New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

I LIKE this!

Pre-made background, just add Warp Drive Expansion Pack.

Aliens later, of course. But the Transhuman racial background is varied enough that they aren't really needed.

GURPS: Transhuman Stars crops up as a topic in these forums, periodically. While the setting is great, as is, the notion of taking it interstellar and playing with how the human cultures would change once communication speed suddenly lagged in ways not seen in centuries, strikes many (including me) as absolutely fascinating.

I like the 2300 AD blink-warp (or stutter-warp), myself, but the Alcubierre drive could also work. The idea is to keep FTL travel "slow," and limit the spread of information to the speed of the fastest ship.

No FTL radio, ever; the speed of the ships should mean it takes at least a couple of years to cross from one side of "known space" to the other; and the travel method should require passage through isolated and seldom-patrolled systems.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

Take the basic Transhuman Space setting and allow them to make the Alcubierre Drive functional. It however has a practical limit based on the means used to make the drive work in the first place. This limit has three effects. First, a top speed of one Light Year per week. Second, after 70 cumulative weeks of travel the ship needs massive maintenance in a well equipped shipyard. Third, a Drive Engine can only be resorted to safe function about nine to twelve times, it depends on the quality of the original construction of the engine.

(SNIP)

I had a little trouble parsing this last bit. Did you mean "...restored to safe function..."?

If so, that gives starships an expected service life of 630 light years or weeks (appx 12 years of constant use) to 840 light years or weeks (appx 16 years of constant use).

What happens at the end of the service life? Can the engine be refurbished, or does it require complete replacement? If the latter, the expense of new engines determines who can afford ships and who can't.

You won't get old Firefly-class vessels found in junkyards unless engines can be overhauled with the liberal application of elbow-grease, or unless new engines are cheap.

If neither are true, it makes starships unaffordable for small corporations or partnerships (i.e., the PCs).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

As soon as things get going, someone is bound to build a few carriers. The carrier hauls a few exploration ships out for 34 weeks, and takes up orbit around a convenient star/moon. The smaller exploration ships conduct some exploration and return. Depending on how big a yard is needed, they either get hauled back to a yard or refitted on the spot.

Quality thinking there Yankee Gamer.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

I LIKE this!

Pre-made background, just add Warp Drive Expansion Pack.

Aliens later, of course. But the Transhuman racial background is varied enough that they aren't really needed.

Glad you like it.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

GURPS: Transhuman Stars crops up as a.topic in these forums, periodically. While the setting is great, as is, the notion of taking it interstellar and playing with how the human cultures would change once communication speed suddenly lagged in ways not seen in centuries, strikes many (including me) as absolutely fascinating.

I like the 2300 AD blink-warp (or stutter-warp), myself, but the Alcubierre drive could also work. The idea is to keep FTL travel "slow," and limit the spread of information to the speed of the fastest ship.

No FTL radio, ever; the speed of the ships should mean it takes at least a couple of years to cross from one side of "known space" to the other, and the travel method should require passage through isolated and seldom-patrolled systems.

You read me well T S Higgins.

[David Johnston2]

For a Transhuman Stars setting you could just have STL ships taking a century to fly between destinations with the passengers just downloading themselves into robots when they got there. They could set their clock speed so to them it seems like a few hours. There is after all, no use for organics.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I had a little trouble parsing this last bit. Did you mean "...restored to safe function..."?

If so, that gives starships an expected service life of 630 light years or weeks (appx 12 years of constant use) to 840 light years or weeks (appx 16 years of constant use).

What happens at the end of the sevice life? Can the engine be refurbished, or does it require complete replacement? If the latter, the expense of new engines determines who can afford ships and who can't.

You won't get old Firefly-class vessels found in junkyards unless engines can be overhauled with the liberal application of elbow-grease, or unless new engines are cheap.

My inability to spell or see MY spelling errors strikes again. I meant to make these ships expensive, so that they'd be a scarce resource. After an engine can't be made useful slash safe anymore the parts are recycled to make new engine parts. Which is laborious, expensive, and a true pain. But less noxious than either making these engines from scratch or safe disposal of the engines as waste.

[Astromancer]

Thinking about it. Having older ships simply be slower (perhaps one Light Year a month) with the benefit that the older less powerful ships can be refurbished more cheaply and go up to 100 months between maintenance slash restoration in a ship yard, would allow cheaper ships for "Firefly" type scenarios.

But speed would need to be important in more than just one or two ways.

Any suggestions T S Higgins or Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2?

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

The range of stellar civilization could be extended by the use of mobile spacedocks - rebuild at the extreme edge of space, or build new ships far from Sol System.

But at the same time, the Powers-That-Be in Sol System would have less and less control the further out everything extended. So they might outlaw out-system spacedocks or shipyards just so they can hold onto their authority.

Either way, big over-arcing storyline potential.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

The range of stellar civilization could be extended by the use of mobile spacedocks - rebuild at the extreme edge of space, or build new ships far from Sol System.

But at the same time, the Powers-That-Be in Sol System would have less and less control the further out everything extended. So they might outlaw out-system spacedocks or shipyards just so they can hold onto their authority.

Either way, big over-arcing storyline potential.

Could we imagine a corporation hiring Gypsy Angels to man a mobile shipyard in order to try to launch a corperate fifedom in interstellar space. Who would betray whom first would be a grand betting pool.