Forum:Faldor update

Forums: Index > Watercooler > Faldor update

Hi new here (although I have been playing and collecting Traveller since c.1978) and not clear on how one goes about editing the wiki.

Faldor is one of the most fully described worlds in Traveller thanks to J Andrew Keith's book Faldor Planet of Adventure.

In FPoA Faldor is something of a lost world with a human population that has regressed to TL2 and has a very medieval/renaissance feel with one major state populated by the descendants of Sword Worlders, some small city states and nomadic tribes and some minor offplanet trade.

However as a Cargonaut press publication this was for decades pretty difficult to find although I believe first Paul Sanders in the late 90s and then FFE in 2015 republished it.

While very much of its time I'd say FPoA is a pretty good supplement and well worth including as an episode in any Sword Worlds/District 268 based campaign - it would fit in the new Skandervik campaign for instance.

However the entry here and on travellermap does not reflect either FPoA or the original UPP - the major change being of the TL from 2 to 5.

This contradicts GDW's Spinward Marches supplement, the Spinward Marches Campaign and Regency Sourcebook all of which had TL2.

The first time it is a given a TL5 is in GURPS BtC where the authors were clearly unaware of FPoA and described it as an alien world populated by the Otarri.

The Mongoose 1 Spinward Marches book however kept it at TL2.

And then at some point the T5 survey changed the TL to 5 for which I can see no justification and which retcons out of existence a whole Classic Traveller era supplement for no good reason I can see.

So my suggestion is that Faldor is returned to TL2 and the entry is updated to summarise FPoA

However while I'd be very happy to do this edit it would be pointless if the travellermap is not changed as well.

So how does one request that change?

Cheers

RogerMcC (talk) 10:32, 1 February 2021 (EST) --> --RogerMcC

So I looked through several other sources (some internal) and am still trying to dig up the source of the original change. One of the sources of many changes wasn't the GT:BtC book, but the Traveller 5th Second Survey, a work undertaken by the authors and editors of the T5 book to update the stellar data to the T5 standards (and fix a few other things). But that wasn't the source of this change as far as I tell.

I've sent a request to Joshua Bell, the person managing the Traveller Map, to request the change. I'll post more information when I get something.

Thank you for your interest and research into this matter. Tjoneslo (talk) 19:05, 1 February 2021 (EST)

After some discussion with others involved in the decisions we uncovered the following bits of information. The TL changes did not come from GURPS:BtC, it was an early change in the T5 Second Survey changes. Faldor has a tainted atmosphere, which requires a filter mask to avoid what ever problem are in the air. But filter masks are manufactured, requiring a TL5 infrastructure to build and maintain. I'm not sure how the human population manages to survive in the tainted atmosphere. The Otarri, being native to the world, are adjusted to it. So that's why it was changed. But, as you noted, without reference to the source material.

Long and short, Faldor's TL in the Traveller Map should be updated shortly. Tjoneslo (talk) 18:30, 2 February 2021 (EST)