Starmap Main > Suggested Reading
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* Suggested reading

* There are several boardgames that come with 3-d starmaps, most of which are unfortunately out of print. They are all good, though my favorite is the one included with Universe.
    I am working on commercial maps that are available at my Cafe Press web store.
    Here is a list of dealers who specialize in out-of-print games. Just in case you simply have to obtain one of them. These games also occasionally appear in EBay auctions.

    I have an idea that most of these maps have "trap streets" and "fictitious entries" in them. That is one or more of the stars have a made-up name, a deliberately incorrect location, or are totally fictitious.
    Think about it, say you are a company that went to a lot of trouble to make one of these maps. Wouldn't you be irritated if a rival just copied your map? Wouldn't you be even more irritated if they got away with it because in court their lawyer argued that given the same data the same map would be produced?
    Now, imagine how satisfying it would be to be able to point out that your rival's map had Gonzola's Star, just like yours? Caught, red-handed!
    I understand that this is common in the Dictionary and Encyclopedia industry, adding bogus entries to catch thieves. Or so I gathered by reading a Fred Saberhagen Bezerker story called "The Annihilation of Angkor Apeiron".
    Some of the names I've encountered that look suspicious to me include "The Flying Star", "Qingyuan", "Haifeng", and "Queen Alice's Star".
    A gentleman named Bob pointed out that "The Flying Star" is actually a name given to the star 61 Cygni by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1792. However, there is still something screwy with the map (the SPI Universe map), since the star given that label was BD+36°2219.
 
 

Traveller 2300AD, GDW.
Role playing game set in the far future. Comes with a fold-out 3-d starmap and a booklet with star data. Annoyingly, the starmap does not have the Z co-ords printed on it. This makes it rather difficult to use. Stars are printed in different sizes according to Z co-ord, but this doesn't help much. They are color coded by spectral class. The booklet is useful, though. As with all of these maps, it is probably based on the Gliese 3.0 catalogue. Out of print, but due to be re-released by another company. Hopefully.

 
Bug Hunters / Amazing Engine RPG supplement
TSR. [ ISBN 1-56076-623-9 ] The map is in the back cover. Equitorial co-ords, map extends out in a 30 light year radius. Z co-ordinate listed next to each star in parenthesis. The book has an appendix with spectral classes of all the listed stars, and distances between selected stars. Very similar to the map that comes with SPI's UNIVERSE. Do not confuse this with TSR's Bug Hunter (no "s") / Sniper supplement, which has no map. Out of print

 
The Company War
Mayfair Games Inc. A wargame based on C.J. Cherryh's SF novels, set in the universe of Downbelow Station. Out of print

 
Explored Space
Nightshift Games, a division of Crunchy Frog Enterprises. This is an expansion book for the game Voidstriker. Really well done starship combat game, and the starmap data was created with assistance from *me*! (In the game, stars are connected by jumplines. A jumpline connects two stars who are closer than distance X where X depends on the masses of the stars in question. The mass of the Sun=1. So if the mass of star 1 was M1 and the mass of star 2 was M2, then x = 7 + ((M1+M2)/2) in light years. The game creator was understandably quite happy that I could write a program to digest the Gliese catalog and calculate all the jumplines for him).

 
FTL:2448
Tri Tac Systems. A well done role playing game set in the future. Its firearm combat system is one of the most accurate. But more to the point, it has a reasonably accurate starmap.

 
Starforce Alpha Centauri, SPI.
A classic wargame, played on a 3-d map of all the stars within a 20 light year radius of the Sun. It's a classic game, find a copy if you can. Map is a hexgrid with each hex equal to one light year. Each star is listed with the hex number, Z co-ordinate, and star name. Equatorial projection with a 20 light year radius. A small table printed on the map allows one to calculate the distance beween two stars (approximately). A couple of errors but on the whole it is a sound map. Out of print (The errors? BD+45 in the upper left corner does not exist. Luyten 68-28 should be about six hexes closer to Procyon.)

 
Universe, SPI.
Another role playing game set in the future. It comes with a very nice fold-out 3-d starmap, my personal favorite. Map is ruled in half-light year division, equatorial co-ords, thirty light year radius. Stars have their x,y,z co-ords printed on the map. Stars are color coded by z co-ordinate range. A table printed on the map gives distances between selected stars. Out of print

 
Web And Starship, West End Games, designed by Greg Costikyan.
One of the best interstellar wargames ever made. Played on a 3-d starmap, this is the only viable 3 player wargame I've ever encountered. A pathetically weak Earth occupies a strategic position between two massive star empires. Oh, yes, the map. As is most of these maps, it uses equitorial co-ords, twenty light year radius, and probably uses the Gliese 3.0 data. The map has no grid lines. The players use a supplied ruler to measure the separation between the stars in the x-y plane. The z co-ordinate difference is determined by examining the z co-ords printed on the map (the numbers inside the circles). The actual distance is determined by cross referencing the two numbers in a chart which is printed on the map.

 
Independence War
A marvelous computer game for Windows by Particle Systems. This game not only has a compelling plot, great graphics, and Newtonian mechanics, it includes a 3-D rotating starmap! I love this game! But don't take my word for it, read this review. Even better, at their home site is a scenario editor that allows one to (among other things) edit the starmap.

 
  
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