Advice/Help Research for Sci fi/Futuristic RP

[Equusheart]

Anyone know any good research links where I can look up stuff on sci fi pilots and what they do? I'm trying to get more into the head of a character I'm rping and I think it would help if I knew a bit more about her profession.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Well “Sci Fi pilot” is pretty vague. It would depend on the setting the character lives in. Is it a setting of your own creation or someone else’s setting?

 

[Skunk Lemon]

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I would reccomend researching Fighter Pilots, Astronauts, and aim for real world references that tie into the realm of scifi pilots; anything that deals with piloting ships (sea and air) and the sciences of space and aeronautics. Then for fun, shits and giggles watch some scifi!

Just remember a lot of science fiction is taking real world and putting it in "SPACE" and technofying it up! Always go back to the basics, what inspired the role in the real world, take that knowledge and then add some scifi bullshit!

 

[rae2nerdy]

I would say your better off just adjusting to the setting actually. We don’t know what “sci fi” means in the context of the roleplay.

Maybe real world physics don’t come into play. Heck maybe they aren’t piloting planes but telepathic space dragons.

Without knowing more details it’s hard to give relevant advice.

 

[Martydi]

Wildy depends on RP. For fandom settings like Warhammer or Star Wars, wikis are the only place. On custom settings, better to ask GM about how realistic is this RP. There are hard sci-fi RPs, I am taking part in one, there are non-science-fiction RPs, and there are science fantasy RPs.

 

[Crenando]

Wildy depends on RP. For fandom settings like Warhammer or Star Wars, wikis are the only place. On custom settings, better to ask GM about how realistic is this RP. There are hard sci-fi RPs, I am taking part in one, there are non-science-fiction RPs, and there are science fantasy RPs.

I think the word pilot kind of implies things are on the softer side. Even shows and properties on the harder, more militaristic side of soft sci-fi show battles less like dogfights and more like nautical battles, so the terminology reflects that.
Other than that, though, it could mean anything.

 

[CrowOuttaHell]

Agreed with the others in the thread. Sci-fi is as broad of a term as fantasy. There are a wide variety of pilots- mecha pilots, jet pilots, ship commanders etc. etc. Few suggestions I can name off the top of my head...

Mecha pilots - Mecha controls are fairly lenient since we don't really have a lot of real life bases for mecha controls (I guess there's the Kuratas- though that robot fires its gun when you smile so...). Best bet would be to watch how the controls are shown in the kind of genre of mech you're going for, whether it be stuff like Gundam, Titanfall, or even the Jaegers from Pacific Rim.

For ship/frigate pilots, I think the closest you can get are actual jet or plane pilots IRL? Not saying you need to know all the things they do- just enough to write your character convincingly enough.

Again, though, the best idea is to ask the GM about the level of technology and realism in the RP, since even real life bases might not be enough. An alien ship would differ wildly in tech from a human ship after all.

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

There's this website from NASA that can help!

 

[Equusheart]

I would say your better off just adjusting to the setting actually. We don’t know what “sci fi” means in the context of the roleplay.

Maybe real world physics don’t come into play. Heck maybe they aren’t piloting planes but telepathic space dragons.

Without knowing more details it’s hard to give relevant advice.

The roleplay we're doing is sort of Firefly based in style. I've also been looking to Titan AE, Top Gun, and Avatar. I'm trying to find a few more where I can look at the ships and see how a pilot would handle them.

I'm also open into look at books with these themes.

 

[rae2nerdy]

The roleplay we're doing is sort of Firefly based in style. I've also been looking to Titan AE, Top Gun, and Avatar. I'm trying to find a few more where I can look at the ships and see how a pilot would handle them.

I'm also open into look at books with these themes.

I would say your best bet is to just look to your own world or ask your partner if they are the one coming up with setting. Answer the following questions among yourself.

1. What is the technology available to pilots?
2. Why do pilots exist? What is the purpose of the occupation?
3. How does one become a pilot?
4. How are pilots divided up as an organization?

 

[JadeGreen17]

The roleplay we're doing is sort of Firefly based in style. I've also been looking to Titan AE, Top Gun, and Avatar. I'm trying to find a few more where I can look at the ships and see how a pilot would handle them.

I'm also open into look at books with these themes.

[As someone who has done a lot of Scifi RP let me explain this with the greatest economy of information that I can.]

Typically in scifi you either have "realspace" or "fluidspace", and this affects how your ships will behave.

Realspace is more realistic, orbital mechanics and all that jazz. Depending upon your propulsion technology 1% of space travel will be calculating engine burns, 1% will be making said engine burns (potentially with a very slow ion engine or nuclear thermal rocket), and the other 98% will be sitting on your thumbs, and your space combat is going to be little more than oversize sardine cans lobbing spaceborne ICBMs at one another from way out of visual range of one another and intercepting them with point defense.

If you want to learn more about realistic space combat and piloting, try playing a game like KSP or Children of a Dead Earth without using the time-warping mechanics present in either game. (These games are how I came to an understanding of these mechanics; Doing is the best way to learn.) If you, at the very least want an understanding of rockets and orbital mechanics, look up some tutorials on how to play KSP, even if you don't actually buy the game; since good ones cover a lot of terms that can make your characters sound like they know what they're talking about.

Another good resource if you're constructing a more realistic scifi setting would be the Expanse. It's mostly hard science based, but introduces the Epstien drive (so that characters don't take years to get places) and they have railguns and a few other fancy things that are difficult but doable with known science. And they provide a good example of how to write realistic space combat such that it's still exciting.

Fluidspace is what most science fiction uses, and its typically used in settings where scientific accuracy is secondary to the story. Typically defined by space being more like an ocean. (Typically ships will have their decks perpendicular to the direction of thrust, they can have bridge towers, lack maneuvering thrusters, all that. Sometimes they even look like blue water navy ships) This is where Star Wars, Halo, Warhammer tend to use, since things tend to be based off of blue water navy combat, where the larger captial ships act kind of like cruisers and carriers and the smaller fighters act like airborne fighters banking and turning like aircraft despite there being no air to turn on. This generally produces very tasty space combat scenes since you can have battleships broadsiding one another at close range with energy weapons rather than the stated sardine cans. Fluid space settings also tend to have more varied and more interesting ship designs, though the two are not mutually exclusive.

The reason that I am describing this to you is because your sources/inspirations vary. Top Gun is atmospheric fighter jets (Fluid Space if you take them in space). Avatar (I presume you are talking about the 2009 james cameron movie) Doesn't focus much on the space travel element. It seems like they use realspace with mention of a deorbit burn and the design of their ships resembling space shuttles. Titan AE from what I remember goes back and fourth on the matter. The ships fly like airplanes but there are times where actual space physics are quoted. And I don't have any experience with firefly so I can't say there.

If you want to go the route of realistic space flight with orbital transfers and all that, you've probably got a lot of research to do. If you're using real space with advanced technology that alters how spacecraft fly, or you're using fluid space, then I'd just listen to MiddleAgedGeek. Just bolt down what is and isn't possible within the world-building so you don't create plot holes down the road.