Megara is the 12:th of the “Quick Worlds” from Gypsy Knights Games. This might not be the most interesting one in the series, but it is still a useful one.

The idea is that a referee can use this (or the other books in this series) in his/her own universe to save some time when a more detailed world is needed. The referee can then change anything (e.g. the name of the planet or the UWP) to fit a planet in his/her own universe.

The planet Megara has a UWP of C9887B7-D. If you want to match it with a planet in the OTU, then maybe the planet Dakar in the Ilelish Sector is a good match. Dakar has a UWP of B9887BB-A. Any planet with a star-port between A-E, size 6-9, atm 8, hydro 8, pop 7-8, gov B, law 7-C and tech-level 6-D would probably work fine. It is actually impossible to create the UWP of Megara using classic rules. The tech-level is too high. But nothing in this pdf suggests that the tech-level must be this high. There is a maglev train, but that might be imported.

In this pdf, there are descriptions of the system with an image of the gas giant, and an overview image of the system. There are some general description of the planet Megara, and an isodecahedron map. Then there are some more specific descriptions of the planet and the people and cities and politics, and of the big herd animals called Betas. Finally there are a few adventure hooks.

What I would have wished for would have been some more detailed adventure hooks, an image of the Betas (and animal encounter tables), some notes on gas giant refuelling (since the gas giant is within the 100 solar diameters from the sun) and maybe some notes on the seasons due the the eccentric orbit.

There are also some other problems with this pdf. I hope Gypsy Knight Games (and other publishers) will learn from this constructive criticism and avoid such problems in the future.

The first problem is the colour bleeding on the cover. I don’t want to see that on a commercial product.

Solution: Don’t compress the images so hard, and don’t reuse already compressed images.

The second problem is that there are green patches that look like land on the image of the gas giant, and the background is black without any stars. It looks like it has been made using some simple (web-based) planet generator and it doesn’t look like a gas giant.

Solution: Look what I have done in two minutes with free software! (GIMP with gas giant and star field plug-ins.) Learn to use some graphics tools, or hire someone who can!

The third problem is the 501 day orbital period. This just doesn’t work for a G4V star and a 0.998 AU orbit. This violates Kepler’s third law. To make the year about 500 days, then the solar mass would be appr. 0.5 solar masses. That would suggest that either the star is a type K star in the cooler regions, or it might also be a type G4, if it is a sub dwarf. In either way, Megara would be a lot cooler. If I use this module, then I would just ignore this and calculate my own orbital period.

Solution: Double check the physics in your product.

Update: The third problem has been corrected in a new version uploaded to DriveThruRPG. It’s a good thing when a suggestion in a review can help the product improve. Now I know how the Top Gear presenters felt when they convinced Koenigsegg to fit a rear spoiler on their CCX. 😉