Stars without Number Lowpoint starport

For my Stars without number setting idea I still need to come up with an opening adventure.  I think I want it to be planet side so players can decide for themselves what kind of game it will be.  If I started on a ship I would need to come up with new planets or stations to visit every adventure and the cost and upkeep would keep them trapped on the ship. Planet side can be fairly open.  My initial assumption was to start on Touchdown but no I think I have settled upon Tusa.

TUSA  (Corax IV)

Atmosphere

Breathable

Temp

Warm

Bio

Miscible

Pop

1 M+

Tech

4

Planet Tags Waterworld, Liberal, Peaceful.

Enemies Smuggler, Company Director, Obsessed Conservationist.

Friends Cultural Advisor, Eager Merchant.

Complications Stolen Cargo, Environmental impact, Unexpected Duty.

Things Radioactive island, Big City (Newalter), Deep sea fishing boat.

Places Spaceport (Lowpoint), Antarctic, Big Game Reserve.

Tusa is the fourth planet out from the star Corax. The inner three planets are radioactive, molten furnaces. There are 3 more outer gas giant planets in the system. The gravity is close to Terran standard, the air is breathable (when humans first arrived it was thin) and the skies have a purple tinge in the day and are spectacularly red at dusk. Corax is a single jump point away from the Chukulak stars of Azure and Argent. For this reason there are a fair number of Chukulak on Tusa at least in the two major cities near the equator. Many of the Chukulak on Tusa are from the Louca tribe which was cut off from Attis by the Scream. They have only recently reconnected with their home world.

Atsox at dusk generated with Terragen

When it was discovered Tusa was teeming with native life in the oceans. The lands were covered with nothing more complicated than grasses and lichens. Terrans set about terra-forming the planet adding trees, wildlife and the necessary ecosystem for assisted agriculture. There are no birds and few bugs on Tusa now but there are large herbivores. On the continent of Moneaux there are enormous game reserves were bio-engineered Mammoth, tigers and bison roam. The continent was set aside as a rich man’s hunting reserve. The Scream and Silence put an end to that. Most of the world economy functions around agriculture, meat production and the enormous fisheries.

All of the settlements are centered around Henders Sea with the cities of Newalter and Anderts. There is a small space port on Logaolos point called Lowpoint Starport. A small port town around the ferrocreate landing pads is where most spacers and off worlders can be found.

The continent of Atsox is a radioactive wasteland where the original island settlements once existed before a terra-forming accident released radiation and forced its evacuation. Luckily the agriculture lands on Moneaux were not affected.

The system of government is a pseudo democratic one. A Prime Minister is elected from within the ministers of the House of Government (HOG) composed of representatives for the original settler families. New arrivals on Tusa cannot become citizens but can exercise political will by donating to a Minister.

Tusa Continental map created in Hexographer

Lowpoint Starport

Tusa has a single starport located well away from settled areas on the dip of the Logaolos peninsula. Originally called Logaolos Point Starport it has been shorted over the years to Lowpoint.  Before the scream Tusa had two TL4 starports on Atsox but they were destroyed.

The starport consists of 18 hard ferrocreate landing pads. Most are 150 meters in diameter although Pad D was recently added to allow larger ships to land. There are also 2 landing pads used by the local government to run shuttle flights up to ships too large to land at Lowpoint.

Nearby there are customs and government buildings and warehouses to service the port and a number of tenements, hotels and bars to service the spacers.

There is an interesting collection of a half-dozen impounded free trader ships at Lowpoint. The Frontier Alliance corporation maintains offices on Tusa and merchants delinquent in their payments can find their ship and cargo seized by the Tusa Customs house. The Frontier Alliance is the largest Banking and Loan guarantee corporation in the surrounding 3 sectors. Panstellar Association Shipping also maintains offices on Tusa and Panstellar ships can always be found offloading and loading cargo at Lowpoint.

Lowpoint Starport and environs (Author 2-2017)