Forums of the Megaverse®

Hey, guys, I'm going to be starting a new space-based campaign, and had a bit of a question: how would I represent a 3 dimensional star chart on a 2 dimensional grid? I'd like to be able to measure distances between the stars with at least some accuracy and consistency.

Winchell Chung to the rescue! ... well, not really, but the creator of the infinitely useful Atomic rockets website also has a webpage addressing this same issue.

At each location on your chart add a plus or minus (+3, -4, etc.) to represent the z-axis.

Some of the old D6 Star Wars books used a trick for this. They printed star charts on two sheets of paper that were meant to be placed together at a right angle. Both charts showed the same stars but from two different angles. It was a little difficult to get a handle on at first glance, but for finding specific routes between two stars, it worked well.

If you region of space is relatively flat, like a disc-shaped galaxy, Beatmeclever's suggestion is probably the best, using notes or different colors. If you want a cube of space, you'll have to use software like Glitterboy suggested. Personally, I like to use Google's Sketch software for anything and everything three-dimensional.

Make a 2D hex grid map, put some stars in, then cut the map into different layers and color code the stars in each layer. Determining travel times between layers and grid sections by assigning an arbitrary value, say 10LY or more per layer/grid section. So if players want to travel to a star that is 25LY away but two layers up, you can add roughly another 20LY to the journey. It isn't exact science, but it will make glancing at the map pretty easy, all you need to do is assign a color key to each layer.

I have used this system for as long as I can remember, using markers and store bought hex grids back in the day, and Adobe Illustrator now. I try and keep everything on a metric style scale of 1mm is equal to 1LY. It means you can grab a ruler to quickly calculate travel rough times that are "accurate" enough for an RPG. As a game play system, you can just hand the work over two the PCs and let them "plot the course".