Tales of the Solar Patrol and the Electron Drive

[Planguy]

So I got Tales of the Solar Patrol and it was just what I wanted it to be. Still, I have some thoughts on the Electron Drive. It's treated as having a max speed, but why? It's a reactionless drive powered by a zero point energy device. My own explanation for this is that the device suffers "drag" from the ether it taps into for power. Once you go it's max speed it starts suffering negative effects from this drag.

Also, why didn't Earth reach other planets much earlier? The timeline seems pretty extended with such a miracle device. Life support limitations? Earlier Tesla thresholds?

[Lancewholelot]

There must be some sort of unexplained resistance to movement in space, considering the book states that "a ship can reach full cruising speed in an hour and brake in less than five minutes!"

[Stormcrow]

It has a maximum speed because it's narratively fit that it does so.

Seriously. Space travel is not in any way realistic in the setting. For instance, it's said that 600,000 mph is 0.1c, but 0.1c is actually about 67,100,000. The travel times listed in the Travel Times Table appear to be based on 600,000 mph, not 0.1c. If you want the correct Move scores for ships, based on a 600,000 mph cruising speed, they are:

20/293,000 (2G)
10/147,000 (1G) - Life Boat
20/318,000 (2G) - War Sphere

Remember that these are in yards per second.

Also, normal ships have an acceleration of 2G but are said to be able to achieve normal cruising speed in an hour and brake in less than five minutes. But at 2G, it would probably take something like 3.8 hours to reach 600,000 mph, or to stop completely.

Just don't worry about it.

I've also wondered about why it took so long to reach other planets. You can make up any reason you like; there isn't one in the book.

Something else I noticed about ship drives. If the Overlord's fleets aren't supposed to have electron drives, what drives their ships? The answer is, I think, in the Overlord's character writeup: he knows Piloting (Contragravity). I think the Overlord's ships (and Martian ships) are run by gravitic vector drives, not electron drives (except for the sneaky ships the Overlord isn't supposed to have). This explains why his ships can have the same acceleration and top speed as Patrol ships but can't leave Jupiter: they rely on Jupiter's gravitational or magnetic field to move.

[Varyon]

The combination of having a max speed and being able to reduce velocity faster than increasing it implies there's some medium the ship is interacting with, yeah. Considering space is by definition a near-vacuum, this further implies either interacting with some medium that exists but is intangible to typical matter or interacting across dimensions. Typically my inclination would be to have such result in pseudoatmospheric flight, but that isn't necessary if you don't want it.

[Planguy]

Yeah, I'm assuming some quirk of the Electron drive results in it functioning like it was an atmospheric vessel. You need a constant burn to maintain a steady speed. It helps fit the aesthetic of a rocket ship from science fiction of the era.

[Lancewholelot]

Nega-barriers are stated as using an offshoot technology of the Tesla coil to "harden" space. Perhaps it could be something akin to this hardened space that creates drag when a Tesla coil is in operation (which is currently the only way to power an electron drive).

[Planguy]

Maybe Tesla coils are a variant parachronic tech? The Solar Patrol Earth is in a universe where a "Nearby" dimension of pure energy exists and the Tesla coils taps into that dimension for power.

That could theoretically allow Solar Patrol tech to work in other worlds, with some difficulty.

[Stormcrow]

You could do that, but you're straying from the tradition roots of the genre. Although the concept of a fixed aether was disproven in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it remained in the popular imagination for decades afterward.

What I have generally done is assume that science is fairly realistic when you're looking at it up close — that is, if it affects you immediately — but if you were to take a wide view of it the problems would become apparent.

So if you're floating outside your ship in a spacesuit, the laws of physics and inertia will be normal, even though if you take a trip to Venus you've got to burn the engines the whole way or you'll stop where you are.

Basically, if you can imagine it on an old theater serial, that's how it works in the game. And the special exceptional technologies of the setting work regardless of realism at all times.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

What I have generally done is assume that science is fairly realistic when you're looking at it up close — that is, if it affects you immediately — but if you were to take a wide view of it the problems would become apparent.

That's probably generous. It seems to be pretty solidly pulp science, which means close inspection is not recommended.

[Stormcrow]

What I say "look at it up close," I don't mean inspect the science, I just mean I don't let players dictate how pulp science works when it's to their benefit. If you're floating through space toward an object, without some method of propulsion, you're going to hit that object... unless you're talking about ships flying to distant destinations, in which case it's completely unrealistic because that's a premise of the setting.

Or... there are dinosaurs on Venus and they're pretty much realistic dinosaurs... but don't ask too much about their evolution because it's really bunk.

Or... there are humanoids living on Europa, never mind the fact that it's got 1/10th Earth's gravity and is mostly ocean. But when you're with them, their racial template is the same as yours.

You're supposed to be going on adventures, not poking at the edges to spoil the illusion.