CT Only: Low Passage and You!

[Sifu Blackirish]

What does it really feel like to be in a low berth?

…false chills and occasional sharp pains ran through his body as he responded to his cold cell’s microwave warming circuits. It had been quite some time since he had felt it necessary to use this form of transport. He was surprised to find himself fully awake and alert before the medtech began his rounds.
Bright lights activated without warning. A very irritating metallic squeal was heard as external locking bars retracted. He pushed on a rubber coated plate and his scratched plastic lid swung open, allowing him to reach out and grab an assist bar.
In moments he slid out of his chill cocoon and made it to his feet. That silicone gel sure gets everywhere, doesn't it? He could see others moving, some much slower than him. Still no medtech? It’s been a while, but he thought United Planetary Congress shipping regulations still required a medical assistant on standby for low berth transports.
Double doors at a bulkhead partition slid open. Beyond those blast rated doors stood what had to be one of the largest, and no doubt ugliest men he had ever seen. He must have responded to every brawl situation by leading with his face. With a look of utter contempt apparent, he raised a voice amplifier to his mouth and spoke into the end.
“GET MOVING, YOU THAWS. THIS AIN’T A RETIREMENT VILLAGE. EVERYONE OUT OF MY MEAT LOCKER RIGHT NOW!”
Hard to believe it, but there were quite a few people who didn’t respond to that pleasant summons. We were formed into a rough line and brusquely herded towards inbound processing. Medtechs finally arrived to attend to those who were still unconscious, or perhaps dead.
Harsh smells of decaying vegetation came to us as we shuffled through a plastic tube into a metal clad building. Paper clothing dissolved and cloying gel was finally removed when we were subjected to strong smelling soapy water under high pressure. Unfortunately, body hair was also a casualty. Ever see a woman cry for an hour straight because her waist length hair was now in her hands and no longer attached to her head?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I was going to post the snippet of a story beginning I had worked on, since it is of someone coming out of low berth. But I can't find the later version where I filled in some bits. Dang hard drive crashes!

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

That is a snip from a story i am working on at this very moment. It will show up in the second novel.

I was reading some other post long ago talking about the mechanics of how a low berth works, and it stimulated my creativity.

 

[rancke]

With a look of utter contempt apparent, he raised a voice amplifier to his mouth and spoke into the end.
“GET MOVING, YOU THAWS. THIS AIN’T A RETIREMENT VILLAGE. EVERYONE OUT OF MY MEAT LOCKER RIGHT NOW!”

I guess people who can only afford to pay $4000[*] for a ticket are all contemptible penniless scum.

[*] Rough equivalent of Cr1000.​

Hans

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I found enough of my story to fill in a blank or two and put a bit of it here. It is inspired rather directly by Traveller, but I won't make any statements as to the purity of said "Travellerness".

Pain.
The klaxon was inordinately loud. Even for a klaxon. And, it seemed out of place. OK, a klaxon always meant something out of place - but this one seemed dramatically so.
Then came the light. Blinding light. Light that pierced the eyelids. At least the light was steady. It didn't waver up and down like the warble of the klaxon.
Eyelids. Closed eyelids. OK. Self-awareness... that was good. Pain, though... that was bad. More pain - a small patch of it, like fire - as something touched his skin. Then more sound. Not the klaxon. Softer. A voice.
"Mister. Mister? Please don't be dead, mister."
He tried to open his mouth to speak, to ask if he was, in fact, dead. But, nothing moved.
More self-awareness as warmth trickled into his body and began to spread. Yes... he had been cold. His body began to react, finally moving. It wasn't the movement he desired, however, as he began to shiver and his teeth to chatter.
The voice returned, as did a shadow blocking the light momentarily. It was happy, yet imperious.
"You're alive! Don't die on me, mister. I need you to not die."
His lips finally formed words. Unfortunately, his throat failed to follow suit. The shadow reappeared over him - yes, orientation... he was lying on his back. His hand rose, grasping at the shadow, fingers encountering hair - coarse, soft hair. The shadow jumped, tried to move away, and his hand exerted pressure on the hair... the head, drawing it down to his face.
His eyelids fluttered open to a dark blur. As his eyes slowly focused, they beheld a face - a face the color of walnut, a slightly flared nose, lips the color of summer twilight, eyes that were large black abysses with dark green rims set in a sea of white - eyes wide with fear.
He croaked out, "St... <cough> ... Stop... Stop the klaxon."
"I can't! I don't know how!"
An acidic, metallic taste flooded his mouth, and odors flowed into his nostrils. Some of them he recognized as his own, a by-product of being in the cold sleep of a low berth. Another scent - a more delicate one, but mixed with fear - seemed as out of place as the still clamoring alarm.
Full awareness returned more rapidly now. Obviously, he wasn't at his destination. He had boarded at Charpete, his leave over, headed back to the fleet, his action group stationed around Enya. It should have been just three jumps. And he had no idea which jump this might have been.
The voice interrupted his reverie, "Let me go. Please? You're hurting me."
A hoarse "Sorry" rasped from his lips and he released the owner of the voice.
As his body moved into full wakefulness, he slowly sat up and took in his surroundings. He recognized the small space allotted to the low berths next to the lower cargo hold.
Spying the locker in which his gear was stowed, he pulled the sensors from his head and chest and removed the intravenous tubes from his arms, and swung his legs over the side of the berth and carefully settled his weight on them and stood.
He ignored the small cry of shock and surprise as the thin sheet slid off his naked frame, and he stepped over to the locker, knelt cautiously, and thumbed open the lock.
He withdrew a white singlet and pulled it on. He then took a skinsuit from its container and donned it. It was a midnight blue - almost black - and fit his lean frame precisely. The platinum and gold stripes on his sleeve denoted his rank of Lieutenant Commander and the platinum sun and stars on his collar denoted his line designation. The namestrip on his breast and back pocket proclaimed him to be "RODNEY".

 

[BytePro]

I'm not sure how your players only consider the chart after they've committed to a roll, though, when you said it was out for everyone to see.

They don't know the target value till after they commit.

Knowing the odds of what they just attempted - and how far off they were - helps inform the roleplay. I empower my players to make stuff up to a good degree. If I set the odds of success low, even with implied DMs (by my description), then they know that for their PC it was hard. They also know how close/far they were with their roll - both number and percentage wise. They have something to hang their roleplay on...

"It was difficult, but Chuck just managed... it should have been easy, but Chuck totally blew it... missed it by 'that much'..."​

Sure, I could describe everything, but its the Player's PC - I want them to take part in the roleplay - and that means giving them something metagame to work with. If I can do it with the mechanics, rather than me playing 'director', so much the better.

I don't hide behind a screen - though there are always computer screens around as I have used them at the tabletop since the early 80's . I use pre-made roll lists for Referee 'stealth rolls'.

...For example, if the character is danger of falling over a cliff and dying in a lava pit, I probably won't tell the player the target. ...

I don't always state a target, but this scenario is a saving throw - they are already falling either as a result of another roll or action. The Player can hide their throw (something I encourage for these scenarios) - to the suspense of everyone, including me. But, I give them some leeway to describe what happened, so they need to know the target. In addition, if everyone hears the odds, that can add an element of suspense and drama, too. ["What - how could you fail on a 3+!?!"]

...I'd argue it's a two roll mechanic. Ever tried to catch a baseball by someone who can't throw? That's a task.

Afraid you missed my point. [Bad 'throw' on my part, perhaps ]

The regular 'mechanic' works just fine for two throws, if that's what I deem is needed (including opposed throws). In the case you posted, simply set the target to reflect the difficulty of a 'successful' throw and thrower's attributes (Str, Dex, any reduced End or other injuries). If they fail - they fail, nothing the other guy can do. If they 'succeed', adjust the roll target of the catch based on the results of the throw check and catcher's attributes. Simple - I wouldn't think twice about this...

I would find the creative 'Roll low and roll high used in the same combination task' mechanic you proposed unnecessary - and disruptive. <shrug>

What you are talking about - making mechanics on the fly - inherently means thinking about mechanics. I know the 2D6 odds - and that's all the metagame I need to think about. I consider the situation, which is what I am focused on, and make a target with some knowledge of odds. Blam. Done.

As to 'Roll under stat', meh, the odds are always the same without resorting to difficulty DMs - which can run into 2D6 saturation issues. I'd rather just give a target intelligently applying DMs based on situation and stats (often a combination, not just one) - just like I do for most tasks. Blam. Done.

 

[Supplement Four]

The regular 'mechanic' works just fine for two throws, if that's what I deem is needed (including opposed throws). In the case you posted, simply set the target to reflect the difficulty of a 'successful' throw and thrower's attributes (Str, Dex, any reduced End or other injuries). If they fail - they fail, nothing the other guy can do. If they 'succeed', adjust the roll target of the catch based on the results of the throw check and catcher's attributes. Simple - I wouldn't think twice about this...

But, the beauty of what I described is that the outcome of the throw influences the chances of success that the item will be caught. In other words, the better the guy throws it, the easier it is to catch.

This ain't possible with what you're propsing.

 

[BytePro]

But, the beauty of what I described is that the outcome of the throw influences the chances of success that the item will be caught. In other words, the better the guy throws it, the easier it is to catch.

This ain't possible with what you're propsing.

Not only is it possible, it is superior in flexibility...

"If they 'succeed', adjust the roll target of the catch based on the results of the throw check and catcher's attributes."​

Like any other CT saving throw target, I lower the target as the situation provides - in this case, the quality of the throw, as determined by the dice, influences the odds of the catch. Simple.

The example you provided I consider flawed in giving a piss poor catcher automatic catching just because of a perfect throw. You would need negative DEX DMs to offset the thrower rolling a 2. Then there is the issue that the throw may require enough STR - and yet DEX should still factor in. And maybe the character should be exhausted as with low END and the fight has been going on. I can factor all these things and relate them in a narrative fashion so everyone gets it, even the math impaired. It requires no additional mechanics, math, comparisons, tracking, nor ever risks saturating the target on poor old 2D6. I prefer the simplicity, yet flexibility of the core saving throw mechanic.

Don't get me wrong, yours is a neat mechanic - it removes the need to think about the DMs and the target values. But, not doing so fails to take into account situation. Roleplaying is about situations.

 

[Shonner]

A guy with a high DEX may be able to catch still a poorly thrown object. But I don't make players roll for trivial things like that. Unless the Zho Little League is in town.

 

[Supplement Four]

A guy with a high DEX may be able to catch still a poorly thrown object. But I don't make players roll for trivial things like that. Unless the Zho Little League is in town.

First, it was just an example I had used before. Second, it the distance to toss the weapon was trivial, I wouldn't call for a roll either.

If there's a roll involved, then there's a decent reason to have that throw. I'd call for it, say, in a combat situation where the distance was great enough that I think there's a decent chance the catch could be missed.

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, if the results of failure are non-trivial, then an action may merit a roll.

A poorly tossed, missed or fumbled throw of a weapon in combat (heck anytime) can most certainly have a non-trivial impact (pun intended) - and thus the tasks of throwing and catching would be worthy of a roll.

 

[warmaster40k]

Isn't there a travel time in CT between jump points. So even with a Jump Six ship you are looking at a 3 week trip in space. One week to travel to a suitable distance from a gravatational body, if using a 1g thrust, followed by one week in jump, followed by a 1 week burn to the station in system. If you have to make multiple jumps it takes longer as you have to travel from jump point to jump point in system, even longer if you have to refuel. So putting a ship on skeleton crew through large chunks of time to concerve food would sound smart especially if the Ships Chief medical officer was on duty the whole time. So what about the lowberther crew, well hire more than you need and so when that. Missed role happens eh you should have enough unless you can snag a military grade coldtube. The thing to remember is that navy ships have drives that suffer no issue when using unrefined fuel, and according to tvtropes and various wikis navy ships have giant spinal guns and black globe generators. Who says those are the only advantages they have.

 

[BytePro]

No 'jump points' per say - safe distances typically measured in diameters (JTAS articles do provide some extra restrictions.)

Approx one week in Jump - regardless of parsecs. Time to get to safe jump distance varies, but is typically only hours to a few days. Two weeks is normal turn around with trade, what not.

This is a 'CT Only' thread.

Black globes and spinals are not limited to Navy. They are covered in LBB5 - High Guard.

 

[rancke]

Approx one week in Jump - regardless of parsecs. Time to get to safe jump distance varies, but is typically only hours to a few days. Two weeks is normal turn around with trade, what not.

Not true. The logical ramifications of jump shadowing for main sequence K and M stars are completely ignored by the trading rules. Any visit to worlds orbiting in the life zones of these fairly numerous stars ought to add hours or days to a trip. Worlds orbiting in the life zone of the bigger stars ought to add weeks.

This is a 'CT Only' thread.

So we don't mention jump masking[*]. But jump shadowing is CT.

[*] Even though Marc Miller has stated that he intended jump masking to be a feature right from the start. :devil:​

Black globes and spinals are not limited to Navy. They are covered in LBB5 - High Guard.

In the OTU black globes are limited to the Imperial Navy by historical factors. Unless someone else got lucky and found a batch of Ancient black globes to reverse-engineer.


Hans

 

[warmaster40k]

Not true. The logical ramifications of jump shadowing for main sequence K and M stars are completely ignored by the trading rules. Any visit to worlds orbiting in the life zones of these fairly numerous stars ought to add hours or days to a trip. Worlds orbiting in the life zone of the bigger stars ought to add weeks.



So we don't mention jump masking[*]. But jump shadowing is CT.

[*] Even though Marc Miller has stated that he intended jump masking to be a feature right from the start. :devil:​

In the OTU black globes are limited to the Imperial Navy by historical factors. Unless someone else got lucky and found a batch of Ancient black globes to reverse-engineer.


Hans

If they can figure out how to use the blasted things without cutting them selves in half or turn off the device after turning it on.

 

[Vladika]

Black globes and spinals are not limited to Navy. They are covered in LBB5 - High Guard.

Wasn't LBB5 - High Guard intended to be Navy? I can see HG used for smaller PC ships but a PC with a ship large enough to carry a spinal mount? I just can't see that happening short of a serving Naval officer.

Black globes? Well...you COULD find one I suppose, but for all the good it would do, sell it and buy practically anything.

 

[Supplement Four]

Not true. The logical ramifications of jump shadowing for main sequence K and M stars are completely ignored by the trading rules. Any visit to worlds orbiting in the life zones of these fairly numerous stars ought to add hours or days to a trip. Worlds orbiting in the life zone of the bigger stars ought to add weeks.

Thanks for bringing that up. Jump shadowing is so often ignored.

The problem is, sans detailing the entire system, it is difficult for a GM to easily calculate the jump mask.

There needs to be an easy rule of thumb for this, based on UPP, or maybe just the extended suffic data.

We don't need exact. We just need something close to work with on an impromptu basis within the game.

I'm going to add this to my list of ideas for Book 9.

 

[aramis]

Wasn't LBB5 - High Guard intended to be Navy? I can see HG used for smaller PC ships but a PC with a ship large enough to carry a spinal mount? I just can't see that happening short of a serving Naval officer.

Black globes? Well...you COULD find one I suppose, but for all the good it would do, sell it and buy practically anything.

It has been used since release for ships in print down to 100Td, and was the first presentation of a small craft design system... So, No, the evidence is that it was to mainly replacing Bk 2. The combat system is suboptimal for anything under 10KTd, but is in fact an afterthought... the combat systems changed entirely between 79 and 80 HG, while the design system changed only a bit.

 

[rancke]

There needs to be an easy rule of thumb for this, based on UPP, or maybe just the extended suffic data.

We don't need exact. We just need something close to work with on an impromptu basis within the game.

* A table showing the average extra travel time added to get to a world in the life zone of each star.

* A comment about which worlds need not be in the life zone. Possibly a die roll to establish if these mainworlds are shadowed or not (after all, just because they need not be deep in the star's jump shadow doesn't mean they aren't). Instruct referee to make a note for future reference.

* If destination has lots of trade, use the stated number of hours. If destination is unlikely to provide a decent cargo out again, double the stated number of hours (to account for both the arrival and the departure). Divide by 24 and round off. Add 10% to the standard freight and passenger prices for each extra day.​

That should not add too much extra work for the referee.

Oh, almost forgot:

* A paragraph about what simplifying assumptions that has been made and what complications have been ignored.​

Hans

 

[Vladika]

the combat systems changed entirely between 79 and 80 HG, while the design system changed only a bit.

A shame too, as there were several items that were very good. Combat rules were poorly thought out though. You could buy a backup Bridge, but, by the tables, you couldn't loose the first one!

I liked the breakthrough rules and the missile magazines (required for planetary bombardment) as well as the "alpha strike" (once) for missiles. Powerplant rules were, shall we say, "liberal" by comparison?