egaroadkill

Re: Speed of Travel

Cool Steve you’re aiming square for the style of space game I love running/playing. I have a campaign based off a modified 2300AD universe that about fits what you’re looking for. Here are some links that can lead you to the flavor of this game.

Human known space is about 40LY in diameter with your average ship taking up to three months to reach the outer limits of the periphery. Mankind has settled around 25 marginally habitable planets with only a handful truly decent to live on. Ships are limited to 7.7ish LY hops due to a radiation buildup in drive components that can only be removed in a gravity well.

I’ve been busily converting this game over to hero and hope to have something decent to put on the web soon if the guys with the rights allow it.

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50213&page=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2300AD

http://www.geocities.com/pentapod2300/kevin.htm

http://www.etranger.org.uk/

http://www.travellerrpg.com/2320/

http://www.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_27&site=dtrpg

Re: How do your Star Heroes get around?

We use the 2300AD Stutter warp; think of zillions of micro teleports in rapid succession, limited to a maximum distance traveled of 7.7 light years before you “must” bleed off radiation collected in the drive components. Maximum speed “pseudo velocity” is measured by drive capability vs. ships mass. Average ship speeds are around 3.5 LY /day.

The warp drive efficiency is severely reduced by gravity meaning that in orbit ones ship can hardly warp itself away from a planet but the further it gets away, the faster it goes. Eventually the ship crosses the light barrier to C+. For Earth, warp drives are practically useless around 30000Km with the light barrier out around 600000Km but, that’s well within the Suns C+ threshold that ends somewhere near Mars.

Ships use regular thrusters for maneuvering when the warp won’t work.

Also, planetary interface is by shuttle. Some planets have beanstalks though.

Re: Another advanced and weird material

There is research into inserting atoms of other elements inside the Buckyballs.

 

Imagine using an ion gun to propel buckyballs, whether egg shaped or spherical, full of tungsten or uranium.

DARPA aparently claims to have an experimental fuel cell using this technique that can hold 90 times its weight in hydrogen.

Re: How hard is your science ficiton?

I run one that’s using approximately the same technologies as GDW’s 2300AD; no artificial gravity, some lasers, not quite AI, very limited nano, limited cyber silliness. It’s pretty much today’s tech but with a warp drive. Also, Kirk or Zap Brannagen would have a hard time cross breeding with the alien babe's.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Orlando has a new home glut 400% over demands. Hummm… contemplation of becoming a slum lord…

Ah never mind. It’s too close to the evil mouse.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Ben Bova’s Precipice: I enjoyed its good old fashioned good guy, bad guy, right wrong space opera/hard sci-fi feel. I’m planning on reading more of his grand tour novels.

I also just read Jerry Pournells Falkenburgs Legion. Good hard core military SF with a dose of really nasty politics. The Codominium in its fall is just plain nasty.

I think I’ll crack open Alas Babylon to warm me up to Jericho when it premiers on TV soon. I hope its good and not cheesy moralist pabulum or old Hollywood cliché…

Re: Greatest Post-Apoc Film of All Time

Oh my god yes. That movie gets my vote for worst PA movie of all time. Michael Dudikoff (of American Ninja fame) prancing about in Film Noir-style clothing in a Post-Apocalyptic musical. I don't think anyone could think of a better (or worse) concept for a movie.

 

And Road Warrior gets my vote for best.

LOL, I'm surprised someone else saw it. I think its so bad its funny!

Yep, Road Warrior is the best.

Re: Interplanetary colonies

I found a website that does estimates. However' date=' the estimates vary wildly depending upon what you use as a yardstick.[/color']

n 2005, $222,000,000.00 from 1976 is worth:

$762,635,294.12 using the Consumer Price Index

$619,501,492.54 using the GDP deflator

$731,911,416.62 using the unskilled wage

$1,113,569,866.14 using the nominal GDP per capita

$1,518,729,085.63 using the relative share of GDP

Ouch, no matter how you look at it, that’s a wad of cash but the project would certainly kick start the human races move into space and radically change things on the planet.

This would be a heck of a bill to digest for any group of governments. There isn’t any way to defer cost by giving land along the railroad tracks to the investors either. Nope, an investment this big would be beyond society today. They’d have to either feel pretty threatened somehow or the venture made comparatively dirt cheap before any of this could happen.

It would be nice to shake off the crack addition to oil though…

Does that estimate factor into account the capability to manufacture water and oxygen from the lunar regolith' date=' or are they assuming that all consumables would have to be transported from Earth?[/quote']

Actually the report hints at several possible sources of extraterrestrial supply, even Lunar oxygen. It didn’t say much about potential lunar ice mining but it did hint at later asteroid/comet mining being quite feasible.

Wait' date=' so in 21 years it would have paid back its initial investment?[/quote']

Estimates varied. I picked 21 because that was the middle one listed. One was suggesting it could pay back as early as 16 years. Personally, I don’t know how one would even be able to make these predictions until the project was nearly done.

quote=Sundog]That was the estimate. I've read some of the same reports.

Mind you, they were assuming that microwave beaming of power from satellites through atmosphere was feasible. Looks like it isn't, at least not with our current tech.

It isn’t? Dam, I had hoped they would find it a workable solution for power transfer. When I first heard of this as a kid in 77 I got all worked up with hope. Dam the gods of thermodynamics and particle physics, dam them all!!!

But…

If the beanstalk could work, we would have ready made power lines into orbit!

An alternative to the power sats I thought of was simply to orbit a bunch of dipole antennas near the sun that collectively beam microwaves to orbiting relays but now that power transfer through the atmosphere is out, what to do? Oh well…

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares

"The Big Matrix"

The Dude abides in a virtual reality created by da man to put him down! Many action packed seconds of bowling and combating nilist agents with marmots in bath tubs.

“I zee Mr. Lavouskie. Vou are a man leading two lives…

STAY OUTTA MALABU! (boink)

Re: Greatest Post-Apoc Film of All Time

Radioactive Dreams

Re: 2300 AD Kafers?!

Some things I’ve done in my 2300AD Hero game with Kafer’s are very similar. I’ve given them the lowered INT with a gradual INT AID during combat or “tense” situations AKA, getting hit with the officer’s cattleprod. I’ve also lowered there speed by one but given the same gradual increase over time for the same situations. This increase happens over a few phases and lasts for hours. The same goes for CV.

Permanent increases come from experience added to INT and Speed.

They also get a +1 PD/ED for there carapace and have a slightly smaller base DEX and Body.

Also, the source books do suggest that a very small few Kafer attain some sort of continually enlightened state after prolonged exposure to stress. With these rare sorts, I simply say the AID and speed are continual with no end cost.

I love the psychology of the Kafer and the resulting relationship they have with everything else. At first they seem clueless, sluggish and without direction but within a few phases of the proper stimulation they are an unholy terror.

It’s also ironic how they approach this sort of supercritical mass of aggression and near annihilation only to become, if they survive, intellectual pacifists in there highest state of being. Well, at least that’s how I interpret them.

When the players don’t know how the Kafer’s think it makes for some really bizarre and confusing games as they come to understand how really alien they are.

Re: Interplanetary colonies

In the mid 1970’s, NASA did some research into the building of orbital colonies to mass produce solar power satellites from lunar material. In the sociological research chapter they deduced that the smallest population to maintain a self sufficient settlement was around 12500.

Also, I might add the whole project was deemed technologically feasible, reaching self sufficiency and project payback in 21 years but at a cost of 222 Billion! Note: That’s in 1976 dollars.

God, I can’t begin to imagine what it would cost in today’s dollars.

Re: Battletech Mecha First Loves, Favourites, and just plain silly.

Light: Jenner –F removes the SRM and replaces with extra armor and a heat sink or two.

Medium: Wolverine, the all laser variant

Heavy: Marauder variant with large lasers and mediums. No AC or PPC. But, the humble Archer with all its LRM’s was tons of fun too. Oh, and must not forget the T-Bolt either!

Assault: Toss up… Awesome with its three PPC’s! The Charger variant with four large lasers or the Banshee 3S are all great fun. The original 3025 Pillager was fun too.

Overall my favorite was the Jenner –F

Later with Star League tech I loved the…

Light: Hussar

Medium: Crab, Komodo and Starfire

Heavy: Any Marauder variant, Gallowglas

Assault: Devastator, Pillager, Marauder II

Overall, Komodo

Clan

Light: Piranha, Puma, Cougar

Medium: Shadowcat, Nova

Heavy: Rifleman, Marauder

Assault: Masakari, Dashi, Supernova

Overall, Nova

Re: Making a Post-Apoc "logical"

I run a pochyplix campaign where the human race discovers a comet is about to hit in a few weeks. You might think it’s the same old cliché story but I twist it a bit.

The campaigns first adventure starts months before when the players discover the government has known for a couple of years and rather than telling everyone, it tries desperately to silence the news or eliminate any leaks while secret underground facilities are built for the politicians, VIP’s and what not. To hell with the public, only the rich and powerful are going to live.

The game typically has this frantic, run for your lives through the growing chaos and suits with machine guns hunting you, feel but twists again as the comet misses the planet. What’s left are a lot of pissed off people who survived the riots/wars having no love for the politicians who sold them out, no effective governments and tiny, hidden, isolated bunkers of few, well armed elitists wanting there power back.

Friends tell me the game has a sort of “Postman”, “Jeremiah”, TW2000, Red Dawn feel to it.

Re: Alien Conversions

Here’s a few I’ve been tinkering with.

Larry Nivin and Jerry Pournelle

Motie’s: from the “Mote in Gods Eye” and “The Gripping Hand”

Jerry Pournelle’s

Sauron Soldier: “Codominium”/”War World Series”

Sauron Cyborg: “Codominium”/”War World Series”

S.M. Sterling’s

Draka: from various “Draka” novels

From Game Designers Workshop (GDW) 2300AD game setting

Kafer

Pentapod

Yili

Eber

Harry Turttledove’s

The Race: “Worldwar” alternate history series

David Gerrold’s

Morthan: “Starhunt” series

Various types of Chtorr: "Chtorr" series

Re: How to end a dystopia...

I say the only way to end the dystopia is to, like a bad flu, let it run its course. Let someone treat the occasional symptom but forget the Hollywood ending, it doesn’t happen, well maybe the type were people run about, scream and shout as the pochyplix hits. That is unless you can get the mind control device that covers the known space of humanity making everyone white bread SanAngelo Metroplex joy, joy feelings and such drivel.

About the only way to assist change is to counter the selfish philosophies with something else and allow people to learn and choose, maybe with a little nudging. Oh, and be wary of the dystopia’s auto immune system appearing to knock your heads in when it notices you’re having an effect.

I’ve read a few excellent books highlighting space faring dystopias. Ben Bova’s series of books forming the “Grand Tourâ€, Jerry Pournelles CoDo and some of Phillip K Dicks stories make for some very believable dystopias that have reached the stars. Well, then again there’s Firefly too…

Anyway, I don’t think technology, loose money or the Wild West automatically lead to breaking the dystopia stranglehold but they can help a lot by removing controls over people. If you can get the (insert cliché despot here) funk ray out of the publics head, you got a chance.