I wish I knew what day it is. I've read another couple threads about how the time period of the setting is being obscured for various reasons, some of which I agree with. But given that it's a known solar system and even a luddite like myself can wonder where Neptune will be in a hundred years, I really wish we knew what year the game willhave begun in. (Ha I love future tense speak :D) Because I want to know how long it will take to get places at the speed of light, when the planets will be nearest eachother ect. I'd like to know when EP happens. By playing with this site: http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar I found a couple things The first is, that I'm not really that clever. I figgured I could just line up the planets like they're shown on page 84 and Viola! I'd know when the Fall happens within a couple years. I was WRONG they don't get that alignment in the 22nd or 23rd century AFIK. Another thing I found is that in 2100 Jupiter and Saturn align. This might have an effect on the setting as at that time the distance between the two 6.45x10^8Km will only be about 10 times the distance between earth and mars when they're aligned. Maybe close enough for interplanetary shipping?? Also at that time Saturn and Jupiter are across the sun from Uranus. Probably too far for Farcasting so QE might be nesessary. That would make a serious financial differenct to my character if he wanted to Freight his ego between the planets. However, around 2119 Jupiter Saturn and Uranus come into a rough alignment so that makes an ecconomic impact on things again. I'm just saying if we can't know what year it is it would be nice to know, roughly, where things are at wich is really the same thing. If it's just left to GM caveat then the solar system looks quite a bit different depending on which table your sitting at. [edit] also if I understand things correctly in 2100 when jupiter and saturn are aligned and accross the sun from Uranus. It would take about 6 hours to Farcast between Jupiter and Saturn but it would take 159 hours between Saturn and Uranus. I'm basing this on tables of average orbital distances. And the distance of a Light Minute Light minute = 1.79x10^6 km ? distance between Jupiter and Saturn orbits = 6.45x10^8km Sun to Saturn = 1.42x10^9 Sun to Uranus = 2.87x10^9 Not exactly an arithmetic wiz so don't take my word for it. [/edit]