Space Opera Box set Ideas

[Pomphis]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Well, as mentioned upthread, a cinematic space combat system, that a) is fairly quick and easy to play with, b) permits lots of cinematic action maneuvers, and c) handles large-scale battles in a way that's both easy to run and lets players contribute meaningfully to the outcome.

Have you looked at G:Lensmen ?

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

I was thinking of 3e, the sidebars on pages 146-149 and 152-170. The main text is certainly useful, but you can roll up systems with just the sidebars. I cannot check 1e and 2e as I cannot find them, I probably gave them away when we moved.

The sidebars are there to allow you to quickly roll up a random world and also serve to give some context of the rarity of particular star and world types (for instance, showing that M-Type stars are really really common based on the Main-Sequence Star Types table). However, those roll tables make very little sense without the main-text to go with and explain it.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Pomphis

Have you looked at G:Lensmen ?

I have, and the system in there would probably inform anything I wrote along those lines, but it's not precisely what I'm hoping for in space opera - I think it emphasizes heavier ships a bit too much (which is reasonable considering its source material, but isn't in-line with the assumptions of the majority of space opera settings), and it doesn't have the rules for fighter squadron battles that I'd like to see.

[sir_pudding]

I've been thinking for awhile about some options for Spaceships combat system that will make it more flexible in reflecting broad assumptions in different source material.

[dcarson]

Along with gravity rules you need Lenses for Heavy Worlders etc. for generating PCs and NPCs. The squat, strong heavy and tall willowy light worlders are a staple. Can also be applied to alien templates to make a variety of them.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Along with gravity rules you need Lenses for Heavy Worlders etc. for generating PCs and NPCs. The squat, strong heavy and tall willowy light worlders are a staple. Can also be applied to alien templates to make a variety of them.

Sure.

When I was working on Powers: The Weird, I took a closer look at the rules for activity outside one's native gravity, and I realized that they gave counterintuitive results for any beings whose native gravity was not 1.0G. So I think if a formula is to be put in at all, it ought to be modified, perhaps in the way I did in P:tW.

What I did in my Mars campaign was to say that since Mars has about 0.375G, Martians need to be able to lift and carry that much lighter a load; so that meant they had about 60% of the ST of an earth being of the same size. (ST 10 gives BL 20 lbs.; ST 6 gives BL 7 lbs., which is pretty close.) But I made them significantly longer than Earth human. Conversely, a heavy worlder would have greater ST and thicker limbs but would be shorter.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by whswhs

(SNIP)

Conversely, a heavy worlder would have greater ST and thicker limbs but would be shorter.

This reminds me of the Jinxians, in Larry Niven's Known Space stories (a pretty good, if not spectacular, setting for space opera, as it happens...).

The Jinxians were the descendants of humans who had settled the moon known as Sirius A, in orbit around a gas giant in that system. The heavy gravity made the Jinxians squat, but with great reflexes and such prodigious strength that those trained as strike-recondo commandos could take on Kzinti in hand-to-hand combat and win, most of the time.

Unfortunately, the heavy gravity gave the Jinxians problems with their hearts and circulatory systems. As such, most Jinxians either tried to make enough money they could spend considerable time away from Jinx, or they joined the military or worked on space craft because they'd get assignments away from their home planet.

People who couldn't find a way to spend a significant amount of time away from Jinx tended to die young -- at least, as "young" is defined in Known Space (i.e., age 80 instead of age 120 -- or even longer).