Okay, I bought this wonderful game and its expansion pack and me and my friends have enjoyed it IMMENSELY. We love roleplaying the various races and generally having a jolly old time. However, late a few nights ago, we were discussing roleplaying...and we agreed that a roleplaying game based in the Twilight Imperium setting would kick ASS.

We looked into it and found that yes, there was a Twilight Imperium RPG!

However, we ran into two serious problems.

1) Its been out of print for almost a decade

and

2) According to most reviews it was mediocre to sucky in terms of quality.

So...well...I decided...why don't I write my own RPG system, using the Twilight Imperium setting?

I don't intend to sell this, or use it beyond my own personal clique of friends. But I still would like to know, um...will I get my pants sued off for making this?

EDIT: As it seems that this is a-okay, this thread will be where I toss around ideas and thoughts about my version of the Twilight Imperium RPG. If you're interested in beta testing it, PM me.

however, its only in pre-alpha stage right now, so don't expect a game any time soon.

Probably not. FFG has been pretty lenient with their IP, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Their usual stipulations are that you cannot post text of cards, or make the game playable without owning the game. Since you're planning on making your own RPG, I can't see it being a problem. There have been a few ideas on how to go about doing this over the years, and there are at least 2 different player made versions that I know of.

The ti3wiki.org forums I believe have 2 being played online right now. You could always go check them out, or PM their creators to see what did and didn't work for them. I'm pretty sure they would open to discussing with you.

Well, I'm basing it off the White Wolf System, as its super flexible and easy to learn.

The cool part is I've got two parents who have PHDs in physics sooo....here's my explanation for Mass Drives.

Mass Drives: Mass Drives are the fundamental force that drives interstellar commerce, warfare, and exploration. They are massively powerful devices that allow travel across massive distances and only massive distances. Every race, in their various histories, has had their own scientist who discovered what is now known as the Local Theory of Special Relativity, which determines how physical objects interact with space/time on a local level. To understand how it effects FTL travel, simply imagine that every event has a timeline that continues on into the future. According to the Local Theory of Special Relativity, it is IMPOSSIBLE to travel faster than light between events that are close to one another. If you try, then you create causal paradoxes that cause time travel. This has the unfortunate side effect of theoretically destroying the universe. To this point, no one has actually tried to do so.

However, when the events are separated by 10,000 light years or more, then it is impossible for observers to simultaneously observe both points. This means that the causality chain between them is broken, meaning that you can leap from point to point over 10,000 light years without having the Local Theory of Special Relativity being contravened. The Mass Drive is how one leaps this distance, using massive energy and technique called matter transference. You simply fly into your chosen jump point and activate your mass drive. Your ship will then appear in the other end of the jump point.

There are multiple levels of mass drive, ranging from Class I to Class III. Each class represents another “leap” that you can do without having to 'spool up' your drive, making the maximum range 100,000 (three jumps) for a Class III. This cuts travel times from millions of years to a month or so, depending on the distance between local Jump Points.

Jump Points: Matter can not simply vanish, according to the Law of Conservation Mass/Energy. This is why all Mass Drives must use Matter Transference, a physical principle pioneered by the Lazax, which allowed them to semi-peacefully unite the galaxy and impose their Imperial rule before their downfall. The basic idea is that, to avoid violating the Law of Conservation of Mass/Energy, you exchange place with an equal amount of mass while traveling. This can be done in various places, universally known as Jump Points.

Artificial Jump Points, such as the Transfer Stations that mark every spot on all the major trade lanes, are space stations that contain massive “arrival spaces” and “exit spaces”. Arrival spaces are contacted through quantum entangled communication devices (ansibles), at which point they fill with atmosphere (any gas can be used, though the most popular gas continues to by hydrogen for sheer simplicities sake). Once the proper amount of gas has filled the arrival space, the Mass Drive of the arriving space ship is activated.

The atmosphere appears where the ship had been and the ship appears where the atmosphere had been. Then, presumably, the Transfer station extracts a hefty fee, which includes covering operating costs and any taxes the owner nation or corporation decides to put into effect. Strict customs and the need for an approved Ansibile communication makes smuggling and sneak attack hard but not impossible through an Artificial Jump Point. There have been cases wherein small warships have Jumped using false or stolen codes, and where smugglers have used various creative methods to get their supplies through customs.
For those unwilling or unable to use an Artificial Jump Point, there are naturally occurring Jump Points.

The first and safer kind are Jovian Planets or Gas Giants.

To use a Gas Giant Jump Point requires a bit of computing power and a powerful telescope, combined with any and all recorded stellar data you can get your hands on. You must look at the star that you wish to reach, ensure that it is at the minimum distance to contravene the Local Special Theory of Relativity. Once you have done that, your telescope can observe the 'wobble' of the star, then extrapolate from that the number and sizes of the planets that are orbiting the star.

Advanced computer algorithms will then extract spectral data to determine the composition of the planets in question. Using this data, you can determine where the Gas Giant you are going to jump into is. Once you have determined this, it is a simple matter of spooling up your Mass Drive, activating it, and leaving your solar system behind. Unfortunately for criminals, pirates, smugglers and other such riff raff that use Gass Giant Jump Points, the matter that you exchange place with can be analyzed and compared by any ship with the right tools, allowing them to chase you even after you have 'escaped'.

To use a Gas Giant Jump Point without a permit is considered a major offense by most galactic powers. The other most common natural jump point is also the most dangerous: The fiery surface of a star. Usually, only corporate explorers and military ships are tough enough to survive a star-jump, making many stars with inhabited planets a nest of solar powered defense satellites, tracking proximity mines, and any defensive fleet that is garrisoned in the star system.

A general rule of thumb for natural jump points is that you need to be jumping into something you can both SURVIVE jumping into, and which also has the MATTER with which to replace your ship. Small ships can jump into non-gas giant planets. This is dangerous, both for the planet and the ship, as a miscalculation can have the ship appear in the molten core of the planet, or simply appear too close to the ground and plow into it. Or...in the worst possible case, the matter transference will try and grab a vacuum, which will cause the entire Mass Drive to backlash and detonate.

This will make for a really really bad day.

What's nice is, now space mines make sense. You just seed any planet that could be used as a jump point with mines and any star ship that comes out of there will get smashed up nice and good...

Holy bajimminy! This post has just been starred in my RSS Reader for future plagiarism - I mean inspiration .

I f**king LOVE my parents.

"Hey, dad, how can you get around the special theory of relativity?"

"You can't...but, well...we haven't prooved that its nothing more than a local phenomenon. Make your FTL jumps around 80,000 light years, you should be good."

"Can it be 10,000?'

"I suppose...just don't forget your conservation of mass, young man!"

Anywho, here was my basic idea for how combat would work.

###

Each character has a number of Focus Points equal to their Reflexes plus their Composure plus any cyber-enhancements plus any racial abilities. These can be represented by cardboard triangles, tokens, or even marks on a pad of paper. What they represent in game is your character's current focus on one of three areas: Actions, finesse and Reaction.

A combat round goes like thus: Every PC has a pool of focus points. Let us say that we have a Mentak Privateer with a Reflexes of 2 (average) and a Composure of 1 (Poor), but supplemented by an adrenal enhancer implanted into his brain (+1 Focus Points). This comes out to a Focus Pool of 4.

The player now decides where to place these four points. He has three options.

Actions: Every Focus Point in the action pool represents an action. Actions range from “Making a movement”, “aiming and firing a gun” and so on. Once a character has no more Focus Points in their action pool, they must PASS.

finesse: Representing an added flair to actions, a Focus Point in finesse is spent to add on a finesse Effect to any action. Using multiple Focus Points allows you to add multiple finesse Effects...or even two of the same. Once you are out of Focus Points in the finesse Pool, then a character can not add finesse Effects unless specified otherwise.

Reaction: This represents an attempt to counter an enemy action with a preemptive action, Focus points in the Reaction pool may only be used in, well, reaction to an enemy action. However, you may ONLY do so if you succeed a competing roll against the enemy based off your reflexes score.

Let us say that our Mentak Privateer puts two points into action, one point into finesse and one into reactions. He is ready for a round of combat.

He is facing two Centauri bandits who think that he is an easy mark. One has a knife and the other has a primitive projectile weapon. As the Privateer has a higher initiative (Reflex + Composure ), he goes first. He decides to take care of business first: He uses an action point + a finesse point to attack the bandit with the gun. He chooses the finesse effect of “Called Shot” and chooses the hand holding the gun. His WC determiens the difficulty and the Privater rolls his dice in question. He makes it and the bullet from his pistol smashes into the bandit's hand, sending the gun flying and seriously wounding the hand in question as well.

The Privateers turn over, the wounded bandit goes next and takes an action to try and go after the gun. As it went flying pretty far, his action ends before he can reach it and it goes to his friend, who uses an action to charge the Privateer. The Privateer uses his reaction point and the two characters roll off to see who actually goes first. The Privateer succeeds the roll and decides to attack the bandit with his cybernetic wrist knife. He manages to down the bandit, and so, the round ends. As a PC, the Privateer gets to redistribute his action points and decides to put one in actions, then three in finesse. He intends to finish the battle in a single, dramatic action.

And so, the round begins with our Mentak hero acting first. He spends his one action and all his finesse points, to tack on as many bonus finesse effects as he can. He manages to kill our last bandit with a flourish.

Oh yeah, WC = Winnarian Chronicaller.

My pet name for GM, cause GM is boring, DM doesn't make sense and Storyteller was taken.

And, well...the Winnarian wrote down all the **** that happened in the Ages of Dusk and the Twilight Wars, why not what the movers and shakers of the galaxy did too?

Also, WC is a cool abbreviation.

Zoombie said:

'WC' is used for 'Water Closet', or 'toilet'. In the UK, at least.

I'm still planning on running a short campaign in August, system based off Unisystem, plot based off strategy cards. I think the major difference between my idea and others' is that I'm insisting the players all play humans. It saves messing around with boring rules faff with racial abilities and game balance, and means that effectively the players are a part of one of the big 'players' in the game. It also means any aliens I put in will be different, alien and scary.

Except the giant space turtles. No one could be scared...

No.

No, wait.

I totally just realised something about the Xxcha background. They're all really calm... but after they lost their war, they trained an elite group of warriors to fight for them... they're NINJAS, aren't they? Anthropomorphic turtle ninjas. ****. No wonder everyone likes them.

Well, I've slightly rijiggered the galaxy to be *slightly* less openly paranoid...simply to suport the options for a more varied party and more varied stories. And, really, the GOVERMENTS of the galaxy hate one another, but people are rarely accurately represented by their goverments (Spoken like a true Libertarian, which is odd, seeing as how I'm a moderate liberal...huh)

Anywho, the way my system works is that creating a character has 5 major steps.

STEP 1: Choose a physique. This represents a major body-type that various races conform too. Those choices are HUMANOID, AQUATIC, INSECTOID and CHAMELEONOID. Your physique gives you your base stats and your racial choices, which leads us to...

STEP 2: Choose a race. This is your specific birthrace, which grants various special abilities. Letnev have low light vision, Hacan have cat claws and teeth, Primians (my name for the citizens of Moll Primus, the Mentak Homeworld) more easily accept cybernetics, Naluu are telepathic (no ****) and so on.

STEP 3: Choose a nationality: Now, see...in the game, each empire is evenly balenced against one another, leaving the galaxy in a seemingly perpetual state of cold war. In this, there are many refugees, immigrants, and other ways that a member of one race...can be a citizen of a DIFFERENT nation.

Not all races are equal, though. For example, humans are accepted almost everyhwere, meaning they can grow up in almost every goverment out there. On the other hand, the Naluu are almost universially hated and feared for their telepathic powers, so they can only really live in a few nations that accept telepaths. Choosing your nationality gives you your starting skills...someone raised in the Emrities of Hacan will be better at diplomacy, someone living in the Jol-Nar Universities will be more scientifically inclined, and so on.

STEP 4: Choose your alligence. Now that you are fully grown with base stats and skills, the question lies...who do your owe your alliegence? Do you ally with your homeworld, or with a forgin power...or do you ally with yourself? Those are you three choices: Homeworld, Forgin, and Unaligned. Choosing one opens up...

STEP 5: Carieer options!

Homeworld: Marine, Naval Officer, Diplomat, and Agent

Unaligned: Merinary, Civilian Pilot, Merchant, and Scientest

Forgin: Privateer, Sabatour, Terrorist, and Forign Agent.

Your carrier choice gives you different starting equipment and perks.

Tada, you have your new character, and are ready to carve your niche in the galaxy.

Let's say that Player A loves mind control. He plays a Naluu, choosing nationality Naluu, and alignment Homeworld.

Let's say Player B loves winning in combat. He plays a Sardakk N'orr, choosing nationality Sardakk N'orr, and alignment Homeworld.

We'll even throw in a Player C, who loves political backstabbing, so picks Hacan, choosing nationality Sol and alignment Foreign Agent.

How do you get those three people into the same game? A convoluted plot, perhaps, or 'they all meet in a bar'. Regardless, each is trying to play different games, and the game is 'You all meet up and do this thing', or 'You all have to do this thing, which involves meeting up'. Either the players all trust each other implicitly, or there is a convoluted reason why they should - and it's not what a player imagines when they create their character.

I would suggest taking away the options to play any of a different alignment, as it'll just give the GM a headache. Different races is fine, if you want uber-customisability and to play with numbers until they seem fair - but it is difficult to get inside the mindset of an alien race without it just being 'human wearing a bug suit', 'furry human' or 'smug human wearing a snakeskin'.

Having run a variety of games, table-top and larp, campaigns and one-offs, I very strongly believe in using an appropriate system according to the game you want to run: it supports the setting, and in turn, helps people to make appropriate characters, and all supports everyone having fun. Most rules sets you see open up the possibility of running any type of game in a particular setting, and are generally generic and bland to fit in all those different types of game - look at d20. If you're looking to make your own rules, they are just for you and your singular game - they don't need to be all inclusive.

Well, every game requires interaction between GM and players during all points of the process. This includes character creation, gameplay, and so on.

I want my system to have the flexibility to play any number of kinds of stories, not just the ones I have in my head. And so, I'm including rules for all races and all kinds of characters. The only real limit to stories is the creativity of the players and the GM, and I want to support as many of them as possible.

I have finished writing up the Xxcha! Now I only have to write up the histories and the backgrounds of the N'orr and the Yssaril.

However, I have been reading quite a bit about space travel, warfare, and so on, and actually found the perfect site for anyone curious in that kind of thing: The Atomic Rocket.

Now, the only problem I'm having is how to find the right balence between realism and fun. For example, space combat (In reality) is essentially months of bordom, five seconds of pure terror, and then either you did the math right and got them, or they got the math right and got you.

Several things can change this to a more dramatic, faster paced style. Firstly, we have Shields. With shields you can do a manner of dramatic things, things liiike bursting out of a sun after star-jumping there. Or less dramatic things. Things like taking a hit and being around to actually HIT BACK.

Another thing would be, of course, FTL drives (which we have, kinda) and a Thruster. A Thruster would be a device that would have a very small reaction mass and be able to propel you incredibly quickly. The small reaction mass would mean ships would not have to be absurdly large and crammed mostly with fuel.

Currently, I have Thrusters. They are hyperefficent reaction drives...the only problem I have is that if you've got a reaction drive that's worth a ****, then every space ship is essnetially a MASSIVE GUN capable of destroying anything it meets. I mean, to push Nth tons of starship, you need a lot of force. That force can be directed against enemies.

Ever read Larry Niven?

See, the human ship is about to CUT THE OTHER SHIP IN HALF with its engine.This comes a huge shock to the aliens, who have been using reactionless drives since time out of mind.

So! I'm actually considering having reaction less drives. Maybe they could operate like the Tantelus Drive in Mass Effect: Create a field of gravity infront of you and simply fall into it. That would make, ironically, the direction of gravity in the ship UPWARDS. Normally, with a thruster, gravity is downwards, towards the bottom of the ship.

Hmm...Then again, using an engine like a weapon is hard unless you're running. ALso, its really obvious where you are aiming. Also, it takes forever to turn your ship...so, only a newbie captain would get hit by an engine.

Heh. Maybe that's an insult. "hit by an engine" could imply newbie or loser in spacer talk.

Now, weapons would primarly consist of railguns along the entire length of the ship for your main gun (A dreadnaught's rail gun would be a titanically powerful weapon), multiple laser turrets along the sides of the ship for anti-missile defense, and missiles (of course). Fighters...hmm...

Robotically controlled gun turrets?

Possibly!

Anywho, this all has been giving me an idea for a short vingette set in this universe. Each chapter should have its own opening vingette, don't you think? I mean, I could get away with just slapping something together, but...screw that! Lets go for *quality*.

Work on the RPG has been stalled by wisdom teeth removal.

**** you teeth.

**** you...to...hell...

<dies>

ALL RIGHT!

I figured out how to have space fighters make sense.

Imagine this.

You've got two ships at long range. They keep firing potshots at one another with their secondary guns, jockying and jimmying for position. They've both got a problem: IF they move in, they will set themselves up to be hit by the enemy primary gun (A primary gun would be a spinal mounted rail gun) and the enemy has the same issue. The secondary guns fire shells that are too small and too slow: PD can knock em down. Your lasers are out of range, and your missiles have the same problems your secondaries have.

In a word: Stalemate.

What do you do!?

Simple!

Send. In. The. Fighters!

See, a fighter is fast, manuverable, and chatoic. Propability tracks just can't figure out human/alien reflexes, so you have a small(er) chance of getting hit. The fighters are also equipped with mini-guns.

What do they go for, though? The engines? Nah, they're too armored. Same with weapons (Though you COULD knock out some laser PD turrets). But that's not worth the cost of the fighters you sent out.

No.

You go for THE RADIATORS!

See, a ship, any ship, produces a metricfuckton of waste heat and radiation. So...you gotta radiate that **** out or you cook the crew. So, all these ships have fins and little ways to conduct out heat. Now, you'd think you could program an auto-drone...but, well, people have ways of tricking computers and stuff. ITs fairly easy to fake a radiator.

You need a real human/alien brain to look around and see which one is actually worth blowing to ****.

You do so, your (surviving) wingmen jet on home at max Delta V and the enemy ship has to either eject their core or fry alive.

To put it succinctly...BANZAI!

So, I've continued to work away on this and have completed the basic idea behind starship construction and operation.

I need to come up with RULES for them, but that comes later!

Um...is anyone even remotely interested in this, or am I just talking to myself?

Well guys, good news! I don't know how, but I managed to accidently LOSE every single bit of background ideas I had written up on the space ships!

That's about...10 pages of good stuff, gone!

Arrrrrrrrnggggggggh

This is almost as bad as than the game of Twilight Imperium ruined when the cat jumped up, ran through the board, then knocked a friend's drink over so that it soaked all the cards and most of the distant sun tokens.

>_<

I'd just like to say that I think this is a fantastic idea. The board game is a lot of fun and the setting seems like a good one for adventuring.

Huzzah!

Well, the basics behind space ships are you need a crew, the right equipment, and weapons of various sorts.

Your crew needs

Captain

Navigator

Probability Officer (can also be navigator)

Security Officer/Gunnery Officer

Bioneer/Doctor (Bioneers keep the alga vats spitting out food rather than spitting out poison)

Engineer

Your ship needs

Thrusters

Reaction Mass (Commonly water, hydrogen, or any other easily combustible chemical)

Reactor (commonly nuclear or fusion)

Sensors (Telescopes both radio, X-ray and infrared)

Point Defense (To destroy incoming projectiles and asteroids)

Shields (To block either incoming or outgoing radiation...if you have it set to block outgoing, your ship is invisible but you will start to cook as you can't radiate off waste heat. If you have it set to block incoming, you'll stop energy weapons dead and can do neat things like fly into stars)

Mass Drives (Vital for FTL)

Life Support (For both feeding, warming and watering your crew)

Radiators (to radiate off waste heat)

Weapons include

Rail Guns: Long range weapons that are highly accurate and deadly...if they are not shot down.

Missiles: Long range weapons that are highly accurate, carry variable payloads, and cheaply produced. If they are not shot down.

Lasers: Short range, highly accurate and weak, only good for Point Defense

Fighters: Expensive but effective at damaging enemy ships and not getting shot down.

Some base statistics ships have are...

Reactor: How much energy your reactor produces. (Lets you know how much energy your subsystems can take)

Output: How much heat, energy and radiation to they shine outwards. This lets you know how long you can stealth. (Derived from your combined energy stats)

Delta V: Your acceleration capability. (Derived from acceleration minus the combined mass of your ship)

And some others I have not figured out.

Zoombie said:

Well, you didn't lose anything from the DS Tokens being soaked.

I would be interested if I had the time, but I don't. Plus, I am already in two TI3 RPGs right now.

Thanks for your interest!

The RPG has slowed dramatically due to a combination of factors. I've started writing a new short story, I'm re-re-re-reediting a novel, and lastly, being really really lazy.

The internet is an aide to laziness, just so you know.

Especially that Dresden Codack webcomic.

Mmm...Dresden Codack...

Oh right! The RPG. I'll get to work on it in about...whenever I find the time?

Dresden Codack is AMAZING!!!

You're only the second person I know of who reads it.

I'd have my Dresden Codac avatar, but this site won't let me. <grumble grumble grumble>

Zoombie said:

One of the many, many, many, many things that I hate about FFG's "new and improved" site.

Okay, I'm stealing almost all of the skill from the World of Darkness...however, there are some skills that will be removed, things like occult knowledge and other things that don't really apply to the universe of Twilight Imperium.

However, I AM adding the following skills.

Applied Mathmatics: This is an intelligence skill, and requires a good deal of time. Equipment can increase your dice pool. For example an accabus gives you +1 dice. An advanced computer will add something closer to +5. AM allows you to do various things: Navigate your ship, plot trajectories and so on. Vital for naval officers and pilots. Specializations: Trajectories, stellar navigation, probabilities.

Cyber-affinity: This is a resolve skill. The ability to control cybernetics is a tricker one than you'd realize. It requires practice and skill to make your implants do what you want them to do...essentially, you need to learn the use a limb from scratch. Cyber-affinity determines how quickly you learn to use new cybernetics, and how efficently you can repair and upkeep your implants. Specializations: Combat cybernetics, utilitarian cybernetics, ext.

Lazax Knowledge: This is an intellegence skill. This is learning focused on the ancient Lazax. Specializations include Lazax culture, Lazax technology and Lazax history.

Not vastly familiar with the WoD skillset, but I am more familiar with the system. It's rolling buckets of dice, isn't it? Not my favourite system.

I'd suggest having cyber-affinity as a feat (or whatever WW calls them) rather than skill, else you're making someone who wants cool cyber abilities roll dice every time he wants to do anything with it. It may just be my play style, but the less dice I ever have to roll, the better.

For applied mathematics, I'd've thought that a computer would be the minimum requirement, with different and more advanced computers giving different bonuses. I really don't see someone plotting a space trajectory with an abacus, or really even in their head. It'd be like saying you could do computer hacking with an abacus.

Not sure why you'd want to distinguish Lazax history and culture beyond knowledge of alien cultures in general. I'd've thought it would've been a difficult 'alien culture knowledge' check, and keep 'Lazax' as a specialisation option.

I am still reading this thread fairly regularly, by the way. I think the list of 'this is what your ship needs' is going to be useful when I start my own TI campaign - although I don't think I'll be limiting my players to that.

One idea I'm playing with for my game is that each player will have two character sheets - one for their character, and one for space combat. The space combat one will be their 'dashboard', for lack of a better word (actually, I quite like that. 'Control panel' is just a bit windows). For each section someone commands (Thrusters, Reactor, Sensors, Life Support etc), they get to decide how much power is going where at any time. When it comes to combat, they get to fire (if they're someone with guns), maneuver (if they're navigating), repair (if they're engineers), shout a lot (if they're in charge) and so on. I'll have to see what my players end up playing so I can divide out stuff between players whilst still making combat fun for each of them.

Well, these are just some basic ideas.

The idea I had with cybernetics was that you'd need to check to use them MORE when you first get them, and then less as time goes on, to reperesent you getting more and more used to using them. So, say, changing cybernetics mid-mission would make life difficult, but if you change between missions so you have a few weeks/days of downtime, it would matter less.

As for Space...well...the thing is, there are three ways I want to support in my version of the game:

Spaceships as Transport: A spaceship exists only to get you from point A to point B. Other than that, don't bother with them. This style ignores starships, mostly.

Spaceships as Fantastic Plots: A spaceship allows for exciting, fast paced combat that is not very realistic. This style uses a simplified system.

Spaceship as realistic plots: A spaceship is a realistic and vital part of your story, leading to combat that is slower paced, requiring more thought and effort. This style uses all the rules.

As for applied mathmatics, well, it actually has more uses than just plotting your space ship, and you'd be shocked at what we have done with the mere power of our heads and some slide rules!

Heck, Apollo 13's landing trajectory was plotted BY HAND by the astronaughts, and Apollo 11 had less computing power than a modern cell phone!

For sufficiently simple trajectories, you don't really need that much computing power. Its when you start Mass Jumping, or navigating dense asteroid feilds, or fighting in combat that things get tricky.

And my thinking about the Lazax being a specific skill rather than a specialization is that the Lazax were both a large and complex culture, one that is vitally important for the modern races to study and understand. Why? Well, they kinda ruled every planet worth ruling for thousands of years, for one thing. Their culture and science and style still echoes in many worlds...it seems important enough and distinct enough to warrent its own skill, imo.

Some other fun uses for applie mathmatics: Basic communication. You can proove your intellegence by giving them the fibbonachi sequence!

Mathmatic communication, very useful.

Also! Thanks for the continued support!