GURPS Space campaign setting
 

My players have requested a space based campaign. This is supposed to feel like a classic 'thinking man's space opera'. Think H Beam Piper or Robert Heinlein and you'll get the idea. The PCs will be a crew of merchant explorers. I've decided to post a very rough outline of my universe thus far, for general criticism and comments:

History


During the early period of human expansion the solar system was thouroughly explored and colonized. Terraforming technolology was developed. STL colony ships carried humanity to other star systems [sleeper, generation, and clone ships all used at different times]. Contact between star systems was very limited, due to constraints of time and distance at relativistic speeds. Colonies diverged culturally and technologically during the long period of semi-isolation.

At some point, there was a civil war in the solar system and Terran civilization took a devastating blow. Recovery was long and slow, and the far flung colonies were even more on their own than before.

After many years passed, one of the worlds developed an experimental FTL drive. The technology spread and regular contact opened up between star systems. Further improvements in travel and communication followed, speeding the advance of commerce and colonization, but also bringing on the first interstellar wars.

The campaign will begin about two generations after FTL was developed. The age of colonization and exploration is in full swing. Star nations have formed, but a great many worlds remain independent. Merchant princes, grasping corporations, ambitious conquerers- it's all here.




Technology:

TL varies by world, but the most advanced worlds are TL 10. Many worlds are only TL 9 or lower.

FTL drive is a space fold[warp] drive. FTL communications is either slow FTL 'radio'[telegraph stage] or based on courier ships [pony express stage]. Not sure which of those two options fits best.

Gravitics is a fairly recent development. It's limited to larger ships, planetoids, space bases, etc. By no means do all worlds have access to this technology.

I'm going to downplay the transhumanist stuff. This is mostly a safetech [or perhaps retrotech] setting. Of course, it's a big universe and there is room for exceptions.

Note about weapons: old fashioned chemical slugthrowers are cheap and plentiful on many worlds. They are often sold as trade goods, military surplus, hunting arms, and self defense weapons for civilians. Beam weapons are usually more restricted, being reserved for the military on a number of worlds.



Source material: GURPS Space 3rd ed. , GURPS Space 4th ed., Ultratech, Biotech[ but not too much], the Space Atlas series, Behind the Claw, and whatever I can dig up online or write on my own before the campaign starts.

Aliens: This is a human dominated universe, but I do want to include some aliens. I am avoiding races that are too similiar to humans, as well as anthropomorphic races. I will use the memer & saret from GURPS aliens[ vacuum adapted arthropods with barnacle-like symbiotes]. I will probably include the pachekki, also from GURPS Aliens. Not sure about other races yet...

Psionics/Magic/etc: None of this stuff. No telepathic races. No psychic healing. No Force.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Sounds nice ;) Can we have more details?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Have you decided on some main story planets?
What about the mentality and sociology of their populations?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I like to combine them. Telegraphs as something huge and terribly expensive and only available on major worlds and the most advanced super-dreadnought flagships, pony express everywhere else.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

If you haven't found them yet:
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/characters/Racial/
(Most of the ones that are not *-marked are ones that I wrote, and most of those are from our Space game. The Siffle aren't. And are... mechanically complex, but probably not very anthropomorphic in practice.)

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I like the setting; I use the Pachekki and Memer in my own setting (with a few modifications, of course). Others I've found useful have the been the Bwaps (comedy gold), Archangel Beth's Hive Beetles, the Hivers and a few others.

What is the basis for the Telegraph? Does it overcome the whole in-system light-lag problem?

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Sounds about right to me. I'll go with that assumption.

I am not sure about how FTL communication will actually work. Any suggestions?


Thanks for the link to the races list, Archangel Beth. And thanks to everyone posting for ideas and comments. :)

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Do the Colonies remember Earth? I didn't see any mention of that, I know you said that there was some kind of contact...

Sounds like a cool idea though and since the Universe is a big place it could be currently Human dominated until "First Contact" which knowning human being will probably result in War unless those contacted comes to us and is able to communicate in a non-hostile way.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

)

The "telegraph" equivalent could be created by having FTL radio, but one with limited effective range, maybe just a tenth of a lightyear. Therefore in order to actually create a communication link between systems you need 40 to 100 "repeater stations", each of them full of eminently destroyable (and perhaps plunderable) hardware. The expense, and need to defend the communications lines, means they only connect up the wealthier, more populous systems and less important inhabited systems that happen to be on the way between them.




f you are using a jump drive then they could actually be a large jump engine with a cavity in the center that teleports objects over interstellar distances longer than any ship can manage (but without the precision, safety or capacity required to be used as a practical means of transporting people. Instead it just jumps radio transmitters that then transmit their messages the rest of the way.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Rather than literal telegraph, FTL comunication is a sort of semaphore. A packet of enrgetic plasma is contianed in a warp field and aimed at a sun. Anything smaller is too small to be aimed at.

The packet of plasma drops out of warp at whatever distance limit there is and makes a visible flash. You use a simple interval code to encode info. You can't make it very dense though.

You also have limits on how many messages can be coming in from the same side of the galaxy. Too many flashes and they run together.

Messages will look like old-fashioned telegrams. Security is handled by use of codebooks. You send an identifier and the code group "glops". What "glops" means is then looked up in the reciever's codebook. Maybe it's "buy titanium at any price under 100 credits/lb" and maybe it's "Alien invasion" or whatever other meaning was prearranged.

Carrying new codebooks is an important job for secure couriers and stealing codebooks looks highly profitable. Forget about throwing teams of nerds with gigacomputers at the problem though. There shouldn't be enough for them to work with.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Excellent suggestions for the telegraph. I'll have to think a bit more about it.

To answer Greystar's question; yes, most of the colonies remember Earth.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Note on history: the setting is probably five centuries or more in the future. Time enough for plenty of STL expansion, extensive terraforming,etc. Not so far things become totally unrecogizable.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I like these sorts of settings. I prefer the 'pony express' paradigm to the 'telegraph' paradigm, but make the transmitter suitably huge or expensive, and the two can coexist, and help to separate "core" from "frontier" planets. A planet's really made it if they have a space elevator and a FTL radio switchboard.

I usually don't go into too much detail about the superscience technologies, as I usually only think of FTL as a way to get from point A to point B and use more realistic technologies after that. How fast is FTL? What are the restrictions on it's use? I like the Traveller rule: You need to be 100 diameters from a body to use FTL -- which forces the use of reaction drives to get to 100 diameters. I think I might stretch it to 500 or 1000 diameters for my setting, but its only a suggestion. It really depends on (a) STL delta-v and (b) how long you want voyages to take.

I'd recommend, if you haven't already checked it out, Atomic Rockets. Even if you don't use any of the math on the site, it contains a lot of general information and quotes from Heinlein and similar authors. It's very useful for designing settings like this.

As for aliens, I like the K'kree, Dryone, and Hivers from Traveller, the Soro and Night Brothers from Uplift (which has a number of non-anthropomorphic aliens) and the Puppeteers from Ringworld (but don't use them and the Hivers).

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

MrId, ATOMIC ROCKETS freakin' rocks! It's totally awesome. I'm adding it to my favorites. I'll defintely use this to help design my universe.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Just an idea: what about an alien race that hitches rides on comets, remora style? They could tether their ships to a comet and ride in it's tail. Maybe they could gather useful matter from the comets, as well. Nothing else on them yet. Just thought that would be a cool way for aliens to get around without FTL ships. Maybe they hang out in Oort clouds, waiting to latch onto passing comets.

Oh, and I am assuming comets brought the necessary components for life to Earth, as well as other worlds. I like that theory.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Rather than "Telegraph Stage" use a computer based analogy, since you will be able to type out the message and send it more or less unread by operators at either end. (This is a reaction to Bill Baldwin's Helmsman series, where communications officers decoded messages by hand and delivered them to the person they were sent to, knowing what it said.

Just tell the players FTL radio transmits at about 300 baud. I expect close to PERFECT comprehension by anyone who had a computer in the late 80s.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Two parameters to consider for the interstellar telegraph: bandwidth and propagation rate. Bandwidth (how much data you can communicate) has been discussed. On Earth, the propagation delay of the telegraph was negligible (milliseconds), so people think of it as instantaneous. The FTL telegraph, however, might still take time to travel. If the signal propagates at 1 light year / week, it takes a month to get a message from Centauri to Earth (regardless of what that message says). Or perhaps it's instantaneous, so you can have interactive conversations.

Low bandwidth mediums will probably have data compression. Historically, many businesses used commercial codes, where short letter groups would stand for entire concepts like "place order for product X" or "build new factory". The codes were not just security, so no one could read them, but also compression, so that they only had to pay to send a few "words" rather than a paragraph of English text. Commonly needed concepts will take fewer bits to express than more unusual ones. (So, a single flash probably means "PCs have broken law and are headed your way; stop them at all costs"...)

If the telegraph is about the same speed as ships, then the only reason to use it would be cost. If it's slower, it'd better be a lot cheaper than ships. If it's very expensive, even though it's faster than ships, it's only used in great urgency, perhaps just by planetary governments.

Do you want the galaxy to have a modern feel, where cops can always radio ahead to stop you, you can easily call for help if you get into trouble, or log into the InterstellarNet to check on that one item you forgot before you took off? Take away the telecommunications, and it's more of a Age of Sail sort of feel, where people can escape to obscure planets to hide out, frigate captains have to rely on thier own judgement rather than just calling the Admiral back at Starfleet, and major events like revolutions have time to develop before anyone knows about them and can react.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I have been thinking about something similar for my own background two years ago, and I was going with bandwidth and cost.

"FTL Communication" was in the form of establisdhed wormholes where lasers were used to send signals. An aberration of FTL jump technology, that required extensive (as in: expensive and big) hardware, with high cost associated - on BOTH ends, dedicated. And the wormhole was just a tenth of a milimeter in diameter. Good enough for a laser beam in both directions, but nothing more. Give it 10mbit bandwidth. Enough for radio, news, video artifacts, stock data - but making a video phone call was exorbitant expensive.

Naturally ONLY major worlds had one or more communication stations (each providing one link only). And they had to be 100 diameter from any body ;) Very vulnerable. And they had to know where to target, roughly ;)

HUgh communication ships by the military could also work as endpoints, but they were the equivalent of a dreadnought, basically ONLY for the comm equipment. You put one or two into a hugh fleet, but that is it - no way solves the communicatoin problems. Keep the PC's out of the wealthy planets, and it is by courier again.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I use two. Subether coms basically exist so that I do not have to care about light-lag inside the inner system. Very short range, maybe some light hours, and maybe 1,000 c, so there is noticeable but small lag when talking earth-jupiter for example. They are comparatively cheap and small. I use the Traveller mesoncoms for them. Relay lines are possible, but require lots of waystations due to the short (in interstellar terms) range. Nullspace coms are huge, expensive and faster and used between major worlds.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I've not read the Polesotechnic stories. I do like Anderson's work, so I'll have to check those out.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I like this very much. I think I will use it.:



This is also very cool, but I'll have to see how it meshes with the FTL drive I'm using:

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Depends on how much communication is going on and how fast the codes can be changed. You'll need the gigacomputers for the massive pattern matching necessary to discover that every time Boskone sends the code word "glorp", a fleet of trucks converges on the abandoned warehouse on the south side of town.

Oh, look, Boskone just sent "glorp" again.

There's also traffic analysis. Recall the probably apocrophyal story about the number of pizzas delivered to the Pentagon the night before the start of Gulf War I.

But yes, since there's no relation between random code words and their meaning, you can't generally crack a code without the code books. Conveniently, this gives the adventurers something more interesting to do than watch the progress bar on their brute-force cracking program.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

*Stops Staring at his brute-force cracking program's progress bar* I like this method better! *Goes back to watching it*

Anyway I was bored sorry to hijack the thread but I needed to make a comment on that line.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Yes a significant issue when code "books" were actual bundles of paper. You match observed actions with sent code. Important stuff for WWI and II.

However, a TL9 a Datachip holds 1 TB and 1000x that at each succeeding Tl that's a lot of codebooks. Probably enough that the "one time pad" method wil be standard.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned it yet but in one time pad you never send the same code group twice. You just send an identifier telling the recipient what pad/codebook to use to decipher the message and then neither of you ever uses that pad again.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

ADVENTURE IDEA - (should you go with this option).

The PC's are members of the (Enter Star Nation here) Marines and are told to hold a "vital" Repeater Statioin against the Horde of (Whatever).

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Alternately, I could still see actual paper (or futurepapersimulacra) being used to make codebooks for fear of someone tampering with digital media. It's a neat mental image of some comms officer flipping manically through an actual codebook in order to decode the incoming telegram.

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I need to work out the basics of how the FTL drive will function. Here is what I want for starships/FTL travel:


-manuever drives[ STL] are used to approach or leave planets

-longer distance= longer overall travel time

-trade routes and shipping lanes through space exist

- it is possible to chart new routes

- some ships are faster than others/can go further distances before needing to refuel



Any suggestions? There will be only one known method of FTL travel, although some variations on the technology may exist.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Of the three broad categories (Warp, Jump, Hyperspace) we can pretty much exclude Warp off the bat. Warp usually moves through normal space which is notable for it's bland emptiness. No trade routes, new or old.

Jump with special Jump points can give you 1, 3 and 5 as natural consequences. You approach the Juymp point on maneuver drive. Trade lanes routes and shipping lanes go from point to point and the faster your M-drive the faster you get from point to point.

2 is possible if a trip from inhabited planet A to inhabited planet B usally means going through uninhabited systems C, D and E. Going to the enxt planet after B could send you through systems F, G and H.

4 is possible is Jump points are detectable but not obvious (i.e. not always directly above the solar north and south poles) and not rigidly limited by theory ( i.e.always come in pairs)..

Jump points with multiple jumps between usual destiantions looks like a strong contender to me. You'll definitely have to have repeater stations at each jump pt if FTL comms are related to FTL travel. If you use jump sats that bounce back andd forth between jump pts you'll have very little in the way of bandwidth limitations.

As a possibility jump points "large" enough for a simple comm flash but not for ships might offer more direct communications to at least _some_ colonies.

Your other main option would seem to be Hyperspace with "terrain", i.e the other dimension you use for FTL travel is not filled with bland emptiness.

Soem parts of Hyperspace would be faster or slower to travel through than others. Some are possibly dangerous. Travel through hyperpace probably takes significant time. You might even use your M-drive in hyperspace. You could probably hide in hyperspace and ambush ships passing through it too.

FTL comms in this setting would probably be some sort of Hyperradio and relay stations seem likely.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I get all of these from my jump system. Jumps are through wormholes; each wormhole leads from 1 to 4 other wormholes, with no guarantee of symmetric jumps (In other words, being able to jump from A to B doesn't mean you can go from B to A. You usually can, but not always.)

Trade routes are a natural result. The others are details based on what other technologies you've got. In a hard setting, you'll have maneuver with various performances, and range depending on the mass fraction of the ship devoted to fuel. If you require some special fuel (a la Traveller) to make jumps, then you get different ships with different range.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Thanks Fred. This is the sort of feedback for which I'd hoped.

My inital idea[warp] doesn't seem to support the conception I have of how the setting works.

Both options sound good. Jump points make a lot of sense, but I want to avoid this:

.

I want to keep the FTL comms low bandwith. I like all the stuff about codebooks we've discussed thus far. That's definitety going to be part of the setting. I also want courier ships to be used a lot, at least in areas ''off the grid''.

Maybe I will go with hyperspace after all....

If anyone has anything else to suggest, feel free to do so. I really appreciate all the help and advice.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

[QUOTE]dscheidt originally typed-

I get all of these from my jump system. Jumps are through wormholes; each wormhole leads from 1 to 4 other wormholes, with no guarantee of symmetric jumps (In other words, being able to jump from A to B doesn't mean you can go from B to A. You usually can, but not always.) [/QUOTE

Interesting. I like the idea of the points not always being symmetric.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Personally I'd go with the Jump points Idea for the game concept you are working with... I'd base it off of B5's jump gates or maybe even StarGate style of thing. If you go with B5 style then small ships can't make their own jump point but would have to use ones pre-built or dock with a larger ship that can make it's own Jump Points. As far as planetary maneuvers would be a little easier, probably make it use some kind of Ion thrust drive that recieves its energy from a powerplant of some sort and would need to be recharged after a while (unless you can get recharged from some other source (fuel scoop off of stellar matter (or a sun) or from Solar (slow but can get you where you need to go)))


PS) I program as a hobby so I tend to have excess uses of ().

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

You could even combine the Jump gates with the Repeater Station idea; the Jump gates could have a "Telegraph" office on board.

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Okay, I've got it now. Rather than FTL being the big breakthrough, it was actually improved astrogation that really got things going. If you want a [very rough] historical analogy think of Henry the Navigator, Columbus, etc.

Ships travel through hyperspace to take shortcuts past vast distances in real space. Large bodies in realspace create huge gravity storms in hyperpsace at the corresponding location. This means ships normally exit hyperpsace and complete their journey in realspace, rather than risk destruction by approaching too closely. Etheric currents and flows in hyperspace greatly complicate navigation. It is easy for a ship to drift off course and become lost. Trips take measurable time, but are still much faster than the equivalent journey through realspace.


Navigable routes exist through hyperspace, called hyper-routes. These can be accessed at nodes [ setting equivalent to special, naturally occuring jump points]. Hyper-routes are not of uniform length, predicatablity, or speed. Additionally, some apparently shift over time[ like a river slowly changing course].

The first crude and unreliable hyperdrive was invented several generations back [TL9], but its use was severely limited by the primitive navigation tools of the day. In the last two generations, more reliable means of discovering nodes and charting hyper-routes have been invented. This has allowed the current expansion of trade, building up of empires, etc.


The limitations and great risks of early FTL flight meant that STL colony ships were the norm for a couple of hundred years.


FTL commo is by courier ship along hyper-routes, FTL telegraphy[faster than ships, but energy hog, limited range= need for many repeater stations over stellar distances, and low bandwith]. I may include Fred's idea about plasma semaphore as a new ''message in a bottle'' technology.


How does all this sound?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

The navigation sounds somewhat reminiscent of the travel in David Weber's Honor Harrington books (minus the nodes; Weber's ships enter and depart hyperspace anywhere at the proper distance from the star). Can ships fight in hyperspace?

How fast is STL tech? .1 c? So there are no colonies settled by STL further than 20 ly, and that only if they're the earliest colonies. Everyone else would (or could) have found an FTL ship waiting for their arrival.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Anarexes-

Yeah, I thought of that. I rather like the idea of STL colonists finding out their destination sytem has already been colonized. Nice source of conflict. Of course, you have to find a connecting hyper route to safely travel to another system. Many routes are very circuitous. Many have only recently been charted. Some worlds are off the shipping lanes, or were until recent discoveries opened ''new'' hyper-routes. So it's quite possible that some fairly distant worlds were indeed settled entirely by STL ships- but they are centuries behind the core systems in terms of technology. After all, they just got off the boat not too many years ago[ relativity is like that].

Does this make sense?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Makes sense to me.

Discovering a new FTL route to an STL colony will be interesting. Merchants with all sorts of advanced products to sell; companies that want to sell the products but not the principles; colonists that want them, versus those that don't want to be dependent on imports they can't make.

Then you can throw in the apparently pastoral colony which actually discovered alien superscience / psi / sufficiently advanced technology that's not recognizable as such, such that the simple trinkets they trade are actually infecting the galaxy to pave the way for... what? A takeover? Transformation of society?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Yes, exactly. I still need to work out the particulars, but now I have a fairly good idea of how FTL travel and commo work.

I need to get a solid idea of what hyperspace is like, and what you can do there. I'm thinking ships probably can fight and hide there, just as Fred Brackin suggested. Maybe sensors are limited or less reliable there, so battles often take place at closer range than they would in real space?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

The hyper-nodes and routes help constrain the traffic so that there's a reasonable chance of finding another ship. I like this idea, because a pure warp or hyperspace where you can enter or leave a system from any direction leaves an impossibly huge area to defend.

Realspace sensors may well be completely irrelevant in hyper. (What's the point of detecting a reflected emag photon with your radar when the target moves faster than the reflection? And that's assuming said photon even exists in hyperspace.) So perhaps you need special hyperspace sensors. Hyperspace can be as noisy as you like, right up to Mutara-class nebula confusing. Perhaps the routes are only roughly stable, with lots of small-scale shifts and variations, which obscure the much smaller hyper-signature of a ship's hyperdrive.

It might be on the space-operatic side. But then, hard science ship combat is hard to make interesting, since if you're realistic enough about it, most weapons simply won't work over any kind of range, relative velocity effects often swamp most reasonable warhead technology, and realistic maneuver comes down to pretty easily calculated accelerations and delta-v. (Oh, look, the ship's been wounded, and life support is failing. Nope, no one happens to be close enough to reach you in time. Or, why yes, that other ship can reach you 37.4 minutes before you run out of power. A chase to the 100-diameter limit is similarly dry.) Your group may like doing the math, but there's not so much drama there. Some randomness will be a good thing, I think.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Again, I appreciate the advice. I do want this setting to contain space opera elements, and hyperspace is a good place to include such things as space ship battles at close range. It makes no sense in real space, but it might be the primary option in hyperpsace.

In other news, I just subscribed to the JTAS. While this setting isn't Traveller, it draws on many of the same literary sources. I'm sure I can adapt some of the JTAS/Gurps Traveller stuff to my own setting. Not the iconic stuff like the Third Imperium, Aslan, Vargr, Hivers, etc. No, I'm talking about little things like deck plans, minor races, individual planets, equipment, etc.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Now that I have some notion of FTL worked out, I'm ready to move on and sketch out another aspect of the universe; races. I want to keep things rolling.

I won't borrow any major races from Traveller, as I don't want my universe to look too much like the OTU. I think I may borrow a couple of the minor races, however.

Someone mentioned bwaps, so I looked them up. HILARIOUS! Initially, I worried they would be too anthropomorphic, but they really aren't. The psychology and physiology are interesting and well written. I like their obession with order and love for bureaucracy.

I'm thinking the bwaps will have a retrotech civilization, with starships and punch card computers. Probably organized into bureaucratic states.

As I said earlier the Memer & Saret, and the Pachekki will be included. Of all the species from GURPS Aliens, I thought those two fit in the best. I rejected the ''rubber suits'', psionics, furries, and near-human types out of hand[ not that all the races weren't well done- some just don't feel right for this particular universe].

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I have three alien races that might work with what you're looking for; unfortunately, I don't have them statted out in GURPS yet.

The first are the k'hissh. K'hissh are warm-blooded reptilians resembling runtish allosaurs or oversized velociraptors, depending on your point of view. They're bipedal but not humanoid, averaging 7 feet tall and 15 feet long. They hail from the second world in the 61 Cygni A system, known in their language as Hurr'orr, but to the humans as Quetzalcoatl; the human name was inspired by some of the wildlife in the forests, specifically something that looked like a snake with feathered wings. The k'hissh developed space travel about the same time Earth did, and were encountered while both races still relied on high-speed STL travel.

The second are the glrrü. Glrrü are insectoids that resemble giant butterflies; they possess a proportionately skinny body compared to their height, two sets of legs, one pair of arms, and large, colorful wings. Average height is about 5 feet tall, with a weight of about 50 lbs. They hail from the fourth planet in the Sigma Draconis system. Their eyes are adapted to seeing in the green through ultraviolet frequencies; they also have microscopic claws which enable them to stick to any surface except for the extremely smooth. They were first encountered as a lower-technology world not long after the development of FTL drives.

The third race is the one that may not be physically plausible, being somewhat of the "unicorn" of modern biology. The sekit are a race of silicon-based life, resembling pillars of various-colored crystal. They possess no limbs, but move around via levitation and manipulate objects with telekinesis. They don't possess organs the way we think of them. I originally had them on a habitable moon in orbit around a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri A system; the third planet in the system, about 1 AU from the star.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I like them. Are these for your own campaign setting, then?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Yes, but you're welcome to use them. I'll try and work out racial templates for them, based on my notes.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Yay! Bwaps! Mankind's moist little friends.

I like the Retrotech civilization idea for them. When mankind encountered them in my campaign, they were basically TL 6 and just starting to explore their home system.

Good luck with the campaign.

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Keep in mind Star Wars uses Hyperspace. Typically when a ship is in hyperspace they loose communication with anyone. And unless they are in realspace with Hypercommunication relay sattelites they won't have reliable communication either. Also remember in Star Trek (The one where Kirk and McCoy are arrested by the Klingons) when they said the universal translator would be detected they got out the PAPER English to Klingon dictionaries. Only the Empire had the HoloCommunications and the Empire made it illegal for any none Imperial ships to have that style communications. Just figured I'd pitch this in, having a Courier ship would still work for a Communication you would not want to be intercepted (unless someone tookout the ship carrying the data).

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

It was this picture that sold me on bwaps: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=6143148


[just scroll down a little]

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

If you have a subscription to JTAS, check out this link:

http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?508

I really like the Taureans [species presented in article]. I'll work them into my universe.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Nice. Part of my inspiration for reoleplaying Bwaps came from this comic (http://www.newgolddreams.com/ngd4.shtml) and the weird little creature that is practically a Bwap (called Chameleomen by the author, I believe).

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Open question:
Which GURPS Traveller supplements [other than the Aliens books] would be most useful to me as worldbuilding tools/generic material? I was thinking Far Trader or First In might be worth buying, since my campaign will be focused on merchants and explorers. Does anyone have an opinion of how useful these books would be in developing a non-Traveller Gurps Space campaign [as opposed to using them for running campaigns in the OTU]?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I love Far Trader. If your campaign requires a detailed interstellar economy, get this book, learn the basics, and modify it for your setting. It's much more involved than the economics section of GURPS Space. I think it was the first Traveller book I bought and I have never regretted purchasing it.

First In is a bit more complicated. It describes the IISS, and has some ships, but much of the book is taken up by the Star System generation, uh, system. In fact, the chapters Stars, Worlds, and Cultures run to about 75 pages, and much of that is reproduced in the new GURPS space. Its a good book, but unless you're planning on running a Traveller IISS campaign, I'd think about what else you could get for the same money.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I agree with your first responder about First In. What isn't redundant with the new Space is pretty Traveller-specific.

Far Trader is trickier. It's definitely scientific and valid for settings with significant amounts of ship traffic (nearing modern Earth levels ofd ocean traffic). However, I ran a couple of Space camapigns where theassumption was that Frontier worlds saw a Free Trader about once every 6 weeks and the trade system didn't work under that assumption.

Nothing else leaps to mind. The "stellar geography" books are very Traveller specific of course.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Hmmmm... I think I'll hold off on First In. Sounds like I don't really need it. Far Trader might be useful. I'll wait for it to come out in PDF form, then I'll think about buying it.

Any thoughts on Starships or Starports?

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Starships is pretty much no. That's the master book for building ships in the GT universe. Very gearhead-crunchy and GT-specific. Only a little about general Starship operations and some of that's GT-specific.

Starports is more general but still fairly Traveller-specific with a lot about Imperial regulations and such.

Almost any of this stuff (even the very GT-centric) is still a good bargain if it's available at the W23 discount prices that I've seen for 3e stuff but much of it won't be easily transportable to other Space settings.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

I would recommend Far Trader and Starports as the two books; as others have said, First in doesn't do much that Space doesn't cover.

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Anybody have an opinion on the following books?

GURPS Space Bestiary
GURPS Space Adventures
Unnight
Stardemon

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Space Bestiary has really limited utility; most of the stuff seems like it came right out of early 1970's Science Fiction. I'd recommend the series of articles from JTAS "Restricted Animals" I believe. I've converted a few to 4e on my web site; but most aren't worth it.

Space Adventures, Unnight and Stardemon haven't been any use to me at all.

I've gotten some minor use from the Space Atlases, but not much.

I'd recommend the Traveller Alien Races series; maybe even Planet of Adventure which at least had some interesting aliens.

Best.

-Mike

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

Of course, the aliens in PoA come straight out of _60s_ Scince Fiction. <big silly grin> Okay, so it was _good_ 60s sF.

Of the Traveller Alien Races series you might want to skip the first one. It concentrates on the Zhodani (psionic humans) and the Vargr (uplifted Terran wolves).

The Vargr might not _really_ count as "furries". There's a lot about a society based on potentially rapidly shifting pack dominance politics that's pretty seriously done and rather "alien" compared to bad Star Trek epsiodes. I believe there are also short sections on 2 minor races.

That's common for the series. Most of the books have big sections on 2 of the Traveller settings Major races filled out with 2 or more of the minor races from their sphere of influence.

Let's see, AR2 seems to be out of stock but that was the Aslan and K"Kree. Aslan socity is worked out in interesting detail but they might look like "lion-men" to some. It's just hard to use the K'Kree in a campaign unless you want to explore themes of "genocide as self-defense" ("They started it!").

AR3 is in stock and the Hivers are interesting. The Droyne not so much for non-Trav settings.

AR4 is a smorgasboard of nothing but Minor Races.

Humaniti is all about variant humans.

Fred Brackin

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I have all four Space Atlases. I will be using them in a modular fashion, cherry picking indivdual worlds.

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I just downloaded ISW. I'll only use part of the book, obviously. Still, it has a couple of species, several ships, basic trade rules, and some other stuff I can use.

Looking over the Vegans, I find I rather like them. They are humanoids, but definitely not very humanlike in physiology. I will probably include them.

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Don't forget the other favorite phrase of the K'Kree ambassador: "Look what you made us do!"

I always kind of liked the K'Kree, just for this aspect. Well, and that apparently innocuous name for their domain, which means something quite different in the original K'Kree.

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I found an old site with GURPS 3E conversions for several Traveller species. Mr. Joseph L. Lockett put it together. Check it out here:

http://www.io.com/~jlockett/RPG/Traveller/embassy.html


I'm looking over the races on the site to see if any would fit into my setting.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

The Major Races of Traveller are all cool, but most don't fit in the universe I am building.

Aslan: Thunder Cats, ho! I like them in Traveller, but not for this new universe.

Vargr: Uplifted wolves? Doesn't really fit in well.

Zhodani: No psionics in my campaign, so these guys are out.

Droyne: ditto

Vilani and other human subraces: The history of my setting doesn't support these guys, so they are pretty much all out.

Hivers: Maybe.

K'kree: Maybe.

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Some thoughts on hyperspace navigation;

I'm reading a story by Frederick Pohl, entitled the Mapmakers. It's got an interesting wrinkle on Hyperspace navigation: you cannot use electrical power during jumps [ship will suffer power failure or blow up the generators!]. That means that new courses must be charted by humans- not computers. Not sure how well this would work out in game, but it some variation on this might be cool. Suddenly, having a very good navigator is a very big deal, especially when charting new courses through hyperspace.


When ships fight in hyperspace, I wonder what it would look like without electronics. Maybe ships have to be within visual range[ telescopes help out , obvisouly]. What sort of weapon systems could be used, without having electrical systems operating aboard the ships?

Ships would need a non-electrical backup system for lighting, communications, etc. Life support depends on how deadly hyperspace is compared to normal vacuum in realspace [i'm undecided on it's exact qualities, but I know it won't be the sort of place you'd want to jump out of an airlock without a vacc suit].

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No electrical power doesn't mean no computers. You'd use advanced Babbage engines possibly built on a molecular scale.

The bigger problem would be what you were using for sensors or navigational instruments. Even if it's jsut something like a hyperspace compass, making one of those that recorded its' readings on a roll of paper would be easy.

As for combat, you're back to WWI with better propellants and explosives. Aim by eye, no proximity fuses. Torpedoes are unguided.

Fred Brackin

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

This would kill hyperspace radio, but that's okay. Maybe ships carry message drones that shoot out magnetically ''bottled'' plasma packets[ a modfied form of Fred's idea for FTL semaphore]. The drones are one shot devices, since their electrical systems burn out after activation. Relay stations would float in hyperspace [ ''anchored'' near nodes, orbiting gravity storms, or something like that]. The stations would carry a bunch of drones and rockets to launch them out into h-space. It's faster than ships, but the magnetic bottles [actually a sort of force field] decay after a certain distance, so the range is limited [thus necessitating relay stations]. Real space comms are either sub-light, or else maybe there is technology to transmit information to a receiving sattelite in real space[ would also rely on one shot drones. Probably low bandwith, maybe using tiny wormholes between realspace and hyperspace]. I dunno.

Of course, that may all be totally stupid. I'm just typing it out as fast as it comes to me. Criticism and commentary would be most welcome.

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Molecular computers would be cool, but I think I want to avoid using much nanotech in this particular setting. Still, some sort of Babbage engine would be very cool. I don't think it would replace human mentats entirely, if it wasn't molecular[ size/speed/complexity issues].



I like the implications for combat. The scenario you describe really places a premium on human skill and judgement. Makes combat more interesting when you cannot rely on computers to do everything for you. :)

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I would suggest keeping both the Vargr and Droyne, with a couple tweeks.

For the Vargr, I would suggest keeping the back story (sort of), just change the species (i.e., not a Terran Wolf). An alien hunter/chaser uplifted to sapiency by a now extinct/gone parent/master race. I would keep elements of the pack mentality and let their background be a campaign secret the players get a chance to uncover.

For the Droyne, drop the psionics and keep the rest, especially their physiological and mental differences between castes. I like making their bio-tech greater than campaign norm, but retarding some of their other tech.

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DAT, if I use them at all, it will be with your suggested changes.


Come to think of it, this does bring up something important: the Precursors/Ancients. I like the idea, but I want to avoid copying Traveller[ so it won't be the Droyne].

Maybe the Precursors seeded organic life throughout many star systems [using comets, starships, I dunno what]? They could have also transplanted some species , possibly as part of an experimental program carried out over a very long period of time. This would have been long before humans evolved on Earth [ so no seperate Human races, unlike Traveller]. It could help explain why Earth type lifeforms are relatively common on widely seperated worlds [ note that I am talking in broad terms here- the actual organisms may be very alien, but they are often carbon based plants and animals]. They may have uplifted some species, as well. There may have been some terraforming involved, which would suggest the Precursors were native to an earthlike world.

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More thoughts on aliens:

The Bwaps look like anthropomorphic newts. I'm obviously not dead set against using any anthropomorphic aliens. I do want to keep it limited, though. Otherwise this could start to look like TMNT in space. :) I'd rather base any 'beast' sophonts on animals that are already smart and tool using [or close to being so]. Raccoons, octopi, crows or magpies all fit. I wouldn't make the aliens too similiar, just use those animals as a starting point.

There is a Raccoonid species listed on the Traveller Wikia page. The creators put some serious thought into it. I like the concept, despite it being dangerously close to being a ''furry''[ not knocking furries, but they don't usually click with me]. With a few tweaks and some additional detail, it might fit in my universe as a sort of procyon-like sophont, one that evolved naturally on an earthlike world. The species has psi abilities as originally written, but I'd just swap that out for Danger Sense. That's basically what the psi was used for , anyway.

Maybe I like them because they remind me of a novel I enjoyed reading- Architect of Sleep.

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Yeah especially since TMNT is copy written for the Palladium Gaming System... We already know the issues Palladium Games has... I was looking at my old data links I had for some conversion for some Palladium Heroes/TMNT stuff that I wanted to use and it's all gone either at the request of Palladium Games or the links are just dead.

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Yep. That's part of why I don't buy Palladium books anymore. Too bad they have never made a conversion deal with anybody else. They've got some very cool stuff in their games, but their system isn't to my taste. Their editing isn't so hot, either.

[all just my humble opinion- not an attempt to flame Palladium fans]

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Specialized TL6 mechanical computers were semi-common. they were used for things like trajectory calculations on on battleships. When the Iowa-class ships were re-fitted in the 80s they weren't replaced with electronics. Something lighter or faster wans't needed and the mechanical systems were just as accurate. Probably all your hypersoace weapons will be direct-fire so there's no exact parallel here.

If you don't go to molecular scale there's still a fair possibility for micro-mechanical computers. there's been some fooling about with using the photolithography techiques that make silicon chips to make gears and cogs.

The result still won't be pocket-sized. It'll be a box on the control console but it might be more likely than machined metal just for reasons of cost.

Even molecular scale computers wouldn't be as fast as electronic computers. Moving "parts" made of electron streams are smaller and faster than gears made out of individual molecules.

The real change would be in sensors or the lack of them. This question has come up in terms to TL5 based Steampunk and consensus was that it would be exceptionally hard to make a mechanically based sensor. You'll be going with passive optical sights and rangefinders.

Fred Brackin

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Cool. I suppose this still leaves plenty of room for human experts, but allows for the advancement of technology. Fits with my general trend towards safetech or even retrotech.

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Biological based computers are obviously possible, as your thoughts and nerve impulses are electrical, and your heart wont beat without small amounts of electricity. Whatever the electrical threshold is I bet you could build a fairly standard computer that operated on it. The input and output devices might be biologically interesting - but practical.

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The human brain is an immensely powerful and complex bio-computer. But, yes , there is the distinct possibility of a biotech computer. I doubt my humans will use them, because of the safetech assumptions I'm running with. Perhaps another species might have more advanced biotech...


In the Pohl story, kerosene lamps provide illumination in hyperspace. That would work just fine. Of course, there's more than one way to skin a cat. If you want biotech, I'm sure some sort of bioluminescent organism could be used to provide lighting. Or chemical reactions- like glowsticks.


I wonder what T9 or 10 hydraulics, pneumatics, and steam engines would look like? The advanced materials tech should allow for lightweight, powerful systems. But what else?

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What does the name mean in K'kree, anyway?


----
So-

Hyperships have to open circuits and shut down all electrical systems when in hyperspace[ including initial jump].

Nano-comps probably don't fit my setting, since I'm not emphasizing very sophisticated nano-tech. Bio-comps are definitely possible, but the rather limited biotech possed by most of the civilizations keeps them from being too common[ they may be standard issue for some alien race that has advanced biotech]. Micro-mechanical computers that assist in shipboard tasks are definitely in, though they have not replaced humans entirely[ they're not fast enough, small enough, and have no volitional AI].

Further, combat in hyperspace takes place at visual ranges[ close]. Most weapons are direct fire. A skilled gunner is a very valuable member of the crew.

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Another thought; I mentioned that the great leap forward , which took place about two generations past, hinged partly on improved navigation in hyperspace. Maybe that could be the second gen micromech computers for navigation? Probably some kind of real space tech to locate nodes, as well. Just a thought...


Mentat style navigators and recorders could still be around, of course. Eidetic Memory + 3D Spatial Sense makes a good h-space navigator.

Re: GURPS Space campaign setting
 

If you want Racoonoid, try either the Fasanni or the Sparrials. Both have traits which could work for your setting.

-Mike

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I loved the Architect of Sleep. I have many other Sci-Fi books I liked too which made it so any of my Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi games had a Feline race in it exampled after the Chanur from the Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Homecomming and The Kiff Strike back. Web link for the book on Amazon

There are several other Aliens and other technologies I've seen in books that I've attempted to adapt to other RP settings.