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01-04-2020, 02:37 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2017
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Radiator area for 3e Vehicles
I find the 3e Vehicles and its two supplements to be the most useful vehicle construction kit for both any edition GURPS and any "realistic" RPG, period. Right now I'm working on designs for a early XXIII century space fleet in a setting that's primarily built for the Stars Without Number (an OSR sci-fi system) that, while won't be using GURPS level of detail, still can very much benefit for the detailed vehicle designs as the starting point from which to simplify.
That said, I fail to find any rule for calculating the required radiator area for a ship to successfully get rid of the excess heat (which, for a military spacecraft without any superscience tech, is going to be considerable), either in the main Vehicles book or in either of the expansions. I'll probably just go and adapt the material from the Atomic Rockets site (a truly invaluable resource for any hard sci-fi worldbuilder!) but I'm wondering if there might exist something that has already been GURPS-ified. TIA. |
01-04-2020, 02:49 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: England
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Re: Radiator area for 3e Vehicles
I think Transhuman Space had rules for radiators in space in Appendix A, but you'd have to convert the simplified spacecraft design system there into GURPS Vehicles terms.
Edit: I've just checked my copy, it does have rules for radiators. They are (obviously) tied to the Transhuman Space design system so you'd need to do a bit of work to convert, e.g. working out what an "old fission power plant" is in Vehicles terms. |
01-04-2020, 02:55 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Nov 2017
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Re: Radiator area for 3e Vehicles
Thank you! I'll try to get my hands on a copy of THS and work from there.
Last edited by mindbound; 01-04-2020 at 03:32 AM. |
01-04-2020, 04:56 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Radiator area for 3e Vehicles
Available at Warehouse 23.
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01-04-2020, 10:18 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Radiator area for 3e Vehicles
If you're ok with only a modest level of resolution in this regard, GURPS Spaceships (a 4e product) has rules for main radiators. It's a binary switch if the vessel needs them or not (rather than something like "each SM+10 Fusion Reactor needs n square yards of main radiator, which weighs m tons"), but you get a list of what systems require them (SS1:31), how exposed and resilient they are (SS1:66, under "Targeting Exposed Systems"), and what happens if they are retracted or disabled (SS1:65); there are also options to use coolant to extend the amount of time radiator-dependent systems can function with restracted/disabled main radiators (found initially on SS1:31, and reiterated on SS1:66). SS simplifies the radiator arrays as having no appreciable cost and mass (or, rather, it states the mass of the radiator arrays are part of the cost and mass of the systems that require them).
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gurps 3e, spaceships, vehicles |
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