Space Travel

[GravyFingerz]

I'm thinking of running a sci-fi game soon, and I'm pretty much using custom rules; a combination of Call of Cthulhu d20 (for classes and such) and Star Wars (wounds/vitality, space craft, vehicles).

Well, I wanted space travel to be interesting, but not be just astrogate; I wanted to come up with something original (in my mind) that is also cool. So I came up with this:

Space Travel is accomplished by piercing a hole in reality and entering an underlying dimension (like hyperspace). In this dimension, time and space are irrelevant. They have no meaning, so travel through space is instantaneous. However, this reality also links to countless alternate realities. If you screw up and put in the wrong coordinates, you could end up in a different reality, thats as bad as being a few miles off to getting yourself killed or becoming non-existant. To achieve safe spaceflight, the pilot has to compute complex calculations that take in to account all objects on the ship as well as the ship and the passangers. Failing could mean disaster for the whole crew.

How is this represented? Well, there is a skill called Spacial Navigation (the name is still in contention). When you want to travel through "hyperspace", you have to make a Spacial Navigation check to plot the course correctly. The base DC depends on the size of your ship: DC 20 for large, DC 25 for huge, DC 30 for gargantuan, and DC 35 for collossal. For each person in the ship beyond yourself, add +2 to the DC. For a ship that is carrying extra weight beyond what comes with the basic ship, add +1 to +5 to the DC. As a stripulation, you cannot perform a Spacial Navigation check with a DC of 31 or higher without the aid of a computer - beyond a DC of 30 the equations are too complex to compute without a computer.

So for example, lets say a spacer is in a huge trader ship (DC 25) with 3 passengers (DC +6) carrying some heavy cargo (DC +3). The DC comes out to 34. He would have to have a +24 modifier to succeed on a roll of 10.

Obviously, carrying many passengers is too dangerous and not practical. If the spacer fails, he, his passangers, or everyone on board could die because they entered an alternate universe where they are dead or do not exist.

For trips where you are carrying many passengers, it's better to go with conventional space travel, which is below FTL speeds.

Any opinions?

 

[Xeriar]

Any opinions?

My most amusing moment in physics was hearing the professor explain that you need to know the answer to some differential equations in order to solve them.

I think computer aided human navigation would be required to do it in any reasonable amount of time, though I imagine some could actually do it manually. If you don't believe it you haven't met a truly amazing mathemagician yet.

Also, common routes and tables would likely be developed to allow some manner of stability (not to mention intentional visiting of other realities). We've had log tables for centuries - though with the advent of calculators these are obsolete, we still have statistical tables (which at this point can already be better represented through a powerful calculator).

Regardless, I would hope to have some garauntee of being able to take 10 (or even 20 - though it'll take awhile. Extra resolution or whatever). Needing a +19 bonus to carry just yourself for certain is rather harsh, in my opinion.

I would probably scale the ship size something more like:
Small (Probe): 5
Medium (Big Probe): 10
Large (Escape Pod, etc. Can comfortably hold one person or crowd 2): 15
Huge (2-4 crew ship, small ameneties, can crowd 8 people in): 20
Gargantuan (4-8 crew ship, significant ameneties, can support 16 people well or crowd 32): 25
Colossal (8-16 crew ship): 50

Call the jump to Colossal breaching the Chanderov Limit or something like that - going over a certain weight be a bad thing.

This lets an 'adventuring' group of 4-8 people have a decent sized ship (one they could walk around on) without having an insane DC to worry about.

I'd probably ignore cargo unless it was something significantly complex or added a really good chunk onto the ship's weight. You are concerned mostly about moving around large numbers of people and the size of the ship.

Gargauntuan limits cargo to about a hundred tonnes, and going over some ~150 tonnes all things included (or whatever number you choose) crosses the Limit.

Combine with requiring both insane computing power and mad math skills, you can keep numbers fairly low

 

[Golem2176]

Any opinions?

I think this is a pretty cool idea, you going to GM this on messegaboards?

 

[Chaldfont]

This is a cool idea. I would even go so far as to say that EVERY jump takes you to an alternate universe. Even the most accurately-calculated jump results in various subtle differences ("Crap! My favorite shirt is green now!"). A seriously screwed up jump might lead to campaign-level changes.

 

[Jeph]

Cool. I'll agree with Xeriar that routes should be taken into account--something like -5 DC for traveling a well-known route, +5 DC for going where no man has gone before. I'd also make Spacial Navigation gain a synergy bonus from multiple skills (Pilot and Knowledge: Higher Math?) in order to make it plausible for common pilots to plot jumps in a reasonable amount of time (taking 10 or 20).

And you should always need a computer. Or it should take something like 1 hour per point of the DC if you don't have one, or something else rediculously prohibitive like that.

But neet concept.
--Jeff

 

[Vaxalon]

This is a cool idea. I would even go so far as to say that EVERY jump takes you to an alternate universe. Even the most accurately-calculated jump results in various subtle differences ("Crap! My favorite shirt is green now!"). A seriously screwed up jump might lead to campaign-level changes.

I like this idea.

Spacers would slowly become pariahs, as each jump takes them just a little bit further from their familiar galaxy. They'd learn to mistrust their own memories, except as relates to each other. The ship would become the family. A spacer would be loathe to leave his ship, even if things were going badly, because with one bad jump, he could lose every human connection he has.