I'm beginning work on putting together an adventure that's akin to Bujold's idea of the Astronomical Survey service.
Basically, high tech setting with superluminal travel only possible by jumping through wormholes. When you find a wormhole entrance, you have no clue where you'll end up, and not every wormhole allows for bidirectional travel.
>note, I'll probably have some sort of percentage certainty system for guessing where a wormhole goes, or at least the general direction it travels to not have this part be entirely random/up to me
Because of this, you need a team that can handle all kinds of possible challenges, from long periods of isolation and possibly being stranded to initiating first contact.
I'm wanting this to be more of an intimate kind of game where many of the challenges are environmental/keeping the crew (the PCs) from killing each other kind of thing. My group enjoys actually roleplaying characters, so they'll get into that aspect rather well so long as I can give them a compelling enough stage to play on.
Anyway, I'm coming to /tg/ for random ideas to add in and suggestions of what system to use. I'm thinking either GURPs or making a few modifications to Traveller.
Also, pic related is what the ship will be based on because I fucking love the Defiant, and generally think it's likely what a ship would end up being like in such a universe.
>>44700703
>Also, pic related is what the ship will be based on because I fucking love the Defiant, and generally think it's likely what a ship would end up being like in such a universe.
Defiant is indeed awesome, but you may not want to follow the existing deckplans too closely given its size problems.
>>44700818
Definitely...although, I do want it to be a more cramped ship than spacious...something to add to the tensions.
>>44700703
The defiant had minimal cargo space as well from memory, will you be changing that or keeping the replicator and teleporter?
>>44700963
>The defiant had minimal cargo space as well from memory, will you be changing that or keeping the replicator and teleporter?
I'm going to keep the replicator and minimal emergency stores.
The teleporter...I've not decided yet...probably not though. What I'll probably do is make the front bit be a shuttle of some type if such is needed.
The warp core will be refluffed into some kind of engine/protection system for opening/traversing the wormholes.
I'll probably either ditch or nerf the hell out of the cloaking system though. I think outside of magic gravity and magic superluminal travel, I'll probably try to remain more on the hard sci-fi side of things.
>>44700703
bumping especially for suggestions on system to run.
>>44701280
Not much to suggest. As you said, GURPs or a modified space system. Traveller or stars without number are your best bets.
>>44700703
Have you got a plan of the interior? They'll be spending most of their time in the ship, having a map of it would double the immersions.
>>44701368
>stars without numbers
Haven't heard of that one, thanks. I'll look over it.
>>44701401
That's going to be a function of whatever system I end up using (basically what sort of skills exist that the system supports, what kind of ship systems would be required/what kind of skills would be needed to fix/use said systems).
But I do definitely intend on having maps. That's why I'm ganking a popular sci-fi ship so I have plenty of resources to pull from.
>>44701492
>>stars without numbers
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2mazpm/the_complete_resource_package_for_stars_without/
>>44701492
Had a look around. It was a good one to gank, the interior is surprisingly well documented and consistent. Most ship interiors are only half thought out.
>>44701965
I'd suggest keeping the general plan but making it modular, let them choose where certain systems go in the ship. Doing a map for each deck would be cool too.
>>44701965
And she has three shuttle bays. So that makes things a little more simple for me. I'm thinking about making the ship a little smaller though (by around 1/3) and pulling the crew down to no more than around 10 (use AIs as a supplement to human crew) so that way there's not a ton of NPCs running around, but that could include a lot of fun stuff like moral checks/managing interpersonal conflicts and the like.
>>44702039
I was thinking against that because I don't really want the shipbuilding to be a major aspect of the game. Although, if I did go that way, I could have the party be more like a band of privateers in the employ of the government instead of an actual branch...hrm...or just give them the choice: a rigid, standardized design if they're in the service, or build their own ship if they're privateering. (and yes, I realize that word means being a pirate for a government, but w/e, you get my meaning).
