Do you use them in your game? Things like Ringworld and Dyson Spheres?
I always have problems with them. The best I can usually do is a really big sleeper ship. I always want to keep the builders around since, if they were smart enough to make the thing, you would think they would have survived anything. I had some success many years ago by saying the builders had evolved to a peaceful navel gazing society of thinkers. In other words, so obsessed with knowledge they never left their think tanks, ignoring the explorers. They used drones to remotely explore anything of interest and their tanks were nigh impenetrable. Still, that only works so many times. :)
Bill
I really haven't. They (dyson spheres & ringworlds) sound cool but really seem just too far fetched to me. The amount of material moved and construction is just insane, like building hundreds of planets.
That's not to say that I haven't used other things that are just as impossible. Everyone has things that trips up their suspension of disbelief.
I've thought of using big sublight colony ships but it's been done so many times.
But a Red Dwarf style game would be fun.
Traveller's setting includes at least one partially complete ringworld, a rosette of worlds, and a parsecs-wide artificial pocket dimension, but I've never had opportunity to use any of them.
I use them, but in my campaign setting the universe only moved 6,500 years while the Sol System moved over 65 million years. This meant that humans hit the galaxy after...
You know what, it doesn't matter.
Yeah, I've used them. Partially completed/destroyed, fully finished, and in use ringworlds, keppler rossettes, and all kinds of stuff.
Quote from: jrientsa parsecs-wide artificial pocket dimension
I remember the others, but where is this located?
Quote from: ColonelHardissonI remember the others, but where is this located?
I'm talking about Grandfather's pet universe. IIRC it is 'co-extant' with a part of the Spinward Marches.
Quote from: jrientsI'm talking about Grandfather's pet universe. IIRC it is 'co-extant' with a part of the Spinward Marches.
Sorry, but I'm not familiar with Grandfather. Is this something that came in Megatraveller?
Quote from: ColonelHardissonSorry, but I'm not familiar with Grandfather. Is this something that came in Megatraveller?
No, he appears in the last adventure in the Ancients series. That's Classic Trav.
I think it's also all described in the megatraveller book on Droyne. Grandfather is a really special droyne - he and his created children make all the cool toys, including the Vargr and humans all over the place. Then after a few thousand years, grandfather kills off all of his kids and retreats to his pocket dimension. The remaining droyne are scattered war survivors.
Quote from: jrientsNo, he appears in the last adventure in the Ancients series. That's Classic Trav.
I have a ton of the CT little black books, but I must've missed that one. Do you recall the title?
Quote from: ColonelHardissonI have a ton of the CT little black books, but I must've missed that one. Do you recall the title?
Adventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients
Quote from: jrientsAdventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients
A dismal reveal that has never formed part of my personal Traveller canon.
Quote from: jrientsAdventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients
Cool. Thanks. The only "Ancients" adventure I have is "Twilight's Peak," and I don't even know if that's part of the series.
Yeah, it is.
Quote from: BalbinusA dismal reveal that has never formed part of my personal Traveller canon.
As much as I would love to run the Ancients series some time, I cannot figure out a good way to make the ending not suck.
Quote from: HinterWeltDo you use them in your game? Things like Ringworld and Dyson Spheres?
I always have problems with them. The best I can usually do is a really big sleeper ship. I always want to keep the builders around since, if they were smart enough to make the thing, you would think they would have survived anything. I had some success many years ago by saying the builders had evolved to a peaceful navel gazing society of thinkers. In other words, so obsessed with knowledge they never left their think tanks, ignoring the explorers. They used drones to remotely explore anything of interest and their tanks were nigh impenetrable. Still, that only works so many times. :)
Bill
Sure. I play the Ringworld RPG and I cowrote Aquavita, a game about a Dyson sphere.
-clash
One of these sorts of things that I've always loved using in my Sci-fi games is the really old patchwork spacestation. Basically, a totally ancient spacestation that was added-onto over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, with a total mix of technologies and cultural influences. Makes for a really cool place to set an adventure (hell, there's probably some service ducts or sections of the station that are abandoned, and who knows what ancient things are in there? or what kind of illicit stuff goes on there?).
Another concept I really like is the gigantic artificial planet: like Weber's World in the Legion of Superheroes setting. I've been having some fun with it in my legion campaign, and plan to have more.
RPGPundit
I've always liked the idea of a huge starship, like a Star Wars Star Destroyer, being abandoned and having to be explored. There was an old WEG Star Wars adventure based on a Victory-class Star Destroyer which had been badly damaged and was in the process of going to pieces. I liked the basic concept, but the adventure was pretty linear (as I recall), and didn't give a lot of detail about the ship's interior.
Oddly, the ship in Metamorphosis Alpha kinda left me cold. I don't like when the inhabitants of a ship like that don't realize they're on a ship. If I ran it, I'd prefer the PCs were a crew sent to clear out and salvage the ship.
Quote from: ColonelHardissonOddly, the ship in Metamorphosis Alpha kinda left me cold. I don't like when the inhabitants of a ship like that don't realize they're on a ship. If I ran it, I'd prefer the PCs were a crew sent to clear out and salvage the ship.
There's a variant MA starting scenario in an old Dragon. IIRC the basic idea is that you're the emergency crew awakened from cold sleep a few centuries too late.
Quote from: jrientsThere's a variant MA starting scenario in an old Dragon. IIRC the basic idea is that you're the emergency crew awakened from cold sleep a few centuries too late.
Yeah, I vaguely remember that. I'll have to check my Dragon archive CD-ROM. I used the basic premise as the backstory I wrote for a prospective MA game I thought about after I got the Amazing Engine version of MA, Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega.
I always liked the thought of colony ships drifting out there while the rest of the universe developed FTL travel. Especially living colonies as opposed to huge cryogenic fridges. I think I had one of those in a Star Wars adventure when I was a wee bairn...
Quote from: SosthenesI always liked the thought of colony ships drifting out there while the rest of the universe developed FTL travel. Especially living colonies as opposed to huge cryogenic fridges. I think I had one of those in a Star Wars adventure when I was a wee bairn...
We have big slow colony boats in StarCluster, The fastest left the Earth last, and got to the Cluster first - taking 1200 years on the way. The slowest were launched first, and some have yet to reach the Cluster 500 years later, including the single ship from Alpha Centauri. Meanwhile, the first arrivals got the best planets, developed FTL drive, and sent out their own colonies. Who knows aht's been going on in those creaky old ships, drifting in space for some 1700 years...
-clash
caution non-canon:
My Traveller campaign ended on a Ringworld. The Ringworld Eden was constructed by the Atlantean-Protectors to hide humanity from the Ancients during the Earth-Ancient Wars, as well as protect humanity from the Empress Wave Device. Sadly, Yaskodray found out and planted the superconductor disease.
While the players were racing halfway around the far frontiers sector, chasing the machinations of a nutty Psychohistorian, they found Eden.
In the end, two players decided to eat from the life-free. They became Atlantean-Protectors, figured that the 3I vs. Zho war wasn`t a big deal, and decided to go after Yaskodray to win the 300k-year-war once and for all instead.
Quote from: jrientsAdventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients
I have to say that "secrets of the anciets' is one of the few OT LBB products I have, and it was fairly disappointing as an adventure, it was more like a guided tour just to set up an official answer to all the ancient questions.
QuoteI have to say that "secrets of the anciets' is one of the few OT LBB products I have, and it was fairly disappointing as an adventure, it was more like a guided tour just to set up an official answer to all the ancient questions.
Not if the players are Protectors, there to kill Grandfather!
Quote from: Dominus NoxI have to say that "secrets of the anciets' is one of the few OT LBB products I have, and it was fairly disappointing as an adventure, it was more like a guided tour just to set up an official answer to all the ancient questions.
I think the folks at GDW weren't too happy with it, either. I think Loren Wiseman wrote in some JTAS editorial that this module was a case of giving the fans what they wanted, and the fans discovering that some things are best kept mysterious.
Not that Secret of the Ancients is a particularly well-crafted adventure, but GDW put it out there because their customer base was pestering them to reveal the big secret that had only been glimpsed in the previous modules. I think it's an amusing cautionary tale: listen to your fans, but think about what you're giving them before you give it. Or...something. I can't think of a nice pithy way to close this post.
Quote from: SettembriniNot if the players are Protectors, there to kill Grandfather!
You mean protectors like Niven's protectors?
Quote from: KenHRI think the folks at GDW weren't too happy with it, either. I think Loren Wiseman wrote in some JTAS editorial that this module was a case of giving the fans what they wanted, and the fans discovering that some things are best kept mysterious.
Not that Secret of the Ancients is a particularly well-crafted adventure, but GDW put it out there because their customer base was pestering them to reveal the big secret that had only been glimpsed in the previous modules. I think it's an amusing cautionary tale: listen to your fans, but think about what you're giving them before you give it. Or...something. I can't think of a nice pithy way to close this post.
Of course GDW then ignored their fanbase and put out TNE. So they were damned if they do and damned if they don't.
QuoteYou mean protectors like Niven's protectors?
What else could be fun?