#3D GALAXY MAKER RPG PDF#
#3D GALAXY MAKER RPG UPDATE#
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My favorite feature of AstroSynthesis is one that touches on the hardest part of star map management. If you would like to visualize the 3D space, as well as track GM friendly information about planets, stations, stars, and empires within it, the 'go to' tool for 3D star map management is AstroSynthesis by NBOS Software.īeing able to plot, rotate, pivot, and pan through the 3D map data, and tag GM information to anything is a great management help. The spreadsheet data format is documented for use with other tools. These maps can be used as-is for plenty of science-fiction role-playing and have 3D coordinate data and can be plotted in 2D allow you to use and re-use them as you see fit.

998 stars, 211 habitable, within 50 l.y.

572 stars, 121 habitable, within 40 l.y.

277 stars, 51 habitable, within 30 l.y.111 stars, 17 habitable, within 20 l.y.

#3D GALAXY MAKER RPG PDF#

Winchell Chung put together the HabHYG star maps and data and makes them freely available to improve the state of star mapping in literature and games.įrom the link, you can download PNG and PDF map images, data spreadsheets, connection lists, and the StereoStar program with data files for: Visiting Project Rho and/or Atomic Rockets may result in lost time and productivity - these sites are a very cool vortex of science fiction information deceptively easy to get lost in for hours or days. Over time, Project Rho expanded into Atomic Rockets, a massive reference site about all things spaceflight. With the release of Traveller: 2300, gaming guru Winchell Chung began 'Project Rho' to explore, explain, and expand on 3D star mapping for his own personal interest, which he also moved onto the world wide web to share with others. This allows you to intermix and interchange these maps and their data, or use data from these games to expand the others.īuilding Your Own Realistic 2D *and* 3D Starmap From The Same DataĮven better, the 3D star maps described above all build from real astronomical data sources and you can too.

2020 'The Stars of the Middle Heavens' map by Fria Ligan/Free League for the ALIEN RPG.įundamentally, all three of these examples are based on the same core data and presented in the same manner using a standard '+X points to galactic core and Y plane is the plane of the galaxy' layout.

#3D GALAXY MAKER RPG FREE#

2017 Hostile by Zozer Games Free Maps and Other Downloads.

In recent years, the availability of high-quality near star data and the computer power to easily manipulate it has led to a number of games which give 2D presentations of 3D star data. In 1993 TSR published Amazing Engine: Bughunters with a map very similar to the map from SPI's universe (possibly because TSR had acquired SPI years before).ĭespite the occasional forays into realistic star maps, many or most games followed Traveller's lead, just including their own 2D maps of space to explore or systems to build 2D maps.

#3D GALAXY MAKER RPG UPDATE#

Game Design Workshop released a futuristic Twilight 2000 update in 1986 called Traveller: 2300 including a star map based on Gliese's Near Star Catalog. The earliest game based on a 3D map I have is Universe by SPI from 1981. less easy:ĭistance = Square Root of ( (EndingX - StartingX)^2 + (EndingY - StartingY)^2 + (EndingZ - StartingZ)^2 )ĭespite the ease of use and math friction, that did not stop some game companies exploring 3D star maps. With a 2D map, the Distance between two star coordinates equals the Square Root of ( (EndingX - StartingX)^2 + (EndingY - StartingY)^2 ) On a 2D map, you can simply 'walk' your fingers from start to end and count along the way. The usual answers are ease of use and simpler math. Since Traveller's earliest days, a recurring question is 'why not use 3D star data and make the map 3D?' In the 40+ years since, that humble beginning has lead to a massive sprawling empire of more than 11,000 systems detailed on a random-generated 2D map. In 1977, Traveller by Game Design Workshop started humbly with a simple system of plotting 2D 'space sectors' on hex paper.

1976 Metamorphosis Alpha set inside the massive starship Warden.

1975 Blackmoor set on the worlds Mystara, Greyhawk, Wilderlands, and Pelinore over the years.

1975 Empire of the Petal Throne set on the world of Tékumel.

The earliest science-fiction RPGs were set on planets or within starships and did not include much at all regarding the stellar neighborhoods around them:

3d galaxy maker rpg