GURPS Spaceships and assumptions
Sep. 1st, 2011 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo then I spent the rest of my evening trying to design a Tel'tak in GURPS rules.
The power plant crystals are so handwavey the rules don't fit real well, and same for the sublight and hyperdrives. You just fill in boxes to say Engines And Power Goes Here. What they can do depends on the plot.
But the cargo and passenger capacity I think I got to work right.
I realised on this read of the rules that the GURPS Habitat converted to Steerage Cargo lists as its main benefit that it is pressurised and has life support. GURPS Cargo holds do not list those things. So standard cargo holds are unpressurised, and I need to revise the design on every cargo area I've yet invented.
... the main difference is the cost, so that's just a number I ignore anyway, but the other difference is how many people it can support. 4 people's worth of indefinite life support per cabin, which adds up, even if they're empty and meant for cargo.
Also, if it is officially habitat, then "They have sanitary, galley, and dining facilities appropriate to their size and quality. For example, a habitat with 10 luxury cabins will likely have a well appointed kitchen and sumptuous dining room; one with a single bunkroom may have a microwave oven and a mini-fridge."
One with only cargo space has, what, cupboards? But the important bit is the sanitary facilities: if it has any Habitat, it has a bathroom. ... possibly one only suitable for school changing rooms, but it exists.
A Tel'tak is SM+6, each cabin holds 5 tons of cargo and supports 4 people. So if you fill 7 sections with steerage cargo, the whole center of the ship say, you end up with approximately the 35,000 kg and 25 plus two people carrying capacity listed in SG1 semi canon.
... neither I nor anyone else really needs to know this, but, now I do.
The tricky bit was realising I hadn't seen escape pods on the equipment lists anywhere. I knew Incorrupt didn't have them, I didn't know I'd not figured them out as an option. The closest GURPS lists is the option to eject your control room if you put it somewhere other than the Core. Which is cool. But I needed escape pods, in particular. So I poked GURPS Spaceships and it says lifepods and drop pods are on p232 of GURPS Ultratech, which says both are SM+2 vehicles. Vehicles can be launched from a hangar bay. So the tel'tak needs a section designated as a hangar for the escape pods.
... GURPS also assumes that at that size you can fit 4 people in each pod, but at that point I give up. I mean, if a Habitat section has to weigh 5+ tons to support 4 people, how can a whole steerable escape pod support 4 people in 1 ton? If I've even figured out the scale for tons right... wait, it says it on the table, 1 ton it is. 1 ton looks like a quarter of a habitat to me. But if the life support is very limited then it makes more sense.
A teleporter is listed as a specialised sort of Habitat. 1 cabin can teleport 2 people or 0.2 tons of Stuff.
A 0.1 ton person is a bit overweight at most heights.
I think SG1 have all used the rings at once, so their teleport rings require 2 cabins to be called a Teleport.
GURPS Ultra-Tech is also where the Star Gate lives. p234. It somewhat lacks rules. It's going to do whatever the plot says.
Ultra-tech is fun like that. Also awkward like that.
... I'm too tired and headachey to think of setting up my computers, because mistakes would cost, but I'm perfectly fine to do lots of fiddly box filling maths, including converting between units because GURPS uses yards and similar. Mistakes in GURPS spaceships don't cost. I'm not even playing them.
It would be nice to go to sleep, sleep 8 hours, and wake up again. Possibly at set times every day. I hear many humans do that.
... I do spaceships, or get very very bored staring at the ceiling.
The power plant crystals are so handwavey the rules don't fit real well, and same for the sublight and hyperdrives. You just fill in boxes to say Engines And Power Goes Here. What they can do depends on the plot.
But the cargo and passenger capacity I think I got to work right.
I realised on this read of the rules that the GURPS Habitat converted to Steerage Cargo lists as its main benefit that it is pressurised and has life support. GURPS Cargo holds do not list those things. So standard cargo holds are unpressurised, and I need to revise the design on every cargo area I've yet invented.
... the main difference is the cost, so that's just a number I ignore anyway, but the other difference is how many people it can support. 4 people's worth of indefinite life support per cabin, which adds up, even if they're empty and meant for cargo.
Also, if it is officially habitat, then "They have sanitary, galley, and dining facilities appropriate to their size and quality. For example, a habitat with 10 luxury cabins will likely have a well appointed kitchen and sumptuous dining room; one with a single bunkroom may have a microwave oven and a mini-fridge."
One with only cargo space has, what, cupboards? But the important bit is the sanitary facilities: if it has any Habitat, it has a bathroom. ... possibly one only suitable for school changing rooms, but it exists.
A Tel'tak is SM+6, each cabin holds 5 tons of cargo and supports 4 people. So if you fill 7 sections with steerage cargo, the whole center of the ship say, you end up with approximately the 35,000 kg and 25 plus two people carrying capacity listed in SG1 semi canon.
... neither I nor anyone else really needs to know this, but, now I do.
The tricky bit was realising I hadn't seen escape pods on the equipment lists anywhere. I knew Incorrupt didn't have them, I didn't know I'd not figured them out as an option. The closest GURPS lists is the option to eject your control room if you put it somewhere other than the Core. Which is cool. But I needed escape pods, in particular. So I poked GURPS Spaceships and it says lifepods and drop pods are on p232 of GURPS Ultratech, which says both are SM+2 vehicles. Vehicles can be launched from a hangar bay. So the tel'tak needs a section designated as a hangar for the escape pods.
... GURPS also assumes that at that size you can fit 4 people in each pod, but at that point I give up. I mean, if a Habitat section has to weigh 5+ tons to support 4 people, how can a whole steerable escape pod support 4 people in 1 ton? If I've even figured out the scale for tons right... wait, it says it on the table, 1 ton it is. 1 ton looks like a quarter of a habitat to me. But if the life support is very limited then it makes more sense.
A teleporter is listed as a specialised sort of Habitat. 1 cabin can teleport 2 people or 0.2 tons of Stuff.
A 0.1 ton person is a bit overweight at most heights.
I think SG1 have all used the rings at once, so their teleport rings require 2 cabins to be called a Teleport.
GURPS Ultra-Tech is also where the Star Gate lives. p234. It somewhat lacks rules. It's going to do whatever the plot says.
Ultra-tech is fun like that. Also awkward like that.
... I'm too tired and headachey to think of setting up my computers, because mistakes would cost, but I'm perfectly fine to do lots of fiddly box filling maths, including converting between units because GURPS uses yards and similar. Mistakes in GURPS spaceships don't cost. I'm not even playing them.
It would be nice to go to sleep, sleep 8 hours, and wake up again. Possibly at set times every day. I hear many humans do that.
... I do spaceships, or get very very bored staring at the ceiling.