Slower-than-Light vs. Faster-than-Light travel & communication in Science Fiction Roleplaying Games. This article, originally published in Alarums & Excursions #310, addresses the issues of internal consistency, scientific plausibility, and "funness" & originality.
Slower-than-Light vs. Faster-than-Light travel & communication in Science Fiction Roleplaying Games. This article, originally published in Alarums & Excursions #310, addresses the issues of internal consistency, scientific plausibility, and "funness" & originality.
Slower-than-Light vs. Faster-than-Light travel & communication in Science Fiction Roleplaying Games. This article, originally published in Alarums & Excursions #310, addresses the issues of internal consistency, scientific plausibility, and "funness" & originality.
FTL in SF-RPGs Jim Vassilakos (jimvassila@aol.com) http://members.aol.com/jimvassila
As I mentioned some time ago, I’ve troubles.
been slowly working on an SF-RPG Game designers are just the same. tentatively called “Ragamuffin” (for They like to tout their work as being lack of a decent name like Star original & avant-garde, and in many Warriors or Space Scum... ways it often is. But at the same time, it actually, come to needs to be marketable. Otherwise it think of it, both of won’t sell. Obviously, FTL has those sound pretty cool). In A&E proven itself in terms of #298 I introduced the basic gist behind Star Wars, the two sales, so why take a chance the setting, starting with an old internet most popular SF settings. on it’s lesser cousin, STL? discussion on soft vs. hard science- While anecdotes certainly make for With novels, the situation is fiction and concluding with an poor arguments, I’ll share one with you. bad enough. STL causes obvious plot overview of humanity’s role in the About a year ago, I was visiting a friend constraints whereas FTL provides near setting. In A&E #307 I replied to up north, and for some reason we were limitless freedom. In gaming the comments and questions which had at a bookstore. As to be expected, the situation is even more profound, accrued during the intervening issues. SF section was filled with shelves upon because these constraints are placed on In recent months, some folks on the net shelves of Star Trek and Star Wars players themselves, dictating from the have volunteered to help with the novels. My friend made the comment start some very fundamental limitations development, however, there’s been a that he didn’t understand how there on their ability to “seek out new worlds, little consternation regarding my could be so many books published new life, and new civilizations.” decision on what is perhaps the game’s around a single setting. Were the fans Likewise, the history of the most fundamental feature: STL-travel really buying and reading them all? marketplace has shown that FTL-based (STL being an acronym for slower- When would enough be enough? I games have clearly sold and continue to than-light). I’ve backed this up w/ FTL- looked the shelf over, bemused, and for do so. As for STL-based games, they communication (FTL being an acronym some odd reason the strangest utterance don’t seem to be as prevalent. Do such for faster-than-light), and the purpose of fell from my lips. “Where there’s games even work? Are they playable? this essay is basically to explain my money, there’s more money.” And he Or are they realistic to the point that reasoning behind these decisions. looked at me in awe and thought it the people would rather kill orcs instead? most profound thing he’d heard since Which, of course, brings us to the The FTL Presumption somebody burped earlier that morning. gamers themselves. We gamers like to In retrospect, I have to agree that there think that through roleplaying we’re As most gamers know, FTL-travel is is something to it. RPG-slut that I am, I exploring innovative settings with fresh, one of the hallowed staples of science can understand firsthand the fascination new personalities, telling cooperative fiction roleplaying. Actually, one people have with a particular subject stories, per se, which have never been doesn’t have to be a gamer to know this. matter. I myself have purchased and told before. But how much of this Most popular SF genres abound in skimmed through more RPGs, new and newness is really fresh and new, and various methods of FTL. In Star Trek used, than I care to count. how much is really just a switch in they call it warp speed. In Star Wars it’s So what is my point, terminology, a clever facade if called hyperspace. Likewise with sf- you ask. you will? rpgs. In Traveller there is jumpspace, Novelists like to While FTL enables our intrepid and in Alternity there is drivespace. Not think of themselves heroes to leap from one every SF setting or SF game has FTL- as bring original & episode/adventure to the next in a travel, but the majority of them avant-garde... artists relatively brief expanse of certainly do, and as for the minority, as it were. And in game time, is also has the only a precious few incorporate any many ways they are. effect of rendering interstellar semblance of interstellar travel. In short, But at the same travel aboard a starship very STL seems to be viewed as being time, what they much like island hopping wholly incompatible with interstellar write needs to be aboard a boat. You have your travel, and so if a game is to involve marketable. It needs that ports of call. You have your more than a single star system, STL is Star Trek or Star Wars aliens (the foreigners). You thrown out in favor of FTL before ever logo in order to sell. So might even get boarded by a being seriously considered. they jump on the big bandwagon and police boat every now and then. And, of Why is that? In a nutshell, I think the console themselves with the knowledge course, there are pirates to watch out two biggest reasons are Star Trek and that at least they’re getting paid for their for. In short, the whole science-fiction milieux translates quite easily plot. The effect was cheap to lot of bull, all the bull had to fit together from real world stuff. That’s produce, and it certainly cut out a lot logically, like some grand jigsaw good, right?! of unnecessary scenes. In puzzle, to form a complete and self- In large part, yes, it is short, it was sheer consistent picture. If there are gaping good. It provides genius. holes caused by pieces which just don’t players (and the Lucas, on the fit, then the RPG designers didn’t do GM) with a ready other hand, their job right, and the end result is that conceptual loved special players will either have to ignore these foundation upon effects to the holes (for the good of the game), or they which to build. point that may instead seek to exploit them (much The game setting, he’d to the consternation of the GM). as a whole, will be pioneered the Over the years, all of this has made more recognizable industry to new game designers think harder about SF- as a result. However, levels of RPG design and the potential a certain degree of sophistication. As a inconsistencies that are endemic to the mystery is lost in the result, we don’t see process. I’ll fire off just two of the most process. The setting is transporters in Star Wars. What we do famous to acquaint you with the subject no longer quite so see are cool looking light sabers and matter. unique. It is merely an adaptation of other imponderables all bent on things we are already familiar with. conveying a sort of outer-space fairy (1) Explosive Colonization: Space is So it really all depends on what you tale about a young knight rescuing a big, forming a natural though not want from roleplaying. If you’re just princess from the clutches of an evil impenetrable barrier to exploration and looking to relax and have a good time, sorcerer. It’s cool, and it worked colonization. This barrier can be further the instant familiarity lent by FTL to amazingly well. Again, sheer genius. enhanced by making certain any given SF-RPG setting probably But as we all know, RPGs are not assumptions about the structure of the overpowers any of the negative cinema. This means that special effects local interstellar medium (I’ll talk more consequences. In such a mode of present a special sort of dilemma. The about this in a future essay). However, convenience, where the de facto goal is GM can’t very adequately convey a FTL tends to break this barrier, creating to explore offshoots of analogous brightly lit starscape unless he slams a a situation where a single species could situations, FTL becomes a plot device, player’s head on the pointy-end of a d4: explode across the galaxy in a relatively like transporters in Star Trek or “The brief time-scale. Force” in Star Wars. “As you break through the upper For example, in Star Trek, isn’t it odd The game designer essentially sets the atmosphere, you begin to see stars.” that Klingons, Romulans, Humans, technology at whatever level is desired (WHAP!) “Do you see stars yet?” Vulcans, etc... all attained FTL at and then explains the various gizmos in “Uh... yeah. Ooh... I feel woozy.” around the same time? What if the terms of what they do, not in terms of “Great, here’s a band-aid. What are Klingons got it a few thousand years how they do it. Nobody can really scoff the rest of you doing?” ahead of everyone else? The answer is at the gizmos, because first of all, it’s “Anything except looking out the that Captain Kirk would have been (at just a game, and secondly, none of this window.” best) red-shirted, fodderous, Thrall stuff has been invented yet. Certainly Kirk, working for Captain Koloth and there is going to be some manner of At the same time, there is no limit on speaking Klingonese to boot. technobabble handwaving to justify the what a good GM can describe or what a In evolutionary terms, a few thousand technology, and that’s both fine and good player can visually imagine. So years is an incredibly short expanse of often quite useful for suspension of the whole issue of building the time. The odds against even two disbelief. The only problem that creeps technology around a budget becomes neighboring races attaining FTL within up is when the stated technology wholly irrelevant. What we are then left such a short expanse are astronomical. doesn’t meet the design goals of the with are the fundamentals. In no special So, at first glance, Star Trek fails on this setting. order, they are: first basic test of internal consistency. In Traveller we have much the same Design Goals in Science Fiction 1. Internal Consistency problem with it’s huge star-spanning 2. Scientific Plausibility empire. Miller apparently tried to This is a hard section to address, 3. Funness & Originality explain the humanocentric nature of the because the design goals of various SF setting by positing “The Ancients” as a settings tend to vary widely. In Star Internal Consistency race which abducted hundreds or Trek, the two primary design goals thousands of Terrans 300,000 years ago seemed to be economic and plot flow. In the discussion on soft vs. hard and left them scattered on numerous Roddenberry didn’t have the money for science-fiction which I included in my worlds in their wake. But why humans? a lot of special effects, including shots article of issue #298, the yearning for What’s so special about us? And what of starships and shuttlecraft landing on internal consistency was a recurring about the odds against several of these planets, so transporters were invented as theme. Many people mentioned that human colonies all attaining space a way of inexpensively expediting the while they might be able to swallow a faring technology within several thousand years of one another? And couple hundred tons of asteroid up to why we have not one but five frontier given the capabilities of FTL, why did it relativistic speeds (or just build the wars not to mention countless civil wars take so long for them to expand and maneuver drives onto the asteroid, and the various interstellar wars around explore? provide it with a really big fuel tank, Terra. So where are all the worlds Of course, all these questions arise in and point it in the right direction). It’ll which have been dutifully converted a setting where FTL didn’t begin in this take some time and effort, but it can be into asteroid belts by the Imperial neighborhood but 300,000 years ago done. Navy? We just don’t see them, and and the current empire hasn’t existed Now, in both Star Trek and Star Wars, because of this, many of those on the for but a thousand of those years. What presumably inner-system defenses Traveller Mailing List have agreed that about predecessors to the Ancients? could deploy quickly enough to deal it’s a glaring inconsistency (although And, for that matter, what will the with the potential threat of a near-c rock mentioning near-c anything on the TML Imperium logically look like in 200 striking a heavily populated world (and is usually enough to start a protracted million years? thereby generating an explosion of such flame war). In a universe which is billions of years magnitude that the 1908 Tunguska ago, we’d have to conclude that FTL would result in a setting where known SF-RPGs by Fastest Mode of Travel & Communication space has been completely overrun, many, many times, and that we are FTL-Travel STL-Travel emerging into a neighborhood which is Aeon/Trinity, Alternity, just packed with a multitude of races Babylon Project, Cooperation, from across the galaxy, many of whom Fading Suns, Legionnaire, Ragamuffin (still in have been around, starfaring, for FTL-Comm Manhunter, Mechwarrior, development) millions or even billions of years. Their Other Suns, Space Master, history (and technology) would likely Space Opera, Star Frontiers, be on a level which we can’t even begin Star Trek, Star Wars, Universe to imagine (technology ceiling 2300AD, Albedo, Amazing permitting). STL helps to save us from Engine/Galactos Barrier, Blue Buck Rogers XXVc, this cacophony by proposing that space STL-Comm Planet, FTL:2448, Guildspace, High Colonies, Jovian travel is difficult and time-consuming Justifiers, Raven Star, Reich Chronicles enough that we had a chance to develop Star, Shatterzone, Traveller before the aliens got here in force. Fortunately, absent the technology for event would by comparison seem like Having addressed these two potential time travel, this isn’t an exploitable Lenin rolling over in bed to break inconsistencies, it is interesting to note inconsistency. But smart players will wind). However, in Traveller this that the first kicks in under FTL-travel realize the problem exists as soon as couldn’t happen, mainly because in while the second kicks in under STL- they spot it, leading the GM to make up Traveller there’s a speed limit on communication. Traveller, of course, some off-the-cuff excuse which communications (communication and has both, and hence suffers from both damages the entire suspension of sensors are strictly STL). This means, inconsistencies. So do many other SF- disbelief. For most players, this isn’t a of course, that the planet could get hit RPGs. It was only after recognizing this big deal. They’re not really there to before it even realizes that it’s under that I decided that perhaps the best suspend their disbelief. They’re there to attack. No time for countermeasures. solution toward avoiding both of these eat pizza and roll dice! But for a Several billion people could get wiped problems would be to take the exact precious few, it’s a thorn in the side of out by one loony with a starship. opposite position from Traveller, reason, something overlooked that The fact that there aren’t scores of presupposing STL-travel and FTL- should have been addressed. desecrated worlds in Traveller communication. At first I was under the leaves the impression that impression that no SF-RPG had ever starship captains have too done this, and as I checked through the much moral fiber ever to literature, my suspicions were (2) Near-C Rocks & Other Planet conduct themselves (and their wars and confirmed. The reason, I suppose, Killers: In much of contemporary political causes) in such a way. Indeed, should be obvious. Of those few SF- science fiction, individual ship captains that may be true for 99.9% of ship RPGs which have supposed STL-travel, may be nothing more than the lowliest captains, but as the number of ships their designers have placed the entire scum of space (Han Solo and his fellow rise, the potential for loonydom game within a single star system, and so cantena patrons might qualify under this increases until you are almost assured there was no need to include FTL- description, and Harry Mudd and his that these sorts of incidents will happen communication. However, I want Ferengi ilk in Star Trek are yet another just because of the number of people Ragamuffin to be a game which example). And yet, the very act of who have the power to commit them. includes both STL-travel as well as an controlling a starship affords them great Indeed, the history of the Traveller interstellar society. The trick, of course, power. This is driven home in Traveller, universe is replete with interstellar would be to justify the technology with where it is not altogether impossible to warfare (GDW was initially a real-world science, giving it some form utilize a large starship to accelerate a wargaming company, after all). That is of basis and yet at the same time structuring it so as to maximize the fun Michelson-Morley results, and hence it onboard the object slows down, until at & originality of the setting. could be dispensed with, leading to his light speed the march of time stops cold own relativity theories. However, in (many people argue that this works both Scientific Plausibility constructing his theories, he used tensor ways resulting in paradox, but Fowler calculus, leading to an error which contends that the paradox is solvable). As one might expect, STL-travel is not could only be corrected if he abandoned The easiest way to visualize this is to particularly hard to justify. After all, we the principles of three-dimensional imagine that you leave home aboard a do it every time we walk to the corner Euclidian space. In what was perhaps fast ship. When you return, you will drugstore. We are literally walking the most fateful decision of his career, have experienced less time than the slower-than-light. That’s all that STL is. rather than backtrack, he decided to just people you left behind. If you have a However, if you were to walk go with it, leading to the whole curved twin, you will have aged less than him particularly fast, strange things would space ideology which every physicist or her. begin to happen. That’s why there are has been talking about ever sense. How can this be? I don’t want to get really two types of STL worth Michelson & Morley’s continuing into the math (which tends to make my considering. The first is slow-STL; failure to detect the aether led to head hurt), but here’s an easy (although we’re all pretty familiar with that. The Einstein’s theories gaining increasing probably inaccurate) way to think about other is fast-STL, which involves favor. it. The whole process of time is just a various relativistic effects. mechanism of things on the very To me, the most interesting of these smallest scales. Quantum theory argues effects is time dilation, and although that matter uses the exchange of virtual time dilation has been experimentally photons to control its parameters. If one verified, exactly why it occurs is believes in a universal reference frame, still a subject of some debate, then one might argue that particles at probably in no small part due to rest can put all their energy into this the counter-intuitive nature of the photon exchange, but that while in prevailing theory. Popular motion (particularly high speeds), this sentiment places Einstein at the mechanism slows down, slowing center of relativity. It was, after down everything about them. So every all, his general and special theories chemical reaction and every electrical of relativity that, according to most event takes place more slowly. writers of the subject, revolutionized the People onboard a fast ship don’t world of physics. However, there are see things happening any more also those who say that Einstein, while slowly because they themselves are a great thinker, built his work on the Regardless of moving more slowly. Everything backs of others who are less known, and whether or not this onboard is happening more slowly. committed egregious errors, the is a fair history of what was However, like I said, this is probably repercussions of which are still felt undoubtedly a much more convoluted erroneous. An aether relativist would today. series of events, the vast majority of simply say that the slowing of the H.E. Retic has written much on this physicists currently subscribe to passage of time occurs from the effect topic in “The Einstein Hoax: The Einstein’s views. Michael Fowler of the of a time measuring system moving Disastrous Intellectual War on University of Virginia has a lecture through the stationary aether. And an Common Sense” (http://www.members. index for a course on “Galileo & Einsteinian relativist would say, “just home.net/retiche/hoax.htm). According Einstein” available on the web at look at the math, it all makes perfect to Retic, is was J.J. Thompson who first http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/ sense.” derived mass-energy equivalency 109N/lectures/lecturelist.html which Moving on to the other relativistic (E=mc^2) in 1888, long before Einstein seems to reconcile some of the key effects, length contraction asserts that made his mark on physics. Likewise, paradoxes which were initially raised by the distance units in the direction of prior to Einsteinian Relativity, there was Einstein’s theories. motion contract, and mass increase (or the Lorentz Contraction-Aether It is important to note, however, that mass dilation) asserts that as one gets Relativity theory of 1903 which came whether one subscribes to Einsteinian closer to the speed of light, it becomes about mainly due to the unexpected Relativity or Aether Relativity, time increasingly harder to accelerate, such results of the Michelson-Morley dilation is still a fundamental outcome that it is impossible for a physical object experiment of 1887 which showed that of the equations, as, I believe, are length to reach the speed of light. Perhaps light travels at the same speed contraction and mass increase, still these two effects are really one and the regardless of its source, much like a other relativistic effects. Instead of same. I’m no expert. sound wave travelling through some trying to explain why they occur (a All I know is that relativity plays an conducting medium (such as air) and topic in which I’m not yet well enough important role in fast-STL. But, of not anything like a bullet. According to versed to make a decent stab), I’ll just course, the next big question is, how do Retic, Einstein’s primary contribution explain what they do. we attain fast-STL? How does one was to show that the aether wasn’t The basic gist of time dilation is that accelerate a ship to such an incredibly mathematically necessary to explain the as an object travels really fast, time high velocity? Our current rocket technology doesn’t even begin to cut What we really need is some method Hence, these virtual photons would the mustard. You’d have to carry so to suppress inertia so that the ship might momentarily play the role of inertia. In much propellant that acceleration to be able to accelerate much faster than 1 short, in Haisch’s view, inertia is just even a minuscule fraction of light speed G and take much greater advantage of electromagnetic drag. is essentially impossible. Some people time dilation’s effect on subjective Likewise, he argues, these virtual have proposed burning hydrogen in a (shipboard) time. In issue #307 I briefly photons may also play the role of fusion reaction, or carrying antimatter discussed one possible method which gravity. To quote Chown’s take on the for total mass conversion, but in each was brought to mind by an article in theory, “oscillating charges in a chunk case, the ship would still be too big due issue #2276 (3-Feb-2001) of New of matter affect the charged virtual to the amount of propellant it would Scientist. The article, by Marcus particles in the vacuum. This polarized have to carry. The bigger the ship, the Chown, is entitled “Mass Medium”, and vacuum then exerts a force on the harder it is to accelerate. Only a to recap, it discusses an idea put forth charges in another chunk of matter.” reactionless thruster would do the trick, by quantum physicist Bernard Haisch However, Haisch himself seems to but such a thing can’t exist (as far as we on the nature of gravity and inertia. As I discount this direct relationship, stating know), so, in short, a starship just can’t mentioned earlier, quantum theory that “one mass does not pull directly on carry the amount of propellant it would posits the notion of virtual photons. another mass but only through the need for a fast-STL interstellar voyage. Under this theory, these ghostlike intermediary of the vacuum. This might Others have proposed magnetically particles pop in and out of existence explain why gravity is so weak.” If such scooping the necessary hydrogen from over extremely small timescales, a theory were to prove true, then deep space, but exactly how this would rendering the vacuum (and all of space) Einsteinian relativity might be likened work has yet to be explained. In order to into a “choppy sea of randomly to a geometric description of this whole be drawn in by a magnetic field, the fluctuating electromagnetic waves”. In state of affairs. In Haisch’s words, “the hydrogen atoms would have to be the macroworld, we can’t see what’s warpage of space might be equivalent to ionized. How this would occur is still a going on, because we’re too damn big, a variation in the refractive index of the subject of speculation. The idea of using but if we were the size of atoms, then vacuum. In this way, all the a laser to strip the electrons from free maybe we’d have a glimpse into this mathematics of general relativity would floating hydrogen in front of the ship unseen universe. stay intact, since space-time would look seems more like magic than science. as if it were warped.” Another proposal is that the ship’s own Of course, all of this makes me velocity would generate a shockwave wonder if these virtual photons are the in front of the vessel, causing this aether than Michelson and Morley much needed ionization. However, were searching for. If so, then as fortuitous as this would be, I still aether relativity may yet make a don’t see how it would work. comeback, with Einsteinian Even if a method could be found relativity being a geometric way to generate the necessary of thinking about the whole mess acceleration, there’s still another and quantum physics holding problem to consider (at least ultimate reign. Of course, I’m not a from the perspective of plot physicist, so all this idle speculation is and game flow). This is the just me talking out my ass. Feel free to problem of inertia. As objects completely disregard everything I’ve accelerate, they undergo inertial said. stress. That goes for people as well. A The important thing here is how it pilot can take only so many G’s of applies to science fiction. Most SF- thrust before blacking out. Most RPGs posit some form of gravity hypothetical starship designs have the manipulation technology (or gravitics), ship accelerating at 1 G (earth’s own and many go a step further and posit gravity), so that the crew would feel In any case, the argument goes that inertial suppression (also called inertial right at home. However, accelerating so these virtual photons can sometimes dampening). How these technologies slowly means that months or years may break free from the cycle of birth and work is, of course, never spelled out. In go by during even the shortest of destruction, essentially becoming real, recent years, physicists have interstellar voyages. To go a distance of but that this only happens due to gravity investigated gravity in the hopes of 4 light years at 1 G thrust, the ship or acceleration (which according to finding some means to counter it. would have to accelerate for 2 years, Einstein’s theory of general relativity Charles Platt covers the curious case turn around, and then decelerate for 2 are indistinguishable). Hence, of Russian scientist Eugene Podkletnov years. Taking time dilation into account, accelerating objects (including objects in the March 1998 issue of Wired the subjective time experienced by the in a field of gravity) would become (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6 crew would be over 3.4 years. That’s a bathed in these particles, and .03/antigravity.html). Podkletnov long time for the characters to be cumulatively they would act as a apparently claimed to have suppressed twiddling their thumbs waiting to get retarding force by bouncing off gravity (to the tune of 2%) with a from point A to point B. electrical fields within the object. spinning superconductor, and Platt went to take an interview and personally time continues to slope downward as which is both rotating very quickly and verify the story as well as witness the thrust (or inertial suppression) accelerating in this rotation, can experiment in action. Despite the very increases. At 100 G’s, we’re talking produce an FTL shockwave due to its slight effect, one would think that if his about only 42 days of subjective time. waves piling up in a spiral pattern process actually worked, it would be At 500 G’s, it’s just under 11 days. which crowd together and finally merge front-page news all over the world and a That’s the magic of time dilation. The at the pattern’s cusp. Apparently hundred labs would have replicated the faster you go, the less you experience according to the math, this shockwave experiment, however, apparently that the flow of time. Hence the less you not only would move at superluminal hasn’t happened, leading me to age, the less you eat, and the less you sit speeds, but it would decay conclude that the whole thing is a bunch around thumb-twiddling. proportionally with distance as opposed of hogwash. Nonetheless, it seems odd Quite suddenly we’re no longer to the square of the distance which is that this whole story came and went thinking about the stresses of long term what commonly happens with without so much as a blip from the voyages. Cryogenic technology is electromagnetic radiation. Such mainstream media (perhaps they’ve entirely circumvented. And who needs a shockwaves could even, potentially, be been scared off such stories by the cold generation ship? From the perspective tuned to terahertz radiation, perhaps fusion fiasco several years ago). of the crew, it doesn’t take all that long. advancing the speed of computer CPUs Regardless, this whole episode serves In terms of writing starship design into previously uncharted realms. This to illustrate that gravity manipulation rules, the trick will be striking a balance means that as a means of and perhaps inertial suppression may be between engines, propulsion mass, communication, not only would it be within our grasp. Perhaps Podkletnov’s actual fuel (i.e. reaction mass), and the faster than anything we’ve seen before, method (or another one like it) may in equipment and energy requirements for but it would be a lot more powerful and some way generate a quantum effect inertial suppression. All of these will be possibly more versatile as well. Over which disturbs the incomprehensibly necessary, and there will need to be half a million dollars have already been small world of virtual photons. No some sort of trade off dictating how the spent on developing a device, the doubt, some would argue that this is ship can maximize its thrust by having polarization synchrotron, to test the quite impossible, but the verdict isn’t in the right proportion of each. theory. Needless to say, if it works, it’ll yet either mathematically or Now that I’ve yammered on at length be a major breakthrough. experimentally. We don’t even know about STL-travel, I’ll turn to FTL- However, like all such theories, it has that virtual photons even exist. We communication. In issue #307 I it’s detractors, and odds are that it will know so little about this whole field that mentioned an article that caused a mild probably end up on the scrap heap of it’s impossible to say what’s just around hiccup among SF-enthusiasts by great ideas that never worked. the corner much less what will be maintaining that researchers had broken Nonetheless, I think even the existence possible 20, 50, or even 100 years down the light-barrier (http://www.sunday- of this theory bodes well for the future the road. times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/06/04/ of FTL-communication, because it I like the idea of including inertial stifgnusa01007.html). However, as I means that we don’t yet know what we suppression technology in SF-RPG also mentioned, this story is discredited can’t do. And as a scientific justification design because, first of all, it would in a FAQ at the head researcher’s own for FTL-communication in an SF-RPG, seem from a quantum physics homepage (http://www.neci.nj.nec.com/ it certainly does an admirable job of perspective to go hand-in-hand with homepages/lwan/faq.htm). Apparently, fitting the bill well enough to support a gravity manipulation (a long-time staple these sort of claims get published on a player’s suspension of disbelief. of SF), so if you’re going to have one, it regular basis, then somebody cries only makes sense to include the other. “oops” and it’s back to business as Funness & Originality However, there’s an even more pressing usual. Nonetheless, I’m always on the reason why I like it. Inertial suppression lookout for these sorts of articles, and Since “funness & originality” are the makes fast STL much more attainable even more interesting are those which final design goals, it would probably be and much easier from a plot-flow actually delve a little bit into the theory apropos to state what they mean. By perspective. behind what the researchers are doing. “funness”, I ask the questions, “Will the I mentioned earlier that traveling 4 In the current issue (#2288, 28-April- players and GM enjoy the game? Will it light years at 1 G would take 3.4 2001) of New Scientist, there’s an be exciting and interesting and thought subjective years (assuming that the ship article covering the theories of provoking?” This, of course, segues into accelerates during the first half of the Houshang Ardavan of Cambridge, as “originality”. In brief, “Is the game trip and then turns around and well as the follow-up work of some unique to the extent that it raises the decelerates for the second half). Oxford physicists, including his son, possibility for stories and ideas that However, if you can pump your thrust Arzhang Ardavan and John Singleton of have gone neglected?” up to 10 G’s through inertial the Clarendon Laboratory. Inspired by To be perfectly honest, I personally suppression, then from the perspective the study of pulsars and Cerenkov had a heck of a time accepting the of the crew, the trip will take just over radiation, and arguably verified in part notion that STL-travel wouldn’t “ruin 266 days of subjective time. Pump the by detailed observations of the Crab the game” as it were. This was thrust up to 20 G’s and we’re talking Nebula pulsar, the theory being compounded by the fact that there was 157 days. At 50 G’s we talking just over proposed is that a lopsided pattern of nobody talking me into it. In fact, 75 days. And, of course, the subjective charge (for instance, a magnetic field) everyone was trying to talk me out of it. Even from the earliest discussions, the communication would, I think, result in So what RPG designers generally do general consensus was that you’ve got a more disorganized society, somewhat is generate this history to bring the to have FTL-travel. Otherwise, what akin to the Old West, where players can setting up to the moment of some great sort of setting would you have? One take advantage of the fact that “the conflict. It may seem a bit contrived, that’s centered only around a single star powers that be” are usually a couple of but it’s workable in the sense that system? And yet I’ve always felt that if steps behind them (hopefully). Sure, the somebody is going to be alive during you’re going to plead hard-sf as a Ikkadju might be able to field an these “interesting times”, so why not the design focus, then you’ve got to impressive fleet, but can they find players? But eventually the conflict somehow minimize the handwaving, that lone tacship which has been finds its resolution, so the designers and FTL, as I’ve already raiding their deep space stations for suddenly have to invent another one. demonstrated, is one parts and supplies? Welcome to Ye Olde RPG, 2nd edition. big, huge Likewise, And so on and so forth, until the whole handwave there is the evolving history becomes so horribly with serious matter of contrived that the designers are forced though history vs. to wipe the slate clean and start from generally current scratch. ignored events to Traveller is a perfect example of this. consequences for the consider. Here we In Classic Traveller, GDW chronicles setting’s historical background as approach the whole question of the events of the Fifth Frontier War. well as present configuration. background intelligibility as well as the Then, to kick off MegaTraveller, they Likewise, I also felt that the present malleability of the setting under come up with the Rebellion, a big light-speed limitation would distinguish the delicate ministrations of the players. multi-factional civil war replete with the setting in one very important sense, “What is he yakkin’ about?” you must heroes and villains for the player to love that being that nearly all the other be wondering. Just this. FTL-travel, I and hate. Then, once sales drop off SF-RPGs utilize some form of FTL- think, would tend to result in a stable again, they segue into the New Era by travel. In short, why do what’s already universe over the character’s life but a positing a computer virus which nearly been done 20-30 times? highly chaotic one in terms of back- wipes out civilization. However, while “Uh, playability?” story whereas STL has the exact each of these steps is no doubt a well- Actually, that’s exactly what opposite effect, which, in fact, is what contrived marketing strategy, they end somebody recently asked me. As I we want! up losing about half their audience with mentioned at the start of this essay, In case that isn’t immediately each fateful transition, essentially some folks on the net have volunteered intuitive, let me talk about it for a bit. In fracturing their market until it’s no to help develop the setting, however, most SF-RPG settings, the designers longer recognizable as a single they’ve been understandably reluctant create a situation where the players just purchasing entity. In the hopes of to swallow the STL-pill without a little happen to be living in “interesting returning to the glory days, the next coaxing. So that’s what I’m trying to do times” (an old Chinese curse of which incarnation of Traveller was... you here. I’m trying to explain why it is, in PCs seem to be perennial victims). You guessed it, Traveller 4th edition, wiping fact, playable. In fact, I’ll go a step need some examples? How about the out the entire history of the Rebellion further and say that not only is it Fifth Frontier War (Traveller) or the along with that pesky, annoying playable but it’s highly playable Rebellion (Star Wars)? and yet the computer virus. The new designers precisely due to the fact that it’s been so back-story is usually somewhat drab basically wiped the slate clean in the neglected by SF-RPG designers. (nowhere near as exciting or turbulent hopes of re-uniting a fractured Everyone seems to feel that STL- or blatantly incomprehensible as our audience. With a little better editing and travel would result in a setting so own history here on Earth). quality control, the plan might have chaotic and diverse that an interstellar Why are RPG’s built this way? The actually worked, but as it stands, Miller society wouldn’t be able to function. answer should be obvious. The ended up pulling the plug and licensing However, I would argue that coupled designers want things to be happening the rights to SJG which has the odd with FTL-communication, such a during the time of the PCs so as to make habit of actually proofreading it’s society could exist. Different cultures things interesting for them, and yet they products. All’s well that ends well, I within the conglomerate might emerge. don’t want to invest a great deal of time guess. The society may begin to fragment and effort into developing the back- My point in all this is not to denigrate resulting in a state of affairs much like story, which many players never bother Traveller, a game I happen to love! My modern Earth which is rich in social to learn anyway. After all, the back- point is that this whole entire episode diversity. However, given that each star story is just so much artificial history was a symptom of FTL-travel. How is it system is connected over a makeshift which is designed to lead up the time of that I can speak such blasphemy? It’s “subspace network”, it is no great leap the campaign. Assuming that the quite simple. Under FTL-travel, time in to suppose that the society could stay characters aren’t going to be living this the campaign setting passes at whatever intact. ancient history (a pretty safe assumption rate the PCs are experiencing it, Whereas FTL-travel would tend to in most SF-RPGs), they can only read meaning of course, that if the campaign result in large-scale, highly organized about it, so it’s always developed in is weekly for one year of real time, societies, STL-travel coupled with FTL- very broad strokes. perhaps 2-3 years of campaign time might pass, letting the overall setting evolve by 2-3 years. Generally Number of Days in Subjective Time by Distance & Acceleration speaking, not a great deal of stuff happens in 2-3 years, unless, of course, 50 G’s 100 G’s 150 G’s 200 G’s 250 G’s 300 G’s you live in interesting times. In short, 10 ly 88 49 35 27 22 19 the setting is not going to evolve a great 20 ly 98 54 38 29 24 21 deal, and so over the course of the 30 ly 104 57 40 31 25 22 campaign, it may begin to wear a bit 40 ly 108 59 41 32 26 22 thin. The players may yearn for 50 ly 111 61 42 33 27 23 something new and different: a new 60 ly 114 62 43 33 27 23 campaign with a different overall 70 ly 116 63 44 34 28 24 conflict or simply a different historical 80 ly 118 64 44 34 28 24 period to explore. 90 ly 120 65 45 35 28 24 Under STL-travel, these things fall 100 ly 121 65 46 35 29 24 into place quite naturally, because STL- travel stretches out the timespan of the campaign, so things continue to happen. forced into motion by GM (or game because it takes so long to get from In short, there’s a higher degree of designer) whim. place to place. It would likely take perceived turbulence simply because For a moment, just consider the hundreds of years to prosecute a sizable the timespan of the campaign is so long. possibilities. Under STL-travel, the interstellar war. Hence, the back-story What do I mean by stretching the crew of a ship could start a colony in doesn’t have to be books in length in timespan? Consider the table at the top some remote asteroid belt, then go off order to be realistic. It can be covered of this page. On the left hand side are on a few adventures. They could then fairly succinctly. The broad strokes the number of light years we are come back 20 or 40 years later become more natural, more realistic, travelling. On the top are the number of (depending on the length of their more easily digested and internally G’s of acceleration we are applying voyage), only to discover that the small consistent. STL-travel does all this for (taking into account that we’ve got to colony is now fairly substantial, and an interstellar SF-RPG setting. So why turn around and decelerate at the half- many of the colonists (if still alive) now hasn’t it been tried? Why hasn’t way point). Each cell in the table have extended families. Maybe the anybody really given it a fair shot? represents the number of days of ship’s crew will be treated as returning I think that part of the reason may be subjective time that the crew heroes. A hundred years later, perhaps the perceived laziness of gamers. Game experiences due to time dilation. What they’re more like legends, and some designers want to provide enough about real time? Well, that’s on the left might be slightly afraid to identify stability to the setting that the GM hand side. Distance and real time are themselves at the local pub. Fifty years doesn’t have to reinvent a world every nearly the same, because it takes at least beyond that the place has been wiped time the PCs come back to it. Their x real years to travel x light years. At out by some alien incursion, or a mechanism for this stability is FTL. Not high G’s it might take only a brief while disease, or whatever. Because the that much time passes between visits, so longer, but it will always take longer. players were instrumental in starting things don’t change all that much. I There’s no getting around it. this mini-society, and because it has think change is seen as a sort of enemy, What this means, of course, is that if, honored them appropriately every time in this sense, because the designers look for example, the voyage is 20 light they’ve returned, they will be likely to at our own world and marvel at the rate years, and the ship is accelerating at 200 have a genuine desire to find survivors of change that we are undergoing, and G’s, then the voyage takes roughly 29 and try to figure out what happened. In they come to the conclusion that subjective days from the crew’s point of short, they’ve become invested in the making extrapolations based on trends view. Meanwhile, however, 20 years plot as well as the NPCs and their is a very complex task, and yet I don’t have gone by in the game’s setting. extended families. These are suddenly think this is really a valid comparison. Planetary wars may have erupted. The their people... not just people they’ve One of the major things that has really ship’s world of destination could be met over the course of their journeys contributed to change in our world much changed from how the crew but people who are a part of their lives (especially in recent times) has been this remembers it. Loved ones may have and vice-versa. lack of a technology ceiling. Scientific passed on, leaving behind their children None of this could happen in an FTL advances lead to technological or grandchildren who are now all grown universe because time is so compressed, innovation which leads general up. Societal customs may have evolved. so STL opens up these interesting upheaval as everyone scrambles to In short, the campaign universe is in a possibilities, and the designer isn’t maximize their advantage. This is constant state of flux! forced to manufacture some sudden war precisely where Bill Gates and his ilk How different this is from the or a series of implausible conflicts to come in, and I’m not just talking about situation under FTL-travel where the spice things up. On this sort of time all the dot-coms racing to cash in on the players may never see the long-term scale, wars would occur quite naturally. internet, but I’m talking about the consequences of their actions, and There is nothing forced about it. industrial revolution in general as well where the game setting, as a whole, Likewise, the interstellar back-story as the rail wars and the automobile wars tends to remain static unless awkwardly would be less tumultuous simply (not actual wars, but industrial competitions driven by capitalism and characters and social dynamics resulting Questions & Answers greed). from whatever premise has been If you take away the rapid succession proposed. So why hasn’t any SF-RPG Of course, I lie. There has been more of scientific advancements by imposing done this with STL? Are the designers than just a little bit of flinching and a technology ceiling, I think things too lazy? Or are they simply worried apprehension. I, myself, have been would tend to stabilize quite a bit. that it won’t sell... that it’ll be too flinching on this for years, and it’s only Society, of course, would continue to difficult for Joe Gamer to manage or not been recently that I’ve finally made up mutate socially, but these trends occur glamorous enough to spark an interest? my mind with conviction that this is the over generations. Likewise, wars and Well, being hobbyists, myself and the way to go. At least it’s worth a shot if other political conflicts would still folks who are helping with the design of for no other reason than nobody has occur. Market competition would Ragamuffin are in a position to say, “To ever done it before. Nobody has ever continue to be a driving force in any hell if it sells. We don’t even want to combined STL-travel with time dilation capitalistic economic framework. sell the damn thing. Heck, we’re so to produce an interstellar campaign However, the great upheaval which disinterested in that aspect of the hobby setting with a sprawling population of we’ve witnessed during the last hundred that we’re giving it away for free!” alien societies. And yet, looking at and some years would not continue at Hence, we don’t have to design the scientific research and pragmatic the same rate. Hence, I don’t see this game to be mass-market or whatever speculations about the directions awe-inspiring need to fear the march of we assume people will buy (based on technology may take, it all seems so time which is so intertwined with STL- what has been put in the marketplace so obvious. travel. Clearly the universe would far). We can just say, “This is a new Nonetheless, people in my own evolve during the course of a thousand idea (or rather an old idea that nobody design group have expressed year campaign, but it needn’t evolve has attempted to really explore in reservations, so I’m taking up the role beyond all recognition. gaming), we’re of cheerleader and diplomat, hoping to There is also another reason why I attempting to drive the consensus toward my way think game designer’s have been shy explore it to its of thinking. That, in fact, is what this about exploring the prospects of STL- fullest essay is all about. In the hopes of travel. I was talking on the phone to a potential, alleviating some of the more friend a few weeks ago, and he said that and either common fears, here are a few perhaps STL just isn’t glamorous you like additional worries and replies enough. Sometimes this particular it or you concerning what STL-travel will friend of mine, though soft-spoken and don’t.” likely mean for the setting. cautious with his opinions, can really nail it on the head. I think that after Star Q1. Won’t STL raise the Trek and Star Wars, we want our price tag of interstellar science fiction to mimic space ventures such that exploration fantasy and all its glamour (with and colonization will never tie-fighters roaring in the vacuum happen? And given the long of space and Captain Kirk turn-around time, why would an breathing quite easily on every interplanetary government spend lifeless world he beams the money to finance such a down to). mission which will only be of benefit If we to future (and possibly opposing) wanted mass-market, administrations? When has government we’d bring on those ever been this long-sighted? flat, two- dimensional maps A1. This is a good argument, but I think and we’d bring on that many races would go to the trouble the light sabres just because it’s possible. We also have It’s and psionics and to assume that it’s not going to cost not just whatever else we their entire planetary GNP to build a the could dream up. But ship. But I think that if we, here on ignorance we aren’t going for that. We’re not Earth, could build one right now for the of the aiming for popularity here. Instead, cost of going to Mars, we would do so. scientific realities that gets me. It’s the we’re looking straight down the widest, Let’s take it down even further and say ignorance of the possibilities inherent to most obvious, most unexplored alley in that perhaps it would only reach the cost the scientific realities. Once upon a science fiction gaming, and we are not of going to the Moon again. Now it’s time, authors used to write science flinching. We are unafraid, because we much more likely that we would do so. fiction as an exploration of those see the possibilities for interesting, And if you continue to scale back the possibilities. Some of the best science naturally developing, internally cost until the price of building a starship fiction is based on “what if’s” along consistent stories, and they are equals that of, say, building 5-10 jumbo with an extrapolation of the plots and amazing! jets in year 2001 dollars, then I think you’d definitely see several starships the level where we can build boats and overly aggressive race out of the being built. Perhaps not 100 of them, airplanes in the kind of automated, territory of its neighbor, by the time but perhaps a dozen. assembly line way that we build cars, they arrive on scene, the whole situation but if we did, you’d probably see prices may have turned upside-down, and the Q2. What about trade? Such long-term drop quite a bit. One has to wonder fleet may be urgently needed back voyages have got to have an adverse what the future will bring as robotics home. All this makes for a big logistical impact on the bottom line. After all, a technology evolves. mess where the enforcement of merchant vessel is only worth what it All this discussion of robots reminds interstellar law is basically a farce. can make off the goods it can carry over me of something yet another friend of its life. If it can only make ten voyages mine once said. “What is money?” he A3. These are all excellent points, and if before it needs a major overhaul, it sure asked. “What does it really represent?” there were no FTL-communication, I’d as heck isn’t going to be carrying In short, money is roughly equivalent to probably agree with all of this whole- oranges. man-hours. Skilled man-hours cost heartedly, which is why I made the more than unskilled man-hours, but decision that FTL-communication must A2. The first thing to remember here is that’s mainly what you’re paying for in be integral to the setting. Given that that starships don’t age in real time nearly any product that you purchase technology, a central government could except when they are parked in orbit. (with the possible exception of A&E put its representatives on various worlds Starships, like their crews, age in where you’re getting a really good and then communicate their wishes via subjective time. That means that they deal). Robotics, I think, will change the FTL-radio. With local representatives will be good for many, many voyages. value of money quite substantially and backed by local force as well as a much A typical starship’s term of service may in ways which we probably can’t even greater offworld force perhaps only encompass hundreds or even thousands imagine at the present time. In short, twenty or thirty years away, the of real years before it ever reaches its assuming the technology continues to population and its leaders would be overhaul age. progress at the rate it’s been going, more likely to be law-abiding. Granted, The second thing to consider is that we’ll almost certainly be living in if people were planning to die of old biologicals will likewise be easier to interesting times. age in 20-30 years, the distant force transport due to time dilation. Just as the might not pose as great a threat, but if crew ages less, so too will they age less. you include non-age medical techniques Of course, a month is still a long time into the equation, then 20-30 years may for an orange, but perhaps not quite so not seem like such a long time after all. long for dehydrated, homogenized, Of course, this raises the question orange concentrate. Even so, if it’s about what to do with criminals. cheaper at the destination market to produce agricultural products Q4. What about the political than to import, then they’re prospects for Earth? By all going to produce them locally, accounts, Earth is a lovely and I imagine this will likely garden world that most races be the case for most such with a C/O2/H20 products. Nonetheless, there biochemistry would be eager will always be exotics which to absorb into their fold. will command a higher price However, sentient natives and consequently be worth (i.e. humans) make the importing. process so much more Naturally, all of the above difficult. First they must be depends on the price tag associated screened, then the whole thing is with starship construction. I realize taken to the high council, then the that in the early discussion archives, council must decide whether to offer there was talk about making starships membership. If humans don’t qualify expensive to build. However, after for membership status, then the council thinking this through, I’ve begun to take must decide which one of the bickering the opposite position. Q3. Without FTL-travel, how is the races gets Earth, and there’s so much Given the free labor of robots, the coalition and its high council going to red tape that wars are almost certain to near limitless materials of asteroid belts, enforce any of their laws or decisions? result. and the nearly free energy of fusion, I Consider that it may take decades to have to wonder why starships would be mass a fleet against an outlaw A4. Yes, given the STL-travel so difficult to build. Once you’ve got government, and it could take centuries limitation (and depending on the speed the basic “factory” in place, you should to prosecute a war. Who is going to go of FTL-communication), the whole be able to produce a lot of anything to the trouble given these extreme time thing may likely end up decided before (cars, boats, airplanes, starships). Of lags? Even if the navy does make the the council has a chance to decide, and course, here on earth, robotics is still an long journey, for instance, to suppress a that adds a whole extra layer of politics evolving technology, and it’s not yet at revolt on a distant colony, or to expel an and resulting chaos (which is cool). Q5. How do we deal with the problem A6. I don’t think that STL in any way potential players will turn their noses at of having to create a new set of NPCs voids the aliens that you’ve created. it and think that it’s a stupid idea. But I every time the PCs revisit a planet? Yes, it makes them more difficult to can’t help but think, after really reach. But the thing to remember considering this for several years, that it A5. That, I agree, will be about this setting is that is a good idea if given a fair chance and an extremely unusual humanity is a minor race. In executed correctly. feature of the campaign, at every other SF-RPG least until non-aging setting, from Star Q7. One final question. Relativity and technology is Trek, to Star Wars, to time dilation involve a bit of developed or Babylon 5, to mathematics. While the gearheads appropriated Traveller, we are a might enjoy it, most players may prefer (which could be major race. Even to skip it. What about them? an early Albedo, which tries adventure). But harder than any game A7. I’ll write some software to make it until that happens, before it to break from this all seem easy, and for those who don’t the setting will take stereotype, the characters are have access to a computer, I can put a lot of effort to get used to, arguably just humans in animal together some tables like the time and even with anagathic costumes. In all the other dilation table several pages back so they technology, there will still games there are large won’t even have to yank out a be social repercussions for expanses of human calculator. Altogether, I don’t think it’ll spacers. For example, if dominated space where most be too hard for the average player to you left your girlfriend on ships are crewed by humans cope. After all, it’s not like this stuff is a world and said, “Don’t and most NPCs the players rocket science! Well, okay... so it is worry, babe... I’ll be back in might meet will be humans. rocket science. 50 years. You can wait for me, However, in the Ragamuffin can’t you?” she might get a bit setting, humans are extremely rare. irked. If you left her and came Most planets and ships visited by back (for you, the subjective time the PCs will have lots of alien might be only a few months or a NPCs and few to zero human year), it wouldn’t be a great leap of NPCs, and that in itself is a logic to discover that she’s now a stark contrast to everything great-grandmother. That would make else that’s been done for extremely unusual social dynamics, before. It also means that as normally aging people would likely aliens and alien politics treat space travellers as ghosts in a will play a more way... they realize that once they are important role in this gone, they will probably never be seen game than in any SF-RPG again (at least until old age). And that’s which has ever come before. That says a scary thing to introduce into a setting a great deal, and for that reason, I think because it’s so beyond our realm of any aliens you create are not very likely experience. We can imagine what it to find their way into the proverbial might be like, but having never dustbin. They will definitely be used. experienced anything like it ourselves, Again, I realize that this whole thing how close we come to getting it right as seems awfully strange. Believe me, it game designers is something we could took me several years to come to terms never know. with it myself, and it’s a process I’m still undergoing. I’m so used to the way Q6. What about the risk that this STL- that everyone else has been designing travel doctrine may result in a game SF-settings (i.e. with FTL-travel), that it where the players spend as much time almost seems impossible to design one in a single star system as humanly which takes the opposite approach. But possible, because to leave that star after setting aside my personal biases system would entail the hardship of and carefully considering each of the cutting themselves off from everyone ramifications, I’ve come to the there for an extended duration? Here’s conclusion that it could actually the key problem. I’ve put a lot of work improve the flow of the game. into my aliens, and I want them to be Certainly, it would make it a lot more than just rumors, or space different from any other SF-RPG that invaders, or Trekish stereotypes. That’s we’ve ever played. It will seem unusual what I’m afraid of. I want the work I’ve at first. Of that I have absolutely no done on this project to mean something. doubt. And I’m sure that the majority of