A New Look at Population Codes

The population codes for planets given in the Star Frontiers
game – both the Advanced and Zebulon’s Guide – are fairly simple. They give a
referee a lot of leeway in describing the different worlds and really isn’t
broken.

On the pro side, that is desirable because you can have a
Frontier that fits your image of the game. Though, when compared to some other
game systems, notably Traveler, SF’s population codes are a bit vague.

The four classic SF population codes are:

Outpost: A planet that contains only a small outpost or
colony. At most, it has only one small city and possibly some small settlements
located nearby.

Light: The planet has only a few small cities.

Moderate: The planet has several large and numerous small
cities.

Heavy: The planet has numerous large and hundreds of smaller
cities. Individual cities may be considered “maxi-cities” that cover thousands
of square kilometers.

The Traveller system, though, offers population codes with
specific ranges such as:

<table class="MsoTableLightShading" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: medium none" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr>
<td colspan="3" style="border-width: 1pt medium; border-style: solid none; border-color: black -moz-use-text-color; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Population
Codes 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Code 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Description

</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Population
(where P is the population multiplier) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
0 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Low 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
<10 (P) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
1 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Low 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
10 to 100 (P0) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
2 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Low 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
100 to 1,000 (P00) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
3 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Low 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
1,000 to 10,000 (P,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
4 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Moderate 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
10,000 to 100,000 (P0,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
5 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Moderate 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
100,000 to 1,000,000 (P00,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
6 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Moderate 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
1 Million to 10 Million (P,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
7 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Moderate 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
10 Million to 100 Million (P0,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
8 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
Moderate 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
100 Million to 1 Billion (P00,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
9 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
High 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
1 Billion to 10 Billion (P,000,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
A 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
High 
</td>
<td style="border: medium none; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
10 Billion to 100 Billion (P0,000,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-width: medium medium 1pt; border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color black; -moz-border-top-colors: none; -moz-border-right-colors: none; -moz-border-bottom-colors: none; -moz-border-left-colors: none; border-image: none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
B 
</td>
<td style="border-width: medium medium 1pt; border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color black; -moz-border-top-colors: none; -moz-border-right-colors: none; -moz-border-bottom-colors: none; -moz-border-left-colors: none; border-image: none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
High 
</td>
<td style="border-width: medium medium 1pt; border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color black; -moz-border-top-colors: none; -moz-border-right-colors: none; -moz-border-bottom-colors: none; -moz-border-left-colors: none; border-image: none; background: silver none repeat scroll 0% 0%; padding: 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
100 Billion to 1 Trillion (P00,000,000,000) 
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>

I think there is a way to merge these two systems together,
but keep it more in line with the SF way of doing things.

New Population Codes

Outpost: A planet that contains only a small outpost or
colony, or possibly a main settlement and some other small communities (often
close to each other). The population size ranges from less than 10 to about
5,000. Note: keep in mind that 5,000 colonists spread over a planet or even
part of a continent isn’t very much.

Sparse: A planet that has a small colony or even a
small city, possibly with a few other small settlements scattered nearby. The population
size ranges from over 5,000 to 50,000.

Light: The planet has only a few small cities with a
population ranging from over 50,000 to 100,000.

Moderate: The planet has several large and numerous small
cities. The population ranges from more than 100,000 to 100 million residents.

Heavy: The planet has numerous large and hundreds of smaller
cities. Some individual cities are “great cities” that cover hundreds of square
kilometers with populations of more than 2 million people. The planet’s
population ranges from more than 100,000 million residents to 4 billion.

Dense: The planet has numerous large and hundreds of smaller
cities. Individual cities may be considered “maxi-cities” or “mega-cities” that
cover thousands of square kilometers. Often these are homeworlds of races with
at least 20th century technology. The planet’s total population is more than 4
billion beings, some even as high as 100 billion or even more.

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