A Brief History
This is a Work In Progress. At present, it is simply a bullet list of key historical points that will shape the overall history of the settling of the Perseus Arm.
15 ships set out from Terra. 5 contained the peoples of Asia and Oceania; 5 contained peoples of Europe and North America; 5 contained peoples of South America and Africa.
Each ship had a complement of 500 passengers at launch; populations on each were expected to be between 800 and 1200 by the time the Perseus Arm was reached. (The ships were designed to comfortably accomodate 1000, but up to 1500 could be supported in cramped conditions.)
The intended destination of the colony ships was the M37 cluster of stars in the Perseus Arm - approximately 1400 parsecs from Terra.
Colony ships were Jump-3 capable. Allowing for refueling, and the potential need to travel in less than a straight path in order to locate systems to refuel the jump drives, it was estimated that the journey would take between 15 and 30 years.
The Firstfall system was reached in the 24th year of the journey with the completion of Jump #859. This system is near the edge of the Perseus spiral arm in a part of space where system densities were beginning to increase relative to the more barren inter-arm region.
With a Sol-like star, planet 3 of the system was suitable for colonization. Slightly smaller than Terra, and with slightly greater ocean coverage, its atmosphere was easily breathable. The planet supported abundant rich plant life as well as an abundance of non-sentient animal forms. The Asia/Oceania contingent decided to end their journey here and colonize the world.
The remaining 10 ships, decided to continue onwards, heading toward the dense star system cluster known on Terra as M37, or the Salt and Pepper Cluster.
22 Jumps later, the remaining ships entered a system that contained evidence of another space-faring people. Curious about the aliens, the Euro-North American ships decided to approach the planet which had artificial orbital systems in place. The Afro-South American contingent, however, decided they wanted uncontensted space; they immediately set out again, but not in the direction of the M37 cluster.
It took several weeks before sufficient language translation abilities were established to allow the Terrans and T'ka'an to communicate. During this time, called the "Fearful Wait" by the Terrans, the colony ships remained in orbit of the T'ka'an colony planet. Eventually, peaceful discussions were held. It was determined that the T'ka'an preferred wetter, lower g planets than the Terrans; the humans were invited to settle on any of several nearby worlds known to the T'ka'an, but considered too dry or gravitationally uncomfortable for them to settle.
The Terrans, deciding that an apparently peaceful T'ka'an would be a good ally, decided to settle in this region; establishing colonies named after prominent Terran cities: Nuberlin, Nulanta, Nustok, Nudallas, and Nureno.
It was another 38 jumps before the last five ships found a system suitable for colonization. They finally settled on a world they called Mundo Aljadid - the New World. (Regiao Jadid subsector / Espaco Jadid sector)
Unfortunately, their choice of a world that would be far from alien species did not pan out. Twenty years after establishing their colonies, the SPECIES-X2 species was encountered.
It's been just over 1000 years since Firstfall. In that time, all three original Terran colonies have not only taken firm hold on their chosen worlds, but have also branched outward to occupy many of the systems in the region.
There have been clashes among the Terrans - especially once their spheres of influence began to reach each other. Over the years, each has developed its own culture, and they simply don't see eye-to-eye.
In T'ka'an space, more prolific (and aggressive) Terrans have slowly subsumed authority; it often now seems that it is the T'ka'an who are "guests" of the Terrans, and not the other way around. (Many T'ka'an are not happy about this.)
The Scasaleseans continue to be aggressive - resisting Terran attempts to incurse into their space. Scasalesean piracy is a big problem.
In addition, the SPECIES-X3 were encountered as expansion toward and into the M37 cluster began. At present, an uneasy peace between Terrans and SPECIES-X3 exists.
Nice to see some Traveller work on WA! I did a lot of work fleshing out my own maps for the Spinward Marches back in the day, although very few of my planned campaigns ever got played. Still got the poster and the box, somewhere I think :-)
Yeah... I rediscovered this game a couple years ago, and have since been sucked into a small online community of hardcore Travellers (one of whom is helping me co-design / co-author stuff here). This whole new milieu should be a fun challenge, and I do hope to see it getting played.
Laurels & Loot is a new, lightweight TTRPG rules system that hearkens back to the early days.