A question about Firefly/Serenity & Traveller

[sabredog]

Ah, that's right, I recall it now that you mention it. Still...

Jayne: "Vera needs oxygen to shoot" so in the space suit she goes...

BLAM! The shot goes through the helmet, the space suit deflates, the shot takes out the junction, and Vera no longer has oxygen to shoot...

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!! Shots fired at the window spider web it, blow it out, eat vacuum dogs!

Err, what was that about Vera needing oxygen to shoot Jayne? :smirk:

I probably could have let the "needs oxygen" slide for some reason that is not apparent and special to Vera, if only he hadn't kept firing after.

Or you can just grit your teeth and ignore it as another case of people who know nothing about guns concentrating on the story instead of the technical details. Somehow I doubt they hired a technical adviser for the show...unlike B5 that at least had Harlan Ellison for "Futurist". Its a minor quibble, and given my experiences when I go to the movies or watch shows with friends who now hate going with me (me watching Gladiator: "Hey, the Romans didn't have stirrups..this is crap!" "Hey, it wasn't called Spain yet"...my friends - "Shut the heck up and watch the movie!") I'd let it go as creative license.

 

[rancke]

Even better - in the future all the lasers will have that sound so the target knows they have it pointed at them because a "click..bzzzzzz" just doesn't have the right sound of authority.

I have a vague memory that hunting lasers in one of Larry Niven's Known space stories (a Gil the Arm story, IIRC) had a superfluous visible light beam attached and a two second non-functioning period enforced after every shot -- something like that -- to make the hunt more sporting.


Hans

 

[sabredog]

In Robert Sheckley's "The Gun without a Bang" the protagonist is field testing an amazingly deadly beam weapon with no flash and no bang. It proves useless as a deterrent, because the ferocious animals that attack him don't connect the disintegration of their fellows with the prospective meal they're attacking.


Hans

Excellent...I remember that story! That's the sort of thing that would just get you a lawsuit and a lawyer-tag on the gun warning you that "The manufacturer assumes no liability for the lack of deterrence from using this weapon." Or a law requiring the manufacturer to include the aforementioned authoritative "Clack-Clack" sound in the grip of the weapon to sound loudly when it is armed.

 

[sabredog]

I have a vague memory that hunting lasers in one of Larry Niven's Known space stories (a Gil the Arm story, IIRC) had a superfluous visible light beam attached and a two second non-functioning period enforced after every shot -- something like that -- to make the hunt more sporting.


Hans

Yup..The Defenseless Dead, one of the better ARM stories and where I drew my inspiration for the organ-legging gangs in my campaign. Yes, at TL-15 there ought to be at least cybernetics if not outright cloning - but IMTU organ-legging helps keep up with the demand in a rich man's market. Especially outside the Terran Empire where such higher tech things are rare and too expensive. Who wants to wait that long for a new liver anyway when there are plenty of perfectly good ones just walking around for the taking?

 

[rancke]

...at TL-15 there ought to be at least cybernetics if not outright cloning - but IMTU organ-legging helps keep up with the demand in a rich man's market.

Cloned body parts are TL13, so they're available. Atificial organs are TL 8 and limb regeneration is TL9. "Growth quickening" is TL10 (I'm not quite sure what that is; I was under the impression that force-grown clones weren't available at Imperial tech levels). Cloned body parts are, as mentioned, TL13 and pseudobio prostethics are TL15. Full body clones (force-grown or not) are not mentioned on the table [MT:Referee's Companion, p. 28-29], except possibly by implication; brain transplants are TL16 and I'd expect brain transplants to genetically identical clones to have a significantly greater success rate than to any other body, particularly at first.


Hans

 

[Whipsnade]

"Growth quickening" is TL10 (I'm not quite sure what that is; I was under the impression that force-grown clones weren't available at Imperial tech levels).

Hans,

I always thought "growth quickening" referred to has to do with regeneration and non-cloned body parts; i.e. "stem cell"-derived replacement organs.

Quickening allows for faster regeneration; growing your new arm means you spend weeks in the hospital and not months. Quickening also means organs are grown faster; that new liver is adult sized in weeks/months and not years.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.


Regards,
Bill

 

[rancke]

I always thought "growth quickening" referred to has to do with regeneration and non-cloned body parts; i.e. "stem cell"-derived replacement organs.

Quickening allows for faster regeneration; growing your new arm means you spend weeks in the hospital and not months. Quickening also means organs are grown faster; that new liver is adult sized in weeks/months and not years.

Could be. Maybe the limitation on force-grown clones is only for the brain, or something.


Hans

 

[sabredog]

Cloned body parts are TL13, so they're available. Atificial organs are TL 8 and limb regeneration is TL9. "Growth quickening" is TL10 (I'm not quite sure what that is; I was under the impression that force-grown clones weren't available at Imperial tech levels). Cloned body parts are, as mentioned, TL13 and pseudobio prostethics are TL15. Full body clones (force-grown or not) are not mentioned on the table [MT:Referee's Companion, p. 28-29], except possibly by implication; brain transplants are TL16 and I'd expect brain transplants to genetically identical clones to have a significantly greater success rate than to any other body, particularly at first.


Hans

Well, like I said they are available...but to those who can afford it, and those who can also afford to wait. Outside "civilized" space is another ball game, and even inside it the problem remains of who can pay and who can wait.

Plus, I have ethical and legal issues in my game regarding whole body clones (heck clones at all for that matter): they are illegal and so somebody who wants to live forever (well, for a long time anyway) in perpetual youth by whole body swapping has to find some other way to get a supply. So the organ-leggers will nab somebody who matches the rejection index, core them out, and drop your central nervous system in. New you!

Of course all this is really yet another plot device to harrass the hapless players by kidnapping one of them and then the rest have to find him before he gets parted out like an old air/raft. Or have them unwittingly get involved in transporting illegal parts, or the trade in cloned fighting slaves for bloodsports in the really dark corners of some asteroid belt or edge of the mean n' nastiverse. It's not common, but the players being players they always seem to find themselves crawling along the fish-white underbelly of society at some point in their careers.

And it's pretty much a fringe space thing that the gangs have their "chop-shops" outside Imperial space while a lot of surprisingly well-placed and wealthy clientele are inside Imperial space.

Those would be mostly the customers who can't afford to wait for a new organ (or body)...or those who might want to hide themselves from someone else (I've run that plot too) by getting a whole body donor and not asking questions about where it came from since they are on the lam from someone or something.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi

From all the other posts, I guess I may be one of the few here that really doesn't see much that reminds me of Traveller then in the movie (or the show I guess) other than the fact that there is a free-trader like spaceship and a crew journeying about. Or I guess that maybe it would be more correct to say that I really didn't see anything in the movie that reminds me more of Traveller than alot of other shows or movies that I have seen that revolve around a small group of characters travelling about adventuring.

Maybe its mostly becasue when me and my friends 1st played Traveller back in the early 1980's it was not long after seeing the 1st Star Wars movie.

Or maybe its because my friends had suggested I read the Foundation Trilogy for inpsiration before 1st playing.

Or maybe its because when I 1st read all the new supplements, booklets, and games detailing the Official Traveller Universe came out, they seemed to paint a certain vision of that setting.

However, (eventhough I know that Traveller is and always has been a somewhat generic setting independent rules set) based on all the above when I hear someone say that something is very Traveller like, my 1st thoughts focus on

• a massive star spanning fuedalistic type empire (similar to the Foundation Trilogy books and 1st Star Wars movie), backed up by large fleets and legions of battledress (or similarly clad) troops,
  
• a setting with both large and small ships operating together,
  
• a setting with a massive variety of planets and local governments, etc, and
  
• a mix of both high tech and low tech weapons, etc

as opposed to the kind of small universe, 19th century meets space travel feel that I got from watching the "Serenity" movie. [Edit] And additionally I guess there are other games that do give me more of that 19th century meets space travel feel than I get from Traveller (such as 2300AD or Space 1889).[/Edit]

Anyway, just me thoughts

Regards

PF

 

[sabredog]

Besides...I designed a gun to be blister packed and is sold in vending machines, molded in designer colors and with sports team logos on them. Of course there's organ-legging IMTU.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I used to joke that in the future, firearm advertisements would have slogans like "now with new and improved dramatically appropriate racking sound!"

:rofl:

A PC in a game I was in had one fitted to his guns for that reason!

 

[rancke]

There's a reason why you recognize the characters.

Malcolm Reynolds - Robin Hood
Inara Serra - Maid Marion
Shepard Book - Friar Tuck
Jayne Cobb - Little John

The others get fuzzy for the archetype (but then how many other Merry Men can you remember off the top of your head?)...

Alan A'Dale the Bard, Robin's cousin Will Scarlett, Much the Miller's son. And possibly Gamble Gold, another of Robin's cousins, but I'm not sure if he counts as a Merry Man.

And off the top of my head I remembered that there was a second Will, but couldn't recall his name (It's Will Stutely; I'll be forgetting my own name next ).

While I was checking up on Will Stutely, I came across a couple of Merry Men I'd never heard of before: Gilbert Whitehand and Arthur a Bland.

Incidentally, Jayne is far too hot-headed to match my idea of Little John. If you absolutely want one of the cast to be Little John's counterpart, I'd nominate Zoe. She's Mal's calm, loyal second in command who is also a very good fighter.


Hans

 

[aramis]

I agree with Hans that Zoe is Little John.

I think Jayne is Will Scarlet; good in a fight, almost fearless, not quite sane, and a damned good shot, second only to Robin, and able to hold his own for a while against Robin or Little John in melee. Further, he's questioning Robin's authority at many turns. And Will, in some versions, is a swordsman, much like Robin, and a member of the (displaced by the Normans) gentry.

http://www.boldoutlaw.com/robbeg/robbeg2.html#ws has a good intro and overview.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I was thinking the Doctor was Will Scarlett.

Will Scarlet can be a scarlet-clad dandy, obsessed with fashion and even carrying a rose.

But you're right, it could easily fit Jayne.

Will was a mercenary, but his wife was raped and murdered by other mercenaries. Calling himself Scarlet, Will murdered his wife's killers. This Will Scarlet is hot-tempered and questions Robin's leadership.

 

[slippery Jim]

If you are calling Inara a "whore", you clearly have not been paying attention to the show.

Well in all sense Inara is well, A whore. Is the sense that she is PAID to provide a PHYSICAL and in most times an expected SEXUAL experiance. What else would you call her?
As for watching the show I have seen every episode and the movie. And it is my understanding that is what she did. Albeit to a higher class of clientelle. But still the same.

 

[robject]

Well in all sense Inara is well, A whore. Is the sense that she is PAID to provide a PHYSICAL and in most times an expected SEXUAL experiance. What else would you call her?
As for watching the show I have seen every episode and the movie. And it is my understanding that is what she did. Albeit to a higher class of clientelle. But still the same.

Courtesan? Geisha?

 

[aramis]

Courtesan? Geisha?

Not geish.

A geisha is a paid artisan, and explicitly not a prostitute. Prostitution was associated with corrupt houses, and was present in some geisha houses... but was not a part of the expected behavior of geisha. Note also that prostitution houses have always flourished in Japan, separate from the geisha.

A courtesan, perhaps, depending upon which meaning one uses... except that Inara doesn't restrict her clientele to the Courts...

 

[cajon5]

Not geish.

A geisha is a paid artisan, and explicitly not a prostitute. Prostitution was associated with corrupt houses, and was present in some geisha houses... but was not a part of the expected behavior of geisha. Note also that prostitution houses have always flourished in Japan, separate from the geisha.

A courtesan, perhaps, depending upon which meaning one uses... except that Inara doesn't restrict her clientele to the Courts...

I understand that in the period before geishas, there was a profession for women called an orain. The Orain could perform various refined arts (music, dance, etc) but after all that sex was part of the arrangement, unlike the geisha. Samurai would spend all their cash wages on one night's visit with an orain, then wait until paid again to repeat the process. Unlike European courtesans, the Orain had a defined and regulated place in society, so I think that the Orain is really the best analog to Firefly's Companion.

 

[aramis]

Cajon5: I've never seen refefence to such, nor does a quick google turn up anything.

I'd be interested to see a source reference on that.

 

[sabredog]

He spelled it wrong....it's oiran, but he has the right analogy. Except for the mystical part of a companion's training being unique to the ' Verse.

here's a link to get ya'll started.


http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Jdolls/oiran.htm