Algine (world)/meta

Notes (2008)

The Spinward Marches Campaign gave Algine a class M9 IV sun, something that doesn't actually exist. The Regency Sourcebook changed that to a G9 V. Unfortunately Jon Zeigler didn't know that, so in his writeup of Algine in GURPS Traveller: First In, he changed it (from the original M9 VI) to an M8 V.

I feel that the G-type star is the most likely, primarily because Algine is one of the few worlds that was settled by a First Imperium colony, implying (to me, anyway) that it is one of the most human-compatible (read: Earth-normal) worlds to be found for many parsecs around. It was also targeted by a sub-light colony ship, again making it much more likely that its star was a G-type rather than an M-type (Would you aim for an M-type star if you were captaining a sub-light colony ship?). OTOH, the write-up in First In described a world orbiting close to an M-class star and would need a considerable revision to fit a G-type primary.

I corresponded with Jon about it, and he was not unwilling to consider a revision of the writeup if First In was ever reprinted, but as that's unlikely to happen now, the whole thing is a bit of a mess -- especially since First In is now available as an e-book.

Rancke 17:01, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I've seen in several places the note that the TNE main book applied an errata to all previous versions of Traveller that all type IV stars were to be reset as type V stars. So Jon's change is entirely within canon.

The really big change I'd like to see is have all the type D stars changed to type V, because dwarf stars and type V stars mean very different things. And if a system contains a true dwarf star, it means there should be no habitable worlds in the system. Tjoneslo 14:57, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

What type IV star? Ah, a mistype! It was a type M9 VI, not a type M9 IV. Apparently they don't exist. But that wasn't really my point. My point was that, unknown to Jon, RgS had changed it to a G9 V. So we now have two different, equally canonical, mutually incompatible stars for Algine's sun. Admittedly, all else being equal, the FI version would be "more canonical", based on the principle that text beats raw UWPs. But everything else isn't equal. The fact that two different colony expeditions, one of them a sublight expedition, both targeted Algine's sun seems to me to suggest that making it a Class M star is a Bad Idea. YMMV.

Anyway, I wrote this more as a warning than anything else. If you go with the FI version, you risk that one day it will be overwritten by someone who thinks a G-type star is better (or who just got his information from RgS). If you go with the RgS version, you risk that FI won't be overwritten ;-).

Rancke 10:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The Category: T5 Second Survey rewrite of the extended UWPs decided to use the The Regency Sourcebook as its source and gave Algine a G9 V star. This is now the "most official" canon on the subject. Tjoneslo (talk) 11:02, 2 June 2013 (EDT)