THE ASTRAL SEA
DESIGNER NOTES
Back in 2016, on my first website, I created the Seven Seas Galaxy. In order to travel across the Seven Seas, the starships of the galaxy used Solar Sails to collect and harness the power of Solar Winds. The rules for this unique type of movement was worked out in detail at this time.
However, I realized that Solar Sails and Solar Winds would be far too slow for movement on a Star Fleet Battles scale. So Solar Sails and Solar Winds became Warp Sails and Warp Winds. Later, because my rules called for the Winds to shift during a battle, it was pointed out that Warp Winds would not change direction so quickly (given the definition of an impulse and a turn). I sighed and changed the Warp Sails and Warp Winds to Ion Sails and Ion Winds. The energy collected by the Ion (not the same as Vudar Ion) Sails would be converted into Warp Energy. This never sat well with me and nothing much was done to advance the Seven Seas Galaxy from that point.
To me, this was all Technobabble whose arguments could go on forever and ever. We are talking about a fictional technology which is loosely based on real world concepts (much like Warp Drive itself). I don’t really care much for the explanations about why the supposed technology works, but rather am completely focused on the functionality of it on the tabletop in Star Fleet Battles.
My Goals were:
1) To ensure that, no matter what form the “Winds” took, Tactics were paramount in battles
2) To make battles with “Sails” and “Winds” different from standard Star Fleet Battles Warp Generation and Movement. This could take the form of simply a general feeling while playing or it could be strictly defined mechanics (or both).
3) In order to not give one side of the battle an unfair advantage, the “Winds” cannot remain fixed in one direction during an entire battle. The “Winds” must change direction. My solution was for this change was for the change to be random, as that was the only way to make it fair to all sides of the battle (no one can say there was a bias one way or another).
4) Movement with the “Sails” must be somewhat similar to standard Star Fleet Battles Warp Movement. For the sake of playability and fun, it cannot be just one hex per turn. I don’t care what Technobabble is argued, Gameplay Functionality must take precedence. However, movement with “Sails” could, in general, be significantly slower than standard Star Fleet Battles movement.
5) Turn Modes must be dictated by the Direction of the “Winds”.
6) To make sure that the finalized “Sails” and “Winds” Rules would be compatible with regular Warp Powered starships. While not recommended, it someone wanted to play a battle with a “normal” starship and “Sailing” starships, they could do that. This would also allow Scenarios to be written that could include “regular” starships.
For some time now, I have had the concept of Astral Space in mind. This would be a New Galaxy where the ethers of space were all connected by some strange type of Astral Substance. What is the point of this? Movement, and therefore Tactics, would function differently for starships in Astral Space. It was only recently that my mind made the connection between Astral Space and “Sailing” starships. Astral Space became the Astral Sea, Solar/Warp/Ion Sails became Astral Sails, and Solar/Warp/Ion Winds became Astral Winds. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the two pieces fit together perfectly.
The species of the empires that exist in the Astral Sea will be fantasy themed.
The weapons used by the empires of the Astral Sea will be medieval themed.
It should be noted that the Astral Sea is quite different than the Line of Battle Galaxy, whose Design Paradigm calls for Long Range Weaponry.
