This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Good-for-RPG-Campaign Stellar Maps of our real galaxy/local space?

Started by RPGPundit, January 20, 2010, 02:47:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

RPGPundit

Does anyone know of any? Where we might be able to find one, that would be useful for playing an RPG Sci-fi campaign, with the emphasis on usability for being able to determine things like location of different stars and estimating distances?

RPGPundit
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

jeff37923

Quote from: RPGPundit;356661Does anyone know of any? Where we might be able to find one, that would be useful for playing an RPG Sci-fi campaign, with the emphasis on usability for being able to determine things like location of different stars and estimating distances?

RPGPundit

Project Rho is your friend!

Of course, if you like Traveller, there is this site.
"Meh."

T. Foster

GDW's Traveller:2300 (aka 2300 AD) came with a poster-map showing all the stars within, IIRC, 50ly of Earth that was scientifically accurate at the time (though from what I understand it's since been rendered obsolete...).
Quote from: RPGPundit;318450Jesus Christ, T.Foster is HARD-fucking-CORE. ... He\'s like the Khmer Rouge of Old-schoolers.
Knights & Knaves Alehouse forum
The Mystical Trash Heap blog

jeff37923

Quote from: T. Foster;356669GDW's Traveller:2300 (aka 2300 AD) came with a poster-map showing all the stars within, IIRC, 50ly of Earth that was scientifically accurate at the time (though from what I understand it's since been rendered obsolete...).

It has been rendered obsolete (it was based on data from 1969), however there is a new and more accurate data set if you want to do the work to create a new near star map. Just run a search for Hiapparcos Satellite Data and you can download the massive tables.

If you aren't looking for college academia level accuracy in data though, the 2300AD/Traveller: 2300 Near Star Map and Near Star List are one good way to go.
"Meh."

PaladinCA

I have a book at home that has real star charts of the Milky Way Galaxy in it.

I'll try to track it down. I don't recall the title at the moment.

flyingmice

Quote from: RPGPundit;356661Does anyone know of any? Where we might be able to find one, that would be useful for playing an RPG Sci-fi campaign, with the emphasis on usability for being able to determine things like location of different stars and estimating distances?

RPGPundit

The data set files that came with the Cold Space and FTL Now pdfs is accurate as to 2006/2007 respectively. You can freely DL them from their respective pages, linked above. You'll need the NBOS Astrosynthesis Reader (free DL from NBOS) or the full Astrosynthesis to read them, though! Both show the Oikumene, a 20 LY radius around Sol. Commonwealth Space uses the same data set, so it didn't have a separate one.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

RPGPundit

LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

It was all a mistake

Hi long time lurker. I thought I'd throw in my suggestions.

Project Rho is a great resource as per jeff37923 suggestion, its been an invaluable resource.

However for an overview map I often use the following artists impressions of the Milky Way from the Spitzer Space Telescope site. The great thing is these are free for you to use and are supplied in High Resolution so you can overlay your own detail over the top.

They can be found at the URL below (about eight or so images down the page) with a host of other images you might find useful as props.
http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/chron.php?cat=Artist_Conceptions

Hope thats useful.

jeff37923

Quote from: It was all a mistake;356933They can be found at the URL below (about eight or so images down the page) with a host of other images you might find useful as props.
http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/chron.php?cat=Artist_Conceptions

Hope thats useful.

This link is going into my bookmarks.

Post more! You are contributing value to this site!
"Meh."

RPGPundit

LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

tellius

One of the broken links off Project Rho is to a starmap I use all the time.

I found it super useful for a 2-D representation of the local star system.

Nifty link off the source page is to a map with the places from Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, which I liked as well, since I really liked those books.

RPGPundit

LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

PaladinCA

I looked for that book last night.

I can't find it.

To hell with it.

tellius

Quote from: RPGPundit;357149That hex-starmap is really great, Tellius!

Another handy use is to map space lanes / wormhole lanes and see the tactical locations appear before your eyes. Throw in a couple space stations in the middle of nowhere and campaigns just jump out at you.

On wormholes, if you want to play anything in the Lois McMaster Bujold literary space (the wormhole nexus), it is also handy since most of the planets are implied to be in this area of space.

StormBringer

Quote from: jeff37923;356666Of course, if you like Traveller, there is this site.
Your sentence reads as though there is more than one correct answer.  :)
If you read the above post, you owe me $20 for tutoring fees

\'Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I have no concern for it, but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.\'
- Thomas Paine
\'Everything doesn\'t need