Re: What System for Ship Combat do you use for 3E?

In a message dated 9/3/03 2:49:06 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
mdalmonte@???????.com writes:


> With this theory there's just one little problem: what about all those
> debris existing in space? If a ship's traveling at sj speed, they are
> avoided automatically, drifting alongside the gravity field as they come on
> the ship's course. HOWEVER, if a ship travels at tactical speed and
> encounters rocks and debris, theorically all of these debris fall onto its
> deck and are kept there until somebody throws them away (here here! we found
> another choir to give to our sailors!). BUT how can they be thrown them away
> if the gravity well is too large (say a man-o-war or armada)? using
> catapults or jettisons maybe? and if no such option is present? Any idea?
>
> Apart from this minor thing, I'd say the theory could work. What do you
> think?

On the Rock of Bral, they use jettisons to remove the cities garbage by
firing  it out of the city's gravity well, so it would fit. From what I understand
of ships gravity wells, things entering them slowly float to the edges and
exit, unless force is applied, in which case  it moves in the direction away from
the force. I guess the gravity outside of the actual ship is weaker than that
on the ship itself, you could think of it as there being two spheres of
gravity, the larger but weaker one outside the ship and a  smaller, stronger one
surrounding the ship proper. If you could stand at the edge of a spelljamming
ships gravity and toss a ball towards the mast, you would see it float toward
the ship until it entered the second sphere and dropped to the deck.
So, an object entering the ships gravity at the right angle could end up on
deck. To remove it, a sailor would simply have to pick it up and throw for the
edge of the gravity well and it would eventually float out. If you wanted to
get rid of it quickly, a jettison or catapult is the way to go.

At least, that's they way I've always done it. :)
Steel
N

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