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My mostly hard sci-fi campaign


tkdguy

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I would also avoid judgments based on current practice.

 

Take crime, while we may be content to allow multiple murders before reluctantly deciding to inconvenience a rabid murderer by life in prison at our expense. A close society with extremely limited resources will tend to be less forgiving and tend to be more harsh in final judgement.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I would also avoid judgments based on current practice.

 

Take crime, while we may be content to allow multiple murders before reluctantly deciding to inconvenience a rabid murderer by life in prison at our expense. A close society with extremely limited resources will tend to be less forgiving and tend to be more harsh in final judgement.

I was thinking along those lines.

 

As for dead bodies, I was thinking about a burial in space type of deal. Spacecraft may have a section for storing the dead until they get to their destination. Ship doctors may treat the bodies so that they decompose more slowly. Does space affect the decomposition rate of corpses? Not to my knowledge, but I may be wrong.

 

Still tweaking the numbers. It's apparent my time frame is WAY too optimistic; I may change the timeline. I've also been thinking about changing many of the names to more appropriate names.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I was thinking along those lines.

 

As for dead bodies, I was thinking about a burial in space type of deal. Spacecraft may have a section for storing the dead until they get to their destination. Ship doctors may treat the bodies so that they decompose more slowly. Does space affect the decomposition rate of corpses? Not to my knowledge, but I may be wrong.

 

Still tweaking the numbers. It's apparent my time frame is WAY too optimistic; I may change the timeline. I've also been thinking about changing many of the names to more appropriate names.

 

I just had a somewhat creepy thought concerning capital punishment.

 

If you have Blade Runner level bio-tech, you could always yank out an offenders brain and replace it with an artificial one.

The body is a machine. Why scrap the whole machine when you can just swap out a "defective" processor?

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

A just as creepy but lower tech version is the Brain-in-a-Jar approach.

With not too far beyond modern tech, you should be able to keep a brain on life support. Tapping into the appropriate locations would allow feedback and communication, possibly even a totally virtual environment all networked into a real "Second Life".

This would be a great way to keep critically damaged crew from occupying too many resources until you can get them to full fledged medical facilities, and from there it's not too far to seeing brains transplanted into the bodies of condemned criminals as the ultimate form of recycling.

Heck, if you're feeling "humane" you could even keep the criminal's brain alive, being subjected to a therapy "program" to readjust the recidivism traits, before being partially integrated into the dead-net on sort of a work release program (monitor the waste recycling systems or something).

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I'm not so certain. People can be very sentimental' date=' and turning grandpa into compost or building blocks isn't going to go over well with many people, at least not without a massive cultural change.[/quote']

Well, yes, but circumstances alter cases. For example, the Donner party.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

As for dead bodies' date=' I was thinking about a burial in space type of deal. Spacecraft may have a section for storing the dead until they get to their destination. Ship doctors may treat the bodies so that they decompose more slowly. Does space affect the decomposition rate of corpses? Not to my knowledge, but I may be wrong.[/quote']

Depends upon what you mean exactly by "space."

 

A corpse in the pressurized habitat of a spaceship will rot just as fast as one on Earth, free fall or no. In fact, it might rot faster if the atmospheric breathing mix is richer in oxygen.

 

But if you put the corpse in the vacuum of space, it will rapidly turn into a dessicated mummy, and stay that way indefinitely.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Maybe an unpressurized chamber in the spaceship can be used.

Who needs an unpressurized chamber? Wrap the bodies in a burial shroud, tie a vacuum-proof rope to a limb, tie the other end to a magnet, push the body out an airlock, and attach the magnet to the hull next to the airlock. Done.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

If slightly morbid. :)

Yes, but a little less morbid than the moral hit the crew will suffer, cooped up in the confines of the spaceship while knowing that the corpse of Joe is cooling on the slab in the next compartment.

 

Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.

 

If there were no pressing need to harvest the body's mineral components, it would be best to jettison it. But remember DUNE: "...but a man's water belongs to the tribe"

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I'm still working on the numbers, since a lot of my figures are too unrealistic. It's one thing to be optimistic, but I went overboard. ;)

 

Anyway, I looked at this website to get a better picture on space colonies. I heard about the types of space stations listed here, in addition to the Von Braun Wheel. These are all represented in my campaign. But I just heard of newer models like the Lewis One and Kalpana One structures. Maybe I'll include those, as well as the Asten space station.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Well in my somewhat suspect opinion ;), the answers to many of these questions are actually dependent on the population densities. The larger the population and the easier resources are to obtain, the ‘softer’ the response.

 

Just looking back through history, a colony that is on the edge of survival isn’t going to waste resources on the criminal element. Lesser crime will result in punishment, labor or banishment. The capitol crimes, murder, rape, etc, will result in swift execution. Only when a population reaches a level of stability and luxury do we see the appearance of groups that wish to ‘save’ murderers.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Well in my somewhat suspect opinion ;), the answers to many of these questions are actually dependent on the population densities. The larger the population and the easier resources are to obtain, the ‘softer’ the response.

 

Just looking back through history, a colony that is on the edge of survival isn’t going to waste resources on the criminal element. Lesser crime will result in punishment, labor or banishment. The capitol crimes, murder, rape, etc, will result in swift execution. Only when a population reaches a level of stability and luxury do we see the appearance of groups that wish to ‘save’ murderers.

 

Even though these are people who are going to be our descendants, and not the of the people who used to just execute or maim most criminals?

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Even though these are people who are going to be our descendants' date=' and not the of the people who used to just execute or maim most criminals?[/quote']

 

I don't think I am following you exactly, so I assume a serious question.

 

If you are in limited environment with limited resources for basic life, such as air, water, etc. where you actually have people dying due to complications directly attributable to that same lack of resources you will not waste them on anyone who is a danger to the society as a whole. When the question becomes trading the health and life of newborns and children so that you can divert critical life support and resources to keep a handful of murderers or rapists alive. Well not many people will say 'kill the kids so we can save the convicts'.

 

On the other hand, if the colony is large enough and established enough with a large enough surplus to where this is not the case, then there will be a tendency to warehouse criminal and dump resources into attempts to ‘rehabilitate’. And if it goes on you can have what we do today in the real world, a rotating door of crime/release/do it again/release/do it again as well as vast self contain cities with hundreds of thousands of repeat criminals.

 

It is all in the population level and density. Just because it is to take place in the future does not mean that the population levels of the individual colonies have to be in the millions or even hundreds of thousands. Even a physically large colony may not be able to actually support a large population. It may take many times the area of livable ‘surface’ to provide support per person than what we think of as needed on a planet. After all on a planet there are vast areas of surface that are not actually populated, especially if you include the oceans and ‘hostile’ areas such as the arctic that all tie into that ‘support’ even if it is just the air. In a truly closed environment the problems and necessities will be much more critical. With a bad incident on Earth, it will either dissipate eventually or you can relocate. But on a colony, a critical failure will kill you.

 

Unless it is Star Trek the New Generation of course. They would only need to ask the computer, click a few buttons and everything would be fixed :D

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I don't think I am following you exactly, so I assume a serious question.

 

If you are in limited environment with limited resources for basic life, such as air, water, etc. where you actually have people dying due to complications directly attributable to that same lack of resources you will not waste them on anyone who is a danger to the society as a whole. When the question becomes trading the health and life of newborns and children so that you can divert critical life support and resources to keep a handful of murderers or rapists alive. Well not many people will say 'kill the kids so we can save the convicts'.

 

On the other hand, if the colony is large enough and established enough with a large enough surplus to where this is not the case, then there will be a tendency to warehouse criminal and dump resources into attempts to ‘rehabilitate’. And if it goes on you can have what we do today in the real world, a rotating door of crime/release/do it again/release/do it again as well as vast self contain cities with hundreds of thousands of repeat criminals.

 

I can see your point, if the people in the setting are willing to risk killing someone because of a mistaken conviction, only to find out later that they "spaced" (or whatever) an innocent man. Unlike people of the past, who for whatever reasons seemed to firmly believe in the idea that the guilty were being caught and punished, the people of the future have in their hindsight our experiences with just how often the wrong person ends up punished. On the other hand, even now, with that knowledge freely available and mounds of evidence staring us in the face, many otherwise intelligent and educated people have an unswerving faith in the "justice system" to find and punish the actual guilty parties.

 

So perhaps, after all, I'm engaging in wishful thinking in objecting to your suggestion regarding this issue.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I don't think I am following you exactly, so I assume a serious question.

 

If you are in limited environment with limited resources for basic life, such as air, water, etc. where you actually have people dying due to complications directly attributable to that same lack of resources you will not waste them on anyone who is a danger to the society as a whole. When the question becomes trading the health and life of newborns and children so that you can divert critical life support and resources to keep a handful of murderers or rapists alive. Well not many people will say 'kill the kids so we can save the convicts'.

 

On the other hand, if the colony is large enough and established enough with a large enough surplus to where this is not the case, then there will be a tendency to warehouse criminal and dump resources into attempts to ‘rehabilitate’. And if it goes on you can have what we do today in the real world, a rotating door of crime/release/do it again/release/do it again as well as vast self contain cities with hundreds of thousands of repeat criminals.

 

It is all in the population level and density. Just because it is to take place in the future does not mean that the population levels of the individual colonies have to be in the millions or even hundreds of thousands. Even a physically large colony may not be able to actually support a large population. It may take many times the area of livable ‘surface’ to provide support per person than what we think of as needed on a planet. After all on a planet there are vast areas of surface that are not actually populated, especially if you include the oceans and ‘hostile’ areas such as the arctic that all tie into that ‘support’ even if it is just the air. In a truly closed environment the problems and necessities will be much more critical. With a bad incident on Earth, it will either dissipate eventually or you can relocate. But on a colony, a critical failure will kill you.

 

Unless it is Star Trek the New Generation of course. They would only need to ask the computer, click a few buttons and everything would be fixed :D

 

IOW, mercy is a luxury item

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Conversely, punishment might be seen as a luxury. Execute your best pipefitter just because he murdered or raped someone? That's just crazy sentimentality. Work it out somehow, the perpetrator's friends would say. And do you reallly want to risk dividing the colony by pushing the issue? Looking at how actual small societies handle serious crimes, I would suggest that this is a much more likely scenario.

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Conversely' date=' [i']punishment [/i]might be seen as a luxury. Execute your best pipefitter just because he murdered or raped someone? That's just crazy sentimentality. Work it out somehow, the perpetrator's friends would say. And do you reallly want to risk dividing the colony by pushing the issue? Looking at how actual small societies handle serious crimes, I would suggest that this is a much more likely scenario.

 

Giving into popular opinion and/or letting criminals get away with major crimes because "they're too valuable to punish" is going to annihilate morale and factionalize crew just as badly as the execution would. It's kind of a matter of what sort of social damage you're willing to let the crime inflict on a long term scale.

 

I suspect some sort of "docilization" device, procedure, or chemical would be the likely best-of-all-bad-options.

 

Judicial Zombification.

 

"Something's wrong with the #3 reactor. Take a security team to go collect Jones and wake his zombie ass up to fix it."

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Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Finally, here are the populations! I included the location, year the colony was established, type of structure, and some notes to distinguish the colonies.

 

Space station come in four types: Von Braun Wheels, Bernal Spheres, Stanford Toruses, and O'Neill Cylinders. Von Braun Wheels hold less than 10,000 people. Bernal Spheres and Stanford Toruses hold between 10 to 100 thousand people. O'Neill Cylinders can hold between 3 to 10 million people, but tend toward the smaller limit.

 

Ground-based colonies are either domed structures (the more advanced ones) or subterranean. There is an underwater colony in Europa and perhaps in Enceladus.

 

Mercury

Colony: Vulcan

Established: 2052

Location: Geosynchronous orbit above Caloris Basin

Country: International

Type: Von Braun Wheel

Population: 2,000 (mostly non-permanent staff)

Notes: Scientific outpost used to study Mercury and the Sun

 

Venus

Colony: Neith

Established: 2044

Location: Geosynchronous orbit above Aphrodite Terra

Country: International

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 30,000

Notes: Named after Venus' fictional moon, includes international team of scientists attempting to terraform Venus

 

Earth

Colony: Armstrong

Established: 2020

Location: Mare Tranquilitatis, near the Apollo 11 landing

Country: International

Type: Domed City

Population: 2,150,000

Notes: Tourist attraction, large mining industry

 

Colony: Clarke

Established: 2028

Location: Archimedes Crater, Mare Imbrium

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 1,125,000

Notes: Large scientific community, corresponds with Rimtown

 

Colony: Clavius

Established: 2025

Location: Clavius Crater

Country: International

Type: Domed City

Population: 575,000

Notes: Major spaceport, site of the lunar mass driver

 

Colony: Tycho

Established: 2044

Location: Tycho Crater

Country: International

Type: Domed City

Population: 410,000

Notes: Site of the Great Ray Crater, tourist attraction

 

Colony: Rimtown

Established: 2029

Location: Tsiolkovskii Crater

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 23,500

Notes: Only colony in the Moon's far side

 

Colony: Peacekeeper

Established: 2042

Location: L1

Country: United Nations

Type: Von Braun Wheel

Population: 1,000

Notes: UN peacekeeping force, often undermannned

 

Colony: New Discovery

Established: 2040

Location: L2

Country: International

Type: Von Braun Wheel

Population: 2,700

Notes: International Observatory

 

Colony: Antichthon (lit. "Counter-Earth")

Established: 2050

Location: L3

Country: USA

Type: Von Braun Wheel

Population: 5,000

Notes: Destruction in 2076 precipitates the Solar System War

 

Colony: Shenzhou

Established: 2027

Location: L4

Country: China

Type: O'Neill Cylinder

Population: 8,000,000

Notes: Large industrial section, produces Chinese military and civilian spacecraft

 

Colony: Glasnost

Established: 2048

Location: L4

Country: Russia

Type: Bernal Sphere

Population: 20,000

Notes: Residential/commercial station, large population from Cental Asia

 

Colony: Gagarin

Established: 2034

Location: L4

Country: Russia

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 45,000

Notes: Produces Russian military and civilian spacecraft

 

Colony: Zedong

Established: 2030

Location: L4

Country: China

Type: O'Neill Cylinder

Population: 2,250,000

Notes: Large Vietnamese and Korean populations, known for its "street food" style eateries

 

Colony: Goddard

Established: 2032

Location: L5

Country: USA, Canada

Type: Bernal Sphere

Population: 30,000

Notes: Thriving entertainment industry

 

Colony: Lagrange

Established: 2031

Location: L5

Country: EU

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 50,000

Notes: Old World atmosphere, known for its French cuisine, also has colonists from Asia and Africa

 

Colony: Tyr

Established: 2067

Location: L5

Country: USA, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

Type: O'Neill Cylinder

Population: 8,000,000

Notes: Large military, industrial centers, produces NATO and ANZAC military spacecraft

 

Colony: Asimov

Established: 2051

Location: L5

Country: International

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 60,000

Notes: Major commercial center, produces civilian spacecraft

 

Mars

Colony: Hellas (failed)

Established: 2031, abandoned 2032

Location: Hellas Planitia

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 0

Notes: First attempt at colonizing Mars

 

Colony: Sagan

Established: 2033

Location: Chryse Planitia

Country: International

Type: Domed City (originally subterranean)

Population: 2,500,000

Notes: Site of the Martian beanstalk, best Szechuan cuisine on Mars

 

Colony: Bradbury

Established: 2041

Location: Solis Planum

Country: USA

Type: Subterranean

Population: 4,000,000

Notes: Industrial colony, processed ore often shipped off-world

 

Colony: Novgorod

Established: 2039

Location: Hesperia Planum

Country: Russia

Type: Domed City

Population: 3,000,000

Notes: Becoming increasingly militarized, missile silo suspected of being built there

 

Colony: New Havana

Established: 2056

Location: Elysium Mons

Country: Cuba

Type: Domed City

Population: 45,000

Notes: Cuba's only extraterrestrial colony, has a platoon of soldiers, home to many people tired of Communist rule

 

Colony: Dao

Established: 2035

Location: Dao Planum

Country: China

Type: Subterranean

Population: 5,000,000

Notes: Large military contingent, including an armored division

 

Colony: Bova

Established: 2042

Location: Cimmeria Terra

Country: International

Type: Domed City

Population: 745,000

Notes: Center of Martian terraforming project

 

Colony: Boyington

Established: 2060

Location: Lunae Planum

Country: USA

Type: Domed City

Population: 123,000

Notes: USMC base

 

Colony: Newton

Established: 2069

Location: Newton Crater

Country: EU

Type: Domed City

Population: 250,000

Notes: RAF squadron, tours to Olympus Mons

 

Colony: Deimos

Established: 2070

Location: Deimos

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 25,000

Notes: Most colonists from India, New Zealand

 

Asteroids

Colony: Belters, Inc.

Established: 2045

Location: Ceres

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 1,500 (temporary)

Notes: Rotating crew, serve 12-18 months before shipping home

 

Colony: Kamakura Mining Co.

Established: 2045

Location: Ceres

Country: Japan

Type: Subterranean

Population: 500 (temporary)

Notes: Rotating crew, serve 12-18 months before shipping home

 

Colony: Hawking

Established: 2039

Location: Vesta

Country: International

Type: Subterranean, but has small dome above surface

Population: 400 maximum, often unmanned

Notes: Has large observatory, often used to train people to live in deep space

 

Colony: Pax Mundi

Established: 2062

Location: Pallas

Country: United Nations

Type: Subterranean

Population: 800

Notes: Peacekeeping forces stationed here, often undermanned

 

Jupiter

Colony: Shoemaker-Levy

Established: 2050

Location: Geosynchronous orbit around Jupiter's southern hemisphere

Country: USA, Canada

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 20,000

Notes: Tourist attraction, great view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

 

Colony: Korolyov

Established: 2052

Location: Asgard Basin, Callisto

Country: Russia, Ukraine

Type: Subterranean

Population: 15,000

Notes: Some friction between Russian and Ukrainian colonists

 

Colony: Xinhua

Established: 2058

Location: Osiris Crater, Ganymede

Country: China

Type: Subterranean

Population: 23,000

Notes: Scientific outpost, trade with New Horizon and Korolyov

 

Colony: Galileo

Established: 2053

Location: Galileo Regio, Ganymede

Country: USA

Type: Subterranean

Population: 19,800

Notes: Polymer industry, trade with Mars and outer colonies

 

Colony: New Kyoto

Established: 2053

Location: Geosynchronous orbit above Jupiter's southern hemisphere

Country: Japan

Type: Bernal Sphere

Population: 30,000

Notes: Tourist attraction, great view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

 

Colony: Terranova

Established: 2073

Location: Elara

Country: Argentina, Brazil

Type: Subterranean

Population: 6,000

Notes: Also has colonists from other South American nations, isolationist tendencies

 

Colony: Seaview

Established: 2061

Location: Under Cilix Crater, Europa

Country: EU

Type: Underwater

Population: 4,000

Notes: Supplies water to Jovian system, scientists searching for life under the sea

 

Colony: Fermi-Dirac

Established: 2049

Location: Toutatis

Country: EU

Type: Subterranean

Population: 3,000

Notes: Mushroom/truffle industry, trades with Mars, outer colonies

 

Saturn

Colony: Einstein

Established: 2061

Location: Geosynchronous orbit over Saturn

Country: International

Type: Von Braun Wheel

Population: 5,000

Notes: Scientific outpost searchng for life

 

Colony: Hubble

Established: 2065

Location: Xanadu Region, Titan

Country: International

Type: Subterranean

Population: 3,500

Notes: Exports methane to Jupiter and Saturn systems

 

Colony: Marcy

Established: 2068

Location: Sarandib Planitia, Enceladus

Country: USA

Type: Subterranean (Underwater?)

Population: 250

Notes: Supplies water to Saturn system, search for life

 

Colony: Cassini

Established: 2069

Location: Dido Crater, Dione

Country: EU

Type: Subterranean

Population: 420

Notes: Exports He-3 mined from Saturn

 

Colony: Terminus

Established: 2073

Location: Herschel Crater, Mimas

Country: Russia

Type: Subterranean

Population: 1,200

Notes: Penal colony, inmates forced to build gigantic coil gun

 

Colony: New Horizon

Established: 2071

Location: Geosynchrous orbit above Saturn

Country: China

Type: Stanford Torus

Population: 25,000

Notes: Great view of Saturn's rings, has a squadron of fighters

 

Colony: Nihonmachi

Established: 2073

Location: Geosynchrous orbit above Saturn's North Pole

Country: Japan

Type: Bernal Sphere

Population: 20,000

Notes: Tourist attraction, great view of Saturn's hexagon

 

Colony: Dyson

Established: 2074

Location: Geosynchrous orbit above Saturn opposite New Horizon

Country: USA

Type: Bernal Sphere

Population: 30,000

Notes: Secretly has a squadron of fighters

 

Total number of colonists: 41, 651,870

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