Plans for Perseus Arm

These are the primary objectives for the development of the Perseus Arm Setting:

Sectors, Subsectors and Systems

A series of "world systems" will be created, each with its own physical descriptors important to game mechanics. Each world system will have at least one "principal" world that will be further defined with physical descriptors as well as descriptors for population, technology and culture. Most, if not all, world systems will have only one such principal world, but there may be secondary worlds (or asteroid belts, or moons) given minor descriptive treatment as well.

The system of Sector / Subsector / System hex-mapping that Traveller and Cepheus Engine employ will be used without modification. The Universal World Profile (UWP) as defined by Traveller and Cepheus Engine will be used, but world descriptions may include additional text that provides granularity and/or variation of some of the components of that profile (particularly those associated with Government and Law Level).

Each World System will also be provided with at least some "background material". This will include one or more "notable entities" such as NPCs (government or faction leaders, for example), corporations, factions, cults, etc. Each World System will be provided with at least one "plot hook" that a Referee could use to develop a game session or incorporate into a campaign. These will make use of the "notable entitites".

Economy and Trade

A goal of the effort is for each world system to have a defined set of market goods that it is willing to import and export. These will be driven by the descriptors of the world system in question, and over time may even be modified to account for descriptors of nearby worlds as well.

At the very least, fixed modifiers for determining availability and prices of trade goods will be tabulated for each system. Ideally, each system will be be equipped with import and export tables similar to those provided by the traveller-tools website, with Referee ability to re-randomize these tables on demand. (This will require some advanced work, however, and will not be initially available.)

Navies and Scouts

Former employment by a Navy or Scouting Corps is an important part of the character development system. Since Perseus Arm doesn't have an "Imperial Navy" - at least not the same one as Charted Space - alternatives will need to exist. Similarly, while the Imperial Scouts aren't a thing, a parallel will be required.

There will be coalitions of systems throughout the Perseus Arm - some large and some local. These will have coalition naval forces that will serve the needs of character generation. These may operate independent deep-space bases in various systems - bases which may offer some limited services to honorably retired former officers. (They will most likely not offer armament purchase or installation. Refueling, information, and possibly some repair are likely.)

In addition, individual systems of sufficiently high technology level may have a system defense force that coould provide the equivalent of a naval background for characters.

As for Scouts, an polity-independent organization called the Courier Guild will be developed. The guild's primary responsibility is rapid delivery of communications and dissemination of general news. The guild will own and manage a fleet of small, fast (Jump-6) ships and will travel designated routes between major hub systems on a regular basis. It will also operate a series of deep-space bases in various systems. These will provide maintenance, repair and refueling for guild ships, but these services will also be available to those who have honorably retired from guild service as well. Former guild members may also find these bases to be valuable information sources.

Pirates

In addition to naval and scout bases, some systems may be havens for Pirate factions which have secluded deep-space bases of operation. Pirate factions can be used as either NPC adversaries or PC haven organizations - or both. Two options for publishing pirate base information are:

using WorldAnvil's "Secrets" capabilities and restrict access to those with Referee access only.

just providing a mechanism for defining a pirate base and leaving it to individual Referees to decide which systems to place them in.