d20 Future and Hard SF - some random thoughts

[Ruland]

Currently working on the setting for a hard-sf-campaign, I made the decision to use the d20 Future rules set for this campaign, because they seem by far the best solution especially for the intended mood of the campaign.

First, my personal view on what constitutes "hard sf": I think the term is appropriate when the conflicts of adventure plots are based on scientific and technological challenges. A good example is Neal Ashers Polity universe, where the main challenge is the attempt to defeat an aggressive, parasitic, rapid growth nanotechnology of alien origin that is programmed to infect and destroy all intelligent, technology using civilisations in the universe. In what way this constitutes "hard sf" becomes very clear if you compare it with the initial Star Wars plot: Black Knight abducts Princess ...

Now I am little bit surprised to find that there is no real competition for d20 Future in making a hard sf campaign, at least not in the d20 world. Why? First of all, the range of serious scientific themes presented in the d20 Future book: nanotechnology (you won't find that even in the relatively "hard" Traveller20), robotics, Star Systems, traveling technology - all those chapters start with the hard scientific facts and then go on to discuss more fantastic approaches. This is especially true in the chapters about space travel and mutations.

So, I already have been an d20 Modern afficionado for some time, but I am now, based on the aforementioned campaign plotting, a firm believer in the value and strength of the d20 Future system.

And, a bit off topic: It seems that Wizards do not plan any further d20M publications, at least not in their current product listings. I hope that d20 Modern is going to remain alive and kicking for some time to come, though ...

 

[kingpaul]

Have you looked at the Blood and Space setting by RPG Objects or the Dawning Star setting by Blue Devil Games?

 

[Johnny Angel]

Both settings, which are the only ones out there made specifically for d20 Future, are 'hard' at least in the sense of not involving FTL, which is a fun thing to have as part of your science-fiction game, but is unrealistic. Dawning Star has some pre-cursor "indistinguishable from magic" stuff in the adventures they've put out so far, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but I've used them and the players have liked it.

There is nothing so far that brings hard science into d20 Future, but I have built my own campaign around the science used in Alternity, which includes rules for environmental conditions such as gravity and the chemical composition of the atmosphere, alterntive biochemistries of creatures, planetology, oceanography, ect. It may be that one day the community could do a sort of Net Book of Hard Science Fiction to generate a universal set of rules for such factors.

 

[Starglim]

I'm depressed by the presumption that nanotechnology is hard science and FTL travel isn't. Be that as it may, I think you're talking about setting elements, not rules. I'd prefer to use the best ruleset for modern setting assumptions (flexible careers, complex societies, lifestyles and plots determined by effective well-described technology) and for the level of character power that the group wants, then pick flavour or plot elements from whatever products the GM finds useful.

 

[Nadaka]

I'm depressed by the presumption that nanotechnology is hard science and FTL travel isn't. Be that as it may, I think you're talking about setting elements, not rules. I'd prefer to use the best ruleset for modern setting assumptions (flexible careers, complex societies, lifestyles and plots determined by effective well-described technology) and for the level of character power that the group wants, then pick flavour or plot elements from whatever products the GM finds useful.

Why would you consider nanotech not hard science while considering FTL hard science?

FTL is impossible because we know of no way to increase speed without acceleration. And the speed of light is the position of the asymtote for energy as applied to acceleration. This means it takes infinate energy to reach c. unfortunately the amount of energy in the universe is probably finate, and besides even if the universe had infinate energy who wants to destroy a universe to get somewhere faster (especially considering that somewhere lies within the universe you have to destroy to reach that speed).

The other option involves wormholes, and we can barely detect those. And all (or nearly so) them operate on planck scale. So not only do we have to find a wormhole, but we have to increase its size and probably find a way to fix or drag the ends around. Note that noone has any idea how to do any of that.

As for nanotech: we have it today. Its not spectacular, but we DO have it. Some scanning tunneling microscopes can and have been used to manipulate individual atoms. Nano particles are being used in medical and industrial applications. Moving mechanical elements less than the width of a human hair have been created using lithographic techniques. We have already managed to store and retrieve 7 bits of data in the quantum state of a single particle. etc. Its something that not only does physics and chemistry allow, but we are starting to apply it today.

 

[DarkKestral]

Strictly, 'hard sf' denotes only that technologies presented in the material are all possible within current understanding of physics, biology, and chemistry. Setting and content otherwise don't matter.

In short, for the most part, d20 Future does do Hard Science. It's just mostly concentrated at PL 5-PL 7. Nanobots? unlikely within a short timeframe, but doable. FTL? not really, as it requires wormhole technology which appears to be impossible, because to build wormholes, you would have to annihilate entire star systems in one shot each time you wanted to open a wormhole large enough for a ship to pass through for the necessary length of time, as far as we know... and even then it might not be possible. Otherwise, you're out of luck. Oddly, ansibles might not be impossible, but would be hideously expensive, as you would need to maintain quantum entanglement. (There are other ways, but they would be even more hideously expensive, and very very chancy.)

However, other than cold fusion, teleportation, FTL, interstellar-distance instant communications, and gravity control, there's really not many things that are limited in a hard science world, as a combination of nanotech, cryogenics, and commercial fusion could make interstellar travel fairly common, and we've already got the basic technologies required for implementation, but we have yet to advance them to the level at which high PL societies would have them. This doesn't mean that you would have an un-advanced society, necessarily. They could still be plenty advanced.. and they might look nothing like any current ones.

 

[Ruland]

Some interesting thoughts here, but whether nanotechnology or FTL travel are probable or completely unrealistic is not my primary concern. My assumption is that hard sf plots try to implement scientific or pseudo-scientific speculation instead of simply translating fantasy themes into a space setting. And this includes even "soft" sciences like sociology, anthropology or political science or such things.

And I think that d20 Future really is a good example how a sf rulework should work with these themes; because the book deals with realistic perspectives in travel technology (look for example at pages 98-100 for some considerations on hazards of space, vacuum exposure, the FTL question and realistic travel times), nanotechnology and mutations, before it goes on to develop traditional sf techno-fantasies - which are okay and an essential part of fun in sf games, movies and novels, hard or operatic or whatever.

 

[DarkKestral]

Ah, I see Ruland. Yeah, I agree with you, as most hard sf tries to use real-world science to inform it's plot structure. Honestly, even the SRD mentions in it's PL sections and technology sections the RL scientific rationale for certain items that are potentially possible, so I don't feel like it's a bad thing.

However, some does, but is still more psychological than 'fight the machine' type of plots. Those examine the possible range of societies such technology may create, and extrapolate from there how they might respond.

The problem with that is that those sorts of plots either won't be easily taken in by the rules in a game, or they are hard to get your players in the appropriate state of mind.

 

[Plane Sailing]

When I initially saw this thread I thought that d20 Future was about as far from 'hard' SF as it was possible to get, with their gravity guns, teleporting bullets and all kinds of other wierdness. Sufficiently advanced technology 'may' be indistinguisable from magic, but I like a little less magic in my technology!

FTL travel is only impossible until someone comes up with a way of doing it My favourite method was in 2300AD, with their 'stutterwarp' drive - it can only teleport a vessel a few nanometers, but it is instantaneous, and the drive can be cycled at such a high frequency that you can travel to another star faster than light can, by making billions of little teleportations.

There must be dozens of other postulated methods in science fiction, and many of them could be considered pretty 'hard' SF.

If I wanted to run a Hard SF game, I'd almost certainly use True20 for the game system and then pick a setting that I fancied - whether ripping off 2300AD or taking a fiction setting that appealed.

Cheers

 

[DarkKestral]

When I initially saw this thread I thought that d20 Future was about as far from 'hard' SF as it was possible to get, with their gravity guns, teleporting bullets and all kinds of other wierdness. Sufficiently advanced technology 'may' be indistinguisable from magic, but I like a little less magic in my technology!

FTL travel is only impossible until someone comes up with a way of doing it My favourite method was in 2300AD, with their 'stutterwarp' drive - it can only teleport a vessel a few nanometers, but it is instantaneous, and the drive can be cycled at such a high frequency that you can travel to another star faster than light can, by making billions of little teleportations.

Nah, it's actually got a fair bit of hard sf in there, but you gotta look close! Ignore the gravity stuff. It's technomagical. Go for the mutations, nanobot descriptions, and PL 6-PL 7 non-gravity or cold-based weapons. A lot of that stuff's possible, and the descriptions of possibilities associated with them is actually pretty accurate. Just stay well away from FTL, gravity-based technologies, and lightsaber-type stuff.

As for FTL, people have actually thought up potential ideas. It's just the energy costs are enormous, and would involve things like instantaneously storing 90+% of the energy produced when an entire solar system would be converted entirely to energy by reaction with an equal mass of anti-matter. Thus, it's considered beyond impractical, as you would need near perfect energy collection AND transmission over long distances, as well as some means of safely storing and discharging such huge quantities of energy, and currently our understanding of the physics is that it can't happen as a result. Furthermore, consider the problems of having a culture with FTL of that nature: if you can't find a stable wormhole, you're pretty much relegated to permanently destroying a large amount of useful material. It's much much more efficient to simply move things at high fractions of C in realspace. Slower, but far more efficient and cheaper.

Likewise, teleportation's largely a no, due to Heisenberg uncertainty and the problems associated with storing the amount of data necessary to reconstruct an item at the sub-atomic level appropriately.