Re: Just how big is "known space"?

--- David Shepheard <david_shepheard@???????.com>
wrote:

> Haven't heard that word for a while. :-)

LOL, probably because I haven't posted for a while ;)


> I'm saying that I am not willing to buy a known
> space that starts as three spheres in the in-
> character year that Adventures in Space was set and 
> expands to 80 worlds by the in-character year that
> Practical Planetology was published.

Not sure I'd get too hung up on the number 80...on a
guess, I'd say that was just an abrirtary number set
by the author.


> I want known space to expand, but if it expands at
> that rate, we will need you to write a "Sphere of
> the Month" to keep up.

Um, yikes, that's insane!  That's like 1 full-fledged
product per month...I'm not sure there's a RPG writer
alive that could handle that one!


> I think that at the start of the campaign (the time
> in Adventures in Space) I would rather make
> most "spacefarers" people who stick to their own
> crystal sphere. I think I'd like some Phlogiston
> rivers to be treated as industrial secrets. I think
> I would like to see frontier spheres discovered and
> lost at a similar rate.

That's probably the case; what exactly constitutes
"known space" varies from captain to captain, nation
to nation, I'd think. :p


> I think I would like known space to have not changed
> much between Adventures in Space and Practical
> Planetology.

Well, here's the thing: you're dealing with
potentially a large amount of data.  If we go with a
notion of say 20 spheres counted as known space, each
sphere should get at the very least a 5 page writeup,
with more detailed spheres getting a full treatment
(up to 100 pages).  A 2,000-page book of Known Space
would certainly give you so much data you'd never run
out of adventure ideas! :)


> I think I would *love* the Second Unhuman War to
> give the known space a big shake up. I think I would
> *love* the events surrounding The Cloakmaster and 
> the lust for The Spelljammer, to show the weakness
> of certain organisations that we might want to get
> rid of.
>
> I think  I would *love* the Vodoni activity to give
> known space another big shake up.

Honestly, were I to write a huge "book of Known
Space", the LAST thing I want to do is take a
sledgehammer to it and smash it all to pieces via-vi
sphere-shattering wars and such...;)


> I think I could accept an expanded Geonomicon or a
> revised Geonomicon after those big events.

YIKES...are you like, INSANE?  Or do you have the
secrets of cloning solved? ;)


> I think there is a place for asteroid filled spheres
> in Spelljammer. 

There are several.  Moragspace, Clusterspace,
Passarspace, Lostspace, and arguably Darkspace &
Bralspace.


> I remember reading two things recently that
> suggested that some sort of planet killing
> technology exists. 

There's a lot of planet-killing in SJ.  The
Beholder-created Ravisher is one such device
(Wildspace).  The elves destroyed 3 during the Unhuman
Wars (Borka & two unnamed others, Greyspace &
Practical Planetology).  Darkspace saw planets & the
sun destroyed.  Lostspace, Moragspace, & Clusterspace
all saw their planets destroyed.


> There would be a ton of work involved. I'm not
> touching this one with a barge pole at the moment,
> but I'd be interested in tackling it in a couple 
> of years.

Decades, maybe :)  A lot of work involved, that is
certain.


> I know that there have been peole in space for eons,
> but I'm inclined to ignore the elves, where "known
> space" is concerned.  I think (but am not 
> sure) that "known space" is a human definition.

More of a 'local' definition, I would think.  Of the
races, the elves and illithids are the only ones I
could see really viewing 'Known Space' as a localized
area.  The other races would mostly accept a localized
definition of 'known space'.


> However, if we can make a few more Grommspace
> style/Bralspace style crystal sphere PDFs we might
> be able to create enough crystal spheres that work
> for low level characters and fill up the 80 worlds
> quota. How about we re-evaluate this in a few years.
> If we can add on one crystal sphere per year, then
> maybe the BtM version of Spelljammer can start to
> expand known space by one sphere per year.

Bral/Gromm is a lot of work, I can tell you.  And I
think both really work for low-level characters :)


> Given that these planets are important enough for
> someone to name-drop them without telling us the
> sphere name, I'd argue that they are as well
> known as Paris, New York or London. I would be
> inclined to make most, if not all of the worlds
> the "most important location" within their own
> crystal sphere and would be inclined to name the
> sphere after the planets (i.e. copy the way
> that Paul named Bralspace). However, I would have
> to carefully re-read all of the text refering to the
> individual planets, before I would be 100
> percent happy with this idea.

Well, with some spheres having NO known planets (Path
& Prime, for example), those would be perfect places
for planets with no spheres.  They would also make
good locations to place the rest of the planets from
Practical Planetology, if we are so inclined to create
"known space".  

Adam


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com