[Zozer Games] Orbital - Update

[Mithras]

Hi! Zozer Games is working on an update of its very hard-SF Traveller varient called Orbital.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/109160/Orbital

Crucial to the update and rewrite is compatability with Cepheus Engine, a Traveller OGL product, but it means the game will still be able to be used in conjuction with Mongoose Traveller (both editions). I know that Orbital is already quite a big book, but I have included the design rules for launch vehicles (surface to orbit rockets) and orbital vehicles (capsules, landers, spaceplanes etc.), giving referees the tools to create their own STL spin gravity universes.

I'd like to know from players (or potential ones!) what other refinements you would like to see in Orbital. Obviously I am a little restricted in space, but I intend to add a variety of new updates (including opening the door to interstellar exploration). I cannot lie, watching The Expanse has once certainly got me once again deeply interested in Orbital and hard-SF solar system roleplaying!

 

[Sigtrygg]

Daft question but how can I get the pod version here in the UK?

 

[middenface]

You can get it via Lulu. I got mine that way. Wait for the update of course.

 

[Mithras]

Thanks Ian, the softback can be bought here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-elliott/orbital/paperback/product-20599578.html

I predict the new edition will be ready by November 2016 - but that is an estimate!

 

[Sigtrygg]

Can't wait - I too have an Expanse itch that needs to be scratched so I want every near future sci-fi supplement I can get hold of.

Thanks for the link - I was worried they only printed them in the US.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Hi! Zozer Games is working on an update of its very hard-SF Traveller varient called Orbital.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/109160/Orbital

Crucial to the update and rewrite is compatability with Cepheus Engine, a Traveller OGL product, but it means the game will still be able to be used in conjuction with Mongoose Traveller (both editions). I know that Orbital is already quite a big book, but I have included the design rules for launch vehicles (surface to orbit rockets) and orbital vehicles (capsules, landers, spaceplanes etc.), giving referees the tools to create their own STL spin gravity universes.

I'd like to know from players (or potential ones!) what other refinements you would like to see in Orbital. Obviously I am a little restricted in space, but I intend to add a variety of new updates (including opening the door to interstellar exploration). I cannot lie, watching The Expanse has once certainly got me once again deeply interested in Orbital and hard-SF solar system roleplaying!

There is an interesting video which suggests one way to do interstellar exploration and colonization without going faster than the speed of light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WtgmT5CYU8
I'll summarize
1) A starship which can reach 1% of the speed of light and then slows down
2) Artificial Intelligence
3) frozen Embryos
4) Artificial Womb technology

If you don't want artificial intelligence, you can substitute low berths for the frozen embryos, artificial intelligence and artificial womb technology
Stay tuned for news on that Proxima planet.
http://www.universetoday.com/130276/earth-like-planet-around-proxima-centauri-discovered/
One can add their own planets to the other two stars in the Alpha Centauri System.

 

[Mithras]

I am definately going to use FTL and wormholes and generation ships, but the link you posted Tom has no use of player characters, and so I can't think of how that particular way of travelling would feature productively in an RPG. It is a fascinating concept, however...just not very 'gameable'.

 

[fusor]

I am definately going to use FTL and wormholes and generation ships, but the link you posted Tom has no use of player characters, and so I can't think of how that particular way of travelling would feature productively in an RPG. It is a fascinating concept, however...just not very 'gameable'.

In that case the PCs would be the colonists starting out on other worlds (like the early colonies in the "2001 Nights" manga, if you've read that).

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I am definately going to use FTL and wormholes and generation ships, but the link you posted Tom has no use of player characters, and so I can't think of how that particular way of travelling would feature productively in an RPG. It is a fascinating concept, however...just not very 'gameable'.

Your overlooking the possibility of the players playing an AI computer virtual character. Also there is nothing wrong with starting a player character with two android AI robots as parents. Then there are low berths, a PC can get into one of those, and come out decades or centuries later and explore a new planet, problem is the setting back home would change a lot over that amount of time. Introduce FTL and the setting becomes less hard science. Probably the hardest FTL method would be wormholes Lets start with that Saturn satellite Iapetus, put a stargate in that one, stargates are basically wormholes, they can connect other parts of space and time and other universes.

 

[Mithras]

The new edition of Orbital, Orbital 2100, will soon be available in PDF and in softback.

Hot on its heels will be a hard-SF exploration scenario showcasing what Orbital is and how it can be played.


FAR HORIZON
A Near Future Scenario
<INCOMING MESSAGE>
--- Scott. Pass on my congratulations to the crew of the Far Horizon. Pity Pluto lost its status as a planet, otherwise your landings on the surface would have made a bigger splash in the media here ---

---Prepare for a mission change--- The IAS has noticed perturbations in the trajectory of that rogue planet, Tartarus, spotted passing through the Kuiper Belt a couple of years ago---
---Could be a vulcanism, earthquakes or even that little moon it has---

---Get your crew together, Scott. Tartarus is a fast mover, you will have only a 4 day rendezvous., but it will add an extra year to your mission---

---Tell them they are going to be the first humans ever to land on a planet outside of our Solar System. If Mankind can’t get to exotic planets around alien stars, who cares? One of those exotic planets just came to us---

--Godspeed---
<MESSAGE ENDS>
In development!