Metaphysician Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Okay, for those who've read the Lensmen books, how would you writeup typical Galactic Patrol ships in Hero rules?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Movement should be in a big old Multipower, with varying levels of Megascale as well as FTL, so that there are no gaps left. This isn't an issue with most sci-fi ships, since the FTL is usually a different mechanism than the regular sublight engine, but in Lensman, they get around relativity by reducing the ship's mass to 0, and just keep on accelerating. How they avoid infinite knockback with a zero mass ship is beyond me, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships in Lensman, they get around relativity by reducing the ship's mass to 0, and just keep on accelerating. How they avoid infinite knockback with a zero mass ship is beyond me, though. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but the weird drive in Lensman does not reduce mass to zero, it reduces inertia to zero. The instant a ship turns on its drive, it is instantly moving at the speed at which its propulsion is balanced by the friction of the rarified gas of the interstellar medium. And the instant you turn off the drive, the ship is instantly motionless. So with regards to knockback, an impact on the ship would move it with great speed, but as soon as your fist (or whatever) loses contact with the ship, the ship will stop moving. This also makes the ships hard to damage. An energy beam will just bounce the ship away without penetrating the hull at all. You have to peg the ship with a tractor beam, then your beam will drill through the hull. Galactic Patrol primary beams can drill an un-tractored ship. This is because they are so powerful that the slight resistance of the interstellar medium is enough to hold the ship in place. Primaries are energy beam projectors run at 1000% overload. The generator burns out in a tenth of a second, but man does it make an intense beam! It's like the projector has burnout 100% with the first use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships The ships have force fields, but they are deployed in an odd manner. There are several "courses" of screen, like a series of concentric force walls. Tractor beams would be some kind of entangle Energy beams are, well, energy beams. Primaries are powerful energy beams with a 100% burnout, or one charge, or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Actually,in Fourth Edition,I'd have built an inertialess drive as a Linked Desolidification (at OEND and with the Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects Limitation) and FTL Travel.I'd also state that the Desolidification cannot protect against sucessful Grabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Actually,I wouldn't build tractor beams as an Entangle ,though I'd build a tractor zone (as depicted in the later books) as an Entangle that Affects Desolid. As described,tractor beams and pressor beams are both limited variants of TK. A ship with both tractors & pressors effectively has TK which can only affect a whole object. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted September 9, 2004 Report Share Posted September 9, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Well' date=' not to put too fine a point on it, but the weird drive in [b']Lensman[/b] does not reduce mass to zero, it reduces inertia to zero. You're right, of course. I just knew I'd get some detail wrong with that, and someone else would point it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Major Tom Posted September 12, 2004 Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships The speed of ships in the Lensman series was also dependant upon the overall shape of the vessel in question. There were two basic shapes used for the ships of the Triplanetary League/Galactic Patrol: spheres and teardrops, with teardrops being the faster ships. Major Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted September 13, 2004 Report Share Posted September 13, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Even faster than the teardrops were the needle-shaped speedsters. These were not warships, they were mainly one-man ships used for scouting, spying, or Detached Gray Lensmen. I also seem to remember that the teardrop ships could land by imbedding their pointed tails into the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted September 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2004 Re: Galactic Patrol Ships Yep. Though I think all the ships could land, it just was a matter of how much damage they did to what they landed on. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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