Hard sci-fi adventures?

[Cancer]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

If you want even more complication, the sub was down there investigating a point where some anomalous radiation is being released, in several wavebands: gamma rays, microwaves, thermal infrared. It matches what one would expect of a spacecraft with a radioactivity-based power backup system, but no spacecraft known has gone down in those waters; and although the microwave emission is clearly modulated, it adheres to no known encoding scheme. (Microwaves are worthless for underwater communications, which is why some kind of foreign-built ocean floor surveillance robot that got stuck or disabled somehow has been bumped down the probability list.) Some features of the particle radiation -- detectable only from a sensor platform on or near the ocean floor -- suggests that the radiation source is buried under several meters of sediment, which (given the sedimentation rate for that part of the ocean) suggests it was buried 10^4 to 10^5 years ago....

[L. Marcus]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

. . . Oooo . . . Sphere . . .

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

That problem got worse last week. An old Soviet satellite hit one of the Iridium satellites last week. Lots and lots more debris now.

 

It could get worse. Ever heard of the Kessler Syndrome?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_Syndrome

 

 

Is this the start of Planetes?

 

And STS-125 could be aborted

[L. Marcus]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

. . . Dibs on Toy Box #1!

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Here's a question for you guys. Jupiter has a huge magnetic field. Would it be feasible to harness some of that energy to power a space station? The station would be out of the danger zone and would have the power beamed through an unmanned relay station.

 

Does that sound realistic? If so, protecting the relay station from a meteor or a hostile nation could be an adventure hook. Another idea would have the PCs fix a faulty relay station before the space colony freezes to death (or suffocates, since life support would also be offline).

[Nyrath]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Here's a question for you guys. Jupiter has a huge magnetic field. Would it be feasible to harness some of that energy to power a space station?

Kinda sorta.

 

In George Zebrowski's MACROLIFE, there is a station on Ganymede. It shoots generators at Jupiter.

 

The generator is a long copper bar, with a power transmission laser on one end. As the bar cuts Jupiter's magnetic lines of force, it generates electricity. The electricity is converted into laser energy and shot at the power gathering rectenna outside of Ganymede base.

 

Eventually the bar is devoured by Jupiter, but copper bars and lasers are relatively cheap.

[Cancer]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Yes, I think you could posit a magnetic field harvesting station in the Jupiter system.

 

Hmmmm. Hm hm hm. Given that next week I'll be teaching Faraday's Law, this could turn into a homework problem very easily...

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Thanks. Considering my campaign has a few colonies in the Jupiter system, that helps me develop them further.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Another scenario, this one in the Saturn system. Suppose hostilities arise between two powerful nations. One nation controls Titan; the other controls Enceladus. Trade breaks down. Titan controls the methane trade which produces energy in the Saturn system, but Enceladus has the water. Who will win out?

[Cancer]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

My guess is Titan, because the surface "rocks" are frozen water ice. Enceladus has water in liquid form due to tidal heating, but Titan has the energy to melt their own. The kicker is the ramp-up transient and how long it takes to get Titan's rock melter plant going.

[Nyrath]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Adventures in the Saturn System (obligatory Atomic Rocket link)

 

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3s.html

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Good stuff, Nyrath. Thanks. Thanks to you too, Cancer, for that bit of info.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

A while back I thought about using pykrete. to build spacecraft hulls. Would it be feasible at all? And even if it's as resilient as it's said to be, how well would it resist a railgun shell (my space combat is based on kinetics rather than beam weapons)?

[Cancer]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

A while back I thought about using pykrete. to build spacecraft hulls. Would it be feasible at all? And even if it's as resilient as it's said to be' date=' how well would it resist a railgun shell (my space combat is based on kinetics rather than beam weapons)?[/quote']

 

I don't think any known material can stand up to hypersonic impacts well, but a massive object would be able to sustain more impacts before coming apart entirely. So a cheap bulk-mass material like reinforced ice could be useful, especially if the payload volume was no more than 10% of the ship. Then takes a lot of hits to finally get to the important parts.

 

In the last campaign I tried to run, one race of aliens had a fungus that would grow out into the vacuum of space, producing a wood-like hull five to thirty meters thick. It meant their spaceships were all more or less spherical (or collections of spheres) in shape but bulk mass has some advantages for spacecraft, especially if you are doing fanciful inertialess physics already.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Thanks, Cancer. That's an interesting idea you have there.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Here's a plot hook I adapted from Shadis Magazine. I changed most of the details and expanded on them, but I'm still working out the kinks. It's meant to be a beginning adventure for a campaign.

 

The PCs are federal agents. They are sent to Mojave, California to meet with one of their contacts. The contact calls them at the motel and hands the PCs a disk. He claims that there is information about illegal activities on Tycho Base, on the Moon. He says he's being followed, but he believes he has eluded his pursuers.

 

The next day, the PCs will learn that their contact has been found dead. If they contact the local authorities, they'll learn that he had been shot in the back of the head. A 9 mm bullet was extracted. Nobody reported hearing any gunshots, so it's probable a silencer has been used.

 

If the PCs have access to a computer (very likely), they can read the disk. It contains information about a black market on Tycho Base. Some of the base's officials are implicated, but there is no hard evidence to convict them.

 

If the PCs try to find the killers, they will have to talk to the locals. A homeless man will tell them he saw the contact being accosted by two large men. He can give a description of the men.

 

The killers will try to leave town. If the PCs can catch them, they will be armed with semi-automatic pistols. They will surrender if they are wounded and will be willing to give information on the black market if they can cut a deal.

 

The PCs would then be sent to Tycho base from the Mojave Spaceport. All lunar settlements are international communities by international law and therefore neutral territories. The officials may come from different nationalities. The PCs would have to be dicrete in their investigation. Furthermore, since weapons are not allowed on the Moon, they'll have to beat the bad guys with brains instead of bullets.

 

I actually playtested this last night with a couple of friends using the GURPS Lite rules (I didn't have my HERO books). It went okay, but I noticed a lot of holes I had to plug. I improvised a lot of the events.

 

Here's a goofy one for you.

 

New Havana is Cuba's only extraterrrestrial colony, located in Elysium Mons on Mars. Feeling vulnerable, it has purchased several missiles from Russia. These missiles could threaten US colonies on Mars. An American space cruiser, the USS Kennedy, is dispatched to investigate; it is met by a Russian space cruiser, the RFS Kruschev. Tensions mount as the two warships square off, their missiles locked on each other...

 

I mentioned this standoff in passing, although it didn't come into play. It was just background material. I also noticed my original post had a few omissions, which I've added.

 

Edit: Being me, I couldn't resist being silly. Having quickly created a couple of characters from scratch (our first time using GURPS), I named the characters Agent Bert and Agent Ernie.

 

Bert's Player: He better not be playing Agent Ernie.

Me: He is. And your boss is Agent Orange.

[Cancer]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Edit: Being me, I couldn't resist being silly. Having quickly created a couple of characters from scratch (our first time using GURPS), I named the characters Agent Bert and Agent Ernie.

 

Bert's Player: He better not be playing Agent Ernie.

Me: He is. And your boss is Agent Orange.

 

Heh. The last campaign I tried running with adults was a sci-fi near-future with newly-discovered interstellar jump drives. The species the PCs had to interact with first was sentient, telepathic shrubs. The individual with whom they did most of their interactions dubbed himself "Professor Oak".

 

He wouldn't want to meet Agent Orange either.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

I was leafing through the old Star Frontiers module Crash on Volturnus which starts off with space pirates hijacking the starship the PCs are traveling in. I don't have any space pirates in my campaign, but there can be other reasons for a group of men hijacking a passenger spacecraft (on the run, terrorist action). The hijackers would have automatic pistols and magnetic boots to help negate the recoil from firing their guns. The PCs would have to get their guns somehow, which were stored away when they boarded the spacecraft. If the hijackers are losing the firefight, one of them will try to crash the vessel into a moon or asteroid, possibly into a colony. The PCs will have to take him out and steer the ship to safety.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Depending on how "hard" your sci-fi is, I think many of the Star Frontiers modules would work rather well. I am currently working on a concept, but I have been rather busy. Besides, I want to draw out the maps. I'll get back to you when it is done.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

No worries. All I'd actually use is the hijacking, unless I do a major revamp of the module. Since I don't use aliens, and the setting is restricted to the solar system, that would be a lot of work to do.

[Nyrath]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

The US Army is developing something called the Active Denial System, which is basically a pain ray used for crowd dispersal.

 

I always thought it would be a nifty thing to install in the corridor outside the control room of your starship, to provide a rude surprise to space pirates.

[tkdguy]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

The US Army is developing something called the Active Denial System, which is basically a pain ray used for crowd dispersal.

 

I always thought it would be a nifty thing to install in the corridor outside the control room of your starship, to provide a rude surprise to space pirates.

I wish it were ready to drive off real pirates right now.

 

I was thinking of making the hijacking an inside job, though. In the scenario, the co-pilot is one of the hijackers and takes over the spacecraft after killing the captain. That's why he knows how to fly the ship.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but ...

 

There's a scene in Risen Empire where what at first appears to be a space battle turns out to be an encounter between microscopic remote controlled listening devices, (bugs), and microscopic drones intended to destroy such devices.

 

Basically agents from a foreign empire have kidnapped an important dignitary of the one that is the focus of this book. They have sprayed microscopic destroyer drones throughout the room that they are occupying. The imperial authorities have a spaceship in orbit above the planet where the dignitary is being held hostage and a team of imperial pilots are using total-immersion/virtual reality software to control these remote sensor drones which are attempting to infiltrate the room in question. The sensor drones can not 'see' except in the microscopic spectrum but they can 'hear' normal sounds and beam them back to the parent ship.

 

I believe that the destroyer drones used electromagnetic fields or energy blast to destroy the sensors. Since projectiles would have been impractical.

 

There's got to be an adventure in that setup somewhere.

 

The hook could be any illegal deal, kidnapping, conspiracy or other skullduggery that the party is hired to spy on. The party must locate the place where the vital conversation or whatever is going to take place and then release the sensor drones. Then one or more players must pilot the drones into an advantageous position. Bear in mind that the drones have limited energy, must remain undetected and are microscopic. A bead of water will trap a sensor drone and the breeze from air conditioning could suck it out of the room. Placement, particularly the type of substance that the drone fetches up against or on top of, is vital. Water conducts sound comparatively well but even a smooth tabletop might have microscopic cracks which could trap the drone and block out most extraneous sounds.

 

A fun little development is that the players who are deploying the drones will probably have to stay in position until at least one drone has made its way to a suitable listening post. They may have to deploy more drones if the initial batch fail. Piloting players are of course useless for anything except piloting so long as they are hooked up to the necessary equipment.

 

Other twists or possibilities.

 

The players simply possess this technology and use it for their own purposes.

 

The players have to steal blueprints for this technology from the people who developed it.

 

Or. The party's enemies are using this technology against them.

 

The players have to hack into a sensor drone or drones and redirect it or destroy it.

 

Sensor drones have been deployed on the party's ship. They have to avoid discussing any sensitive information while working out how to clean out the bugged rooms.

 

The party's pilot/hacker has been kidnapped by hostile forces. Because he/she is known for his/her abilities with this tech or just with piloting in general he/she is forced to use a drone to spy on his friends/allies on behalf of his captors. Can the pilot warn his/her friends about what's happened before he/she reveals all of their plans, gets shot for being uncooperative or is dragged off for interrogation? It would be quite fun to have a PC being forced to spy on a plot to rescue him/her.

 

The party have sprayed destroyer drones in the room where they are planning a sensitive meeting, deal or whatever. But they know for a fact that a superlative pilot or team of pilots is on their enemies' books and there is very little chance that AI drones will be able to destroy the remote controlled aces. Can the party's pilot/s locate and destroy the microscopic menaces with their own remote controlled micro-drones or is this deal about to be fatally compromised?

 

Please note that considering the size of the sensor drones in question it would require a cloud of destroyer drones to detect and destroy them even when they are in motion. You can't patrol a whole room with one microscopic ship.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

Sensor drones have been deployed on the party's ship. They have to avoid discussing any sensitive information while working out how to clean out the bugged rooms.

 

And we have a winner! Love this one.

[Spence]

Re: Hard sci-fi adventures?

 

I wish it were ready to drive off real pirates right now.

 

 

More than likely there are dozens of them gathering dust in a corner because inflicting pain would be considered torture and we would much rather not inconvenience the pirates.

 

 

 

what?......