[01-1002] Space.pdf

The Future Is Yours!

Now updated for GURPS Fourth Edition , this

is the ultimate toolkit for any campaign between

the stars. Explore options for space travel and

technology, from the realistic to the miraculous.

Design alien races and monsters. Create cam-

paigns of every style, from science fantasy to

space opera to near-future realism. Build

worlds, from asteroids to Dyson spheres.

With this book, you can create anything from

a single alien beast to a whole galaxy of civiliza-

tions and star systems . . . quickly and random-

ly, or with a detailed step-by-step process that’s

true to biology and astrophysics as we under-

stand them today.

• Whether you’re creating a single alien or an

entire race, a single planet or a dozen systems,

GURPS Space gives you the information you

need!

• Based on modern astrophysical knowledge,

you can build a setting as “hard science” as you

want – or just choose details that work for your

story, and skip the rocket science.

• GURPS Space is written by two experienced

GURPS creators: Jon Zeigler (author of GURPS

Traveller: Interstellar Wars and GURPS

Traveller: First In ), and James Cambias (author

of GURPS Mars and GURPS Planet of

Adventure ).

GURPS , Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games

Incorporated. Pyramid and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated

are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.

public-domain images used in this book were taken from NASA and the STScl Hubble image collection.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the

permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic

editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Stock #31-1002 Version 1.0 July 21, 2006

Written by JON F. ZEIGLER and JAMES L. CAMBIAS

Edited by WIL UPCHURCH

Cover Art by ALAN GUTIERREZ, CHRIS QUILLIAMS, and BOB STEVLIC

Illustrated by JESSE DEGRAFF, ALAN GUTIERREZ, CHRIS QUILLIAMS,

and BOB STEVLIC

ISBN 1-55634-245-4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . 4

P UBLICATION H ISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1. S PACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S PACE AND S PACE F ICTION . . . . . . . . . . 6

Why Space Travel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What’s Not in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Designing the Space Campaign. . . . . . . 7

Hard and Soft Science Fiction . . . . . . . . 7

Scale and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Ships and Outposts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

C AMPAIGN T YPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Strange New Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The High Frontier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Alien Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Military Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Stop in the Name of the Law. . . . . . . . 16

Media and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Working Stiffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Heroic Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The Absurdist Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Who Needs Starships? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

A LIENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

S OCIETIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

I NTERSTELLAR O RGANIZATIONS . . . . . 24

P LANETS AND P LACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2. S PACE T RAVEL . . . . . . . . . 28

A T AXONOMY OF M IRACLES . . . . . . . . 29

S PACE F LIGHT AND S TORY

R EQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

M ANEUVER D RIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Reaction Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Rocket Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Sample Delta-V Requirements . . . . . . . 32

Sails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Catapults and Tethers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Reactionless Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Relativity Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Generation Ships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

S TAR D RIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Hyperdrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Jump Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Warp Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Designing a Stardrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Navigation Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

S HIPBOARD S YSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Life Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Weapons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Laboratories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Small Craft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3. T ECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . 49

A DDING M IRACLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

T ECHNOLOGY A REAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Suspended Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Bioships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Computers and Communications . . . . 55

The Transparent Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Nanotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Weapons and Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Swashbuckler Option . . . . . . . . . . . 61

4. B ASIC W ORLDBUILDING . . 62

U SING W ORLDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Dramatic Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Depth of Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

M APPING THE G ALAXY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Astronomical Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Distances and Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

The Frequency of Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Choosing a Preferred Scale . . . . . . . . . . 72

W ORLD D ESIGN S EQUENCE . . . . . . . . 73

Step 1: Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Step 2: World Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Why World Types? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Step 3: Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Toxicity Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Step 4: Hydrographic Coverage. . . . . . 81

Step 5: Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Step 6: World Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Step 7: Resources and Habitability. . . 87

Habitability for Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

S OCIAL P ARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Step 8: Settlement Type . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Step 9: Technology Level . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Step 10: Population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Altering the Colony Population Table . . . 93

Step 11: Society Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Step 12: Control Rating . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Step 13: Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Step 14: Bases and Installations . . . . . 96

5. A DVANCED

W ORLDBUILDING . . . . . . 99

G ENERATING S TAR S YSTEMS . . . . . . 100

Stellar Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Step 15: Number of Stars. . . . . . . . . . 100

Step 16: Star Masses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Step 17: Star System Age . . . . . . . . . . 101

Step 18: Stellar Characteristics . . . . . 102

Step 19: Companion Star Orbits . . . . 105

Step 20: Locate Orbital Zones . . . . . . 106

Step 21: Placing First Planets . . . . . . 107

Step 22: Place Planetary Orbits . . . . . 108

Step 23: Place Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Step 24: Place Moons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

G ENERATING W ORLD D ETAILS . . . . . 113

Step 25: World Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Step 26: Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Step 27: Hydrographics . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Step 28: Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Step 29: World Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Step 30: Dynamic Parameters . . . . . . 115

Step 31: Geologic Activity . . . . . . . . . 119

Step 32: Resources and

Habitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Step 33: Settlement Type . . . . . . . . . . 121

Step 34: Technology Level . . . . . . . . . 122

Step 35: Population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Step 36: Society Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Step 37: Control Rating . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Step 38: Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Step 39: Bases and Installations . . . . 123

S PECIAL C ASES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

Gas Giant Moons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Tide-Locked Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Massive Stars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Red Dwarf Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Brown Dwarf Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Rogue Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Terraformed Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

O THER O BJECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130

Asteroids and Comets. . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Artificial Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Who Needs Planets, Anyway? . . . . . . . 132

Megastructures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

6. A LIEN L IFE AND

A LIEN M INDS . . . . . . . 134

A LIENS IN THE C AMPAIGN . . . . . . . . . 135

Some Common Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

GURPS System Design

❚

STEVE JACKSON

Production Artist

❚

ALEX FERNANDEZ

ROSS JEPSON

Errata Coordinator ❚ ANDY VETROMILE

GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ ❍❍❍❍❍

STÉPHANE THÉRIAULT

❚

GURPS Line Editor

❚

SEAN PUNCH

Page Design

❚

PHILIP REED

Managing Editor

❚

CHRIS AYLOTT

MONIQUE CHAPMAN

Marketing Director

❚

Production Manager

❚

MONICA STEPHENS

❚

PAUL CHAPMAN

Lead Playtester: Jeff Wilson

Playtesters: Doug Berry, Frederick Brackin, Daniel Boese, Darcy Casselman, Paul Chapman, James Cloos, Douglas Cole, Peter Dell’Orto,

Paul Drye, Shawn Fisher, Chris Goodin, Martin Heidemann, Leonardo M. Holschuh, Anthony Jackson, Stefan Jones, Robert Kim, Susan Koziel,

Michael Lloyd, Paraj Mandrekar, Phil Masters, David Morgan-Mar, Fabio Milito Pagliara, Robert Prior, Sean Punch, Luis M. Rebollar,

Emily Smirle, Michael Smith, William H. Stoddard, Paul Tevis, George Valaitis, Bryan Weaver, and Roger Burton West

GURPS , Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid and the names of all products

published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law.

Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

C ONTENTS

Sales Manager

Print Buyer

L IFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Life as We Know It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Clashing Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Other Chemistries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Non-Chemical Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Alien Creation I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Artificial Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

E COLOGIES AND N ICHES . . . . . . . . . . 141

Energy Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Alien Creation II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Autotrophs and Decomposers . . . . . . 143

Herbivores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Carnivores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Parasites and Symbionts . . . . . . . . . . . 146

A LIEN A NATOMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Alien Creation III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Body Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Alien Creation IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Alien Creation V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Skin, Hide, and Alternatives . . . . . . . 155

Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Alien Creation VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Reproduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Lifespan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Alien Creation VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Senses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Alien Creation VIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Special Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

A LIEN M INDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Brains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Nature: The Influence of Biology . . . 167

Nurture: The Influence of Society. . . 167

Alien Creation IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Alien Creation X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

7. F UTURE AND A LIEN

C IVILIZATIONS . . . . . . . 171

S TORY C ONCERNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Control and Intrusiveness . . . . . . . . . 173

Avenues to Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Corruptibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

S OCIETY AND B IOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

S OCIETY AND T ECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . 177

E CONOMICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Unobtainium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

The Leisure Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

L AW AND J USTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

M ILITARY F ORCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Alternate Armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

How Much Military Rank? . . . . . . . . . 189

I NTERSTELLAR G OVERNMENTS . . . . 190

Anarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Alliance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Corporate State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Why People Support

Rotten Empires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Alternate Empires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Alien Governments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Planetary Governments . . . . . . . . . . . 201

History and Government . . . . . . . . . . . 201

O RGANIZATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

8. A DVENTURES . . . . . . . . 207

T HE H OOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

The Default Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Metaplot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

G OALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

O BSTACLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Puzzles and Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Alien Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Adversaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Adventure Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

9. C HARACTERS . . . . . . . . 214

G ROUP S TRUCTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

C HARACTER C ONCEPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Astronauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Space Knights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Niche Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Tramp Freighters and

Merchant Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Modified Humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Uplifted Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Psionic Mutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Robots and AIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

A DVANTAGES , D ISADVANTAGES ,

AND S KILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

C HARACTER T EMPLATES . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Astronaut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Bounty Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Colonist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Con Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Detective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Doctor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Scientist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Secret Agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Security Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Space Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Space Worker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Technician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Thief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

B IBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . 236

I NDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

About GURPS

Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS

players. Our address is SJ Games, Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. Please

include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) any time you write

us! We can also be reached by e-mail: info@sjgames.com . Resources

include:

Pyramid ( www.sjgames.com/pyramid/ ). Our online magazine

includes new GURPS rules and articles. It also covers the d20 system,

Ars Magica, BESM, Call of Cthulhu, and many more top games – and

other Steve Jackson Games releases like Illuminati, Car Wars,

Transhuman Space, and more. Pyramid subscribers also get opportu-

nities to playtest new GURPS books!

New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to grow, and

we’ll be happy to let you know what’s new. For a current catalog, send

us a legal-sized SASE, or just visit www.warehouse23.com .

e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adventures, play aids,

and support not available anywhere else! Just head over to

www.sjgames.com/e23/ .

Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do our best

to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata sheets for all GURPS releases,

including this book, are available on our website – see below.

Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com

for errata, updates, Q&A, free webforums, and much more. To

discuss GURPS with SJ Games staff and fellow gamers, come to our

forums at forums.sjgames.com . The GURPS Space web page is

www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/space/ .

Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliographies, and

we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the books that

interest you! Go to the book’s web page and look for the “Bibliography”

link.

GURPSnet. This e-mail list hosts much of the online discussion of

GURPS. To join, point your web browser to www.sjgames.com/

mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l/ .

Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS

Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to

that book, not this one.

C ONTENTS

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