08-08-2022, 10:42 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Virginia, US
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Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
So, I'm looking for advice/inspiration on (re)creating the "Hybrid Starships" of the Equinox setting. The setting is a combination of Shadowrun-esque technology (with a limit on AI) and Earthdawn-styled magical "stuff" being everywhere ("Nethertech").
Hybrid ships are the only things that can "fold space" into astral space and through a "fold" into another star system. The ships themselves are otherwise technological creations built of traditional materials, but also "biomechanical metal" (self-healing shenanigans) and "arcanium" (magical stuff like, say, orichalcum). They fly within systems using conventional drives, have conventional technology, but each ship has a "Spirit Core" (a possessing spirit) that allows them to travel to other worlds. It also provide san overall "personality" to the ship (personalising it with special powers etc.) and specific sub-systems might work with spirit guidance from than non-sentient AIs. Basically, it's a mess. But I'm here with the hope of converting setting, not system. Clearly Spaceships is going to be important, but I've taken a look-see and have not found a perfect match between I (Spaceships), VII (Divergent and Paranormal Tech), and VIII (Transhuman Spacecraft). This seems like a Control System and a Propulsion system, right? That can be created, but what about the broader ship boosts by the spirit? What would you advise there? More questions to follow when I've got some sleep. Edit: FWIW this is an example of a thread that is not hyper-detailed in terms of GURPS mechanics. I wish there were more! Last edited by Kage2020; 08-10-2022 at 09:07 PM. Reason: Turned a [ into a ] to fix the italics. |
08-09-2022, 04:54 AM | #2 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
Look for things at higher TLs than your mundane technology, rationalised by the spirit? Design the abilities the spirit provides using the character design system and apply them by fiat to the ship?
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08-09-2022, 01:29 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
Sounds a bit like you have a magitech star drive powered by a magical power system.
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08-09-2022, 07:52 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
How you represent the vessel's ability to fold space, as well as its controlling mind, is up to you. Being possessed by a Spirit Core may have no mass associated with it at all, being something like an enchantment on the ship. You'll most likely still need a Control Room, however - not only is this where the control stations for the crew are typically located, but the Control Room system is also where the maneuver systems (gyros, attitude thrusters, etc) are accounted for, and in fact if you treat the default array as a -2 to SM Enhanced Array (which is where the stats line up), assume the Control Stations have roughly comparable mass (and 10x cost, as per the cost savings for leaving them out) to an equal amount of Passenger Seating, and assume the onboard computer is basically one of the options from Ultra Tech, you end up with 70+% of the mass and cost of the Control Room unaccounted for... implying the maneuvering systems actually make up the bulk of the mass and cost of a Control Room. So unless the Spirit Core can maneuver the vessel on its own (via something akin to telekinesis, perhaps), you'll absolutely need a Control Room.
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08-09-2022, 08:05 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
Alternatively, you could use a Sapient Brain system (Spaceships 7, p. 18) to house the Spirit Core, with or without a Control Room. (The extra damage might represent fragile crystal components rather than squishy gray matter.) Combine it with the Power Plant, Magical (caged spirit) (ibid., p. 13) for a total of six magical power points.
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08-09-2022, 09:26 PM | #6 | ||||||
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Virginia, US
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
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TBH, my thoughts are currently:
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I think that what you're showing me is that this should just make the Control Room a little bit more expensive because of specialist materials. Quote:
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08-10-2022, 06:21 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
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If they don't have to pay for it - or if they do but there's no difference in cost between the different options - you can just assign any bonus you want. You may want to try to balance the options, of course, so that none are obviously superior to the others. If they do have to pay for it, an option would be to have it either function as a system or upgrade existing systems. Perhaps a Light Elemental makes the basic array that comes with a Control Room function as an Enhanced Array, or grants a +1 to any existing Enhanced (/etc) Array. A Fire Elemental may simply provide one or more PP, make existing power plants provide more PP (say, +50%), or give ~x3 to output for energy weapons (10 MJ becomes 30 MJ; 30 MJ becomes 100 MJ; etc). And so forth. In this case, you could work out how much it would cost to add systems that would have the same effect, then double (or more) that cost to account for it being massless (for upgrades that could apply to multiple systems at once, you may want to only let it apply to one at a time - your Fire Elemental can only enhance one weapon per space combat round, for example... or charge more for elementals who can enhance multiple systems at once, based on how many they can).
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08-10-2022, 07:21 PM | #8 | |||
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Virginia, US
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Re: Magitech "Hybrid: Starships
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All that is really know about them (more or less) is:
Some things that spring to mind include:
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