The Maxi-city in Star Frontiers

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 8:47am
Some assumptions about Port Loren:
Alpha Dawn page 49 wrote:
Heavy Population colonies: individual cities may cover hundreds of square kilometers
Zebs Guide wrote:
Heavy population. Individual cities maybe considered "maxi-cities" covering hundreds of square kilometers


For comparison New York is the largest city in the world by area at 8,683 square kilometers.

I think the "maxi-cities" of the game rules are a nod to sci fi literature and movies where cities in a sci-fi setting have spread over a whole continent. Hundreds of square kilometers doesn't sound like much compared to NYC so what we are really talking about is 10s of thoughsands of square kilometers if not 100s of thoughsands.

so I contend somewhere in the Star Frontier setting there is Maxi-cities on one or more of the heavy population worlds and the most likely candidates are Port Loren on Gran Quivera, Maze on Minotaur and the capitol of Triad in the Cassidine system.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 9:11am
Managing the size of such a city- I think the thing to do is to brake it up into parts.

For example in Boston you have distinct areas like Dorchester, Hyde Park, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Dowtown, Southie or South Boston, Eastie or East Boston etc.

So a maxi city might be broken up into areas the size of small New England states or the size of major cities like Boston or NYC.

One obvious Name for a section of Port Loren would be the Hub of which the very center of that section is detailed in the Port Loren poster map.

I would recommend another big section to be called the Logan Star Port- lets face it a star port will need 1000s of square kilometers, not just for the landing field but for all the logistics and infrastructure side of things. RE. The name Logan- it is true I lived in Boston for decades and the air port there is named Logan but I nominate the name Logan as a nod to Bill Logan who started the Star Frontiersman and the dot US site.

In the past, in games and in writing, I've made reference to the "Rook Hill" slum section of town with crime ridden arcologies (house projects for the the poor). So naturally I'd like to keep that as a bit of personal fan cannon.

I'd also nominate using Timothy Norris' name as inspiration for a section of port loren since he kept the dot com site going with downloads of rules and modules and Art Eastman?

Also thinking about the origins of Port Loren as the hub of the Frontier and the headquarters of the first mega corp I'll propose that the first 6 sections of the town were surveyed and laid out as one each for the core four, one for the Hub and one for the star port. It has grown and expanded over time to include a resettlement area- rook hill with its arcologies as well as some industrial areas.

within an area there is mono rail service but between regions there is high speed mag lev. or if you use bap bins then there is that option.


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 9:12am
If Port Loren is judged to be a city that covers the whole coast of a continent then we can effectively treat the Port Loren Police department as a planetary police force.

The benefit of that is that you can write a CSI Port Loren adventure that if wide ranging and there is no issues over jurisdiction.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 9:17am
Other canon data:

Port Loren is Headquarters for:

PGC
Galactic Task Force
Star Law
UPF and presumable the seat of the Council of Worlds
potentially the headquarters of Space Fleet and Ground Fleet.

We can presume numerous colleges and universities and institutes dedicated to learning or research.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 9:17am
Other canon data:

Port Loren is Headquarters for:

PGC
Galactic Task Force
Star Law
UPF and presumably the seat of the Council of Worlds
potentially the headquarters of Space Fleet and Ground Fleet. Ground Fleet will have a large storage facility of stasis field storage for equipment awaiting the next major war with the sathar and run by a skeleton crew of service technition and training cadre. Space Fleet will have a very active headquarters section despite their academy being on Morgaine's World. Because Space Fleet is a larger organization able to draw from a wider pool of personnel they tend to win the annual Space Fleet vs Ground Fleet grav ball game.

We can presume numerous colleges and universities and institutes dedicated to learning or research.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 19, 2019 - 9:33am
History of the founding of Port Loren

when humans, vrusk and dralasites first met in the Frontier they established a colony in the system where they met and named it Triad in honor of the 3 species meeting. Triad was founded to foster communication, cultural and technological exchange between these three space faring species.

When the yazirians entered the Frontier and made contact it happened in the Prengular system and likewise the planet of Gran Quivera was settled by all four space faring species under a similar charter of fostering peace, understanding and cultural exchange.

This resulted in large tracts of land being laid out for specific purposes despite the initial population being rather small for those tracts of land. Thus separate enclaves for Humans, yazirians, vrusk and dralasites were reserved on parcels of land numbering into the thoughsands of square kilometers as well as the Hub and the Logan Star Port.. Over time, as Port Loren grew in importance so did it population and other districts were laid out and the city has grown to maxi-city status in a relatively short time.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
August 19, 2019 - 2:13pm
jedion357 wrote:
Maze on Minotaur

Yep, I made Maze a global city that has no east/west boundaries...only the north/south borders exist which are barren areas. "Uptown" and "downtown" take on a different meaning in the way of altitude, lower class folks reside on the ground & subterranean levels and utilize ground/hovercraft & monorails while the wealthy live high up in skyscraper levels and utilize aerial travel.

I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

KRingway's picture
KRingway
August 19, 2019 - 2:38pm
IIRC, the Dark Conspiracy rpg had 'New Boswash'. I think this was a megopolis that was made up of New York, Boston and Washington DC. This in turn was probably influenced by something similar in William Gibson's various cyberpunk novels.

JCab747's picture
JCab747
August 19, 2019 - 8:07pm
Another good topic.

Allen Trussel wrote up a Prenglar system brief in one of the issues of Star Frontiersman magazine. it might be good to weave some of his ideas in as well... simply because I'm one for not reinventing the wheel unless you have to... It seems to me someone made an area map of Port Loren, possibly somewhere on this site. The problem, if I recall, is it is low resolution and doesn't show much detail... so there, inventing a better map is ideal.
Joe Cabadas

iggy's picture
iggy
August 20, 2019 - 11:17pm
I have that map on my hard drive.  On my phone so won't link it now.  Scream if you can't find it.

I like the Logan Starport name.

I propose that each district is in fact a self governing city based initially on the racial government styles of the core four and together form Port Loren.  What this amalgam maxi city government is I don't know.  This way we can argue we are keeping to the canon 100s of square kilometers statement for each city and the amalgamated Port Loren maxi city is thus 1000s of square kilometers or more.  Mrgacorps may have done their first foureys into governments here before taking whole planet's later.  So one city may be Panacea. 


-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 21, 2019 - 4:08am
iggy wrote:
I propose that each district is in fact a self governing city based initially on the racial government styles of the core four and together form Port Loren.  What this amalgam maxi city government is I don't know.  This way we can argue we are keeping to the canon 100s of square kilometers statement for each city and the amalgamated Port Loren maxi city is thus 1000s of square kilometers or more.

I like this idea for Gran Quivera but I think the reasoning breaks down for other planets.

iggy wrote:
Mrgacorps may have done their first foureys into governments here before taking whole planet's later.  So one city may be Panacea. 




Love the name of Panacea- what thoughts did you have about that.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

JCab747's picture
JCab747
August 21, 2019 - 5:10pm
iggy wrote:
I have that map on my hard drive.  On my phone so won't link it now.  Scream if you can't find it.

I like the Logan Starport name.

I propose that each district is in fact a self governing city based initially on the racial government styles of the core four and together form Port Loren.  What this amalgam maxi city government is I don't know.  This way we can argue we are keeping to the canon 100s of square kilometers statement for each city and the amalgamated Port Loren maxi city is thus 1000s of square kilometers or more.  Mrgacorps may have done their first foureys into governments here before taking whole planet's later.  So one city may be Panacea. 


 

good to know. And good to see you posting here!

Joe Cabadas

iggy's picture
iggy
August 21, 2019 - 5:39pm
@jedion, Pan Galactic corporation picked the name Panacea because in there mind, and their marketing teams minds, what better place could you live than a city that show cases all the best things that Pan Galactic Corporation brings to the universe.  

@jcab, Still too busy to be posting from a proper PC, but I figured I better force myself to post from my phone even if I hate typing with my thumbs.  I need to show I'm still alive.  Also, the water is getting closer to my head and I can see the light above after being so deep for so long.  Just got to get to Dec 31 and my head should be above water again.
@jedion, Why couldn't Port Loren be a merger of other cities that decided on a common government?   I get the special race angle may be more Gran Quivera and a political show of unity in founding it.  Couldn't Port Loren have just evolved that way?
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 21, 2019 - 7:48pm
iggy wrote:
@jedion, Pan Galactic corporation picked the name Panacea because in there mind, and their marketing teams minds, what better place could you live than a city that show cases all the best things that Pan Galactic Corporation brings to the universe.  

@jcab, Still too busy to be posting from a proper PC, but I figured I better force myself to post from my phone even if I hate typing with my thumbs.  I need to show I'm still alive.  Also, the water is getting closer to my head and I can see the light above after being so deep for so long.  Just got to get to Dec 31 and my head should be above water again.
@jedion, Why couldn't Port Loren be a merger of other cities that decided on a common government?   I get the special race angle may be more Gran Quivera and a political show of unity in founding it.  Couldn't Port Loren have just evolved that way?


Sure, and the choice was to use the PLPD as the planetary police rolled in there somewhere. I wonder if the conglomeration was a measure to protect against PGC influence?


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
August 22, 2019 - 6:47am
I like the politics of PLPD becoming the police over Panacea and the absorption of Panacea into Port Loren to keep Pan Galactic Corporation from becoming a law into themselves and check their influence.   This would also frustrate Pan Galactic Corporation and motivate them to seek out, colonize, and control (I mean govern) their own system and world.  The executives believe that they can do better than elected citizens.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 22, 2019 - 10:16am
iggy wrote:
I like the politics of PLPD becoming the police over Panacea and the absorption of Panacea into Port Loren to keep Pan Galactic Corporation from becoming a law into themselves and check their influence.   This would also frustrate Pan Galactic Corporation and motivate them to seek out, colonize, and control (I mean govern) their own system and world.  The executives believe that they can do better than elected citizens.


I like the conflict between PGC security and PLPD that will be inevitable.

Lends itself to adventured titled: A Murder in Panacea or A Panacea for Murder
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!