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Old 11-05-2009, 03:46 PM   #1
Wernern
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Vienna/Austria
Default Some Questions about Gurps Space

Hi!
This is my first post here, i registered because I am probably going to master a Gurps Space Campaign. First i have to say: please dont judge me by my english grammar or language... doesnt happen to often that i write in english boards. I'm going to try to make myself understandable anyway

First some words about myself: I played roll playing games for 4 years now and i play a lot of different games (DSA, SR, Lot5R, Vampire, Mage, Demon, Gurps (fantasy-setting), Starwars (not often), DD,...). And most of them I mastered. So i have some experience with rules. But Gurps is a little bit more complexe then the usual RPG... so i came here for a little help
I have got the first of the Spaceships books, The Basic Books: Charakters and Campaigns and the Space Book... and i have read them all.

But there are still some things i dont understand after looking through all of them. Please tell me where I am wrong!

First the basics:
Delta-V = maximum Speed in Miles per Second of a Vehicle or Fuel?
mps= Fuel... but how far can i travel when I have 0,5mps left? And how much do I need to turn around in Combat? how much do i need to reach Delta-V?
G = Acceleration or top Speed???

Because i am a little bit confused about this i decided to start the campaign with a ship that uses a reactionless drive (two actually, each with 1G = 2G in total). The campaign will start with the players taking off from earth (If nobody fumbles with his piloting skill...). Now a ship needs to meet two conditions to take off from earth right?
1) its acceleration has to be higher than the gravity of the planet it wants to leave (in my case no problem - earth's gravity is 1,00 G and the ship i will use has 2 G acceleration)
2) the ship needs a delta-V of at least 80% of the planets escape velocity (in my case this is a problem because i dont know wich delta-V a reactionless drive has - if delta-V=top speed it would be near-c right? this would mean that i really dont have to worry that the PC's will get stuck on earth or any planet with a gravity of 2 or lower)

The next question I have is about combat:
The ship i will give to the players will be a SM +6 Scout Ship. For Fights it is going to have a medium battery equiped with rapid firing guns (10cm). That means in this battery are three guns and 140 gun shots.
What happens now when a gunner uses these battery? can one gunner command all guns at the same moment or do 3 guns need 3 gunners? What is the RoF of this guns anyway? I know it is doubled because of the rapid fire option. Or do the 140 Gun shots mean: 140 gun shots per combat turn = 140/3 per Combat turn and gun????

Oh... i nearly forgot about that: the campaign concept:
1947 there actually was an UFO that came down near Roswell... so there actually was or is an Area 51 and there actually are scientists doing experiments with all the creepy stuff they found in the UFO. Now after more than 60 Years of researching the thing theres really nothing more they can learn from it (not that they learned a lot from it before but now they admit that nobody is really going to understand this technology any better if its not seen in action). So a team is gathered to do some test-flights with the UFO wich was more or less repaired by the scientists. The PC's will be this team (I know... not much charakter options). And then on the first test flight when the ship leaves the orbit the computer will reboot and finish its last command -> Jump! So theme of the campaign will be "lost in Space...with a lot of strange, slimy, unhelpful creatures".

I hope someone here can help me a little bit

MFG (with kind regards... i think it is)
Wernern
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Old 11-05-2009, 04:05 PM   #2
Diomedes
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wernern View Post
First the basics:
Delta-V = maximum Speed in Miles per Second of a Vehicle or Fuel?
mps= Fuel... but how far can i travel when I have 0,5mps left? And how much do I need to turn around in Combat? how much do i need to reach Delta-V?
G = Acceleration or top Speed???
∆V is change in velocity, which is used to measure fuel. If a ship has 0.5 mps worth of fuel left, it can accelerate by up to 0.5 miles per second. G's are acceleration in gravities. 1G=1/165 mps per second.
Quote:
Because i am a little bit confused about this i decided to start the campaign with a ship that uses a reactionless drive (two actually, each with 1G = 2G in total). The campaign will start with the players taking off from earth (If nobody fumbles with his piloting skill...). Now a ship needs to meet two conditions to take off from earth right?
1) its acceleration has to be higher than the gravity of the planet it wants to leave (in my case no problem - earth's gravity is 1,00 G and the ship i will use has 2 G acceleration)
2) the ship needs a delta-V of at least 80% of the planets escape velocity (in my case this is a problem because i dont know wich delta-V a reactionless drive has - if delta-V=top speed it would be near-c right? this would mean that i really dont have to worry that the PC's will get stuck on earth or any planet with a gravity of 2 or lower)
Reactionless drives essentially have infinite ∆V, as long as they have power.
Quote:
The next question I have is about combat:
The ship i will give to the players will be a SM +6 Scout Ship. For Fights it is going to have a medium battery equiped with rapid firing guns (10cm). That means in this battery are three guns and 140 gun shots.

What happens now when a gunner uses these battery? can one gunner command all guns at the same moment or do 3 guns need 3 gunners? What is the RoF of this guns anyway? I know it is doubled because of the rapid fire option. Or do the 140 Gun shots mean: 140 gun shots per combat turn = 140/3 per Combat turn and gun????
Rapid Fire and Very Rapid Fire increase RoF by 10× and 100×, respectively. So you have three 5cm guns with 350 shots each.
If the guns are fixed mounts they can all be fired together at the same target; just add their RoF's. Turrets should be at -2 per extra gun if fired at different targets, but I would waive the penalty if they're all aimed at the same one.

Last edited by Diomedes; 11-05-2009 at 04:09 PM.
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Old 11-05-2009, 04:21 PM   #3
Wernern
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Vienna/Austria
Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Rapid Fire and Very Rapid Fire increase RoF by 10× and 100×, respectively. So you have three 5cm guns with 350 shots each.
great... but what is the RoF to begin with? 1 or 70 /round? and what happens when the 350 are gone?

Or can a gunner fire his gun as often as he wants if he takes the -2 penalty for every bullet he shots in the same round? Or is the RoF just called "gun shots" in "Gurps Spaceships"?

Or is this just for the "Shots fired or incoming Table"? Does the gunner just get +8 on his skill check when he fires 350 bullets? If that was the case this would mean that only the chances to hit something are increased? And the difference between skill roll & effective skill would be the number of bullets that hit (when RcL=1)???

Quote:
If a ship has 0.5 mps worth of fuel left, it can accelerate by up to 0.5 miles per second.
So a ship with 150 mps left in its tanks could instantly accelerate to this speed and keep it in Space (Newtons 1st)?
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Old 11-05-2009, 04:33 PM   #4
cccwebs
 
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Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
So a ship with 150 mps left in its tanks could instantly accelerate to this speed and keep it in Space (Newtons 1st)?
No. It can accelerate based on the G of thrust the engine produces. The maximum velocity change it could produce is 150 mps. So, a 1 G engine could accelerate for 6.825 hours until it reached a speed of 150 mps then it would be out of fuel.
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Old 11-05-2009, 04:40 PM   #5
Diomedes
 
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Location: Dallas, TX
Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wernern View Post
great... but what is the RoF to begin with? 1 or 70 /round? and what happens when the 350 are gone?
Standard RoF, as per page 58, is 1 per 20 second-round, 3 per 1 minute-round, 10 per 3 minute-round, 30 per 10 minute-round. For your guns this would be 10, 30, 100, 300, or three times that if all three guns were fired in battery.
Quote:
Or can a gunner fire his gun as often as he wants if he takes the -2 penalty for every bullet he shots in the same round? Or is the RoF just called "gun shots" in "Gurps Spaceships"?
No, "gun shots" is ammunition. Firing x shots is a single action, splitting fire between 2 or more targets would take the -2 penalty per extra target.
Quote:
Or is this just for the "Shots fired or incoming Table"? Does the gunner just get +8 on his skill check when he fires 350 bullets? If that was the case this would mean that only the chances to hit something are increased? And the difference between skill roll & effective skill would be the number of bullets that hit (when RcL=1)???
Correct. The number of shots that hits, however, is 1+(MoS/Rcl), rounded down, so a success will always have at least one hit, even if you make the skill roll exactly.
Quote:

So a ship with 150 mps left in its tanks could instantly accelerate to this speed and keep it in Space (Newtons 1st)?
A ship with 150 mps in its tanks could accelerate 150 miles per second from its previous vector, and coast forever, but it wouldn't be instant. At 2 G's, it would take 12375 seconds, or almost three and a half hours, to gain that much velocity.
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Old 11-05-2009, 04:59 PM   #6
Agemegos
 
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Location: Oz
Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wernern View Post
Hi!
This is my first post here,
G'day! Welcome aboard!
Quote:
i registered because I am probably going to master a Gurps Space Campaign. First i have to say: please dont judge me by my english grammar or language... doesnt happen to often that i write in english boards.
Don't worry. We'll do our best to discover your meanings, and if there are any problems we can always ask you to clarify.

Quote:
Gurps is a little bit more complexe then the usual RPG.
It is, and the secret to managing that complexity is that you do not use it all. GURPS is full of special rules for special purposes: magic rules for fantasy campaigns, hit locations rules for campaigns in which detailed combat is important, and so forth. You don't have to use everything in every campaign, indeed it is recommended that you do not. Try to use the smallest subset of GURPS that will suit your purpose.

Quote:
Delta-V = maximum Speed in Miles per Second of a Vehicle or Fuel?
Vehicle. Delta-v is the total change in its velocity that a vehicle can effect without refuelling. So if you start off with 150 mi./sec. of delta-v, you can accelerate to 75 mi./sec., coast at that speed on a ballistic trajectory as long as you want, and then decelerate to rest again. Or you can accelerate to 150 mi./sec. and coast on forever with not fuel for slowing down.

Quote:
mps= Fuel... but how far can i travel when I have 0,5mps left?
With 0.5 mi./sec. of delta-v left, you can change your velocity by up to 0.5 miles per second. If you don't change it at all you will continue forever on your current trajectory, so you can travel forever even with no delta-v left. Delta-v is needed only to speed up, slow down, or change course.

Quote:
And how much do I need to turn around in Combat?
To change facing you need none. To reverse your course you need delta-v equal to twice you current speed.

Quote:
how much do i need to reach Delta-V?
You need the complete contents of full tanks to reach speed = delta-v. And then you will have no fuel to stop with.

Quote:
G = Acceleration or top Speed???
Acceleration.

Quote:
2) the ship needs a delta-V of at least 80% of the planets escape velocity (in my case this is a problem because i dont know wich delta-V a reactionless drive has - if delta-V=top speed it would be near-c right? this would mean that i really dont have to worry that the PC's will get stuck on earth or any planet with a gravity of 2 or lower)
Correct. Note that "80% of escape velocity" is what you need to reach low circular orbit. Actually getting onto an interplanetary trajectory requires more delta-v again. There are guidelines on pp.37–39 of Spaceships.
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Old 11-05-2009, 05:02 PM   #7
Agemegos
 
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Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wernern View Post
great... but what is the RoF to begin with? 1 or 70 /round?
RoF depends on the turn length. The table is at the top of Spaceships p. 58.
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Old 11-05-2009, 05:38 PM   #8
Wernern
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Vienna/Austria
Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Standard RoF, as per page 58, is 1 per 20 second-round, 3 per 1 minute-round, 10 per 3 minute-round, 30 per 10 minute-round. For your guns this would be 10, 30, 100, 300, or three times that if all three guns were fired in battery.
So if i fight in 20 second rounds (very likely on a SM 6 scale) the Gunner PC can roll as often as he likes with increasing penalty for every roll but the first?
And every Roll means that he fires with 3 guns at the same target 3*10= 30 bullets at one target. = he gets a +5 bonus (Shots fired 25-49) on his skill roll??? And every bullet wich hits the target still does 2dD Damage (4d basic/2 because of Rapid Fire and half caliber)? Nice weapon to fight against targets on the ground... but against Ships?
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Old 11-05-2009, 11:11 PM   #9
Diomedes
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wernern View Post
So if i fight in 20 second rounds (very likely on a SM 6 scale) the Gunner PC can roll as often as he likes with increasing penalty for every roll but the first?
And every Roll means that he fires with 3 guns at the same target 3*10= 30 bullets at one target. = he gets a +5 bonus (Shots fired 25-49) on his skill roll??? And every bullet wich hits the target still does 2dD Damage (4d basic/2 because of Rapid Fire and half caliber)? Nice weapon to fight against targets on the ground... but against Ships?
Strictly by the rules, he can't fire multiple turrets in battery, as a single skill roll. (Personally, I allow a gunner to yoke identical turrets together and fire them, with a -1 penalty for the extra action.) Firing 20 shots would indeed be a +5 bonus, but I'm not sure where you got 2d d-damage. a 10 cm cannon does 3d×5 d-damage, a rapid fire, 5 cm cannon does 7d.
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Old 11-06-2009, 02:16 AM   #10
Wernern
 
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Default Re: Some Questions about Gurps Space

Quote:
but I'm not sure where you got 2d d-damage. a 10 cm cannon does 3d×5 d-damage, a rapid fire, 5 cm cannon does 7d.
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R

where can i find the stats for this?
I got the damage from the "medium battery" table. There it is listed as 4dD Damage for a medium battery.
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