Ringworld

[TKalbfus]

Well Larry Niven had Vampires and Ghouls on his Ringworld, so I don't see introducing Elves as such a radical departure from that. As I said before, they aren't D&D Elves, the fact that they have innate psionic powers should indicate that, but its a big ringworld and no particular race is really essential. Wizards are just an idea for a character class. If the name "wizard" bothers you how about borrowing some character classes from GammaWorld? In the back of the GammaWorld Player's Handbook are a set of D&D Style character classes. There's the Enforcer (GammaWorld's Fighter), the Esper (a psionic wizard or sorts), the Examiner (a character proficient in using technological artifacts, and the Scout similar to Traveller's scout class except more primitive. GammaWorld differs from Ringworld mostly in shape and size, but the general concept is the same. The main thing GammaWorld has that the Ringworld lacks is radiation. Ringworld's downfall was not caused by a nuclear war, if indeed there was a downfall in the first place. Perhaps there never was a ringworld spanning civilization of the type you seem to assume. My assumption is that the ringworld was built by intelligent robots in the absence of humans, the humans only came afterwards. The robots were only following their programming and following the last order they received before the human race died out. This ringworld is not a ruin. Everything functions that is supposed to, but the living accomodations haven't been built yet. The robots took some initiative after there were no humans to order them about anymore, by their programming, they must follow orders given to them by a human, but they also come to the conclusion that following those orders is ultimately bad for human society, so they basically avoid humans. Less intelligent unflexible robots are ordered around by the more intelligent variety that remain in hiding. the cruder robots don't understand human language and have very specialized functions, so those kinds are usually what humanity encounters. You can chuck the other races if you like and just use humans. I don't mean to overdefine the ringworld, I just meant to detail enough of the place so you can conduct adventures on it.

This is not Shadowrun because there is no magic, if you read enough of these posts, you'd realize that rather that you automatically jumping to the conclusion that elves = magic = D&D.

 

[TKalbfus]

As to the issue of bigness. The only things that matter are the number of advanced civilizations. It is the advanced civilizations that have things the PCs might want. The primitives you can take or leave or just ignore. Having a bunch of knights in armor charging you from horse back is just a "turkey shoot" to you typical Traveller Adventure Party. One exception is if you want to start off your party as primitive ringworld denizens, and have them aquire more advanced technology as they adventure and through the treasures they find.

As far as treasure is concerned just use the tables in the DM's Guide as far as money is concerned. For the primitives are concerned, treat a copper pieces result as tin pieces, silver as iron, gold as copper, and platinum as silver. As the PCs increase in tech level add more gold and platnum as they defeat foes with higher tech levels as well. When a magic item is indicated in the treasure roll, substitute an advanced tech item instead. If the PCs come from outside the ringworld, they can mostly ignore the primitives, unless the GM puts them in a situation where they lose most of their equipment. Mostly the PCs will be dealing with the advanced civilizations, as they'll have stuff and the gold pieces that they want. How important the ringworld is in YTU depends on how many advanced civilizations their are on it. That is your decision. If most of the population is primitive, it doesn't really matter if they happen to outnumber the population of the Imperium, as the Imperium won't typically interact with them anyway, at best there a source of cheap labor if properly trained, it takes money and resources to train them to assemble grav vehicles on a factory floor however.

 

[selunatic2397]

I'm not jumping to any conclusions Tom, just sharing my gaming experiences and my own opinions. I was in no way attacking you. I appologize if it seemed in any way to be that to you and I bid you a good day. I shall try to avoid this thread in the future to avoid causing any negative vibes.

 

[TKalbfus]

Well, what's wrong with big? You can fly over millions of medeaval kingdoms in your spaceship and billions of knights on horseback can fire their bows at you, but the effect is the same as simply traveling through empty space. Unless you land and interact with the primitives, they can't interact with you. the ones that you do have to worry about are those who have their own spaceships and can shoot you down. That's all I was trying to explain.

 

[TKalbfus]

Here is the ringworld Scout/Courier (magnetic), it is a fusion powered maglev/jet airplane/spaceshipm its space travel capability is very minimal as it has no maneuver drives, and no jump drives, it simply hovers above the atmosphere and uses its remaining impulse to accelerate at 1.73-G for up to 1 hour. With a midpoint turn around, it can cover 54,987 km above the atmosphere.

Ringworld SCOUT/COURIER (Magnetic)
Class: Spaceship, type S
Tech Level: 11
Size: Medium (100 tons)
Streamlining: Streamlined
Space Range*: 54,987 km
Acceleration: 1.73-G above atmosphere, 2-G below.
Space Fuel**: 20 tons
Power Plant Fuel: 4 tons
Duration:: 4 weeks
Space Fuel Duration***: 1 hour
Crew: 1
Staterooms: 4
Cargo Space: 20 tons
Atmosperic Speeds: NoE = 275 kph, Cruising = 825 kph, Maximum 1100 kph
Other Equipment: Air/Raft (magnetic), fuel scoops.
EP Output: 4 (2 excess)
Agility: 2 (+2 EP)
Initiative: +2 (+2 agility)
AC: 12
SI: 100
Main Computer: Model/1 (5 CPU)
Sensor Range: Close (Model/1)
Comm. Range: Close (Model/1)
Cost: 2,112,900 gp (new)

Medium-Size Spaceship
This is a common scout ship used by the ringworld natives, it is a short range spaceship capable of flying above ringworld’s atmosphere for up to 1 hour. This scout/courier is 3 vehicles in 1. First it’s a maglev vehicle capable of cruising along the surface at 275 kph NoE speeds. Second it can fly like an airplane as when its propelled by its fusion jets at 825 kph cruising and 1100 kph maximum. Third above the atmosphere, its fusion jets become fusion rockets and it uses up its 20 tons of space fuel in 1 hour. Above the atmosphere, it can accelerate at 1.73-G instead of two, since it must devote a 1-G component of its rocket thrust to maintaining altitude above the atmosphere. The rest of its horizontal acceleration amounts to 1.73-G allowing it to cover a distance of 54,987 km in 1 hour. When its space fuel is used up, it drops into the atmosphere and uses its fusion jets the rest of the way. Space fuel and power plant fuel are both hydrogen. The natives of ringworld that manufacture this scout ship do not have maneuver drives, jump drives, or grav units, instead they fusion torch rockets, fusion jets (for in atmosphere maneuvering), and maglev superconducting coils for maglev travel and spaceship landings. Without an operation maglev unit, this scout ship requires a 1000 meter long runway to make its landings.

 

[TKalbfus]

I've decided to locate this ringworld in the Spica Sector Hex 1414. I have a discussion going in that thread if anyone cares to look there. The Cotl Spica Project, Worlds and Polities I believe its called or something like that. we can discuss how the discovery of ringworld affects the sector or subsector. The ringworld is not discovered until 990 or the official start date because its existance has been clevely hidden by robot agents of the ringworld until now. Now they decided to let the ringworld be discovered, perhaps a new phase in their experiment. The robots make themselves scarce and abandon the 6 starports that it has. All H level technology has been removed as well leaving physical structures behind to be reoccupied by humans or what ever decided to take possession of them. See you there.

 

[Straybow]

Alternate Ring Worlds

I would change the ringworld to conform a little better to the technological paradigm of Traveller or whatever game setting you wish. Break out of the Ringworld mold entirely, so there is no confusion about whether you intend to model the copywrited material.

Niven was attempting to make it "hard" sf. He included minimal deviations from known science, primarily "scrith" and FTL travel. But let's toss that aside. We have a milieu that allows grav tech and other science fantasies, so use them.

Here is what I call the Bow-Ring™: </font>

• Setting: The Ring is placed around a smaller, cozy K star in a binary system. The companion is a neutron star several thousand AU distant. The builders used material from both systems (and perhaps the companion neutron star itself) to construct the Ring.</font>
• Dimensions: Radius is compatible with temperate environment based on insolation of the K star, 74M km. Width of 290k km does not appear to be dictated by external requirements. Spherical curvature of the band and artificial rim mountains up to 60 km high help to hold in an atmosphere, but are not the primary means of containment.</font>
• Composition: Superdense materials (equivalent to Traveller TL16 hull tech) are sufficient for ring base material. The base is several km thick (perhaps varying according to the builders' inscrutible equipment and other requirements). The inner surface is covered with a geologically active lithoderm 50+ km thick.</font>
• Gravitational Technology: The Ring does not use centripetal accelleration for "gravity" but rotates at an arbitrarily slow period of 291 days. Gravtech provides surface gravity, atmospheric containment, and other services. Geological activity of the lithoderm is undoubtedly powered and directed by programmed gravity generators.</font>
• Environment: Diurnal and seasonal cycles are provided by shadow blocks that move along an elliptical course approximately 14.8M km from the inside of the Ring. The Ring itself is also flexible enough to assume an elliptical "orbit" around the primary. The total diurnal period is nearly constant, while the relative lengths of day and night shift in cycles similar to a planet with axial tilt. Speed and spacing of the blocks are consistent with natural elliptical orbit parameters. The thin blocks would naturally nutate but are instead constrained to a negligible wobbling that has no effect on the shadowing of the Ring surface.</font>
• Safety Systems: Objects approaching the Ring are slowed and directed by gravitational manipulators to vectors that pose minimal threat to the Ring. Tests with accelerated comets demonstrate manipulators reaching at least 150M km outside the ring. The mysterious gravtech employed does not radiate from detectable point sources, rather emanates from the entire width and a lengthy arc of the ring, and emanates from the shadow blocks as well. The defenses permit low velocity impacts as shown by geologically preserved meteorite impact sites on the inner surface of the Ring, some more than 4 km across.</font>