How do your Star Heroes get around?

[Steve]

So what travel method do you use to get your PCs around? Hyperdrive (Teleport/takes time)? Jump Drive (Teleport/instant)? Warp Drive (FTL Travel power)? Something else?

[Curufea]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

I used Hyperspace in the Babylon 5 variety - transdimensional movement to/from a dimension with smaller distances.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Actually we use a few main ones, all depend on the 'speed of plot' we need.

 

1. FTL: 15 LY/HR is the basic and usual means.

2. Jump Drive: Teleport/megascale = 1/LY with the travel time being variable.

3. Jump Gates: Instant Teleportation with a transdimentsional element, that allows travel across the galaxy.

5. Slipstream: Think Andromedia.

and

6. Lienar Flight: One race has the ability to move at LY in inches/phase.

7. Jump Space: the above race also can move instantly LY's via TP.

[GreenLagoon]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Actually we use a few main ones, all depend on the 'speed of plot' we need.

 

1. FTL: 15 LY/HR is the basic and usual means.

2. Jump Drive: Teleport/megascale = 1/LY with the travel time being variable.

3. Jump Gates: Instant Teleportation with a transdimentsional element, that allows travel across the galaxy.

5. Slipstream: Think Andromedia.

and

6. Lienar Flight: One race has the ability to move at LY in inches/phase.

 

How do you get them all to work in the same campaign? Do certain races have access to certain technologies?

[Steve]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Actually we use a few main ones' date=' all depend on the 'speed of plot' we need.[/quote']

 

Interesting. I could imagine the gateways might be leftover technology from before any of the spacefaring races recorded histories.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

1. Traveller style jump drives for FTL or stargates

2. fusion drives and thruster plates for normal space travel

[Dale A. Ward]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

~pulls his finger out of his nose and says...~

 

Duuuh... I dunno...

 

I just tell my GM where I wanna go and he tells me how long it takes...

 

[TheRavenIs]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

1. FTL: 15 LY/HR is the basic and usual means. This is the basic Tech used in Stellar Civilizations.

2. Jump Drive: Teleport/megascale = 1/LY with the travel time being variable. This tech was created by a PC, as a means to trael when he's ship only had a limited FTL drive.

3. Jump Gates: Instant Teleportation with a transdimentsional element, that allows travel across the galaxy. A left-over tech from a lost race.

5. Slipstream: Think Andromedia. A left-over tech from a lost race.

#'s 4 & 5, the tech of the Jump Gate has just now been relearned, but it is and will not be as efficent as the creators designed it to be. The Slipstream Drive can be reproduced but it is a dangerous tech, only a few ships can use and and only a few pilots can navigate it.

and

6. Lienar Flight: One race has the ability to move at LY in inches/phase.

7. Jump Space: The above race also can move instantly LY's via TP.

#'s 6 & 7 are racial abilities to a race that I designed with Dawnstar of the 90's Legion of Superheroes as a homage. They are special messengers, con-combatants and under protection of the main Stellar Civilizations.

[Steve]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

How big is explored space, Raven?

[zoran]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

The mass of humanity travels via a tightly regulated gravetic drive that taps into laws that were theorized in the late 20th century but only realized through our benevolent Empires relentless efforts to speed colonization and improve trade across the galaxy.

 

(Regular FTL, speed based on the quality of the ship. Gov't/military ships are faster then commercial ones.)

 

Rumours of alien species with some sort of wormhole technology are not to be believed. And even if aliens did exist they certainly would not ally themselves with the resistance, despite what the tabloids report.

 

(Teleportation, hour delay and can only be used for an hour once every 2 weeks)

 

But for now the charaters are stranded on a planet without access to either FTL ships or friendly aliens, so I don't really have the game details worked out.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

We are using regions of space.

1. Know Space as it is called is around 500 LY's in diameter.

2. Then we have The Harmonian Empire sapce that is a little larger, 625 LY's in diameter.

3. Then we have The Frontier it is larger and mapped but not really alot is known, it is around 1000 LY's.

4. Then we have what got named godspace, it is only around 250 LY's.

5. We are also just beginning to explore the area around Earth, and two other reagions.

 

Champions with Starships meets pre-galatic Champions.

[ghost-angel]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

In a spaceship usually.

 

(ha! I kill me).

 

At some point I'll seriously bug Nolgroth about ship to ship speeds and make him build a few classes of ship movement (fighter, capitol ship, space liner, cargo ship)

[JohnTaber]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

This is a teeny bit long but here is how it works in my game. Having the flux sites be static puts a very interesting twist on the campaign that has worked out GREAT!

 

1.1 The Flux Dimension

 

1.1.1 Summary

 

In the SA megaverse traveling from place to place at rapid speeds can be conducted through a form of hyperspace known as the Flux. The dimension which is known as the Flux is full of a highly active energy fields which race along at a rapid paces in viscous waves. By riding these “currents” pilots can move from one location to another at a very high rate of speed. Many pilots and technicians explain the nature of the Flux in terms of a fast moving river. Many of the same analogies apply. Once you get into the Flux it will pull you along at a rapid pace but moving off of the current at the wrong place can immediately place the ship into a position where navigation is impossible or where an eddy might not be present. Pilots refer to being in the Flux as being “in the pink” because of the pink and red color of the flowing energy waves.

 

© I got the idea for the Flux from Babylon 5. If you think of how the star gate travel work in that show you have it at a high level. Flux travel is a bit more restrictive but the idea is the same.

1.1.2 Flux Whirlpools

 

Entering and leaving the Flux is not simple.

 

Breaking into or out of the Flux realm can only be performed at certain locations from our dimension. In locations where the Flux coalesces the density of energy particles is high enough for a large energy release to breach the dimensions and allow a force field protected ship to enter or exit. When these breaches are obtained the bright pink and red energy that makes up the Flux leaks out into our dimension forming a swirling pattern which looks similar to a whirlpool or eddy. Pilots refer to these as “Flux whirlpools”.

 

These eddies in the Flux dimension are very difficult to find and to connect to each other. There is currently not a sensor with enough power to bridge the gap into the Flux at ranges longer than a few hundred miles. Thus finding Flux whirlpools is akin to finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack”. Currently the most effective way of finding these whirlpools is to enter the Flux then eject long probes on tethers. By carefully mapping using the data from the probes scientists are slowly charting the Flux currents. If an eddy is detected an unmanned probe can be sent which will break out of the Flux and hopefully send signals back to the scientific vessel. This is an expensive, tedious, and dangerous process.

 

The energy that is required to break into and out of Flux whirlpools is immense. In fact it is so severe that only ships with force fields and large power plants which are capable of expending the amount of energy to open a portal can travel in the Flux. Thus once Flux whirlpools are located Flux floodgates are often setup which can open the portal for ships who wish to enter or exit.

1.1.3 Ramifications Of Flux Travel

 

As Flux travel is conducted at a rate of at least an order of magnitude of that of normal space proper utilization of the Flux is vital for most races. Flux travel is important from a military, social, scientific, and political viewpoint. Mastering this travel has allowed races to interact at a level which was not possible before their discovery.

 

The placement of the Flux whirlpools is paramount. Many wars have been won and lost over eddy locations. Most systems guard their gates passionately as their importance is critical. Entire races have been found which would never have been detected if not for Flux travel and whirlpool detection.

1.1.4 Game Dynamic

 

What does this mean for the PC? Here is a brief list of the key points.

Ø Travel in the Flux is dangerous but very fast.

Ø Flux whirlpools allow a ship to enter and leave the Flux dimension. Flux whirlpools are highly prized and well defended. Often Flux floodgates are present to help ships enter and exit the Flux. Tolls and tariffs are very common.

Ø Entering or leaving through a Flux whirlpool takes a lot of energy. Only ships with large power plants, force fields, and Flux technology can make the trip. In game terms this is bought with Extra-Dimensional Movement at a greatly increased endurance cost.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

In the last Star Hero campaign I played in, the standard FTL mode was Hyperspace ala Babylon 5; relatively slow for long interstellar distances. One alien race had just invented a near-instantaneous Teleportation-style jump drive, but was refusing to share the technology with other races.

 

(Part of the campaign megaplot was the reaction of other races to this new development, and the PCs were supposed to be chasing the secret of this new jump drive. Unfortunately, the GM failed to make this clear at the outset, so we wound up with a party of technically-ignorant characters who could barely spell FTL, much less care how it worked. The campaign didn't last too long. )

 

BTW, I like the Flux idea, John.

[Cancer]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Don't forget the good old Infinite Improbability Drive.

[egaroadkill]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

We use the 2300AD Stutter warp; think of zillions of micro teleports in rapid succession, limited to a maximum distance traveled of 7.7 light years before you “must” bleed off radiation collected in the drive components. Maximum speed “pseudo velocity” is measured by drive capability vs. ships mass. Average ship speeds are around 3.5 LY /day.

The warp drive efficiency is severely reduced by gravity meaning that in orbit ones ship can hardly warp itself away from a planet but the further it gets away, the faster it goes. Eventually the ship crosses the light barrier to C+. For Earth, warp drives are practically useless around 30000Km with the light barrier out around 600000Km but, that’s well within the Suns C+ threshold that ends somewhere near Mars.

Ships use regular thrusters for maneuvering when the warp won’t work.

Also, planetary interface is by shuttle. Some planets have beanstalks though.

[Nyrath]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

That's my cue to drop a link to the The Canonical List of StarDrives compiled by noted physicist and Hugo & Nebula award-winning SF author Geoffrey A. Landis:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3v.html#stardrives

 

Like the Hero system, it is focusing more on effects, rather than causes. That is, one is more interested in the limitations of these methods. The actual technobabble explanation is just window dressing, in the same way that calling your 3d6 RKA a "railgun" is window dressing.

[Steve]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Now that's a cool list. Repped!

[Tom Carman]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

One curious FTL drive I recall was the "skip drive" (used in one novel by an author named Buzby, I think). The idea was that space-time was quantatized, and the drive allowed you to not have to go thru each quanta as your traveled. So with a 10^2 skip-factor, you touched only 1 space-time quanta in 100, and traveled effectively 100 times as fast.

 

The downside was that when you skipped too high, you lose your track and start drifting across parallel universes...

[patrick]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

I call it Quantum Drive. For my setting, ships create a pocket universe around the ship that is set up to be repulsed/pulled by large masses (i.e. stars), so travel happens only between masses and there's no changing course mid-trip.

 

To be repulsed/pulled the pocket universe needs to be set up just outside the gravity well of the mass. To close and you’ll just be pulled into the mass you’re trying to repulse from.

 

If the pocket universe collapses mid-trip, a ship could start it back up and limp to the nearest appropriate size mass at half max Q-Factor round down (it's only being pulled at that point).

 

The size of my setting is a 75 light year sphere around Earth so Q-factors are set up as cubic functions of light speed s(Q) = Q3c. The speed of travel is set factors called Q-factors. You can go Q5 or Q6 but not Q5.5

 

Q1 = 1c

Q2 = 8c

Q3 = 27c

Q4 = 64c

Q5 = 125c

Q6 = 216c

Q7 = 343c

Q8 = 512c

Q9 = 729c

 

This part is totally ripped off from old star trek, but hey if your going to steal, steal from one of the best.

 

A ship's max Q-Factor is based on the mass of the ship. Small ships (think Millennium Falcon or Firefly) Q3. Medium size ships (think Defiant or Voyager) Q6. And Large ships (think Galactica or Enterprise) Q9.

[keithcurtis]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

My system was very close to Patrick's. Basically, humans discover a hitherto undetected quality of the universe that fulfills the mathematical requirements of negative energy. All matter in the universe is connected by nigh-undetectable "threads" of this stuff. The more matter that is concentrated in one spot, the greater the bundle of threads.

FTL is basically warp drive, or creating a local space/time continuum that does not violate causality. The ship is isolated during travel in a "warp bubble". This is accomplished by "pulling threads" from large concentrations of matter and riding the warp bubble from one to another.

Space travel is limited to between certain classes of stars. Too small, and we don't have the technological/mathematical expertise to pull enough threads to cover the mass of the ship. Too large, and we have to be too close to the star for safe travel. Small but massive stars like white dwarfs... I can't remember. There was a problem but I'd need to look up my notes.

I had a database of stars and a formula for determining rate of travel. Basically, the more the mass, the more threads you could pull, the faster the rate of travel. Humanity also learned to communicate FTL using smaller (planetary) masses, but the amount of info that cold be transmitted was limited.

 

The upshot of this was that you could guard your solar system by patrolling the most likely thread-pulling areas near to your central star. FTL travel only worked from star to star, and large sections of the universe were essentially unreachable as of yet. FTL Radio was possible from planet to planet, but it was expensive and limited.

 

This technology was developed very late in the campaign and was instrumental in the campaign's resolution.

 

Keith "I'll have to dig up my notes and post them" Curtis

[Curufea]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

I would like to run a Pandora's Star campaign one day. Through the use of stable warp gates, you can take a train trip to any planet in the empire.

[Dale A. Ward]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

Back in my early Traveller days, the group I reffed was playing a test crew for the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service's Research & Development department. They were part of a project that came to be called the "Controlled Misjump Drive".

 

Basically, it involved using the chief engineer's Jump Drive skill as a multiplier for the number of d6 rolled for distance travelled, the navigator's Nav Skill as a modifier (+/-) for the direction travelled, and the pilot's Pilot Skill as a modifier (+/-) for fine tuning the final destination hex.

 

Then, they would intentionally misjump the drives.

 

Example:

Chief Engineer has Jump Drive 4

Navigator has Nav 2

Pilot has Pilot 3

 

This ship could travel 1-4 d6 hexes (up to 24 parsecs, in Traveller scale) in a straight line course.

 

Since a misjump always goes in a random direction (1d6 for direction out of a hex), the navigator would be called in to correct the course by +/-2 hex sides.

 

Then, the pilot could correct the final destination hex by up to 3 hexes in any direction.

 

Since there were no guarantees about where you would end up, it's hardly surprising that these R&D crews were very highly paid.

 

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

My last space campaign, Trinary, was strictly an STL setting. Ships were rated in tenths of an AU per hour for speed (strictly for GM convenience rather than hard science). I imagined that the ships were using some sort of reactionless drive system, even though humanity had migrated to the triple star system using simple reaction drives (nuclear piles vaporizing Oort Cloud objects for reaction mass) and really good cryo-suspension chambers (and really good, really reliable AI systems to run the ships while taking the millennial coast between stars).

 

I wanted fuel use to be an issue in the game, since the characters were running their own ship and economics, so that was a function of mass and maximum speed.

 

I'm still thinking about running a SF campaign that doesn't have starships (like Stargate SG-1 used to be in the early seasons) where transit platforms get you between worlds (like the systems used in the Iria anime series). Of course, that also means a really big bureaucracy and a relatively powerful corporation (or consortium) in control of interstellar travel...

 

Hmmm....that does have some possibilities, if taken from a cyberpunk angle...

 

Matt "Wheels-are-turning-up-there-because-I-can-hear-one-of-them-losing-a-bearing" Frisbee

[keithcurtis]

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

 

For STL in my campaign, I had a complex database/spreadsheet that would figure reaction mass and speed, acceleration, freefall and deceleration times. It was tied into a moving model of the solar system so that you were traveling between the planets based on where they were at the time, not their orbital distance form the sun. Saturn and Jupiter can vary tremendously in distance based upon their relative positions in the solar system, for instance. Unfortunately, I ran into a mathematical wall. I don't know calculus, so the planets were considered stationary once the course was plotted and fuel allocated.

 

It was while doing the research for this that I became aware that Larry Niven's fusion drives are pretty darn magically efficient.

 

Keith "None of the players really cared..." Curtis