GURPS 4 Babylon 5
World: Deviation from the Series
Babylon 5 facts that cannot be allowed for game play
In a film or television series, the writer controls the characters as well as the world, so they can't abuse their special talents or options. One of the classic blunders of Star Trek is an early episode with crew members stranded by a malfunctioning transporter. The writer had not thought of a shuttle at the time. PCs, of course, are controlled by the players and blocking them from doing something that makes sense in the game world is bad game play. For the sake of game play, the game world must be fixed.
Character Abilities
Minbari Strength: Delenn, a female Minbari diplomat, is able to lift a fallen beam, which is trapping Zathras, which two male, military officers failed to do. Minbari do not get extraordinary lefting strength, otherwise they'll lob people around.
Environment
Jump gates: Interstellar travel consists of flying towards the beacons of nearby jump gates, so normal space travel need only take place at the start and end of the journey. Yet pirates can attack traders in normal space in mid-journey. As an activated jump gate is hard to miss and interstellar communications are real-time, pirates can be tracked via the gates used. A military just needs to use a capital ship to prevent escape and hunt the pirates. Unlawful organisations are fun, so the pirates stay. Also, as hyperspace combat results in disaster for both sides, invasion forces could be stopped a smaller, suicide task force. To allow interception, interstellar travel consists of normal space travel between two gates in a solar system and hyperspace interception is hard. Some, empty systems have more than two jump gates, which pirates prefer to use as their base, making traps harder.