Planets of the Corridor - Stavanger

Before I introduce Stavanger's allies, here's a detailed look at the planet and its people. 

Stavanger B-361851-C

Starport: B. Good installation, with refined fuel and facilities for starship repair, annual overhauls, etc.
Size: 3. Diameter 3,260 miles, surface gravity 43% standard. Many exploitable mineral & metal deposits. Settled area: 2,615,385 km^2
Atmosphere: 6. Standard NO2 mix, but 0₂ is only 14% of air composition. Noble gases in much higher proportions. Because of low hydrographics (see below) the air is very dry, clouds and rain are uncommon occurrences.
Hydrographics: 1. Very low. Three long, narrow lakes cover 14% of the planet's surface. All of the settled area is in the vicinity of the lakes, which occupy a large depression & lowlands area. The borderlands begin where the land slopes upward. The polar regions have small regions of ice. The inhabited areas are extensively irrigated, while the borderlands are quite arid.
Population: 8. 170,000,000 inhabitants. Population density 65 ppl/km^2
Government: 5. Feudal Technocracy. See below. Counts select head of state from own membership or the Planetary Assembly.
Law Level: 1. Almost no weapons are prohibited, open carrying is common and accepted. Public order is everyone's business.
Tech Level: 12. Galactic average.
Trade Classifications: Rich, on Trade Routes.  
Main imports: foodstuffs, tourists  
Main exports: raw materials, refined minerals, retail and trade goods, radioactive ores
Gas Giant:The Stavanger system has three.
Alignment: Independent. Resents Imperial intrusion into its sphere of influence. 


Details:

The inhabited area is divided into districts, under Counts. Each district has its own college/university system which is accessible to all but the lowest classes. Rivalry between the colleges is intense, and not just in sports. High scoring graduates get the best jobs, and so on down. Dropouts and non-students do all the unskilled & menial labor, and are restricted in weapon ownership. Towns on the three lakes are the tourist districts. The wine growing regions are famous across the subsector. There are occasional border skirmishes between Counts over land rights, and unrest among the lower classes. Low-class neighborhoods are the older, lower buildings, while upper class neighborhoods are new, taller buildings. The lower-class buildings/neighborhoods are constructed of brick/adobe type material; the high-rent neighborhoods are glass and steel. 

The High Rent District in Dansinger County

Counties of Stavanger:

• Arendal
• Dansinger
• Drammen
• Hokksen
• Levanger
• Lillesand
• Namsos
• Plancourt
• Sandvika
• Tottenham
• Trendheim
• Tromso
• Ulstenvok

The primary source of conflict on this world is economic competition between the counties. Counties are not merely land in private hands, each county is also a corporate entity with business interests on and off planet. The Stavangerian stock market is a very active market, companies get bought & sold from one county to another all the time. Rival companies in different counties compete for on and off-planet markets, as well as material and labor supplies. Workers can and do transfer from one county to another, going where the work is, or the best wage. Any student-age citizen who can get into one of the Universities can get 'social promotion'; it's all about performance and achievement. 
 
Lower class citizens (SOC 5-) are barred from stock ownership. The key to advancing one's SOC is technical education, which is highly systematic (no homeschooling) and all about credentials. They may own the trappings of technology (communication and entertainment/media devices) but do not know how to build/repair them.

The Planetary Assembly, made up of the Counts or their representatives, makes the laws and enforce them. The PA maintains the global police force, the military and external security forces.

The lands outside the established Counties is controlled by the PA, exploration or settlement requires permits and licenses from that body. The law in the 'borderlands' is more relaxed and less regulated. Settlements do not have to be adjacent to an established County. Most of the back-country settlements are centered around a small lake or other body of water, which forms a small arable zone, a sort of oasis.

Stavanger does not employ many self-motive robots, but a lot of manufacturing is robotized. Skill in designing, building/repairing or operating robotic equipment is prized. Some of the very wealthy have personal attendant robots as valets or stewards.

Stavangerian culture:

Stavangerians are reserved but not distrustful of outsiders. Business relationships are very formal, even among businesses of the same county. Over-familiarity with another company can be seen as divided loyalty, especially if the other company is from another County. There is a strong sense of family & class. The average family has 3.8 children. Upward social mobility is possible for the very studious, but does not extend to the family other than the spouse and minor children. A lower-class person who moves up establishes his/her own family at the new social level. Higher class children do not look down upon their lower-class family. There is a hard boundary between those who own land and non-landowners. Only people of SOC 9+ will own small tracts of land in their own name. Identification with one's home county is strong, and county colors & heraldry are common motifs in clothing and homes. Religion is a personal matter for Stavangerians; religious groups are expected to get along in public and keep their doctrinal disputes private.

Architecture is based upon stone & metal structures, and as arable land is limited, buildings go up instead of out. The higher the building you own, the wealthier you are. Even in rental properties, the top floors command the highest prices and are considered prime locations. Building exteriors can be natural colors if of stone, metal structures are usually painted with County color schemes. Windows are common and large.

Adventuring on Stavanger

If the PC's are off-worlders, they will be hired to do the stuff that the locals don't want to do themselves, like kidnapping, murder arson and sabotage.

If the PC's are locals, they likely will be cops or agents of the Counts, dealing with the likes of the above.

Out in the borderlands, the tech is more like TL 9 rather than 12. So, things will look more rustic, but there are no (or few) clapboard shacks. Steel & composite materials make most buildings, and robot construction crews are common.

There is very little native flora and fauna, at least not in the borderlands. Water will have to be imported, or gotten from the few small bodies trapped by rock formations. 

There will be, of course, any number of bandits and outlaws in the borderlands region. Stavanger has a satellite network in orbit, at least over known settled areas. Normally, communication is not a problem. It is possible to get outside the detection/communication window.

Adventure location - Jannus Hill

Jannus Hill, in the middle foreground.

Jannus Hill is a town of 1400 people, on the borderlands. There are several thousand more living in small hamlets and ranches in the surrounding areas. The hill of the town's name is a jagged, rocky slope up several hundred meters. It is part of a chain of hills, interspersed with valleys, some of sheer sides and others of more gentle slopes. The whole region is very dusty, with only sparse vegetation.

This region is a mining area ore and gem mines, all near the surface and extracted by strip mining. Bandits steal from the miners and miners compete conflict with each other for claims. The sheriff is trying to maintain order. He's not trying to eradicate the bandits, just minimize the damage they do, and discourage others from moving in.

Major NPCs

Sheriff Kevin Stapleton      7BB998      Age 42
Grav Vehicle-3, Tactics-2, Rifle-1, SMG-1, Pistol-2, Leader-2, Legal-1

Deputy Davidson “Dave” Plunkett      979776      Age 30
Grav vehicle-2, Tactics-1, Rifle-1, Pistol-1, ATV-1, Gambling-1, Legal-1