 March 7, 2011 - 2:28pm | I'm torn here. Star Frontiers Knight Hawks introduced a skill called Astrogation which was required to plot a course between star systems. In Star Wars people relied on navigational computers. Here's my initial thoughts which dates back to a post on this site;
Thoughts? |
 March 7, 2011 - 5:23pm | Seems to work for me. The NaviComp would do the hard work of number-crunching after tying into a system's buoys, right? |
March 7, 2011 - 5:55pm | I like the idea of having options. Imagine a group of characters are feeling a crime boss after a deal went sour, they blast out of orbit and head for the nearest navbuoy, biting nails waiting for a linkup while pursuers are hot on their trail. Once a link is established a character gives the destination and the navbuoy feed back the jump specs. One push of a button and FaaaWWWOOPPP! Thinking their safe in-system the let their guard down only to find out the bad guys hacked the navbuoy got their coordinates and jumped in behind them. If I was that group I would hire an NPC Astrogator or buy a navicomputer. :-) Another thought is astrogator's can hire our their skills as well. I have some more ideas.... like I said I think it gives lots of options. You agree? |
May 8, 2011 - 7:31pm | I do agree, all 3 make sense to me. 1. Skill- we should work out a time requirement to plot a jump, like tens of hours, and a die-roll modifier. Computer assistance should cut this to a reasonable amount of time. In SW, a -2 modifier is pretty significant, so I'd make it a -2 roll, taking 10+2d6 hours. A computer with an Astrogation program could assist, by cutting the time in half, or removing the -2 drm? Each Raise on the die roll could reduce the time by d4 hours? You should be able to buy a person-derived jump solution from on a station, too. ("We'll be leaving tomorrow at 8, our ship is bound for Timeon, it has 2g acceleration.") 2. Astrogation buoys- Some systems might not have these, some might have multiples. Each one could be programmed for one specific route to a neighboring star. They could be operated by the system government, the UPF, or by one or more corporations. Someone large like PGC might well have its own chain of buoys in each system in which it does business. Anyone else might be able to access it, but there's a charge. Say a few thousand credits, or maybe about the same as a ship's berthing fee. Government buoys might cost less for taxpaying registered craft? And yes, these could be hacked or denied to anyone. Something important, if one does not use subspace radio between systems, is that these would need update information from the system at its other end, so some ships should be dedicated to carrying detailed updates, like a mail package. That's something I am thinking about adding to my next campaign. 3. Navacomps- I'm all in favor of these, too. They should be expensive to buy, but easy to maintain. I suppose one could get one that is tied to a given megacorp's chain of astrobuoys, which pays a regular fee (monthly/annual/by the voyage) to get updated info. They are probably faster to derive a proper jump calculation than a human astrogator, but of course, it is susceptible to hacking. These could also perform the role of updating whichever buoys it talks to about the system it just left. They might also be less useful in uncharted systems, where there aren't buoys in place. That's the DeLuxe Explorer's Upgrade, you see. They might also be not so useful in case of a misjump, taking a lot longer than a sentient astrogator to work out their fix. |
May 25, 2011 - 1:07pm | Inspired by another thread, I was thinking about the Slingshot Effect. Perhaps an Astrogation roll to knock some time off the intrasystem element of the voyage? The ship would be using one or more system bodies (that may or may not be helpfully placed) to speed the time to reach 0.01c? Roll Navigation at -2, failure: standard cross-system time; success = reduce travel time by 2d6%; each raise, another d6% reduction? (These d6 do not ace.) Botch = add d6% to to travel time. NavComp will add +1 to the attempt. If a system is known to have lots of bodies for slinging (say, extra moons or planets close together), perhaps another +1. |
