Any potential sci-fi GM, I highly, highly recommend taking a look at Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur (channel name is just Isaac Arthur) His videos look at sci-fi staples through the lens of known science, and the surprisingly spectacular things that could be done. Concepts covered range from the relatively mundane like solar system colonies or asteroid mining, to how to survive the heat death of the universe by colonising black holes and living off Hawking radiation for a few trillion extra years. I was lucky enough to discover him just as I was planning a Stars Without Number campaign and his videos massively inspired my worldbuilding.

@CloseingStraw97

2 жыл бұрын

He did help me figure out what I want to do with my own Sci Fi game

@solsystem1342

2 жыл бұрын

More like 10^90 years. A trillion is only 10^12 so more then the difference. It's a greater difference then between the size of an atom and the entire universe. Many, many times that size. Black hole farming is a little bit more on the silly side of what he does though. His stuff on like habitats, dyson swarms, interstellar spaceships is more comfortably inside the realm of plausable. Also, the longest lived stars last around 1-20 trillion years so you wouldn't even need to do that to last that long.

I have found myself digging into your backlog again, so it's good to see you back! Totally understandable to have life get in the way sometimes though. Much love to you Jim, Pruitt and the rest of the WebDM family! Thanks for all the great content, both new and old!

I've missed you Jim! Glad to see you return

I've also had science fiction on my mind so this is super timely! I've been playing some Ironsworn Starforged solo - that book is amazing for making sandbox sci-fi, and also tinkering with my Stars Without Number sector that I hope to eventually use in a game as well. I've read through Stars Are Fire before, I was impressed with the sheer amount of content and creativity, but the setting wasn't exactly to my liking - I like my star exploration, and the setting was a little too post-Singularity and too high tech for what I like in a sci-fi space opera.

26:17 so far i found the easiest way to "3d" your space map is to use the highest d6 vs lowest d6 and mark it in each empty space and it adds a hex of time to travel. so roll a 6 and 1 would be 5 extra jumps worth of time. A 4 and 3 would add just 1. doubles would be no extra time. wouldnt think this would show any realism but it adds depth.

17:46 My question got answered! Huzzah!

Vis-a-vis One Biome Planets: According to the extension course I took at the Daystrom Institute, it is as thus: Every system has its goldilocks zone, the habitable band where an M Class planet can form. The width of that band can vary, hoever the pattern is consistent. The M Class zone is basically a small band in the goldilocks zone. The closer to the sun the more of a desert the planet will be, AND the less diverse its ecological development, the further from the sun the more arctiic the planet will be and the less diverse its ecology. You also can have planet wide volcanic activity, on Earth we call out the Hadean Period. And M class planets can go through ice ages.

I had a location that was the hand of a dead titan with its fingers being hollowed out and used as towers and a lake in the palm. It was the mobile lair of a Morkoth who lived in the petrified veins turned tunnels within and collected interesting things and creatures. The characters found an old distress beacon in a junk pile and followed the directions to a world with only one humanoid occupant, the techno lich who had succeeded in wiping out all other life with bones and was now obsessed with restoring the planet he'd destroyed and preserving its history.

The Sci-Fi sandbox just within the solar system reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. The thing I love about that book is that it has all the technical specificity and High Weirdness that Sci-Fi does best, but it FEELS like a high fantasy adventure story with all the wonder and magnificent vistas and "magic" and strange gods that usually entails. The Oubliette on Mars in those stories is just as wonderous and strange and mysterious as Sigil and its inhabitants no less alien or bizarre for having all once been human. The only thing that book lacks to be totally appropriate for D&D adventures is swordfights, but it's just because everyone in the setting has guns and things way, WAY worse than guns. Anyway, anyone looking for inspiration for this kind of thing, can't recommend that book especially, but also it's sequels enough. They are wild in the best way possible.

Been watching for years. This may be on of my favorites ❤️

Love all your videos!!! Keep up the great work!

Can't wait for the wasteland book! 🥰

Ive been working on a setting that takes place between event horizon, bladerunner, and the golden age of technology in 40k. Replicants are the only ones that can use warp (space folding) travel, while humans have to use "slower" space travel. Replicants travel ahead of colony ships and prepare the way for human colonists. I'm thinking that playing the replicants could be a fun campaign itself, but playing on a colony ship in transit could be intriguing too.

@andrewhalverson6974

2 жыл бұрын

Oh, and hive mind AI system managers the government and economy of the distant worlds. It is not hostile, and had an over arching goal of aiding humanity in teaching ever greater potential, success, and prosperity.

keep this going! love your sandbox stuff, sci fi is interesting as well.

I really like the idea of doing a sci fi game where you stay local to a planet and kind of build details about the surrounding galaxy as you go. Use news, rumors and other tidbits to build up some understanding of the wider setting beyond this place and maybe eventually expand the campaign itself if the table chooses to do so. I could see making a really fun transition from regular D&D to spelljammer in a similar way as long as everyone at the table is on board. Play a more traditional feeling D&D campaign for tier 1 and then during tier 2 start transitioning into more science fantasy spelljammer like elements with planer travel and eventually travelling through space as it were.

Always here to watch your vids mate. You are a legend of the Tabletop. Hope all is well my dude?

Getting ready to run a lost in space themed campaign so this was very helpful.

RIFTSis great for science fiction games I remember old school Gamma World, Traveler, Star Wars. Star Fleet Battles was more ship to ship combat, less role play.

The Isaac Asimov/Sir Arthur C. Clarke goof is understandale. This is definitely 3 laws territory. Hal needs a shrink like Susan Calvin

One of my favorite things about running a space-oriented sci-fi campaign in contrast to a fantasy world is that it's far easier to find freedom for weird, big ideas that you don't want to influence other reachable locations. For example, in many a fantasy world I have created I repeatedly found myself in trouble with big, weird monsters and powers. See, I want it accessible enough for my players, yet if I do that it should be equally easy for the big weird thing to influence the land around it. If the big blue dragon is up on the mountain next to the city, I have to create reasons why the dragon doesnt just come down and fuck up the city. Vice versa, I need to make reasons why the city doesnt go up there and fuck up the dragon. In planet-hopping sci-fi, the big fucking dragon can be on a planet only a stone away for the players, but the dragon has no way or reason to leave. The big AI could be destroying a planet, but it's a black-hole away from any civilized planet. Etc.

I recently started a Spelljammer campaign, which the setting start was 5 adventures that escaped on a busted Dragonfly away from Neogi that held them for years. The first things they escaped to was a moon of Garden in Realmspace called Farworld. When I presented them this world, I took the church of Waukeen/general capitalism/with Hive Beholder pirate presence in the background. The poor adventures hated the fact it felt like the city was swarming with church infused state of capitalism. The depression set in when the only coin allowed to be used was gold or higher for everything, and then nickel and dimed for parking space, food, and air.I had a bit of comedy when I had the Church Bishop Christopher of the Waukeen Church meet them. Who had a Beholder of the Hive mother with a lazy eye and a lisp for a contact to the Pirates in the local sector. Way more to this however, they finally got off the moon, as slowly left the players to realise that freedom was what they cherished most and even though it wasnt the Neogi, it was just another prison.

Do it with Traveller, a game and system actually built for it.

Really miss seeing Pruitt as a regular on these shows

Hope the family emergencies are in the rear view. Life comes first!

I appreciate the explanation, but you do not owe us any explanation!! Real life will always trump KZread. If y’all need a break, or anything else you take care of it. We will be here, even if there is a month between videos. We appreciate everything y’all do.

Man I want to play in this game

Tragic that I just barely missed this stream while working on my Scifi game lol

damn jim i have been working on this exact same concept (our galaxy as sf setting) and i am so appreciative that your nerd brain is tapped into the same current.

@johnfeet3990

2 жыл бұрын

I’m doing something similar and seeing this map am just thinking about how useful that’d be to have

I am in the middle of creating some aliens for my rad fantasy setting. One thing I’m doing is taking recognizable things that we know but giving them strange features. Like a space bee looks similar but is gargantuan in size and shoots magic missiles from its ass.

@Coffee_Nutz

2 жыл бұрын

Futurama did it😋

What are your thoughts on Starfinder and its setting?

I think the best tool for making a sci fi campaign is to simply look up info on NASA's newest discoveries, and then slap them on a roughly correct map. Some of the things NASA finds are more imaginative than sci-fi. Then just look up weird creatures on Earth for alien inspirations, again some real things are even weirder than sci fi.

When my MMO makes some money I'm going to kidnap you put you in a think tank.

So the bad guys are the… TSA?

@46:45 think not of what’s next but think of what goes wrong…

Pal "2001:Space Odyssey" is Arthur C. Clarke he developed it from a short story he wrote called "The Sentinel".

What the heck is Jim laughing at?