Resource Star Wars Planets

@Garmiel I personally would like to see more worlds unlike Earth. Almost every world in the movies has standard gravity, nice oxygen-rich atmospheres, even trees and furry animals running around. Sure there are desert-worlds, ocean-worlds and ice-worlds, but these environments also exist on Earth.

A simple glance around the planets and moons of our own solar system reveals this is actually very rare.*

Hostile, non-standard environments can create all sorts of problems for the characters and can increase tension in the stories, or even provide plot points in themselves.

* I of course understand that the planets most likely to be settled by sentient species of GFFA will actually be so-called "Goldilocks" planets, for exactly the issues mentioned above. These are most likely to be the scenes of conflict and battles, too, as they are more valuable. But how about a planet that offers important mineral wealth but offers unique challenges to the settlers (like Bespin)? How about the characters get stranded on a planet by accident, that no-one would ever bother going to? How about a faction/cult that deliberately uses an inhospitable planet as a base because it doesn't want to be found?

For specifics, I'd look at some of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. Some interesting gravity forces at work there. Binary stars also offer interesting day-night interactions for planets within their systems. A book I once read had a planet that was essentially a massive volcano part of the time, then went into deep freeze for decades at a time. The settlers lived within protected domes during the "Season of Fire" and then all went into cryogenic sleep for the "Season of Ice" as nothing much could get done during that time.

Just some food for thought.

K

 

@Garmiel Having thought on this further, I think I should qualify my suggestion...

A planet that is too hostile, of course, simply means characters cannot move around, fight, talk, or whatever. The story would get limited to inside space stations (like Cloud City) or all interactions would be in vehicles.

Though, actually, that would be cool for a change - something like Hunt for Red October where the "action" is all between starships that can't see each other might be neat.

So in terms of environments, just something a bit... different... to what we consider normal. In the first book of Abnett's Eisenhorn series, Xenos, they go into an artificial reality zone constructed by an alien species. This species is sort of insectoid, but all off-centre and non-balanced; five legs, too many eyes etc. The place they created existed within realspace, but mirrorred some weird alternate dimension that intersected more than three dimensions.

So, up and down and left and right became meaningless or twisted depending on a character's point of view. The gravity was all off, pulling in odd directions, making walking round on foot a weird sensation. You could pass through a big gateway and end up standing upside-down (to another observer) behind where you started.

There's just a starting point. I wonder what it would really be like to fight a battle in zero-g? How would that effect tactics and strategy?

 

Thanks for your suggestions Kurisan I have put some of it to thought and actually made one of the colonised star systems into noting but asteroids and is thinking about using a planet similar to the one we see in the film Alien. The problem is that I had missed that sector I am working with, the Lahara sector, is mostly made up by agricultural producer planets, so I guess I am now looking for different kind of environments or environmental variations that could still function for agricultural producer.

 

asteroids sounds great to me, Gamiel . Why don't you just make up your own sector? The galaxy is a vast place, after all. You've got plenty of room to work with...

 

In a 'verse so big as SW's I think I work best with limitations.

 

Gamiel fair enough but even a sector is hundreds of light years across and can contain hundreds if not thousands of worlds - not to mention many asteroid belts even in a system containing agricultural planets.

 

Anybody know a planet that's kind of "suburban", metaphorically speaking? I'm thinking temperate, with some cities and large towns, but a lot of smaller towns and open countryside. Average citizen lives comfortably enough, and is pretty well informed about what goes on in the galaxy, but doesn't possess the funds to go traveling to different planets a lot.

 

Cowgirl Jedi 1701 Do you want it to be near the Core or in the Outer Rim? Also, which era are we talking about?

 

The Outer Rim is equivalent to "out in the Boonies". The Inner Core can be compared to the super busy downtown area of a big city. Downtown Manhattan is a good example. What I want is something in-between, not too close in, but not too far out, the "suburbs". The time period is before The Phantom Menace.

 

I had a look at the "list of planets" entry on the Wook and I noticed that you can sort them by region, so maybe you could have a look at the mid-Rim planets and find something there?

There are also two fan-created planets that might be what you're looking for, leiamoody's Aeithera and Gamiel's Vætte (the links go to the relevant posts in the Fanon thread).

 

Thanks oodles. Now I should be able to find something, because I've got a place to start looking.

 

The Wook wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Most of the Mid Rim planets didn't have much information about them. Malastare could be a possible maybe, but I'm not sure I like it enough to use it. All the rest were Nopes, for various reasons. Any other suggestions?

 

Hmm, there is kind of a strong leaning towards super-urbanized or very, very rural in SW planets -- I think that it's something we saw in the OT and canon/fanon has kind of followed suit, as it so often does. I'm thinking your best bet may actually be to either borrow and flesh out a Mid Rim planet from canon or create one.

Some possibilities, though I'm not sure how closely they fit to your vision:

Bakura - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bakura
The Human residents have advanced biotech but it's located out a ways and I'm sure not everyone there is wealthy enough to travel much. Don't know if it's a plus or minus, but Bakura also has a couple of local traditions that might act as isolating factors, culturally speaking. The religion of the Cosmic Balance (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Balance) and the Bakurans' aversion to droid technology both mean that they're a little different from the mainstream. That said, they're in contact with the rest of the Galaxy and would probably have at least some version of current events.

Corellia - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corellia/Legends
This one varies a lot by era (ex: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corellian_Crisis), but may work. Specifically described in at least some sources as maintaining a certain amount of non-urbanized land. Definitely not everyone there has the resources to travel.

Borleias - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Borleias

Less detailed but seems to be kind of like a beachside tourist town in some ways. Residents would probably have outside news etc., but I have no idea about travel.

 

I'll put Bakura on the "Maybe" list, but I'm also thinking about making up my own planet. The trouble with that is I've never tried to make up a whole planet before, and I'm not sure how to do it.

 

Maybe one of the worlds in the Lahara sector ? Even if they don't fit so is there over 200 that have not been named or explored so you can create your own. There are some fanon planets for that sector if you are interested, some that might fit what you are after http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...nge-due-2-6-17.50024318/page-27#post-54039416

 

Cowgirl Jedi 1701 There's a Fictional World Development Sheet here if you want to create your own planet.

 

That's a nice sheet if a bit more complicated then I feel most people need (am I alone in wanting to fill in the whole sheet when I see one).

Cowgirl Jedi 1701 if you want any help with creating your own world or just suggested readings for inspiration to make your world more unique just ask me

 

Thanks Gamiel, I could use the help.

 

Thanks Gamiel, I could really use the help.

 

Glad if I can be of any help

You said thet you wanted a planet that was "kind of "suburban", metaphorically speaking? I'm thinking temperate, with some cities and large towns, but a lot of smaller towns and open countryside. Average citizen lives comfortably enough, and is pretty well informed about what goes on in the galaxy, but doesn't possess the funds to go traveling to different planets a lot. "

If we take that as a base, I guess my main question is: how do you plan to use the planet? Is it something that is going to have a major role in the story or just your characters home world that they are going to refer to from time to time?
If it is the later I don't really think that you need to come up with so much more. You could create some religious/similar practises, holydays, fashion and/or food for the planet that your characters relate to, thereby making them more than just another Han Everybody.

If it is the former can I give you some questions that you can think over and some suggestions on reading material. My first question would probably be what kind of feeling do you want your world to have. You said ”kind of "suburban"” but you could add to that by having the planet feeling a bit like some part of our world, or maybe some fictive world.

 

The planet in question will be the home world of one of the characters, but it will be kind of important in the story because characters will be spending a fair amount of time there. Does that help you help me?

 

Yes.

You already have an idea about what you want now we just have to make it a bit unique.

Here are some questions regarding your planet: How do the people dress? How do their architecture/s look like? Is there a kind of technology/gadget/items that they don’t have/use or is unique to them? Any unique superstitions? Any kinds of festivals/holydays of interest? Do they have an Force tradition of their own and if yes what is their philosophy and powers? What kind of martial tradition do they have and what arms and armour do they use? Any ideas about animal and/or plant life? How is their food? What about spaceship design? What non-humans make up the larges minority groups? Any group/species that they have prejudice to?

You don't need to answer them but should think about them.

I have a larger post about stealing ideas/designs from other cultures here: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...enge-due-2-6-17.50024318/page-9#post-52495000 it is mostly about real life cultures but if you want you can just as easy use made up ones (like the ones we see in Avatar the Last Airbender; Lords of the Rings; Barsoom; etc.)

If you want to make your culture a bit more quirky you can take a look at this RPG.net thread https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?771779-Exalted-fantasy-in-general-32-flavours-of-local-custom it is for villages, tribes and small towns but many of the suggestions could be applied on a planetary culture.

 

Oh boy, I'm getting some good ideas now. You think we should take this conversation to PM? I wouldn't want us to dominate the thread.

 

Glad to hear

I don't think that would be a problem (right people?) and maybe other people have some good ideas or get some good ideas by the discussion.

 

It occurs to me that talking about the planet I'm inventing would be a lot easier if it had a name. I think I've got a good one, but lemme check the Wook real quick to make sure it isn't already taken.

A few minutes later....

Checked the Wook, name is available. I am going to call my new world Serenity.

Now for some of my ideas.

Serenity has a variety of different terrain, similar to Earth, with a comparable land to water ratio. It is, however slightly larger, and also has a somewhat warmer climate in general.

The first group of settlers to colonize Serenity were led by a man named Andrian Myke. A tough but fair leader, his efforts contributed greatly to the success of this first colony. This led to Andrian, and its feminine variant Andriana, becoming a common name, and to the practice of granting individuals who made valuable contributions to the community the title of "Myke", or in the case of a female, "Mykette" (Example: Myke Jon Lastname, or Mykette Jill Lastname)

I've gotta do some thinking and come up with some more stuff.