A new Look at Wolf Sector

It is time for me to take a second look at my setting for Stars without Number. I created Wolf sector quickly and somewhat randomly before I had completely digested the rules and the type of setting I thought would work best for an online game.

Now that I have developed more than half of the systems so obvious problems are coming up.  Front and center is the distance between the systems. There is a good reason why most of the published sectors have the stars in adjoining hexes. Spike 1 ships or jump 1 ships are the backbone of trade and contact in the Stars without Number setting. My sector has only 3 small areas where the stars are one jump away from each other. It is the reason why I picked Tusa as a start location. It is within one jump of Attis, Xenu and O’on giving the players 4 worlds to explore. But leaving their home system would require a jump 3 ship.  I wanted the feel of a backward disconnected sector but it is too hard to get around in.

Wolf Sector Problems

So I have decided to change the star locations to move them closer. To keep the disconnected feel for the sector I have decided it is a constellation of stars only connected to another sector at one point (presumably coreward). So now Touchdown is the only way into the system. But once a ship arrives at Touchdown it is connected by a single jump to a succession of 13 systems and 16 habitable planets.  I still have Aradin and Gauss well off the beaten path and I have added some new systems connected only by jump 2 ships.

The new layout also allows me to add 7 new systems to the already established 13 systems for a total of 20 systems and 23 planets of stations. Immediately noticeable is a “circle run” of jump 1 planets (Mizar-Tyr-Delta Outeria-Einherjar-Kaitos-Nintoku-Bomar) that would make a good trade route. I expect there are a lot of Panstellar ships on this route and likely a lot of independents as well.

NEW Wolf Sector Sketch - Author 2-2017

I have added two new major powers to the sector.  I do not want a lot of military action or space navies so the Unity of Suns is grandiose in name only.  It is a loose alliance driven by corporations and has few military ships. The Comarid Republic is more aggressive but limited by the fact that they do not have jump 2 capable navy units. I also list Frontier Alliance as a major power. It is a Bank and Loan corporation with branches throughout the sector and a home office on Kaitos.  If the characters travel on an independant ship it is most likely making payments to FAC.

I also tried inverting the colours of the standard sector map and using some more symbols.  I think it looks a lot sharper and the colour and relative size of the stars can be mimicked. It would not print as well for a handout but I think it looks better as an image.

Wolf Sector (FINAL?) - Author 2-2017