Galactic Encounters Role-Playing Game

[AlMan]

For FTL there is also Fold Space from the Dune novels. Mathematical oriented humans are transformed by an overdose of Melange. The "Navigator" is then given a steady diet of Melange, which gives the former humans precognition to fold space-time to instantly travel between worlds. The loading of and unloading of the massive ships is what takes time as materials are transported by sublight travel. The Spacing Guild also controls all ships that come aboard the large cruisers, these ships are required to cover the ports so passengers don't know if an enemy or a friend is in the next berth. If any ship dares attack another ship within the cruiser the Spacing Guild will drop the offenders off at the next port and will refuse transportation to the offenders home world, which means no goods are sold to outside markets and no imported goods are brought to the offending planetary system.

[rredmond]

I wish I could remember where I heard this idea from, but what about a ship that is using a black hole for travel. Not traveling through it or using it as an energy generator, but using it like a horse pulls a cart.

Was that from the Event Horizon movie maybe?

[rredmond]

I like the Stargates (and for similar reasons the Wormhole Drive) though maybe it's the old schooler in me
I like the idea of treating them as entrances to different levels/sections of a space megadungeon. Okay, wait, hear me out, it isn't a literal megadungeon
Different entrances (gates/holes) lead to different places. Some are known places, where there are known dangers - some dangers not so great, but also the rewards are not so great (and easily obtained) and conversely there are entrances to areas with greater dangers, and greater rewards. Part of your mercenary police force could be set up to collect fees to be allowed to enter the holes, as well as to protect that nothing that isn't supposed to come through them (to quadrant 0, aka Earth or whatever) comes through. But also most of the entrances are either very little, or not explored at all, allowing for creative GM types to have fun.

Kinda reminds me of (and I don't know why) Roadside Picnic, where the "stalkers" go into the various zones to find the tech left behind by the aliens. Some stalkers stay on the outskirts, in the safer areas to collect the more mundane items. Others go into the more dangerous areas, risking their lives for the more high-tech and lucrative items. There's even the Holy Grail, or "Golden Sphere" in the very center of it all. I don't know it makes for a lot of flexibility. Other than that the Warp Drive seems, to me (though I'm admittedly a big Trekkie) the easiest, and best, way to go.

[Seven]

I like the Babylon 5 way of having gates installed by long range ship at one the Lagrange points of interesting planets.

[Solomoriah]

I wish I could remember where I heard this idea from, but what about a ship that is using a black hole for travel. Not traveling through it or using it as an energy generator, but using it like a horse pulls a cart.

Was that from the Event Horizon movie maybe?

That ship was using the singularity to bend spacetime and allow travel through another dimensional realm... not a nice one though. Reminds me of Warhammer 40k's method though.

[daryen]

Actually, I am not terribly worried about the FTL system. Any work. Really, I would recommend that you figure out how you want your system to work, then pick the FTL system that fits it. Really, it's all magic and made-up. Just pick your "magic system" and run with it.

Honestly, the simplest is the Star Trek warp drive. It works closest to "normal movement" as possible, and allows for combat at FTL speeds. It also means that you can have one engine type. Pretty much all of the other require two engines (one for the FTL and one for normal space).

A much more interesting decision to me is normal-space movement: reaction or reactionless thrusters? Both have insanely bad side-effects that are very hard to eliminate. Reaction thrusters that are powerful enough to move at a reasonable speed (e.g. 1G of thrust) mean a ship's locomotion is also its most effective and powerful weapon. Reactionless thrusters create near-C death rocks. Both side effects are setting destroying problems. (This is potentially another point towards using Star Trek warp drive, TBH.)

[Solomoriah]

Reaction drives that make 1G or more aren't so much of an issue if they run out of fuel relatively quickly. Once a ship drops out of FTL, it just needs maneuvering thrusters. Normal space combat will burn fuel quickly, but non-combat maneuvers won't need much.

One of the things I've seen that I don't care for is artificial gravity thrusters. I'm planning artificial gravity, but the grav plating produces a bidirectional field. The underdeck literally has opposite gravity. Crew decks might have the same orientation, but cargo/baggage/fuel decks in between would be inverted. I used this in my Space Force game with good results; ships there are small and just have one crew deck, with the inverted side being fuel and equipment. A diagram will cover what's needed there.

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SO one of the things troubling me right now is fabricators. I cannot foresee a future where we have FTL and artificial gravity, but still make things in conventional factories; and there's no way over the long haul that the digital plans for things can be secured enough to enforce a faux scarcity economy. Thirty years ago was 1990, when you couldn't get an operating system for your computer without coughing up bucks or breaking the law. It didn't take much of thirty years for that to change. If we went to the stars with that technology, and spent a thousand years colonizing millions of worlds... no. Every plan for every common item is free, somewhere. You might pay someone for the labor of finding a rare model file, or even to create a file for something that does not yet exist, but selling the file itself? Well, you might sell it ONCE, or if it's an exclusive enough thing, a few times, but ten years later everyone will have one.

So what's my problem? Complexity in the rules. The release published talks a bit about them, but the version I've been working on has more effort put into it, and honestly I'm not sure it's abstract enough. I'm afraid dealing with the nuts and bolts of it may be a mistake, but I don't know how to simplify it enough.

[daryen]

Make replicators have a side-effect. Say that for durable good, they use a good, solid, durable plastic-like material. But, if you want actual ceramic, it can't be fabricated; it has to be made. For organics, let there be some similar kind of effect, where actually cooked food just tastes better.

Note that this doesn't affect the game statistics of the items, but still allows for non-fabricated items. And for scarcity.

Just a thought.

[Solomoriah]

You misunderstand, I'm afraid. I don't want to water down or otherwise reduce the importance or the impact of fabricator technology. Rather, I'm afraid my implementation is too complex for a game... but I can't see how to simplify it without making it a magical handwave like a replicator in Star Trek.

[Solomoriah]

For FTL there is also Fold Space from the Dune novels. Mathematical oriented humans are transformed by an overdose of Melange. The "Navigator" is then given a steady diet of Melange, which gives the former humans precognition to fold space-time to instantly travel between worlds. The loading of and unloading of the massive ships is what takes time as materials are transported by sublight travel. The Spacing Guild also controls all ships that come aboard the large cruisers, these ships are required to cover the ports so passengers don't know if an enemy or a friend is in the next berth. If any ship dares attack another ship within the cruiser the Spacing Guild will drop the offenders off at the next port and will refuse transportation to the offenders home world, which means no goods are sold to outside markets and no imported goods are brought to the offending planetary system.

Mechanically, this is another form of teleportation; the limited numbers and special status of the navigators is the main restriction here. You can't fabricate navigators, even if the novels overlook the possibility of fabricators. Travel in this fashion would slow dramatically the exploration and colonization of the galaxy.

I think that's the main difference between my, well, my opinion of the future and common sci-fi imaginings. Over a long period of time (on the human scale, hundreds of years), digital models of things will inevitably proliferate. Given enough resources, any known thing can be yours.