Interior space of Transit Gates

[peglegpete]

so my gaming group has a couple of battles under our belts, and we're working our way through a campaign.

The player who won the most recent battle said that for the next fight, he wants to invade my system. Specifically, he wants his Transit Marines to try to recover the transit gate my Free colonists seized during their bid for power. The battle is set to take place inside the interior spaces of the gate itself, so here's my question.

How large are the corridors and rooms inside the gate? is it reasonable to do a fight in there? would there be a literal mobile frame hanger that could be invaded?

[Xero010]

Not so sure about what the inside the Transit Gate would look like, but I imagine twelve war machines fighting inside one could do significant damage to the gate itself.

[Zero Revenge]

Well, I remember Soren or Joshua saying that a Transit Gate is like a Port City in and of itself. So, while you guys were doing battle in more of the "Port" section itself, and not the fleshy interior, I imagine it'd be like any spaceport you see in science fiction.

I would have to assume every Gate has a hangar for the TTM stationed there. How the TTM would be able to strike back against the Gate though is perplexing? Wouldn't they have had the Gate in the first place, and wouldn't they fight to the death to not lose it? That aside, which is easily enough explained, you should [for the battlefield] have it be partly interior, and a small bit of the table be considered open-outer space. If the TTM's are storming the Gate, they need to enter it first. Have some space debris for cover out in space, and then have it like normal "inside" the gate.

I like to imagine the Death Star Hangar for what would be a typical Gate hangar. Just, obviously a Gate is not the size of a small moon.

Also, I'd like to hear more details on the campaign. How do you guys decide who's winning the campaign? Battles earn points, but how? Kills? Holding Objectives? Etc?

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Transit gates have populations in the thousands sometimes. They're big.

There's a big, open, central dock area into which ships pop into existence, then move off for the next incoming/outgoing transit. They come out only approximately in the formation then entered in, so they give each other plenty of room on the way in. The docks are vulnerable to invasion! You don't really get to refuse an incoming transit, so unless they give some indication of malicious intent (which would mean shutting the transit gate down for what might turn into months, costing the transit corporation untold millions or billions of Wulongs), the TTMs on duty are really the defense. In your case, it would be whoever's got possession of the gate now. If there was an invasion here, you might find that the "attackers" are underprepared and wound up with their ship in a stupid position and can't get its frames here in time, making them effectively defenders; or that the defenders of the transit gate aren't up to military discipline and had a lag in who was on watch.

(As for them retaking the gate, Zerorevenge, are you suggesting that they would never run away? They're not supernatural badasses who have regard for neither their lives nor their ability to return when they can win. Retaking a transit gate might be dangerous and hard, but sticking around when you're the last guy is 100% dangerous. That's why there's the Doomsday Clock.)

Then there's the city, probably in a ring around it, that has streets, shops, police (usually, really TTM) stations, and houses. If it's a ring (and the entire gate isn't in zero G), there are elevators going "up" to the docks. It might have parks and avenues, but they're probably scaled down.

(I bet the TTA is secretly interested in striking a deal with the new management. Cheaper than retaking it, and the boss doesn't care who turns in the percentage. Those TTMs might fight themselves mighty expendable.)

Then, of course, is the immediate exterior of the gate. The "ground" of a ring-shaped station opens up into space, so small craft or frames can take a "down" elevator to launch themselves in any direction within the plane of the ring. Depending on the point you are in the orbit, that could be anywhere between a different orbit, deep space, or straight into the ground. This might be a fun place for a house rule about losing orbit: one of the table edges is the upper stratosphere. Just like normal, when you hit that, the frame is lost. But from a range of 8-6 of that edge, you lose a white (or green) die before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 1 toward the edge. From 4-6, you lose two whites (or greens) before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 2 toward the edge. From 0-4 away from the edge, you lose three whites (or greens) before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 3 toward the edge. If in doubt about which level the frame is at, it's in the safer one. If you can figure out a way to do it fairly, you could designate one table corner that the frames move toward, rather than an edge, which means you could tweak things to get a speed boost from the gravity.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Wait, are the TTMs stuck there, at the colony? They didn't run away through the gate? Then dude, make them fight their way in. Totally use the re-entry rules there.

[peglegpete]

Transit gates have populations in the thousands sometimes. They're big.

There's a big, open, central dock area into which ships pop into existence, then move off for the next incoming/outgoing transit. They come out only approximately in the formation then entered in, so they give each other plenty of room on the way in. The docks are vulnerable to invasion! You don't really get to refuse an incoming transit, so unless they give some indication of malicious intent (which would mean shutting the transit gate down for what might turn into months, costing the transit corporation untold millions or billions of Wulongs), the TTMs on duty are really the defense. In your case, it would be whoever's got possession of the gate now. If there was an invasion here, you might find that the "attackers" are underprepared and wound up with their ship in a stupid position and can't get its frames here in time, making them effectively defenders; or that the defenders of the transit gate aren't up to military discipline and had a lag in who was on watch.

Interesting. i'd sort of pictured the transit gates as looking more like a big outer-space stargate. if i'm understanding this right, the transit gates are something you move INTO rather than THROUGH. is this right? something like a train tunnel?

Then there's the city, probably in a ring around it, that has streets, shops, police (usually, really TTM) stations, and houses. If it's a ring (and the entire gate isn't in zero G), there are elevators going "up" to the docks. It might have parks and avenues, but they're probably scaled down.

I'd thought that the gate itself was more or less a military installation, but you make it sound like it is more like a normal city?

Then, of course, is the immediate exterior of the gate. The "ground" of a ring-shaped station opens up into space, so small craft or frames can take a "down" elevator to launch themselves in any direction within the plane of the ring. Depending on the point you are in the orbit, that could be anywhere between a different orbit, deep space, or straight into the ground. This might be a fun place for a house rule about losing orbit: one of the table edges is the upper stratosphere. Just like normal, when you hit that, the frame is lost. But from a range of 8-6 of that edge, you lose a white (or green) die before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 1 toward the edge. From 4-6, you lose two whites (or greens) before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 2 toward the edge. From 0-4 away from the edge, you lose three whites (or greens) before rolling. If that leaves you with no movement, you move 3 toward the edge. If in doubt about which level the frame is at, it's in the safer one. If you can figure out a way to do it fairly, you could designate one table corner that the frames move toward, rather than an edge, which means you could tweak things to get a speed boost from the gravity.

this seems like all sorts of fun, but i'll need to talk it over with the group to see what they think.

for sake of clarity, is there any artwork out there of what a gate actually looks like?


thank you, it is really good to be able to talk to the designers to get this sort of information.

[Zero Revenge]

(As for them retaking the gate, Zerorevenge, are you suggesting that they would never run away? They're not supernatural badasses who have regard for neither their lives nor their ability to return when they can win. Retaking a transit gate might be dangerous and hard, but sticking around when you're the last guy is 100% dangerous. That's why there's the Doomsday Clock.)

Yeah. I kind of assumed that they realistically couldn't give up and flee a Transit Gate, since where would they go? The colonial planet's surface below? But if that is held in the same interests as those attacking the Gate...

I also figure that no one would spare a Corporate Soldier, so it becomes fight or die. I didn't take into consideration the flight aspect. Again, now thinking "where could they flee too safely?". Since, to create a hole & jump through the gate is a long process right; and assuming the colony/planet is not safe either - let alone re-entering the atmosphere.

So, not that the TTM are "supernaturally badass", just that survival = defending your ground. But, I forgot about the Clock, I need to keep that in mind for when I write up my campaign's battles. The clock will likely decide a victory more so than elimination of enemy frames...

tl;dr: I has the dumb. I need to think outside the box more. And I'd like to think loyalty means something in the future. People just turning sides so easily shouldn't be such a shocking thought to me, but it is. Probably because I would hope it would be.

[Foghammer]

For some reason I am now thinking this place looks like a big circle with a space elevator that leads up into the actual transit gate. That picture looks silly to me, though.

I have been picturing it to look like a giant metal ring of a space station floating around in orbit with some sort of orbital defense platforms making sure it isn't attacked (Halo 2 influences). To be fair, I'm just not really good at mentally constructing things that I don't come up with myself, so I draw from other things to help.

[Dukayn]

Requesting some official art of transit gates for reference

[spacemonkey]

Requesting some official art of transit gates for reference

Seconded. I was really surprised when there wasn't a piece of artwork in the book for this when the final draft rolled out.

[Zero Revenge]

Requesting some official art of transit gates for reference

Seconded. I was really surprised when there wasn't a piece of artwork in the book for this when the final draft rolled out.

Thirded!

[milt69466]

Requesting some official art of transit gates for reference

Seconded. I was really surprised when there wasn't a piece of artwork in the book for this when the final draft rolled out.

Thirded!

Fourthed?

[Foghammer]

Requesting some official art of transit gates for reference

Firmly fifthed.

I love game art.

[gusindor]

Sixthed. And yay for doughnut-shaped space stations!

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

You guys realize the book doubled in length between the beginning of the Kickstarter and publication, right? There's only so much that can fit! That book is heavy!

A future Component will talk about transit gates and other spacey stuff, though, don't worry!

[Soren]

Yeah, if we don't say for sure, it's one of two things: we need to confer and figure it out, or we want to leave make-uppy space for you guys. By all means ask which it is!

[Foghammer]

A future Component will talk about transit gates and other spacey stuff, though, don't worry!

Supplementary material! Enterprising young designers such as yourselves should be able to manage that!

So are we looking at something like a series of in-depth cultural reviews (maybe some 32-page paperbacks) twice a year? Each one could be padded with "official" new frame cores...

What? ... What do you mean this isn't Hasbro?

[mraichelson]

A future Component will talk about transit gates and other spacey stuff, though, don't worry!

Supplementary material! Enterprising young designers such as yourselves should be able to manage that!

So are we looking at something like a series of in-depth cultural reviews (maybe some 32-page paperbacks) twice a year? Each one could be padded with "official" new frame cores...

What? ... What do you mean this isn't Hasbro?

I'm getting my pre-orders in...

[Foghammer]

I'm getting my pre-orders in...
[snipped]

I'm throwing my money at the computer but nothing is happening.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

There's a reason it says 001 on the cover.

But no, components mostly won't even be books. They'll be little, super-tight $10 things, I think. The whole RPG should work best as a saddle-stitch, like a magazine, cuz otherwise I won't be able to fit the Ijad alphabet in.