I liked the idea I read about on The Big Purple once, that a "jump drive" was discovered and... could be built with $200 worth of stuff from Radio Shack/Dick Smith. Of course, in an atmosphere of more than about 1/1,000th Earth-standard pressure the surrounding air turned into 30,000 degree plasma, so you needed to be able to get 50km (30 miles) up, and also needed a similar condition on the other side, so you had to have some craft which could boost up that high, and glide on back down, but... It put interstellar travel into the hands of thousands of people immediately, and millions within years.

All other tech remained the same.

That's as best as I remember it. The required altitude may have been less - or even, it might have been that the "jump" was only accurate to +/-50km, so you'd jump in at very high altitude otherwise you might end up jumping inside the destination planet!

Like flyingmice's Cold Space, just twink that one tech and it makes a big difference.

That's the difficulty with that hard/soft grading system. A lot of interesting scifi stories make the technology entirely like "today" (of whenever the story was written) except for that one change - so that the writer can explore the consequences of that one change, without muddying the waters of the story with all the other changes and their consequences. So many scifi stories are "hard", except for one middle sloppy bit. I guess we could call those stories, "eggs".

Quote from: JimBobOzI liked the idea I read about on The Big Purple once, that a "jump drive" was discovered and... could be built with $200 worth of stuff from Radio Shack/Dick Smith. Of course, in an atmosphere of more than about 1/1,000th Earth-standard pressure the surrounding air turned into 30,000 degree plasma, so you needed to be able to get 50km (30 miles) up, and also needed a similar condition on the other side, so you had to have some craft which could boost up that high, and glide on back down, but... It put interstellar travel into the hands of thousands of people immediately, and millions within years.

All other tech remained the same.

That's as best as I remember it. The required altitude may have been less - or even, it might have been that the "jump" was only accurate to +/-50km, so you'd jump in at very high altitude otherwise you might end up jumping inside the destination planet!

Like flyingmice's Cold Space, just twink that one tech and it makes a big difference.

That's the difficulty with that hard/soft grading system. A lot of interesting scifi stories make the technology entirely like "today" (of whenever the story was written) except for that one change - so that the writer can explore the consequences of that one change, without muddying the waters of the story with all the other changes and their consequences. So many scifi stories are "hard", except for one middle sloppy bit. I guess we could call those stories, "eggs".

That was Bailywolf's brilliant FTL Y'all thread. Actually, you could take off from a world's surface, but you had to enter 50 km up, IIRC.

I think where much hard SF goes wrong is they forget that it's never about the tech, it's always about the people. Trad games are adventure games, so you have to give people an excuse to adventure.

Example: Robot drone weapons should be available at this tech.
Problem: they are boring. The PCs just lob  these smart weapons and let them do the work.

Solution: AI's can't be used sor weapons because if they are smart enough to beat the target's defenses, they are sentient, and don't want to die. Implanting a death wish is dangerous for you as well as the enemy - hey, it's easier to take you with him than flying all the way to the target. Besides, smart weapons are proscribed legally, ethically, and morally, because convincing a sentient being to kill itself leads to places people don't want to go.

Some writers forget to go that extra step to make sure that people are at the center of everything.

-clash

QuoteI think where much hard SF goes wrong is they forget that it's never about the tech, it's always about the people.

Dear God I could not possibly agree more.  I think it's a problem with a lot of sci-fi.  Too much focus on the science and the widgets, and not enough on the people or how that science affects those people.

Quote from: J ArcaneDear God I could not possibly agree more.  I think it's a problem with a lot of sci-fi.  Too much focus on the science and the widgets, and not enough on the people or how that science affects those people.

That is the theory I made Nebuleon under. I am often told that Star Trek is all about inner conflict and drama but I do not see it to be honest. Yes, some of them are morality plays but too often it is about the Warp Field Integrity or some other technobabble. Do not get me wrong, I love the series but as a game...meh.

Bill

That's why I love Nebuleon!

There is nothing intrinsic to Hard SF that makes it less playable, but you have to be careful to let the PCs shine, amd not overwhelm them with gear.

-clash

Quote from: HinterWeltThat is the theory I made Nebuleon under. I am often told that Star Trek is all about inner conflict and drama but I do not see it to be honest. Yes, some of them are morality plays but too often it is about the Warp Field Integrity or some other technobabble. Do not get me wrong, I love the series but as a game...meh.

Bill

Part of the reason I prefer DS9 over all the other ST series put together, is the human aspect.  DS9 was very much about the people involved, and how this whole wormhole thing affected their lives, and the lives of eveeryone in that part of the galaxy.  

They also pretty much stayed far away from the technobabble most of the time.

Quote from: J ArcanePart of the reason I prefer DS9 over all the other ST series put together, is the human aspect.  DS9 was very much about the people involved, and how this whole wormhole thing affected their lives, and the lives of eveeryone in that part of the galaxy.  

They also pretty much stayed far away from the technobabble most of the time.

Oh, to be sure, I like the different series for different reasons. Voyager for the exploration, TOS for the balls out Kirk/McCoy/Spock action, TNG (least of all) FOR the technobabble, Enterprise (before it went off the tracks) for grittiness and DS9 for the character interaction. All that said, the setting is fundamentally flawed from a game RPG point of view. Any player worth his salt would break that setting fast. LUGTrek was the closest version (maybe FASATrek) to a workable rule set and even that had the problem of phasers levelling football fields worth of foes.

But, yeah, to me, character should be the focus of the game whether it is Fantasy, Shadow Run or Sci-Fi.

Bill (who likes to play riggers )

Incidentally, here is Bailywolf's "FTL, Y'all" thread over on the Big Purple. A $200 hypderdrive!