Gamable Extraplanetary Phenomena

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

Rogue black holes, which would be detectable only by gravitational phenomena as they have no nearby mass falling in to cause them to radiate.

Depending on how your setting's FTL works, this might be a reason for the ship to drop out in the middle of nowhere…

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Eh, this one depends on how high the Science! dials have been set.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula

......is all about the Crab Nebula which is certainly our most studied supernova remnant.

In a long, long ago Space game I had the PC's get a copy of an ancient text that could jocularly be described as an issue of "Scientific Forerunner" talking all about a "new" outpost circling a small red dwarf near the rather large star (c. 10 solar masses) that eventually exploded and became the Crab Nebula.

Calculations revealed that the expanding nebula was going to engulf that red dwarf and it's incredibly valuable Forerunner base very soon so off my PCs went.

This was not terribly hard science-y. Even back then I knew that nothing too terrible would happen to the star but you could wave your hands about "navigational difficulties" or something.

Science-y problems that would be most likely to pop up are that supernova candidate stars are not at common and rather conspicuous too. I know Prince Charon only said "nova" rather than "supernova" but nova stars are pretty obvious too and only energetic enough to threaten their own planets. A good supernova would threaten it's neighboring systems with high energy radiation when it exploded. ISTR something about 50 light-years being the danger zone.

I am thinking of Science! as something to be plugged in at option, once I have enough of a grasp of realism to manipulate it.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Eh, this one depends on how high the Science! dials have been set.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula

......is all about the Crab Nebula which is certainly our most studied supernova remnant.

I seem to recall a cartoon from back in the day where the crab nebula was a big deal, but don't recall name or plot...

Originally Posted by Shostak

A visitor to the solar system like Oumuamua could be interesting. A hard SF game might involve dealing with a too-close-for-comfort trajectory, or sending a team to taking samples or investigate inexplicable radio signals coming from it. A cosmic horror game might make it something whose presence "makes the stars right" for some awful event to become possible. A dungeon fantasy game might give it a treatment similar to Deep Night and the Star.

Clarke's Rama series is the obvious go-to for this, as pretty much the entire Sci-fi community pointed out at once when the thing appeared.

Also, we have the incipient megastructures that may have been detected:

http://arcana.wikidot.com/alien-mega...baffle-scienti

http://arcana.wikidot.com/astronomer...s-dimming-star

[David Johnston2]

Ordinary nebulas are too diffuse to hamper starship perception, but there is an exception. Star formation nebulae would would be relatively dense, filled with debris and with a hot centre what would interfere with heat sensors.

Prior to star formation there are dense molecular clouds. If there was interstellar space dwelling life, such things might provide it with "food".

Micrometeorites are the reason why I design even civilian starships with a level of armor.

Rogue planets are very very hard to find. That would make them a good pirate base.

Comets are useful for wilderness foraging for volatiles.

Derelict space craft are going to be an inevitable consequence of interstellar travel and warfare.

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Comets are useful for wilderness foraging for volatiles.

Good heavens. Did you just come up with an actual good reason for sending a wildcat drilling crew to a comet?