 April 8, 2015 - 4:47pm | Hi all I've just added this rules set to the 'Downloads' section. The document weighs in at just over 7000 words, but I've tried to cover every aspect I could think of. It's in PDF format. Essentially, the Void drive and other bits of a drive system that can go with it allow for travel in the Void but without (a) acceleration/deceleration times (b) long jump calculation times, and (c) the need for chemical/ion/atomic drives. It's best seen as the next step on from the older system. Please note that I've not tried to make any of it realistic - I've just taken the hand-wavy notion of the Void and run with it. I'd be very grateful for any feedback and would be more than happy to discuss, embellish and rework what I've written thus far. I'm sure I've missed out some details  |
 April 12, 2015 - 3:48pm | 1. ShipComp? why not simply make it a computer program same as all the rest in the game? One program to rule them all, one program to pot the jump, One program to bring them through the Voild in the Frontier where adventure awaits. I recommend you simplify the Shipcomp to a program that is figured exactly like the drive programs for the atomic and ion drives and it does all the things of the various programs you list latter. and its part of the main computer or a separate main frame if so desired by the ship owner. 2. retro fit cost for older ships- make it a flat +10% or +20% 3. Beam transfer equipment list size and costs and then function points which is something associated with computer programs in this system. You should state that using beam transfer equipment requires a Beam Transfer program lvl 1 (2 function points) to maintain compatibility with the overall game system. 4. Time in void? KHs was bi-polar on this point suggesting void travel took time and suggesting it was instantaneous. I think it might be best to say its instantaneous from the perspective of the personnel on the ship but to the surrounding universe it appears that the ship has taken 5 days to travel 5 LY. As for effects of the void on PCs it would be -20 to all ability scores for a number of hous equal to the number of LY travelled (STA check to have the time though the STA if first modified by that -20) 5. Since your including the Void Bubble concept I would not characterize the void field as being skin tight to the ship but rather a bubble surrounding it and when a ship wishes to boost another ship it simply expands that bubble. Write it up and submit it to the zine, looks good to me. EDIT: This drive system means that there will no longer be freighters traveling at 1ADF I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 12, 2015 - 8:57pm | 1. The idea of the shipcomp is that it's a next-generation type of computer tailored specifcally for this new drive system, but it can run older programs. To that extent it is a mainframe. This is partly due to the fact that I really don't like how computers work in SF. I didn't like it in the 80s and I still don't now 2. Retro-fitting could be changed to a percentage, but that depends on what that percentage is based on: a % of the total cost of the new drive system or the % cost of the ship in total? 3. Okay I can add that. 4. That sounds a little problematic as it involves time passing at different rates, so anyone using the Void stays younger. I didn't really want to get involved with those sorts of time-related issues. Also, having player stats generally at minuses for all crew makes them relatively helpless or at least impaired. My thinking instead was that this may happen to some individuals but that there were several ways around it. 5. Yes, someone else has pointed that out so I'll change it to being a smaller bubble. |
April 13, 2015 - 3:34am | I arbitrarily threw out a -20 for void sickness. Diseases in SF are a penalty to ability checks for a specified period of time or until cured by the medic. I think void sickness should be treated in the same manner. I'm also fine with it being that some characters dont experience. Retro fit- not the cost of the ship as that would take a lot of figuring- simply the cost of the component and I think the components involved would be the drive and the battery, everything else is flat rate to install. I'd conform the computer programs to the existing system since this is an article on Void drives. You could also write one overhauling computers. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 13, 2015 - 5:36am | Retrofitting could possibly incur higher costs. A ships that previously had atomics, for example, may have to have bits of it removed and perhaps also various decontamination procedures. The shipcomp is a vital component of the whole system. Typical SF mainframes aren't fast or capable enough. |
April 13, 2015 - 6:10pm | Looking back at the PDF there is a level for the computer but not for the programs. This is problematic for the general reader still using AD as some of the sub skills chance of succes are figured using the program level as a negative modifier. The point of your article is to introduce a new drive system which is done really well but if the average audience hangs up on an ill defined computer rules modification they are likely to discount the void drive as a useable option. Its your system and your the author, i just see a land mine by that is likely to be stepped on. Frankly I'm intrigued by the idea of just buying a computer of X level and load programs into it where the programs have no level they just load and run on a computer of a certain level. I think this idea could be explored. However, I also liked the explanation in the rules of what the various levels of a program could do so its something that I'd like to see hashed out. However, I still think that its a better idea to conform to the existing system unless your going to write a companion article that is a reworking of the computer rules.? RE retrofitting- I'm not committed to any particular % I just think you should list one in the appropriate section. Perhaps 25%? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 14, 2015 - 1:25am | Okay, I can rewrite that. I do think the computer-related stuff in SF needs an overhaul. The way things are described in Zebs Guide and the addition of bodycomps is quite nice, so maybe things need to go that way. Or, alternatively, players can just buy a computer of X level and then it can run X-level programs (and programs below that level). If you want to increase the computer level, pay for or install upgrades yourself or buy a new computer of X level.That will allow you to run programs of a higher level. |
April 14, 2015 - 3:44am | In the real world we just buy computers of better processing power we dont really buy computer programs of better levels. However you could make the case that the levels of programs actually represent a better program. Computers and programs is one of the fiddly points of designing a ship and figuring out its cost and i would love to see it stream lined. not that you decide on all the programs in a computer and total up the function points then check a chart to see what the level of the computer is. Body comps are a bit fiddly too. I'd rather see the prodgits as apps you download.This is something I've been working on. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 14, 2015 - 5:36am | Programs can have different levels that would suggest their competancy at certain tasks. For instance, MS Paint is not as good as Photoshop even though both are ostensibly 2D image programs. But I think this deserves it's own thread - I'll start one up in the Game Talk forum  |
 April 17, 2015 - 6:47pm | First off since I LIKE the instant jump and dumped the "one day per light year" definition I'm not going to be useing these rules but they look self-supporting except for one thing: Why do you power the drive with batteries? If you want to restrict how far a ship can jump then its capacitors really but they can be recharged by ANYTHING including an on-board reactor. Formula would be so many SEU per hour required to recharge one-light-year of jump or such. Batteries make no sense what so ever. I must admit this hits a "hot-button" for me because it's exactly why I don't like the Traveller standard Jump Drive. Requiring liquid hydrogen and a fusion reactor never made sense and subsequent "ret-cons" to explain it away are just worse for a supposed "hard' science fiction RPG. It's a bear to figure out, (and my gaming group actually did it) but a fission jump drive is workable and actually comes in cheaper for things like long-haul merchants, but it DOES make things like not needing to refuel starships (which is a hell of a strategic advantage) totaly unbalancing. (Hence I understand WHY they ret-conned but they way they did it was poorly thought out and YES we wrote Marc about it, No answer :) ) In SF it makes no sense to do it that way and I'd suggest replacing it with jump capactiors and hyper capacitors and your either going to have to go into WHY you can't simple recharge them with a "standard" power generator or come up with a good PSB reason it has to use beamed power or solar. (And a de-tuned laser battery or cannon is also usable as a power transmission beam I might add :) ) Randy |
April 18, 2015 - 2:28am | As I note in the rules, the batteries are pretty much parabatteries with much higher capabilities. As parabatteries can be recharged, I used a similar idea for the batteries in this new system. How are batteries different in intent as a design than capacitors? It pretty much comes out with the same situation in terms of being a power source. Then again, it dpeneds on whether you read the word 'battery' in Star Frontiers as being the same as 'battery' in our world. What actually might be the case is that 'battery' means 'supercapacitor'. So maybe it's just a word issue My thinking in terms of game design was that there was a trade-off - you can go further, but there are certain stipulations. Hence, batteries. Yes, you could possibly take an on-board reactor (I'm assuming you mean a nuclear one), but that adds an extra cost and takes up space, as does it's fuel. And you have the risk of a reactor on board, and one of the points of my designing this new system was to try and show a move away from such the dangerous and costly systems of the previous generation. If there's the option to recharge off of anything, you'd have to then look at the economics of the the new drive system, i.e. the amount of capital gained from various aspects of it over the lifetime of the drive. Would anyone designing my system - or certain parties interested in making money from it - want to make it pretty much free to fuel? That may be a bit like inventing a new engine today for cars etc that pretty much runs off of any cheaply available or free fuel. I'm sure certain market forces might resist such things If instead you can power up capacitors and there's an inherent cost in doing that, it's pretty the same as charging up a battery. Somewhere along the line you have to pay for the 'fuel' keeping such things going. As to the whole reason for using beamed or solar power - it's best to see it merely as a way taking on fuel - somewhat akin to stopping off at a service station nowadays, but with the option to create your own fuel if you really need to in emergency situations. As for Traveller, that's no more a hard sci-fi RPG than SF - it has grav plates, for example. This is possibly why ret-cons don't really work for it and are at best a kludge to try and make something that's not hard sci-fi into hard sci-fi So, you could possibly convert this system over to your own capacitor-based system if you so wished. Alternatively, you could just see batteries as being super capacitors. Either way, both need 'fuel' in some way. What's important is that the overall design is of benefit to getting around faster than is the case in KH. This new rules set is partly a technical thing in terms of technology, but also a different overall system for figuring out how to get around in space in the game, and how long such journeys take, and what can happen along the way. |
April 19, 2015 - 2:35pm | The parabattery et-al WERE "capacitors" actually as far as I could tell since they didn't create any energy but simply stored it so I withdraw the nomenclature complaint. One contention though that still remains is the assumption that older systems were "costly and dangerous" as they weren't. Specifically while "atomic" engines were difficult to work with the enherent "danger" was well understood and processes were in place that they were pretty routine and economical to "rebuild/recharge". Anyone building a new drive system would have to take prior art into consideration and "technically" trying to limit the new drive use by engineering a special power transfer system would be a loosing proposition because the cost and difficulty in re-building the current infrastructure to a new system is prohibitive unless there ia huge economic or social shift involved. The proposed power beaming systems would simply be ingnored and "regular" generating capacity used to recharge the Void drive batteries. Be it solar, nulclear or what have you. The only way the people who "invent" and produce the new Void drive could avoid that is by NOT producing it at all. In order for the power beaming system to become 'standard' it has to be about an order of magnitude BETTER than any previous power transfer system and it simply can't be as it has losses that standard "plug-in" systems (especially on-board systems) won't have. (And it will NEVER be acceptable to the miitary as its a seperate system that does not allow the ship to perform "patrol" duties to places where there is no installed power beaming system. That right there would be a big down-side to acceptance. Unless your system has no way to "mis-jump" and such any ship with the system has heavey odds they WILL at some point end up somewhere they can't charge the batteries and that won't be acceptable) (There IS an "almost-free-fuel" for cars today. It's used vegetable oil and it has gone from something that producers have gone from dumping down the drain to a stock-market level commodity they now have to PAY someone to "dispose" of. And in most cases that "disposal" ends up being seling the oil to another "end-user" for some industrial or other process which means it's "win/win" for the people doing the 'disposal' but means that there is almost none "given" away or cheaply available as it was only 10 years ago) You "pay" for the fuel, (power acutally) by installing a "generator" on-board and a power system to connect to that generator to produce power. And then you charge the batteries that way. Solar panels, nuclear reactor, chemical reactor (fuel cells) or something like that will be used for the most part though there would be SOME uses for beamed power it would be a secondary not primary system and there's not much the inventors can do about it. (It would in fact greatly hinder deployment of the system) Traveller IS actually considered a "hard" Sci-Fi system in that it "assumed" some basic "Magi-Tech" and then moved to remain always within the assigned constraints. Randy |
April 20, 2015 - 1:00am | Okay, I get what you mean but I must say I disagree First of all, nuclear drives in SF are very expensive. They're also dangerous - there's no getting around the radiation danger for atomic drives. Yes, there is a system involved for making their use less problematic, but they pose enough dangers that you always have to keep an eye on them. As is stated in the rules, all ships can harvest power if the need arises. Therefore, there would be no problems for any patrolling military ships as they can use this method to regain lost power. To go into a route without planning for sufficient power needs is unlikely - it would be the same as going somewhere without enough fuel pellets to do the round trip. There's also the possibility of taking along a support ship to carry extra power, should the mission require it. So, it boils down to logistics - which the military are unlikely to get wrong. Well, most of the time 'Almost free' is entirely different from actually free Traveller is most definitely not a hard sci-fi system. It has space opera written all over it But that's a discussion for elsewhere. |
June 20, 2015 - 8:30am | I've updated the rules, in response to the comments and suggestions. I'm going to use them in the adventure I've just started running with my RPG group. Let me know if there are still any outstanding issues. |
