Yrth In Spaaacccceee!

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by maximara

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.
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I'm less concerned with numbers than descriptions. The Atlas setting has cloning, sapient computers, ships with one gravity acceleration, submarines with fusion power plants, genetically engineered life (including parahumans), antimatter as a weapon.. Everything about it out of the box says mature TL 10.

[Kax]

Going back to the start of this, if you use Yrth as a campaign origin and magic as the base your tech becomes TL3+3 to TL 3+5 for most things and TL 3+7 for space tech, giving a rather nice Star Wars feel. :)

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Kax

Going back to the start of this, if you use Yrth as a campaign origin and magic as the base your tech becomes TL3+3 to TL 3+5 for most things and TL 3+7 for space tech, giving a rather nice Star Wars feel. :)

Actually Yrth in Space was just the title. It wasn't really what the OP was asking about. So I'm starting a new thread just for that idea.

[Michael Cule]

One of the things about Yrth is that it has familiar cultures in a fantasy setting using the Banestorm as an excuse. (This is also, admittedly, why some people don't like it.)

If we are doing a parallel setting for Space then we need a way to move familiar Earth cultures out into space as well as having vastly different and strange cultures among humans as well as aliens.

A device I would copy (I think I'm stealing it from L.Neil Smith's Libertarian propaganda novels) is an event with an unreliable jump drive that causes a diaspora fleet from Earth to be scattered across space and time and when humankind gets to the stars by more reliable means we discover human cultures already out there.

You could use the old TRAVELLER 'Our ancestors were kidnapped by aliens' bit or if you don't want to be too obvious about use Poul Anderson's THE HIGH CRUSADE as a basis.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

One of the things about Yrth is that it has familiar cultures in a fantasy setting using the Banestorm as an excuse. (This is also, admittedly, why some people don't like it.)

If we are doing a parallel setting for Space then we need a way to move familiar Earth cultures out into space as well as having vastly different and strange cultures among humans as well as aliens.

It doesn't have to be Earth cultures, just cultures with familiar parallels. Space Romans, Space Gypsys, Space Nazis, etc.

[whswhs]

It seems to me, when I look at this thread, that I'm seeing a specific image of what "outer space adventure" means, and it's one that involves swordplay. So prototypical outer space heroes would be, say, John Carter, Paul Atreides, and Luke Skywalker (or Obi-Wan Kenobi).

And, you know, that's one way to do it. But it's not the only one. The Lensman novels are classics of (what we now call) space opera, and they had almost no swordplay; when they had melee it was often hand to hand, with at least one notable excursus into battlesuits.

I think it might be said that on one hand we have outer space adventure being about knights or musketeers; on the other, about World War II era soldiers and pilots and cops, with perhaps an occasional glance back to old Western gunfighters (the "Wild Bill Williams" sequence). And what I think of as classic outer space adventure is more the latter.

But on the third hand, both of those are taking familiar historical (or romanticized historical) scenarios and projecting them into space. And if there is a human future in space, it's at least as likely to involve social forms and images of heroism that haven't even appeared yet.

[A Ladder]

Originally Posted by RyanW

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.

This is essentially what I did in my space opera campaign. I built all spaceships using WW2 era technology, namely the aircraft and ships. Then I allowed personal equipment based on TL8 stuff and said it shoots lasers instead of bullets and threw some forcefields and laser chainsaws at the players.

Originally Posted by whswhs

It seems to me, when I look at this thread, that I'm seeing a specific image of what "outer space adventure" means, and it's one that involves swordplay. So prototypical outer space heroes would be, say, John Carter, Paul Atreides, and Luke Skywalker (or Obi-Wan Kenobi).

And, you know, that's one way to do it. But it's not the only one. The Lensman novels are classics of (what we now call) space opera, and they had almost no swordplay; when they had melee it was often hand to hand, with at least one notable excursus into battlesuits.

I think it might be said that on one hand we have outer space adventure being about knights or musketeers; on the other, about World War II era soldiers and pilots and cops, with perhaps an occasional glance back to old Western gunfighters (the "Wild Bill Williams" sequence). And what I think of as classic outer space adventure is more the latter.

But on the third hand, both of those are taking familiar historical (or romanticized historical) scenarios and projecting them into space. And if there is a human future in space, it's at least as likely to involve social forms and images of heroism that haven't even appeared yet.

I was all about the projecting of romanticized scenarios and just slapping "In Spaaaaaace" on them. I had a pretty good mix of knights and WW2 soldiers in my space opera campaign. From my limited experience it seems that given all the options of knights, musketeers, cowboys, soldiers, and cops the players will pick characters ideas based on what they think Space Opera is all about and it was up to me, the GM, to mesh those ideas together. Worked well in my opinion.

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by RyanW

It doesn't have to be Earth cultures, just cultures with familiar parallels. Space Romans, Space Gypsys, Space Nazis, etc.

I know I'm going to get things thrown at me... but that's tacky. The fact that BANESTORM avoids the fantasy equivalent is one of the things I like about it.

Why have copies when you could have the real thing?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

I know I'm going to get things thrown at me... but that's tacky. The fact that BANESTORM avoids the fantasy equivalent is one of the things I like about it.

Why have copies when you could have the real thing?

Seconded. That's one of the nice things about Yrth.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Seconded. That's one of the nice things about Yrth.

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.