Megascale and Hyperdrive

[Scarlet Drake]

I imagine that this is mostly a Hero Games system question, and I also wonder if this isn't cleared up in the revised 5th edition book; but here goes...

 

In perparing for my upcoming Star Hero game, I was thinking about the Hyperdrives that are typical in Terran Empire. They are bought as Teleportation usually a low number of inches (say 5") with the Megascale advantage creating a Tport that goes 100LY/inch and they have the advantage "may be scaled down to 1"=1 kilometer (+1/4)"

 

My question is, how does this ship with that Hyperdrive get 30LY?

 

If the minimum is 1" and the maximum is 5" then it seems that they can only go 100LY to 500LY or they can go 1 kilometer to 5 kilometers. I don't think it makes sense that they get the 30LY in many 5 kilometer trips?

 

I know I can just hand-wave the issue; but I was curious what the rules provided first.

 

That also brings up the question, most of the Hyperdrives are bought with the limitation "Extra Time 1 week" would this apply to both the 100-500LY jump and the 1-5 kilometer jump? It seems counter-intuitive to make the PCs travel in hyperspace 1 week either way.

 

Thanks for the help!

[SirViss]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

...

In perparing for my upcoming Star Hero game, I was thinking about the Hyperdrives that are typical in Terran Empire. They are bought as Teleportation usually a low number of inches (say 5") with the Megascale advantage creating a Tport that goes 100LY/inch and they have the advantage "may be scaled down to 1"=1 kilometer (+1/4)"

 

My question is, how does this ship with that Hyperdrive get 30LY?

 

If the minimum is 1" and the maximum is 5" then it seems that they can only go 100LY to 500LY or they can go 1 kilometer to 5 kilometers. I don't think it makes sense that they get the 30LY in many 5 kilometer trips?

...

Well, the maximum distance/inch is 100 LY, the scale down option allows you to choose any distance between 100 LY to 1 km, meaning you could define every inch as 10 LY. Then the ship simply has to teleport 3" and it should reappear 30 LY from where it started.

 

As to the amount of time spent in hyperspace, I don't have the Terran Empire book at hand. If noone has answered that by tomorrow morning, I might look it up and see what i can do.

[SirViss]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

...

That also brings up the question, most of the Hyperdrives are bought with the limitation "Extra Time 1 week" would this apply to both the 100-500LY jump and the 1-5 kilometer jump? It seems counter-intuitive to make the PCs travel in hyperspace 1 week either way.

...

Having gone through Terran Empire, the Extra Time specified is for the full journey. They list multiple versions of hyperdrives in Terran Empire p.160, and under each "Extra Time" limitation, they also give the breakdown of a unit per time. For the Epsilon class drive, which I believe you used for you example, it says:

1 week for full journey, or about 3 LY per hour.

 

So a short in-system jump would take virtually no time.

 

P.S.: the minimum scaling per inch is 2000 km, not 1 km, as far as I could tell.

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

You should keep in mind that hyperspace behaves just like real space in Terran Empires. You can communicate or fight with other ships that are also in hyperspace. Consider this the special effect of the hyperdrive. It makes it possible for ships to see one another while in route somewhere else, which makes hyperspace an exciting place to adventure! (and loot ships)

[Vanguard]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

Yeah know, was just thinking of something . . are all th Tports done this way considered "blind" since they certainly can't see their destination and while they may have been there one or two times, that's an awful lot of points to spend on fixed locatiosn . . .

 

Or, is it just done the easy way and hand waved (which, is the way I'd do it).

[ghost-angel]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

Yeah know, was just thinking of something . . are all th Tports done this way considered "blind" since they certainly can't see their destination and while they may have been there one or two times, that's an awful lot of points to spend on fixed locatiosn . . .

 

Or, is it just done the easy way and hand waved (which, is the way I'd do it).

 

They all also come with Long Range Sensors which is a Megascaled Naked Advantage for their Sensor Array.

 

 

And as Sir Viss pointed out "Scaled Down To" means any point between and including the two extremes.

[actingkeith]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

My question is' date=' how does this ship with that Hyperdrive get 30LY?[/quote']

 

The way that "Can be Scaled Down" works is that the character can select exactly how big a hex is from the max limit of the ability all the way down to whatever the smallest hex limit is...

 

so to travel 30LY, all you have to do, in game terms, is set a megascaled hex to equal 6LY and travel 5" (or any combination that equals 30LY).

 

So you could, if you wanted, buy Megascale of 1" = 1,000,000LY Can be scaled down to 1LY. Then you can only scale back to 1LY, not 1km... I don't know what would be a reason to do that, but it could be done.

 

Anyway, I don't have an answer to your other concerns, sorry

 

Peace,

 

-keith

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

That also brings up the question' date=' most of the Hyperdrives are bought with the limitation "Extra Time 1 week" would this apply to both the 100-500LY jump and the 1-5 kilometer jump? It seems counter-intuitive to make the PCs travel in hyperspace 1 week either way.[/quote']

Wasn't that how hyperspace worked in Traveller IIRC: a jump lasted seven days regardless of distance jumped? Not saying that's the case in TE, as SirViss pointed out. Just saying it's another way to run things to give a different feel.

[tancred]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

Wasn't that how hyperspace worked in Traveller IIRC: a jump lasted seven days regardless of distance jumped? Not saying that's the case in TE' date=' as SirViss pointed out. Just saying it's another way to run things to give a different feel.[/quote']

 

Yes, the Traveller Jump Drive takes seven days to make a jump, regardless of whether that jump is 1 parsec or 6 (or anything in between).

One of the books (don't have it at hand so can't tell you which one) actually gave a suggested range of the total number of hours that a jump lasts, and listed the length of time the jump would go if the ship suffered a misjump.

[LunaRagno]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

BTW, am I the only person to think that an additional +1/4 is much too inexpensive to have all possible levels of Megascale up to X, for any value of X?

 

I believe it should be somewhat more expensive, dependent on how high X is.

 

Any thoughts?

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

BTW' date=' am I the only person to think that an additional +1/4 is much too inexpensive to have all possible levels of Megascale up to [i']X[/i], for any value of X?

 

I believe it should be somewhat more expensive, dependent on how high X is.

 

Any thoughts?

Yes and no. I always treat Megascale as a Big Flashing Neon Caution Only-With-GM-Permission Sign advantage anyway. For supers, its a good way of simulating long-range movement powers that don't tend to have much effect in combat but are just there because The Flash "should" be able to run from NY to LA in the space of a few seconds. In other genres, it more often gets used in equipment, where I'm less concerned about point cost anyway.

 

So short answer: yes, but I don't worry about it much because I'm very careful about when & where I permit it in the first place.

[LunaRagno]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

Yes and no. I always treat Megascale as a Big Flashing Neon Caution Only-With-GM-Permission Sign advantage anyway. For supers, its a good way of simulating long-range movement powers that don't tend to have much effect in combat but are just there because The Flash "should" be able to run from NY to LA in the space of a few seconds. In other genres, it more often gets used in equipment, where I'm less concerned about point cost anyway.

 

So short answer: yes, but I don't worry about it much because I'm very careful about when & where I permit it in the first place.

 

There is a certain pragmatism in avoiding the matter, is there not?

 

Even so, it perturbs me to give something so large for such a cheap cost.

 

Ah well, for such are "house rules" invented, right?

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

BTW' date=' am I the only person to think that an additional +1/4 is much too inexpensive to have all possible levels of Megascale up to [i']X[/i], for any value of X?

 

 

No; you are not. I feel the same.

 

Perhaps +1/4 per X, where x is defined as some fractional amount of the maximum scale, such as 1/10, or 1/100.....

 

 

Thus, 1000km/hex could be adjustable to 100Km/hex for +1/4 (assuming +1/4 for a 1/10 adjustment), to 10km/hex for an additional +1/4, to 1km/hex, to 100m/hex for an additional +1/4....

 

So scaling from 1000km/hex to 10m/hex would by a total of +1 1/2. (any smaller and you can get out and walk, really)

 

Of course, this gets _way_ expensive when you're talking about hundreds or even just tens -- really, even _one_ light year....

 

Though it does create an incentive to have two drive systems: Hyper Space (warp drive) _and_ Maneuver Drive (Impulse Drive)...

 

heh heh heh---

 

it sort of leans well for two particular well-known sci-fi settings, I think....

 

 

 

Just a thought, mind you.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

Had a thought after posting:

 

perhaps it would be possible to use both +1/4 as the ability to scale to 1/10 the maximum, and +1/2 as the ability to scale to 1/1000....

 

This might help with the light-years expense, if you feel the +1/4 for 1/10 scale is too prohibitive....

[ghost-angel]

Re: Megascale and Hyperdrive

 

A Note: The +1/4 is the Ability to SCALE DOWN to the minimum value which is 1km/Hex.

 

It was introduced in Star Hero almost specifically for Space Drives and to simulate spaceship engines.

 

You've already paid for each step in the increment up to the value you've purchased - Just to get 1 LY/Hex is a +3 1/2 Advantage ALREADY. You've paid for all increments in between, an extra +1/4 allows you to actually use what you've paid for. I don't think that's too cheap at all personally.

 

And you still cannot go below that 1km threshhold.