Spaceships inevitably play an important role in Solar Stories. At once, being a combination of transport, home and plot devices. It becomes essential then to figure out we describe these within the game.
Making statements about the ship technology of Solar Stories will be tough. Here’s why.
- Ships will be built to do a job, usually on a budget. Cold hard realism says some vessels with by glitzy and high-tech. Most will not
- Ships are likely to be old. It’s easy to imagine something that’s a family spacecraft. It’s like an old farmhouse. It’s been in use for hundreds of years and has had many repairs, modifications, extensions and rebuilds that its not the latest design. But it does the job.
- Belief. Plain and simple, some people consider dangerous and dubious technologies as ok and exciting. Others will be appalled. Items like power, engines, and life support may be built in such a way not because it’s “The Best” but because, at some time, someone believed in it.
…There is likely to be a rich diversity in ship construction. All that said, all spaceships have points in common. Just like all modern-day real-world spacecraft do. To turn these necessities into a guide for designing ships, I’ve made a list of things a spaceship must have and assigned a percentage of the ship’s size to each. Now, these are guidelines. Each one has a margin of error. If you feel that these don’t add up for your vessels, then no problem. Adjust the sizes consistently, and you’ll be fine. This has to be a loose framework since the ships of Solar Stories are so variable
Power – Up to 20%
I’m assuming that the ship’s power will be efficient and long-lasting. Also that it will take up space. I will use the word “Reactor” since the list of possible power sources is long. Power could be supplied by something we’d recognise; then again, it might not. This list is a very long way from being exhaustive
- Nuclear Fission
- Nuclear Fusion
- Antimatter
- An engineered or discovered biological reaction
- Self Regenerating Fuel Cells (perhaps drawing energy from the nature of space-time)
- A microscopic black hole.
- Something that draws power from planetary and solar magnetic fields
And, of course, the list goes on. If the type of power is going to be a possible plot point or related to the nature of a lead character, then define it. Otherwise, it’s a reactor.
Main Engines – Around 20%
The main engines provide the ship’s primary means of acceleration. The main engine’s figure comprises the engine itself and any fuel required.
If a ship runs on more than one engine – the figure is still 20%. It’s just two smaller engines. However, if the ship is meant to have incredible acceleration, double the engine size (or more) by all means. Swift ships could well be primarily engines with very cramped crew accommodation.
Solar – Up to 10%
Solar power is ignored above. Generally, ships using solar energy will have a smaller power plant. Most of the work is done by exterior solar panels. But there is still a need for reserve power storage and routing so the reactor area can be reduced by between 30% of normal and 50% of normal.
The same goes for solar propulsion. I’m thinking light sails or similar. All
the main work is outside the ship, but we still need to consider rigging and storage when the vessel is docked. That’s what counts towards internal volume.
Manoeuvring the Ship – Up to 10%
Big engines are all about getting from place to place. A ship still needs to move slowly, to spin and rotate. How this is achieved varies, but most likely involves some form of engine or reaction wheel.
Life Support – Up to 10%
Assuming that your ship is crewed, the means of keeping the crew alive will be everywhere. Sure there will be some stocks and stores of vitals like water or air. Yes, some processing plants will be needed, but also there will be redundancy throughout the ship. This is the one system that cannot fail. For the vessel in Solar Stories, I can see lots of machinery, biological systems, and connecting conduits throughout the ship. So when designing a ship, we can talk about the overall amount of space, but its unlikely to all be in one place.
The golden design rule is the more people you pack in, the more space you need for life support. So a sleek military ship with a small crew is likely to have less space set aside than a budget space liner that really crams them in.
Guns
All RPGs and LARPs include conflict. Therefore we must have armaments on the ships that need them. Try and remember these guidelines.
- Anything stored internally takes up internal space and reduces the amount of space for Everything Else. A big gun or big internal armoury should use up space. Start with 5% and increase it in increments of 5% based on cinematically how loaded you think the ship should be
- Any weapons held on external pylons add mass to the ship. So if you think 18% of the ship might be engines, the hull gets festooned with missiles. Then you may need to increase the engine size to cover the weight for this.
I’m keeping the thoughts on weapons down to this kind of guideline until such time as I write a really good set of guidelines on ships’ weapons. My immediate thoughts are with weapons, it’s going to come down to how the weight of the weapons and ammunition impacts the ship
Everything Else
Oddly enough, everything covers the crew’s quarters, command centre, cargo storage, communication and anything else you can think of. Everything else might be where all the action takes place, but how big it depends on how much space is left once items such as power, engines and life support have been considered.
How to Use this guide
All the numbers here are a loose guide that adds a certain amount of internal space to a specific function.
Figure out how much you need to give any crew and passengers, then give your ship an overall length.
Then work out the percentages. For example, does your ship need lots of speed or handle a lot of passengers? If so – take those areas to the maximum percentage possible. That’s all you need to do. Work out what you need and use the sizes as a guideline to help you allocate space to essential functions.
By the end of the process, you should end up with spacecraft where you have an idea of its capabilities and perhaps an inkling of a personality as well.
Stream of Consciousness 