Yrth In Spaaacccceee!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by thrash

For what it's worth, I use an uprated fusion drive (trading delta-V for thrust) and water for reaction mass. I can get pretty close to the same results with fission rockets and hydrogen, however -- the tanks are just bigger. .


Amphibious spacecraft and water landings give a nice 1930's pulp feel, while still allowing frontier operations. One advantage to "Time Traveller" is that almost all Earths are habitable, with standard atmospheres and plenty of water.

Heinlein had total conversion "torch" ships doing STL interstellar travel in Time For the Stars. They did water landings and used that for a fuel source as well. They didn't land and take off like flying boats though.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Heinlein had total conversion "torch" ships doing STL interstellar travel in Time For the Stars. They did water landings and used that for a fuel source as well. They didn't land and take off like flying boats though.

Sure, I have those, too. I distinguish between ships (deep space only), boats (surface to space, powered lift only), and planes (surface to space with aerodynamic assist). Horizontal water landings let planes get away with smaller drives, which balances their cost against boats.

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's one option. But I tend to prefer a different option: Having the various fantasy cultures be originals, with elements borrowed from various Earth cultures or mythologies and blended together in new combinations.

And I would not disparage that but if I were creating a game to give maximum buy-in I'd want people to be able to pick up on cultures easily, with a clear short-hand description that works.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by thrash

I wrote an article for the online JTAS called "Time Traveller" that was a crossover between Infinite Worlds and Traveller: Interstellar Wars. The idea was that Einstein got the last laugh, and Traveller's jump drive took you to alternate Earths instead of the stars.

There is a similar idea in F. M. Busby's All These Earths but there the concept is that using the skip drive causes you to jump universes on the way to your destination. So you get there only it is not in the universe you started in.

There aee three short stories set in similar but different parallel universes and in the third the travelers use the skip drive to cross from one Earth to another as the one they initially arrived at will not let them land.

Back to the Yrth In Spaaacccceee! idea. Remember that the reality your setting in can be on par with TL10 but not really TL10.

Azoth-7 with its TL(4+2) some TL4^ space and weapons comes to mind.

One could mix the AD&D world of Starjammer and the idea of hyperdrive seen in Star Wars or Farscape. This would allow the interstellar travel seen in Starjammer while keeping the TL in the TL3^ to TL5^ range.

[AlexanderHowl]

The real question becomes the rate of technological change. If the mages of Yrth possess a way to destroy explosives like gunpowder, the nations of Yrth are not going to develop solid chemical rockets (liquid chemical rockets are another story). It is not that hard to imagine an Ignite Explosive spell that is an Area spell of the Fire College that costs 1/10 FP (allowing a mage to spend 10 FP to ignite every explosive within 100 yards of the mage).

If the mages of Yrth possess an Ignite Explosive spell, then you have a divergent technology that breaks off at TL3. Using magic as the basis of technology, you could have a TL(3+7)^ civilization develop on Yrth. Of course, they would have to avoid spells of mass destruction that would knock them down to TL0.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It is not that hard to imagine an Ignite Explosive spell that is an Area spell of the Fire College that costs 1/10 FP (allowing a mage to spend 10 FP to ignite every explosive within 100 yards of the mage).
.

If you have Gurps Technomancer you don't have to imagine. You can just look up Mass Detonate.

However that sell has a cost of 5 per hex or radius so is 50x as hard as your imagination would like.

If this leads to a question of "Why are the many cool spells from Technomancer not in Magic 4e?" I don't know.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If you have Gurps Technomancer you don't have to imagine. You can just look up Mass Detonate.

However that sell has a cost of 5 per hex or radius so is 50x as hard as your imagination would like.

If this leads to a question of "Why are the many cool spells from Technomancer not in Magic 4e?" I don't know.

Magic 4e was effectively 3e Fantasy + GURPS Grimoire with very little of the comments regarding balance issue in 3e magic used. Draw Power/TL was no longer a power bonanza that was huge balance nightmare but even the "a power source must be in a form that could be directly used by a machine" makes the spell totally nuts in low TL worlds.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by maximara

Magic 4e was effectively 3e Fantasy + GURPS Grimoire with very little of the comments regarding balance issue in 3e magic used. Draw Power/TL was no longer a power bonanza that was huge balance nightmare but even the "a power source must be in a form that could be directly used by a machine" makes the spell totally nuts in low TL worlds.

First, Why did you quote me if your post had nothing to do with mine?

Second, Draw Power isn't "nuts" in low TL worlds it's useless. No MW power sources to draw from.

[dataweaver]

Yeah; no waterfalls anywhere. (There was a Pyramid article way back when it was a physical magazine discussing how Draw Power could be used in a Low-Tech setting; drawing power from waterfalls was one of the suggestions.)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Yeah; no waterfalls anywhere. (There was a Pyramid article way back when it was a physical magazine discussing how Draw Power could be used in a Low-Tech setting; drawing power from waterfalls was one of the suggestions.)

Not legal in 4e. You need a MW capable turbine under that waterfall.