For example here is my 3D model of The Prometheus the generation ship featured in the last phase of the campaign. The large sphere is all fuel. The smaller sphere is all hydroponics food tanks. The cube structures on the spokes are the living areas. I did my best to calculate how much fuel it would take to the system if you accelerated at a constant rate the first half of the trip and decelerated for the second half. Obviously it is a massive amount of fuel.

The journey took 180 years and by the end of the trip there were 10,000 people on board. Population growth was controlled so that the population grew smoothly over the trip.

Here is my second pass at this. This version is based on a picture of Starleaper One from GURPS Interstellar Wars. I sized all the components using the Golden Ratio.

First pass at the model of Starleaper 2. This is just the rough outline and obviously I am no artist. I have another idea that is based on the picture of Starleaper 1 in the GURPS Interstellar Wars book. No matter what it will be a low tech, utilitarian look.

This is just a SolidWorks model to establish the overall shape, and figure out what I need to make the real model.

I will be going through the process of designing phase 3 of my Traveller campaign. The idea was to take my players, totally new to Traveller, and bring them through some of the important backstory in small chunks.

Phase 1 revolved around U.N. space marines during a rebellion on the Mars, Lunar and space station colonies. It was predictably military heavy.

Phase 2 revolved around the first manned intersteller voyage. A generation ship named Prometheus. This was a more political and mystery heavy campaign. Its ending will have far reaching consequences on my version of the Traveller universe.

Phase 3 will revolve around Starleaper 2 and the first FTL intersteller exploration mission. It will be political and exploration heavy. I hope for a feel that is a mixture of Babylon 5's diplomacy and Star Trek TOS's exploration.

Run down of what I have so far (I am not particularly attached to canon):

Starleaper 0 was used to bring fuel to the checkpoint to allow Starleaper 1 to reach Bernard's Star.

Starleaper 1 was the ship that made the first intersteller jump to Bernard's Star. There it encountered agents of the Solamni Empire. THis was not revealed to the public.

Starleaper 2 has been assigned the task of exploring the sectors near Earth. It has been outfitted with several ways to refuel and a tank capable of holding enough fuel for two jumps.

The ship is the result of a deal between several concerns on Earth and Mars. Many of these groups have sent representatives to see that their interests are taken into consideration during decisions.

The Genesis Project- a group looking for planets ripe for terraforming. They are a for-profit organization and hope to find their first recoverable planet on this mission. This is not the over in a day terraforming of Star Trek II, it just shares the name Genesis.

The U.N. Economic Committee- this representative is charged with opening new markets to exploitation by Earth's corporations. They are especially interested in any form of life that can be used as labor but is less technologically advanced than humans. They are also looking for cheap access to unregulated resources. They are also charged with protecting Earth's economy from potentially more advanced civilizations.

The U.N. Science Committee- they are charged with making physical surveys of systems and collecting anthropological data on any alien societies.

The U.N. Space Marines- charged with making sure that the safety of Earth is protected during the mission. They have a Very Large Nuclear Device (VLND) at their disposal. They also have access to a computer virus developed by Joren Krill called that can break down almost any digital computer system.

The U.N. Diplomatic Corps- they are charged with establishing diplomatic relations with any civilization met. They are equipped with th ability to sign short term treaties and grant U.N. trial membership.



There will be other groups to come. I will probably allow players to choose to be from any of the groups, although one will need to play an independet captain.

Finally back up and running an older game. I am now running a West End Games Star Wars campaign.

First the rules: They actually are not as bad as I remembered. I can still see that they will get horribly bloated as characters become more powerful but I plan on being fairly stingy with development points to counter this. For now I am sticking with the rule that either everyone is a Jedi or no one is. I have a lot of experience with this rule set, I ran a four year long campaign during high school.

The first game in the campaign took place during Episode 3. The PCs are Jedi Knights working under Master Windu. He has expressed doubts to them about some of the decisions that Yoda has been making recently and is frustrated by Yoda's strict adherence to a prophecy. He feels that the whole order could be in great danger.

Windu decides to send the three Jedi on a mission far out on the Rim. They are sent to the planet Crrl, home of the giraffe like, force sensitive Crrl herd people. One hundred years ago a dark Jedi conquered Crrl and enslaved the herds. After 25 years the herds banded together and overcame him. The Crrl do not believe in violence and have no death penalty. The subjected him to a mind wipe (one of their force powers) and accepted him to the herd.

The Jedi did not learn of this incident until after the Clone Wars had started and have not had a chance to pursue the issue.

Windu tasks the Jedi with investigating the mind wiped dark Jedi. They are to determine if he still carries any memories of his turn to the dark side or if his mind has been truely wiped. The Master Herd of Crrl has given them permission to execute Gin Galla (the former dark Jedi) if they feel there is a chance he could revert.

Master Windu entrusts the young Jedi with a special crystal pyramid that is an ancient Jedi artifact. Little is known about how it works except that it allows a Jedi to delve into another's memories.

Gin Galla, now known as hum'Crrl, seems to be fully integrated into Crrl society when the meet him. They decide to use the crystal pyramid. My channeling the Force through the pyramid into Gin Galla the Jedi and the target both collapse into a dream-like state. The Jedi find themeselves inside Gin Galla's mind. They also find that they can exit by concentrating on themselves through the crystal pyramid inside this dream-like world.

Gin Galla's mind seems to be an open plain. As they investigated further they discovered a large ziggurat on the plain.

While investigating the ziggurat they found a temple in the center, there was a floating eye with dozens of tentacles floating in the temple. When they entered the temple the floating eyeball attacked. They were able to hold it off long enough to use the pyramid to escape back to the real world.

Once back on Crrl they used the Galactic Net to discover that the ziggurat that they saw was of the type that the Sith had built. They were unable to get in contact with the Jedi Temple through their normal channels.

They decided to go back into Gin Galla's mind and take him with them this time. They had him concentrate on himself through the crystal pyramid and then entered his mind. They took him to the temple to face the floating eye. He cowered in fear while the eye tossed them around like ragdolls. Even when they did manage to damage it, it quickly regenerated. They fled outside the ziggurat and began to climb to the top, the eye in pursuit.

When they reached the top of the ziggurat they determined that they still could not defeat the eye and began to use the crystal pyramid to leave. When one Jedi and Gin Galla were left the Jedi decided to use the crystal pyramid to try to delve into Gin Galla here in the dreamworld.

He found himself looking through Gin Galla's eyes while the eye whipped him with its tentacles. He used the pyramid again to jump from Gin Galla to the eye itself. Once there he found that he could control the eye and stopped attacking.

Gin Galla ordered the eye (the Jedi) to begin tearing down the ziggurat. The Jedi complied and Gin Galla used the pyramid to exit to the real world.

Once back in the real world they found that the one Jedi was still in a dreamlike state and used the pyramid to jump into his mind. Here they found a ghost image of him swining a hammer against a large rock. He told them that he had chosen to remian inside Gin Galla and control the eye to tear down the evil Sith temple.

Once back in the real world they placed the Jedi's body in stasis and attempted to contact the Jedi Temple. They recieved Yoda's warning that they should go to ground due to Order 66.