (TL5 being roughly the mid-20th century. Which is
silly, too, but not lethally silly). If you want an evil government keeping its citizens from leaving the
domes, change it back to LL A. This would make it a candidate for an Amber Zone.
On a related note, LL of the feudal technocracy was changed to 4, as LL5 outlaws TL11, which is
the maximum on Tekla. Thus, the feudal technocracy (which gives a +1 DM when determining
TL...) not only outlaws research, but also the use of state-of-the-art-technologies. Which is just
plain silly.

Size 6 / 9,600 Km (= 0.75 earth diameters) / 0.7G → low gravity world

Atmosphere 7 (standard, tainted) human population needs TL3 filters to survive
Temperature 8 (0-30°C)
Hydrographics 10(A) / 96% Water, only a few Islands and archipelagos, which cover about
11.475 Mio Km² (Antarctica has 13.2 Mio., Europe [without Island, Nowaja
Semlja and the Atlantic islands] 9.9 Mio)
Population 9 / Billions. ~1,4 billion people with mixed Vilani/Solomani Ancestry + some
Vargr packs
Government 9
– impersonal bureaucracy, law level 8 / ~1 billion inhabitants living at
TL 4 (late 19th / early 20th century AD) in TL11* cities built and
maintained by the government. The can qualify as barbari.
– significant participating democracy, law level 1 / ~ 300 million
inhabitants living at TL 11* (Ziru Sirka= ZS, the first (Vilani) empire)
– notable feudal technocracy, law level 4 / ~ 100 million inhabitants
living at TL 11* (ZS)
cultural differences
– clan/tribe system. The partDem is a pirate tribal society
– caste system
– religious (same religion regardless of government)
– Starport is an religious temple
– sexist (patriarchic)
Starport A, with Navy, Scout and research bases. The research basis is looking for the
holy ruins.
TL 11* (B)
Trade codes High population, industrial, water world (for normal citizens of the
Bureaucracy only: low tech)
mandatory skills streetwise 0, trade 0, seafarer 0 (for normal citizens of the Bureaucracy only:
survival 0)
It's common to take language 0 because of the Starport A and the mixed
ancestry (there are Vilani, Solomani, mixed and even some Vargr tribes.
Aslan don't like Tekla as there's no further land to settle.).
*: Some words about TL11:
As the TL of the ZS is defined by jump-2 drives, it's TL 11.

The ZS fell as the Terran Confederation reached TL 12 in the 2,230s and 2,240s AD (between
-2,294 and -2,284 imperial.**
Reading spinward marches, MGT seems to be placed in 1,110 imperial (5,631 AD) at least).
Using Data from GURPS:Traveller, Jump-2 drives were invented ~910 B.C. (-5,430 imperial or
about 50 years before solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem...)
This means that TL11 is older than 6.500 years and the ZS took at least three millenia to perfect it.

**: Dates taken from GURPS Traveller : Interstellar Wars

Description:
Most of the land mass is divided into two archipelagos, one of which is a nature preserve. The other,
highly populated, one set aside a single island, parts of which are covered with the imperial
downport. The rest of this island is covered with ancient ruins, which are holy to the native
population, as are the “corals” this island (and only this island) consists of.
The native population lives in underwater habitats placed in shallow areas of the seas as well as in
grav-assisted buildings (requiring TL11) of the remaining islands.

The TL11 tech of the bureaucracy is built and maintained by the high castes of specialists
(bureaucrats, technicians, engineers, mail service personnel). Devices of TL5+ given to the lower
castes look like they were TL4, with mechanical controls, without any versatility (like computers in
the ZS were) and really, really idiotproof. As such, a member of the lower castes visiting a TL5+
society is unable to understand the concepts this society lives on, but he “knows” most of the results
can be archieved with tech he can operate. (They have never seen an OS, let alone a flat screen).
Still, mechanic typewriters are common, as most letters are transported via the bureaucratic datanet
and it would be suspicious to enter handwriting and get printed text...
Communication devices are outlawed (as they are TL5+), while the only means of communication
from the government to the people are radio and free newspapers. (In combination with the normal
sold ones, although most of them belong to the several governments of Tekla (all 3 above as well as
the 3rd Imperium).

Trade is based on ships. Sailing ships aren't uncommon. Teklan ships of any kind (especially
warships) are famous on worlds of TL11 or lower, as they are silent, hardened and robust because of
its native wildlife.

Some of the separate domed Habitats are owned by conglomerations of clans, which consist of the
tribes of the area.
Quirks for planetary life:
– uses echolocation
– reacts with counterattacks to attacks
– lays eggs
– has electric weapons - which is a reason to use sailing ships. You don't want to use a
gravship if a “whale” decides to EMP you...
Thus, every thing aboard teklan ships (be it surface, submarine or star/spaceship) is
hardened with fiber optics, rendering it immune to animal attacks. On top of that, every
single type of ship is built for silence, and active sonar outside of warships (which only use
it for as many pings as unavoidable) is very, very uncommon.

Sample species: The Sheari (sg. shear)

The most interesting life form on Tekla are the Sheari, which are similar to earth wales.
A Shear is 26m long and weighs 5 metric tons in average. The are most often encountered in
shallow seas, which, unluckily, see the most domes and shipping.
It has an impressive strength of 34 (doing 4d+2 damage with its thrasher tail), regardless of its
armour of 2 a dexterity between an average Aslan or Hiver and a human (DEX 6) and an endurance
of 25. It's at least presapient (INT 2), and uses a unique, not quite understood method to siren in it's
food, a kind of krill and several shallow-sea algae. They travel in “schools” of 1d6 members (pack
5), mostly a bull with some females and their kids.

Sheari skills: Melee (thrasher)1, survival 2, Recon 1, athletics (endurance) 1 and deception 1.

If a sheari school thinks it is attacked (and a loud boat or dome is a good reason to think so), it will
counterattack promptly, using its powerful electric weapons.
A bull can zap an Air/raft near the surface (or in short range of his tail...) out of the sky without any
problem and the attack of a whole school will make some serious repairs necessary on a surface
ship or watered unarmored starship.
Trade
Ignoring the law level for a moment (it's better to include that for every single freight and there is
free access to the Downport with Law level becoming only important when leaving the island for
the territory of the Bureaucracy – and not the transit way towards international waters and the
technocracy plus the partDem), those are the best business opportunities at Tekla Prime:

1) Things both wanted here and produced locally:

Type Buying DM (BDM) Selling DM (SDM) Result
Advanced manufactured goods B+1 S+1 B+0 / S+0
Basic consumables (common) B+2 S+1 B+1 / S-1
Basic manufactured goods (common) B+5 S+2 B+3 / S-3
Basic Ore (common) B+0 S+3 S+3 / B-3
Basic raw materials (common) B+0 S+2 S+2 / B-2
Illegal biochemicals B+2 S+6 S+4 / B-4
Illegal luxury consumables B+1 S+4 S+3 / B-3
Luxury consumables B+1 S+2 S+1 / B-1
Medical supplies B+0 S+2 S+2 / B-2
Petrochemicals B+0 S+2 S+2 / B-2
spices B+0 S+2 S+2 / B-2
Uncommon raw material B+1 S+2 S+1 / B-1
Vehicles ((sailing) ships!) B+2 S+1 B+1 / S-1
The demands of the artificial low tech society (basic electronics, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals)
are fulfilled completely by bureaucratic sources on Tekla itself.

2) Things produced locally and good to buy here:

Type BDM
Basic machine parts (common) B+5
Basic electronics (common) B+2
Basic consumables (common)
Advanced machine parts
Biochemicals
pharmaceuticals B+1
Advanced vehicles ((sailing) ships!) B+0
Advanced weapons
Luxury goods
petrochemicals
Polymers
Robots
Illegal drugs
Illegal weapons

3) Things wanted locally and good to sell here:

Type SDM
Illegal drugs S+6
Crystals & gems S+3
radioactives
textiles
Uncommon ore
Precious metals S+2
Wood S+1

Why all those tables? Well, they tell a lot about that world.
The first thing I realized: There has to be a damn good navy and customs inspection team. Not only
are a lot of things forbidden in the planetary main government, but the best things one can sell (and,
to a certain degree, buy) here are illegal by imperial law.
There's another problem with that, as the system navy won't interfere with shippings to the
technocracy or partDem, but be prepared to be boarded when landing on a bureaucratic spaceport
with goods illegal there you declared by system entry. And I don't mean the perfectly normal
“boarding” by several clerks with some TB of forms to fill out...

So there's a lot of smuggling going on planetside, especially if you pick the “evil government” lens,
with the TL3-filters needed to survive outside of the domes and the bureaucracy outlawing every
single TL3-item while the technocracy still forbids TL 11-items, which is the worlds TL. So I guess
the researched and produced stuff would either intended for the empire as a whole or solely for
export. (well, the clans only outlawed “dangerous technologies such as nanotechnology”.)

Then there's the “spice” thing. It sounds like Arrakis with water instead of desert. Perhaps they even
sell animal parts “illegal biochemicals” (but no Shai'hulud ;) ) and import other stuff for that.
A lot of things are produced locally and wanted as well - I think of Tekla selling (sailing) ships and
buying (hardened!) Air/rafts or something like that.

Looking at the freight and traffic modifiers, there are a lot more visitors inbound (+5) that outbound
(+2), so I guess there's immigration. OTOH, there's as much outbound (+2) as inbound(+2) freight
(before factoring in TL, as I don't know anything about the neighbouring systems).
So, ships will have their cargo bays filled both ways, but there are a lot less passengers at the flight
back from Tekla.
The best things to sell here are kilotons of ore and other raw materials with a single dTon of drugs
or similar things somewhere between them. Stuff outbound (with the possible exception of surface
ships or submarines) isn't quite as profitable per dTon as the illegal stuff - but still way better than
ores.
Sample Contact: Karl H. Basheri

If you want to survive here, you want to contact smugglers. Smugglers such as Karl H. Basheri.
Born in the bureaucracy, in the slums of an island-city called Khunach, Karl had no chance to visit a
school. (starting EDU was 3). He had to fight for survival in the streets and keep itself living with
small jobs (streetwise 0, trade 0)

First term
The only chance he saw to get out of the worse parts of Khunach he was born into was the navy. He
enlisted to the wet navy, submarine corps (seafarer (submarine) 1, basic training:(seafarer),
athletics, gun combat, mechanic, heavy weapons and Melee at 0 ) and got a lot of bar brawls in his
first year (Melee (unarmed) 1), gaining good friends in that time (life event, +1 contact). With all
that, he hadn't a chance to advance.

Second Term
He kept visiting bars, gambling a lot (gambler 1) and surviving easily. In the middle of the ocean, a
stowaway sabotaged the ship and he got badly injured, having to pay the restoration (KCr20) all by
itself. As he still did not advance, he left and got a lousy KCr10, leaving him with KCr10 debt, and
an intelligence boost (INT 10→11).

Third term
Needing money, he enlisted as a broker, learning a lot about that trade (taking persuade 0, gaining
deception 1). Stressing that a bit too much, he got into legal problems (gaining advocate 1) and
managed to keep his west clean. So he managed to get promoted for the first time in his life
(gaining Broker 1) and studied the law for a while to be prepared the next time (advocate 1→2).

Fourth term
Training it's lying skills (deception 1→2), he went into major problems. He did all this in a bad
market situation, so he went bankrupt, someway keeping its benefit rolls. (merchant mishap #6).
Out of that career he got KCr 40 (30 after debt) and learned a lot while still uneducated (EDU
3→5). He had no aging problems.

Fifth term
He ran into a mercenary on shopping tour and managed to sell him stuff he knew in a deserted
warehouse, thus getting contacts and barely entering the career of a mercenary (warmonger/gun
runner) (enlistment: 5+, I rolled 7-2...).
In that time he learned basic things in several languages (level 0, basic training) as well as a trade
(any at level 1) and piloting small craft (level 1). Surviving despite of his uneducated mind, he
earned the respect of the local sales community, making sure not to undercut them (+3 contacts,
event #62). He soon became a smuggler (advancement roll passed easily) and improved his broker
skills to professional level (Broker 1→2). His Endurance lost a little bit, but he managed to boost it
to normal level (END -1, paid KCr5 to restore it).

Sixth term
He learned the art of stealth (level 1), and got a very difficult contract: Technocrats wanted to sell
TL11-stuff to the clans, and both sides wanted to gain him as an ally. He managed to stay a neutral
party (event #65, persuasion-roll successful, persuasion 0→1) and earned both of them as contacts.
After that, he became a black marketeer and improved his trade skills (another level of Trade (any)).
Age struck him hard, weakening strength and endurance. He paid KCr10 for restoration.

Seventh term
While improving his broker skills (level 3) he was severely wounded (failed survival roll, had to
pay KCr30 by itself.) By now he had a debt of Kcr15 and decided to leave this career.
He got KCr70 as well as an Ally (his doctor, earning a lot on him? ;) ) as well as a weapon.
Now 46, he was weakened again, but paid another KCr5 to restore it.

Eighth Term
He decided to get drafted and landed in the merchant marine, getting a basic steward training (level
0) and improving its broker skill far enough (level 4) to become famous for it.
Surviving easily, he was on a thriving ship, which granted it's promotion to Senior Crewman,
gaining mechanic as well as driving skills (Mechanic 1, driving (any) 1).
Aged 50, he left that career as well, losing some endurance he paid for.
Luckily he got his KCr5 back at mustering out, as well as 5 ship shares for a free trader or 2 for
another ship. (”free trader”)

Karl is a big, muscular man with military-short black hair turning gray and blue eyes. He is
contacted over word-of-mouth only and keeps it's contracts as good as he can. While he was
shipping weapons for a long time, he now makes most of its money smuggling hightech (mostly
filters[with the evil lens!], imported medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and other things but
weapons) from the clans or the technocracy into the bureaucracy. This makes him respected not
only in the sales community, but also in the population as a whole, while he works under a dozen or
so nicknames. No one but a few very close comrades knows the real name behind all those
nicknames.

It's intentionally left open which trade he choose and if he choose one or two of them.

Characteristics:
STR 9 (+1) INT 11 (+1)
DEX 7 EDU 5 (-1)
END 11 (+1) SOC 6

His Skills:
advocate 2
athletics 0
Broker 4
deception 2
Drive (pick one) 1
gambler 1
gun combat 0
heavy weapons 0
language 0
Mechanic 1
Melee (unarmed) 1
persuade 1
pilot (small craft) 1
seafarer (submarine) 1
stealth 1
steward 0
streetwise 0
trade: either 1x “trade (pick one) 2” or 2x “trade (pick one) 1”
GURPS: Space 4th Edition info: The Tekla System

Tekla itself is a 5 billion years old bright yellow-white star (spectral class F9V, 1.15 solar masses,
luminosity 2.3 ) with a red-orange dwarf companion (spectral class M2V, 0.4 solar masses,
luminosity 0.25) without a system of it's own orbiting it in between 250 and 750 AU.

The Tekla System has no gas giants, so refueling has to take part on designated areas on Tekla
prime itself or the ice worlds.

The first orbit of 0.375 AU is occupied by a tiny rock world with infernal climate (542K average),
0.6 earth diameters, 0.48 G → low gravity world, light volcanism, without any remarkable
resources (resource value modifier RVM: -1 = poor)

0.75 AU away from the star is a standard chtonian world with infernal climate (383K average), 1
earth diameter, 1.1G, heavy volcanism and tectonic activity. This hellhole has only average
resources (RVM 0), so no one is interested in going there.

Tekla Prime orbits its star at 1.5 AU every 625,23 earth days (~1.71 years), having both mild
volcanism and tectonic activity (mild being earth level). It's rich wildlife grants an RVM of +1
(rich), basically consisting of biochemicals and uncommon raw materials. At TL11 ( =GTL10, both
being ZS level) it has a carrying capacity of 1.462.500.000 people, easily supporting its 1.4 billion
inhabitants.
Tekla prime is tide-locked to his single major moon (0.4G → low gravity world, 0.4 earth
diameters, chilly climate (272K average)) which orbits Tekla Prime at 14 planetary diameters
(134,400 Km) every 66.96 hours (2.79 days). Thus, a teklan day is approx. 67 earth-hours long.

The moon does not have any remarkable resources (RVM 0), but there is a little colony with 2
million (pop 6, carrying capacity is 3.2 million) inhabitants on its surface.
TL of the colony is 11, government a participating democracy with LL 1 belonging to its planetary
counterpart (which the moon constantly faces). Basically it's a big rock just like Luna.

The 3 AU orbit is inhabited by another tiny rock world (0.28G → low gravity world, 0.4 earth
diameters, frozen climate (198K average)) with average resources.

At 6 AU there's a small ice world (0.25 G → low gravity world, 0.5 earth diameters, moderate
volcanism, RVM 0, frozen climate (150K average)) with a suffocating and mildly toxic thin
atmosphere consisting of nitrogen and methane. 80% of it's surface is fluid at any given time.

The 12 AU-Orbit is inhabited by the other small ice world (0.168G – basically microgravity, 0.42
earth diameters, moderate volcanism, frozen climate (100K average)) of the system with a
suffocating and mildly toxic thin atmosphere consisting of nitrogen and methane. 30% of it's
surface is fluid at any given time.

AT 24 AU, there's a large Ice world (0.72G → low gravity world, 0.8 earth diameters, heavy
volcanism and extreme tectonic activity, RVM abundant (+2), frozen climate (78K average)) with a
suffocating and highly toxic thin atmosphere dominated by helium and nitrogen as well as full of
poisonous stuff from the volcanoes. 50% of its surface is fluid at any given time.
This is an even bigger hellhole than the chtonian world.
It has a major hadean moon (0.36G → low gravity world, 0.4 earth diameters, RVM 0, frozen
climate (47K average)) which houses a very small base for collecting hydrogen to ship it to the
Starports as fuel via robotic blimps.

The last inhabited orbit is the home of an asteroid belt with average resources. Further out there's
nothing, as the companion destabilizes the orbits out there.