Starship Size Follies

I recently noticed starship dimensions changed during the run of the Space Opera RPG. Took me long enough, it’s only been out for three and a half decades.
In book 2 of the Space Opera rules, on page 54, a starship ton is defined as 3 cubic meters or 100 cubic feet. (That’s an old maritime standard.) Further, a deck will have a height of 2.5 meters.

Several example hulls are listed. The largest is a million tons, with dimensions of 700 x 95 x 45 meters.

The Problem

Those examples are big enough for a Star Trek ship but too small for a Star Wars Star Destroyer. Too small for many of Doc Smith’s ships. Skylark 3 was a cigar two miles long and 1500 feet in diameter. About 18 billion cubic feet! An Imperial Star Destroyer is half as long, 80 percent as wide and all pointy and flat.Call it 2 billion cubic feet. These are a heck of a lot larger than 100 million cubic feet.

That’s significant since the foreword specifically calls out Star Wars and Doc Smith’s books as material Space Opera is intended to emulate. If it can’t “do” big enough ships, it can’t emulate the source material.

The Solution

We can either Change the Genre or Change the Game

Three “Seldon’s Compendium of Spacecraft” followed. The first one kept the same dimension rules. Seldon 1 covered smaller ‘civilian’ and ‘police’ ships. The Spice Runner is a reasonable knockoff of the Millennium Falcon.

The next two Seldon Compendium books covered military ships of the Space Atlas same setting. Seldon 2 covered four major Human-centric Star Nation’s space fleets. Seldon 3 covered four more Star Nations dominated by aliens.These books included a stealthy rule change. A Starship ton now equal 30 cubic meters or 1,000 cubic feet. There was also an example of a ship bigger than one million tons. An Imperial-class Star Destroyer was now statistically possible.

Good enough for Space Opera, in it’s original Star Atlas game setting.  None of the Star Nations is rich enough to get into the Death Star building business.

A problem with this change is some of the existing deck plans were distorted. The Nike and Nemesis class ships are in both Seldon’s 1 and 2, with the same deck plans. We can simply “stretch” the scale from feet to meters, and height and width are taken care off. But the ships have the same number of decks. The suggested vertical spacing even shrinks a little. It’s a good thing most Space Opera ships with deck plans don’t have side or front views. They’d look as flat as pancakes.

But

There are also the even larger Death Star and the Skylark of Valeron. And the Dahuk. 
But let’s not get crazy here. I’m already ignoring Skylark 3 weapon range is 50 million light years. Not even Space Opera can handle something like that.

Besides, if I have to re-read Skylark of Valeron, I might puke when I get to the scenes where the Naked Galactic Rebel Princesses use Richard Seaton for eugenic experiments. With Dorothy's full approval. 

SF Writers Know their Fans. 

Campaign notes from the old days

Back in the 1990s I GM'd a Hero System Space Opera campaign. I recently found my notes. Here's my campaign plan.

This is a science fiction role-playing game campaign set in 2592 A.D. There are all the usual trappings of space opera, including starships, blasters, psionics, and anthropomorphic aliens. 

Our heroes are the crew of a privateer starship. They'll start out pretty small time.  They will perform such missions as repo'ing a ship, running guns to the rebels, or smuggling operatives. In the tradition of the space opera genre, things will get out of hand before you know it . . .

Campaign Tone

In the tradition of space opera, Good Guys are always Good, and Bad Guys are always Bad. Player characters will be mostly good but a little grungy. To spice things up we add a couple of cyberpunk and espionage novel bits. You just can't tell whose side some people are on; some people switch sides on you.

This is a rather romantic, unrealistic campaign. There will be many classic Space Opera 'bits'. Some of the most obvious space opera cliches we'll use will be anthropomorphic aliens, faster than light travel, huge spaceships, and loud ray guns.

Naturally, our heroes will face (and overcome) great adversity. Some may die along the way. There will be at least one major act of treachery, balanced by one big break.

Description of Setting

The setting of this campaign is adapted from Fantasy Games Unlimited's Space Opera (1980) role-playing game and their Space Marines miniature rules. Some interesting bits were liberated from other sources, and some I made up myself.

Known Space is dominated by several vast militarist interstellar empires.  They include:

The Federal Systems Union is liberal, multiÄspecies democracy.  Its Capitol is Terra. For the purposes of this campaign, they're the good guys.

The Empire of Man is a fascist, Human Supremacist, quasi-mystical merit oligarchy.  Its Capitol is near Deneb. They think War is fun. Aliens are inferiors. Genocide and slavery are the Imperial way of dealing with them. The Empire is dominated by a Warrior cult, with bizarre rituals and traditions.

The Mercantile League is a human-dominated commercial alliance of corporations and individuals. They hate "Statist" governments. They'll trade with anybody, even nations they're fighting.

The Councilate is a very old, very eccentric multi-species government. They are very stuffy and bureaucratic. Some Councilate races have been running around interstellar space for thousands of years.

The Optimized Social Republic was a human-dominated Commie state.  The Republic was building the "perfect" society through social and genetic engineering. It collapsed after losing a war with the Councilate and their Mercantile League allies.  Former Republic worlds are suffering from many problems, including civil wars, Mercantile occupation troops, Federal "relief missions" and Imperial marauders. Strange mutants and hybrids are escaping from Republic labs and government servitude. They aren't always forgiving or merciful.

Larvae (A.K.A. "The Bugs") are a species resembling giant insects and the monsters from the movies Alien and Aliens.  Each larvae clan has a "group mind", with individual larva linked telepathically. They have a nasty habit of migrating in mass to other folk's planets uninvited.

IRSOL are a Humanoid species. They wander the Galaxy in giant CityÄShips.  The IRSOL are a very old, very sophisticated, and very private race. IRSOL are allies and sponsors of the Federation, which they seem to be manipulating.  They are rivals of certain Councilate races.

Power Levels

Skill Rolls            11 to 20

Speed     2 to 5

Dexterity              10 to 23

Combat Values    3  to 10

Campaign Rules

Do not use hit location.

Do not use Knockback rules; use Knockdown instead.

Do not use longÄrange endurance rules.

Do use Limited Push; Must make Ego roll to push powers.

Campaign Plan

Starting Year: 2592 AD

The rate of time passage varies. It will speed up during long travel periods.

Campaign Type: Swash-buckling Space Mercs

Known Alien Races: Too many to list.  Humans and variants are common.

Base world: Terra, Sol System

The frequency of Good worlds: Scattered. Exploration is Ongoing and widespread.

Technology

Power Sources

Anti-matter and Fusion reactors are common and relatively cheap and reliable. Solar arrays and power satellites are also in use. Major planetary power grids use redundant room temperature superconductor lines.

Transportation

Countra-grav vehicles are common for personal planetary travel. Rail systems and surface ships are used for bulk transportation. Wheeled and tracked vehicles are used for agriculture and mining.

Spacecraft use a Hyperdrive for interstellar, faster-than-light, travel. This allows speeds of 1 to 10 Parsecs per day. Complex calculations are required before entering hyperspace. A ship in hyperdrive cannot affect or be detected from normal space. It can be affected by storms and creatures which exist in hyperspace. A hyperdrive is reliable, given regular maintenance. Malfunctions can result in odd time dilation/expansion effects and/or emergence in normal space far from the intended destination.

It is not safe to prematurely drop out of hyperspace; it places great stress on the Ship and personnel onboard. It usually takes at least a week to recalibrate the hyperdrive after a premature drop.

A jump drive is known, but not widely used. It requires a specially talented Psi adept.

Spacecraft use a  reactionless "Thruster" drive. This drive seems to violate or bend many laws of Relativity physics. Typically, a ship will be rated at 10 -100 mt/sec/sec acceleration. Some "barge" or racing vessels will be outside this range.

Teleportation devices, including stargates, are known but not understood.  All existing examples are unreliable and dangerous ancient artifacts from forerunner cultures.

Communications

Faster-than-light communication is possible using either a Tachyon transceiver (TTR) or a Hyperspace pulse generator (HPG). A Tachyon transceiver is limited to about 5 to 10 light year range but is reasonably small. A Hyperpulse generator (HPG) has a range of several thousand light year, with an effective speed of transmittal of about 256 light years/day.  It is a large, bulky device, (several thousand tons) which is usually deployed as a space station.

Tachyon transceiver relay buoys are deployed by explorers and military expeditions to extend their communication ranges.

Remote Sensing

Tachyon emissions from thrusters, hyperdrive engines, gravity control devices, or ship weapons can be detected at ranges of several hundred light seconds.

Very large optical and radio telescopes have been built.  These allow detection of habitable planets at ranges of hundreds of Lightyears.

Medicine

General purpose antiÄantibiotics, antiÄagatics, slow-time, and limited regeneration drugs are available. Regeneration tanks are available.

Bionics are available, reliable, and comfortable.  Elective bionics are rarely seen, particularly since implants are no longer required for direct mental interfacing with computers.  Powered exoÄskeletons have replaced most combat bionics.

Genetic engineering, cloning, and brain-taping are available but restricted. Genetically engineered humans are common in some parts of the Republic and the Mercantile league. The Republic was building the "New Soviet Man" and supersoldiers for their wars with the Empire and the Councilate.

Civil Engineering

Large sspace tructures, such as L5 colonies and floating cities are common.  Union technology has not yet developed the capability to produce starcities, but could if there was a good reason to do so. The IRSOL and some Councilate races do build starcities.

Most cities cover a small area but are densely populated. They frequently consist of giant buildings or large underground facilities. Such cities have less impact on ecosystems and are easier to defend from space attacks. Extensive suburbs and road networks are avoided. 

Agriculture

Food is cheap and easily obtained, for the most part. Advances in transportation and robotics have helped a great deal.  Interestingly, several colonies on Jupiter and Saturn's moons are noted food sources; a monument to agricultural engineering.

Computers and Robots

It is possible to build a computer with effectively human (or superior) intelligence and creativity. Slavery of any intelligent, sentient being is illegal almost everywhere except the Empire; this includes computers as well as biologicals. Free-willed AI's can be dangerous. Their motives are not the same as those of biologicals. Free-willed AI devices, including sentient robots, are rare.

Nanotechnology has rendered implanted "hardwired" manÄcomputer interfaces relatively safe and convenient.

Weaponry

There is an extensive variety of energy and projectile weaponry available for ground, sea, air, and space combat. To counter these threats advanced armor and forcefield systems are available. Electronic camouflage and counterÄmeasures have advanced to match advances in sensor technology.

Nuclear damper field technology has spread throughout known space. The damper effectively neutralizes nuclear weapons. As a bonus, it reduces the destructive effects of large meteor strikes. Unfortunately, chemical and biological weapons still work all too well. The Imperial scum developed some "interesting" applications of microwaves and radio-active dust; the Xenon damper doesn't stop these weapons.

Magic or Psionics

Several elder races have supported the rational development of Psionic talents. True adepts are rare and require extensive practice to develop their skills. Most physical effects require some sort of amplifying matrix.

Like Stringbean, I keep it close to my heart

https://photos.app.goo.gl/g78vlLOw

XBcvJmjt2

Seldon's Starcraft 2 and the Space Opera Trillion Credit Squadron

Zoe the cat and I spent a productive Sunday afternoon perusing the Starships of War for Space Opera. I started a spreadsheet of ship statistics, intending to do some "Trillion Credit Squadron" fun.

Trillion Credit Squadron

Back in the day, Traveller supported wargame style play. One supplement in this line was Trillion Credit Squadron. Players designed their own fleets, using the High Guard big ship rules. Then they lined them up, using the ship combat rules and slugged it out to find out who was the best designer and fleet commander. The results were very interesting; Douglas Lenat ran hundreds of simulations using his AI Program while designing his fleets and won the national contest two years running. 

Space Opera’s shipbuilding rules never included the ‘secret’ military design rules. In their absense, we can use published examples. Eight sample fleet lines were published in Seldon’s guides 2 and 3. 

The compendiums sad Stats for Destroyers, Cruisers, and other space warships. In the fiction, Battleships designed according to each fleet’s capabilities and cultural preferences. Four more or less human cultures, four more or less alien cultures. 

Every Starnation’s culture was reflected in their ship designs. The UFP built the best ships they could; the expense was no object. In comparison, the Mercantile League kept a close eye on the bottom line. Both had to protect hundred of allies and colonies scattered over hundreds of lightyears. The oppressive Azurich Imperium built big nasty attack ships for their relatively few chosen crews. Their ships were not designed to defend broad areas of space, but merely for destruction. The Galactic People’s republic had more manpower. They built many cheaper ships to utilize this advantage.  

Each ship classification came in several varieties t different levels of technological sophistication. Each ship had a price, fixed to the ‘hard’ credit of the Federation and League banks. Prices ranged from a few megacredits for cheap starfighters, to hundreds of Billions for the top of the line Battlestars. 

I built a spreadsheet model for buying warships. List out the classes and their prices, pick and choose and compare.

For example, take the most expensive ships in the books, Federation Concordant Battlestars. One point two five million tons, crews of thousands. Carries thousands of marines, hundreds of fighters, and tens of thousands of tons cargo. Each mounts over two dozen of the most powerful ship to ship weapons, with armor and shields to match. With crack gun crews, a Battlestar can wreck a destroyer in less than five minutes. UFP Battlestars are not super-fast, but they can cross between stars faster than GPR or Imperial battleships. Big bad mama-jammers. 

With a trillion credits we can afford three Battlestars. And we get change. Nearly a hundred billion left over to buy full fighter groups, ten destroyers, and thirty scout/couriers. That’ll make some pirate lord or galactic tyrant soil their pants

Or what the heck, let's stock up on destroyers. For a trillion, we can get 200 destroyers, ten destroyer leaders, and full fighter load outs – nearly 1,700 fighters. They’re lifting over 38,000 Space Marines.

A trillion credits of Fleet corvettes and Scouts yeilds 2,400 ships. None of their guns will even scratch the Battlestars’ paint. But they can launch ten times as many missiles as the Battlestar’s fighter groups.

More to follow!

How much is a ton of Starship?

In FGU’s Space Opera RPG (1980) Spaceships are sized in Tons. Section 9.9 in Book 2 on Page 54 tells us a ton of ship equals a volume of 3 cubic meters. 

(Or you are a true blue patriotic American fanatic, 100 cubic feet. Not equal, but close enough for D&D.)

Ships in Book 1 and Seldon’s Compendium of Space Craft Vol 1 (1981) are constant with this volume to weight ratio.

But in Seldon’s Volume 2 (1984) there’s a stealth rule change. A ton of ship is now 30 cubic meters. This ratio is repeated in Seldon’s Volume 3 (1988). We can be reasonably sure it’s not a typo.

The Nike Scout and Nemesis Corvette class ships are in both Seldon’s Volume 1 and Volume 2. In Vol1, there are volumes listed for these ships. This is consistently 3 cubic meters per ton. Volume totals are not in the stats in Seldon’s Volume 2 and 3.

I don’t believe any of FGU’s published Space Opera deck plans included a scale. They work just as well scaling 1 square meter up to 100 square feet. Triple the width and length add a few centimetres headspace and deck thickness.  A drawing scaled for  3 cubic meters equals one ton easily translates to 30 cubic meters equals one ton.

Handwave, Handwave, close enough for D&D. 

Actual weight/mass of these ships doesn’t matter. In the Space Opera game, ships use ultra-science inertia-less antigravity faster-than-light space drives. They don’t violate the laws of physics as we know them.  Space Opera sends rampaging hordes of bugs to devour the laws of physics. Space Opera tech is "Sufficiently Advanced"!

Why the change? I speculate the Nemesis corvette inspired the change. That boat carries a company of space marines. Somebody familiar with shipping requirements of a military unit may have seen the deck plans. And had a fit of the giggles. It was the 1980s, the news was full of stories about military transportation during the Gulf War.

Same for anybody who tried to fit in Fighter bays. Same for anybody who tried to figure out how some of these ships made money trading. Any ship that can’t carry standard shipping containers does not have a cargo bay. It has a broom closet.

This sort of thing was not unique to the Space Opera game. I remember it affecting the more popular Traveller Game. I was surprised while reading Traveller High Guard. A Traveller ton is 13.5 to 14 cubic meters. The volume of a ton of liquid hydrogen. Why? A ton of water is a single cubic meter. Real world ships have 3 to 5 cubic meters of interior space per displacement ton. Early deck plans published by Judge’s Guild were tiny, compared to later plans for the same ships. 


So a ton of Space Opera ship takes the volume of two tons of Traveller ship. A Nike class scout is 7.5 times the volume of a classic Traveller scout. It has a bigger crew, more and bigger guns, better defenses, and ridiculously higher performance. 

Prerequisite skill tree

Generating Personal Characteric numbers with a spreadsheet

Ok, I'm building a prototype of the Personal Characteristics module in my application in Excel.

I stuck a couple three cells to roll dice for me, thus

d100 Roll Select& Press F9	43
d20 Roll Select & Press F9	10
d6 Roll Select & Press F9	6

Label Cells                               Formula Cells
"d100 Roll by pressing" F9   =RANDBETWEEN(1,100)
"d20 Roll by pressing"   F9  =RANDBETWEEN(1,20)
"d6 Roll by pressing"     F9 =RANDBETWEEN(1,6)

Then I built a table, with the rows being the 14 Prime Characteristics.

Columns are Characteristic Name, Die Roll, Modifier to the Die Roll, and Modified Die roll. The fourth column, of course, equals the sum of the second and third.

I calculate a total cost for the Modifiers, with a conditional formatting if the total goes over 35, changing the cell to yellow. The total cost = the sum of all the modifers except psionics, which only costs half the modifier. The player has to keep track of what Personal Characteristic rolls can be modified for the selected profession.

The next two columns allow the user to look up the personal characterisitc values for the die roll and modified die roll. A last column allows the user to put in the final characteristic value after all the various adjustments for Home gravity and Profession. This last column's values will be transcribed to the character sheet.


Below is a calculated table showing the calculated preservice  skill point totals for each profession, including the alternate calculation for Med techs. These are based on the unmodified, modified, and final adjusted values columns for Personal characteristics. I included the unmodified and modified calculations to help the user mini-max a bit while modifing die rolls.

Next there are spaces for recording Planetary Gravity, Athmosphere, and climate rolls, and for noting the effects. The rules assume these will be generated randomly, rather than being based on a world already created for the campaign. Sounds like a place for the players to do some colabrative world building, by fleshing out their characters' homeworlds.

Next there's a table where the user can record if the charcter being created, base on attributes and home planet, qulifies to be an alien.

(Humans, Humanoids, and for some dang reason, Avians, are automatic qualifications. Other "races" will have minimum and maximum values for certain characteristics, as well as restrictions on their homeworlds.)

Next is a place to record height and weight of the charcter, and calculated fields for their secondary characteristics such as Wound Factor and Carrying capacity.

Developing the characters prior service and allocating Skill points will be addressed by future tools.