Bucky

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback I have avoided the subject of watchstanding till now. Let me go over how it is done in the real world, and you can use or not as you see fit. First off, watchstanding forward is different from watchstanding back aft, in the engineering spaces. But lets say you have enough for a 4 watch rotation. (3 actually turns out being better. Officers generally run on a normal daylight scedule, with training and drills in the afternoon or morning watch. If you have 4-6 hour watches, one watch gets all the drills, and the other 3 don't get any training at all.) There are several different circumstances and some watches will not be manned. If you have say, a jump system, a propulsion system where you are isolated from the rest of the universe, then having your sensor watchcrews on duty does not make much sense. Transiting from one point to another is a different set of circumstances than moored in port, or in combat. At sea, you have an Officer of the Deck. He is in command during his shift. However, any major decisions, anything not covered in the Captain's Night Orders (A set of instructions the Captain leaves for the OOD when the Captain hits the bunk) he has to take it to the Captain. There are also a set of standard reports that are to be delivered to the Captain at 6 or 8 o'clock in the morning. ("The Officer of the Deck sends his regards and reports ship is in transit from to at a speed of ." etc.) The Officer of the Deck is said to "have the Deck". Quite often and especially on larger vessels, there will be an officer who commands the guys actually steering the ship. This Officer of the Conn is said to "have the Conn" but he is subordinate to the OOD above. During combat, the Captain obviously takes "the Deck and the Conn", however he can leave the conning of the ship up another officer. The Conn Officer quite often is a trainee, and is there to handle details of manuvering the ship. (Captain says he wants to steer a course 180 mark 45. Conn officer will tell the helmsman "Right 20 degrees rudder, planes down 10" until they are steering the desired course (or just about to) and then zero the rudder and planes.) In combat, all sensors and weapon systems will be manned, obviously. When NOT in combat, usually most spaces will have just a single enlisted watchstander. His job is to make sure that if anything breaks, or catches fire, or anything goes wrong, he is there to 1) alert the rest of the ship, and 2) deal with the problem. In port, you may have just a roving watch to keep an eye or things in a given geographic area of the ship. Larger ships will have more than one roving watch, and the engineering spaces will probably have their own rover regardless. (Skill differences again between Engineering and, well, just about anyone else.) In the Engineering spaces, you will have an Engineering Officer of the Watch or EOW. Under him and aiding in commanding the engineering crew is the Engineering Watch Supervisor or EWS. This will be a senior enlisted, cheif at the very least. And again, at a minimum, each space gets its own watchstander, although he is usually busier than his forward counterparts. In Port, you don't have a Officer of the Deck or Conn. (You're in port, so where are you gonna steer to?) Now it depends on the technology of the ship, as well as its size. If the technology is such that you can shut the engines (power plant) down and walk away, and there is no need for shore power, then you can just lock the ship up, station a top side or Quarterdeck watch (usually junior enlisted). Otherwise you will need more watchstanders. You will have a Command Duty Officer who is essentially the Captain of the boat, while the Captain is out on the town, bedding green slave girls, getting involved in intrigues, whatever. When the Captain is incapable of being captain while in port, you get a Command Duty Officer. (Note: when the Captain is available, he is the CDO.) You will have an Officer of the Day and he takes nominal command of the day to day operations of the ship while in port. As you are in port, and as the CDO is available at any time, morning, noon or night, this can be even a very junior officer. (However, again it depends on complexity of the craft. You will probably want your ensigns to serve training watches under a more experienced officer in any event.) You will have an Engineering Officer of the Day or EOD as well on vessels that you can't just turn off, or who are connected to shore power. He may not have the equivalent of an EWS while in port. Like I said before, in combat, all watchstations, and gear will be manned. The Captain takes charge on the bridge, takes the "Deck and the Conn" although he may leave the Navigator as the Conn Officer. XO will go to the scene of a casualty. (If there is a fire in missile compartment 4, that is where the XO heads with the damage control team.) any enlisted personel who are not manning a watch during combat will muster on the mess decks and become part of the Damage Control Party Each member of the DC party will have a specific assignment, like Petty Officer Smith dons the Emergency Vacsuit, while Spacer Jones carries the Materials Bag (a bag of stuff used to fix say, broken pipes, hull breaches, etc.) and Petty Officer Doe mans the sound powered phones. (Yes, I know sound powered phones are a very low tech item. But they work very well for communicating inside the ship. They don't require power, have very few moving parts, and you can use the bits you talk into to listen to what is coming back with no modifications. Very reliable system, just not has hi tech or cool as some other.) Anyway this is very rough, but should give you an idea how the watches are organized in the real world. Again, use as you like.

Re: End Of The World As We Know It... Details At 11 As I work nights, I think if there was a vampire problem, I would know about it and tell you. [unless I was one of the vampires and trying to draw ya'll to Sunnyvale.]

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback

Re: Final Chain Of Command Understand that you are just writing up and thinking things through. And while I would disagree with some of the calls you have made, it looks like a workable structure. [supply, while not a "line" job, really should go under Command, rather than Engineering. Supply also takes care of the mess decks, as well as the bills (OPTAR) and such. Besides, Command already has Admin as part of their duties.] I would mention that your Lt. Commanders would have specific duties, rather than be a general assistant. For example you will probably have one Command Lt.CMD as your Radar Officer. Another as your Comm Officer, a third as Commanding the division that operated and maintained, say some other sensory system you had. Of course, if your vessel has a very small radio division, either via really functional and simple to use com gear, or just not that much of it, you might want to grab an Ensign for this task.

Re: 2004, another world thankfully not our own This does get to be a touchy subject because facts are in dispute. Some folks look at McCarthy, have never heard (or don't trust) Vernona and are disgusted. There are even some who have never got the word on communism that a lot of folks have, i.e. massive death and starvation, fear, secret police. It is always "well, the Russians just did it wrong. When we get in power, things will be different" etc. etc. etc. And you have to admit, communism talks a good rap and Hayek is ratehr boring to read. Freedom requires the individual take responsibility for the outcome of his own actions. that can be scary for a lot of folks. (As well as the tolerance to allow others to do thier thing means bad things will happen. So how much bad stuff are you willing to accept as the price of your own freedom?) Why Ultra would WANT the job of being the power that be, is a big question to me. Is it a better view if you are the lead dog? Vanity? A sense of duty or responsibility? Power Tripping and Ego boosting? Some things that need to be explored.

Re: End Of The World As We Know It... Details At 11 I do too. The kids have been making this a running joke for, well, ever since Buffy came out and the daughter fell in love with it. (Well, Spike, but that is another story) SunnyDale is the town with the vampire problem. SunnyVale is a small californian bay area community, with no vampire problem.

Re: I Have In My Hand A List... Actually that was where I was going to go. With McCarthy discredited, that makes any further investigation into communist infiltration difficult and discredited as well. They would then have free reign in government and culture, and you would see supes as well as the general populace moving toward a more, well, communist mind set. The wall would not fall in 1989, and even this country (US) might see a rise of a more socialist style, if not communist government. With the drop in GDP, military capability, cultural sameness, loss of civil liberties, (all in the interest of the greater good of the State, of course) that accompanies any such takeover. If the US does not fall, it will still be far weaker militarily and politically in the world. Will be constantly undermined in any efforts to foment democracy or even alignment toward the US. East Germany will absorb West Germany (instead of the other way around.) Latin America will all go the route of Cuba. As will Africa, and South East Asia. Israel would be a weird case. The Soviets supported it until the 1967 war. (Actually, the USSR was an early supporter, but relations worsened in the 50's and the Soviets moved to Egypt and Syria instead, just prior to that war.) With Joe out, would relations between the USSR and Israel suffer? Or would the Israelis stay friendly? With a weak US, and the rest of the world under Soviet domination in one form or another, the 1967 war would be radically different. Either Israel would cease to exist, or there would have been no war in 1967. Supes would be required to work for the state, and some might be assigned to the secret police. But then, somewhere, will rise a champion, who will take on these "bad" supes, and although he, she, it or they, will be branded "reactionary traitorous counter-revolutionaries" and an "Enemy to the People" (i.e. villians) such rebels will not see themselves as such. Nor would such rebels gain much support in the general populace. Freedom is a pretty scary deal to most folks. The Nanny state may not be perfect, but it does relieve one of the responsibilities for failure. Any rebel trying to return America to the ideals of an individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, will find it a VERY tough road.

Re: WWYCD?: The Shakedown. Bucky would call out, "Hey, why are YOU leaving?" loud enough for AR to overhear him. Then use his mystic powers to.... hover. [bucky has right now one and only one power. Flight 15"]

Re: [Compilation] "to Star HERO Conversions & Adaptations" How come the link to Space:1889 Hero sends me to a Firefly thread? (Although the confusion is understandable to a certain amount, what with the horses and such. ) But thanks for the list. I really appreciate it.

Re: Final Chain Of Command This looks good, but I would still recommend some minor adjustments at the lower ranks. In real world wet navies, Ensigns, and Lieutenants would serves as division heads, or Department Assistants. (Main Propulsion Assistant, Reactor Officer, Sonar Officer, Assistant Weapons Officer Torpedoe, etc.) Lieutenant Commanders and Commanders would be Department Heads. And there are several departments on a modern naval vessel. These include: Engineering: These guys are responsible for the propulsion plant and really the entire vessel and any equipment not covered by any other department. The hull, life support equipment, the power plant, electrical generation and distribution equipment, the jump/warp/hyper drive system, interior communications system, the toilets, any hull fittings, the hydraulics and steering equipment, heating, air conditioning and refrigeration plants, etc. They will be divided into divisions based on the equipment and skill sets required to operate and maintain that equipment. (Electronics technicians for the power plant monitoring and control equipment, Electrician's mates the electrical generators and switch gear, machinists for the mechanical stuff. On subs, you have two groups of machinists, those who deal with the propulsion plant, and those who deal with everything else.) [Actually this is not quite right. On subs, there is a bulkhead between the engineering spaces, where the reactor and propulsion plants are, and the forward area. Sometimes the diesel will be in the front, and sometimes it will be back aft. If it is back aft, the propulsion mechanics take care of it. If forward, A-gang, or the Auxiliarymen will handle it.] Weapons: What they handle and take care of, is pretty self explainitory. Each different weapons system will usually have their own overall officer in charge. (Missiles, torpedos, guns) Also Fire Control systems, the computers and communication systems between the weapon and the ship, will be a division under the Weaps and have its own Assistant Weapons Officer (A-Weaps) in charge. Deck: These guys handle things like cranes, mooring lines and associated docking equipment. If you have smaller craft such as assault craft, (but not like fighters or the such) the Boat Group Commander is an assistant to the Deck officer. The head of the Deck Department is called the "First Lieutenant" regardless of rank. [some boats will have EITHER a Weapons Officer/Department OR a Deck Officer. Tenders, transports, supply and medical ships or ships with few or no weapons systems, will have a deck department, and any guns or weapons they do have, the Gunnery Officer will be an assistant to the First Lieutenant. On subs, where our deck equipment is minimal, the First Lieutenant is junior to the Weapons officer.] Navigation Department: Usually the smallest department, its function is pretty self evident. Quartermaster Division is responsible for keeping accurate logs of position and events aboard ship, figuring out where we are, and how to get to where we want to go, when we will arrive, and what time is it now. Usually they will have a Navigation Electronics division to maintain and operate the specialized equipment for their job. (Nav ETs will handle navigation computers, Sat Nav, GPS, and any inertial navigation systems) [We hated these guys (well, maybe hate is a strong term, jealous maybe). They had the lightest work loads, were the guys who were the first off the boat when it pulled into port, and the last back after liberty. Engineering had to, after the boat was tied up, bring shore power aboard, shut down the engines and reactor, and only THEN could we go out. And before the rest of the crew came aboard, we had to be there and get the whole thing up and running. We were last off and first back.] Operations: Operations handles things like Radar, tactical and intelligence equipment, communications equipment, and generally anything that does not belong to the Weapons Department, yet necessary for "fighting the ship" Electronic Warfare is usually under this department as well. Supply/Admin: The "Chop" was NOT a line officer. He kept the books, ran the mess decks, made sure we had the supplies and spare parts we needed, all our paperwork (especially pay records) was in order. On smaller vessels like subs, he also was nominally in charge of the Medical division, which amounted to one guy, the Corpsman. (On subs. The size of your medical department would reflect on crew size and length of time out. Our Corpsman was a Chief Petty officer, or higher enlisted, rather than a full blown Doctor or officer. Of course, if you are talking a hospital ship, obviously the medical Department would be much bigger and separate from Supply) On ships like Carriers, you will have an Air Department, ruled by an "Air Boss" He is responsible for the flight deck, hanger decks, refueling aircraft (and its associated equipment with aid from Engineering) arresting gear and catapults. He is responsible for the handling of the aircraft while they are aboard, and while they are landing or taking off. This is separate from taking care of the planes themselves. The pilots and maintenance crews of the Air Wing would handle all other aspects related to the craft. On your Science vessels, you may want to establish a Science Department, or even have it replace Operations. If you want to look at a ship organically, you can think of Operations like the central nervous system and eyes, ears and nose, (With the Captain as the brain, although good captains allow their crew to think as well.) Weapons and/or Deck as the hands and Engineering as the legs, as well as the stomach, heart and lungs of the ship. (A-gang handles the lower bowels). Navigation I guess would be the inner ear. Supply keeps us all fed and paid. Your command advancement as an officer, is that you will serve first as division head (or possibly start as an assistant to a division head on larger ships), then a department head, then XO, and then Commanding Officer of a ship. Usually, officers will stick with one kind of ship their entire carreers. (Submarine officers will serve on subs, surface vessel officers won't go underwater, destroyer captains will move up to battleships, Air Wing, or flight officers may move into command of an Aircraft Carrier. Supply and medical officers will never command a vessel, as their skills are better utilized elsewhere. Engineers, Operations Officers, Navigators, First Lieutenants and Weapons Officers are in the line of command. Hence the term "Line" officers.) Anyway, hope you found this helpful, if long winded.

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback There is nothing that says a doctor cannot be a captain, but this would be extremely rare, or he would probably be considered not a good doctor. It takes years to learn medicine, and it also takes years to learn to Captain a vessel, learn all the myriad details and systems, as well as how to lead and train men. Time is one of those limited resources, you can put that time to learning to be a good doctor, or a good Captain, but not both. To be good at one, you are going to have to sacrifice the other. My first Captain used to say that his job was not to get the men to do what he wanted. It was to get them to WANT to do what he wanted.

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback Actually you will find that Captains that take their tenders on attack runs, don't live long enough to be promoted to command any other vessel. Also, generally speaking, your support ships will NEVER be close to the action. They hang out mostly in safe ports. They can deploy to sea (space), but this is generally to move the ship from one port to another, or for training. If you have a battle going on, your support ships will be miles away from it. (With the obvious exception of say, a Pearl Harbor type of attack, where your safe ports and bases are attacked.)

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback

Re: Rattles Thanks a lot ya'll. This will be very helpful.

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback I think we are on the same page on a lot of this. And you are absolutely correct, higher ranks go to more "important" ships. But again, commanding a hospital ship does not prepare you for commanding a combat vessel. You are setting up a massively dangerous "Peter Principle" problem for your military. (Of course, that might be your plan all along ) Also, in the real world, one does not go from one ship to another. One will rotate between "sea" duty and "shore" duty. You may be commanding a squadron of fighters aboard a carrier this year. Next, you are training pilots at some land base. You cannot keep crews at sea for too long, without some pyschological problems. I am not sure space is that different. Also, you will NOT spend your career commanding vessels. They don't hand green kids out of the Academy his own command. They want to train them first, put them under more senior officers for guidance, and also testing to see if he can handle the responsiblity of a multibillion dollar, very leathal ship. Before they give you the keys. You will serve as 1) division head, 2) department head, 3) XO, and THEN 4) CO. (You might serve as assitant division or department head at some point, for ships with larger departments aboard) At least in the "real" navy, i.e. aboard something other than like fighters. Fighter pilots is a different thing altogether. Example from a nuclear submarine include, (but are not limited to,) Reactor division, Electricial, Mechanical, Auxiliary and Auxiliary Electricial all of which would be under the Engineering Department. Weapons Department would contain the torpedo, missile, fire control and sonar divisions. Operations Department includes Communications, Deck and I am starting to get fuzzy at this point. (I spent my tours back aft.) Its been a long while. But I think you get my drift here. Well some folks like that kind of work. And lets face it, sometimes tenders can be the most important ship you have. Again, I worry about the Peter Principle as described above. Now, I can offer advice based on experience in a real world navy. But it is up to you to take it, and most of my advice will be directed at how to make it seem more realistic, rather than have anything to do with playablity, plotably, or the like. More than a year or two seems a bit short for a tour as commander of any vessel. Now if it were 4 or 5, then I would get worried. But a year? You are just about broken in. And you also have to take into account the needs of the service. If there are not enough ships to go around, well, promotions take longer. A couple of other minor points. A repair ship is a much more critical and man power intensive mission than supplying other ships. And usually more important. (Not always but generally speaking) I would recommend reversing these two at a minimum. (Putting your officers aboard a supply ship first, then a repair ship.) Ditto for Troop Transport and Hospital ship. (Actually, I would still recommend breaking the logisitics officers away from the line officers. It is a completed different mind set and skill set.) Courier and Science vessels, I think that would depend on the crew size. And I would recommend several different "sizes" for each. You gotta remember that these ships cost a lot of money, and represent a very large investment in manpower, capabilities and time. You want to maximize the resources to where you need them. Sometimes a small scout vessel will be cheaper and just as effective as sending an entire Enterprise class Science cruiser. Sometimes the bigger vessels get noticed more than you really want.

Re: Rattles

Re: Kill-Master General "But GM, I ain't damaging anything. Just closing off these two blood vessels. I ain't harming them." Yeah I am so sure that will fly.

Re: Does Hero System "break" at higher levels, and if so, at what level? Why am I reminded of the fight between Dorian Gray and Ms. Harker in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? "We'll be at this all day." At 13,000 points, aren't you like, God anyway? Or just about? I don't see that as too much a problem, as I would retire a character long before that point. It would get dull playing him, I imagine. (Not that I have a chance of ever seeing any character get to that level. Sooner or later, I screw up and my characters get killed long before they reach any serious levels.)

We've all seen in the movies where the good guy is trapped somewhere, but unseen. In order to get away from them, our hero throws a rock or in some other manner, makes a noise elsewhere, far from him, in order to distract the bad guys. My wife's character wants to be able to do this with a slight twist. She wants a device, that is 1) small, about the size of grenade at most 2) contains a motor and power supply, such that pressing a button will cause it to rattle. The idea being that when it is in the hand, or in the air, it makes almost no noise. But when it lands, it rattles, hopefully causing the bad guys to be distracted. How do we model this in Hero? My first thought was Flash, Hearing group. But that does not seem right. It can't cause any damage, or stun exactly. All it does (hopefully) is distract temporarily. The rattling will continue until the device is deactivated, so it differs from our hero above in that it will (hopefully) cause the bad guys to look for it until they find it. Any ideas?

Re: New Campaign could use some feedback Okay, since others are tackling the technical issues, let me tackle some things I see on the political side of things. Military governors imply a military dictatorship of some type. This might be intentional, since big bad dictatorships are always fun to fight against. How much political power do flag admirals have, or rather how arbitrary can their rulings, judgment, and decisions be in non-military matters relating to the governed systems? Thing you should realize about dictatorships in general is that there is an information problem in them, which renders them ineffective at providing for the needs and desires of a population. (See Hayek) So this is always a good villain, as it gives them a ready made flaw. Villains who have no flaws, no weaknesses can be very frustrating to defeat. However, if this is the good guys, there are some bugs that need to be worked out. You might want a civilian sector government with command over the sector fleet, or the sector fleets independent of the local government altogether. This latter would be my recommendation, as it makes it easier for the central military command (Grand Admiral) to move forces about as needed. The changes recommended I think would be pretty minimal. Drop reference to "military governors" and make your flag admirals "fleet commanders" in the different sectors. The sectors would be governed in a federated republic of sorts, by civilians. And the military would be free from having to do all the other jobs a government requires, but is superfluous to military operations and functioning. (After all, what do Command Carriers command if not other ships?) Besides, tensions between local governments and local military might provide more chances for story. In present day, as well as historically, Commodores commanded squadrons or fleets of ships instead of single isolated vessels or star bases. Even Leutenant Commanders might find themselves the HMFIC of a squadron or fleet of fighter craft. You seem to equate a particular rank with the size or function of the vessel. I would suggest amending this. Commanding a troop transport is a far different thing from commanding a frigate, destroyer or other combat vessel. Hospital ships are supposed to stay out of harms way. Destroyers head toward it. It takes a different mind set and training to command these different types of missions as well as ships. Ship command rank is a function of crew size, which roughly tracks with ship's size. Bigger ships don't have higher ranking captains just because they are bigger. They have them because bigger ships have larger crews. And there is also the factor of lethality involved. Bigger ships, or alternately larger fleets are more deadly (to the enemy, hopefully) than smaller units. That means as a prudent Grand Admiral, you want more seasoned, more responsible, officers commanding more lethal units. And have those officers experienced in dealing with lethal vessels and crews. I would advise logistics and support ship command to be separate from "line" command. Different command tracks for either set of officers. You can keep the same rank structure, but recognize the guy whose been commanding Destroyer tenders (repair ships) his whole life ain't going to be in command of a Destroyer. Also, shouldn't there be a Leutenant rank between Ensign and LTCMDR?

Re: What is Vacuum Decay like? Thanks. That gives me a formula tsub l = m0/3K where K=hc^4/(30720PI^2G^2) =~3.98e15kg^3*s^-1. Lets assume a mass of, oh lets make it easy. Lets set the mass (m0) to the cube root of 3.98e15. (158,475.09kg) We end up with 1 second life time. In its frame. In our frame, again assuming we can accelerate it to 99.99999994999999998749999999375%c, that means each second its time will equal 8hours 47 minutes, 2.7seconds in our frame. Hmm... A fast traveling micro black hole's energy output will be smaller as well. Remember that power is energy per unit of time. So while this black hole is exploding, it will appear in our frame to explode "slower" than one would expect. Which would mitigate any danger from being too close to the explosion of such a micro black hole. (Of course as it is moving relative to you anyway, that will also further mitigate the damage.) General Relativity is a strange bird.

Re: What is Vacuum Decay like? Oh yeah. Unless the black hole is charged. And of course this is even assuming these micro black holes would last long enough to be accelerated. But that part might be unnecessary anyway. When Brookhaven started up their RHIC, it was feared that it would produce black holes. (A fear that really did not make a whole lot of sense to me. [And their team of experts as well] A black hole made from a few nuclei would still have the gravitational pull of only a few nuclei.) How that collider worked was taking heavy ions (gold) and smashing into each other. While the mass may change, the momentum does not simply vanish. So here is the idea. You build black holes by smashing two beams of particles into each other. But you design the beams such that the momentum does NOT cancel completely. You can do this by accelerating one beam greater than the other, or using different massed ions in each beam.

Re: Suddenly... a new and better you Oh jeesh. Honest folks its just a typo. So, would that be a summon?

Re: Is there such a thing as TOO evil? Yeah but the problem with that, is that his wife, and the baby's grandparents and such are all tax payers. Which means continually paying for the priveledge of supporting this for his entire life. 3 hots and a cot, plus health care for the rest of his life, paid for by the survivors? This don't seem right to me.