Space-station maps
- Thread starter Zen
- Start date
Roudi
First Post
I seem to remember MODERNIZED #2 featuring a map for it's space station location article, "Veirlynx Station"... it was a basic grid-paper map, but it was servicable. It's free, so you get what you pay for. If you want to spend some money on something of much better quality, UKG Publishing offers the massive Pegasus 29 - Olympus Class Station. 22 pages of relevant d20 stats, and 285 pages of colour deck plans. It's a lot of map for $10 (cheaper if you're a Community Supporter)
Pbartender
First Post
A tip for really, really big structures in modern and sci-fi games...
This reminds me of something I'm planning for my Star Wars game... How to emulate a humongous building or structure, like a super star destroyer or an infinite library, with nearly infinite rooms. I found the answer, of all places, from the original Zork game.
In Zork, there was a maze. If you are familiar with the old text-based Infocom games, you know the rooms worked kind of like flow charts... Choose a direction to go in (west, for example) and the game would take you to the description of the next room. In the maze, there were dozens of rooms that were described exactly the same, and many of the direction you could go in looped back around to the room you just left. But without any distinguishing characteristics, there was no way to determine that you were still in the same room, and not five rooms away. To the player, it looks like they are wandering down nearly endless corridors.
Anyway, I figure, you might be able to use the same trick with the infinite library... Here's a map of the maze in Zork.
All you have to do is change the descriptions a bit... Anything that says "Maze" now becomes "Space Station Corridor: General Living Quarters". "Troll Room", "Temple", "Clearing", and "To Living Room Wooden Door" all become various exits... "Airlock", "Docking Bay", "Cargo Bay" or "Escape Pod". Anything else can be special areas... "Grating Room" could be the Main Control Room or Bridge. "Cyclops Room" could be the Engineering Section, and the "Treasure Room" and the "Strange Passage" can be other specialized areas sch as laboratories, manufacturing centers or weapon turrets. Then you only really need local maps when something exciting happens.
This reminds me of something I'm planning for my Star Wars game... How to emulate a humongous building or structure, like a super star destroyer or an infinite library, with nearly infinite rooms. I found the answer, of all places, from the original Zork game.
In Zork, there was a maze. If you are familiar with the old text-based Infocom games, you know the rooms worked kind of like flow charts... Choose a direction to go in (west, for example) and the game would take you to the description of the next room. In the maze, there were dozens of rooms that were described exactly the same, and many of the direction you could go in looped back around to the room you just left. But without any distinguishing characteristics, there was no way to determine that you were still in the same room, and not five rooms away. To the player, it looks like they are wandering down nearly endless corridors.
Anyway, I figure, you might be able to use the same trick with the infinite library... Here's a map of the maze in Zork.
All you have to do is change the descriptions a bit... Anything that says "Maze" now becomes "Space Station Corridor: General Living Quarters". "Troll Room", "Temple", "Clearing", and "To Living Room Wooden Door" all become various exits... "Airlock", "Docking Bay", "Cargo Bay" or "Escape Pod". Anything else can be special areas... "Grating Room" could be the Main Control Room or Bridge. "Cyclops Room" could be the Engineering Section, and the "Treasure Room" and the "Strange Passage" can be other specialized areas sch as laboratories, manufacturing centers or weapon turrets. Then you only really need local maps when something exciting happens.
frankthedm
First Post
Pbartender said:
Yuck! That sounds lousy IMO. I'd need Shadowgate level gallows humor to make that playable ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Committed Hero
Hero
ukgpublishing
First Post
Committed Hero said:
Hehe as I said in that thread, you guys design it I'll map it.
For reference the tiles used for that map are the same set I used for the Pegasus 29 prodcuct mentioned above.
Pbartender
First Post
frankthedm said:
Have you never watched any of the Star Wars movies?
It's far better than having three reams of deckplans plotting out an entire star destroyer.
Your mileage may vary, I guess... Last time I used it, it worked great, and the players loved it. I was letting them use Survival DC 15 checks to "keep from getting lost". If they made the check, I'd give them the direction they needed to turn to get to their destination in the quickest fashion.
Zen said:
One of these days, I should tell people what I did to Pegasus 29. It isn't nice. Of course, the storyhour in my sig might provide a clue...might.
Of course, two of my gamers (yes you kroh and Roudi) read the boards, so I don't dare. However, I did rename it Fading Star Station......
Peterson
Similar Threads
