Remaking the Starfinder Pact Worlds Map

[Cravix]

I want to start off by saying i feel like having the majority of Starfinder contained within a single solar system seems unrealistic and confined for a space exploration style game. To show you what i mean here is a picture of the pact worlds from paizos website.

http://paizo.com/image/content/Starfinder/PZO7101-SolarSystem.jpg

Now lets compare this to say a map of Babylon 5's system.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0c/0c/9d/0c0c9da57930139784049386e48c7272.jpg

Im not the greatest at cartography or drawing but would appreciate if anybody skilled in this could share maybe an expanded system that goes beyond a single Solar System.

[legomaster00156]

As I understand it, Pact Worlds are meant as jumping-off points. Worlds beyond the Pact Worlds are encouraged to be created by a GM to suit the purposes of their campaigns.

[Becca Stareyes]

A plus to a single planetary system is that they are mostly pretty flat, so work well for being drawn on the page, though I have objections of my own to the one in Starfinder*. While I like the idea of a system full of life, I have trouble imagining more than two or three conventionally habitable* worlds in a system, though goodness knows Nature is a surprising thing. Then again, I want more unconventionally habitable worlds. Even sticking to science, there's moons like Europa or Titan in our solar system. And Starfinder has magic.

Drawing nearby space is harder because you end up with something three-dimensional rather than the Babylon-5 map You can compress it into two dimensions, but you lose information like who really is in the neighborhood. I assume the B-5 map is more like those schematics one sees on the subway, whose main job is to convey certain information, and ignore everything else.

Still, it sounds like a fun project. I might think about it, though I'm not much of a mapmaker.

* It's a usual one. I teach astronomy, and SF settings aren't always good about following science when designing planets.
* Meaning worlds where it's the right temperature for water to be liquid on the surface in at least some places. Our system has one currently, and might have had two or three in the past, depending on what early Venus was like. (We see remains of rivers on Mars; Venus's early history is complicated by the fact that a billion years ago, it has a massive bout of volcanoes and covers most of its surface with lava.

[Cravix]

While I like the idea of a system full of life, I have trouble imagining more than two or three conventionally habitable* worlds in a system, though goodness knows Nature is a surprising thing. Then again, I want more unconventionally habitable worlds. Even sticking to science, there's moons like Europa or Titan in our solar system. And Starfinder has magic.


Totally agree with this and is the main reason why I would want to expand the map.