Looking for Tech idea on a drive system

[pennshome723]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process or designing a new Traveller based campaign, but the technology is much closer in nature to our current times. I am setting the game world start as 2165, roughly 150+ years from now based in the Earth/Sol solar system.

In my future Earth, the Earth has become 4 Political blocks that nations belonging to a specific block have banded together and working together to get ahead. The players will be members of the Federal Space Core - FSC, for the Brother Hood of Justice - BOJ block. The BOJ block nations consist of; America, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philipines and India. Now these nations have banded together and have set up colonies/cities on Earth's moon Luna, Mars, Venus, and Titan. As well as they have Outposts (mining, Scientifc, FSC/Naval) throughout the Sol system.

Note that there will be alot of strife and plots between the different blocks on Earth and on the major worlds in the Sol system of; Luna, Mars, Venus, and Titan. So also I want intersteller travel as well but I want to slow that down and control that alot. So in my campaign it is possible to travel to other solar systems, BUT a human must go into Cryo-Sleeper tubes to be able to make the trip. Think of the tech as appeared in Aliens (2 movie), Cyro-Sleep is quite developed and the tech has progressed to the point that making the trip using it is no big deal, it just takes time.

Now hear is where my request for help comes in. I want to try and use Sudo-Real technology and names for as much technology as I can. I was thinking for each light year that was traveled, that a human would need to stay in Cyro-Sleep the same amount of time. Thus if a ship were to travel to Alpha Centauri from Earth/Sol system...it would take 4.3 Light Years ~ 51 months in Cyro-Sleep. I was thinking that the drive system might be based off of Fusion-Fission Hybred drive, but I need realistic name for that.

I am feel it is not so important to go into all the Techno Bable widgets of what makes up this fanatasy drive system, just have the over-all names and general workings of how it works to explain it if I am ever asked. I do not want to make this FTL or Jump drive system, but instead my vision is that a magnetic charged energy bubble is generated around the ship. Since the drive systems power plant generates this buble and keeps it up, then the drive system makes the bubble travel through space. I am feeling that the bubble makes the ship travel maybe through real space like Warp would from Star Trek and maybe be slightly in the 4 or 5th dimension space.

For me and my design getting the intergalatic drive system named and planned out is the key to begin with. Now as I said in 150+ years in the future, mankine has traveller to a few neighboring solar systems, and each block has set up a few newer colonies in those same systems. None of the Blocks is claimed any world exclusively as their own and thus each settled world has different colonies from the different Blocks on each working together. There is a strong move to form a United Earth government, with the 4 blocks all merging together under a single government, using a Senate with a elected President. Each world would then become it's own political body and have representaion in that same UE Senate. For example Luna, Mars, Venus and Titan would all have full repersentation in the UE, with Alpha Centauri Primus having a provisionial representation until they become fully self-independant in the next 10+ years as planned.

The campaign is one of Exploration, First Contact, Politics, and etc.

As for other techs, the Power Plant can also generate a buble that can become shielding for war ships. Also i am saying that there are Plasma Beam turrets, Plasma Pules turrets, and Missles with Sand Casters and different Armor types. I also have in play, Robots, Bots, Clones, and Cyborgs.

My future world is a strange and wonderful place that very much feels like todays world on steroids super charged. My GM/DMing style is a focus on RPGing and not numbers/systems crunching. I just love plots within plots within plots, so small details are important to both me and my players.

 

[Lycanorukke]

I was thinking that the drive system might be based off of Fusion-Fission Hybred drive, but I need realistic name for that.

For the name, grab two surnames from somewhere and put them together. I like to use current scientists, but you could use the phonebook. To hide where you stole then names from, use obscure ones (eg: No Einstien, Asimov or Hawking)

Eg:
Higgs-Englert Shunt. (Physicists responsible for the Higgs boson)
The TDW computer (Tanaka-Devol-Walter, robotics)
A Boahen Cyber Link (prostheric eye researcher)

Etc

I do not want to make this FTL or Jump drive system, but instead my vision is that a magnetic charged energy bubble is generated around the ship. Since the drive systems power plant generates this buble and keeps it up, then the drive system makes the bubble travel through space. I am feeling that the bubble makes the ship travel maybe through real space like Warp would from Star Trek and maybe be slightly in the 4 or 5th dimension space.

You could take the 'mass effect' idea from the game of the same name.
A bubble is generated around the ship using a rare material. But instead of going to FTL speeds with negative mass as in the game, the best it can do is create a zero mass field thus permitting almost up to light speed but not beyond. Also the more power you provide the faster you go, but the more special material you need, thus really fast ships are the domain of the military, mega corps, governments, or lucky adventurers.

 

[robject]

For an interesting take on near-TL starships, you could look into the Spheres RPG, by Rachel Kronick.

The fundamental concepts here are:

(1) The Aegisite shield, which protects it from space debris when moving at high velocity.
(2) The ship's speed, given in DPL (Days per Light-Year).
(3) The K-D drive ("Anne Karlan-Julio DaRosa-Effect Drive") and the massive computing power required to preserve the field bubble.

The K-D drive simultaneously generates the field, provides some sort of propulsion (I think there's a fusion torch somewhere in there) and provides power. When I was actually trying to quantify it all, the power plant was a separate component, but in practical terms, I never really separated it.

The setting is FTL-based, and tries to be grittier than Traveller, with massive forward shielding to protect from debris when moving at high velocity, fusion-powered drives, and a distinctive look to ships.

...and I can't find the website. Let me search my mail...

Here's the main site: http://www.jiawen.net/spheres.html

And, here's my take on ship design for Spheres:

http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/scripts/spheres.html

 

[simonh]

Sounds like a decent basis for a campaign setting. Larry Niven wrote some SF stories in which the method for interstellar travel was to collapse the ship into a single, massive subatomic particle called a Superneutrino. Neutrinos barely interact with normal matter and travel at either lightspeed, or barely less. The Superneutrino is induced in such a way that it travels towards it's destination and 'decays' back into it's original form on arrival.

Figuring out how such long travel times affect the setting will be an issue. 5 years is a long time to spend getting anywhere, and more distant destinations will take multiple decades to reach. Even if you are in suspended animation, the rest of the universe isn't and the political and economic situation at the destination might be very different by the time you get there.

Simon Hibbs

 

[pennshome723]

Exactly...I like that part of it, because once the players start off as gaming...time will pass and they will be out of sorts in time to the rest of the world. I intend to keep the space travel drives almost constant...so Spacers will be a unique breed

 

[pennshome723]

I am thinking as the player explore life, they will travel out to their new colony and that will be their base. Time will pass and they will be slightly out of step as a SPACER, and those folks of their families they left behind (GroundPounders) will age greatly and die of old age as the Spacers live on. I like that sub plot that will creap up on the players...they really will not realize how or what that will do. Now being that they are tech based they will get training to keep their skills up to date, but they really will be out of step with life and I think that works well in the scope of the game.