message 0532

• "Starchase": Rules discussion
• How do the spaceship drives work? And what about the underlying 'Jump mechanics'?

>Subject: Re: Cherryhlist
>Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 13:10:26 CDT
>From: goldman@orac.cray.com (Goldman of Chaos -- postmaster CRI-US)

Jo Jaquinta said the following:
> > >From: goldman@orac.cray.com (Goldman of Chaos -- postmaster CRI-US)
> > gaming stuff:  
> 
> 	Jo and I have talked about this a lot. Nothing much has
> happened, as Jo is determined to work out how Cherryh's ships work
> before doing anything else. 

The C.J. Cherry jump technology doesn't really seem too
complex.  Basically there seems to be two major drive
systems, Slower than light thrusters and FTL capable
gravitic wave drives (GWD).  For STL maneuvering they seem to 
use a combination of thrusters and the GWD.  The GWD seems
only to be effective when the ship is actually in motion,
witness Mallory's pulsing of the GWD near the end of
Downbelow Station (DS) to get the Union commander's
attention.

The riders seem to be equiped with a limited GWD, in
Hellburner there was mention of "They tranked you down for
jump. They didn't for this move."  (pg 366 Warner Books
paperback edition)  I've read the passage a few times and I
THINK C.J. Cherryh is telling us that flying the rider is a
lot like being in jump.

Jump mechanics seem simple as well.  You stay in jump until
you hit a 'null point', unless you have the Mehendo'sat
short jump technology.  Null points seem to be large gravity
sources.  When you leave jump space, you retain the speed
vector you had upon entering jump space.

> 	You wouldn't be the fellow Jo was talking to a long time ago about
> writing a game set in U/A, would you? Why don't you give Jo a good prod
> awake via direct mail (but don't expect an immediate reply, the new job
> still doesn't understand what's truely important in life).

No, I've just started reading C.J. Cherryh's books.


> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >From: goldman@orac.cray.com (Goldman of Chaos -- postmaster CRI-US)
> > 
> > > 3) A children's game was mentioned in Cyteen.  Has anyone thought
> > >    about possible rules for it?
> 
> I've re-read two different pages in Cyteen where this game is mentioned.
> Unless the translator fouled up (I've just found "laser" for "taser" in  
> CH :-( ), it is a game of dice where stations, goods and ships can be
> traded between the players. The game can be played by small children.
>                                   
> What do you think about this:
> 
> The board is a map of the Union with 12 stations and jumppoints, with
> lines between the jumppoints that may or may not have a "difficulty"
> attached to them (probably not - a childrens game). Every station is
> represented as a plastic shape with slots in it that are storage space.
> These slots can be filled with markers colorcoded for the different
> types of goods (food,spare parts& machines, luxuries, raw materials,
> recycling parts). Ships are small plastic counters that can carry a
> limited number of cargo lots.

The map is more than likely stylized since it is a
children's game.  Possibly a picture of the station or
world.  I wonder if the different stations have different
number of storage slots?  Any idea about the names of the
various stations?  Perhaps there is some way to learn about
new null points so that you can take short cuts?

Perhaps in addition to "food", "spares & machines",
"luxuries", "raw materials", and "recycling parts" we could
also have "biomass" and "Azi" without making this too
complex?

> Stations, a limited number of goods and ships and money are distributed
> to the players, based on a list that gives the distributions based on 
> player numbers.

How many players should there be?  Does the range of 2 to 8
sound good?

>
> Every turn starts with a "station" phase. If a station has food, it will
> consume one lot of food. Otherwise, it will not produce anything for this
> turn. In the second turn without food, a station dies. It is auctioned
> between the other players. 

As in when you loose your station, the other players can bid
to take it over?

> If the station has parts&machines, it will consume one lot of them.      
> Otherwise, it will not produce anything, but there is no time-limit.
> If a station is producing, it can turn a number of lots of raw materials
> or recycling goods (2 lots recycling goods equal one lot raw materials)
> into luxuries, machines or food (that may be the players decision or be
> dependent on the station).
> Luxuries can be spend to increase production. Happy workers work better.
> To keep the game interesting, every station should have at least
> one item it has to import.

Are all stations initally in existance, or can players build
additional stations?

> The next phase is the "ships" phase. The players throw dice for every 
> ship, and that is the number of jumps that ship can make. Whenever
> two ships meet or whenever a ship arrives at a station, the two can 
> transfer goods if the recipient has sufficient storage capacity.

I'm wondering if a player moves all of their ships before
the next person gets to move, or if each player gets to move
one ship at a time.  Another possibility is that each player
gets to move one ship one jump at a time.  I suspect that
the first case is true since this *is* a children's game.

Then again we could make this a slightly higher level game.
(yes, I'm talking about really making this game...)

Turn order could be something like:
	1) feed stations.
	2) set production for turn.
	3) determine range for ships.
	4) move ships up to max number of jumps.
		a) trades as desired.
		b) combat as desired.
	5) order ships.
	5) receive ships and production

> At the end of the turn players can order new ships that must be paid
> on order and will be delivered n turns later. Ships can be sold anytime
> to the "bank", for half the original price.
> The number of ships is limited by the supply of counters for each player.

Different size and abilities for different prices?  I'd
suspect that you might have choices like the following:

	1) small merchant ship, lightly armored, slow,
	   1 cargo unit.
	2) medium merchant ship, lightly armored, slow,
	   3 cargo units.
	3) large merchant ship, lightly armored, slow,
	   6 cargo units.

	4) small merchant ship, better armor, fast,
	   1 cargo unit.
	5) medium merchant ship, better armor, fast,
	   2 cargo units.
	6) large merchant ship, better armor, fast,
	   4 cargo units.

	7) small warship, fast, no cargo.
	8) medium warship, fast, 1 cargo unit.
	9) large warship, fast, 2 cargo units.

Depending on the number of points you can go to I'd suggest
a slow merchant ship gets 1D4 for movement, a fast merchant
get 2D4 for movement, and a warship gets 2D4+2 for movement.

Other ideas would be lots of null points that can be
discovered and claimed by various players.

> At any time in the game, players can trade cargo, ships, stations or
> whatever (pay somebody not to trade with a third player :-) ). The
> price is negotiated between the players. Remember, even if cargo can
> be sold anytime, players must meet to deliver it.
>
>  Onno

Matt

-- 
Matthew Goldman  E-mail: goldman@orac.cray.com Work: (612) 683-3061

My day today? Nothing major, just Xenon base gone, Scorpio gone, 
Tarrant dead, Tarrant alive and then I found out Blake sold us out.