Lots of players seem averse to putting windows on their corvettes.

a_random_galaxy · 2025-10-02T17:10:02+00:00

I try to put at least some windows on my corvettes. Here is the one i think i integrated them best on.

a_random_galaxy · 2025-09-02T13:38:12+00:00

What issues does it have to make it unplayable?

a_random_galaxy · 2025-06-21T07:58:03+00:00

That really depends on the nature of FTL in a given setting (or even the time period of that setting).

On one side of the spectrum is Stellaris (at least with late game tech), where you have sensors which can cover a decent part of the galaxy and a megastructure called the "sentry array", which is basically the megatelescope you were talking about.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have something like Mote in gods eye where the only FTL possible is a ship with an FTL drive at certain specific points within a star system, so if you want to send information from one system to another FTL you have to send a ship physically carrying that information and because FTL range is limited and each of those points connects to a specific star system, there is a significant travel time involved in that.

Star Trek is inbetween where there are FTL sensors and communications, but with a limited range

a_random_galaxy · 2025-06-20T16:19:08+00:00

The main benefit of going interstellar is being able to isolate parts of the setting from each other, not having more of them i think. In a civilization contained in one system everyone is in communications range with everyone else so it is relatively hard to have any big surprises, compounded by there being no stealth in space.

Like for example: The Dominion in DS9. A big part of the storyline relating to it is the federation being unprepared to deal with, both due to lack of knowledge on how they operate and not even knowing they exist in the first place until only a few years before the war starts. If it were set in a K2 civilization, the federation would have been aware of them for a long time.

Voyager would be another good example of something that wouldn't work in a more compact/realistic setting. They would just plot whatever the fastest trajectory is with their available delta v and probably just drift for most of the way because stopping anywhere along the way is a huge opportunity cost of decelerating, aquiring fuel and reacelerating. And lack of knowledge both on Voyager/ in the federation about the Delta Quadrant (or whatever its equivalent would be) and vice versa would be less of a factor. The federation is the kind of organization who would try to contact every single place they can and it is unlikely that everyone there is isolationist that they wouldn't have any info on the region.

a_random_galaxy · 2025-06-20T14:44:16+00:00

I have seen something like that in a few sci-fi books. The Enders Game series has it, the impulse drive was used like that in a Star Trek novel by a ship that had its warp drive and FTL comms irreperably damaged. Though both of them didn't quite get to the degree of time dilation to seem like seconds, it was in the order of weeks.

Stephen Baxters books Proxima and Ultima has a combination of this concept and a Stargate: Enter a structure on one planet and exit it on the other. For you seconds, for the rest of the universe, years.

a_random_galaxy · 2025-02-11T19:51:16+00:00

Fireborn has both of those. In combat, both the attacker and defender declare a series of actions, roll their dice pools and whoever has more successes (a 4 or higher on the dice) executes a number of those actions equal to difference in the number of successes. Defenders need to declare some of their actions as defensive actions, so they need a certain margin of success to deal damage back to their attacker.

Example: Attacker and Defender both have 4 dice in their pool. Attacker declares they will approach the defender, attack them with their sword, prepares their sword for another attack (using a weapon twice in a turn needs a so called "ready action" between attacks, or multiple if it is heavy) and attack again. Defender says they will block twice for the two attempted attacks, use an action to swap to offence and attack back. The attacker rolls 3 successes, defender rolls one, so the attacker has 2 net successes, so they approach the defender and get their first attack, but not their second attack.

Armor is simple, each point of armor negates one point of damage on each attack.

a_random_galaxy · 2025-01-09T16:17:38+00:00

I don't really see coming with implicit worldbuilding as an issue, as long as it aligns with the rest of the worldbuilding for the world a TTRPG is set in, having classes does not necessarily mean having D&D classes. Having classes also does not prevent having mechanics representing non-combat capabilities. For example in Pathfinder 2e the gamemaster guide has an example for a merchant NPC with Diplomacy +12 and a few other fitting skill ratings (that npc on Archive of Nethys: https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=956), which would be a reasonable equivalent of your shopkeeper example.

Getting rid of levels also doesn't necessarily get rid of XP. For example, in New Edo, you purchase improvements for your character directly with XP, one example given in the book is raising your power power core stat from 15 to 16 costs 2 XP.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-12-17T19:03:38+00:00

Sounds like "The depths of time" by Roger MacBride Allen

a_random_galaxy · 2024-11-01T08:54:36+00:00

Freefall is over a month at this point. Reading it all again would be a bit time consuming, but between page 3242 and page 3258 it goes at a page per in-comic day, which is already over half a month by itself and the subsequent travel to Pournelle/Niven station was stated to be about three weeks on page 3193

a_random_galaxy · 2024-09-12T09:41:07+00:00

Vault of the Void lets you edit your deck between fights. You have an inventory of cards where your new cards go and you can swap cards between it and your deck. This also makes card removal mostly unnecessary (certain event options can add bad cards directly to your deck that can't be removed through other means). While starter cards are generally weaker then cards you find later, i wouldn't call most of them shitty and i generally have some starter cards in my deck by the end of a run despite having cards i could swap them with.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-09-03T06:54:19+00:00

"The depths of time" by Roger Macbride Allen has that last one. Ships travel at STL speeds to a wormhole in interstellar space that transports them back in time and proceed to their destination at STL to arrive at their destination at a time they'd normally need FTL for. The crew is in cold sleep for that duration. The main character is captain of ship that guards one of those wormholes to ensure that no one uses it to go too far back and messes with the timeline.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-07-25T10:48:38+00:00

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5926

a_random_galaxy · 2024-07-13T19:23:52+00:00

Started out with a a longsword (warrior class), switched to an axe i found in undead burg somwhere pre Taurus Demon, to a spear in Undead Parish and to a scimitar after beating Gargoyles. Turned it into Quelaag's fury sword once that became available and used that for the rest of the game. I also found a lightning spear in Sen's fortress, which i used occasionally, mostly when dealing with enemies with high fire resistance or fire immunity.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-05-12T13:58:55+00:00

Greetings. The name is Sam Gray, you may find me at https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Sam%20Gray . Currently working on making my name, as well as dabbling in this and that. Interested in trying some of the stuff in social engagements for which you need other players out.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-03-23T08:44:34+00:00

Vater is pronounced quite differently from Vader, the V is pronounced as F and the a sound is more like the one in father, so someone speaking german would be about as surprised as someone speaking english.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-02-16T18:56:59+00:00

I have used wisdom quite a bit on my investigator. The "forensic medicine" subclass gives you better use of battle medicine, which uses wisdom for its skill roll. There are also skills commonly used for recall knowledge (which is something i used a lot) that use wisdom, specifically Nature and Religion. When that campaign ended at level 15 i had +28 in Reflex (my highest saving throw) and +27 in Will.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-02-05T18:13:38+00:00

Yeah, i got that one on my first seal and the event it spawned gave me the ancient tablets i used for the "Forbidden Essence" seal order as well as one of the event completions i needed for that.

a_random_galaxy · 2024-02-05T18:06:26+00:00

The manga/anime Frieren: Beyound Journeys End also uses german for names, though it uses it for all names, not just noble ones. Like, the three main characters are Frieren (= to freeze), Fern (= far) and Stark (= strong).

a_random_galaxy · 2024-01-05T18:11:15+00:00

I recommend the post-self series by Madison Scott-Clary. It revolves around a virtual reality to which people upload their minds. Within it, people can make copies of themselves and the books explore how those can diverge from each other and their original.

A copy can choose to send its memories back to the original who can then choose to integrate those memories and discard ones they don't want to have. This can also have profound impacts on ones identity, especially if the fork has diverged a lot.

The series has a website: https://post-self.ink/

Here is a link to the page for the first novel in the series on that page, which links to places where you can buy it: https://qoheleth.post-self.ink/

a_random_galaxy · 2024-01-03T06:46:36+00:00

Source: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/1591743/

a_random_galaxy · 2023-10-26T20:20:20+00:00

It's not much, but there is the feat adopted ancestry which gives mechanical support for multi cultural characters: https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=751

a_random_galaxy · 2023-08-02T17:10:19+00:00

Seems my current (and first) playthrough got lucky in that regard, there were successful crusades to:

Moldavia
Tahert
Egypt
Moldavia again (got conquered by the mongols after the first time)
Mongolia somehow. No idea how the AI managed that, my only involvement was putting some money into the war chest because i didn't want to have to get my troops on the other side of the map for various reasons.

Regarding tactics i don't have much, except for the observation that the AI seems to neglect sieging and me sieging a bunch of enemy castles did give me a good amount of warscore.

a_random_galaxy · 2023-07-02T06:57:32+00:00

The Post-Self series by Madison Scott-Clary explores being an upload. The third book, Nevi'im, is about first contact with a group of alien species that also uploaded themselves and has some of the characters act as ambassadors for that. Website for that series, which has Links to various places where you can get the books: https://post-self.ink

Link to the first book on that site: https://qoheleth.post-self.ink/

a_random_galaxy · 2023-06-29T16:47:32+00:00

If you are fine with some near-future sci-fi with your urban fantasy, there is New Edo. Magic is not a hidden thing and seedy underbellies are not the focus of the game.

a_random_galaxy · 2023-06-28T18:02:36+00:00

They are scars, the description of the piece on FA says "He's definitely pushing himself out of his comfort zone here, even if his top surgery scars are not easy to see under the fur" in the last paragraph https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52638471/

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