Black holes in BFG

[Lord Duggie The Mad]

Morning everyone,

Standard unproductive-morning muck around and I got to thinking; could be worth a giggle to try out a black hole as a piece of celestial phenomena.

Anyone got any ideas about how it could work?  I had a thought that at the very edges of its influence you are allowed a standard free turn towards it like a planet, closer than that the ship has the potential to take damage, and crossing the event horizon is instant death.

I can't really see how a black hole could be a 'strategic asset' but perhaps more of a chance encounter.

Ideas?


Cheers,

LDTM

[Islacrusez]

Perhaps automatically move x cm towards centre (no turn) at the end of the ship's move?

[AndrewChristlieb]

I would do one table edge. Probably a long edge. Setup would be gas/dust clouds and asteroids only. Maybe everything moves d6" a turn towards a long table edge and for every 2' of table a new gas/dust cloud or asteroid field will appear on a d6 roll of 5 or 6 from the sunward edge (opposite of the black hole). Ships will only be affected if their prow is facing the black hole but they may always make a free 45* turn towards the black hole like a gravity well.

[Islacrusez]

Huh... How about ships and ordnance are not affected, but blast markers, minefields, hulks, dust/gas clouds move x cm towards a given point? Would make it a more unique phenomenon.

[Lord Duggie The Mad]

Or perhaps gas/dust/rocks/blasts etc move towards the epicenter as you suggest, maybe 5cm if more than 60cm from the centre, 10 cm if between 30-60cm, and 15 cm if within 30 cm.  They are removed once they touch the template which is the same dimensions as a nova cannon blast.  Ships abeam or facing the hole are drawn in also but by half the numbers given above (owing to greater inertia), ships aimed away from the hole may hold station like in low orbit and turn towards it if desired but suffer no other effect.

Too complicated?

[Zorcon]

There was an article long ago available on GW's website titled "New Phenomena". It covered Black holes.

BLACK HOLE
On very rare occasions, when a super heavy star eventually dies and explodes in a supernova, the resulting collapse of its core may result in the creation of a black hole. A very small, extremely massive object with a gravity pull so strong that not even light can escape it. Any object approaching too near a black hole will find itself unable to turn back and be obliterated into its component atoms in mere seconds.

Effects: At the start of each turn every ship, hulk, blast marker, tabletop feature and piece of ordnance will move towards the sunward edge, which in this case is actually the edge of the black hole and considered the “point of no return”. Ships and tabletop features moves 5cm pr. turn, while hulks, blast markers and pieces of ordnance moves 10cm pr. turn. There is no change in the facing of any object moved in this manner. Any object that touches the sunward edge is considered to have been sucked into the black hole and is instantly destroyed. After the movement, the player whose turn it is, must roll on the following table to establish whether a new tabletop feature appears on the table edge opposite the black hole.

D6 Roll Result
1 Nothing
2 Nothing
3 Nothing
4 Gas/dust cloud
5 Asteroid field
6 D3 Gas/dust clouds

Because of the immense gravity pull, any ship on the board may make a free 45’ turn at the beginning and end of its move, but the turn must always be made towards the sunward edge.