System Kluges

This article is to define places where we've had to make technological adjustments to make things compatible and not automatically restrict a characters effectiveness.

The Force

In the setting of Star Wars, a considerable amount of the plot revolves around The Force, according to the first movie released (Episode 4, Star Wars: A New Hope) the force is an energy field generated by all living things. In this capacity, The Force is similar to many different stories ideas of magic. Including this one. In the Blazing Umbra setting the idea of Magical Energy is quite similar, that being where an energy field exists throughout the universe, this is then divided into Ley Lines and Wells (see the appropriate page for more). While Star Wars does not have this quality, it is analogous in the fact that there is a generalized energy field.

In this capacity, The Force is to be treated the same as Magical Energy. Similarly, in Star Wars, there are only some people who have the ability to use The Force. In fact, within pop culture, Jedi Knights (who are trained experts are using The Force) are sometimes called Space Wizards. Thus, a user of The Force within Star Wars translates to a Mage / Wizard / Sorcerer within the Blazing Umbra setting - as well as associated Embers of Soteria and Angelic Sins settings.

Kyber Crystals

Within the Star Wars universe one of the background artifacts is that of a Kyber Crystal, said to be a living crystal and attuned to The Force. These crystals (or similar crystals / objects attuned to The Force) are at the heart of a Light Saber, as such they are an important part of the setting of Star Wars. There is no direct analogy for these within the Blazing Umbra setting for the crystals, nothing exactly matches. That being said, the best match is of the Solar Crystal, an object which draws its power from the fabric of reality and one of the only known objects to generate magical energy. Given these similarities, a Solar Crystal or an Aurora Crystal are both analogous for Kyber Crystals within the Blazing Umbra setting.

This proposed analogy has the added complication for characters coming from the Star Wars universe, that a Solar Crystal bonds to its owner in a psychic link, which works well for the definition of how a Light Saber works, it also means they cannot be easily passed from one person to another. This inconsistency is a great place to apply some of the Fudge but players should be aware of it. Aurora Crystals do not suffer from this same problem, however and might make better choices for players when crafting an item that will need to be used by many different people.

Within the description of the Light Saber, it specifies that some Jedi use other objects rather than just crystals - but they are all attuned to The Force, this is analogous to creating a magical artifact which focuses existing magical energies. As such, a magical artifact can be created, that is not a crystal, which allows a Jedi to be attuned to the light saber.

Vibranium

Vibranium is more problematic in the Blazing Umbra setting as it is listed as having some rather incredible properties, saying that it is an ore not naturally found on Earth that came to earth in a meteor and is capable of absorbing sound and kinetic vibration energy into itself with little or no effect on its own internal structure.

Comparison to Star Trek

The closest material that even comes close is the Star Trek universe material of neutronium which is a rare and super-dense material found within neutron stars. The exact characteristics are not specified, but it is known to be incredibly resistance to phaser fire, sensors are unable to penetrate it, and neither the Federation nor the Borg have ever been able to reproduce it. An unknown race did reproduce it, however, in the form of the planet killer encountered by the USS Constellation and the USS Enterprise as well as others.

Since the exact properties of the substance are not said, it is certainly possible that it has the seemingly impossible qualities of vibranium, able to somehow absorb seemingly infinite amounts of kinetic energy without disturbing its molecular structure.

Comparison with Blazing Umbra

In the Blazing Umbra setting, vibranium is considered to be the same as neutronium. It cannot be replicated and does indeed possess the obvious qualities for which is it known in the Marvel Comics universe. However, this substance is exceedingly rare and thus any character bringing it in from another universe would undergo extra scrutiny to explain how they got the substance and further scrutiny in its usage during gameplay.

Adamantium

Adamantium is used in several different series. But it is defined as coming from Greek Mythology, being a mix of diamonds, other gemstones and some metal. The two instances that have come up in this game are that of its use in Warhammer 40k and in the Marvel Comics universe.

Warhammer 40k

Doesn't really define is specifically just as the hardest substance known to the Imperium. It also says that most of the vessels, vehicles, and power armor are made of the substance.

Marvel Comics

Defines the metal much more specifically, saying that it is an artificial substance made from steel, vibranium, and some unknown catalyst. It is supposed to be super dense and nearly indestructible. It even says a sword made out of the substance can cut through nearly anything.

There are of course other mentions of the substance (see the first reference for this section for a comprehensive list). This article does not pretend to cover everything.

Comparison with Blazing Umbra

Since the Blazing Umbra setting is based on Star Trek, they have the substance of Tritanium which is an ore which is 21 times harder than diamond. It is not listed as being the hardest substance, however. The Warhammer 40k material could easily be a Tritanium alloy, since Tritanium is used in construction of most vessels in the Star Trek universe as well. Given that it is so many times more than diamond, for the purposes of Blazing Umbra, Warhammer 40k Adamantium is Star Trek Tritanium.

In terms of Marvel Comics Adamantium, the substance is harder to give a good correlation to in terms of what it might be in a Star Trek universe. Since the substance is said to be made from vibranium, we can also figure that adamantium is an alloy made with neutronium and thus also cannot be replicated. In the course of Blazing Umbra's history this material does not exist and has never been made. A character bringing in Marvel Comics Adamantium would be subject to extra scrutiny of game play and back story to sufficiently explain how they got the substance.

Laser Weapons

It is canon in Star Trek that a traditional laser will not even penetrate the navigational deflectors of the Galaxy Class starship.

Laser (Actual Definition)

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation, in this case lasers are highly focused and very pure beams of light in a certain frequency range.

Laser (Star Trek)

A directed-energy technology utilizing a beam of light, with all wavelengths equal and all particles in phase with one another. Due to this, the photon's motion was almost parallel, which allowed the beam to travel over a great distance with very little increase of the beam's square area, and therefore with little loss of energy per area.

Laser (Star Wars)

A laser was a beam of focused energy operating under the same principles as blaster weaponry. Energy-rich gas would be converted to a glowing particle beam that could melt through targets.

Clearly the way Star Trek defines laser technology is much the same way it actually works. A laser being a focused beam of light energy in the form of photons which all have the same phase (that is to say they are all sharing the same wave-length and thus the same color spectrum). The way that Star Wars defines a Laser is very different, however, it defines a Laser to be a focused particle energy beam of energy rich gases. The pharse energy rich gases is, in this context, most likely electrically charged or ionized gas, which is also called plasma. That means a Star Wars laser weapon (blaster, laser cannon, turbolaser) is actually a Plasma Weapon in Star Trek terms which is used by many different races.

Player Discression

Since many games, settings, universes, and the like do not spent a lot of time describing how things work, a player can decide if an incoming laser weapon is the Trek style or the Star Wars style of laser. Traditional style lasers are known to be ineffective against vessels that have advanced shields but the technology is still used in mining and other industrial applications, so would still be dangerous without advanced shield technology.

Plasma Weapons

It is Star Trek canon that the precursors to Phase Cannons were Plasma Weapons, however, it should not be a foregone conclusion that all plasma weapons are inferior to phasers, disruptors, and other known weapons used often in the later 24th and early 25th centuries. In fact, it is known that forced plasma beams are used by the Borg and other races as well . This means a plasma weapon can be just as powerful as a phaser or disruptor. All of which are classified as particle weapons and thus it can be kluged together that races coming in from other universes to this setting with plasma weapons might be as powerful as the standard weapons present.

Melta Weapons

Warhammer 40k has weapons that are called Melta Weapons which use a micro-fusion reaction to produce superheated plasma so hot that it can burn (or melt) through nearly anything, turning a target into scraps of molten slag.

Comparison to Blazing Umbra

It has been seen that a Type II Phaser set to level 16 can vaporize solid granite as well as heat rocks to a near-motel state on a low heat setting. Clearly the two weapons work differently and the Melta Weapons are designed to be as destructive as possible both to the target and anything in its way. However, that being said if the weapons were to be compared, the Phaser would be just as much destructive capabilities as the Melta Weapon if properly configured for a wider beam and a higher heat. Additionally. Plasma weapons exist which could be configured for similar effects. The fusion-based power source is outstripped in its effective ability to produce massive power and heat by the matter/anti-matter reactions commonly used in Star Trek.

Used as a Missile / Bomb

Warhammer 40k makes note of various bombs used which produce devastating explosions by attaching to vehicles or massive high-capacity bombs which are several thousand kilograms heavy used by starships. In terms of a comparison to Blazing Umbra, these follow the same design attitudes, of being really, really big but essentially deploying the same thing as the smaller versions. Star Trek uses matter/antimatter warheads in the form of Photon Torpedoes. These are more efficient at converting matter directly into energy than any fusion device (this is backed up by the fact that a fusion power plant cannot produce enough power to take a ship into warp, where a matter/antimatter reactor can. In matter/antimatter reaction the entire quantity of matter is converted into high energy plasma. In an explosive warhead this is devastating. By comparison a fusion device would only convert a small portion of the effective mass into energy, since fusing materials together releases a certain amount of mass as energy but the end-produce produced is new matter composed of the old matter.

Thus pound-for-pound a fusion-based Melta Weapon cannot be as destructive as a Photon Torpedo or other matter/antimatter device. This is, however, compensated for somewhat that no known force in Star Trek uses 10 thousand kilograms of matter and antimatter in their devices. That being said, there is nothing say that one couldn't do that if one wanted to. It is just not part of the paradigm of Star Trek's general storyline.

There are also other devices, including the Tricobalt Device and Quantum Torpedoes which increase destructive capacity through the use of subspace, warp, and zero-point energy / multi-dimensional technologies.