PART 3- Meta This section is to provide some insight into what decisions were made in the creation of this book, so that players and GMs may better understand the compromises and constraints that go into any game design. We hope that this will help you design better and more enjoyable games. Ship Engineering At the time of writing, no self-sustained fusion reactions have yet been achieved, fuel cells are a technology still in their infancy, and biotechnology is just starting to get the barest glimmer of understanding of molecular function, yet we have tried to project into a future where these are all very mature technologies. So we had to make some major assumptions, about efficiency, power density, mass, and a host of other features. We will very likely be proven wrong one day in some of these assumptions, but we hope that with focus and perseverance most of the technology in this game universe will become efficient and commonplace. Drive Efficiencies- The exhaust velocity (Ve) of most of the drive systems, especially the electric drives, is quite high. There are two reasons for this. First is the belief that with thousands of years of engineering optimization significant breakthroughs will be achieved. The best electric drives in Aurora have a Ve of about 1.7% lightspeed, and while remarkable it is not inconceivable. The thrust generated from a given input of power is also quite high, again this is based on the assumption that the engineers and scientists will develop much more efficient ways of coupling the power output of the reactors to the linear momentum of the ship. The other reason the drives are powerful and efficient is an aesthetic choice. If the ships were designed using the current "state of the art" 21st century Human technology they would require huge amounts of reaction mass, have miniscule acceleration, and take a very long time to reach destinations. The transit time to the Jump Point would rise from 2-4 Ms to 20 + Ms, far too long for any game or campaign that is going to involve visiting many worlds. Giant flying fuel tanks with a little cabin and engine attached also lack the sweeping majesty of starships that science fiction fans crave. Heat Dissipation- Many people do not appreciate the problem of waste heat in space. On a planet heat may be carried away by conduction and convection to the land, water, or air. In space all that is available is the black-body radiation of the heat, a much slower process. Ship power plants are only about 50% efficient, so for every Joule of power you crank into your engines, sensors, or weapons, another Joule is going to have to be radiated away into space. There are no easy "tricks" to get around the waste heat problem, the laws of thermodynamics are harsh and unforgiving! Heat dissipation is a much greater problem for large, power-hungry ships such as Battleships. The surface area of a ship grows as the square of its radius, while the volume grows as the cube of the radius, so large ships become very limited in external surface area with which to radiate away their waste heat, thus the large heat-dump panels in all the ship designs. We have not done precise calculations of the required surface area or operating temperatures for most of the ships, and honestly our heat dissipation panels are too small on many of the ships. Again their was an aesthetic constraint, we found that ships dominated by giant thermal-dump panels did not "look right" to most SF fans. So we had to compromise, the panels are present, with power-hungry ships having a larger surface area of panels, while not allowing them to overwhelm the ship design. Ship design that tries to balance realistic engineering and aesthetic constraints is quite a challenge! Low Accelerations- The acceleration most starships are capable of generating may seem very low, most are only capable of 1/100th to 1/1000th of a G. This means that ships do not suddenly surge ahead with a burst of acceleration like the ships most people are used to seeing in the popular media. While there are high-thrust drives capable of driving ships at high acceleration, their efficiency is so low that the ship would quickly run out of fuel. The low thrust, high efficiency drives do work very well, and ships using them do reach very high velocities. At the turn around point even low-acceleration freighters are moving at speeds of 20-60 kilometers per second. Ship Combat Rules: Any rules system has to find a way to take real-life situations and represent them as a series of numbers, modifiers, and rules, so that the outcome of any given situation can be unequivocally determined. The decision has to be made what the rules are going to be optimized for, a set of rules to simulate a fencing match may not translate well to resolving the battle of Jutland, and such rules would completely collapse if they tried to determine your skill at solving crossword puzzles. The space combat rules described here were designed and optimized for relatively small-scale combats. Only a few ships in the combat, perhaps a single ship supported by a few combat drones on each side. This is the scale of combat most likely to occur with a group of player characters in a campaign. The number of skills and vital statistics for each combat ship and drone may seem excessive, until you realize that they are essentially the "characters" of space combat, and deserve equal treatment in detail and capability. The rules as they stand can be used for larger ships and bigger squadrons, but they quickly become a bit unwieldy. To simulate large fleets and giant battleships in combat would require a completely different set of rules. This would be a wargame version of Aurora space combat, where every ship is simplified down to a few core numbers (i.e. beam-offense, missile offense, missile defense, armor), so that huge exchanges of fire could be resolved with a few dice rolls. Such a system is in development, look for it as a monthly release some time in the future. Space combat in the future is also quite different from the terrestrial models of sea or air combat that have been used as models for other space combat rules systems. How space combat will work exactly is a matter of debate, but we can make some educated guesses based on the laws of physics and the engineering constraints of ship. The ubiquity of nuclear weapons in space combat is the greatest change. Big ships, big armor, big guns is no longer the simple formula for victory. A single penetrating nuclear weapon can cripple or destroy the largest battleship. But large ships can still play a powerful role, as their large power plants can energize beam batteries with very long ranges. Space combat becomes a vicious exchange between ships, missiles and drones. Each side is trying to deliver a lethal blow with their own beams and missiles while negating the enemies weapons. You will find even small engagements with a few ships and drones can involve all sorts of different tactics. Players should be very careful about engaging in space combat. Nuclear weapons, high energy lasers, and particle beams are all very lethal weapons, capable of quickly turning a spaceship into a wrecked hulk. There is no non-lethal combat in space, and a single decisive hit can kill everyone on board. Changes to Existing Ships If you compare the descriptions of the Talibu and Magellan listed in this book to those in the original Aurora RPG text, you will notice some differences. We now realize that the power output of the fusion reactors was too low, and the total thrust of the VASIMR drives was far too high. Likewise the listed endurance for ships was too short. Even though most Jump-capable ships only spend five to fifteen Ms in transit, there should be a very large safety margin. Plus the fact that a good recycling system should be able to run for a very long time so long as a power source is provided. The Example Ships Choosing example ships was not easy. It is very difficult to predict what sorts of ships will be needed, as there are many different styles of campaigns. We decided to focus on the ships that are most likely to come up in most games, shuttles for getting to a planets surface, the small utility cutters that can be found working in orbit above inhabited worlds, and the small Jump Ships that are once again starting to travel between worlds now that Hammer Immunity has been discovered. One difficulty in generating lists of examples is what we call the "50 different yet nearly identical cars" problem. The game statistics on most automobiles would be nearly identical, yet many drivers and car owners have very strong opinions about what car to own or drive, based on what they perceive to be "important differences." The same problem comes up when describing example firearms (pistols to assault rifles) and spaceships. And with six different species building spaceships, providing just one example from each species for each type of ship quickly generates a very long list. There are a huge number of ship types and classes in use. The Magellan is one example of a freighter / passenger liner with long range designed to service worlds off the major trade routes. There are probably a dozen other Human designs intended to perform the same job, with very similar capabilities. The same goes for every other ship on the list, they are represent whole classes and families. You as the Game Master could invent your own ships by simply taking some of these designs and shifting the numbers (size, thrust, power, acceleration, crew, passengers, cargo capacity) up or down by 5 to 10%. The Jump Ships described are the ones now in common use since the discover of Hammer Immunity. Most of them can be efficiently operated by a small crew of 3 to 10, which is a perfect size for role playing groups. There are a few examples of larger ships, particularly Frigate and Destroyer sized warships. These are provided to give some perspective as to the size, mass, and capabilities of these ships. There are plenty of large civilian ships also, both in-system and Jump capable. Passenger liners that could hold thousands of people, and huge bulk freighters with hundred thousand ton capacities were relatively common before the Hammer. More ship examples will be released in future monthly supplements. If you are particularly interested in certain types or classes of ships that you don't think we missed in the examples so far, please drop us an email and we will see if we can include such a ship in an upcoming release. Running a Ship-Based Campaign: Since very few players or Game Masters have worked in the maritime industry, and none (to our knowledge) have worked moving interplanetary or interstellar cargoes, this section provides some suggestions and hints for running your campaign. A good source of inspiration comes from the Age of Sail. The travel times, isolation of ships, remoteness of many settlements, and dynamics of searching for and chasing people in the open ocean bear many similarities to spaceship movement. There are many novels and historical texts on this time period for inspiration. There are, however, some very significant differences. First is that most ships rely on reaction mass to generate thrust, when the tanks are empty the ship can no longer use its engines. While solar and magnetic sails are available, these are both dependent on the output of the local star, making them less useful in interstellar operations. Second is that modern ships require very special tools and parts to repair themselves. While a damaged sailing ship could seek a new mast on any forested island, a space ship will not be able to find power couples for a fusion reactor lying around on the surface of an asteroid. Game Ideas: Note that all of these activities were going on before the Hammer cut of interstellar travel. Now with the discovery of Hammer Immunity there have been some significant changes. Large cargo ships and passenger lines no longer dominate the main commercial routes, as smaller ships are easier to crew and operate. The examples below are all possibilities for a campaign based around a small starship. Piracy- Nothing is as enjoyable as making an honest living, except perhaps the joy of making a dishonest living. Where there is trade, there are pirates, and with the discovery of Hammer Immunity pirates are appearing to prey on ships. Contrary to popular belief, most piracy takes place in port. Steal or misdirecting cargoes is easier there, plus the pirates can hide among all the legitimate commercial traffic. Pirates with their own armed (or bluffing) ships can try their hand at space piracy, using some variation of Jump Point ambush tactics, or attempt to intercept and steal from ships in open space flight. Pirate Hunting- Pirates can be a threat to business, stealing valuable cargo. Police and government institutions are limited in their ability to fight back, due to a lack of Hammer Immune agents. So some organizations are turning to private bounty hunters to retrieve stolen cargo, and maybe try and capture the offending pirates. These agents maybe working in the port on one world where pirates are known to congregate to sell their goods, or they might have their own fast, armed ship on the prowl for pirates. Trade- This is the main interstellar business, and there is a large pent-up demand for trade goods after 10 Gs of isolation. Many worlds need critical parts and spares to restore broken equipment, others are simply looking for luxury goods they have not seen in a long time. There are all sorts of traders out there, from ships owned by large corporate conglomerates, to a small operation with a single owner/operator as ship captain. Smuggling / Interstellar Crime- Not everything that gets traded is legal. All sorts of good have been declared illegal by various governments in the area, from narcotic drugs to books proposing revolutionary political ideas. A ship captain willing to risk the customs forces can make a good profit carrying in such material. Other captains and crew rely on their Hammer Immunity to flee local justice after committing their crimes, they just have to hope that their ship can make it to the Jump Point and escape and police ships the locals might possess. Passenger Travel- Travel, whether for business of pleasure, is a small but growing business. All sorts of people (businessmen, explorers, scientists, politicians, you name it) need to go to other worlds to conduct their business, but don't have the resources for a ship of their own. The player characters could either be the crew of a passenger ship, getting drawn into the adventures of their guests, or they could themselves be the passengers, always looking for a new ship to carry them to their next destination. You just hope that fine looking crew does not turn out to be full of insane cannibals, a nasty discovery to make light-years from help! Salvage/Restoration- A great deal of equipment was lost or abandoned when the Hammer came down. Salvage operations can operate under contract, working for the descendants of the original owners, looking to recover their goods. Or they can go out searching for ships or other equipment that was lost, to salvage what they can. In the current uncertain legal climate for interstellar salvage claims many salvage operators have been accused of theft. Surveying/Exploration- The first goal of many governments is to try and measure the Jump Point quality in the systems around their home. This is no trivial matter, as there is no fast an quantitative way to measure the quality of these points. There is also the continuing exploration of systems in the region, and the re-surveying of already explored systems looking for lost ships, new navigation hazards, or other changes since the Hammer. Scientific- There are many scientific questions that are being very actively pursued. Sociology researchers want contact with the worlds in the region, to see how 10 Gs of isolation has effected the various colonies and cultures. Astronomer seek measurements in star systems throughout the region, trying to correlate their theories about the Hammer with stellar phenomena, and Archeologists want to return to their projects on what were once inhabited worlds, trying to pull secrets about our future from the remnants of the distant past. The player characters could be the scientific team, support personnel on such a team, or the crew of a ship hired to take the scientists to their destination. Message/Mail Carrying- Many people have messages and small parcels that they would like to send to other worlds in the region. A ship can operate profitably carrying these small cargoes, gaining the advantage of speed from the tiny mass of the cargo. Official Ships- Governments and large corporations have official ships to carry out their directives. This can include research (sometimes known as spying), negotiations, or carrying special cargoes and passengers. Crew of official ships have the power that comes form being the representative of a large organization, but they also bear the responsibility of properly representing their organization. Diplomatic/Economic- Many of the long-standing economic and diplomatic agreements signed before the Hammer are now in flux. What needs to be obeyed? What rules can be effectively enforced. How can governments best cooperate to share the limited resource of Hammer Immune personnel and optimize the revitalization of trade? Diplomats and other negotiators have the difficult task of determining what is happening on an alien world, and then trying to cut the best deal for their own home world. Police- The commercial trade lanes were once bustling places, even the "uninhabited" star systems had populations working in the service and trading space stations. Now most of the space between worlds is empty, and if a ship gets into trouble (mechanical failure, pirate attacks) it has to rely on the police or other rescue services to come to its aid. Police ships must combat pirates, check ships for safety equipment, look for smugglers or slavers, and otherwise keep the peace in the vast open tracts of space in the uninhabited star systems along the trade routes. Military- All the major star systems have Navies to protect their interests. Antagonists and rivals were cut off from one another for the last 10 Gs, now they have the chance to restart long-standing conflicts and feuds. It is the job of the system Navy to ensure that their interests are protected, this can be simple observation missions, or more active measures to prevent hostile neighbors from seizing control of nearby strategic centers. XXX Twink things to beware of- AKA Game breakers --Giving ships nuclear weapons, allowing players to ram ships into planets (the ship itself as a mass-killing weapon). Governments and species don't like that sort of behavior, and they come looking for you. --Player designed ships- there are no "ship construction rules" because they would be largely impossible to create. Best way to go is to base your designs off things in the book, or if you really want to do something not listed feel free to email us and we would be happy to provide suggestions. Beware of players who come up with ship stats on their own, you may have a "black racer" situation with a wildly unbalanced supership. --Likewise look out for people who want weird tech on their ships. Perfect stealth (impossible), super-long-range lasers (physically very difficult), stuff like that. A reaction-less drive is listed in the main book as a possible TL4 artifact, beware of players who want to find such a thing and equip their ship with it. --Jump drives that work away from the jump point. No escaping that issue. --Using jump drive to make time-travel wormholes. Don't work that way! --Force fields and energy screens. Nope. --Transporters. Nope again. --See the original Aurora book (Section/Chapter XX) for a helpful list for "forbidden" technologies XXX Breakdown of each species with their average densities, average sensors abilities, average sizes, etc. Maybe some weapon guidelines, too.XXX XXXX precise locations and dimensions of Jump Points XXX