Re: New mechanic for strategic speed

>From:    Michael Sandy <wuggadad@??????.com>
>Okay, so it is more for the math inclined.  I just have a difficult
>time with people _spotting_ ships moving at a million miles a day
>relative to them.  And all deep space encounters are contrived.

It's not just map. Now, _what causes the ship size increase? Distance
from gravity wells or the helm? If it is distance from gravity wells
then _everything_ would expand, and everyone would be seeing huge
meteor that appear to be larger then the sun zooming about. If it is
the helm, then how could you _ever_ encounter a vessel whose helm is
down? Wouldn't you just plow through the little insect? If you
'shrink down' how quickly do you shrink down?

Here I am, floating in wild space in my little rowboat after
abandoining ship, when here comes a helmed flitter the size of Texas.
I think, 'Damn, that's the size of Texas' just before I become a bug
on it's wind shield.

The speed thing is simple, follows accepted sci-fi patterns (hence is
easily grasped by newcomers), and provides a minimum of difficulties.

>No _rational_ merchantman would follow a trade lane so precisely
>so as to allow for easy interception by pirates.

Of course they would, if the alternative is getting lost. This
matches historical trends. Nautical navigation is difficult, and
celestial navigation must be even more so. You stick to the routes
you know.


>They are not much of a choke point.  A choke point should allow
>a defending or in place fleet to block movement through it consistently.
>Under the SJ system, you would need about 100 ships around a planet,
>or really hokey GM hand waving, to justify a _chance_ at 1 ship
>intercepting someone moving towards a planet.

If you look at blockades historically they are porous things. The
hundred ships depends on the size of the planet, of course, but I do
not find a hundred ships to blockade a planet too many. I think
blockading a major planet like Toril or Oerth should be almost
impossible, anyway. Blockading Spiral, the Rock of Bral, or a moon,
on the other hand is very feasible with the current system.

I know, I know, I promised not to keep attacking your system. I just
seem to have not made my point very well.
--
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in
the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."
H.G. Wells.

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State University
Instructor, Humanities, Columbus State Community College