Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. --Douglas Adams
It is perfectly possible to play Full Thrust with no terrain effects. Lay out a piece of black or dark blue cloth, perhaps with a sprinkling of stars for a background, and you're ready to go. Eventually, though, you're likely to want a planet, or a comet, or something else to fight around. Although the rules don't specify an official scale, 1" = 1000km is one which is commonly accepted. Let's look at what this means with regard to space terrain:
- Shipwrecks/Space Sargasso. A wrecked 300 meter dreadnought would take up three ten thousandths of an inch on the table.
Model: Ignore the table scale and use starship model.
Effects: Well, exactly how wrecked are we talking about? Passengers still alive and needing rescue? Pirates in control? Power plant about to blow up? Maybe a podful of Sa'Vasku boarding constructs is aboard, unable to operate the ship but certainly able to give a hot reception to visitors.
- Nebulae are tenuous clouds of dust and gas, brightly colored if lit by a star, otherwise dark. Most nebulae are not quite as thin as ordinary interstellar vacuum, but they'd qualify as a vacuum to an Earthside lab. You can always find or invent a justification for a denser nebula if you need one.
Model: Sections of colored gauze over your regular background.
Effects: Realistically, most nebulae wouldn't have any effect, but that's no fun. You might have them affect sensors and weapon ranges, so that every 1 inch thorugh a nebula counts as 2 inches of normal space. They could act as level-1 or 2 screens for any beam fire that passes through it. Or you could say that they cause damage to ships which move through too quickly--for example, the nebula might cause 1 beam die for ships moving at 7-12" speed, 2 dice to ships moving at 12-18" speed, etc.
- Asteroids, realistic. Ceres, the largest known asteroid, would be about an inch across, but the vast majority of asteroids are too small to represent on the table. In addition, asteroids are generally well spread apart.
Model: To get a realistic representation of a fairly dense portion of the asteroid belt, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, no significant asteroid is on the playing area. On a 4-5, place a grain of sand somewhere on the table. On a 6, place two grains of sand in different areas of the table.
Effects: Your ship is destroyed--and deserves it--if you manage to ram an asteroid.
- Asteroids, cinematic: As seen in The Empire Strikes Back and other films.
Model: If you want lots of small asteroids, a handful of gravel will do. If you want a large asteroid, get a piece of styrofoam slightly larger than the size you want. Paint the foam with a cheap spray paint or primer--the propellent will eat away some of the foam, giving it that rough, cratered look. Then use a water-based paint to paint shadowed areas flat black, and raised areas grey or brown. If you want the asteroid to "float" slightly off the table, you can impale it on a ship stand or a golf tee. If you want to lower its center of gavity so it doesn't fall over as easily, put a fender washer on the base before you put the asteroid on.
Effects: Depends on the size of the asteroid and genre you want to play in, but running into a large asteroid is fatal. A smaller rock may cause a second or third level threshold check, with the risk of losing a core system. In addition, a ship which is within 1" of an asteroid may use it to block line of sight from (and to) a single enemy ship. If you're using sensor rules, a ship which is in an asteroid field (and not using its drive) may be more difficult to detect.
- Terrestrial planets range from something about the size of the Moon (3.5" diameter), to the Earth (12.75" diameter), smaller gas giants like Uranus and Neptune (both about 50") and on up to Jupiter (which, at 139.8" diameter, might not be too practical). Incidentally, the Moon would be orbiting 32 feet away from the Earth at this scale.
Model: For the smaller planets, you can use globes or half globes (craft stores will usually have styrofoam), or disks (the hardware store will have wooden disks of various diameters). If you're painting styrofoam, remember to use a water-based paint so it won't eat the foam.
Effects:A planet will block line of sight/line of fire. Running into a planet is fatal. Planets have a gravity well which affects movement
- Gas giants range in size from Uranus and Neptune, both about 50", on up to Jupiter, at 139.8".
Model: Since the gas giants conveniently have colored stripes, you might try laying out parallel strips of felt, either medium blue/dark blue or rose/cream.
Effects: In addition to the gravity well, a gas giant may have magnetic fields, a ring system, and asteroid-sized moons. The larger moons can be treated as planets but will be too far away to fit on the table. The magnetic field could act as area effect ECM and do 1-2 beam dice every turn against each unit on the board. This damage would be reduced by screens.
- The Sun's diameter on the table would be about 116 feet.
Model: Purchase 1.53 million cotton balls and spray them flourescent yellow, orange and red. Rent a large dance hall or similar venue with plenty of room for your project. Carefully arrange the cotton balls in a circle. Model solar flares by threading cotton balls onto stiff wire, then spray with flourescent red and orange. Take pictures. Go show them to the nice doctor at your friendly local psychiatric ward.
Effects:You mean, aside from the magnetic fields frying all your electronics and the heat frying all your crew? You want more?
- Black holes, for our purposes, are just gravity wells.
Model: A matte black ping pong ball and a gravity template for whatever mass you wish to specify.
Effects: If you go deep enough into a gravity well, at some point you'll have to say "Help, I've fallen in and I can't get out." If you keep heading in, eventually the gravity differential between the ship's bow and stern (or your head and feet) will tear apart your ship (and you). Messy, uncomfortable, not recommended.
