Exploration in the B5 Universe--How Do You Do It?

[Lysander]

One thing that I don't understand about travel --particularly exploration in the B5 universe is how it works. If the Hyperspace Routes (major and minor) are already established as we see them in the galactic map how do you go anywhere except the sytems the routes lead to?

With millions of suns in the galaxy how do you go anywhere except the few systems shown at the end of the route? You can't go to neighboring systems because there is no way to traverse the great distances in a timely way (no FTL other than Hyperspace).

I understand that someone could plant jump beacons into a system without a gate and if your ship can create its own gate you could jump in and out of that system but how might those beacons get there in the first place? If any ship that goes off beacon is lost forever then how would a beacon not on a jump gate get there to start with?

I want to run an exploration campaign but I can't figure out the mechanics of how to do it. How do some of the unknown races that either visit or sometimes attack B5 get there other than the established routes? There are millions of worlds out there and I can't figure out how to get to them. I need help!!

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

The Galactic Guide covers a few of these details (like travel off beacon and some details about how hyperspace works and travel therein), and I'm guessing that The Rim (coming out in Feb) will have all the details you could ever ask for on the subject of exploring. IPX (also out in Feb) might even have some exploration details.

Generally speaking, if I understand this, the main thing you need is a jump-capable ship. If you go off beacon you can always exit hyperspace (unless you have some major malfunction, like the Explorer ship we saw on B5 had) and try to pin down your location. Also if you have directions, sensor readings or something else to go on, going off beacon isn't a death sentence. (The Excalibur, led by Galen, did it to find the Well of Forever, after all.) Another thing that I assume helps is a lot of supplies just in case you're stuck out there for a long time trying to find your way back.

In the show we even hear the captain of the Explorer-class ship saying that he pushed back the rim by surveying and then building new jump gates, so it's dangerous but clearly within Earth's technology to explore off-beacon.

Most people use the established routes, but there are ways around them. It's just very very dangerous. Also probably very rewarding if your crew is willing to accept the risk.

Technically speaking? There are a few fixes. Maybe one of the aliens has higher sensor resolution. Maybe they have ancient maps of hyperspace. Maybe they have their own jumpgates that broadcast on its own frequency, or maybe they did something to the jumpgates in their region so they can find them and others can't. And there's Technomage intervention to be considered. Also Keffer speculates that the Shadows were riding their own beacon that does not correspond to the system of gates that Earth knows about, so there's another data point. (Of course he might be wrong about what they were doing, but they were traveling off beacon)

As for how an Earth/known race crew might do it? It'd depend on their resources, I think. Straight tech-wise, I think as long as they accepted that it was a very dangerous undertaking, taking it slow and jumping out of hyperspace a lot to check position and such would be one way to go. Alternately they could look for alien tech, like sensor upgrades, that might make it easier. Or their employer (IPX?) might supply them with a route...which leads one to ask where they got the map in the first place and it might lead into the larger plotline of what exactly their employer is up to.

I'm sure there are other methods as well, and I might be way off with my speculation (hyperspace is non-linear, for one thing, so mapping based on real-space correspondences is pretty difficult...) but that seems to be a start.

Anyway, I hope that helps. My game's going to involve some exploration and survey as well, so this has been much on my mind lately.

 

[Neo]

The Book "The Rim" will indeed answer the question of this topic in great detail.

 

[James McMurray]

In at least one of the episodes a group of Starfuries goes off beacon by chaining out and leaving a line of communication between them. Presumably you could to that with a ship, some automated mini-beacons, and your own jump drive to go in and out of hyperspace.

 

[Vortex]

That makes sense.

I also found this in the EA fact book:

The Explorer's primary mission is to fly deep into uncharted areas of hyperspace, occasionally droping out when something interesting is detected. Usually, 'something interesting' referred to to a planetary system, although sometimes nebulae, developing stars, black holes and the like would be studied. etc...

This seems to indicate that at least some detection is possible from hyperspace to normal space. The mentionned 'interesting somethings' are all objects that would have a considerable gravity field. Maybe that can be sensed even in hyperspace. Exploring could then simply be accomplished by going as far off-beacons as is reasonably safe and hoping to get a reading. The network is so big that the number of points from which you could do that multiplied by vectors in 3 dimensions create a virtually infinite number or routes.

You must also remember that many races found jumpgates already floating around their system. It is very possible to use the aforementionned method and stumble across a system with a jumpgate linked to dozens of other new systems. Building a single jumpgate would then open many systems for exploration by ships that don't even need jump engines.

 

[James McMurray]

I can recall at least two occassions on the show where someone is in hyperspace and detects something in normal space. Unfortunately I can't remember enough to give an episode name, or even really a whole scene.

 

[Lysander]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions but the fact is all the suggestions have had to extrapolate those comments from either the series or fairly vague comments in the rules.

It would be helpful (and I am hopeful the "Rim" and "IPX" books cover it) if the rules were fairly specific as to how it is done.

With regard to the prior comment about Explorer class ships dropping out of Hyperspace when they spot something interesting, well, since those ships can actually set up jumpgates wouldn't there be hundreds more jump routes generated from the Explorer class ships dropping into interesting systems and leaving jumpgates behind. Yet, the number of jump routes shown on the Galactic Map are, in a relative sense, microscopic in terms of the star systems that likely exist throughout the Milky Way.

Bear in mind, I love the series and the RPG but, to me, the Galactic Map offers a galaxy that is well...almost boring in terms of where you can go.

Just the number of sytems within 200 light years from earth numbers far more than the systems seen in the Galactic Guide yet, as I understand it, the Galactic Guide literally covers the entire galaxy.

[/list]

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

With regard to the prior comment about Explorer class ships dropping out of Hyperspace when they spot something interesting, well, since those ships can actually set up jumpgates wouldn't there be hundreds more jump routes generated from the Explorer class ships dropping into interesting systems and leaving jumpgates behind. Yet, the number of jump routes shown on the Galactic Map are, in a relative sense, microscopic in terms of the star systems that likely exist throughout the Milky Way.

Yes, except for one thing: Q40. Quantium 40 is required to build jumpgates and it's incredibly rare. It's a cheat on B5's part, but it works. Magic Substance Q is required to make Magic Technology Hyperspace work. No science for it, but it's established canon that jumpgates are incredibly difficult and expensive to build. So a gate would only be put in place by an Explorer is there was a REALLY good reason for it. (Like, say, a sentient species, or a rich system, or a strategically useful planet, etc) I also imagine it takes a lot of time and effort to build one. The scale of the construction seems to indicate that it'd take weeks, if not months, to build one, so it's not to be entered into lightly.

 

[Lysander]

Thanks again for your response. I recognize (and appreciate) that B5 is a story driven construct. I recall reading a quote from JMS when asked how fast ships move he replied, "They move at the speed of the plot."

I also recognize that Q40 is extremely rare but there are millions of suns in the Milky Way. It is my understanding that "Explorer" class ships actually carry jumpgates on them (someone, please correct me if I have this wrong) but it just seems to me that amongst those millions of worlds there should be more worlds (on a geometric levek) where a jumpgate would be validated for placement. It is hard for me to believe there are so few worlds (per the Galacti8c Guide) that are worthy of jump gates. At the least shouldn't there be several thousand gates.

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

Other than the fact that no author can write for thousands of systems, and a map that takes years of game time to traverse isn't going to be that useful, I can't help you. Perhaps the maps and books only cover the species that have a chance of getting to Babylon 5 in a reasonable amount of time? (i.e. not years)

Logically speaking: yes there are billions of stars, and galaxies well beyond this one. Given the proliferation of life in the regions near Earth they should all have gates and write ups and something interesting. The only thing I can say is that the books, setting and gamer head space can only hold so much data. But you should post your expanded maps and world write ups, anything that adds to the setting in new and interesting ways would be good.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Just the number of sytems within 200 light years from earth numbers far more than the systems seen in the Galactic Guide yet, as I understand it, the Galactic Guide literally covers the entire galaxy.

The size of civilised space in B5 is...weird. Most of the time, the impression is that it all takes place within a relatively small area, no more than a few hundred light years. Then, you get bits where people talk about the future of the whole galaxy, or we have the scene where Londo and Morden carve up the galaxy between them.

My personal take is the former - 'known space' is the tiniest, tiniest fraction of the galaxy.

 

[James McMurray]

It could be that when scenes like that have people referring to the galaxy they're referring to only the known galaxy, but using verbal shorthand. Kinda like if I tell my coworker we'll divide up America in conquest. A casual listener might think I'm talking about North America or a combination of the two American continents, not just the U. S. of A.

 

[Lysander]

Again, thank you all for your thoughts-they are very much appreciated because I am very much looking for help. I do agree that it is unfair and unrealistic to expect JMS (and all the builders of the B5 universe) to offer up thousands (maybe millions) of jumpgates and worlds to coincide.

Ideally, what I hope can be offered is a way for me as I run a RPG to develop a way to realistically develop a way to have branches or new routes for other systems. My problem (my agony) is that I have a bunch of pretty bright guys that will beat me to death if I don't have a logical and consistent way to explore the galaxy. In part, my issue, if you will, stems from my attempt to preempt the challenges that will come from my players. Unfortunately, most of them are bullheaded old farts (God luv 'em) with post graduate degrees that won't take a simple "because I said so" as an answer.

At worst, I am looking for a foil for them. At best, I am looking for something I can live with (unfortunately, I am just like them). Aside from that, we are are old TRAVELLER players and we are used to thousands of worlds that we can visit.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Ideally, what I hope can be offered is a way for me as I run a RPG to develop a way to realistically develop a way to have branches or new routes for other systems.

When in doubt, just talk about gravitational fluxes and currents in hyperspace. It might have always been too stormy to pick up the beacon to planet X before, but now the storm's subsided and a new jump route becomes viable.

 

[B_Steele]

I covered this subject in great detail in the Rim. Rules and everything.

Bry

 

[James McMurray]

Tell them "this is how the rules work, if you need hard physics explanation for them, you'll have to provide them. Write them up and submit them to the group, the fewer holes the rest of us find the more XP it's worth."

 

[Lysander]

Mongoose Steele wrote:

[I covered this subject in great detail in the Rim. Rules and everything.]

I am looking forward to picking it up. Sounds like it will be great. I also look forward to the "IPX" book.[/quote]

 

[aelius]

You might also consider that the systems displayed on the map are not all of the systems that are connected to the jumpgate network. A number of the scenarios refer to systems that are not on the map. I just assume that the map only shows the relatively important systems and add other systems as I need them for the storyline. This said, I am looking forward to both IPX and The Rim.

 

[Atlantis]

Also remember that the stars aren't all equally spaced; we are in a spiral arm... these arms are very far apart, i doubt it'd be easy to cross between them. And all it takes is one antisocial race (for example, the Tal'kona-sha or Vorlons) and known space is hemmed in quite a lot.

I know there's still thousands of stars just in our "chunk" of this arm, but it could explain a lot.

Also brings up the question of... what's happening in the other arms?

 

[zwerg]

You might also consider that the systems displayed on the map are not all of the systems that are connected to the jumpgate network. A number of the scenarios refer to systems that are not on the map.

I also have that view, along with the view that the planets shown are not the only ones controlled by the races in question. These are the ones that have more than one connection or are otherwise significant.