12-30-2020, 01:13 PM | #31 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
For my Harpyias setting, I happened to want the aesthetics of fighters that look like they'd be home in atmosphere and transports/capital ships that look like they could serve as naval vessels (using the Hydrodynamic Hull design switch from SS7, although such vessels generally aren't meant to go planetside), naturally with appropriate technobabble explanations as to why these designs are used. This would lend itself to having artificial gravity, but because I didn't want the add-on effects of that (and the setting already rather strains the number of applications of a single miracle material), I decided most of the larger vessels either accept that they'll be spending some time on the float or pair up and use spin tethers (smaller vessels are typically relatively short-ranged, so their crew accept they'll be without gravity at least until they return to their mothership). Space habitats typically use more traditional spin gravity.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul |
|
12-30-2020, 01:15 PM | #32 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
Some sort of worm-hole drive or jump-gate system probably makes more sense, from the standpoint of what we currently understand about physics. The thing is, RPGs are more about telling stories than modeling reality, and worm-hole drives or jump-gates really eliminate a lot of fun plot options. You don't have to travel through much space with a jump-drive, and since every single jump-gate is a travel bottleneck, easily controlled, then space piracy can never really be a thing. I don't think those make for desirable trade-offs. As for the OPs original thoughts (to drag this, kicking and screaming, back on topic), I think an Epstein Drive would fit the bill, but would introduce the WMD kinetic-kill issue that could glitch the setting in ways both large and small. A pseudo-velocity drive such as a stutter-warp with no super-luminal threshold, combined with a need to discharge coils for a day, for every couple thousand or so light-seconds traveled, would do the trick.
__________________
-- MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1] "Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon. Last edited by tshiggins; 12-30-2020 at 01:25 PM. |
|
12-30-2020, 01:34 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
I looked at the 3D rotatable chview maps put together by some C.J. Cherryh fans, a long time ago, and that works pretty well. http://members.nova.org/~sol/chview/ Winchell Chung lists several others: http://www.projectrho.com/public_htm...s/software.php Were I to ever get a group together that wanted me to set up an interstellar game (which I probably won't, since one of my players is doing that for the next campaign we play...), I'd probably pick one of those. I do like the notion of a "subway map," though, as an easy reference that doesn't require much in the way of sophisticated software.
__________________
-- MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1] "Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon. |
|
12-30-2020, 01:43 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
In those games "jumplines" existed between stars but you could use the line anywhwere over a distance of an AU or more. The two linked stars could be within 3.3 parsecs x their combined masses in "Sols". Distances between habitable worlds were realistic and no known worlds had direct connections. A typical route required 3-5 jumps and the distances involved with the middle stars in the route ran to .3 AU or so. Only the routes between the most populous and powerful planets would be completely patrolled. Usually "in-between" star systems were effectively wilderness. I also set the campaign in a frontier sector with lightly settled planets that had as few as 50,000 people and only saw a ship every 3 or 4 weeks. The PC ships were built with Ve2 and only cost about a million (judicious use of superscince and keeping the actual size low) or so new and they weren't new. :)
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
12-30-2020, 01:44 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
__________________
I'd need to get a grant and go shoot a thousand goats to figure it out. |
|
12-30-2020, 01:54 PM | #36 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
Fortunately, I'm driving a beast of a machine, so it probably wouldn't be quite so bad. Maybe only every third or fourth jump. :p
__________________
-- MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1] "Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon. |
|
12-30-2020, 02:15 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
An option I considered for proper space opera travel was something like:
|
12-31-2020, 11:25 PM | #38 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2020
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Quote:
Quote:
So, 'cinematic' rules are basically arbitrary then? |
||
01-01-2021, 02:10 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Yeah, pretty much.
Figure out what works best for the type of campaign you want to run and the sorts of things you want the characters to do, as well as (probably even more importantly...) the stuff you don't want them to do. Once you've done that, backwards-engineer something to suit. G:Space has enough options that you can usually find something pretty close, and then tweak it to suit.
__________________
-- MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1] "Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon. Last edited by tshiggins; 01-01-2021 at 02:20 AM. |
01-01-2021, 11:55 AM | #40 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: Cinematic Rocket Delta-V Rules
Cinematic rules do whatever is required to make the plot work, so yes, pretty arbitrary.
|
Tags |
cinematic, delta-v, spaceships |
|
|