...
@Rix: Buy a space suit/pressure suit and apply a +10% cost...simply to have it made for non-humanoid. And we'll say that the helm made active with the press of a button on the top of Trixy's foot?
Thanks. I'm back. I was keeping up on what I could via phone while at our campsite. I appreciate those putting in the grunt work to work out the spaceship. I've done GURPS vehicle and spaceship design and I know that it takes a lot of effort, and usually a good spreadsheet to keep track of the complex interrelationship between volume and cost. I don't have the Spaceships book and I'd rather not have to spend any more money on RP books for a month or two.
Rix will be focused on the sickbay and would prefer a berth near it.
If there is any equipment needed, she has some cash to spend on that sort of thing, but April mentioned she already had some medical technology so I will trust all is in order unless anyone wants me to make a wish list or whatever to see if we have essentials covered.
She doesn't really have any skills to offer for anything other than medical work. She has some relatively low level science knowledge about physics and math and she might have some defaults from her skills that would do in a pinch but she's going to be pretty dependent on the crew to keep the ship intact and running/fighting.
Welcome back Rix.
Sure, Ill put you into Cabin 2.
The sickbay, thanks to APRIL, is full of tools and gizmos, so it should be operational.
Jack will take berth C8. The only other space he would need is somewhere to workout...but the cargo hold is good for that.
Jack can also be the hovertank...errr...jeep driver. I will dump his remaining skill points there and maybe mechanic for the vehicle???
The hovercraft is described as the ideal transport vehicle for high-capacity smuggling. Basically, it's a silent helicopter that can only fly several feet off the ground, but it could be fun as a car I guess.
It also has the advantage of being able to traverse over water, but unlike a big honkin' ATV, it probably can't handle steep or hilly terrain.
Hmmm...OTOH, the Wheeled ATV (p. 225) *can* handle steep-and-hilly, *and* is watertight, "swimming" (driving on the bottom) at 1/4 speed. But it has NO weaponry.
I may be changing my mind about the armored hovercraft...OTOH, we *could* easily afford BOTH (and outfit the ATV with weapons)...
Too bad we do not have the money for a contra-grav vehicle...could use it to transport from space to planet, as well as travelling around the land/water. Sorta like the Traveller air raft!
Why do I have this image of us turning into Hammer's Slammers? :P
That said, we could outfit the ATV with weapons if it became necessary. A technical is basically a pickup with the mounting for a crew served weapon welded on so it wouldn't even need to be that sophisticated.
On the other hand, we could always have defensive drones that can be deployed and used to cove the ATV if we run into hostiles.
ALL - so I scoured *all* the Recruitment and Discussion posts, and came up with this list of money-left-over :
...
Dr. Rix - $37,816
...
Please let me know if your number is significantly different now!
Rix picked up a skin suit to keep with her (not worn) for emergency situations and a Space Biosuit modified to be kept as a backpack for Trixy and deployable without human assistance. Rix has an extra airtank for Trixy if needed. Also lost the electrolaser pistol and ammo.
So her leftover cash is now: $24936. I have yet to update her profile, but I'll do that next chance.
A reminder:
Hey guys, If you don't mind filling out a stat block for me for your posts, that would be appreciated.
Include: Reaction Bonus, HP, FP, TORSO DR, Favored Defense, Favored Attack, PERC, WILL, HT, Move. That would help me speed along posts.
Noted: I'll get to that soon.
...
I think the ship is pretty much squared away.Get your cabins!
Id like to ask you guys to claim a cabin.
The cabin includes a small (Below the bed) Personal storage unit and some shelving above. As mentioned earlier, they also include a shower (which includes a fold out toilet and fold out sink.)
Feel free to note in your character sheets the Cabin You've chosen and what all you've done to stylize it.@Rix: Where does Trixy stay?!
I don't have editing rights to any of the maps. Rix would want a berth near the sick bay. I notice someone moved her there already. Trixy stays with Rix. They pretty much go everywhere together.
Here is an icon for Trixy for the maps: Trixy Icon
Okay, I've added the description of Nedora's cabin and workspace in her profile.
By the way, if we have to choose one, I'd go with the ATV over the hover truck.
Too bad we do not have the money for a contra-grav vehicle...could use it to transport from space to planet, as well as travelling around the land/water. Sorta like the Traveller air raft!
I thought contra-grav was TL11?
It probably is....I was just wishing we had the money to purchase one (if they exist yet!!) Just some wishful thinking!
AH-ha.
Alrighty, one day left to start. After work tomorrow, Ill be opening the Game play.
Those with Sig gear... It would seem we may have taken advantage of some verbage and loop hole-goodiness.
Jack's Guantlet, Is acceptable...as I can equate that to Thor's hammer and move right a long..
April.. I'm not sure if your entire computer self should count toward a sig gear bit.
Drones, I suppose, but it does seem a little bit of a stretch.
Engage me in verbal fencing. If you can logic me well enough, Ill humor you.
Should now* be able to move about
EDITED...
I wound up going with wealthy instead of signature gear, so it should be fine. Drones technically count as 0-IQ allies.
Contragrav is (TL10^), but hovercrafts aren't. Main difference is that hovercrafts have comparable handling to a square brick, while contragrav's is much, much better, and can actually fly, rather than hover.
I looked at the Ultra-Tech book, and I have to say that the Armoured Hovercraft (Page 227), is a great deal, if we can get it second or third hand. It lifts a lot of weight, has plenty of space, and the only reason it's not strictly better than the ATV is because of its price, and the fact that the ATV can be used as a mobile base camp, because of its electronics being solar-charged. If the price is reduced by 10(or, really, at least twice), then by all means, let's nab one!
Aster will take C7.
@ASter: Is there a reason aster doesn't have a picture? It would help for there to be one so I can use as a token on the maps.
@jean: You guys have a Hovercraft in the Cargo. Fun times. And as the game goes on, you guys can always pic up new stuff, of course.
He's got one now.
I've also edited his skills again to try and fill some holes.
He can now help with some of the mechanics.
I left a couple of points empty just in case I've forgotten anything that Aster suddenly remembers he does know.
He'll put up 50k easily 75 depending on the shares system.
The remainder will be for personal trade goods.
So... since this ship is so for out of our league that trying to price it where we can afford it is likely to have it fall apart on us when we turn the key. Might I suggest that we simply mcgruffin it and determine that we have a ship that is old, used, and needs TLC but not so bad that dropping a spoon in the galley will cause explosive decompression.
As for Aster's reason for being here. His enemy is a distant relative in the psy community that just happens to have been in charge of one of the more prestigious academy's. The academy that Aster also happened to attend. Said distant relative (very distant) happened to have a daughter that caught Aster's eye. Unfortunately, papa didn't approve of their relationship. One day while Aster was on liberty at the space port, he gets knocked on the head, wakes up on a tramp freighter as a steerage passenger to the outer rim. By the time he managed to ex-filtrate himself, he found that he'd been listed as expelled for cheating on an exam. Since then he's been trying to find evidence to clear his name.
This is also how he just happens to know something about ship systems.
I'm noticing a lot of people dropping a point or two into Guns (Pistols). Are we expecting guns to be more common than laser guns? Also, if anyone wants to branch out into nonlethal weapons, Beams (Rifle), Beams (Projector), and Sprayer seem to give the best options for that.
PLUS: Skillchips. They're a thing at this TL; April doesn't need to be the only one with modular skill software, if anyone's having trouble deciding between a group of several rarely-used stats.
So, the beam weapons of this tech level are emergent. Laser pistols are just becoming reliable. Military grade or private, rich collecters. Aside form that, projectiles are still the common place.
And FWIW, Terra has a non-lethal sonic stunner pistol with the Beam Weapon (Pistol) skill.
So, the beam weapons of this tech level are emergent. Laser pistols are just becoming reliable. Military grade or private, rich collecters. Aside form that, projectiles are still the common place.And FWIW, Terra has a non-lethal sonic stunner pistol with the Beam Weapon (Pistol) skill.
Sonic Stunner, or Sonic Stun Pistol? Because the first is basically a water gun, the second's a little stronger/longer-range, and both are dirt cheap... but the Sonic Stun Rifle is also pretty affordable, more effective at the same LC, and I'm generally curious why everyone went with pistols. (APRIL went with the Dinosaur Stunner, though she can only carry one big gun at a time and will have to choose between them for away missions)
Sonic Stun Pistol. I chose it over a rifle because the pistol is more easily concealed when out-and-about in society. I suppose I could also buy a rifle for wild areas...but I'm out of skill points for the Rifle version of the skill.
P.S. - oh, and also for the weight. With a STR of 8, she can't carry much!
Aster is the strongest personage in the group at 10. I'm humored.
@APRIL: Military of Terra uses Lasers. Otherwise, unless a Ne'er-do-well, expect projectile or others.
Anywho...as I'm awesome, Imma post this morning before work then eagerly come at your after work. MWAHAHAHA
Welp, guess I'm a ne'er do well. But Blue-Green Blinding Lasers are niiice
So, what's the plan? Go and find somewhere to sell the gear? Is the ship's patron available for further work? (Do we even know then?) Are we recklessly charging into the unknown?
Also, I think Jack's got 11(16) ST. That's why he's our resident loader/unloader!
I wonder where we might be able to get work. We could advertise (really bad idea with all the enemies), or go to the local Scavenger's Union. I imagine them unionising, since it's a dangerous place out there, and having someone being able to call for help, or be able to put out a price on those who'd attack the scavengers would be worth a small fee.
Or we can get into shenanigans on the moon. Shenanigans are nice.
RE:Captaining, I think that a captain or CEO figure would be decent thing to have, since, as I mentioned, PbP sandboxes slow down considerably without having a goal constantly. (in my experience) Obviously, we can also work it out in Discussion, or by having us all sitting down in the meeting room.
Also, how are we calling the tub? Sticking with the Turing?
A lot of ideas were bandied about regarding how we got access to the ship. Did we just pool our money, take advantage of a bargain basement ship, fix it up, and head out to look for salvage? If so, how did we all meet? Or do we have some kind of patron who arranged the ship and hired us all on as crew?
As for ship names, I would lobby for my idea of the Giordano Bruno. Here are some links for people who may not be familiar with his story:
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/giordano-bruno-cosmos-heretic-scientist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno
http://galileo.rice.edu/chr/bruno.html
He was in short, an iconoclast who thumbed his nose at authority, even when they had the power to execute him, which they eventually did. He proposed that stars were distant suns which might have their own planets and life. He further proposed that there was no center to the universe. This would be a subtle way of declaring that we are not pawns of the central leaders of Terra.
If I had to pick, I think Turing would be the better fit between the two.
And so it shall be
Just because TL 10 ship-stuff is available here, doesn't mean we can pay for it...oops, I keep forgetting about the "divide by 10 per TL"!!!
So, we can upgrade our sensor array up to TL-1 (max for our ship's size) for $2,000,000 / 1000 = $2000, because it's TL 7-grade!!!
Or, we could have an "enhanced" TL 7 sensor array at TL+1 for $20,000,000 / 1000 = $20,000, easily within our price range!
Fusion Torch engines, on the other hand, *are* TL 10 devices (and require superscience as well), and at $200,000,000 per engine are completely out of our price range.
Yes.
So yes. One can upgrade the Sensor Array.
I would also suggest a gunner's turret...*Epic foreshadowing*
TL 9 electromagnetic rail gun turrets cost as follows :
12 cm, 6d (space-damage) : $600,000 / 10 = $60,000 (roughly 1/4 of our savings)
14 cm, 2d*5 (space-damage) : $1,500,000 / 10 = $150,000 (about 2/3 of our savings)
I'd suggest the 12 cm, with the turret in the center section, so it can target anything.
Good news is : it uses the same skill as the existing fixed-railgun.
Bad news is : it only does 1/5 as much damage as the existing fixed-railgun. Or, for 3* as much money, it could do 1/3 as much damage (or 1.7* as much as the 12 cm)...
EDIT : if we can buy the 14 cm *used* (1/2 cost), then that becomes a pretty good deal all around...
(@Bringer : the damage you have listed for the 24 cm fixed-railgun is 6d*6, but the primary battery table has it listed as 6d*5.... And I'm just curious, where did you get the sAccu and rcl numbers from?)
Bah-haha That's oops on my part.
The RCL and sAccu were listed. Ill find the pages again for you.
EDIT: Pg 68, The fixed 24 Cm does do x6, I've comfirmed.
I keep thinking that when we buy TL 7 sensors it's kinda like:
Us buying a flashlight with a UV option while everyone else is using phased ladar.
Then there's a misprint in the manual, because on p. 26, under 24 cm, the damage is listed as d6*5. But I'll take the *6! :)
Also, in that section, it mentions that fixed-mounted guns get a +2 to hit, so would that make sAccu -4?
@Aster - when an entire "system" (like Control Room or Hangar Bay) is *only* listed at TL 7, then *everyone* is using that system at TL 7...
Now, our armor is only TL 7, and there are TL 8, 9, and 10 options, which do give higher DR's, but also at much higher prices.
...hmmm, we could get DR 10 (+3 to current) over our entire hull for a total of only $15,000, vs. the extra $4000 we paid to add plain steel to the other two sections...anyone else think $11,000 for an extra +3 DR might be worth it?
@Terra: Huh. I suppose that would be accurate... Ba-zing! See...see what I did there?
Keep in mind that each hull section has only 6 slots. those six slots are used to fill with options like sensors and even armor...so keep that in mind.
I don't recall seeing it in the history...
Was there a lengthy intrasolar war recently that has left lots of wrecks for us to be working salvage on?
The asteroid belt orbits out to about 3.2 AU. The solar system is considered to extend out to 100 AU.
This is kinda like stating that all people are restricted to the island of manhatten (all 7.5 billion). The government gets everything else.
I'm not criticizing, I'm just trying to build my own personal view of how the 'world' is working.
And if you take the mass of the sun out of the equation, 99% of the remaining mass of the solar system is also beyond the asteroid belt (90% is Jupiter).
Going back to the manhatten reference, that would also be like only have a couple hundred people patrolling the border of manhatten and the rest of the world, how would they keep millions from not just overwhelming them?
Or am I just thinking too much?
@Aster. They're autocratic space wizards. They can do whatever they want.
Yep. Also, I might be able to whip up some betterments for the sensors. If I'm lucky, and I usually am, that'd be 20% of the price, if I get the invention rules properly. (Not 20% OFF the price!)
As for the Complexity, as luck would have it, you also have a programming expert on board, so I might be able to bring it up a notch as well.
I say grab the enhanced one, then I'll try an Engineer check to see if I can getthe TL+1 it to a TL+2 or, even, +3, though the latter would be significantly harder. Could we possibly try for a Science Array? It'd be 60,000, if we get it for TL9, and 30,000 if we can get it used, though then the improvements don't really apply there.
And for the turret, go for it. We'd need one, even if it is for fending off savages.
Regarding the armour, while we can't afford anything that would last in a battle, we might need one for space dust and asteroids. Essentially, while we can't make the ship graceful enough, we might give Nedora some lee-way.
@Aster: Its easier (For opera's sake) to envision it as only the inner system is accessible. The Outer system has been explored, but no one knows what's going on out there these days. Further more, the 'boarder' that is patrolled often find those who trespass.
For game mechanics sake, The ESPER Fleet is what patrols the boarder. It doesn't even bother with conventional sensors. That's how its often blocked off. For speed, its PSi-telport. I know that seems gimmicky but I felt that you would feel better as to know how that's being done.
@Jean: Sounds good. If you wanna buy that and tinker, by all means.
@Jean: Keep in mind, time is still needed to traverse to planet to planet. You can easily opt to use that 'down time' to upgrade the ships stuff. Using 20% of the cost!
With that said, Ill mark down that you guys bought a turret for the center Hull...Were do we want it?
Ah, I know. Jean might be working a bit too hard at times, but he's not going to throw away the small window for peace and quiet to start working on non-essential repairs.
As for the turret, I'll suggest on the ship's belly, under cargo bay 1. That way, it's easy to use when we land in atmosphere, and if someone targets it, it doesn't risk hitting anything major.
I will post something later tonight. At the moment, I work in the morning and generally post in the evening. That will change next week, when I will be working in the evening and generally posting late at night or in the morning.
Early posts set the tone for a character, so I want to spend a little time looking over people's profiles, since I assume we will have had some time to get to know each other.
I would request that each PC place a spoiler on his/her profile indicating what information the PC will have shared with the other PCs (or if easier, what information has not been shared). That will help with the RP going forward.
Rix is a pretty open book and has no secrets, enemies, or personal habits she would be keeping secret.
I'm also looking over some of the technology that is related to entertainment and information. I will be getting Rix a pair of Infrared Video Glasses(TL10) [2x magnification. $500, 0.1 lb., A/10 hr. LC4 (p. 61 of Ultra-Tech)]. I assume she probably already had a pair before heading into space. I also assume these can be programmed to correct her far-sighted disadvantage. I'm envisioning these are relatively nerdy looking, functional rather than trendy or stylish).
Is hyper-reality overlay available based on a wireless connection to whatever the Internet has evolved into?? I'm thinking if the function is turned on, her glasses will alert her to sales and other useful identifying information where available.
Can we assume we have personal communicators that can be used as cell phones and messaging apps to connect with each other while we are out and about the spaceport? Could such a function be built into Video Glasses, so she could talk to other people without having to hold a device in her hand?
Finally, could the functionality of a video recorder be incorporated into a set of Video Glasses?
Anyway, I'll get something up a little later tonight.
@Rix: Hyper-reality is surely based on Wireless connection but one can assume it can be connected to ships comm systems.
You can indeed assume you have personal comms. APRIL I believe has supplied wrist bands that allow her to be awesome with all of you.
If youd prefer the glasses to house the comm device in such a fashion, By all means.
And I think a video recorder can be easily attached to your super nerd glasses :P
I plan to put the Opera into motion soon. So Rp, shop and enjoy!
Regarding secrets, Jean would be sharing pretty much everything, though his neurological problem would probably be known in detail by the doctor alone, with him going there occasionally for either sleeping pills or, in dire circumstances, psi powers. The rest probably know not to bother him while he's sleeping, though he's almost never cranky, but the miserable look on his face is usually enough of a deterrent.
As for comms, I'd imagine him being quite the fan of proven (not necessarily new) technology, such as smart wrist computers, HUD eye-glasses, etc.
EDIT: I tend to do some skulking around people's aliases (nothing too stalker-ish, I hope) to see if I've played with them before, and I noticed that I've played with Daniel Stewart. Cowboy Roy here!
Would it be safe to assume that Rix would have given everyone a physical? that's going to affect some of what Rix knows.
I suppose. though Id leave that for her and the other characters to choose :p
Well, some of Nedora's quirks only come up around needles, or aren't obvious unless you do a med scan. I figured if she did the physicals or whatever they call a standard medical check that everyone would decide if they went through it our not.
Given that, I guess I should ask if Dr. Rix would have bribed Nedora to get her into the med bay.
Rix is leery of anyone who has been modified by bio-engineering or cybernetic implants or has no living parts at all. So she would not go out of her way to examine Nedora unless it was necessary.
She would have asked each crew member if he or she has any medical conditions that she should know about should there be an emergency.
Now if there were any accidents during the salvage work and Rix had to treat her, she might have learned more.
In any case, if Nedora had resisted being treated, Rix probably would refer her to April to see if she was comfortable being treated by the AI with her medic treatment hardware.
I'm trying my best to wait on Aster and Terra...must...not give in...to enthusiasm...