Random little thought: Traveller and the Star Fleet Technical Manual

[FredH]

An idle thought inspired by the original Traveller RPG (1977) and the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual (1975) being almost/roughly contemporaneous with each other…

In Traveller, a Sector is 32 parsecs by 40 parsecs, divided into sixteen Subsectors of 8x10 parsecs each. (Yes, it’s nonsensically two-dimensional for ease of reference, notation and play.)

In the SFTM’s different-from-later-canon version of the Trekverse, the Federation is a defined sphere centered on Sol, with a radius of 7 parsecs — with that as a straight-up boundary — rather than the far more huge amorphous blob of later canon. And that sphere, the Federation, is a tiny speck within the “UFP Treaty Exploration Territory”, a disk of space centered on Rigel (which is outside the Federation, btw), with a radius of 4,750 parsecs; it’s this Exploration Territory, rather than the Federation itself, which bumps up against the Neutral Zones (called “Treaty Zones” on the book’s map) and has Starbases 1-17 sprinkled throughout it.

For some reason I find this setup very attractive. And in Traveller terms, I love the idea of mapping out some Sector or Subsector within all that and running a campaign within it, though I never will.

 

[Jedi Marso]

An idle thought inspired by the original Traveller RPG (1977) and the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual (1975) being almost/roughly contemporaneous with each other…

In Traveller, a Sector is 32 parsecs by 40 parsecs, divided into sixteen Subsectors of 8x10 parsecs each. (Yes, it’s nonsensically two-dimensional for ease of reference, notation and play.)

In the SFTM’s different-from-later-canon version of the Trekverse, the Federation is a defined sphere centered on Sol, with a radius of 7 parsecs — with that as a straight-up boundary — rather than the far more huge amorphous blob of later canon. And that sphere, the Federation, is a tiny speck within the “UFP Treaty Exploration Territory”, a disk of space centered on Rigel (which is outside the Federation, btw), with a radius of 4,750 parsecs; it’s this Exploration Territory, rather than the Federation itself, which bumps up against the Neutral Zones (called “Treaty Zones” on the book’s map) and has Starbases 1-17 sprinkled throughout it.

For some reason I find this setup very attractive. And in Traveller terms, I love the idea of mapping out some Sector or Subsector within all that and running a campaign within it, though I never will.

I think FASA used to differentiate between the UFP and the TET as well, on its Federation maps. Although there were numerous Federation member worlds (and locales from TOS) located in what was technically the Treaty Exploration Territory. I like to think that this region was the 'wild frontier' of space where most of the exploration and adventures were happening. The 7-parsec UFP was the 'core' of early Federation space.

 

[FredH]

I think FASA used to differentiate between the UFP and the TET as well, on its Federation maps. Although there were numerous Federation member worlds (and locales from TOS) located in what was technically the Treaty Exploration Territory. I like to think that this region was the 'wild frontier' of space where most of the exploration and adventures were happening. The 7-parsec UFP was the 'core' of early Federation space.

Yeah, that seemed to be the assumption in the TM as well. Gothos, Cestus III, Tholia, the First Federation, and the destruction sites of the Intrepid, Valiant, Constellation and Farragut (they hadn’t seen SNW, obviously) are all far out on the distant edges of the Exploration Territory map.