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Needle Grass and Bayard

The dominant flora on Bayard is what the colonists have come to refer to as needle grass--a term that covers a broad category of thin, tubular short "grasses" that have evolved into nearly every biome on Bayard. Needle grass is more akin to Terran fungus in the clavulinopsis  genus. Needle grass typically grows 3-4 inches tall and comes in a variety of shades from grey to green to brown. The grass requires organic material on which to feed, though it can be of very little amount--ask any number of colonists who have found clumps of the grass growing on the spaces between tiles. Needle grass is noted for it's vibrant hues as the close of the day cycle ends on Bayard. Approximately 48 hours before sunset, needle grass transforms to bright, vivid colors--reds, yellows, and oranges in particular. The whole of Bayard becomes resplendent with those vivid colors. At the end of that 48 hours, the individual clumps eject spores, and the grass returns to its normal coloring.
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Very Brief History of the Leclerc System

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The Leclerc system was first surveyed in 2253 by Commander Camille Lasant Said, a descendent of le maréchal Philippe Leclerc, and the crew of  Melodie  Chromatique . The French ensured a small colony was created in 2254 at present day Varennes. The French hoped to claim primacy of their position as the Japanese and Texas governments learned of Bayard. Shortly thereafter, a planetside explorer by the name of Charles de Vanteaux discovered what he believed to be a significant tantalum deposit on the continent of Renal. The French government, anxious to preserve the tantalum for themselves, sent a Legion etrangere company to set up a camp (Camp de Seeger) to establish a primary claim. Additionally, they colluded with the Japanese and Texans in violation of the Melbourne Accords to keep the presence of Bayard a secret from the other nations--which lasted for a period of 40 years. In those intervening years, those three nations built a sizable presence on Bayard, all agreeing that
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The Leclerc System and Bayard

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I'm still in the process of defining much of this and it's subject to change, but my current thinking is that the Leclerc system constitutes the following planets: Corbarans: A hot, rocky, vacuum planet Bertrand: A proto-Venus Fierebras: A hot planet with a tar-like fluid covering the surface Bayard: The inhabited planet Otuel: A small Jovian Aigar: An icy, vacuum rockball These planets orbit a K0V star with .76 of the mass of Sol and nearly half its luminosity and cooler, coming in at 5,062K. (FYI, I haven't yet determined which system of the Wolf cluster Leclerc actually is--I do know I'll override one of those...probably one of these: Ross 486, DM+0 2898, or Gamma Virginis.) Bayard sits at .66 AU from Leclerc and has a diameter of 11,203.2km (6,961.3miles). The planet rotates slowly compared to Earth. One Bayard day is 1,572 hours or 65.5 Earth days, and it orbits Leclerc every 9 days (or 216 Earth days). Its axial tilt is 27.35%. The atmosphere consi
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Premise

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I figured I'd better start off with the premise of my 2300AD campaign. I'll fill out many of the details later that provide the context (many of which I've already considered). Some of what follows may be as clear as mud if you're not familiar with the 2300AD universe. Apologies...some will become clearer over time, but I don't want to repeat all the source material (the Kafers, mentioned below, have an entire source book dedicated to them). I think the key parts of this universe to understand are that humans have colonized dozens of worlds in the area near Earth, they have encountered several sentient alien species, and the notion of nations is still alive and well. The Kafers have overrun Arcturus Station and invaded Aurore. The human counterattack fleet is mustering in Hochbaden, and very little is known at this time about the Kafers, a new and hostile sentient race. Kafer scouts, presumably, have been spotted in several systems up the French Arm, including
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Introduction

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I've decided to start this blog to make more public my development of a system (Leclerc) and world (Bayard) for a 2300AD campaign I hope to begin in February of 2020. I will continue to develop the world as the players engage, etc. I want this separate this from my referee-less Traveller blog because, well, I didn't want to mix the two. If you haven't heard of 2300AD , it is an RPG developed by GDW (the company that owned Traveller) and published in 1986. 2300AD is a continuation of the events captured in another of their RPGs, titled Twilight 2000 , which is a game taking place in a post-apocalyptic world after a sizable, but limited nuclear war (this is called the Twilight War in the Mongoose 2300AD sourcebook). Eventually the world recovers and humanity spreads out into nearby star systems after the development of the stutterwarp drive, which requires a return to a gravity well at least every 7.7 light years traveled to shed accumulated radiation. This has resulted
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