What UWP for a non-standard system?

[Fritz_Brown]

OK, here's a question for you:
How would you (UWP-wise) describe a system that has been blasted to bits?

I mean all the planets (including any GGs) have been shattered, and they are basically rocks still orbiting the star in more or less their original orbits. It has been a millennium or two, so they appear to be asteroid fields (with surprises for intrepid explorers, of course! :devil: ) Of course, you might not be able to see the patterns without a good survey of all the bits and pieces and a powerful computer, but the patterns are there.

My solution was to override the rules and simply replace every planet with a belt (UWP a000xxx-x). How would you do it?

 

[Maccat]

Technically it's doable within the rules, would work better with a few-orbit star (forget off hand which they are, the red ones i think) get no GG, and lotsa (= to orbits) asteroid belts. Heck I'd add a captured one in too just to give even more clue there's something funny going on. Sounds interesting. I've been tempted to do hydrographic percentages even for asteroid belts to get an idea of the amount of ice in them (the 000 for rings stikes me odd).

 

[Icosahedron]

IIRC, doesn't the hydrographic percentage refer to the surface area of free standing water? Maybe vapour, snowy peaks, ice caps (and presumably ice balls) are not counted. In which case 000 is correct, if misleading from a fuel availability perspective.

 

[aramis]

IIRC, doesn't the hydrographic percentage refer to the surface area of free standing water? Maybe vapour, snowy peaks, ice caps (and presumably ice balls) are not counted. In which case 000 is correct, if misleading from a fuel availability perspective.

no. it refers to surface water in any form or other liquid if atm A+, and/or ice if atm is 0-2.. (TTB, 83)

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Before I hazard a guess, how were the planets shattered? I ask because that will be important to figuring out what to do with the leftovers.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Shattering a planet is *hard*. Earth was hit by a rock the size of Mars, and all it did was give us a moon...

 

[Spiderfish]

Shattering a planet is *hard*. Earth was hit by a rock the size of Mars, and all it did was give us a moon...

You're going to need a bigger rock...

 

[DaveChase]

Mechanoids or something similar.

A race that harvests planet cores of active planets.

Dave Chase

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I haven't figured that out, yet, Jeff. But, ages ago, there was residual radiation. There are still hot spots, but very few. The systems here represented a nice J1 main connecting a rather large main to a smaller main, as well as the available J2 crossings. The worlds were shattered to deny those areas to one side or the other, so crossing with a fleet would become very hard. Even the GGs were "broken" so they wouldn't provide fuel.

Of course, the players can only surmise, as there aren't any records from that far back....

 

[Icosahedron]

You're going to need a bigger rock...

But then you'd just get a 'Space 1999' scenario with the planet catapulted intact into deep space. What you probably need is an explosion from within - a really, really big meson hit, or a damper-disintegrator, or something else way beyond TL15.

 

[aramis]

But then you'd just get a 'Space 1999' scenario with the planet catapulted intact into deep space. What you probably need is an explosion from within - a really, really big meson hit, or a damper-disintegrator, or something else way beyond TL15.

Something like teleporting a few tons of Antimatter into the core...

 

[Spiderfish]

But then you'd just get a 'Space 1999' scenario with the planet catapulted intact into deep space. What you probably need is an explosion from within - a really, really big meson hit, or a damper-disintegrator, or something else way beyond TL15.

Ummm... An even bigger rock?

More seriously though, and apologies if this proves a spoiler to anyone, have any of you read Greg Bear's 'The Forge of God'?

That was similar to Aramis's suggestion, it involved anti-matter, however, the delivery system was not teleportation.

 

[Ian Absentia]

Shattering a planet is *hard*. Earth was hit by a rock the size of Mars, and all it did was give us a moon...

I recall that this very topic was addressed in one of the CT supplements (Library Data? Alien Module 5: Droyne? Adventure 12: Secret of the Ancients?). The Ancients sometimes used mass accelerators that were essentially teleportation gates. Start a large mass, like a good solid asteroid, moving toward a planet and accelerating in freefall. Intercept the mass in its downward trajectory with a teleportation gate and 'port it back to where it started. The mass maintains its momentum, continues to gain momentum through freefall in the planet's gravitational well, then is intercepted by the teleportation gate again. This continues over and over until relativistic speeds (and mass) are achieved, then the object is let go to crash into the planet.

Neat in theory, though it seems like there'd be plent of opportunity to interrupt the weapon system.

!i!