 December 13, 2013 - 12:16pm | Two ideas I've been mulling about and wanted to see what y'all think of it as well. First, in a different thread Terl brough up the idea of Void STA for creatures resisting the after effects of a void transit. Perhaps the same concept could apply to equipment or vehicles. What if the stress of void transits creates strain on the vessels themselves requiring maintenance or even ending the usefulness of the vessel (recent example of this concept is, clearly BSG new series (spoiler) when Galactica makes her last jump) but I have seen it in other settings / books as well. Bughunters setting has hyperspace (or whatever it is) affect living creatures badly, requiring sedation. GURPS space setting options also suggest that jumps can damage the vessels themselves. If jumps do have adverse affects for living beings and/or equipment, it will limit interstellar travel somewhat. Further, it opens the setting up to the creation of "advanced" drives/jump dohickies that can alieviate some of the dangers. Second thought, straight from Warhammer40k, what if transdimension creatures exist in the void? Such creatures may notice jumping craft. Adding some horror elements to the setting may not suit everyone, but even 2300AD had the super beings at the Pleiades. Just a thought. |
 December 13, 2013 - 2:30pm | At some level, this is in the system in the form of the break down chance that the ships accumulate as they age. You keep it to a minimum by having your yearly maintenance but it never goes down. Or you could make it an explicit mechanic. You could do void stress for the ships as a percentage chance of a failure. Every jump adds 1% and you roll after every jump to see if something happened. Your yearly maintenance removes some percentage (say 4d10+10) from the damage and you can also go in for an extra maintenance if you feel the percentages is still to high. Since a ship typically makes only 10-50 jumps a year, this yearly maintenance should be able to mostly keep up with the strain but you start to notice problems as your maintenance time gets closer. I wouldn't want to do void stress for "things" at a more granular level as that becomes too much bookkeeping to keep track of everything for all the systems and bits of gear. I'd probably make a failure table that includes things like component failures (LS, computer, or more likely specific computer program, weapon, defenses, engine, whatever), hull failures, unrepairable hull fatigue, etc. Components are repaired by replacing them. Hull failures require time in dock to repair, etc. For the unrepairable hull fatigue this is a cumulative "poison" in the material of the hull that just builds over time. Then when it reaches a certain threshold, the ship is no longer capable of void travel (every jump risks a total catastropic failure of the hull). I'd make this a rare option so that it takes decades to reach this point unless you have a lot of void related problems and jump a lot. Anyway, great idea. I might just have to sit down and write up a full mechanic for this. It has definitely sparked my interest. 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 14, 2013 - 5:11pm | @TerlObar, I like what you are proposing. I just wonder if the actual unrepairable hull fatigue should be kept by the GM and the players have to get inspections at a ship yard to get it estimated by the engineering crew. This way old craft would have this assessment as part of the purchase. Some sources of the estimate would be more trustworthy than others. Then also players would know about when to scrap an old ship. We could also detail the rebuild and restoration options to get old clasic ship back into the void. @Sam, I have hinted at mysterious creatures in the void. See the third Alex Stone article in SFman. -iggy |
 December 15, 2013 - 12:40am | <Terl>For the unrepairable hull fatigue this is a cumulative "poison" in the material of the hull that just builds over time. Then when it reaches a certain threshold, the ship is no longer capable of void travel... Interesting so, a ship jumps to a place with a SCC III shipyard, it could be refit with Chemical engines and still provide a useful life still. <Iggy>We could also detail the rebuild and restoration options to get old clasic ship back into the void. Yes, but, if the hull is that bad then there is not much you can do to repair it. You would basically be building another ship. <Iggy>the players have to get inspections at a ship yard... Like getting an inspector to check a house before you buy it. Some could be good, some poor and some could be scammers! Sweet idea. Maybe an engineer PC wishes to retire so, he becomes an inspector on the space station in White Light...hmmm |
 December 15, 2013 - 12:57am | Hadn't thought of stress on objects before... interesting idea. In my campaign, animals must be sedated or put into cryosleep before entering the Void, to prevent them from freaking out. |
December 15, 2013 - 9:15am | Yes, but, if the hull is that bad then there is not much you can do to repair it. You would basically be building another ship. So is rebuilding a classic car sometimes. The point is sometimes it is done just because the vehicle has such intrinsic value. -iggy |
