I have a campaign going on. It's open-ended, set in Golarion in 4707 AR, right around the time the Bloodsword vale is to be opened.
The general setting of the campaign will be in the Early Steampunk era, with some areas like Taldor and Andoran having Steam Locomotives and Steampunk technology.
I've been working on a sheet that depicts the different powers of and technicalities of different kinds of physically powered engines. Namely Oil and Steam Engines. Since the Rules don't directly reference how much power each engine puts out, or how much fuel each consumes I've begun to put each of the specifications together myself. Here's and Example:
Gyro Engine
A Steam-powered engine with 4-6 pistons set up in a radial fashion around a single drive shaft. A Gyro Engine operates as a Limbo between an Oil and Steam Engine, requiring both a Fuel source (typically oil), Water and a Boiler. Gyro Engines directly or indirectly, affect a single drive shaft or chain that propels the vehicle in question. Gyro engines are ineffective when used in larger vehicle classes.
Fuel Consumption
2 lbs (1/4 gal) Oil/hr and 6 lbs (3/4 gal) Water/hr.
Fuel/Other Capacity
Fuel Tank: 16 lbs (2 gal) Oil.
Water Tank: 48 lbs (6 gal) Water.
Maintenance and Repair
Due to the High-maintenance nature of Steam-based engines, a Gyro Engine requires Knowledge (Engineering) to properly repair and clean without damaging the engine itself. It takes 3 hours for an experienced engineer to fully disassemble, clean, repair, and reassemble a gyro engine.
Propulsion
Max Speed ×2 Acceleration.
Acceleration 60 ft/round (40 mph)
Size Penalty -10 ft. per Size Category above Large.
Aircraft Penalty -10 ft. per Size Category above Medium.
I'm still working on other classifications of engine such as:
- Steam Engines
- Alchemical Engines
- Oil Engines
Each using the same layout of Fuel Consumption, Fuel Capacity etc.
My questions are: does this work on a general basis? Does "Oil" only work for lamps, or can it be used to fuel a steam-powered or even Oil-burning engine? and Can anyone help to more easily work out the different specifications of each engine?
Thanks.
In your classification, does Steam = External Combustion and Oil = Internal Combustion ? And Alchemical would be battery or fuel-cell ?
External Combustion:
You can have working fluids other than water/steam, but it is by far the most common. Often, additional modifiers tell us what fuel is being used. So, you might have something described as a oil-fired triple expansion steam ship or perhaps a coal-fired steam turbine locomotive.
Internal Combustion:
Here, the working fluid is the fuel/oxidizer and its products of combustion. They are often described by the thermodynamic cycle (Sterling/Diesel/Otto), the number of strokes (two-stroke vs four-stroke), and fuel used (naptha/keroscene/gasoline).
How much detail is required for what you're trying to do ?
Yes, Steam = External Combustion, generally the fuel (oil or coal) is burned, the fumes forced through copper (or other metal) pipes to superheat the water in the boiler to force the pistons to move the drive shaft.
Not much explanation is required to use these rules in my campaign. Only enough to fill the different specifications of each engine such as
- Fuel Consumption
- Fuel Capacity
- Maintenance and Repair
- Propulsion
This way my players and I can create vehicles with these engines under the same general rule set so there's no crazy vehicles operating outside the bounds of physical law (except magic vehicles, but hey, "Magic *snort snort*").
It also helps so that the engines actually have some stats. Rather than the vehicles that already exist say their engines can do this or that without any explanation whatsoever. Especially since the only engine I've found with fuel consumption is the steam giant.
I wonder if there are any conversion guidelines for GURPS Vehicles to Pathfinder ?
There's also the Corps VDS