Reference Gaming Theory and Philosophy Discussion Thread - Article Open Call!

And now for something entirely different! Many thanks to Sirak for coming up with this idea.


Article Open Call: "What was your best post and how did you come with it?"

We want you guys to take your very best post, your most remarkable moment, and explain to us how you did it. How did it came to pass? What made you do them that way? What story does it have behind it? Feel free to include how you built up towards that single post, too (if applicable). Or - if you can't pick just one - what is your favourite theme in a post - dialogue, humour - and why? How do you make it awesome?

Everyone is welcome to write something, no matter how short or long.

Let us know how you do them!

I'll start ...

You guys don't have to follow the format I've used here - you can quote the post, link to the post, only quote sections of it, whatever. As I said, we're just interested in the Story Behind The Post here, however you'd like to tell it.

Open Call Response: Mischa's Death

This is a post I'm particularly proud of.

Background Info: Mischa is my (then-)thirteen-year-old Man Cubs character. Of all the young humans adopted by the Shistavanen pack, she's youngest girl and second youngest overall. She was also, as per the Fates pack I got from Winged_Jedi at the start of the game, fated to die very early in the game at the hands of its main villain. "You will be killed very early on by Shere Khan", to be precise. Oh, and I had to keep this secret.

My goal was thus to play Mischa in such a way that her death would have maximum impact. Which was a bit cruel, yes - but hey, my character was going to die. I was determined to share the pain.

All I had to do, really, was to keep my mouth shut and make it as big a surprise as possible. But I also knew that (1) for people to care about the death, they must care about the character; and (2) I had very little time in which to make it so.

The very nature of the character - young, cute, innocent - would (I hoped) do most of the work for me. I just had to show it, and the sooner the better - I'm one of those players who typically need some time to get used to a new character (like a new pair of boots, they require breaking in), but here I was determined to hit the ground running. It took a few leaps of faith when it came to character/NPC interaction, but it worked out nicely.

I couldn't resist putting in a bit of foreshadowing as well, in the form of this paragraph-

Mischa followed the others, lagging a bit as she looked up at the stars - or rather, at the huge ships that were blocking out the stars. Long, thin, triangular, and glinting black and red in the moonlight ... they looked kind of like claws, or maybe arrowheads, dripping with blood.
Blood ... Mischa shivered. She felt strange ... she had the uncomfortable feeling that blood would be spilled tonight, for real, not just in practice fights or playground tussles ... but that wasn't all of it. Something was going to happen, soon ... because ... because this was the turning point. Everything was going to change ...

It takes place right after the Pack spotted the incoming Togorian ships, and - unbeknownst to everyone - Mischa's doom. What I like about this bit is that it can simply refer to the obvious change about to happen: the Man Cubs are about to leave their childhood home behind for good. But Mischa's also gonna die. I like the imagery with the blood and claws - it has no significance outside Mischa's overactive imagination, but is strangely appropriate considering how Penguinator's Bakara gets mauled a page later.

It was also a springboard for more character development. I greatly enjoyed how darthramza's Vic reacted to it: "No hurry, Sis, the people in those ships only want to kill you..." Ahhh, I loved it. It was perfect, far better than I had hoped for. I managed to refrain from telling him that until after The Death, but it was a close thing.

Speaking of Bakara, he too jumps in at this point to rescue Mischa from Vic with a few well-chosen words - the protective older brother shielding his youngest sister. Perhaps Peng was also trying to form IC bonds for maximum impact later on? I like to think it would have worked out that way anyway, but you never know really - how much one's playstyle is shaped by secret OOC knowledge of what will inevitably happen is a big enough topic to fill its own article.

Fast forward a couple pages: the Man Cubs are nearly safe. They're clustered around the ship that will whisk them away to freedom, boarding as quickly as they can. Then Shere Khan bursts out of the forest. The Man Cubs' adoptive mother moves to to intercept, to buy them time with her life ... and Mischa tries to stop he/>

Ah Mischa. I still remember the shock and talk that came from that little incident with her death Course, now I'm in the middle of that madness.

And for our other posts....wait what...nothing? *stretches* Ah well, guess I'll throw in my own tale of post awesomeness.

----------------

Alright, let's get this started. As for my best post, it would have to be - of course - located within 133 ABY - The Dark Odyssey. Yes, the same RP that has caused me such RP psychological and emotional scarring with it's own deadly craziness that led to some sleep deprivation as well as me struggling to think of what to do to ensure not only my character's survival but to get him to help in the survival of others. Considering the death toll - where about half or more of the characters that were featured in the game died if I'm correct -, it wasn't a very successful case.

Now, at the beginning, I didn't really fully understand how serious the game was going to be.

Background Information: To start this off, there was actually a game before Odyssey known as 128 ABY - The Sith-Imperial War - Turning Point that had been run by Sinrebirth. This was where my character, a Jedi Knight known as Tenk Qatar, was first created. As we all know, that war didn't go so well for the Galactic Alliance and neither did it go too well for my character. Having been a confident and dedicated Jedi during the war, it's during the Battle of Kiffu that his confidence in himself is shaken when a lapse in judgment and a deception of peace from the Kiffu High Guardian nearly botches the entire operation and almost causes the death of not only Tenk but his fellow Jedi and the GA capital ship in orbit. Needing a "break" he volunteers for a diplomatic mission to gain more allies for the GA and this is where he meets his shuttle pilot and future wife Captain Talia.

Things continue not to go so well. During his trip he ends up losing an eye during a duel with Petra Tarkin and, during his mission upon Bakura, he was once again deceived, this time by the President of Bakura with instigates a civil war on Bakura. Angered, Tenk kills him in cold blood and this leads to him nearly being corrupted by the dark side as he slays his Jensaarai allies that assisted him and severely wounding Talia. Broken down by his experience, Tenk hangs up his lightsabers and leaves the Order to settle down with Talia who he eventually marries.

This is where Odyssey comes in. The Sith having taken over, Tenk ends up being found and captured and sent to the Gesaril prison complex. A small rebel group - with his wife in their ranks - attack the facility and free not only Tenk but others as well - such as SirakRomar's Kira Romar and Sinrebirth's Si Kya. Now, like I mentioned, I didn't know how serious and "Dark" this journey was going to be. This kind of led me to do some silly things at first such as when I had Tenk, who is still driven by his guilt, to use an underpowered lightsaber. My character getting speared through the chest by a Sith and the death of one of our fellow player characters soon told me just how serious this game was to be taken.

Fast forward to the finale and things are once again not going well for Qatar. Having gotten captured by one of the main villains of the show - a former Sith Weequay named Hoole that wishes to consume the entire galaxy with dark-sided twisted Verpine bugs known as Xenly -, Tenk not only has one but both of his eyes get a good zap of Force Lightning and he pretty much gets dumped into one of the many caverns of the asteroid base to be gobbled up by Xenly. Now, my character gets the great idea to try to form a pact with the first, original Verpine Xenly that still lives on within the hive mind of these bugs. Linking minds, Tenk hopes to convince Xenly to assist him in taking down Hoole.

A FOOL I WAS!

Instead of helping my character, Xenly desired to consume my character both physically and mentally. Now...I wasn't happy at that and the news were really not helping the current situation. Knowing for a fact that my ch

The connection I had with Tenk was indeed an important part for not only what had to be my best posts but what led to the emotional torment that was included with Dark Odyssey Your Sith-Imperial War had been a nice adventure and the trials that he had to go through on Kiffu, his duel with Petra Tarkin, and what happened to Bakura allowed me to firmly establish my connection to not only Tenk but Talia as well. Which was why it was quite a shame when the game had stopped all of a sudden. The fic you used to wrap up the endings left me, admittedly, a little frustrated upon seeing Tenk's brief fall to the dark side It felt incomplete and I was plagued with imaginations of what could've happened after Bakura.

And then came Odyssey! A chance to not only bring my character back but allow me to have my own, personal hand into shaping what happened after Bakura - such as his self-exile and marriage - while we started off on this new adventure.

And a very torturous, deadly adventure it was. The connection with Tenk soon became a double-edged sword when I realized that Fins had pulled off the safety gloves and it didn't help that he spared no mercy to not only Tenk but Talia as well. I still remember the sorrow and one or two tears that came upon Talia's "death" that left me a bit numb and giving me an unwillingness to post for the rest of the day after I typed the heart-wrenching reaction that Tenk had. I had my suspicions that Fins was pulling a fast one on me but still...

Yes I know I can be a bit emotional at times so sue me It's only cause I care!

Then came the finale with characters dying left and right such as Selpha and Si. I still remember sneaking onto the computer at work, checking on the RP to see if things have gotten any better after I got Tenk out of his mess. Then I see how Si's meeting with Xenly ended and thought "No! No it hasn't gotten any better at all! "

Fortunately, all was well in the end (for the characters that lived anyway *pats Si*). Upon that last combined post that Sirak and I created, everything felt complete and I was finally able to put Tenk away for his well-deserved rest. Despite all the trials, Tenk was back to his Jedi ways, he had his wife, a daughter, and the knowledge that he managed to be the key to Kira's own happy ending with his almighty powers of resurrection! Muwahaha!

Course, this has left me wary of anymore German-led games and a break from joining anymore RPs. I hear SotS has it's own madness going on

Poor Tenk.

I tend to agree with Sinre - you had such a connection to Tenk, which is not a bad thing when it leads to such awesomeness. It wouldn't have been the same without that.

I don't think I've been that attached to a character... my IBOP character Krasus perhaps, but not since.

Oh I remember that scene. It was so awesome. The only time Xenly was ever beaten by anyone. The only time someone could purify himself from all the flaws this violent bug used. I loved it so much. And attachments, yeah. I think 133 ABY had a great way to take you char from 128 ABY and somehow make him even closer to you as a player. It was probably because it was all about us. It felt like a character journey, first.

So, I´ll do my Kira post. Just can´t decide if it will be the first 133 ABY or the death-scene in 133 ABY, actually. Once I made up my mind, I´ll write a lot about it

On Advertisement of Games


Foreword

Is DarkLordoftheFins probably taking this too serious? You see, my first thing I tell you is not to take it too serious. Advertising a game, building the tension and then being rewarded with players eager to play and ready to invest their best into it is a rewarding . . . ye ha it is a FUN . . . experience!

What am I talking about?

It is about time anybody collected a few thoughts on how to advertise games in the RPF, I believe. With fewer users we saw over the last few years players have become a more precious resource. And having a stable and successful game is all about recruiting the right group of players these days. What the right group is, might be discussed another day. But I think everybody has his own idea about it.

So, how do you get them? Some people think posting up a game in itself should be enough. People will come. And that might actually be true. For some games. But I think it is common sense to say, that a player will partake in the game he is most curious about, if he has to choose between games of the more or less same quality. As GDG makes sure these days our OPs get better and better I think some more effort is needed. And that effort parts into three huge stages, all three defined by the progress the game it made.

I. Pre-Game advertisement
II. Opening Week/Month
III. Ongoing Game

If anybody is interested I´ll add

IV: Case Studies

To avoid over-crowding my post with thoughts and assumptions of mine, I´ll split my ideas into three parts following the three stages. Before that I want to build a base for my ideas, by talking about to points. That are the fundamental of any good game.


Preamble: Before you advertise

1. Good games

Well, you can advertise bad games. You can also try to talk people into joining it, besides not liking the idea of it. But that won´t last long. And actually - surprise - people like to join games they like. So think about it for a moment before you even consider making a fuss about the game. Not everything you love will be generally beloved. not everything you know is a well known franchise out there. If you need a little reality check the GDG has a lot of kind but critical minds setting their task on exactly that. Otherwise ask a GM you have a high opinion of. Most of the guys around here would give you some opinion any day.

Once you believe your game is of a descent quality and will garner some interest you can go to the next step . . .

2. Reputation factor

Wait, wait, wait. there is one more thing to talk about. Can you go to the next step? Sure. But I will make no allusions. One more factor will be incredible important when you begin recruiting. If you talk about your game, will anybody listen? Consider the RPF a cinema where only unknown movies are shown. Would you listen to the pal who has just arrived and sits there in the corner talking about some obscure thing or would you listen about your friend? Would you follow those who always watch the same movies like you, or someone else who you have no idea about who he is?

You cannot get here and expect everybody waited for you. So I again strongly advice to take a few steps into the world of the RPF before beginning to GM games. Get yourself a reputation as a good player and especially SHOW us you stay around to play that game. Is it an obligation? Actually I´d say yes. But obviously we had exceptions from the rules. Noteworthy exceptions. Recently we had Asylum by Republic_Anvil/Jedi_Highlander and a while back ago we had The New Sith War and a late attempt at Kotor III. All three by unknown first timers and generating huge interest. We also had ~Beyond~ which garnered quite some interest.

The New Sith Wars and Kotor III died pretty fast. And if I may say . . . from every newbie GM mistake you can do. Asylum and ~Beyond~ did reasonable well, the later one being ended by the GM because the language barrier was too high. That actually these later two g/>

That is a vast, knowledgable article Fin. i must say I wouldn´t have thought you´d sahre your secrets with us. Hope we see Part II soon. And I´ll follow this as a guideline in hte future. Very interesting points.

A good summary and some insight. A shame nobody will read though it all

Hey! I will. . .just give me a couple of weeks

That is actually an excellent one, Fin. I think bakc then when I tried to move a game here, I made everything on that list wrong. Problem is, people won´t get it, won´t read it or find little discussion worthy about it . . . Fin, you were never good at creating controversy! But if I decide to do something here, I would allow it to guide me on my journey through player recruitment.

Well I finally read it. . .all! Fin, what is with the Golden Crow being a few weeks in advance? If I remember correctly I was getting news of SotS for nearly a year in advance, actually had me turn down a few player requests and probable good looking games in the interum.

Another thing would be, what is that again? Oh, yes, what would you do for your Case Studies?

Well, Sins of the Saints went off-rail a few times. Therefore I really had to postpone it time and again. I think it might have worked out fine, but I guessed most GMs do not plan a yyear in advance so I did leave out the "year-long-campaign" setting. Although I must confess I was pleased with the player submissions. It was one game. So, hardly enough to make a case of it. But that might be something to watch in the future. How long-running-build-up might affect advertisment?
Some players of SotS did sign up half a year before it began based on the 1st draft of it. You among them, Mitth. If I recall right. I wonder if they advertised it, spread the word. Who knows . . . maybe, maybe not. So, as a good theorist, I have not dealt with these unknown factors. Only with those I knew.

The Golden Cow is a German saying. I used it fully aware it is not translatable into English. But I found no better word. It means it´s a "very valuable" thing. Special.

And concerning the case studies, I wanted to take several games and analyse their advertisment and how players reacted to it. I did this for a while. Watching how games recruited. Out of interest. So I´ll ask GMs for permission to do an analysis. Success and failures. So I can´t tell any names, yet. Except . . . LordT agreed to allow me to analyse 133 ABY - The Cold Embrace. So, that would be one case. Another four, probably. I´d avoid my own. But so far I am only beginning to write up the next part. So that is future-music. Another German saying. Zukunftsmusik. I´ll call a Chapter of SotS that!

Zukunftsmusik...what a great word! I have a couple of German friends here, and I think I might just slip that casually into the conversation next time I see them.

Fins, you've put together a characteristically thorough and intelligent analysis. However, I think all that really matters is reputation. You wrote about it in your preamble, but I reckon it's far more important than any other factor. Everything else is trivial in comparison.

We all know each other. If you started a game tomorrow with zero marketing, I would still take a look at it. So would LordT or Sarge or Xany or ramza or Sinre or any of the regulars around here. In fact, that's exactly what I did with Man Cubs. I don't think I gave any hint of its arrival in any of the threads. IIRC, I posted it the day after I first had the idea.

The fact that we make trailers and teasers is all part of the fun. I love making them and reading them. But I believe that the players who read them would have been interested anyway, because they know the GMs running them.

Well, best example is LordT and ManCubs. A while ago it was rumored he would do some sort of prequel to Winged Jedi´s wildly popular ManCubs. With Winged´s permission. He got submissions to play, before he ever talked about it. Turned out to be a rumor. Not a true word to it.

This makes me laugh. I still have no clue how that ever happened.

Though it did get me thinking...

Well, that´s the thing I thought, too. And I felt that was a comfortable thought. Considering that I might have a reputation by now. But it is not the whole truth. Not if you look at all games. I was surprised, too.

Best Example is The New Sith Wars. Unknown guy, untested as a GM and almost everybody was in there. LordTroepfchen, never GMed around here, was on a 16 month hiatus returns and get 22 submissions for 5 spaces in The Cold Embrace. Today he got a reputation as a GM. If he had back then, I was unaware of it. Rev with a really a bit old idea of a good and nice Kotor III. A first timer. A total noob. Solid cast. Out of nowhere. Republic_Anvil my beloved todays Co-GM in SotS, under the name of Jedi Highlander. Asylum.. With a little stamina she got a solid cast together. And when I told RachelTyrell, I would make a little advertising for Beyond, tell people she was connected to us German players and all that to try and lure some players there, she told me NO!
Her words: I have already created three extra spaces and now I am forced to tell people I can´t support their characters! First timer. ~Beyond~.

So, when I stumbled over one of those, I considered it to be a coincidence. But then I found more. And now I must say these examples (who are probably not all) show that reputation is not needed. At all. You just have to make up for the lack of.

And reputation . . . I won´t be that cruel to link to some of our more prestigious GMs having failed to attract a crowd. It happened lately, though. So some games can´t be saved by reputation. It´s as simple as that. So, you got a very strong reputation, Winged. It´s the only thing you need. But some games have a good success without people with good reputation heading them. Some games actually seem to attract people because of their freshnes. Like Asylum or Kotor III. That is a selling factor if the game is good enough, got the right vibe and is set in a good timeframe (most of this discussed in my second installment). If you join a Sinre game, a Fin game, a Winged game . . . you pretty much know what you´re buying. A n00b can lure players in with the promise of something new . . .

Although I think the game that succeeds despite the GMs bad reputation has still to arrive at these boards. So a neutral reputation is required at least.

The Golden Cow, yes, I got the reference to something valuable was what you most likely meant. Although in my heritage, a golden cow is more a symbol of shame and folly, with a possible hint of self destructive tendencies. . .so, yeah. I changed it to crow, just cause in my mind just about anything else golden is a better symbol.

Yes, I was one of those first sign ups with a sheet in before you even got around to posting it outside of the German thread. Actually started building the character before it was even posted, but turned it all on it's ear after I read it in the German thread. Somewhat impressive in my mind since I only know enough German to get myself into trouble with

I did share it by PM once or twice, as a sort of 'heads up' to a couple of people that I thought might like it. Actually I can't remember if they ever did join SotS

EDIT to add to the two new posts: I actually was really unsure about playing my first game in ABY under Fins, as in my mind he had somewhat a tarnished reputation. So I felt like I was taking a huge gamble of investing my time in his game, and resurecting my character. Even though I knew the previous Triquetra had ended from unforeseeable circumstances, a bit of apprehension carried over and I half expected to have it die a month or two after I joined.

Sorry Fins, but from me in that first one I saw ABY'ers as a shifty lot and you to from your association. Nearly said no because of it.

Well, I expected little else when I returned. Honestly I was pretty surprised by the welcome I got and that my dreamcast assembled to thel ast person all by itself. Although I think SirakRomar had a stunning season back then and a lot player wanted to see her in her old signature-role, methinks. An amazing cast assembled for the game of my lifetime. So I won´t complain.

Having talked to Xani figured this was the best place to put it, so with that in mind...


Kahn's Guide to Hyperspace in Roleplaying

In Star Wars role-playing hyperspace has taken a back-burner role in the mythos of games. It?s a side note, something you tack on to designate movement; it?s a loophole, an escape route to avoid being captured, killed, or otherwise injured during a scene. I?ve decided, after a bit of coaxing from a few people, to write up a guide about hyperspace and how it applies to role-playing.

What is Hyperspace?

Hyperspace* is an underlying layer parallel to normal space (akin to subspace but operating on a different principle). Within hyperspace the laws of physics are different; an object in hyperspace is able to propel itself beyond the speed of light, allowing faster-than-light travel. To enter hyperspace an object needs a hyperdrive (more on them later) which pushes it through the barriers between the two spacial dimensions while propelling the ship into FTL speeds.

Everything moving in hyperspace acts as tachyonic matter. Tachyons constantly travel faster than the speed of light. By traveling through hyperspace, normal matter adopts many attributes of tachyonic matter and thus attains faster-than-light speeds. Visually, hyperspace is denoted as a swirling blue or purple vortex. For those who don?t recall seeing it in a Star Wars medium, it looks very similar to the time vortex in the opening credits of Doctor Who.

*Side Note: If one happens to be playing as a Yuuzhan Vong character, they would refer to hyperspace as darkspace.


What is a Hyperdrive?

A hyperdrive (which is sometimes, albeit rarely, called a warp drive) is an advanced, yet common, piece of technology. At its most basic, a hyperdrive and its components break the dimensional barriers between realspace and hyperspace, allowing a ship to pass safely between the two. A hyperdrive collects gamma radiation, while building up a reserve of power from a fusion generator. It then releases the gamma radiation which causes a ripple in space-time, allowing the ship to pass through the dimensional barrier.

A hyperdrive, however, is much more than just a means of breaking through the barriers between realspace and hyperspace. In fact many aspects of a ship?s normal equipment work in conjunction with a hyperdrive to keep the ship, and its contents, intact. Examples include the inertial dampers, which keep a crew and cargo from being crushed by the acceleration forces of entering and leaving hyperspace.

Stasis fields deal with the relativistic aspects of hyperspace travel, keeping a crew and contents aging in real time with the normal dimension. Shields protect a craft during exit into realspace as well as protecting it from collections of dark matter and interstellar dust that have made their way into hyperspace. But perhaps most importantly, a null quantum field generator maintains the ship?s inertia in hyperspace, keeping it from slowing down and dropping out prematurely.

Alternatively, a ship can enter hyperspace by use of a hyperspace booster or thruster (or in the case of the Yuuzhan Vong, dovin basals). In the case of a booster or thruster, it operates in a similar way as a hyperdrive but with a much lower power rating, and over shorter distances. Such thrusters are found on small fighters, most famously the Azure Angel. Dovin basals on the other hand, manipulate gravity field/>

Hyperdrives' combative usages are largely ignored because of the fact that they're simply broken. Taking them seriously as anything more than an occasionally necessary method of transportation creates far too many problems.

Blind jumps are safe if the distance is short. Space is vast and mostly empty. It takes contrived circumstances like an asteroid field or a black hole cluster to limit jumps to safety, or the more common but still not always applicable restriction of a nearby planetoid or Star Destroyer -strength tractor beam.

Building hypermissiles, weapons that are nothing more than hyperdrives on a timer and pointed precisely, would allow anyone with a mild amount of credits to destroy pretty much anything. Try sticking an HIMS on a completely empty transport and aiming for the core of a planet. You've got a (one-shot, but) ridiculously inexpensive Death Star. Sufficiently powerful hyperdrives can break deep enough into the gravity well to pull that off without an HIMS, in fact.

Hyperspace is best left as an illogical place we're occasionally forced to visit in order to avoid the relativistic consequences otherwise present in sublight galactic travel.

Firstly: As this pointed out they're not broken, they require a lot of precise calculations to pull off any sort of close range jump. Or blind luck. Neither of which is just gonna happen. Its broken when someone god-mods with it. The average GM here on the RPF isn't just gonna let someone use Hyperspace whilly nilly as it breaks games.

Secondly: Blind jumps are never safe. Just randomly kicking into hyperspace causes so many problems. Any sort of spacial anomaly can cause a hyperdrive to fail spectacularly. Thats why you HAVE navi-computers or astromechs with nav data. I went to lengths to point out that even normal hyperspace jumps require very precise calculations. Like Han said "Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy. Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova, and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

Thirdly: The Questor was a Star Battlecruiser it was at least three kilometers in length. Not even the Empire at is strongest would have considered building a 3+ kilometer ship with an HIMS to crack open a planet. That'd be billions of credits spent on a one use weapon.

Fourthly: Almost all of your points were addressed in the guide in some way or another.

Easy, folks. Friendly disagreements are okay; let's keep it friendly.

Thanks Kahn for spending your time to inform everyone on Hyperspace travel, because a lot of people, including myself, definitely dismissed it entirely.

While I do not doubt their use in Role Playing, overall Hyperdrives are simply used to get from one place to another and if we begin to think about them more than that, then other problems will arise, mainly they will be a larger and unnecessary plot point.

In the Star Wars universe, hyperdrives are as common as car engines and what do we see in action movies all the time? People shooting out engines or the engines not starting up or some people having faster/better engines than others. I'm not saying it is bad, but it would make an ordinary thing into something complex that does not need to be.

I agree with you on its uses. Actually, I agree with you on all the points. I think what EternalLurker was pointing out is that if we treat it as anything greater than what it is in the Star Wars universe, which is basically an engine, things become vastly more complicated. However, I do think GMs should know more about Hyperdrives/Hyperspace whenever they run a game that involves space travel.

Related Question: What do Hyperdrives run on? Do they run on any "fuel" at all?

-b

You know Blu, thanks for pointing that out. I was going to include a few snippets on Hyperdrive fuel and so on but I completely forgot.

What makes up a hyperdrive?

Hyperdrives are generally constructed of a specially designed titanium-chromium compound that allows them to withstand the constant stresses that are placed on them. Hyperdrives can be big and blocky like those seen on a Star Destroyer or small and elegant looking like the T-14 Hyperdrive Generator on Amidala's Yacht. Comprising a hyperdrive is a large number of small components, a number of which I covered earlier but more that I will discuss here.

Paralight system - The paralight system can be best described as a specialized computer network. It is a system of data feeds designed to transfer information for a Navi-computer and Main Computer to a hyperdrive motivator.

Fuel - Like most engines a hyperdrive requires fuel or some other source of power. Generally a hyperdrive is powered by hypermatter. Other common forms of power include fusion and fission generators. Though rare a number of hyperdrives were powered by Anti-matter held in anti-matter pods.

Alluvial damper - Alluvial dampers are an essential aspect of the hyperdrive. They are a series of regulating control plates that direct the thrust of a hyperdrive in certain directions. They are similar in aspect to thrust veins on other aircraft.

Carbonite insert - Its never really explained what a Carbonite insert does, but if I had to venture a guess I'd say it helps regulate temperatures in the hyperdrive due to its qualities. But thats just speculations.

Fulstar plate - They're magnetized and help children learn shapes. Other than that not much is mentioned, but I assume they regulate a magnetic field.

Horizontal booster - Horizontal boosters provide ionized energy to the ionization chamber when a ship's hyperdrive activates. This facilitates ignition and helps launch the ship into hyperspace.

Hyperdrive field guide - A series of specialized poles that direct the flow of a hyperdrives energy allowing the ship to be propelled into hyperspace.

Hyperdrive motivator - The heart and soul of a hyperdrive. Not only does it provide the necessary thrust of a hyperdrive engine but it also contains a number computer and sensor systems that help regulate a ships travel in hyperspace and instigate safe exits from hyperspace.

Hyperspace shunt - An essential safety system the hyperspace shunt drives excess heat and energy away from the hyperdrive to keep the system from overheating and becoming damaged. It also protects the rest of the ship as a failed shunt can cause a ships interior to heat up to dangerous levels.

Ion Exciter - parts of older hyperdrives they as the name suggest excite ions. By the way they sound they seem like a predecessor to horizontal boosters.

Thelman Converter - Not much is known about this part, its also ambiguously canon, so I don't give them much thought. In a plot though they can be a generic and ambiguous part that needs to be fixed. Somehow.

Transpacitor - A transpacitor is a small device that like the hyperdrive shunt moves heat and energy away from the hyperdrive. It is about the size of a fist and thus most common in smaller hyperdrives and on smaller craft.


And thats all I know/could find about hyperdrive parts />

Very nice Kahn.

I do have one question that I do not think was addressed. I remember reading in one of the SW Books, unfortunately not which one, that if an escape pod or other piece of a ship is dumped while the ship with the active hyperdrive is traveling through hyperspace then that item is stuck in hyperspace.

In the book it listed this as the reason that a ship cannot exit hyperspace with a fan spread of missiles already launched and why hyperspace capable weapons cost too much due to the needs of each one having their own hyperdrives and droid or organic meat-bag controller.

Also, this was used as a method of exicution to simply put the unwanted person in the escape pod and shoot them into the swirl where they would be stuck for an undefined time until it eventually fell through another ships exit of hyperspace into realspace or into otherspace. I was wondering if I am remembering these points correctly or if you know some more about them?

Blind luck happens to protagonists, RP PCs included. That's a staple of most heroic fiction. In Vector Prime Anakin enters hyperspace while spinning wildly. And you seem to be completely ignoring my statement that short jumps, such as in-system ones, are obviously quite safe. Either that or you're ridiculously underestimating just how empty space is, which would just be incredibly silly on your part . Pointing away from the largest nearby mass and jumping a few light-minutes away will outpace sublight engines easily at no risk, buying plenty of time for a more carefully calculated jump. Furthermore, hyperdrive failsafes err on the side of caution, and you have to be really close to a major gravity well to have any real danger of something happening to your ship anyway.

Hyperdrive class and simple ship size are the relevant factors in the damage that a "hypermissile" (I like that term now that I've coined it <_<) would do. Capital ships are incredibly expensive because they have sublight engines and a crapton of weaponry in addition to being sufficiently aerodynamic to maneuver adequately in atmosphere. A big chunk of scrap metal with a hyperdrive slapped onto it is not an exorbitant expense for the power to wreck a planet. Furthermore, there are even worse issues with sending a weapon of some sort into hyperspace to attack an opponent. Look at the Second Battle of Coruscant. If Shimmra could have just jumped the Alpha Red -infected ship onto Zonama Sekot, things would have been much different. Jump the ship away, then jump back in so close as to slam into the planet (as occurred in the second battle at Helska IV in Vector Prime).

Baiting. That's a warning.