Islands Cluster

[Mithras]

I'm looking for a new setting, andcame across the Islands Cluster in Adv 5. This is great!
It reminds me so much of the hard SF I read when I was younger with its international effort and sublight generation ships. Has any more work been done with these two clusters?
I dislike the 3i so it would make a wonderfully refreshing change. It has a great feel of Greece in the 6th and 7th centuries BC with strong city states in competition supported by and warring over distant colonies.
Any changes I'd make would probably to clean up the world stats using the 'hard SF' rules from MGT, and to use a type of hyperspace drive instead of jump. If the islands cluster gain the hyperdrive from 'mysterious aliens'(tm) then I could avoid any reference to the 3i completely ...

 

[Mithras]

Just spotted Mongoose's Reft Sector book, question answered. Although to be honest half of the fun will be coming up with all the world and setting material myself.

As an added extra, i think the setting would also suit more standard spacecraft types, with fusion drives and rotating sections to create spin gravity.@ I have a set of rule mods for that. It would certainly turn Islands Cluster into an anachronistic backwater!

@ one could theorize that jump technology and grav technology are linked, and that you can't develop one without the other.

 

[mike wightman]

Why bother with a hyperdrive at all - it could be kind of fun to have near c ships taking years to get from system to system

 

[Mithras]

My players might not see it that way!

Why bother with a hyperdrive at all - it could be kind of fun to have near c ships taking years to get from system to system

 

[mike wightman]

Stick em in cold berths =)

Besides with time dilation it would only seem like a few weeks/months to the crew.

 

[Mithras]

True, I see what you mean. You'd have the Forever War effect where society on a world would have changed completely, even its TL. It would be a challenge!

 

[mike wightman]

It could be fun - the TL uncertainty would make fleet actions a lot more challenging.

And the first system to develop/discover ftl would have a considerable advantage.

What if it's the TL9 or TL10 that get the breakthrough first, but they are up against higher TL adversaries limited with stl drives.

 

[Vile]

Talking of near c, check out Alistair Reynolds' "light huggers". One of the few authors not to be scared of the subject, he has some ideas of the fun to be had without FTL.

 

[ThunderChilde]

C.J. Cherryh's Mechanter's books have alotta background based on high C stl travel and its impacts on culture, trade and the crews at relativistic time frames, and how the long years play out. All that and the impact of FTL on STL cultures and trade. It's all scattered across the books, but Tri-Point and um, Border Runners (?) have a good dose as does Down Below Station and Hell Burner.

 

[Gray Lensman]

Just an Idle Thought...

But, as anyone thought of or done anything combining High C drives with Cold Sleep?

 

[leo knight]

Stick em in cold berths =)

Put players in low berths? I've had a few players I'd like to freeze for a few decades...

For near-c high jinx, try the Rissa Kerguelen books by F.M. Busby. Here's a link:

http://rissa-kerguelen.com/

The main effect of near-c travel was to create a sort of Brigadoon situation, where those who travelled only showed up every few years or so, as young as when they left due to time dilation, only to vanish again. Don't know if that's what you're looking for.

Regarding the hyperspace drive you mentioned in your original post, what characteristics did you imagine for that?

 

[BlackBat242]

Even better is Arrow from Earth (sequel to Slow Freight), also by F. M. Busby.

Slow Freight itself has some good ideas, but they are buried in the ~40% of the book which deals (in far too much detail) with the sexual pasts, sexual hang-ups, and current sexual activities of both the human crew and the aliens (when they finally meet).

Arrow from Earth has far, far less unnecessary reproductive exploration.

I don't know how the 3rd book in the series is: The Triad Worlds, having never read it.