Identifying Stars

[Pariah]

In reading Asimov's Foundation books, I remember some of the protagonists on a ship that had ended up off course somewhere. By taking spectrographic readings of the nearest stars and comparing them to a database, they were able to determine just which stars they were looking at, and consequently, where they were.

 

I'm trying to build a character that has that same ability. She's been traveling through the Milky Way for the past decade or so and has gotten lost a time or three. But she's always been able to identify the nearest stars, and with the use of her Astrogation and AK: Milky Way Galaxy skills, to find her way back to base.

 

I was thinking of modeling this with a Detect (Stellar Spectra, a Class of Things) with Range, Discriminatory, Analyze, and either Telescopic or Megascale. Either way, the costs have turned out to be...well, let us say, astronomical (in the 60-100 point range). I'm sure there has to be a better way to model this; I just can't figure out at the moment what it might be.

 

Help, anyone?

[Zed-F]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Model it off Bump of Direction? How often do you expect it to come into play? It sounds like a flavour ability, not a core competency. It should be priced as and have the same utility as a cheap skill or talent.

[gojira]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Sounds kinda like KS or PS: Astrophysics, to be able to analyze starlight and know about spectrography in the first place. Then Navigation: Space (or your region of space) to find where you are from funky data.

 

The database is your "map" (or chart) that you're comparing measurements against. -5 to -10 to Navigation to try to locate your position with out any map at all. Area Knowledge might help out if you don't have a map or chart.

 

Any good navigator will have more than one method of locating themselves if the main method konks out.

[Pariah]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Model it off Bump of Direction? How often do you expect it to come into play? It sounds like a flavour ability' date=' not a core competency. It should be priced as and have the same utility as a cheap skill or talent.[/quote']

 

Yes, it's more flavor than anything...which is the main reason I'm trying to do it without paying 60-100 points for it.

 

At the same time, though, if her team should ever be stuck in the vastness of space--and given that the likely GM grew up reading the Legion, it's not outside the realm of possibility--it'd be nice to be able to say, "Oh, yeah, she can get them back to Earth, no problem" and have some real justification for it.

 

Sounds kinda like KS or PS: Astrophysics, to be able to analyze starlight and know about spectrography in the first place. Then Navigation: Space (or your region of space) to find where you are from funky data.

 

The database is your "map" (or chart) that you're comparing measurements against. -5 to -10 to Navigation to try to locate your position with out any map at all. Area Knowledge might help out if you don't have a map or chart.

 

Any good navigator will have more than one method of locating themselves if the main method konks out.

 

These are good points as well. I've been so focused on the Power necessary to detect the spectra that I hadn't given a lot of thought to how to use them once she'd got them. Maybe a simple Detect with Range combined with the appropriate skills would do the trick. I'll have to cogitate.

 

Anyway, good suggestions, both of you. Anyone else?

[mcgreeno]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

This Should Work by the rules

 

Power: Uncanny Localization Sense

Detect

3d X,Y,Z, axis postion (assuming Sol System is 0,0,0)

and 2d XY Longatuide and Latatude

5 pts,

 

This way the character would be able to use thier Navagation: Space, skill to figure out how to get back how obstaculs etc...

 

you could even place a time period it would take before you could roll, to represet using tools, or not...

 

Or just use the skills, which allow such already in the game..

 

Just my Two cents

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Sounds like KS (or maybe SS) Astronomy used as complimentary to Navigation (Space) to me.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Sounds like KS (or maybe SS) Astronomy used as complimentary to Navigation (Space) to me.

That's my precise take on it, too.

[Cancer]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

I think it's the PS/SS also, but if you insist on doing this in a Power, you don't forget to take lots of extra time (at least an hour) and at least two OABulkyFragileExpensiveF (Stellar spectra database, telescope + spectrometer).

 

FWIW ... given that the Foundation series was written in the 1950s ... there are far better & faster ways to do this sort of galactic navigation using natural astronomical sources other than stars and visible light. The black hole at the Galactic Center, plus radio-loud quasars and pulsars, and various X-ray sources around the Galaxy, are much fewer in number, can be seen and distinguished for rather greater distances ... as compared to stars, which can be seen for a kiloparsec at most (and there's 10^12 of them to catalog). Further, the BH and the quasars don't move anywhere near so quickly compared to the distances over which you can observe them. Now you need to add X-ray and radio telescopes with "good enough" sensitivity and angular resolution to your sensor array -- but since that's 20th Century tech stuff I would assume a working starship would carry such stuff for free.

 

Worth noting: none of those classes of objects had been discovered at the time Asimov wrote the Foundation stories, so (being a hard-science guy) he made no appeal to appropriate handwavium there and stuck with extrapolated existing techniques, scaled up. It would take an absolutely hellacious database of spectra, not to mention a thorough catalog of kinematic data, to navigate your way through the Galaxy by stellar spectra alone. I wouldn't want to try doing that, and I am a stellar spectroscopist by training.

[gojira]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

Yes' date=' it's more flavor than anything...which is the main reason I'm trying to do it without paying 60-100 points for it. [/quote']

 

If it's just flavor, I'd go with either SS:Astrophysics, AK:The Galaxy, and Detect: Star Spectroscopy/Cosmic Rays/Whatever; OR Navigation: Space at high enough levels where he or she can pull off "impossible" stunts, at least 20- or so. Navigation at 30- should cover it nicely, but I think that will run you a fair number of points.

[Silbeg]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

If it's just flavor' date=' I'd go with either SS:Astrophysics, AK:The Galaxy, and Detect: Star Spectroscopy/Cosmic Rays/Whatever; OR Navigation: Space at high enough levels where he or she can pull off "impossible" stunts, at least 20- or so. Navigation at 30- should cover it nicely, but I think that will run you a fair number of points.[/quote']

 

This definitely sounds like an AK issue.

So, AK: Milky Way Galaxy and Navigation would be good.

 

Now, if you need to have the ability to analyze a star's spectrum...

Perhaps then:

5 Detect Solar Spectrum, Analyze (based on Sight).

 

I would say that the distance wouldn't be a factor for this, since you can see the stars for a long distance.

 

 

(Go go Gojira to 2000+ rep!)

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Identifying Stars

 

If you want to analyze the light from the stars, you don't need to spend crazy points on Telescopic Megascale. The light is a local effect. If you needed Telescopic Megascale to passively observe the light, then everyone would need to buy it for their normal vision in order to see the stars in the first place.