Capn Charlie
Explorer
1. How much of the galaxy has been explored by both the Galactic Hegemony and League of Stellar Nations together in all you would say?
As for the Greyaliens, considering they're essentially the only true allies humanity has, and considering the human reaction to their near-genocide, are the Greyaliens given much better and more honored positions in humanity's domains compared to the rest of the known galaxy?
2. Hmm what kind of powerplants do most ships in this setting use? Nuclear reactors?
And what kind of engines were most common on Hegemony ships prior to encountering humanity?
3. What were Hegemony point defense weapons like? Some sort of chemically propelled rounds? Would something like the Expanse's point-defense cannons have been better than what Hegemony warships had?
4. Hmm a possible way humanity could possibly one-up Hegemony gyrojets, I think at least, is to possibly use some sort of launching mechanism to throw the gyrojet round out before its motors kick in. Maybe use coilguslns/railguns to throw it out so gyrojet rounds aren't useless at close range? I mean we already have gauss weapons so why not make a slightly larger version that uses gyrojet rounds?
It might create some recoil due to the initial kick but not that much I imagine?
Here are some examples shown here from an internet RPG:
http://swiki.fancruft.com/index.php?title=Standard_Infantry_Equipment
In fact considering humanity's superior weapons tech, said gyrojets could easily be guided ones as well with smart fuses that only explode when certain conditions are met?
5. Hmm regarding the hyperdrive here, what are some limitations on it? Can you only go FTL in certain places? Does it have problems if you jump in a gravity well? What limitations are there for it?
In addition, what is the max acceleration for military ahips in this setting?
Finally, how big are dreadnoughts here? Like are the biggest, baddest ship classes normally less than a kilometer or half-a-kilometer in length at most?
1. A small percentage, down in the single digits. As of this writing, I have the farthest colony from earth to be something like 200 light years. The galaxy is vast.
One of the reasons that the Hegemony lashed out against the greylians so harshly was their involvement with humanity. Due to good working relations, Greylians take up positions as cultural advisors, regional governors, and administrators through all of the settled worlds that humanity "conquers". They also make up a sizable portion of local peacekeeping forces, augmented with robotics. To the locals, this looks a lot like the greys using their human allies to conquer territory, especially since they are being treated a lot better than they were in the hegemony (as in, like actual allies). This isn't so dissimilar as to what southerners felt when they saw northern black troops under arms during the american civil war.
2. Human ships use nuclear fission reactors, hegemony ships use a variety of different technologies (regionally) with fusion being used on their bigger and newer ships. The Go-To of the hegemony were ram-scoop fed fusion engines, big and bulky to a factor of several times anything the humans had. In the hegemony some ships would "crawl" between stars using their hyperdrive alternating with stretches using the ramscoop to re-mass and refuel. In-system, they were big about solar sails and other efficient technology. The idea of burning that much fissionable material just to get from the inner system to the oort cloud is barbaric and wasteful to their sensibilities.
3. Hegemony railgun tech (for ships) is comparable to that of humanity, and the stats listed can easily be used for either. In the system, "point defense" doesn't really exist, per se, but railguns and point defense subsystems can be used in conjunction for that purpose. Ship to ship combat in my system happens at a lot longer range than what you tend to see in the expanse, with the naked eye rarely being able to see the enemy. Due to the high lethality of space combat, and the difficulty involved in defense, space battles tend to be fought by the hegemony in more of a "redcoat" fashion where they use massed fire and numbers to just soak losses and try to overwhelm resistance. Humanity is a lot sneakier.
Note: the primary benefit humanity has in point defense is using long range lasers to shoot down enemy missiles in the long range envelope without penalty, and gaining advantage to shoot them down in medium range.
4. Totally, you could do this. One of my design goals was to not have a plethora of nearly identical weapons, I wanted every stat block to be relevant, and matter. If two guns did 3d8, had similar range, and maybe 5 different ammo capacity... what's the point? (Looking at you, d20 modern firearms!). I wanted the gyrojets to have a noticeable different feel than the guns humanity tend to use, and baked the limitations in there for flavor and gameplay purposes.
A lot of the gameplay is stealing alien tech and modifying and using it. Modifications like this is what lets a technician shine at the table.
5. First off, let me preface this by saying that since ftl doesn't really exist, and it is used here as a narrative device to enhance our fiction, it is a little wonky, and should generally do what the story needs it to do to be better. Most of the limitations on hyperspace are to enhance our narrative, and improve gameplay experience, and while it is assumed that the characters know how the physics work, we the players do not, so attempts at pedantic nitpicking are contrary to enjoyable gameplay.
Entering or exiting hyperspace too close to a gravity well is dangerous and can result in catastrophic destruction. Entering hyperspace with too much built up velocity can have complicating effects when leaving hyperspace. The biggest limitation to hyperspace is the "weird" physics present there that require biological crew. (Thus ensuring this isn't a game about robots).
Since engine ratings range from 1 to 50 (ish, 64 is top end, theoretically), and ships have an acceleration of .1g per engine rating, plus another .1 per thruster expansion, the theoretical maximum acceleration for an empty ship is 9.6g. However, maneuvers can up to double a ship's speed for a time, so theoretically a 19.2g acceleration. But acceleration curves like that would damage the ship, much less the crew.
Generally speaking a big ship (30-40 ENGI) will cruise at a comfortable 1g, with combat speeds in the 2-3g range with spikes for maneuvers. Being faster than your enemy allows you to close range, or maintain it (depending on your objectives, armament, etc).
"Big" is relative. The default assumption is that your average class 7 (dreadnaught) is about 1,500 feet long (half a kilometer-ish) with a beam of up to the same. Of course, scale this up or down as the stats of the ship, design style, and your imagination permit. It could be a three mile long spike with an antimatter reserve on the end of a 500 mile long tether being pulled behind.
Generally speaking, a party in normal play won't need the really big ships, but your mileage may vary. I find that "endgame" with the party in a class 4 or 5 is ideal. Just enough NPCs and capabilities for interesting stories, but without too many responsibilities to allow them to still adventure. I have theorized about a game where the players build a fleet, and each player is the captain of their own ship crewed by npcs. It hasn't happened yet, but will when I get to my pass on ship rules (these are a very rough alpha, at best).
In my game, the biggest ship the party ever found was a sub-light world ship that carried whole ecosystems, it was four miles in length and was ancient. I have considered statting out the ship from expedition to the barrier peaks, but just haven't had the time, thanks to the tepid response to space rules. (Hence the core document handling ships as a narrative device, and splitting the advanced ship rules off on their own.)
The biggest ship my players have personally crewed is a class 5 explorer with massive engines and heavy weapons (including a captured alien "death ray" that is basically a gamma ray flashlight) and a pair of atmospheric flight capable launches (each with two missile racks, allowing them to serve as bombers, point defense vangaurds, or strike craft). The fringe is a dangerous place, and their ship is like a gunboat. (2 light rails, 2 heavy rails, 2 heavy laser, death ray, comm jammer, ecm, eccm, point defense, light armor plating)
(Love the hoverbike, by the way, and feel free to ask any questions, I will elaborate as time permits)
