 December 19, 2012 - 4:28am | Leaving aside mechanics issues as I happen to think that AD mechanics are pretty fast play for combat already, I'm considering how to craft an old school/ early D&D style adventure for SF. From reading Matt Finch's old school primer http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/matthew-finch/quick-primer-for-old-school-gaming/ebook/product-3159558.html Resource management seems to be key. Also the situation should be about do we push ahead with low resources as opposed to pulling back. So this old thread popped into my head: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/4820 and the development we put into the planet Forge. A planet spinning on an Axis with the south pole pointing toward the system primary. making the southern pole uninhabitable and the northern pole obviously chill. There is a band of land just below or right at the area where the circle of the planet creates a shadow that is in the middle of these extremes. The planet has high winds and the atmosphere isn't very breathable. Its also closer to its star than would normally be considered inhabitable but because of the alignment of the axis the humma have managed to colonize it and the mineral wealth has paid off. The High winds have insured that there are numerous wrecks of air cars, shuttles and starships that dot the planets surface. The set up is that the PCs are hired to do salvage of said wrecks with a view to identifying a particular wreck. Some are in the freeze zone and some are over the horizon into the hot zone and these location present different problems. Each ship/shuttle found presents a mini dungeon crawl. Some have already been picked over. Humma spacer bar is a good place for gathering rumors like, "Tomak found a escape pod from the Capella Dawn over in the Firebreak Mountains" but there is also a high liklihood of a bar brawl, humma being humma and all. Adventure is all about generating clues while at civilization, locating a wreck and slavaging whats portable form it and looking for the big score. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 19, 2012 - 10:02am | It's not in the referenced thread on Forge but I know I said it somewhere and I'll restate it here. It's not physically possible to have a spinning planet keep one pole always pointed to the star. You can have a tidally locked planet (i.e. like the Moon to the Earth) that keeps one face toward the start but not a pole. It gives you the same effect although keeping an atmosphere in either case is going to be hard if the planet is really hot on the sun facing side. (Math must be done to get the details and I don't have time right now  )Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 December 19, 2012 - 1:32pm | I remember that discussion when I was crafting a profile for Minotaur, I went a similar route and took Terl's suggestion to have the planet as a moon orbiting a planet. As for the adventure...if it were me I'd KOTB the whole deal: a stronghold type structure as an outpost that characters utilize as home base and the various adventure/plot hooks could be like the Caves of Chaos --- although each ste could be spread out rather than clumped together. |
December 19, 2012 - 2:33pm | That's right, that's where we were talking about it. It was in the Minotaur thread. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 19, 2012 - 2:43pm | Isn't Uranus' axial tilt around 97-98 degrees? I thought i heard it described as a rolling ball as opposed to the other planets being spinning tops. Though Uranus is a gas giant and Forge would be a rocky planet. So any conceivable model that would allow uranis to have such an extreme tilt probably would not work for Forge. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 19, 2012 - 4:40pm | Speak for yourself, myanus' axis is vertical... sorry, I couldn't resist |
December 19, 2012 - 5:32pm | Yes, Uranus is on it's side with an axial tilt of 97 degrees or there abouts. That's not a problem. That's easy enough to arrange with appropriately placed collisions during formation (Venus technically has a tilt of 180 degrees, it spins "backwards"). The problem is trying to keep the spin axis pointed at the star. Uranus doesn't do that. At one point in the orbit, the "south" pole is pointed at the sun, 1/4 the way around and the equator is point at the sun, another 1/4 and the "north" pole is pointed at the sun, a quarter orbit later and the equator is pointed at the sun again and then the cycle repeats. The pole always points to the same point in space but the planet moves and the sun isn't always at that point. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 19, 2012 - 7:06pm | Speak for yourself, myanus' axis is vertical... sorry, I couldn't resist Yes, I think I heard something similar somewhere approximately 25 years ago about NASA sending gay astronauts on a mission to .... you fill in the location. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 19, 2012 - 7:12pm | Yes, Uranus is on it's side with an axial tilt of 97 degrees or there abouts. That's not a problem. That's easy enough to arrange with appropriately placed collisions during formation (Venus technically has a tilt of 180 degrees, it spins "backwards"). The problem is trying to keep the spin axis pointed at the star. Uranus doesn't do that. At one point in the orbit, the "south" pole is pointed at the sun, 1/4 the way around and the equator is point at the sun, another 1/4 and the "north" pole is pointed at the sun, a quarter orbit later and the equator is pointed at the sun again and then the cycle repeats. The pole always points to the same point in space but the planet moves and the sun isn't always at that point. Well this gives us something interesting in a location. It has some potential I think. would this be more plausible for a rocky planet then being tidally locked? Though I think I like the idea of a tidally locked planet with one side always toward the star and the other freezing and ships not specially fitted with heat shielding being forced to plot a course within its shadow to reduce heat damage. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
