Author Topic: Starships and stuff  (Read 2255 times)

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Offline GMLovlie

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Starships and stuff
« on: December 16, 2016, 11:30:48 AM »
So.

I need starships for my players.

The idea is: they're independent operatives, more or less. First I thought they'd get ships as needed from an organisation, so they don't own any, but get to use different ones as (un)fitting for the various missions. It's all set in our solar system, basing it off pre-Lagrange travel Tintamar, but not adhering closely to it. For instance I think the max-speed currently would be the 0.02c speeds, and no more than 300g acceleration - to create sufficient limitations to travel, distance, time and narrative. At least I'm starting there. And at least this is what will be available to the players to start with.

They will start in a freighter or perhaps a large shuttle - need to look more closely at some stuff in the books.

So, I was wondering if people have made custom ships of various classes and types... and if you'd care to share them?

Also, has anyone conjured some house-rules or made other custom things they want to share?

If my last campaign is anything to go by, I have a year and a half of ~biweekly games ahead of me. So, any tips, tricks, stuff and quality of life GM support material you want to share?  ;D

(also: any newson the sysops guide?)
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2016, 12:19:20 PM »
I think I have a post in here somewhere about a starter ship design I have built for an adventure I've kind of moved to the back burner.  I can't find it now, but here is some of the text from the adventure write up.

(click to show/hide)

This design is a new built combat vessel from a lost colony that is working from some older designs and technology.  Thus it still uses early reactors.  It has been a while since I reviewed this design, but I suspect the max speed and accel may be too high, so cutting them back to 0.02c and 300Gs would be pretty believable.

The plan for the adventure was to put a green crew in a combat ship to save their colony from alien invaders.  They go on a raid mission against the invader base, then return to try to help defend the colony from another enemy combat fleet.  At the end of the adventure they would escort a refugee ship back to core human space and find themselves with no clear directives or orders, and the posession of a slightly used and outdated starship.

Given announcements from my current employeer I may have plenty of time to finish this adventure up.

But maybe this design would help you out.  Come Monday or Tuesday I should have some free time and I may be able to put together another design for you.  Perhaps a large transport shuttle converted to small tramp freighter with some obsolete parts.  As a matter of fact I think I may have a very similar design already hammered out.  If I get some more time I'll check on that.

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2016, 04:14:37 PM »
I found the tramp freighter I put together.  Always kind of meant to roll this into a Guild Companion article but never got around to it.  It isn't the whole write up but the stats of the ship.
(click to show/hide)

This ship has a cheap low tech hull, obsolete early fusion reactors, obsolete early sensors (stellar and construct only), a workshop to help with maintenence, a small 1 man limited med bay, a redundant comm system in case of failures, and a single escape pod (see Harp SF xtreme).

All in all is is a fairly cheap tramp freighter for hauling smaller cargo loads across the galaxy.  It will be a nightmare for the ships engineer to maintain.

Maybe that will help too.

Let me know if you had any other ideas, I may be able to help out as I get time (this weekend begins the holiday parties for me, so I'll be gallivanting around a lot till monday).               
-Pyrotech

Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2016, 08:03:21 PM »
Thanks man! This is awesome! I'll have to look closer at stuff tomorrow.
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Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2016, 11:05:33 AM »
A question. Did you eyeball these designs, or are they based on the same framework as starships presented in Xtreme?

I'm basing the ship for the first part of my game on the shuttle above - I'm trying to get a feel for the game, both what HARP SF provides and what our story needs... so I'm basically eyeballing and making stats I think would be fun...

And I'm still looking for a nice starship design generator, for something not-too-space-opera-y ...
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Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2016, 11:30:27 AM »
Also ... from what I understand, it is not assumed that you accelerate for the first half of the journey and decelerate for the second half, right? So you expend energy accelerating and decelerating, but what about the rest of the journey? Is no energy spent on the engines maintaining speed?

I mean, sure there is no air resistance, but gravity affects speed... but perhaps not too much at these speeds and with this technological level...? Just wondering...
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Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2016, 06:19:24 AM »
I'm looking for starship designs... hehehe! And I mean graphics, illustrations and such. Google works fine, but I was wondering if anyone here does that kind of design/illustrations.

I'm kind of wondering of the design and aesthetics of Tintamar, and perhaps other settings people play their games in.

It would be really cool with a library of designs and aesthetics of Tintamar.
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2017, 11:21:36 PM »
I know a couple of the HARP SF artists post to this forum with a fair bit of frequency, so they may be able to help you out some there.

My own artwork that I have used for my games and Guild Companion articles is decidedly......... well amateur is being generous...... probably poor to barely tolerable is a better description. 

I recently submitted another vehicle design to the Guild Companion that has some "art" that I did, it is one of my better works and it barely rates as 'poor'.  But I've always thought a little art spices us an article nicely, so I made it anyway.

I believe I posted a couple examples of some of my 'art' in other threads in this forum ( plus my avatar  for the forum - a bloodied Terran Alliance flag from my Bughunters game).

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2017, 03:10:31 AM »
I usually play the Star Wars RPG from FFG, but we needed a break and something different, and SW is easy peasy to find ships for, it has an established aesthetics and design and it has been around for decades. Now, it is obviously unfair and pointless to compare Tintamar/HARP SF with Star Wars, but the basic aesthetics and design of a storyverse and game should exist (it does), but also develop and expand.

I know art is probably one of the most time consuming and expensive aspects, at least unpredictable, when making a RPG(-supplement), because: standards, styles, fees and contracts, time and deadlines.
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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2017, 08:59:01 AM »
Joel Lovell created quite a few ship illos and deck plans for HARP SF Xtreme, which give some sense of what's possible. One of the books that I intend to commission soon is a vehicles compendium for HARP SF and the Tintamar setting.

Best wishes,
Nicholas
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2017, 06:58:43 PM »
LOL,

Interesting you should mention that Nicholas!  Over the last couple weeks I've gotten a formal proposal about 90% complete for just such a book.  Maybe I should just sit on that for a bit! 

I'm glad to hear that though, I think what HARP SF is missing right now is Xenos, vehicles, and equipment.  GMs can make their own settings pretty easy, and everyone ends up with all the houserules they can handle.  But balanced game stats for adversaries and gear (including vessels) can be hard to come up with.

I'm excited to hear about more books for HARP SF!

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2017, 05:30:45 AM »
LOL,

Interesting you should mention that Nicholas!  Over the last couple weeks I've gotten a formal proposal about 90% complete for just such a book.  Maybe I should just sit on that for a bit! 

I'm glad to hear that though, I think what HARP SF is missing right now is Xenos, vehicles, and equipment.  GMs can make their own settings pretty easy, and everyone ends up with all the houserules they can handle.  But balanced game stats for adversaries and gear (including vessels) can be hard to come up with.

I'm excited to hear about more books for HARP SF!

Regards,

Hear, hear!

I agree. More stuff for HARP SF is needed, of the type Pyrotech mentions.

I'm working on a bunch of vehicle stuff myself - which would be easier with some construction rules/guidelines, but eyeballing it based on the stats in Xtreme works well for now - we'll see how these constructs survive eventual play-test.

I'm looking forward to that future book of yours pyro, let me know if you need play-testers ;)
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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2017, 06:07:43 AM »
LOL,

Interesting you should mention that Nicholas!  Over the last couple weeks I've gotten a formal proposal about 90% complete for just such a book.  Maybe I should just sit on that for a bit! 

An email has been sent your way.

Best wishes,
Nicholas
Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2017, 07:59:01 AM »
EXCITEMENT!  8) :o :cool: :flame:
"What about the future...? We can only hope, we cannot however account for the minutiae of the quanta, as all accidents in an infinite space are inevitable."

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Offline GMLovlie

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Re: Starships and stuff
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2017, 03:54:31 AM »
Joel Lovell created quite a few ship illos and deck plans for HARP SF Xtreme, which give some sense of what's possible. One of the books that I intend to commission soon is a vehicles compendium for HARP SF and the Tintamar setting.

Best wishes,
Nicholas
Is this the stuff already in the books you refer to btw? Because ... I'd like more  :pirate: What about this guy: http://craigssketchpad.co.uk/ he's already done some work, perhaps he has more?  8)
"What about the future...? We can only hope, we cannot however account for the minutiae of the quanta, as all accidents in an infinite space are inevitable."

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