Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I started the new Alien novel, Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon. I haven't read enough of it yet to say whether I recommend it or not, but I sure do like the feel/atmosphere the writer has proved to create in the first few pages.
Like the movies Outland and the original Alien, it's got what I think is a real Traveller feel (sans the feudal system). Gritty space.
The main character is an engineer, and the crew aboard the mining ship Marion is much like a Traveller PC party (not unlike the original Alien movie).
One thing mentioned is space mites. I thought this a neat touch and one that a Traveller Ref could use for color in his game. No matter how many times you swept the ship, you just can't get rid of the space mites. There are millions of them. Almost undetectable except for their urin. Yep, that's right, these things pee and the smell somehow stays in the recycled atmosphere. Millions of these tiny mites, all pee-ing away, giving ships a distinct, somewhat rank smell--that mixes with the oil and grease and other industrial smells of a vessel.
Nice touch, that. It really brings to me a sense of used, workhorse spaceships like the vessels in the Aliens movies--like in Traveller.
Like the movies Outland and the original Alien, it's got what I think is a real Traveller feel (sans the feudal system). Gritty space.
The main character is an engineer, and the crew aboard the mining ship Marion is much like a Traveller PC party (not unlike the original Alien movie).
One thing mentioned is space mites. I thought this a neat touch and one that a Traveller Ref could use for color in his game. No matter how many times you swept the ship, you just can't get rid of the space mites. There are millions of them. Almost undetectable except for their urin. Yep, that's right, these things pee and the smell somehow stays in the recycled atmosphere. Millions of these tiny mites, all pee-ing away, giving ships a distinct, somewhat rank smell--that mixes with the oil and grease and other industrial smells of a vessel.
Nice touch, that. It really brings to me a sense of used, workhorse spaceships like the vessels in the Aliens movies--like in Traveller.
o: Or...you could make them more like the Moties which infested the ship, screwing up its wiring and other technical details, ready to cause problems with various systems (life support, manoeuvre drive, jump drive, gunnery fire control, astrogation databases, etc.). Kinda like WWII "gremlins" wreaking havoc on airplanes.
