So What Makes Star Drive So Cool?

[Darrin Drader]

I've had all these Alternity books laying around for years and never done much with most of them. The only real exceptions are Alternity Gamma World and Alternity Dark Matter. As far as I know, I actually have the entire Alternity line. Despite this, I'm almost completely unfamiliar with Star Drive, though I love Space Opera, so what are the cool things in this setting I should look for? I want someone who knows it to sell me on it.

 

[tomBitonti]

Hi,

I'm in the same boat as you: I have all of the Alterntity and StarDrive books, but have never actually used them for a game.

I always thought the Alternity mechanics for tracking damage was rather nice.

The StarDrive universe, with its 1000ly radius sphere of expansion and twelve (may have that number wrong) political powers and multiple detailed alien species, and a large "hot" zone leftover from the last war are a nice sandbox to play in. The Verge is a nicely detailed frontier region to work from, and you can go off the map into a hot zone to encounter any leftover menace from the war, and add in political intrigue to any depth you care for.

Can anyone accurately (within a factor of 2) say how many stars are within 1000ly of Earth? I know it's a lot, but am very interested in the actual number. Having a distribution of classifications would be nice. And: What is the maximum radius for which accurate stellar cartography is available, as a database? That is, including distance. Charts are easy to find. Distances, even rough distances, are harder to find.

 

[Badwe]

i remember buying those books many ages ago and being so entranced by the possibilities, only to ultimately be unable to get a decent group going! i screamed bloody murder when wotc cancelled the alternity line, but ultimately came to believe that too much of what we internalize as RPG mechanics are only believable in fantasy tropes (damage that isn't instant kill, magical healing, roles, leveling up etc.)

For me the main appeal of the sourcebook ended up being as a non-linear story. Instead of reading about the progression of the timeline you would get to each individual system and see how it evolved and what it's impact on the universe as a whole was. I was so giddy to have a chance to run an alternity campaign back then, but i don't know that i would be so eager today.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Can anyone accurately (within a factor of 2) say how many stars are within 1000ly of Earth? I know it's a lot, but am very interested in the actual number. Having a distribution of classifications would be nice. And: What is the maximum radius for which accurate stellar cartography is available, as a database? That is, including distance. Charts are easy to find. Distances, even rough distances, are harder to find.

No one can say accurately, how many stars within 1000ly of Earth that distance is large. Assuming that galactic density near us is average of the whole galaxy (a complete unknown) gets me a number of 14,402,375 rough it off to 14 million. That number is completly wrong though becuase the density cannot be even as the spiral arms where we live is only ~1000 ly thick. So in the direction of clockwise and anticlockwise the density should hold, in and out should balance out, but up and down will gradually thinning out. Of these 14 million stars only a tiny precentage of those stars would be visable from earth anyways.

As for accurate stellar cartography, you can get alot of good maps and things for 10 parsecs (32.6 ly) Stars within 10 parsecs I've also seen 25 parsecs, not seeing it right now.

 

[tomBitonti]

Hi,

[Where this is all coming from: A while back, while excited by the whole StarDrive universe, I got to thinking if it would be possible to simulate the expansion of people out into the set volume of 1000ly, using the jump technology as specified by the game. I did a bit of research, and found lots of data, except that distances are very poorly known, and finding an online database was also hard. But, I may just not know where to look.]

Ya ... 1000 ly is huge (that's like 4 billion cubic light years). I didn't know that the galactic disk was only 1000ly thick.

My quick and dirty calculations give me:

local disk (r) == 1x10e3 [1000]
galactic disk (R) == 1x10e5 [100,000]
total stars (T) == 1x10e12 [1 trillion]
fraction of stars outside of central bulge (f) == 5x10e-1 [1/2]

So:

number of stars in the local disc ==
1x10e12 * (1x10e3/1x10e5)^2 * 5x10e-1 == 5x10e7 [50,000,000]

There is a big uncertainty as to the star count (at the very least), as the counts of dim objects (e.g., brown dwarfs) is uncertain.

I do have a (I'm presuming) reasonably accurate map as the game board for Star Force (from SPI!), which goes out about 30 ly. That's a bit old and is probably missing a large number of dim objects, but is quite usable. What I'm looking for is a computer database with a larger radius. I know there must be some database out there (even if the distances have a huge uncertainty -- for a game use, that won't matter).

Edit: Oh wow, that link is great!

This one is intriguing: http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/chimney.htm

If you place a limit on warp-speeds based on the cloud density, that gives you the beginnings of stellar geography!

 

[Qualidar]

Darren,


For me, it was that the setting was grounded enough in reality to feel plausible, but advanced enough to give what you wanted from a scifi game:

1) There were a dozen human nations that had distinct cultures that opened up areas of interesting characterization and conflict. For example: one embraced cybernetics, one was stridently anti-technology (except for the necessities) but embraced psionics, one was the epitome of capitalistic expansion, another reveled in nationalism and expansion.

2) It was set right after a disastrous galactic war that had caused immeasurable damage but had no clear victor. The tense and politically charged atmosphere was full of adventure possibilities. Having just finished reading the Ebberon campaign guide, it is similar to the political situation there (or rather, vise versa).

3) The default setting was in a section of space that had been abandoned over the course of the war, so it was a wilder, anything goes frontier.

4) There was a nasty, secret, emerging threat that was slowly growing behind the scenes that gave the players something important to discover, fight, and make a difference against.


The downside for me was the system: too gritty / not heroic enough. But that's just me - I know lots of people loved it. If I were to start up a Star*Drive campaign again, I'd run it in True20.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've had all these Alternity books laying around for years and never done much with most of them. The only real exceptions are Alternity Gamma World and Alternity Dark Matter. As far as I know, I actually have the entire Alternity line. Despite this, I'm almost completely unfamiliar with Star Drive, though I love Space Opera, so what are the cool things in this setting I should look for? I want someone who knows it to sell me on it.

The Verge setting was awesome, IMO. Each system had several power groups, criminal and pirate factions, etc to interest any sort of gamer. Many systems still had places to explore (eg new life found on some planets in the Lucullus system, the entirety of High Mojave, etc). In some systems the politics were either one step away from shooting (Corrivale) or they actually were shooting at each other (Alitar/Galvin).

There was a huge "hidden" backstory focusing on the Externals... and if you didn't like that, you didn't have to use it.

 

[Badwe]

This reminds me, one of the things that appealed to me about alternity were the ship design rules. They were decidedly robust, if a little unwieldy and impractical. There was also the issue that players had to build characters specifically with piloting in mind to have a hope of succeeding (pistol skills != ship gunning skills). Still, I must have spent hours designing ships by myself and imagining that they’d someday be set before a group of PCs to peruse and contemplate purchasing. It makes me wonder if there are any systems now, past or present, that were more effective at creating exciting ship to ship space battles, perhaps one with a specific bent towards it.

 

[Badwe]

oops... my first double post. Sorry!

 

[DM_Jeff]

The downside for me was the system: too gritty / not heroic enough. But that's just me - I know lots of people loved it.

Indeed, the grittiness of the campaign in general was a huge draw for me and my players.

-DM Jeff