How many stars in a 20^3 ly area?

Ok, I'm having a little trouble trying to figure out just how many stars there should by in 20 cubic light-year area, and please don't say as many as the story calls for. Also how many of them should have planets? Etc... What I have other than star systems is a Mid-sized nebula, a rogue planet, and possibly a small singularity type object. As far as species in the area go, I have three native (one pre warp, but...) and two (or more) transplanted.

The sector (called "Hadnido") is located on the anti-Federation side of Cardassian space, just for GP.

Phoenix...


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"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
-Napoleon

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How many stars in a sector?

42.

Forty-two! Wait! That's it! That's the question and the answer! That's...uh oh...hang on.

Oh, damn.

The universe just ceased to exist, and has been replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

We now return you to your regular programming... http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

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"Every atom in our bodies was forged in the furnace of ancient stars - it is our destiny to return home..."

most stars seem to be spaced about 5 lys roughly apart. That would give a figure like 125 stars per sector of course most of these would be unimportant and only about 10 or 12 of any real significance.

Quote:

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Originally posted by StyroFoam Man:
The person to ask would be SIRSIG, but he seems to have droped off the face of the boards.

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Well perhaps the face of the Internet http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

A standard sector in fed space usually includes 6-12 'decent' star systems that would have a number of planets.

Of these one could expect to find perhaps 1 M class world in 3-4 of these systems.

Ask for a few more specifics and I'll help 'cause I'm also an Astronomer/Cosmologer etc. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

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SIRSIG :D
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever ;)

According to the article at Britannica.com, stellar density in this neck of the Galaxy is about .004 stars per cubic light year, or about 1 star in 250 cubic light years. In a standard 20x20x20ly sector, with a volume of 8000ly³, there will be an average of 32 stars. As has been pointed out, the LUGTrek rules call for about 10 of these to be of interest (I use 1d6+7 for a range of 8-13 when creating sector maps).

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Styro, I just let the players write the story, I throw a few hook in every now and then...to give direction to the game...kinda like letting Pat Stwart write the script and Levar Burton direct, but having Bragga standing by to add a little nudge every now and then.

All in all though, I need to have a fairly detailed area for the players to explore... "The reason they joined Starfleet in the first place" http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Sig, as far as a "few more specifics" I'm thinking Sagittarius-arm rimward side at about the 210-220 degree area, more or less.

Well rambled enough...it's nite-nite time for me.

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"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
-Napoleon

It would be better to ask:

a) How many star systems lie within the
"average" sector.

first, and then ask:

b) What fraction of star systems have only
one star, what fraction are binary, what
fraction are trinary, and so forth...

For extra fun with astrochartography, work
out tables for randomly determining the number of small, cool, dim, reddish class-M
stars, the number of hospitable yellowish class-G stars (like Sol), the number of large, hot, bright, class-A stars, the number
of white dwarfs, and so on...

Actually, I worked out a set of tables to
do this, but they're at home... I'll try to
remember to bring them in tomorrow, and post
them.

A bit OT here, but I'd like to ask SIR SIG an astronomy question, if he doesn't mind:

Got a handy formula for figuring conjunctions between a random number of celestial bodies? Make it as complicated as you like.

- DP

Quote:

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Originally posted by Sho-sa Kurita:
A bit OT here, but I'd like to ask SIR SIG an astronomy question, if he doesn't mind:

Got a handy formula for figuring conjunctions between a random number of celestial bodies? Make it as complicated as you like.

- DP

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Not exactly handy, no.

But how would you want one? With planets in superior conjuction with respect to a random planet all in the same system? Or with just any celestial body within a system? Then there's random stuff like asteroids etc.

Or perhaps something more obscure between whole systems in a sector? http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/tongue.gif

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SIRSIG :D
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever ;)

I guess I did leave that question more than a little vague, but your first stab at reading my mind was correct:

With planets in superior conjuction with respect to a random planet all in the same system?



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He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign shall be victorious.

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poster

He He

That would take quite a bit of calculation. And I don't have one personally.
I'd be inclined to try down the track but not just now http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

Perhaps something on the net?

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SIRSIG :D
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever ;)

WHAT are you guys talking about?!? http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Thanks Sig,

I knew it would be pretty nasty, but don't worry about it, I'm sure I can track something down. I was just taking the "easy" way out. Two bodies is easy. Beyond that it gets crazy, but I love wacky calculus.

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He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign shall be victorious.

Um Sho-Sa, Sig?

Do you guys really go into this sort of detail for a game? Seems a bit much to me, especially since Trek is science "lite" (sic) SF.

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When I generate a sector, I start out with a 20x20 grid, a set of dice and a pencil.

To determine the number of stars in a sector, I roll 2d6+24. Thus, I have 26-36 stars per sector, averaging 32.

I then decide whether there are any stellar "anomalies" - singularities and the like. I figure a 1% chance is good, but this is purely arbitrary, and subject to both whim and campaign requirements.

I roll 1d6+6 to see how many "important" systems there are. I decide what these are rather than using charts... Inside Federation space, one of these will always be a communications relay, as subspace communications require a booster roughly every 20 light years.

For each star, I roll a d20-11 for each of the X,Y and Z coordinates (giving a +/- 1-10 range). Generally, I only roll the anomalies and important systems, but I keep a note of the total number of stars. I mark each star in the appropriate grid square with its name and the Z coordinate.

I don't usually bother figuring out stellar types unless it becomes a story point.

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I'm thinking as far as level of detail goes, I don't think it's any worse than figuring out the number of star systems in a sector. It just happens to be a lot harder to figure out (having actual mathematics behind it. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif

My group (including me) are all a bunch of honest-to-goodness engineers who like to geek out on this kind of thing, and I prefer space exploration type stuff.

Come on Owen, detail is FUN! http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

- DP

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He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign shall be victorious.

Owen, I like that post on how you generate sectors. Nice and simple.

- DP

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He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign shall be victorious.

He He, had them going then hey Sho-sa Kurita http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

Still if you find some decent stuff on the net, let me know. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Or just email me.

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SIRSIG :D
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever ;)

SIG, Sho...

Do you guys even have lives, or is this extreme number crunching a profession of your? http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/rolleyes.gif

Sorry couldn't resist...

But for every one here, Many Thanks, your input has been very helpful.

Phoenix...

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"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
-Napoleon

Crunchy numbers are best served with Romulan ale. Mmmmmm... http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif

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He whose generals are able and not interfered with by the sovereign shall be victorious.