Yrth In Spaaacccceee!

[dataweaver]

Also, I'd allow both Hyperdrive and Jump Drive, with the latter being dependent on naturally occurring jump points and allowing for instantaneous travel over very large distances, whereas Hyperdrive gives you near-total freedom in terms of departure and destination points (probably with some sort of gravity-based restriction that requires you to be in space — or maybe even out of orbit — before you can activate it) but requires travel times measured in days or weeks for interstellar trips, and tends to be best for travel to nearby worlds.

This being a generic Space Opera setting, I wouldn't mess with time dilation effects in hyperspace: a one-week trip takes one week for both the crew and the worlds they're traveling between. Likewise, Jump Drives don't have to worry about it either, because jumps are immediate for everyone.

If Jump Gates aren't just dependent on natural astrography but are also expensive to build and maintain, you can institute a “core and frontier” model where core worlds have access to Stargates and are tightly networked into a highly developed, “civilized” culture, whereas worlds without Stargate access tend to be less developed “frontier worlds”.

(In the original setting for which I developed this notion, Jump Gates also acted as system-wide Reality Stabilizers, resulting in core worlds being very high-tech due to easy access to massive industrial based but with very little superscience while the frontier worlds tended to be lower tech but with all sorts of superscience. I don't know if we'd want to go that way here; but it does allow the setting to handle a wider variety of sci-fi styles.)

[dataweaver]

Finally, there's no Earth in this setting, nor any homeworlds. There are heavily developed capital worlds and lightly-settled “frontier town” worlds; but the various spacefaring races (including humans) have been at it for so long that nobody knows or cares where any of them originated: it's more a matter of academic dispute than anything with any practical consequences.

[Kax]

Mailanka's Psi-Wars might be worth a look, too, even if just for the style of work desired and required.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

So, I was thinking. A dangerous pastime I know.

And we never quite had a Generic GURPS Space setting in the same sense as we had with Yrth. Sure, we had GURPS Aliens with its implied setting. Sure we had three or four space atlases but we never quite had a full on setting.

Now I'm thinking this should be a really generic space opera with TL 10 being the norm. Maybe TL11, but not TL12.

Things were really agnostic about FTL but I think hyperdrive is the right answer. I think the sample ship construction system from page 89 of GURPS Space first edition would be a good starting point for nailing down the technology. So hyperdrives and reactionless thrusters but no force fields.

Pockets of TL 11 ^ exist like Kronin force shields and force swords.

I'd assume Space Atlas I - III probably form part of the setting but a larger area map and some political ideas might make it more of a setting.

Let's say most interstellar governments only hold around ten worlds but some larger entities control hundreds. There should be places for space pirates and rogues as well as some evil empires led by scenery chewing madmen.

Any thoughts?

If you are going to use the Superscience TL (^) why does the base TL have to be 10?

Azoth-7 has space travel and it is TL(4+2) (TL4^ space and weapons), nowhere near TL10.

D&D' Spelljammer could be viewed as low as TL(3+1)^ or as high as TL(3+6)^

[David Johansen]

Fair point, you could make strong arguments for Star Wars being TL 6 -7.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by maximara

If you are going to use the Superscience TL (^) why does the base TL have to be 10?

Azoth-7 has space travel and it is TL(4+2) (TL4^ space and weapons), nowhere near TL10.

D&D' Spelljammer could be viewed as low as TL(3+1)^ or as high as TL(3+6)^

If going that route, I would favor something like TL(6+2)^, giving Tesla the patent on the energy field that allows force fields, gravity shielding, and FTL.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Fair point, you could make strong arguments for Star Wars being TL 6 -7.

Call it TL(now+space). Technology was never consistent, and it was just "kind of what we've got at the moment or in the movies we're emulating, dressed up to look sci-fi."

[maximara]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Call it TL(now+space). Technology was never consistent, and it was just "kind of what we've got at the moment or in the movies we're emulating, dressed up to look sci-fi."

That is true of any sci-fi. The key problem is that Sci-Fi involves Science Fiction and Science Fantasy.


Extra Credit's Why Aren't There Science Fiction Games? takes a good stab at the difference. It does kind of drop the ball by using the Q continuum as an example of Science Fantasy when mechanically it is firmly in Science Fiction.

To grossly oversimplify Star Wars is Science Fantasy while Star Trek is Science Fiction.

The problem is when a setting tries to over do the explanation of how its world works: Star Wars gave us midichlorians (the 19th century's Elan Vital makes more sense; event he Eastern concept of Ki make more sense) and Star Trek gave us technobabble.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by maximara

If you are going to use the Superscience TL (^) why does the base TL have to be 10?

Because that's what the Space Atlas shows us so it's the minimum of required work. I would actually go with TL 10 with forcefields and artificial gravity (as well as FTL for super science. It helps avoid the old "spaceships are eggs with hammers" thing

[maximara]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Because that's what the Space Atlas shows us so it's the minimum of required work. I would actually go with TL 10 with forcefields and artificial gravity (as well as FTL for super science. It helps avoid the old "spaceships are eggs with hammers" thing

IIRC all the GURPS Space Atlas books were for GURPS 3e making the information regarding placement in the GURPS 4e TL scale questionable for anything over TL7.

GURPS 4e Ultra-tech pg 10 spends some time on superscience and how it shows up even in supposedly Conservative Hard Sci-fi

Contragravity (pg 223), gravity generators (Gravity Control pg 78), and force fields (pg 190-193) all got put into ^ so they are not locked into TL10+

TL10 does tend to be the go to for superscience but that IMHO is highballing the TL.