Super Squirrel Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 I'm just curious how much space people have designed in Star Hero. I'm using the Star Hero rules currently working on a very large quadrant. The quadrant is a 10 by 10 grid of 20 cubic light year sectors. Or a grand total of 800,000 cubic light years. So how big of an area have you designed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design The game I'm pecking away at has 4 descriptions for space: Known Space is a 50 light year radius around Sol. Understood Space stretches that to about 250 light years. Frontier Space extends that to 500 light years. Everything beyond a 500 light year radius is called Dragon Space and is basically unknown and unexplored. Within the 500 light year area are 92 different species [53 associated in some fashion with the Galactic Council, 26 neutral species, and 13 hostile species]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design I like those names, MitchellS. My SF campaign never went more than a few dozen light years from Sol. Of course the last part of the campaign chronicled the adventures of the first interstellar exploratory ship. Keith "Solar Colonies" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent 13 Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Everything beyond a 500 light year radius is called Dragon Space As in "Here There Be..."? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grymlocke Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design lets see... working in autocad i;m doing up a starchart that fits 24x36...is that big enough? good for usable deck plans too...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design As in "Here There Be..."? Yep. It's unknown, unexplored, and full of dragons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Anyone who's interested can find out more about the campaign as I create it in this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25077 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted January 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design My game is centered around the Andromeda Galaxy. A group of big risk takers made some major hyperspace trips to Andromeda. There, they built a hyperspace gate. They charge the cost of a medium sized spaceship to anyone who wants to use it and as a result, the area is relatively unexplored. I plan on designing the Andromeda Galaxy one quadrant at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Now from an astronomical reality check standpoint, these are challenging. However, one should never let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good RPG campaign. Given a radius in light years, the number of stars inside the radius is about Nstars = R^3 * 0.01 With the best figures I managed to find, the approximate number of stars hosting a human habitable planet is NhStars = R^3 * 0.0022 (this is human habitable only, there will be different numbers for hydrogen-breathers, silicon life, or similar life-as-we-do-not-know-it). This is of course far more controversial than just the number of stars, and one is free to adjust this to taste. Note that if the radius is larger than 500 light years or so, the equation will fail, giving more stars than there really are. This is due to the fact that the galactic disc out here in the galactic habitable zone is only about 1000 light years thick. So Super Squirrel's 100 ly radius map would hold a bit more than 10,000 stars (since the map is a cube, not a sphere), with 2,200 of them human-habitable. MitchellS's Known Space has about 1250 stars with 275 human habitable. Understood space adds an additional 159,000 stars with 33,700 human habitable. Frontier space adds an additional 1,090,000 stars with 216,000 human-habitable. Again, feel free to ignore these figures if they are inconvenient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design MitchellS's Known Space has about 1250 stars with 275 human habitable. Understood space adds an additional 159' date='000 stars with 33,700 human habitable. Frontier space adds an additional 1,090,000 stars with 216,000 human-habitable.[/quote'] That's useful information to me. Thank you. Now I have an idea of how many colony systems can be established; especially in Known Space where the highest concentration of "known" aliens will be situated, and vying for suitable planets too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted January 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design And yet, I find my self rolling constantly black or yellow zone planets. Green and blue always seem to be gas giants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Cool info, Nyrath! And good caveats. Are you an astronomer by trade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Nyrath hosts the world's best website devoted to Star Maps. I'm not kidding. See for yourself. It's a toss-up to me whether that's cooler than having been the artist for Ogre/G.E.V. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Why, thank you. Some people like my Atomic Rocket website as well, especially the fun parts. No, Steve, I am not an astronomer, nor am I a rocket scientist. But I have studied both in an amateur fashion for a few decades. I always try to include the "good caveats". Far too many so-called "authenticity nazis" have forgetten that the point of an RPG is to have fun playing, not ruin a good time for everybody by picking holes in the game master's universe. Having said that, I must say that I was quite impressed with the astronomical scientific accuracy to be found in Star Hero. It shows careful research, and quite recent research at that (re: the galactic habitable zones). I much doubt that I could personally have written it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design My favorite is still your deconstruction/reconstruction of the Pentateuch Symbols. I still plan on using them in a Star Hero game one of these days, when my players get off of their fantasy kick. I see you also added some stuff about Elemental Magick and some other occult bits. I may have to yoink them at some point. They're really good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Given a radius in light years, the number of stars inside the radius is about Nstars = R^3 * 0.01 Stars or Star Systems...? Due to the existence of Binaries and Trinaries, this could skew your figures when allocating coordinates... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Stars or Star Systems...? Due to the existence of Binaries and Trinaries' date=' this could skew your figures when allocating coordinates...[/quote'] Nice catch! Pardon me while I smack my head with the clue-stick. The equation gives the total number of Stars. The best figure I can find is: NSystems = NStars / 1.5 Example: MitchellS's Known Space has about 1250 stars. Therefore it will have 1250 / 1.5 = 833 star systems. I go into this in a bit more detail here: http://www.projectrho.com/smap05d.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxiekins Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 Re: Largest Space Chart Design Nice catch! Pardon me while I smack my head with the clue-stick. The equation gives the total number of Stars. The best figure I can find is: NSystems = NStars / 1.5 Heh... It's an ambiguity I see over and over again in pretty much any product that covers the subject, so that's why I noticed it... The habcat data seems like it would be useful... I'll have to remember it if I ever get players interested in SciFi again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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