Class X Starports

In Traveller, a Class X starport designation can mean several different things:

• Unknown. Usually used only in frontier areas, there is no available data about the world’s starport. The world might actually have a decent starport, but the ship’s library has no information. A “Uk” trade classification or similar might help distinguish this use from other uses.
• Known, but No Facilities. Usually associated with Barren worlds, the world has no starport, not even a navigation beacon or landing strip. Such a system might or might not have an associated Red Zone.
• Known, but Forbidden. Usually associated with a Red Zone travel advisory and the Forbidden trade classification. The world might or might not have starport facilities, but if they exist they are restricted or shuttered. The world might be actively interdicted and guarded by a naval force, or a beacon might warn off unwary travellers.

For most of Traveller’s history, Class X starports were so closely associated with Red Zones that the two categories were considered synonymous. But T5 realized that these classes could be uncoupled: one could theoretically have Class X starports without a Red Zones and Red Zones without Class X starports. For example, a world might have both a Class A starport and a Red Zone: a high-tech autocratic world with a law level so high that Travellers should be actively warned away. Or a Red Zone might be issued to a world wracked by civil war with a Class C starport. One iteration of the rules attempted to actively restrict Class X to only unknown starports; the rationale was all other previous uses of X could be classified at least as D or E with or without Red Zones.

However, when this interpretation was applied to the T5SS, the results broke a lot of Traveller Universe canon. Too much legacy data had used X for Red Zoned, interdicted worlds, and so these changes were eventually rolled back.

Or at least mostly rolled back. While several worlds in Magyar and Dark Nebula regained their lost Class X starports, several more did not:

• New Sol (Magyar 0503 D501956-7)
• Jafar (Magyar 0721 D559100-8)
• Lavik (Magyar 0924 EA9A355-6)
• Jondrea (Magyar 1004 E545332-5)
• 023-876 (Magyar 1139 E536400-6)
• Al-Medif (Magyar 1309 E87A775-5)
• Yuehtsao (Magyar 1323 D8C989D-9)
• Ealyurei (Dark Nebula 0120 E100266-7)
• Ktealau (Dark Nebula 0130 E998123-7)
• Aiaokheh (Dark Nebula 0206 C434445-9)
• Ahuawiyoi (Dark Nebula 0607 E8C4544-9)
• Eakhyehiyye (Dark Nebula 0740 E544643-6)
• Rormepeni (Dark Nebula 0915 E8B4443-8)
• Hlehekah (Dark Nebula 1127 E100545-A)
• Aiheisaus (Dark Nebula 1637 E100443-7)
• Yetiuaya (Dark Nebula 2340 E768448-7)

All of these worlds were listed as Starport X in Atlas of the Imperium, which was generally held up as the gold standard for the T5SS review. I propose reverting these starports back to X. (Or lacking that, imposing Red Zones.) The result would be more consistent with surrounding areas, and adds interesting texture to the data.

Take New Sol, for example. A high population world with a class D starport is kind of boring, but an interdicted high population world? That’s a lot more interesting.

One interesting note about Tech Levels and interdicted worlds: although Class X starports impose a -4 penalty to Tech Levels, a cursory review of Traveller Map data suggests that worlds with Class X starports apply minimum TLs by atmosphere, a rule introduced in CT Alien Module 1, Aslan. A vacuum world, for example, must maintain a minimum TL of 7, while a world with a insidious atmosphere must maintain a minimum TL of 9. These minimums don’t really apply to worlds engaged with interstellar trade, as necessary tech can presumably be imported. But interdicted worlds, cut off from imports, must be able to produce and maintain protective measures or else perish. The Hard Times milieu shows the grim effects of tech collapse on worlds with unsuitable atmospheres.