Traveller: Traveller System Generator Part 15 and More Corsairs

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Traveller System Generator Part 15 and More Corsairs

Traveller System Generator

I have no idea why I did not originally have what system a planet belongs to. That has been corrected, and now the system details page will show the planets for that system. And you can click on the planet name to get to that planet detail view. And I just realized - I need to be able to pick the system for the planet when creating them. But that should be pretty simple.

updated system details - now with planets!

My last update had directions on how to install the software - no idea if anyone has tried. It honestly does not do a whole lot and there are a lot better resources out there. But eventually I hope to get it to something useful!

I've not had a lot of time to get to this as I was visiting family last weekend, and sometimes a small break is good. But I am hoping that there will be at least semi-monthly updates as I do find this fun. Which makes me a lucky person - I actually enjoy my job and what I do. So much that I write code even in my free time!

Corsairs Game Prep

I think I have the theme I am going to run. First, one of the players is an ex-slave, so that will eventually feed into the game as only one of the 3 main political factions has slavery. Next, ~~stealing~~ inspired by the books, one of the Spire factions (which are more like city-states and independent of the larger island political groups which is from the original Corsairs books) has managed to get an ethericist able to control some of the huge beasts, and will be striking at both Spires and islands. The group, while initially attacking foreign ships, will hopefully build up a sense of the bigger picture. Which I still have to draw out, but I have a bit more than just the concept of the plan at any rate. But I have the opening chapter in my head at least though I need to write down the details. And I have a few big things plotted out, just need to wrap them up in a way that will work for the game.

I've got the backgrounds for most of the players, and we are stretching a bit beyond the original Corsairs. The world is now above jungles instead of the molten seas, and as I think I mentioned, basing a lot of this on some Jim Butcher books, the Spire series. This is the intro to the world:

Corsairs takes place on a world with floating islands above a ferocious jungle teeming with violence that few can survive. Amongst the islands are 2,000 meter floating cylinders made of spirestone. While the majority of the human population lives in the Spires, many still opt for the floating islands.
It is a world of flying sail ships, floating with the repellium that keeps the islands afloat and powered by the winds. Many political factions exist – the Spires are basically city-states. The islands tend to keep to themselves, trading with each other as well as the Spires.
You are privateers for the one of the island factions, the Greens. This is a small colection of islands almost in the middle between the three island factions.
It is a time of sword and canon. Gunpowder is available but seems unstable. However, the Spires also grow crystals that can harness etheric energies. These crystals can be used as weapons but tend to heat up fast. These same crystals are what makes the ships fly as well as the repellium: there is either a lift crystal or a huge chunk of repellium in the center of ships that let them float. Ethericists can also harness the etheric power of crystals directly, but this rewires the brain and most tend to develop odd quirks. The jungles below are full of dangers: it is where creatures live that can rip through an unprotected village in moments. The skies above are also dangerous – the spires and islands float in a relatively safe space between the two dangers.

And those Spires are actually made of crystaliron - this is a very post-apocalyptic world that is recovering. The players and their characters do not know this (unless they read this blog which they usually only do when I post game recaps) but that's okay. It may come around at some point and they can figure this out. I could even make it eventually a Traveller game - a system way out or maybe in the collapse of the Imperium. Probably not but the option is there to sneak into a Traveller game :)

And poking around, I found an artist that has some imagery I like that matches some of the ideas I have. His artstation link is here, and where these pictures come from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mgqX9