FTL Rating in GURPS Spaceships

[Greville]

Hi,

I've recently picked up GURPS 4th Ed with a mind to using it for a science fiction campaign so I grabbed Space, Spaceships and Ultra Tech.

The average tech level for the campaign will be around 9-10.

I have some questions about the FTL rating and want to make sure I've read the rules correctly.

My understanding so far is:
1. Each stardrive module has a base FTL rating of 1 which equates to the number of parsecs it can 'jump' in one go.
2. You then increase the range of the ship by adding more stardrive modules.
3. So the number of stardrive modules effectively gives the range in parsecs.

If I want a ship that can travel 2 parsecs in a single hop then 2 (10%) of the ships modules will be the stardrives.

Is this correct?

And does the FTL rating increase at higher tech levels? As far as I can tell it doesn't.

I'm thinking of allowing higher FTL ratings at much higher costs. That way most people would use the base FTL level, but Military and special purpose research ships could have a higher FTL if their organizations put the money in.

What house rules, if any, have you used around the FTL rating of ships?

Thanks,
Greville

[Varyon]

Having some number of Stardrives generally gives a numerical FTL rating equal to the number of Stardrives. What the numerical value corresponds to is up to the setting designer. For a jump drive, it could be the number of light years, parsecs, or any other value the GM opts for, per jump. For warp drives, it may be the number of light years per minute the vessel travels at. And, while Spaceships suggests the jump distance or velocity of the Stardrive scale linearly with the number of drives, that's not the only option.

Similarly, how - or if - FTL speeds scale with TL is up to the setting designer. An easy option is to follow the Size and Speed/Range Table progression - 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, etc. If your FTL technology was originally TL 8^, at TL 9^ it's 1.5x as fast, at TL 10^ it's 2x as fast, at TL 11^ it's 3x as fast, and at TL 12^ it's 5x as fast. Note that higher TL gear, if available, costs twice as much per TL of difference, and you could use this to set the price for more expensive Stardrives - x1.5 to speed is x2 to cost, x2 to speed is x4 to cost, x3 to speed is x8 to cost, x5 to speed is x16 to cost, etc.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Greville

Hi,

I've recently picked up GURPS 4th Ed with a mind to using it for a science fiction campaign so I grabbed Space, Spaceships and Ultra Tech.

The average tech level for the campaign will be around 9-10.

I have some questions about the FTL rating and want to make sure I've read the rules correctly.

My understanding so far is:
1. Each stardrive module has a base FTL rating of 1 which equates to the number of parsecs it can 'jump' in one go.
2. You then increase the range of the ship by adding more stardrive modules.
3. So the number of stardrive modules effectively gives the range in parsecs.

If I want a ship that can travel 2 parsecs in a single hop then 2 (10%) of the ships modules will be the stardrives.

Is this correct?

1. This statement would be correct for "jump" drives only. Warp and hyperdrives need their capcity measured in other ways.
2. Yes.
3. How are you measuring "range"? Is it distance for 1 jump or maybe 1 jump without refueling or something else?

Your un-numbered statement would be generally correct "if" the GM has set
the FTL rating to 1 parsec. The GM can do whatever he wants.

[Greville]

Thanks for your replies. So broadly my understanding was correct, but there is a the proviso that it should change to meet the needs of the setting.

I've been playing a lot of Elite Dangerous lately and like the way ships travel in that. Ships jump between systems, provided they are within the jump range of the ship and will appear close to the primary star in the destination system. When leaving a system you may jump from any point, provided you are far enough away from any large gravitational mass.

I'm going to use a Traveller style 2D hex map where 1 hex = 1 parsec to map out the systems where the players will be. This will align nicely with the FTl rating for a ship being how many hexes they can jump.

Here is what I came up with to scale up FTL rating by Tech Level and cost:
TL 7 FTL 1 = Base Cost
TL 8 FTL 1 = Base Cost
TL 9 FTL 1 = Base Cost & FTL 2 = 3 x Base Cost
TL 10 FTL 2 = Base Cost, FTL 3 = 3 x Base Cost, & FTL 4 = 10 x Base Cost
TL 11 FTL 2 = Base Cost, FTL 3 = 4 x Base Cost, & FTL 6 = 10 x Base Cost
TL 12 FTL 6 = Base Cost

The base Tech Level for the campaign will be 9-10.