Ranxerox

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See?

I'm never going to be all that interested in running a space-faring superhero campaign, but if you include enough character write-ups I might buy it as an "enemies" book and bring the baddies to earth.

Re: What should I add to my equipment list?

You probably already have a lot of these but just in case here are some suggestions.

High tech first aid kit with artificial skin, artificial blood, wound glue, stimulants and possibly even healing nanobots. In game terms aid to BODY with on an OAF, requiring extra time, gestures and concentration to use,

Combat drugs.

Genetically engineered pheromone based perfumes and colognes.

Chameleon closes.

Personal security bots since not everyone has either the time or desire to learn how to defend themselves.

Replicators.

Cryogenic pods to keep the gravely ill and wounded stable until advance medical help becomes available.

Also your A/R should have a translation feature so that it is not necessary for people to speak the same language in order to communicate.

Re: Stops the shrapnel but not the kinetic energy

If you really wanted to build a power that convered killing damage to normal damage' date=' build it as resistant protection with a side effect of doing normal damage. I would however, just build it as resistant protection and call it "good enough".[/quote']

 

Unfortunately side effect damage automatically bypasses defenses so this doesn't work.

 

I find myself agree with this. I think all you need to do is state the armor is unpenetrated by the attack (this is mere SFX) but STUN & BODY will still get though. If you are using "Real Armor" for everyone's armor' date=' then don't for this material, as it's so advanced.[/quote']

 

Yep, just making it a SFX is an option, and you are right the real armor limitation would not be appropriate for this item.

 

Buy the Resistant (+1/2) Advantage for your normal PD and ED. That way your PD and ED stop the BODY and STUN of an incoming Killing Attack' date=' just like they do for a Normal Attack. I'd let the "converts to normal damage" slide as a +0, or else don't even bother with it.[/quote']

 

Carbon Nanofiberweave Clothing: (Total: 27 Active Cost, 15 Real Cost) Resistant Protection (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); OIF Expendable (; Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4) (Real Cost: 5) plus Resistant (+1/2) for up to 24 Active Points of maximum 12 PD, 12 ED, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (18 Active Points); OIF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4) (Real Cost: 10)

 

Okay, good enough.

Re: Building a STL drive compound/power

Why do you need both maximum acceleration and acceleration relative to mass? Do you expect the mass of your ship to change much or the engine to be strapped on to different ships?

Re: Stops the shrapnel but not the kinetic energy

Not exactly, in that the wearer can still take body. If you are wearing this armor and someone shoots you in the chest with a high caliber weapon it feels like you got hit in the chest with a baseball bat, and a baseball bat to the chest can do body - ribs can be cracked and organs can be bruised. Also like be hit by a baseball bat, when you are wearing this armor I would like it if having a nice layer of muscle covering your bones and organs could reduce your risk of serious injury.

I want to build a superior bullet proof uniform that can stop pretty much anything from piercing it but only give the wearer modest protection against the kinetic energy of the the shot. Is there any power in 6th Ed that can be used to turn killing damage into normal damage? If not what would be my best option for getting mimicking cloth that can't be pierced?

Re: Gestalt Space Cruiser

I think your best bet is Duplication with the duplicates built on less points than the base form (a lot less points) but with the altered duplication advantage and raid duplication advantages.

Re: Mongol Ninjas!

Cool! Any chance of us getting a write-up of a sample Mongolian ninja?

Re: Solar Hero timeline

That's a good point about the power source. However, building better batteries is the current holy grail of technological development, and with all the money going into battery research I think we will have one up to the task in less than 70 years.

Yes, I'm sticking with the Solar Hero being proceeded by Cyber Hero but I don't see this as a problem. Yes, energy weapons aren't normally a part of the cyberpunk tropes but few cyberpunk stories are set in 2065. Late cyberpunk is a somewhat under explored genre but can include androids, rogue AIs and energy weapons.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

I'm not real sure what you mean by first fully learning capable AI and first emotionally aware AI.

Currently, there are tons of programs out there that overtime learn to be be better at the specific thing that they are programed to do such as speech recognition, hand writing analysis or challenging players in a game. This is a nifty programming feature but that is all that it is. In order for a program to achieve AI status IMO it would need to look beyond performing some task and actively be trying (with at least some success) to comprehend the world. This is something that IMHO can't happen without self awareness of one self a something that is both part of the world and separate from the other parts.

The reason that I did not originally ask about the 1st man portable energy weapon is because my timeline focuses on from 2080 to 2200, and based on the Active Denial System and other breakthroughs in energy weapons I am confident we will have man portable energy weapons prior to 2080.

Re: How does a Megacorp make money?

I've read a fair amount of cyperpunk, but I can't recall any megacorps that were presented as being quite as all-powerful as you are describing. I must have been reading the wrong cyperpunk books.

However, even if a corporation was a mega as the megacorp you are describing it could work economically. Even though megacorp is paying it's workers peanuts as long as those workers are desperate enough to work for those wages they would still be adding value to the system. In this set-up the megacorp is the de facto government and all the wages that they short changing their employees become in effect a tax. The heads of the megacorp are analogous to the landed nobility in a feudal system with the workers taking the role of peasants. If a duke wants a new castle all he has to do is get his peasants to build him one and so it would be the head of megacorp.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

I'd hate to have to calculate and develop a station-keeping system for a series of asteroids off of a tethered non-rigid hub.

IIRC, centripetal acceleration is pretty straight forward. If you can get there center of gravity equal distances from the the center of the circle and get the circle spinning (don't ask me how you accomplish this feat) they should maintain there separation pretty well. However, if I am under estimating the problem you could find two asteroids of roughly equal mass and tether them together in one giant spinning bolo and get your artificial gravity that way.

I don't have any actual numbers, but you'd have to find some pretty rare asteroids. Many are just heaps of gravel, and would disintegrate if spun at any appreciable velocity. And you'd have to maneuver the asteroids together, and it would be just as easy to ship them off to Earth orbit.

 

But for turning an asteroid into a habitat, see Cole habitat or Bubbleworld.

Well you can't ship them off to Earth orbit very easily if you are starting off in the asteroid belt. Though the question of whether or not it is reasonable to expect the asteroids or any available material for the tether to withstand the forces involved in bearing the strain of such a set-up is something I was wondering.

Thanks for introducing me to Bubbleworlds. They are very cool, but they seem post 2200 to me. Of course others might disagree with that assessment.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

With this last part, you're saying that when you're at Mars, you're halfway to the asteroid belt, right? It looks like you're saying the asteroids are halfway to Mars, but the asteroid belt is outside Mars' orbit.

 

Also, gravity on most asteroids is too negligible for ongoing colonies, at least until something can be done about the ill health effects of microgravity.

Is there some reason that a group of small asteroids could not be tethered into a circle and the circle spun for centripetal artificial gravity?

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Self-Driving cars: 2040 (or earlier)

 

One thing I thought was a bit of a cop-out in Alien Wars, Terran Empire and Galactic Champions: they didn't tell you what human life expectancy was. Either 130 years is an absolute barrier, like the speed of light, or it isn't, in which case life expectancy should be dramatically longer.

I would like to take a stab at this one. I think that in the next 20 years, fueled by demand from aging boomer, we are going see a lot of research into preventing and reversing Alzheimer's and dementia. The pace of science being what it is the fruit of this research may arrive to late for most boomers but is likely to be enjoyed by us generation x types. This would mainly be in the form of slowing down the some of the effects of aging on the brain. Actual neural regeneration as opposed to just minimizing damage is something I could see showing up around 2060. Even then it might take another 40 years or so to work out more serious side effects.

Combine this technology with organ cloning or complete body replacement and possible longevity could go far beyond 130 years, but this is only if you can afford such expensive procedures. Otherwise, 130 years of life might be about as far as a body can carry us without expensive replacement parts.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

A few thoughts:

 

Medicine:

 

• 1st functional artificial ear
  
• 1st functional artificial eye
  
• 1st whole-body transplant
  

(I assume the sex changes you're referring to in your list refer to having full fertility?)

 

General Technology

 

• 1st fully-functional android (bipedal, self-contained with enough power for a full day)
  
• 1st man-portable energy weapon
  
• Evacuated Tube Transport system
  

So, is anybody going to take a stab at guesstimating these events?

Re: Solar Hero timeline

After 2200. That's more an issue about psychogenesis (personality installation) than creation of an intact human body' date=' IMO.[/quote']

 

I think you are talking about 'clones' like in Paranoia which are effectively 'reboots'. But to use as instant descendants' date=' probably not long after 2030 (maybe 2040, 2050)[/quote']

 

Yes I meant more along the lines of identical twins born 40 years apart than actual replacements. However, since I didn't specify the fault for any misunderstanding is mine.

Re: Expanded PULP HERO Bibliography

Wow, that is a heck of a bibliography. Your research is really impressive. I hope that you enjoyed every minute of it.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Two things:

1: establishment of "Cycler Ships" between the orbit of Earth and Mars to facilitate transport of personnel and goods (probably around the same time as the establishment of the Martian Colony).

2: Establishment of some kind of extra-earth police force to maintain order in the colonies (probably occur pretty much as soon as population in any one colony gets large enough to experience crime and public disorder).

Thank you for these suggestions. I will certainly include them in my campaign.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Medicine

• 1st human clone: 2030, but the clone isn't viable; it is, however, harvestable for organ replacement
  
• Organ cloning: 2030 (see above)
  

So when do you think that there will be viable human clones that aren't simply for organ harvesting?

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Consider that $194k is a whole lot more affordable than "Not available at any price." Plus' date=' the scale of production is definitely keeping the cost up and, to be honest, most people can't afford to get the training to fly the thing anyway. So yeah.. it was always going to be a rich person's toy.[/quote']

 

Well that is the thing. Even with training most people would be unfit to fly the thing. It is clear just driving down the highway that most of people one shares the road would be dangerous piloting a flying vehicle. That is why any mass produced flying car will need to basically fly itself and give it's "driver" just enough control to have the illusion of being in charge. I don't consider such a design to be impossible just very, very difficult. However, given that we are talking about a 190 year time frame it seemed reasonable to me that we might eventually get there.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Politics

Peace in the middle east - 2200's -> Major factor here will be the breaking of Saudi Arabia as a political and religious power and the modernization of the region in philosophical terms. Much of the rest of the Islamic world has moved on from the 1400's, Saudi Arabia hasn't. And they export their ultraconservative and pre-medieval brand of Islam under the guise of Islamic Outreach programs.

Peace in Sub-Saharan Africa - 2300's

 

General Technology

Introduction of affordable flying cars - 2011 - $194,000 flying car - Moller Skycar

I agree that peace in the middle east is probably dependent on the modernizing of Islam. Peace in Sub-Saharan Africa probably rest on the economic prosperity coming to the continent.

If $194k is affordable to you, good on ya mate. For me it is still somewhat on the pricey side.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

A few thoughts:

 

Medicine:

 

• 1st functional artificial ear
  
• 1st functional artificial eye
  
• 1st whole-body transplant
  

(I assume the sex changes you're referring to in your list refer to having full fertility?)

 

General Technology

 

• 1st fully-functional android (bipedal, self-contained with enough power for a full day)
  
• 1st man-portable energy weapon
  
• Evacuated Tube Transport system
  

My own estimation for flying cars would be around 2025; for true AI, around 2030.

Yes I was referring to full fertility sex changes.

True AI around 2030? That soon? That doesn't give me much time to get my Skynet contingency plans in order. I had better get cracking.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Space Exploration

• Man returns to moon - 2020 (Last I heard, this was the plan)
  
• Establishes lunar outpost - 2050
  
• Lunar colony - 2100
   
  
• 1st man on Mars - 2101
  
• Martian outpost - 2120
  
• Martian colony - 2190
   
  
• Manned expedition to moons of Jupiter - >2200
  
• Colony in asteroid belt - >2200
  
• Affordable commercial travel into outer space - 2110
  

I would have a certain amount of parrelellism like having 1st man on mars being about the same time as lunar outpost

Thank you for your replies. Rep forthcoming where I am able.

Since Solar Hero is defined by space exploration, I think that I will take dmjalund's advice and make the first man on Mars about the same time as the lunar outpost, and move up the other dates correspondingly. This way I exploration of the solar system can be largely out of the way by invention of the first FTL drive in 2200.

I'm working on putting together a Solar Hero campaign, and am asking for help dating stuff for my timeline. So all best guesses for anything on my list or stuff that should be on my list will be much appreciated.

Space Exploration

• Man returns to moon
  
• Establishes lunar outpost
  
• Lunar colony
   
  
• 1st man on Mars
  
• Martian outpost
  
• Martian colony
   
  
• Manned expedition to moons of Jupiter
  
• Colony in asteroid belt
  
• Affordable commercial travel into outer space
  

Medicine

• 1st human clone
  
• 1st genetically engineered designer baby
  
• 1st designer baby utilizing genes not native to the human specie
  
• 1st fully biologically functional female to male sex change
  
• male to female sex change
  
• AIDS cure
  
• Prosthetics superior to organ/limb that it replaces
  
• Organ cloning
  

General Technology

• Introduction of affordable flying cars
  
• Neural interface computer
  
• Realistic holograms
  
• True AI
  
• Sustained fusion
  
• Carbon nanotubes become common in construction
  

Politics

• Peace in the middle east
  
• Peace in Sub-Saharan Africa
  

Thanks in advance for all guesses. I'm following the CU's Solar Hero time frame of 2080 to 2200, so if you don't think something is going to happen in the next 200 years just say beyond 2200.

Re: When, Exactly, Is The Future?

In the CU, 2020 to 2080 is the official dates of Cyber Hero age and is considered near future roleplaying. From 2080 to 2200 is the time Solar Hero and could be consider mid-future to far future. Anything past 2200 (Alien Wars, Terran Empire, The Galactic Federation and Galactic Champions) would definitely be considered far future campaigns.