Wizards, the real rulers

Wizards are an integral part of many role-playing games. Often they are restricted by rules, such as not being allowed to use weapons, a weak attempt to limit their unimaginable power. If we assume that the people in fantasy game worlds behave at least approximately as people in reality do, then some of the widespread […]

Designing Space Ships – Important Questions

Whether you’re writing a novel, designing a role-playing setting or planning another science fiction project: Spaceships are usually part of it. The most important questions as to how these should look and function concern not only the ships themselves, but above all the cultural and technological developments that must exist as prerequisites for space travel. […]

Building a Star Empire (Part 1)

The heart of every Space Opera novel or setting is a star empire – or better: several of them. But what exactly is a star empire? On Earth we have seen the evolution of many nations and alliances of nations from the Roman Empire to the European Union. Assuming that mankind (or any other intelligent […]

Beam Cannons

or Direct Energy Weapons are the second type of the three typically used large scale weapons systems used in space battles (the other two being Kinetic Kill Cannons and Missiles). Laser cannons A long time ago lasers and particle beam cannons were considered to be the weapon system of the future, superior to conventional ballistic […]

Spinning Habitat Rings on Spaceships

Without the help of magical constructions that create artificial gravity aboard spaceships, there are actually only three options to have some sort of gravity in spaceflight: Accelerate by thrusting Make your ship spin (or a section of it) Place a large mass under your ship Option 1 works perfectly as long as you can accelerate […]

Hull Mass

So, I always wanted to create a system of rules or mechanics to design spaceships for roleplaying games. Interesting and yet somewhat realistic spaceships. Not as realistic as a Space Shuttle but also not as wild as a Star Destroyer from Star Wars. So I had to sit down and think about what I expect […]

Interior design

Ships in movies and tv series come in all kind of styles. Especially when you get inside you will find all levels of comfortability, from industrial dark to the shiny white hotel style. What would spaceships really look like on the inside? First of all spaceship interior design has to be functional. Nobody cares if […]