CAN THE ETHERSPACE BE USED FOR SPACE TRAVEL?

Forum for Etherscope, our new RPG of cyberpunk Victoriana.

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Artful Dodger
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CAN THE ETHERSPACE BE USED FOR SPACE TRAVEL?

Post by Artful Dodger »

My question is about the vastness of the etherspace. Is it a dimension which is universal? And if so, could a traveller with the proper vehicle discover other worlds? And if so, would a portal on the new world connect directly to Earth if so built?
Not that this is an important issue, but one would suspect that if Etherspace is another dimension seperate from our own, then it might possibly connect to other worlds in our same dimension, and could be used for travel, if one could devise a vehicle, or perhaps a tunnel connecting the two. Perhaps my understanding of this dimension is incorrect, if so, please correct me. Otherwise I am going to create an adventure with this theme in mind.
jamat
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Post by jamat »

Hi there AD

Like the idea and the thinking behind it. If I'm reading etherspace correctly why would you need a vehicle. Perhaps you could create an area in ehterspace that would act as a jump off point for places unknown, a kind of interdinemsional terminal.

Perhaps some insiduous Demon in Etherspace has given someone the ability to create this area, either directly or indierectly for it's own ends. Perhaps these new dimension / worlds are infact home to more etherspace creatures that use the resulting port areas to creep into our world.

Or

You could just go down the classic Victorian route and have a brass and timber ether vehicle taking the players on a trip through etherspace. perhaps they find a weakness in the fabric of etherspace that allows them to travel the spaces between the dimensions finding weaknesses in the fabric of other dimensions allowing them to explore that world.
This could be linked to the above suggestion in that the more weaknesses they find and exploit the more unstable etherspace becomes the ultermate being the breakdown of the barrier between etherspace and the real world allowing the demons to steam through and reak havok.
That allows the demons to hunt and even help the players explore and allows the players to try to unravel what is going on and ultimately try to stop the damage they've done.

Anyway that's my suggestions perhaps totally un Etherspace (I need to read the book a bit more)

Jamat
malladin_ben
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Post by malladin_ben »

Whether to include a "space" element to the game was something we toyed arouind with for a while when creating Etherscope. In the end we decided againt it because we didn't want to be just a Space 1889 clone.

Therefore it's not a direction we'll be looking to take Etherscope in, it's certainly something that isn't too great a stretch of the "rules" of etherspace as it stands to use it for travelling into space.

I particularly like Jamat's Brass-and-timber-etherspace-vehicle idea. You could also possibly have a Lemurian artefact openning up a "hall of doorways" type of place that people could travel to.

As it's not something typically part of an Etherscope game it could be as much of an adventure finding out how to travel to other worlds as to travelling to them in itself.

Cheerio,

Ben
Artful Dodger
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Post by Artful Dodger »

Space 1889 was a good game, and I really enjoyed it, but taking Etherscope in the direction of space travel wouldnt make it look like Space 1889. The two games are really different. Space 1889 is the world of Victorian Science Fiction, and Etherscope is the world of Victorian Science Practice's taken forward 100 years.
Its not that I find Etherscope lacking, in fact I think it has to be one of the best settings out there currently. But to have a world which uses Etherspace as a technology and not have several scientists out there trying to use it to connect to other worlds is improbable.
I am going to have a world my players have to go to to obtain a Lemurian artifact. I toyed with the idea of a scope created world, but thought it would be more interesting for them to go to an actual alien world where the last Lemurian city exists, and even use this world for a few campaigns.
Ken Hart
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Post by Ken Hart »

Artful Dodger wrote:Its not that I find Etherscope lacking, in fact I think it has to be one of the best settings out there currently. But to have a world which uses Etherspace as a technology and not have several scientists out there trying to use it to connect to other worlds is improbable.
Thanks for the compliments about the setting. I would say there are two reasons for this lack of exploration:

1) Etherspace is still mostly viewed as a source of energy and data storage, rather than as a separate dimension. (Some members of the fey and experts in the occult know different.)

2) Who's to say whether deeper exploration of Etherspace hasn't been attempted? It may have simply ended, oh, rather badly. (Consider this a promotion for Mysteries of the Occult.) Such missions would probably have been organized secretly to avoid interference from competing powers, and their failure would have been quickly swept under the rug.

--Ken
DCC, DragonMech, Etherscope editor
Writer: "Madness at the Mutilated Oak," DCC #48: The Adventure Continues;
DCC #52: Chronicle of the Fiend

"It really is the height of pessimism to have a hat lined with chain mail." --Mrs. Peel
Ralph the Dog
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Post by Ralph the Dog »

I mentioned in another thread "Mapping The Whole Thing Out" you could explore other planets by using a spatial placement program.

The Ether is like an overlay of Prime Reality. By using a program which would map the displacement of the Ether, you could get an idea what an area would look like.

You would be able to "travel" to Mars through the Ether and experience it's enviroment in a virtual enclave or on Mars itself by calculating it's orbit.

The second choice could lead to all types of problems and mishaps if the programs weren't correct... :twisted:
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