J is for Jump Pack!
Jump Packs are favorite of mine. I have loved them since the first days of seeing them used on Lost in Space! On TV. So what about them?
Well if you want to use them, what are they? Have they developed enough into a military tool. It it still a full rig and platform, or are you full rocketeer/iron man mode. Militarized and a staple of the civilian market.
My preference is the latter. I have always seen full peer armored soldiers in jump packs zooming over tortured landscapes to capture the objective ahead of the ground pounders.
So this fits a space opera game. Now simply decide on size and weight of the system. Does it take a fully armored and etched out suit to use one? Can it just be strapped to you back or your boots? How is it controlled? How would an adventurer use it, and of course fire a weapon from it?
The jet pack could add some nice technology quests, escort missions or full out combat missions with jet packs as a main player in the adventure. So use them. You characters will love soaring through the air.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
I is for Interpreter!
I is for Interpreter!
It's a universally accepted fixture of sci fi, the ability to communicate fluently with alien, foreign and even terrestrial races and nations with losing nothing in the translation. Think about how big a thing this is. That every nation, race and life form that has a formal language can communicate with each other.Ethnologue list approximately 6800 languages right now on earth. It anticipates in the next century, approximately 3000 languages will go extinct. So even at about 4000 languages, can you imagine the kind of catlogueing, diagramming and computing that would need to be made to actully create an artificial interpreter.
now extrapolate that to a sci fi universe where instant and perfect communications occurs across the universe. We're not talking about on a planetary level where the dialects or or even sounds may be able to be made by the same life form. We're talking across systems and races and species. It's the stuff of space opera that only hard science could solve.
So this gives rise to a few options: a common trade language is adopted to be spoken by the major nations and races; a digital translator is wired into us, our clothes our watches, something, to have a mechanical way to translate instantaneously; a communication gap exists, how do get over it.
All three allow you a way to shape your world and communication in it. Think about how many wars would be started about bad communication. Or no communication. Or the differences between species trying to communicate(lips, mouths, teeth, face and eyes).
The typical space opera option is the common language. Easy, simple, no heavy lifting with hard science necessary. Star Trek and Star Wars mode.
Translating gear opens up more options for conflict, missed communication, and faulty tech. All creating plot seeds and a chance for adventure.
And finally, a communication gap exists. Alien races struggle to communicate without causing an incident. You want to land on that undocumented planet and start rousting the locals and you have no way of communicating? Better bring a lot of body bags for the away team.
You may not think about it, in your next space opera campaign or game, think about how language, communication, and the interpretation of language can create drama, tension and interest for the adventurers
It's a universally accepted fixture of sci fi, the ability to communicate fluently with alien, foreign and even terrestrial races and nations with losing nothing in the translation. Think about how big a thing this is. That every nation, race and life form that has a formal language can communicate with each other.Ethnologue list approximately 6800 languages right now on earth. It anticipates in the next century, approximately 3000 languages will go extinct. So even at about 4000 languages, can you imagine the kind of catlogueing, diagramming and computing that would need to be made to actully create an artificial interpreter.
now extrapolate that to a sci fi universe where instant and perfect communications occurs across the universe. We're not talking about on a planetary level where the dialects or or even sounds may be able to be made by the same life form. We're talking across systems and races and species. It's the stuff of space opera that only hard science could solve.
So this gives rise to a few options: a common trade language is adopted to be spoken by the major nations and races; a digital translator is wired into us, our clothes our watches, something, to have a mechanical way to translate instantaneously; a communication gap exists, how do get over it.
All three allow you a way to shape your world and communication in it. Think about how many wars would be started about bad communication. Or no communication. Or the differences between species trying to communicate(lips, mouths, teeth, face and eyes).
The typical space opera option is the common language. Easy, simple, no heavy lifting with hard science necessary. Star Trek and Star Wars mode.
Translating gear opens up more options for conflict, missed communication, and faulty tech. All creating plot seeds and a chance for adventure.
And finally, a communication gap exists. Alien races struggle to communicate without causing an incident. You want to land on that undocumented planet and start rousting the locals and you have no way of communicating? Better bring a lot of body bags for the away team.
You may not think about it, in your next space opera campaign or game, think about how language, communication, and the interpretation of language can create drama, tension and interest for the adventurers
Monday, April 11, 2011
H is for Halcyon Drive
H is for Halcyon Drive!
The Halcyon drive was the key that unlocked the Stars to Humanity. Based upon the research of Dr. Rudolfo Samuelsen, the Halcyon Drive was developed by the Tanhausser Corporation after a research accident caused Dr. Samuelsen, his entire research staff, and his laboratory to vaporize, without an explosion. Dr Samuelsen's research was not lost however, and was quickly bought up by the Tanhausser Corporation, which had enormous resources devoted to propulsion, communications, and the emerging study of psionics and psionic individuals. Tanhausser's research on Ozminium samples retreived from a near body asteroid completed the final bits of the puzzle, providing the enormous energy required to power the drive system.
The Halcyon Drive was born on the backs of Dr. Samuelsen's ground breaking work and is standard in all current FTL capable ships.
The Halcyon drive was the key that unlocked the Stars to Humanity. Based upon the research of Dr. Rudolfo Samuelsen, the Halcyon Drive was developed by the Tanhausser Corporation after a research accident caused Dr. Samuelsen, his entire research staff, and his laboratory to vaporize, without an explosion. Dr Samuelsen's research was not lost however, and was quickly bought up by the Tanhausser Corporation, which had enormous resources devoted to propulsion, communications, and the emerging study of psionics and psionic individuals. Tanhausser's research on Ozminium samples retreived from a near body asteroid completed the final bits of the puzzle, providing the enormous energy required to power the drive system.
The Halcyon Drive was born on the backs of Dr. Samuelsen's ground breaking work and is standard in all current FTL capable ships.
Friday, April 8, 2011
G is for Gyrojet!
To me, Gyrojet pistols and rifles are as much a part of sci-fi rpg's as Lasers and FTL travel. A gyro jet pistol/rifle is basically a personal hand held rapid firing rocket launcher. It fires large caliber shells, propelled by an internal rocket motor that exhausts through 4ports on the bottom of the shell. The ports exhaust the thrust putting a gyroscopic spin on the shell, stabilizing it for flight. If a micro processor is in the shell, the shell could be guided as well.
Gyrojet weapons were actually created in the 1960's. A picture of the real pistol is above. The classic Star Frontiers Gyrojet pistol is shown above as well.
Because of the enlarged shell size, many different warheads could be put in a Gyrojet shell. Use the following chart for random determination of round type:
01-35 Dumb-regular explosive
36-40 Guided-regular explosive
41-50 Dumb -armor piercing
51-53Guided-armor piercing
54-56 Dumb-incendiary
57-59 Guided-incendiary
60-62 Dumb-tracker
63-65 Guided-tracker
66-68 Guided-Personal EMP
69-71 Dumb-tranquilizer
72-74 Guided-tranquilizer
75-77 Dumb-poison
78-80 Guided-poison
81-85 Dumb-overload
86-90 Guided-overload
91-95 Dumb-super explosive
96-99 Guided-super explosive
100 Guided-mini-nuke
Definitions:
Dumb-no internal guidance. Aimed rounds.
Guided/Smart-internal guidance. Fire and forget.
Explosive-standard explosive round
Armor Piercing-standard AP round
Incendiary-tracer/fire starter rounds. Phosphorus.
Tracker-gps tracking round. No damage.
Personal EMP-knock out round for electronics on target.
Tranquilizer-knock out drug round
Poison-sick/kill round from poison.
Overload-electrical stun round
Super explosive-super dense and powerful explosive round, usually for busting doors,buildings
Mini-nuke-super rare mini nuclear explosive round
So, when you need a special round or just some rare ammo to buy at the gun shop, think of adding some variety to your Gyrojet ammo.
F is for Fail!
Well I failed the challenge. I was travelling all around Colorado yesterday and just couldn't get a post. And Not sure that I will have time for a G post today. I will make them up over the weekend, but this is tough with all that's going on right now. But never fear. I will soldier on.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
E is for Elevator to the Stars
E is for Elevator to the Stars!
What is the Elevator to the Stars? It's also known as a space elevator. It represents
one of the most economical ways to heavy lift materials into orbit for orbital shipyards, defense and research stations, and to reprovision space ships with supplies and personnel.
Basically, a space elevator is a platform/station/dock anchored to a planet, tethered in a gravitationally, or rotationally neutral spot above the planet by a cable, typically a carbon nanotube cable. Freight, materiel, and personnel is ferried up to the station in orbit by platforms, containers or passenger cars along the cable on one side, as platforms are lowered on the other side to the planet surface. Once the initial cost of the system is spent, the operational cost is much lower than the cost of fuel and landing facilities for conventional heavy lifting operations from the planet surface to orbit. However on a technologically advanced (stellar) planet, the elevators would only be used for hauling bulk material to and from space, and the transport of bulk passengers(refugees, off world colonists, relocation programs, penal programs, and occasionally, militia or bulk recruitment forces.
Passenger costs are considered reasonable compared to Interface Craft and Shuttles. Freight costs are reasonable as well, considering no other real economic way to lift substantial weights of bulk goods from and to a planet's surface. Bulk materials manufactured in space are transported mainly in this way, as are unprocessed or processed ores farmed from asteroids, that are needed on a planet's surface.
Elevators can and have been targets of espionage, terrorism, and outright war acts. The carbon nano tube construction has proved amazingly resilient, and it takes a very determined effort to damage just one strand of tube and as each cable is a bundle of hundreds of tubes, wound with other cables.
Like all transportation, economics come with a trade off. Time. The speed of the elevator varies with payload, but interface craft and shuttles beat the time it takes to get to or from the surface by up to 10 times, as the elevator must allow for long docking, loading, safety checks, run ups, switch overs, acceleration and deceleration of the platforms.
What is the Elevator to the Stars? It's also known as a space elevator. It represents
one of the most economical ways to heavy lift materials into orbit for orbital shipyards, defense and research stations, and to reprovision space ships with supplies and personnel.
Basically, a space elevator is a platform/station/dock anchored to a planet, tethered in a gravitationally, or rotationally neutral spot above the planet by a cable, typically a carbon nanotube cable. Freight, materiel, and personnel is ferried up to the station in orbit by platforms, containers or passenger cars along the cable on one side, as platforms are lowered on the other side to the planet surface. Once the initial cost of the system is spent, the operational cost is much lower than the cost of fuel and landing facilities for conventional heavy lifting operations from the planet surface to orbit. However on a technologically advanced (stellar) planet, the elevators would only be used for hauling bulk material to and from space, and the transport of bulk passengers(refugees, off world colonists, relocation programs, penal programs, and occasionally, militia or bulk recruitment forces.
Passenger costs are considered reasonable compared to Interface Craft and Shuttles. Freight costs are reasonable as well, considering no other real economic way to lift substantial weights of bulk goods from and to a planet's surface. Bulk materials manufactured in space are transported mainly in this way, as are unprocessed or processed ores farmed from asteroids, that are needed on a planet's surface.
Elevators can and have been targets of espionage, terrorism, and outright war acts. The carbon nano tube construction has proved amazingly resilient, and it takes a very determined effort to damage just one strand of tube and as each cable is a bundle of hundreds of tubes, wound with other cables.
Like all transportation, economics come with a trade off. Time. The speed of the elevator varies with payload, but interface craft and shuttles beat the time it takes to get to or from the surface by up to 10 times, as the elevator must allow for long docking, loading, safety checks, run ups, switch overs, acceleration and deceleration of the platforms.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
D is for Dungeon Crawl...In Space!
D is for Dungeon Crawl…In Space
A staple for the Fantasy RPG genre, the Dungeon Crawl is a fall back position for the harried DM, with little time to prepare. Get a few Geomorphs (I would recommend Dyson’s highly), a few random charts (Kelri’s are tough to beat), and make a couple of Wandering Monster Charts and you are done.
So where can the SF GM go for his fall back. Well if you have a sandbox style game, then learn from your fantasy brethren, use the Dungeon Crawl model for quick successful, and fun adventures.
In a sci-fi setting, a dungeon could be even more things than it could be in a fantasy setting. A dungeon is really just a closed environment, on a human scale (meaning it can be bitten off in chewable chunks), so that the DM can limit the amount of inputs affecting change in the environment. So in the sci-fi genre this could be (I feel a table coming on):
Random Crawl Location (roll 1d100)
01-05 Abandoned Floating Hulk in Space
06-10 Crashed Ship on a Planet
11-15 Creature Lair
16-20 Sewer System
21-25 Secret Remote Laboratory
26-30 Ruins of an Ancient Civilization
31-35 Alien Ship or Base
36-40 Military Complex or Outpost
41-50 Space Station
51-55 Asteroid Mines
56-60 Manufacturing Complex
61-65 Arena Complex
66-70 Office/Government Building (or any other building type)
71-75 Alien Tunnel Complex
76-80 Natural Cave
81-85 Any Space Ship
86-90 Junkyard or Scrap Yard
91-95 Space Docks
96-100 Pick any one
I would also utilize the excellent 5 Room Dungeon model that John Four at Roleplaying Tips developed for a quick way to organize a crawl. http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=372#tips
Basically, a 5 Room Dungeon has 5 rooms, literally or figuratively, to set up discovery, challenge, conflict, and resolution. The format is:
Room 1: Entrance and Guardian Feature
Room 2: Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge
Room 3: Trick or Setback
Room 4: Climax, Big Battle
Room 5: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist
Used Effectively, this method can have you rolling on an Crawl in no time flat. And remember, the five rooms can also represent 5 areas. It does not need to be five rooms literally.
For example:
Pirate Lair of the Madman MacCarrin(Pirate Base)
Room 1: Entrance and Guardian Feature – How do you get into the base? Through the Dock or Hanger? How about from over the ridge? Is the guardian an assault robot or gun turret, or maybe a security system? This could be a whole series of rooms, with some minor encounters with guards, robots, etc.
Room 2: Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge – How do you enter the enter sanctum of the Madman? What are the Clues? The sound of running water for the sewer system, the maintenance tunnel entrance that needs to be hacked? Maybe it’s a negotiation, bluff or intimidation you need to do with a toady or a protocol droid?
Room 3:Trick or Setback – Traps, wrong way or dead ends, a bad map, or bad information, poisoned, drugged or kidnapped team members all can lead to a problem that slows progress down. Add some drama. Maybe the Madman’s knows you are there. Maybe he wants you to be there so he can capture you and sell you to slavers, so the lower level you conveniently found a way in with leads to a maze of corridors, patrolled by security bots set on full stun, or ravenous guard dogs.
Room 4: Climax, Big Battle, or Major Conflict - You got into the base, you navigated your way through the sewer system, you got out of the underbasement maze, and now you are in the private suite of the Madman Himself. You know of his atrocities. You have heard of his wealth, and he has captured one of your team members. You want both. Time for the fight with his personal guard and then him.
Room 5: Reward, Revelation, and Plot Twist – You have dispatched the Madman and captured his personal guard, they will fetch a nice bounty. You found his personal stash of wealth, but you have found something more. A scan of his records indicate the payoff lists for the captains of several corporate operators, and some regional governments as well. And he was sending payments to OXXON Corporation for all sales of slaves and stolen goods? Seems like some blackmail may be in order for the crew, or revelation to the NewsVid folks. And you had your eye on that new Sorillium Industries Corvette docked in the hanger on the way in. It would look good in your colors. Possibilities…..
So remember, a good fantasy dungeon crawl is always fun, exciting, and packed with adventure and reward. There is no reason the same model can’t be used for a good Crawl in a Sci Fi setting. Just take it out of the Dungeon and into the universe!
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