Marcelo asked: > have you read "Seeker", by Jack McDevitt > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeker_(novel))? It brings up an > interesting setting for space archeology.
Hello Marcelo, I've read some of the McDevitt books, but not all of them. A Talent for War was neat, but the Benedict books started to feel like "more of the same" after a few. Zan mentioned McDevitt when he asked for an astroarchaeology ship. I took that request and mutated it my way, and now I'm trying to add a few vehicles to round it out. Tom wrote: > A derelict can be of any size depending on what your story line requires. I > played in an adventure that started with a 100 dton derelict and arrived at > a 1,000 dton derelict. The referee provided stats and deck plans. The stats > gave some data from sensor scans which included dimensions, locations of > possible entry points. Once we got inside the stats provided interior > dimensions of spaces we could see and scan with portable systems. The > referee also created deck plans for both ships that were used. > Unfortunately, my character didn't complete the adventure. Hello Tom, how you envision the use of a ship influences the color text of the writeup. Say I have a little shuttle. Should I talk about the accel and endurance, or the position of the seats within the cabin? I can try both, and deck plans, of course, but that requires a lot of work. I did it for a trio of Traveller ships which got published by JTAS, but I don't have that much time these days. Today is the last day of my Christmas break, and I want to write a vehicle or two. Spaceplane v1.0 (TL8) Many space exploration scenarios require a cheap and reusable launch vehicle. For near future games, this spaceplane should do the job. The spaceplane carries 10 tons of cargo, passengers and crew. The spaceplane uses hydrogen/oxygen rockets for a horizontal takeoff and a rapid climb to low earth orbit (LEO). The acceleration starts at 3 G and increases until the engines are throttled back to maintain 4-5 G. In a few minutes the spaceplane will reach some 8 km/s and over 100 km altitude. The spaceplane docks with an OTV or transfer station with almost dry tanks. Then it uses the remaining delta-V, perhaps 300 m/s, to enter the atmosphere and start aerobraking. Finally it returns as unpowered glider. The engines burn 1,375 gallons of HO per second. A full load of fuel is $21,000. Carter-Class Small Rocket Ship v1.0 (TL9) In an age when heroes could pilot their rocket ships with slide rules alone, when industrialist would personally take their latest inventions into space, this could have been the first ship with a new drive, going where no man has gone before. The nose of the sleek rocket ship contains the flight deck with three seats for the pilot, copilot, and flight engineer. An optical telescope and a radar help with navigation. The small cabin in the middle of the ship has five bunks, so there is room for two passengers -- perhaps an alien princess or a plucky reporter, to stay in genre. Lockers next to the airlock hold cargo, food, and other supplies. The rear half of the ship is taken by the engine room, with the reactor, the thruster, and the life support. Kurt wrote: > Back in the day when FASA had a license from GDW to produce Traveller > material, they created the "King Richard", a 5000dton luxury liner > complete with deck plans and an adventure book. One nice thing about > the deck plans was that they also included air ducts, which were used > more than once. > > I used the ship as a sort of "Flying Dutchman" on one occasion, and it > was just big enough to be big and to give a group of five or six a tough > time covering everything, but small enough that it was manageable by the > GM. That adventure lasted about three weeks (10 hour gaming sessions!) > and the players had to scour the ship for clues to what happened as well > as figure out where all the vital screws were to bring her "back to > life" so they could get home. Hello Kurt, as a player, I once explored a "wet" cruise ship in space -- no Bermuda triangle, just the GM recycling a real-world deck plan. The FASA stuff is available on a FFE CD-ROM, but I prefer real printed stuff. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
