Dear List, as mentioned in the lifeboat mail I'm thinking about interstellar passenger liners. I'm using hyperdrive and reactionless thrusters from the 3E Vehicles rules. My ideas are:
TL10: No streamlining or landing capability and no shuttles. The liner docks with a transfer station in high orbit. TL10 shuttles would be rather large, so they stay with the port. Passenger liners can only service worlds with good infrastructure (Colonizer transports are a completely different matter. Less luxury, more utility.) TL11: Vectored thrust and streamlining allow a surface landing. This is done if there are no orbital stations, but the liner prefers to stay in space. Escape pods in case something goes wrong during ascent or descent. The look-and-feel is a bit like Star Wars. TL12: Contragrav, vectored thrust, streamlining. By default the liner goes directly to the surface, and there are shuttles to serve secondary spaceports on the surface or the moons. Contragrav runs all the time to reduce stress on the tarmac. Escape pods for the occupants who get no shuttle seat. TL13 to TL15: Things are getting fuzzy. Shaped force screens for streamlining. Luxury. Smaller crews, more passengers. Or maybe "permanent passengers" (entertainers, etc.) in addition to "transient passengers (who go from A to B). Shuttles/lifeboats for all? TL13+ holoventure zones? Except for the drive, a feeling like Star Trek. At TL15 a rooftop garden under a forcefield dome? TL16: Many personnel-scale teleport projectors, plus FTL-capable small craft for all. A bit like Iain Banks' Culture setting. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
