Basil

Re: Twisted magic items

Some based on Fantasy Hero.

Armor of Heels:

This armor can only be worn by untrustworthy, sneaky sorts; rogues, ne'er-do-wells, heels, etc.

Batty Shield:

It can only be used by the slighty insane.

Elixer of Giant Ego:

Turns the imbiber into the worst egotist you ever met. This only effects little-e "ego", not all-caps EGO.

Potion of Underwater Comfy-chair:

Poured out, it creates the most *comfortable* overstuffed chair you've ever sat it. This big ol' thing is just a perfect fit, not to hard nor too soft; you just want to curl up in it a relax. Unfortunately, it only creates the chair when poured into water at least 4 hexes (8 meters) deep. And it is a big overstuffed chair --- as in, 100 kg. It's hard (but not impossible) to get it out of the water before it becomes too soggy. Oh, and it's 1 Continuing Charge of 1 hour.

Star with Sapphire Ring:

The wearer somehow lands up with a major role in every movie Sapphire is in. However, it grants no acting ability, nor any improvement to looks.

Wand of Fastening:

It glues itself to the wielder's -- or should I say victim's -- hand the first time he picks it up. Removing it takes a STR vs. STR roll against a STR of 30. And it does HKA when you get it off.

Irresponsible Blade:

The wielder doesn't really care who or what he hits. Roll randomly to see what the target is, each Phase.

And one not specific to any game system.

Ring of Three Fishes:

The wearer of this ring can Summon a fish of any sort (including sharks but not including cetatians) by rubbing the ring and crying out the name of the type of fish. It has only three Charges the never recover --- once the third fish appears, the ring crumbles to dust.

Do not confuse this with the Gin Ring: that causes a shotglass full of cheap booze to appear when activated. It also has 3 Charges, but they "recharge" every dawn.

But only if the wearer is hungover.

Re: Change of Speed

3) Limited SPD ("14- Activation", etc.) will cost END every phase, since it's purchased as a power. Even if it fails to activate!

Nope. 5th Ed., p.87, in the list of all Powers, in the line for Characteristics, under the column for END, says "Varies".

In the Rules FAQs there's a question:

"Q: If a character buys extra SPD that Costs Endurance, does he have to pay the END every Phase, or just on the extra Phases he gets from the extra SPD itself?"

Obviously, if SPD as a Power auromatically cost end, this question would be meaningless, and Steve would point out why, rather than answering it at some length.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't.

Oh, it gets worse than that. If the ship accelerates long enough at a constant acceleration sooner or later you have to take relativity into account.

You can find the ugly equation for relativisitic acceleration at the bottom of this page

Interesting. Unfortunately, they don't say what G is in #16, nor g in #17.

The Starflight Handbook has formulae for relativistic acceleration, but I won't inflict them on you unless someone asks.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't.

 

If you have a reactionless thruster (such as in later TE times), you can accelerate all the time. Now, if your Hyperspace drive works as described in AW und TE, you will accelerate in Hyperspace also (only 1 m/s in Hyperspace will equal 1 000 000 m/s in normalspace).

 

T is the Time required (in seconds), V is the average velocity (in megameters per second), A your acceleration (in m/s/s)

 

T= D/V

V= A*T/4

 

So your travel time is:

 

T= D/(0.25*AT)

D=0.25*A*T^2

4D/A=T^2

T= [4*(D/A)]^(0.5)

or

T=2*[(D/A)^(0.5)]

 

Thus, the travel time is not proportional to the distance. A twice as high a distance requires not twice as much travel time, but less. To most people, that does not feel right, and it requires computation that most people aren't used to.

Ah, OK. When you said "quadratic equations" I was thinking of x=(-b ± sqrt(b^2 - 4ac))/2a That is, I thought you were talking about "solve for x" sort of thing.

As for time not being proportional to distance, but to the squareroot of the distance; it seem obvious to me, when you remember this is for constant acceleration. If you're always going faster, it doesn't take as long to go *this* km as it did the last km.

Re: Average Seperation

It wouldn't be that great a stretch to psotulate a galaxy in which intelligence evolved only on Earth.

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy had this as an underlying assumption.

After all' date=' from the perspective on a species survival it isn;t all that valuable a characteristic and there is no reason it should be selected for more readily than any other.[/quote']

This idea is popular in certain circles. However, it is not science, but cynicism. Being smarter than ones potential prey/hunters is very valuable for the survival of a species.

 

If one doesn;t want to go that far' date=' it is more reasonable to think that the sort of tehcnolgocial stepping-stones required to reach the stars were only reached or survived on earth, and that by the skin of our teeth -- we very nearly didn;t survive learning how to split the atom, after all, and still mgiht not.[/quote']

The problem with this, is that just because humanity has come close to harming itself with some technologies dose not mean (A) other species would do so, nor ( that other species would go through the same or similar sequence of technological change. A species that, say, discovered how to work with electricity long before developing steam power would possibly not cause widespread ecological devistation (deforestation, acid rain, global warming, etc.). Or, say, a race on a planet with little available metals (copper, tin, iron) might start off concentrating on ceramics.

 

Of course, a race evolved from pure herbavores, or pure carnivores, might have better innate ways of dealing with intraspecies conflict. And intraspecies conflict, not technology in and of itself, is what has made humans endanger their continued existance as a species.

 

The result would be a cosmos in which humans would explore as much of their spiral arm as they can reach for thousands of years and still nto meet an alien species. natural genetic variation would result in humans changign as they settle in different environments, so that in, say, 3,000 years we might encoutner human sub-species that are alien in msot of the areas that matter but that are still descended from Earth's gene pool.

 

This, of course, assumes interstellar travel is possible at all, which all the evidence indicates is not true in the real world. any trip to another solar system will likely be essentially one-way, with no future contact with home at all.

 

However, even with no FTL, different "branches" of the human race may meet as different "zones of expantion" run into each other.

Re: Twisted magic items

Orb Of Drag-and-drop

The wielder of this approimately 50cm sphere (made out of some truly weird looking stuff we're not to speculate about) can, with but a thought, pick up anything of up to 1 ton in mass. However, he must drop it (not set it down) within one Turn, or it slips from his "grasp" and drops. It can only be used a dozen times per day.

TK, 28 STR, 12 Continuing Charges, OAF, etc.

Do not confuse this with the Orb Of Dragon Droppings!

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Hmmm...some good points there. There is one little thing I'd like to point out' date=' though. The interstellar medium, [i']on average[/i], does not carry a charge (is not ionized). "Locally" (such a with a light-year or so of a star) it certainly is, but overall...nope. That's one reason the 21cm band is used for really long-range radio signal hunts.

 

I don't have the forumulas handy to figure out energy loss due to sync radiation, but my gut feeling is that while it might be enough to eventually slow a ship down, you'd be talking thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of years before you'd have a noticable drop in velocity.

Oops. Misunderstood some notes I took from an article in a book by, I believe, Niven &/or Pournelle. Unfortunately it was a library book, so I don't have it to refer to. However, The Starflight Handbook mentions 10^5 ions/cubic meter as a typical interstellar medium. Which is a long way from "fairly ionized" as I first said, but still, it is ionized, and it will carry a shockwave.

Re: Change of Speed

Hugh Neilson, to be blunt:

I'm afraid you completely missed both my point, and the general subject of this thread. I said that taking the POV "'Fractional SPD' exists on the character sheet, not on the gaming table." would simplify playing SPD Drains, Aids, etc. A complex example of various ways to build characters is, frankly, irrelevant.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't.

I disagree. The fact that a ship in Hyperspace is undetectable, but that two (or more) ships in Hyperspace can interact, combined with better Hyperdrives letting one stay in Hyperspace longer leads me to think that the Power that best models this is Extra-Dimensional Movement. It has to be linked to FTL with the -0 Lim "Only Relative To Real Space". That would cover the text's description, and I can't see any other way to. Certainly the power write-up given on Terran Empire p.160 (and Alein Wars p.126-127) doesn't come close.

D'oh! Of course!

 

Still, with all the work put into the existing stats in AW, TE and SpT, I would prefer simply changing the rubber science explanation to "shunt into another universe which moves (maybe: "rotates"?) at superluminal speeds relative to our own, stay there for a while being dragged, then return when desired". Higher class hyperdrives would allow to shunt into even faster hyperspace universes. (If you like the idea, feel free to use it at no cost. )

Yeah, I've always liked that FTL. And if you make the Hyperspaces discrete, each one giving a faster result, you account for the performances of the different Hyperdrives much better than at present.

After all' date=' using quadratic equations for all interstellar travel could really bog down a game... and the effect of larger distances being not as far away in travel time as is showed in distance on the map is rather un-intuitive.[/quote']

OK, here you've lost me. How does using XDM lead to quadratic equations? And your bit about larger distances and travel time and maps I just cannot turn into English I understand.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Well' date=' friction is the cause nevertheless. Interstellar space is not as empty as it would seem- it has, indeed, a very, very, very, very thin "atmosphere" of hydrogen and other gases. That does not matter normally, but when moving at the speed of light...[/quote']

 

There is another, and surprising, mechanism for velocity loss in outer space. The interstellar gaseous medium is fairly ionized, that is, it is a plasma. Even that tenuous a plasma can be said to have a speed of sound. In our stellar "neighborhood", that speed is roughly 10,000 m/s. Any solid object going faster than that will cause a shock wave. In a plasma, that shockwave will accelerate electrons, causing synchrotron radiation.

 

If the object---or generation ship, to be specific---is not propelling itself (i.e., is not running its drive, but coasting), it will lose energy to the shockwave. That energy will be kinetic energy, and thus the ship will slow down.

 

Unfortunately, I have no info on how strong the deceleration will be, so I can't tell you if this will help Blue Jogger's scenario at all.

 

BTW, that ~10,000 m/s is ~3.3 * 10^-5 c. Which means getting to Alpha Centauri in mere centuries, instead of millennia, will require the drive to be running all the time you're in flight. At what level, I don't know; I hope at just-barely-on level, as the deceleration turns out to be minute, but still...

 

Oh, another thing; the ship's shockwave-caused synchrotron radiation has a non-thermal spectrum, and is strongly polarized; IOW it is highly distinctive. Should be detectable for a goodly distance. Which might be like waving a sign saying "Here we are!" to other spacefaring species. Which brings up a raft of story possibilities.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Terran Empire page 158 clearly shows that fusion reactors were created in 2149. Page 58 of TE says that Mars was colonized in 2093. I've only had the books a week and have not completely read them' date=' so there might be more references I'm missing.[/quote']

Hey, I've had my copies less time than that.

Actually, I missed the bit about fusion reactors because I didn't think "small" necessarily meant "You can fit it in a ship, easy."

BTW, Mars' date is not on page 58. That's all about the Security Police, diplomats, and like that. It's page 68.

 

 

I see the Senate as seeing Mars colonized in 2093 by the Earth Government and decided if they wanted more control then they needed new laws passed quickly. 11 years later they finally got the colony act. Then they started to make their move by colonizing outlying systems; Alpha Centauri being first as it's the closest.

Um, OK, maybe I missed something else, but in 2104, what's "the Senate" if it's not Earth's government?

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

The fusion rocket of 2253 only gives a sustained speed of 570" per turn. That is a whopping 194 mph. I somehow think there is something between 194 mph and 1.2 LY per year.

Check out Star Hero; it has a method for treating "inches of Flight" as acceleration. Certainly, it's the only sensible method.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

It must be obvious. You' date=' yourself, just got through saying "[b']I'm sure the settlement of the Solar System will not, and reasonably could not, be done with rockets alone[/b]" so that must mean they used something else; something that will be described in Solar Hero no doubt.

You have taken what I said completely out of context. Here is the context restored:

But I would point out that the "better" chemical and fusion rockets in AW were not invented until 2253, 50 years later. It is obvious that there was something that allowed space travel between 2100-2200.

Is it obvious?

While I see no way the Solar System will be (in the future of the real world) settled solely by rockets, there is nothing obvious about extensive use of non-rockets in the invented 'history' given in Alien Wars. Indeed, there's no sign the author even knew of non-rocket, non-rubber-science STL drives that are, even now, known to be workable (some have even been experimented with).

Considering what is actually in the book, especially the fact that "Hyperdrive" provides no propulsion of its own (as described in the text), and that rockets are all that is mentioned, and I think it reasonable to ask whether there's anything "obvious" about non-rocket STL having been developed and then abandoned. Indeed, I can't believe in such a scenario.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Now, one could assume the Colony Act created the concept "Senate Worlds", even though there weren't any, and also said they would be responsible for all colonizing efforts. That, however, raises the question of who/what is responsible for colonizing the "Senate Worlds".

 

Sorry, that won't fly.

The point is the Senate knew there were worlds to be colonized and so they passed the Colony Act before people began to be shipped to those worlds. The Senate wanted control of those worlds. The Earth Government allowed them to have the act because they knew it would take decades before many well-established colonies could be formed. As you said, at 0.5c you are looking at several years to get to Alpha Centauri alone, and there is supply, terraforming, etc. The Earth Government knew that it could all be settled at a later date. It was just a way of the Government getting something for free and then thinking they could fix it a century down the road to better suit them. Unfortunately a century later hyperdrives appeared and things got more complicated. Now they were not talking about 4 years to Alpha Centauri or Vega or where ever.

 

It would seem to make a lot of sense that the Senate would try to get the Colony Act passes before there were colonies. They wanted the control, and they got it, but they had to pay for it.

Again, a possible explanation. However, my original post, and what I've been trying to get people to consider, is that the book as written has a timeline that will not work unless either FTL existed before 2203, or The Colony Act was --- contrary to what is said --- passed by a "Senate" when there were no Senate Worlds.

Frankly, the errata for Alien Wars needs to correct the use of "Senate Worlds" on page 7; or at least point out that the Act as (first) written referred to "Senate Nations" (or whatever you want to call it), and was later amended/interpreted to refer to "Senate Worlds"

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Suggestion: The Colony Act was actually some kind of political maneuver to achieve some completely different' date=' more day-to-day buisiness-like thing which is now long forgotten. "By accident", it was also a document that allowed for the legal concept of "more than one Senate world", because until then, there was only one world allowed to send senators, and that was Earth, of course. (For example, the real idea behind the Colony Act and a few related documents that in effect changed the UE's constitution could have been to install a new office: That of Earth's senator, who would have been quite powerful given the fact that he was the only one...no one of those who passed the Colony Act really believed that there could ever be a real "Senate" with many Senators.)[/quote']

 

That, and some other suggestions from this thread, could work. Thing is, why wasn't it covered in the history section of Alien Wars? If they're going to call The Colony Act so important to later events, why brush it off like they did?

Re: Superhero Images

If possible putting the height attribute helps most browsers save that screen real estate for when the picture loads.

Of course, if the picture is ever pulled/lost/etc., you end up with a vey tall&skinny 'blank spot', with the red "X" way up at the top. Looks weird as heck.

Re: Average Seperation

I didn't' date=' and I didn't mean to imply that...if my earlier post sounded that way, I apologize. I just meant it to say that the stars that currently make up an arm [i']are[/i] moving in an orbit around the center of the galaxy, because I didn't want to give the impression the stars were standing still as the wave moved past/through them. And yes, I'm sure the compression waves are moving faster than the stars are.

It was me that said that.

 

I don't recal exactly where I saw it, it was one of the things I came across through the links above. I don't know what page I finally got to that said that though, sorry.

 

In any case, if I'm wrong, then the source I read was wrong, or else I inferred something from it that I shouldn't have.

Ah, OK. No harm done.

Help yourself; use whatever you want to, including nothing at all. Besides the fact that this is a community of like-minded individuals in which we make an effort to help each other...well, my close friends would all tell you that I love to "help" this way. (They'd mean, "He loves to talk and to pontificate." )

Hmmm... I believe I have that disease too.

Thanks for covering matters in more detail than I would've thought to.

Re: Help with Racist Slang

The two from the 50's are white teenagers, who have had really sheltered lives, but very patriotic.

 

The Chinese character is the de facto leader of the team of heroes.

Somehow I see the kids as getting a lot of giggles out of (over) using the expression "Chinese fire-drill."

Re: Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming

A sense that there's an entire world, not just a big (or not so big) place with dungeons in

Too many campaigns I've been in/seen/heard of/read the book(s) for don't have any sense of the hugeness, the complexity, the unpredictability of a real world. For example, most settings from gaming companies have the feeling that the world stops at the edge of the map. Contrast to Tolkein, where there's a feelling there are lands, unknown to the area around Gondor/the Shire/etc; areas with cultures and history.

Heck, look at the map of MIddle Earth---there's the sea of Rhûn that we're told nothing about. In most RPG products there'd be the feeling the artist wanted to fill in space. With Tolkein, you end up wondering what the folks there are like; you may even find yourself inventing a history and traditions for it.

A feeling of time; the feeling there's been stuff happening long before your characters exist, and that stuff will keeping happening after they're gone.

Too many campaigns lack this. Too often, there's a "weird legend" or "old story" that's either nothing but a plot hook, or a bit of window-dressing that has a connection to neither the present nor any other "tale from the past." Admittedly, it's hard to give a feeling of the depths of time at Tolkein's level, but I find it so rare to see any attempt at a feeling of history. And tossing out a dozen names of bygone kingdoms/kings/archmages just shows up how little history the setting has. (As well as usually sounding stupid, from the grab-bag nature of those names).

Related to the last point:

Lengends, stories, tales, etc, that aren't just plothooks &/or hints

I know of nothing that brings alive a world faster, with few words, than the GM having an NPC drop a passing reference to some old story "everyone knows".

{using a know legend}

GM (as Farmer Amico): "You'd've ne'er thought that there runty pony coulda pullt that cart outa that there ditch, but then you'd've ne'er thought that there half-growed King Arthur could've pullt that sword outa that there stone."

{different setting, invented legend}

GM (as Farmer True): "'Tis true mine horse looks too smal to pull your wagon from out the ditch 'tis immured in. Yet, forget not that Liendra didst remove the Crown of Talkon from out the grip of the Everfrozen Lake!"

See how it goes? And the tale of Liendra doesn't have a bloody thing to do with the PCs, their predicament, their advancement, or anything else. It's just part of the world. Of course, it's even better if the legends are a direct steal from real-world ones, but I'm too tired to go to that effort.

Re: Twisted magic items

This is part of a sentence from Tery Pratchett. It's stuck in mind since I read it, even though I forget which book it's from.

"...flaming swords that burn all the way up the hilt..."

I'll leave someone else to design it in Hero System terms.

Bag of Moldy

Anything put into this medium-large leather sack instantly becomes old, decrepit, and covered with a thin film of mold and mildew.

Major Transform that lowers DEF of objects to about half, reduces PRE and COM of living things, etc.

Wizard's Stuff

A whole lot of useless flotsam and junk slowly accumulates around the person carrying this staff. It accumulates more rapidly the slower the possesor moves, and will eventually make it very difficult or impossible to move. If the owner takes it into his/her home, watch out -- s/he will need to be unburied in a few days!

Major Transform, air into junk.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot---

Wand of Blunder

The owner of this wand keeps falling down, dropping stuff, etc. Don't let him near a hammer and nail!

Drain DEX, Continuous, plus Mind Control, One Command (Keep this wand!!!)

Re: Change of Speed

I think it simplifies things if you take this POV: "Fractional SPD" exists on the character sheet, not on the gaming table.

By which I mean: "Fractional SPD" is a concept that relates only to designing the character (and 'redesigning' it when spending XPs). When that character is in play, when the player is sitting there moving the character, fighting, interacting, "Fractional SPD" is meaningless.

As a comparison: if my character has 4d6 EB, AoE Radius, and is hit with a Drain, it's 10 Active Points per die that Drain is affecting. Now, yeah, I'll probably land up keeping track of, say, 16 points of Drain and how my character recovers from it, and how many dice of EB I have now, and so on. However, I don't have to introduce "Fractional EB, AoE, Radius" to do that. Similarly, I don't need "Fractional SPD" to account for Drains, Aids, etc. It's just a 10 Active Point per (not die but) point 'o speed Power; account for 16 points of Drain just as you would any other 10 Active Point per die Power.

As for pre-5th-Ed. speed changes: Here's what 4th Ed. says:

"OPTIONAL SPEED CHANGE

If the GM wants to allw a character to change his SPD within a turn, the following optional system should be used. It is much more comples, but lets characters with Special Powers (like Multiform and Duplication) use their abilities to the fullest.

Under this system, a character can change his SPD on any Phase he has an action. Changing SPD is a 0 Phase action. After he has changed his SPD, the character cannot act until he has had a Phase for both of the SPDs. Once he has taken an action at the new SPD, he can be considered that SPD for the rest of the Turn."

Now, I've always thought this means that a speed-changed character gets a Phase on the next Segment he would at his new SPD, so long as it's a Segment after or simultaneous with one he'd have gotten at his old SPD. So, to go back to the original example, of someone dropped from SPD 6 to SPD 5 on Segment 2: if he were hit after his action, or had volutarily dropped his SPD, his next Phase at SPD 5 would be on Segment 3. However, he wouldn't have acted until Segment 4 if he'd stayed at SPD 6, so he doesn't act on Segment 3. Thus, he doesn't get to act until his next possible Phase at SPD 5; Segment 5. Now, if the character is Drained (Suppressed, etc.) before he gets to act in Segment 2, I believe that Segment 2 counts as his "would have had a Phase" for SPD 6. Thus, when Segment 3 rolls around, that's his "would have had a Phase" for SPD 5, and he gets to act.

The example in 4th Ed. certainly accords with the way I've described. However, it also accords with what the FAQs for 5th Ed. clearly states: no action until a simultaneous Phase. Which makes Draining someone just after his first Phase of a Turn an overwhelmingly effective tactic. Decreasing a character's SPD by one right after his first Phase of the Turn means that he won't act until Segment 12 for original SPDs 2-5, until Segment 8 for original SPD 6, and Segment 6 for original SPD 8. Original SPD 7 gets his next Phase on Segment 4, just like he would have anyway, and SPDs 9-11 it's Segment 3 (Segment 2 for SPD 12) the character is "delayed" to. So, higher SPDs aren't as effected, but there are darn few characters with SPDs that high.

Oh, and if a character with original SPD of 2-6, 8, or 10 is Drained to SPD 1 in one shot, he'll never get to act at all! At least not until he 'heals' enough of the Drained points.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

You are assuming because the world didn't have the Class Alpha drive until 2203 that they had nothing but rockets before then.

No, but I see nothing else mentioned anywhere. Indeed, I'm sure the settlement of the Solar System will not, and reasonably could not, be done with rockets alone. The matter of propellent is too grave for dependence on rockets alone.

But I would point out that the "better" chemical and fusion rockets in AW were not invented until 2253' date=' 50 years later. It is obvious that there was something that allowed space travel between 2100-2200.[/quote']

Is it obvious?

It was not until 11 years later (in 2214) that the first human colony outside the Sol system was founded on Alpha Centauri IV.

Thus, there was no settlement outside the Solar System, and hence no manned flight outside the Solar System until Hyperdrive came along.

 

So, I guess one must assume the statement in AW, page 7, that The Colony Act did said that Senate Worlds were responsible for colonization, is wrong, and that the Act said members of the Senate (I guess separate nations) were so responsible.

Which brings up a number of other question, such as what nations managed to colonize, when did Earth get a true one-world government, etc.

 

There could have been several different things which allowed for 0.5-0.8c travel which just became obsolete after 2203. We just don't know what it is' date=' yet. [/quote']

Such a drive would not become obsolete for STL! If there's something that can accelerate to 0.5c or higher, at a reasonable cost (in money, energy, propellent or lack thereof), there would be utterly no reason to abandon it.

 

Also, let me quote from AW p.125 (copied in TE page 158): "Travel within Hyperspace depends of two things: first, a ship's normal propulsion (since the ship has to propel itself through Hyperspace)..." Thus, whatever STL is in use, is part of FTL. If there's something better than rockets by 2203, it won't become obsolete when the Hyperdrive shunt is invented.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

Now there's some info that ought to have been in Alien Wars (& maybe Terran Empire). That gives some highly useful background info.

The fusion plant informatin is in both books. Mars getting a colony is mentioned in Terran Empire.

Allow me to repeat what I was responding to:

Or to take a refrence directly from a Hero Book

 

Galactic Champions by Darren Watts, P.25

"In the year 2149, Humanity developed true portable fusion energy sources, allowing ships to travel between planets at previously unthinkable speeds."

 

Apparently the first human colony was founded on Mars on 2093.

I thought it clear, in the context of the discussion, that I was referring to the specification of the dates. There is nothing in either Alien Wars nor Terran Empire that says when those two events occured. Which, to my mind, is important information; information that certainly could easily have been included.

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was...

There are no Senate Worlds in 2104. That is when the Colony Act was signed. It was at that point that the Earth Government agreed to let the Senate colonize worlds and take control of them if they would pay for the colonization process. The Earth Government agreed to that in part because they knew it would take decades to colonize a world without the Hyperdrives.

From Alien Wars, page 7:

"The Senate itself created the conflict between federalism and planetary rights by passing the Colony Act of 2104. The Act stated that individual Senate Worlds {emphasis added}, not the United Earth government, were wholly responsible for establishing and administering Colony Worlds."

Now, one could assume the Colony Act created the concept "Senate Worlds", even though there weren't any, and also said they would be responsible for all colonizing efforts. That, however, raises the question of who/what is responsible for colonizing the "Senate Worlds".

Sorry, that won't fly.

Re: Average Seperation

I wouldn't be too surprised actually. Up until a few years ago when I started studying astronomy more in depth I was one of them. Recently I've been reading about what the arms actually are, but you've put it into the terms I couldn't remember. Thanks.

 

So the gaps are called "lanes" huh? Interesting. So all I need to do if create a number of additional populated worlds that, like Earth, escape the compression waves. I'm figuring this won't be too accurate, scientifically, but it'll work for a game and seem at least remotely plausable. At least I think it will. I hope so anyway. One of my players knows a LOT more about this stuff than I do, and another's actually taking classes.

Why do you need to "escape the compression waves"? Yes, they are the site of star formation, and thus of the death of short-lived stars (like O's and B's), and thus supernovas, and thus have slightly higher background radiation levels. However, the difference is too slight to be an overall concern.

Now, if a star system is within a few lightyears of a supernova, any life on it is pretty well kaput. However, even though supernovas are commoner in the arms, that doesn't mean they're common. Just a little bit less rare.

BTW, could you tell me where you read that Sol was moving at the same speed as the spiral arm? I think the shock-wave is faster, and in fact Sol has been in and out of spiral arms a number of times in its 4.5 billion years of existance.

. The dark lanes between the arms are not empty of stars' date=' nor are they choked with dust (making them darker).[/quote']

True, they have the same overall level of dust and gas as the bright arms. However, the dust and gas they have is dark---well, darker. That's because it takes an energetic star to cause the gas to fluoresce, or the dust to reflect enought light to be noteworthy. Indeed, the shortlived O's and the fluorescing gas, account for much of the brightness of the spiral arms.