Star Maps

Kuroth · June 07, 2012, 11:24:36 AM

Quote from: Drohem;546813Cool stuff! Thanks for the link.

The is a more recent edition, the deluxe edition, that includes stars in a 150 light year cube. It isn't free, but it has a more recent layout, with the increased content. It is an even better resource than the free one, and it has the same easy to use format. It is an ok educational tool too.

The Astrogator's Handbook Deluxe Edition

The Butcher · June 07, 2012, 12:12:35 PM

Quote from: Kuroth;546717The Astrogator's Handbook is a useful star map in 3 dimensions. It covers a 50 light year cube with the Sun at the center. It is pretty well done, and it is not written with a specific system in mind. It was created for science fiction authors in general.

Direct Link to The Astrogator's Handbook

THANK YOU. I have been looking for something like this for a while now. The closest I got was Exosolar which is beautiful, but kind of hard to work with at the game table.

Now one day (ha!) I'll plot this on hex paper, and run the hard SF, Earth-centric Traveller or SWN campaign I've always wanted.

Also, from this other thread (I'm pretty sure you've read it):

Quote from: SineNomine;546534I'll point to N. Harrison Ripp's beautifully convenient sector generator for Stars Without Number. Just click on the Worlds tab and you've got a list of setups. If you want more detail with the tags, you can just grab the free SWN rulebook; all the world generation is system-neutral.

Insufficient Metal · June 07, 2012, 12:22:50 PM

Quote from: Dodger;546709I fucking hate 2D star maps. Star maps should be 3D, with gravitational data and, ideally, annotations for calculating positional variance due to galactic drift.

However, Insufficient Metal's map looks pretty sweet. For. 2D star map.

Thanks?

I agree, they should be all those things, but I'm lazy and there are only so many hours in a day.

Kuroth · June 07, 2012, 08:52:06 PM

Quote from: The Butcher;546853THANK YOU. I have been looking for something like this for a while now. The closest I got was Exosolar which is beautiful, but kind of hard to work with at the game table.

Now one day (ha!) I'll plot this on hex paper, and run the hard SF, Earth-centric Traveller or SWN campaign I've always wanted.

Also, from this other thread (I'm pretty sure you've read it):

I thought they were pretty well done too. It's easy to go down a black hole of complexity for something like star charts for space travel, but this manages to be accurate enough for role-play games and precise within its set of goals. A win.

If you use Traveller with these, it is easy to find travel routes. A jump is equivalent to 1 parsec or 3.26 light years. One may define a jump by the setting, since it is really just a place holder term for an unknown method to defy present limits. So, instead of jump one may call it hyperspace, warp, spindizzy, etcetera. Stars Without Number would be a perfectly cool option too. I was plus-minus on it for some time, but it is really pretty cool.

flyingmice · June 07, 2012, 09:10:43 PM

I just used a paint program for the map I did for StarCluster 2E.

StarCluster 3 has no defined setting. You create your own cluster.

-clash

RPGPundit · June 08, 2012, 12:34:51 AM

That one map posted here is very impressive!

RPGPundit

The Traveller · June 11, 2012, 02:58:10 PM

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;546594I use Inkscape, though I respect the learning curve may be steeper than you're looking for. I did this in about a day.

Spoiler

Beautiful. How did you generate the numbered hexes, something in inkscape?

Insufficient Metal · June 11, 2012, 03:14:32 PM

Quote from: The Traveller;547834Beautiful. How did you generate the numbered hexes, something in inkscape?

Thanks! Actually no, I used a little hexmap generation app called mkhexgrid:

http://www.nomic.net/~uckelman/mkhexgrid/

About 45 minutes of farting around with it got me the results I wanted. And once I had the grid set up, I could repurpose it to other maps.