Curufea Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... Orbitals are ring shaped spacestations in common use in the Culture series of books by Iain M Banks. They're very large and spin slowly (about one rotation per day I believe). However - they orbit the central sun of the system. They are set at an angle such that one inner surface receive sunlight. As it spins, this surface rotates around, of course.. Artificial gravity generators are required. The Fist of God mountin in Niven's Ringworld wasn't losing atmosphere - it punched all the way through the atmosphere and out the other side. Also - Niven sized Ringworlds could quite easily be the home for fantasy campaigns of huge size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... Aaarrrggghhh! You mentioned one of the Three Unmentionable Names of Gaming!!! What are the other two? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zed-F Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... I'm not familiar with the concept of an Orbital... Is this similar to the idea of building a ringword style structure in an orbit around, say a gas giant, and then artificially forcing the giant into a fusion reaction that turns it into a big flaming ball of gas (like they were afraid might happen to Jupiter with that huge comet strike a few years back?) Orbitals are smaller rings that orbit a star or float free of any star. They may have a small star-like object in the center or not. Usually they are not postulated as something that someone builds and then pretty much abandons, as is the case with Niven's Ringworld. Rather they are built and used to house the populations of the builders. Authors like Ian Banks who write far-future really-high-tech kinds of SF (e.g. the Culture series) often make use of things like Orbitals to show how advanced the protagonist species/faction is (and by extension whatever contemporary that might be capable of threatening them.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... What are the other two? *heh* I almost asked the same thing. The answers are XXXXXX and XXXXX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethosos Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... Another, interesting, alternative for moving inside/outside would be something like the world of Pyran, from the Death Gate Cycle. In it, they stuck the Gate litteraly between the four central suns that just shine continuously upon the jungle landscape. (Mind you, the whole saga is eerily like SF, with Fantasy being the carrier.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... What are the other two? Answered via PM, so as to disturb the space/time continuum as little as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThothAmon Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... I also would recommend a look at Iain M Banks' Culture novels (e.g. Look To Windward) for inspiration on Orbitals. Chances are your Watchers are going to be machine intelligences not unlike Bank's Drones. My initial explanation for the Watchers' behaviour (and the abandoned status of the Orbital) might be scientific interest in studying the barbaric remnants of a long gone culture. There may not be many clues for PCs regards the prior occupants as most high tech cultures use non-physical means of storing data. Another smaller-scale artifical world that may be worth your investigation is found in John Varley's Gaea trilogy of novels (Titan, Wizard and Demon). The world depicted here is significantly different from hard SF ringworlds or orbitals and contains many fantasy and fantastic elements. It also features a tailor-made explanation for the Watcher in an RPG setting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Re: Ringworlds, orbitals, etc... Y'know, I had completely forgotten about Varley's trilogy...good suggestions, ThothAmon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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