Wormholes in Space
 

In a space game using wormholes for FTL what are good excuses to keep the wormholes in space rather than on the surface of planets.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

Stable Wormholes may (possibly must) require massive negative mass equivalents (like negative Jupiters even for throats a few meters in diameter). Obviously putting that much negative mass on a planet would be disastrous.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

A wormhole near a gravity well?! Are you crazy? [Hand wave. Hand wave. Hand wave.]

Wormholes aren't mere doors you just open and walk through. They are a severe curvature of spacetime. You might as well ask why we don't put a solar-mass black hole on the surface of a planet.

Why are you asking about this? Is somebody planning something like this? If they are you better 'fess up right now, buddy.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

It's not really much of a handwave. If you can have stable wormholes at all, they are going to be extremely large negative masses. A planet would be repelled by them and they'd be attracted to the planet. It would be a really bad idea to put one anywhere near a planet you want to keep.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

I read that triple hand wave like the Japanese body language of negation ... basically trying to waff the thought away like bad air.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

Thank you, I think I'd like to still have a planet tomorrow. However you make wormholes there's got to be a lot of energy invested in them. The most energy, the bigger the kaboom.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

Given that negative mass is so ridiculously exotic that you can basically say anything about it, could you just say that it's impossible to stabilize a wormhole too near another mass?

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

The traditional justification for FTL not being done on a planetary surface is that creating a stable wormhole/entering hyperspace/establishing a warp bubble/etc. is difficult, dangerous, or impossible within a gravity well above a certain threshold.

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

Oh and don't forget to Jedi Mind trick you players that "Stargate is not the show you are looking for" ;)

Re: Wormholes in Space
 

Are wormholes artificial or natural? If they are natural, then the chance of them randomly happening on a planet instead of the massive void of space is tiny.
If they artificial just say the wormhole generator can't be safety activated on the planet. I can even give you a technobabble explanation if you want.