Non-Standard Sublight Drives

[RubioBladesmith]

Hey Everyone.

I've been trying to brainstorm a few ideas for nonstandard sublight drives. Something other than the usual Hoesch-Kessel Ion Drives.

The obvious ones that spring to mind are Dooku's Solar Sail ship and the Yuuzhan Vong's Dovin Basals.

Other species/groups must have come up with different means of propelling their ships through space.

The real world has the RF resonant cavity thruster (Which looks to be science fiction anyway).

Feel free to chime in if you have any ideas.

Ps. I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I'm continually impressed with the creativity on this forum.

[tetsuoh]

Gravity Line Drive - Propulsion from a opposite polarity artificially generated gravity center in front of and behind the ship. Generally the ship appear cigar or cylindrical due to the nature of their propulsion.

Solid Mass Drive - Propulsion generated by a heavy gravity acceleration drive that amplifies the gravity response of the ship when it attempts to slingshot itself around a gravity well. Usually coupled with Ion or other forms of sub-light drives as these drives can only achieve thrust by interaction with a gravity well, but then no longer require activation once the ship has achieved its momentum.

Solid Fuel Drive - Basically a primitive atmospheric engine remodeled for space travel. These drives are considered remarkably slow by standard means and take far longer and burn far more fuel to achieve high velocities. These drives are normally found being fueled by compressed gases or combustible wastes. Note that solid fuel convertors are often still used on tramp freighters today to cut down on power supply costs. Just can't beat cheap sometimes.

Transition Element Drive - Basically another highly advanced form of Solid Fuel Drive - these drives are controversial as they strip elements from rare earth minerals that then form rare gases and then super-conduct them into a plasma state. Often called Alchemy Drives - these drives often can last for years only a few pounds of certain elements. Though there creation and maintenance is believed to be a lost if not forbidden technology from ancient times.

[Whill]

Cool, tetsuoh.

[Pel]

Arc Density Drive: Rotating arcs of projected energy weaken the density of the universe in front of the vessel, creating a bubble of "low pressure" reality that's pushed along by the denser space/time surrounding it.

Gravity Drag Drive: A small singularity surrounded by heavy directional energy shields pulls pulls the ship through space by altering the shield geometry. Containment failure results in catastrophic loss of hull integrity.

Force Drive: Biotechnology utilizing high-midichlorian tissue under a semi-sentient brain and nervous system to propel the ship using the Force.
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Aha!

[garhkal]

Can't remember what it was called' but the discovery network had a great look at what would happen should the world need to evacuate. It would create a big massive space ship which would use small nukes to 'shunt up a massive disk, which would give the ship its propulsion...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

I'm on the road at the moment, so I can't access them directly, but WOTC's D20 Future book has a list of different sci-fi spaceship drives listed by technology levels. Obviously, the stats would be incompatible, but the descriptions are sufficiently detailed to give you something to work with.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Whill]

GURPS Space - Star Drives (p. 37-41)

Hyperdrive
Hypersails
Tachyon Drive

Jump Drive
Wormhole or Keyhole Drive
Probability Drive
Interstellar Teleport Gates

Warp Drive
Inertialess Drive
Blink-Warp Drive
Space Highways
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[tetsuoh]

[Whill]

[garhkal]

And for an ADND take..

GNOMISH Wheels!
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Naaman]

General motors has built a sort of concept car that is.... um.... laser powered. I havent looked into the specifics, but you may be able to find it on youtube or something.

[RubioBladesmith]

Thanks for all the food for thought. There are lots of good ideas in here.

One of my players would sell their soul to get hold of the Alchemy Drive proposed by Tetsuoh.

And Gnomes! Everything is better with steampunk gears and pulleys.

It makes me laugh though. I just create a post calling the RF Cavity Thrusters science fiction, and someone has to come along and show that it might just work. Go figure.

[garhkal]

As was mentioned in the 'starwars-stargate crossover' thread the ancient Gree DID have a network of hypergates that would only operate for them.

Has anyone ever used them in game, even if only as a backdrop piece of history?

Ever had players TRY to solve their use?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

Been meaning to get to this. These are the drive types listed in D20 Future. I'm just including the later model drives that are roughly around the same tech level as Star Wars ships or higher.

Induction Engine
Basically a high-tech artificial gravity drive that uses a directional gravity field to propel and maneuver the ship.

Inertial Flux Engine
By precisely controlling the quantum energy level of every atom on the ship simultaneously, the inertial flux engine assumes the inertial states necessary to produce motion in any direction. In effect, by operating the controls, the pilot chooses from instant to instant what vector the ship's atoms will possess, and the inertial flux engine alters them simultaneously - along with everything else aboard, including the crew and passengers.

Spatial Compressor
The spatial compressor surrounds the ship in a field that "folds" or "wrinkles" the fabric of space in the direction the pilot wishes to travel. This results in a continuous series of micro-jumps in which the ship flickers in and out of reality, teleporting thousands of times every second. Since the ship has no intrinsic velocity (it's stationary while it teleports), the spatial compressor can instantaneously stop or change direction and thrust vector without any maneuvering whatsoever.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index