[Raven Bloodmoon]

Lyinginbedmon, on May 29 2005, 12:52 PM, said:

Besides, if you give them the technology level of Post-WW2 then you're in for a world of trouble. You now don't have to worry about Evil Cults and power-hungry Mages, you just have to worry about the magic A-Bomb about to blow your organs,

Quote

sexual or otherwise

halfway across space

Why do I keep getting visions of a certain purple mushroom cloud and an enormous anti-magic field? Dthclw, can you help me with this?

Anyway, purely magic would probably be the "safer" way to go, and the steam power could work for interplanetary voyages. But even with constant accelleration, the ship would never go nearly fast enough to travel between stars. I think we must face the facts that teleport is necessary. Only other option would be to use something like a Babylon 5 style jump gate and try to ignore the paradox. And pray the PCs don't notice.

Does anyone know of any planes where distance traveled is sort of like the altered time flow in other planes? Like 1 inch in one plane is the same as 1 mile in another plane? Because you could get a good FTL drive that way. Gate to said plane and putz along a little way and gate back. Anyone see any problems with this?

[Lyinginbedmon]

Well, I'm not sure if there are any current planes that could do that, but demi-planes are always possible, and you could use that. This of course assumes that you can compare distances between planes

Alternatively, you could create a magitech device that converts everything attached to it into a beam of light, then fires said beam in a straight line to its destination. If the effect is temporary, it would cause the ship to eventually slow down, thus 'dropping out' of FTL. However, you would have to find a way for the machine to do this and remain attached to the ship itself to continue its usage.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Ow! My head hurts now. Stop spitting out ideas like that.

Yeah, let's see....would be sort of interesting. Almost turn the ship into a beam of tachyons (assuming they exist) and you'd basically set the duration in order to determine the distance traveled. Now, does this require a clear line of effect on the destination? Because we know how planets, dark matter, and black holes love to be in annoyingly unexpected places. Heh, planets would need to build enormous windshields for all the errant starships to go splat on.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Theoretically, if something goes at the speed of light, then it would be absorbed into the planet anyway, making something akin to natural ore. If it goes faster the light (FTL travel) then it could possibly go right through the planet. So much for a windshield, but much less casualties

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

Man there are plenty of theories of what happens when you travel at FTL speeds. I am still wondering why a modified teleport spell and scrying, greater won't just do the job...

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Those only work if you know where you want to go. If you are exploring, 'That way" is about as much direction as you have. Hard to just try to teleport "that way." Besides, it isn't as much fun as tossing in some magitech and giving your players even more of a headache.

[Axel]

Why has every other notable sci-fi been mentioned? Let's go Trek on this one, ok? Now, what you do is create a bubble around your ship that warps space/time. It causes the space infront of your ship to contract and that behind it to expand. When you wish to travel you do so at a normal speed, only the warpage of space/time determines your speed as viewed from outside. Since the speed of light is a constant this allows fantasic chase scenes, laser weapons fired at high warp velocities, and Captain Kirk's famous directions: "Take us out there, that way."

If that doesn't appeal to you then you could try having the ship tunnel through a closely related "sub-space" plane in which all distances are irrelevant, but in which every location corresponds to an exact point in space. Thus the ship travels at normal speeds but arrives at it's destination very quickly.

Or, if worse comes to worst, plug the Infinite Improbability Drive and hope for the best.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

If I am forced to resort to the IID, I'd better start work on a steel golem named Marvin as well.

Here are the things I'd like to see in a FTL drive:
[*]Capability to travel between stars in a reasonable amount of time.
[*]It must take some time to travel between stars. This can be accomplished through actual travel time, preparation time, or recharge time.
[*]No epic spells used to accomplish the travel.

I am open to such ideas as
[*]A Hyperspace Plane a la Babylon V
[*]A Hyperdrive akin to the one described by Isaac Asimov
[*]Living ships with the aibility to teleport themselves great distances withs ome rest required.
[*]Anything else that is equally extraordinary in the world of DnD and easily ajudicated by the DM.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Well, you could have magical outposts that are all linked to each other (Perhaps made by some ancient race, now extinct) and that allow a person there to step foot on a specific part of it and be teleported to the outpost closest to their destination. A simple use of teleport coupled with the thought of prior space travellers and the time taken to find the right spot to teleport from

[WoeTheSinner]

If you are going to go for the ancient lost civilization explanation then the "stargate" way is the way to go. Easy to use and explain.

The babylon 5 hyperspace way is very easy to explain in DnD terms. A gate spell is cast opening a hole to lets say the etherial plane or the plane of shadow. Traveling for 1 hour in these plains is equivalent to traveling 1 day in ht eprime plane etc etc etc

I think one of the above choices if the way to go, I'm more a fan of the babylon 5 method. That way you can still have ships that use darius' fantastic enslaved fire elemental steam engine , because space ships are fun and really thats where magic would come into its own as fighters and rogues couldnt do much in a vacuum

-Woe

[WoeTheSinner]

I just had two fantastic ideas! I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!

1) The entire ship is a golem! The whole darn thing! That way its like you have a 'computer' you give it an order and it obeys. It can cast fly at will and BAM you have yourself a spaceship that can fly through a Gate into hyperspace and bash the heck out of anything you find there

2) Spaceship powered by the undead! These could be like the space pirates of DnD rogue necromancers who prowl the endless wastes of space in search of "the nothing". Their ships are pulled pushed and carried by the spirits of their victims. No fuel no food no nothing...and spectral undead can shift tot he astral plane...you get enough of them together and they might be able to shift a ghost touched vessel witht hem. Pluss imagine a pirate ship with ghosts pushing it along shooting zombies and skeletons at you through space!

[Lyinginbedmon]

I was wondering when Woe was going to bring Golems into this topic, but he has a point.

Combining the hyperspace gate idea with the dragging it through idea, how about this:

• The Gate spell is cast to the new plane of travel
  
• Instead of the Golem or the undead army dragging it in, a summon monster spell is cast instead to summon a great beast that could push it in (A bit on the Final Fantasy side, but what the heck).

You could even make the beast of the race that built the gates, if you include them as permanent structures, or you could just have it as a summoned creature capable of existing in space and pushing the ship through.

[Shadowkami]

So if you can just jump to the etheral plane, why bother keeping the pasengers safe in vaccum when all you need is a way th the etheral plane and a way of going really fast. Wizzards have already made cold fusion, why not faster than light travel?

[Axel]

None of these possibilities allow for intrepid space explorers boldly going where no man has gone before. If you want to explore the cosmos you need a ship that can go without without knowing exactly where it's headed. You need Warp Drive!

[Lyinginbedmon]

And you know how to make a Warp-capable craft using non-epic magic and rudimentary technology? If so please explain it to us