Woot just pointed me to a link with free online graph paper<br /><br />Ok nothing to exciting right? Well this link has polar graph paper with concentric circles and radial line faning out from the center. The cool part is you specify the number of concentric circle and radial lines even the color of the lines on the paper. There's even a button to click for it to add degrees to the graph.<br /><br />So What is really cool is its perfect for graphing a star system- put the star in the center and designate the concentric circles as AU and just plot the planetary orbits. You have a small system with the furthest orbit is only 4.33AU then plug in 5 for the number of concentric circles and chart the system or you have a system with stuff going out to 11 AU- set the graph paper to accomodate it then download the 1 page PDF and print.<br /><br />Now here's where this can get even cooler a little math will tell you how many degrees a planet in an orbit will move each game month right? so print the graph paper, mark the orbits and name the system then mount it on a piece of cork board. Next get those clothing pins with the little ball heads and stick them in each orbit you'll be able to quickly up date the system display each game month. Then if you make a ruler to match the distance between each concentric circle (essentially an AU ruler) you can put a pin to represent the PCs ship and then measure with your "AU" ruler to tell the PC's how far to their destination. <br /><br />Some more math and you can convert AU to km or do the math on the PC's ships drives and figure the number of days to cross one AU and compute their journey in days. even a chance a careless PC will travel to where a planet is instead of where it will be!<br /><br />http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/circularpolar.html<br />
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