Gravitational Waves in Science Fiction

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

With regard to the original question, I'm thinking of using Gravity Waves as an updated entry on the Astrogation Mishap Table. My thinking is as follows: Astrogation is about calculating an accurate course through hyperspace, and all of the possible Astrogation Mishaps involve somehow going off course or miscalculating. Except the Mynocks result.

It has always seemed silly to me that Bad Math somehow causes Mynocks to appear.

So, what I'm thinking is to just switch out the fluff on the Mynocks result with a new entry called Gravity Waves:

9 - Gravity Waves. The ship encounters an uncharted (or "rogue") gravity wave, which affects the ship's course. Roll 1D:
1-3 - Duration of ship's journey increases by 1D days.
4-5 - See Hyperdrive Cut-Out result.
6 - See Off Course result.

_________________
"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

[CRMcNeill]

Relevant update from the real world.
_________________
"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

[jtanzer]

My issue with using gravitational waves as a navigational hazard (and also Interdictors) is that gravity isn't actually that strong. In fact, it's one of the weak nuclear forces for a reason. You need ALOT of mass in order to generate any significant amount of gravity. Gravitational waves are, especially in comparison to planetary or stellar gravity wells, extremely weak. So I don't understand how gravitational waves could affect a ship's course in hyperspace.
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The best villians are the ones the PCs create.

[CRMcNeill]

[pakman]

Interesting thread.


TLDR
If I understand FS premise however - I would say I disagree with it.

Every navcomputer is not a fully detailed copy of "google galaxy".

The premise is that at such incredibly high speeds, there is enough stuff that you need to know how to go around it.

"Routes" are the paths that others have identified the stuff in the way, and how to navigate safely.

new paths - don't know if they are clear.
Or -

just because you can go A to B and B to C does not mean you can go from A to C.

Longer version.

First off - star wars is space fantasy - we have to remember than in story telling, hyperdrives work at the speed of plot (my term....) - so a lot of things are messy and open to some intrepretation. We have to ignore the fact that space is mostly empty (relatively so...) or "insert sci-fi justification here".

Now, to me - there are two things I disagree with in the premise - one is the implication that a navcomputer is this omniscient record of everything in the galaxy.

It sounds like the perspetive that if I have google maps, and all the stuff is on my map, then why can't I go where I want - if I understand it.
I do not agree with this premise - otherwise there would never be secret routes, and you would never need scouts or exploers or any "unknown regions".

Second, a micro jump - is not a valid comparison - because you can SEE the destination, and the stuff potentially in the way.

Here is an incredibly simple analogy;

Go into a really big room, like a warehouse of gym.
There are a bunch of doors around the room.

Throw thousands of little dangerous pieces of harmful stuff on the floor - broken glass, sticky stuff, little caltrops, legos.... etc.

Now, turn out the lights, and you have a very short range light.
Someone VERY SLOWLY goes from say door 1 to door 10, slowly finding their way. But they remember the path, and write it down.
Then they go from door 10, to door 7....they write down how they got there, etc.
Once the paths are mapped others can use those notes on those paths - to go faster.

Maybe some paths get traveled more - and that path is more reliable - so you can go faster than others - where as others - maybe only done once - so maybe not as accurate, and thus more risky to go faster....

Just because you know the stuff between door 1 and 5, and 5 and 10, does not mean you know the path to door 1 and 10.
So, unless you want to go incredibly slow - and make a new path - marking all the things along the way...

Oh, and gravity waves....
Would be rare - and are slow - but could be a reason an old route might be more dangerous - (official version not updated in decades).

I do think that adding gravity waves to a list of other hyperspace random events is a cool idea - and the besides slowing a ship - possibly making it faster - that is cool too!
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Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon....

[garhkal]

Didn't thrawn USE grav wells, in reverse, to try and PUSH ships away??
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[CRMcNeill]

[jtanzer]

TLDR; Grav waves are simply too small and too weak to affect much of anything, except at the source of the disturbance. However, that source is going to be very well mapped and the hyperspace route is going to plotted and optimized around it.




FS is partially correct. There are nav computers powerful enough to calculate a route, as pakman put it, from Point A to Point C. According to the WEG module The Isis Coordinates, ISDs carry a nav computer powerful enough to plot a direct hyperspace route. Smaller ships, however, don't have that computational power, requiring them to take more well plotted routes, or have the routes plotted for them. You can still try to plot your own route, but you have a lot of guesswork cut out for you.

I have, and continue, to disagree with grav waves being a sufficient obstacle for hyperspace travel. Grav waves are ridiculously weak and very consistent. Rogue grav waves just aren't possible on a scale that would affect ships. Similarly, sufficiently densely packed grav waves that could knock a ship off course are functionally no different than a normal gravity well.

Furthermore, hyperspace routes are quite stable. Some of the long-term fluctuations are caused by the "Travelling Salesman Problem". People will optimize for fun or profit (or both). There's plenty of simulations on YouTube using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) that demonstrate the problem. The other long term shifts are caused by stellar drift (i.e. the orbit of galactic bodies around the galactic center) Short-term shifts tend to be in response to local events (piracy, wars, etc). I tend to discount the possibility of objects in real-space causing these shifts, as objects in normal space simply don't move fast enough (relatively speaking) to cause much of a wobble in routes. Even extreme stellar phenomena (black holes, supernova, pulsars) aren't going to cause constantly fluctuating routes. Only supernova are going to cause a noticeable in hyperspace routes, but even then only to compensate for the missing gravity well. Within weeks, or possibly months at the outside, a new route is going to be established.
_________________
The best villians are the ones the PCs create.

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[jtanzer]

[CRMcNeill]

Well, if you have a concept house rule for a better system, feel free to post it. Until then, I’ll keep trying to come up with some sort of justification as to the system we already have.
_________________
"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

[pakman]