CT Only: Traveller Candy n Dressin'

[mike wightman]

I allow players to have their character go to college after character generation if their mustering out funds can afford it. They get the technical skill of their choice at 2 and raise their Edu to 8 and are now four years older - which may result in an aging roll.

 

[Supplement Four]

I allow players to have their character go to college after character generation if their mustering out funds can afford it. They get the technical skill of their choice at 2 and raise their Edu to 8 and are now four years older - which may result in an aging roll.

I like that, Sigg.

 

[Supplement Four]

There's an early White Dwarf article that had an interesting idea. The article was written for early Traveller, and it wasn't clear that vessels had inertial dampeners to counteract the extreme G forces experienced by the crew of a vessel in flight.

What they did was look to the M-Drive to provide a stable 1G environment within the vessel AND push the ship along to its destination.

Here's how it worked.

1G M-Drive: Crew must strap in and be subjected to 1G acceleration G Force.

2G M-Drive: If 1G acceleration is used, then the crew is kept in a comfortable bubble 1G environment. If 2G acceleration is used, then the crew is subject to horrendous 2G acceleration, and the crew must strap in and wear special garments to protect organs and such.

3G M-Drive: 1G acceleration can be used, while the crew and passengers are safe in a 1G bubble. If 2G acceleration is used, then crew is subjected to G forces as with a 1G M-Drive.

etc.

Basically, you use part of the G Rating produced by the M-Drive to protect the crew, to various degrees, and the rest is used for thrust.

 

[Condottiere]

If your starship had the classic Azhanti skyscraper configuration (which coincidentally had acceleration capped at two gees), you could operate it somewhat comfortably at one and a half gees uncompensated, two gees for short durations.

 

[boomslang]

What they did was look to the M-Drive to provide a stable 1G environment within the vessel AND push the ship along to its destination.

I do something sort of like this for small craft IMTU.

Because small craft are by definition under 100dtons displacement and by default do not use computers operate their simpler M-drives, I figure the automatic "acceleration compensation" big craft have is not available, hence the explicit need for "couches" and bunks in cabins.

I handwave this feature of M-drives in by presuming that much like the way J-Drives have a low-end displacement limit in order to operate, there is a minimum volume that is required for an "acceleration field" to be formed by an M-drive; this explains why (gravitics-based, not fusion-rocket-based) M-drives are rated in performance versus displacement instead of the more-logical performance versus mass that rocketry conventionally emphasizes.

This limitation then keeps most small craft operations at or below 2 or 3Gs; figuring bunks and couches can antigrav up to about 2Gs (similar to how air/rafts and such work against the local gravity's acceleration to nullify it and float about), anything above 2Gs is going to squash and toss the passengers and crew around in their seats proportionally. If any one needs to get up and use the head, the vessel will have to reduce acceleration temporarily, or the individual will have to make use of some sort of couch-based sanitary facilities.

Deckplan-wise, I mount those couches by default perpendicular to the main thrust axis (such as in a contemporary space capsule or the Discovery from the 2001/2010 movies) but with a rotating cradle to turn them horizontal to the deck for ingress and egress, while leaving the floors parallel to that thrust axis for loading and unloading planetside. Rear bulkheads are then primary load-securing points throughout (in cabins, especially; that is where the bunks are mounted and why they rotate as well).

This also then explains why fighter pilots (and craft without cabins) have a ~6-hour flight duration; in their couches and G-suits, it is conceivable that up to 4Gs is tolerable by operators for several hours, but it takes a toll on endurance. After that, one needs a bunk in which to either rest under normal acceleration or else recline in while in traction under a slightly-cushioned full acceleration and letting muscles rest as much as possible.

This then further explains why in-system travel tables seldom provide interplanetary travel times for higher than 2G trips; hard-working merchant big craft are not going to squander valuable payload space on large M-drives so will tend to have smaller ones, while on the other hand, as above, the zippiest of small craft are going to be quite unpleasant to scoot around in at full throttle for very long.

 

[Supplement Four]

I'm reading Haldeman's Forever War, and its interesting watching the technology improve. In the first section of the book, the ship is limited to 2Gs because the crew just can't take it. They travel at 1G acceleration when possible, but they push it to 2Gs for longer journeys. The crew on those trips must wear special garments to keep their organs in the right place. One crewmember had a bone jut out of her skin due to the months under 2G acceleration.

Later in the book (I'm not done with it yet, so there may be more improvements), the crew get into acceleration capsules--solid cocoons that encapsulate the individual and protect him--which allows the ship to be more efficient and travel at around 25Gs.

 

[kilemall]

That G stuff is a major feature IMTU to include personnel damage at high-G, what happens when the grav field is down and you are free floating at X velocity but the oncoming bulkhead is accelerating with the ship at the new Y velocity, and the whole tailsitter vs. bellylander thing.

I also have realtime jumps that are subjective one week on board the ship.

Simple things can be jarring and let them know they aren't in Kansas anymore.

Bathrooms can be unisex and everyone accepts that, but artificials whether mech or organic have to use separate facilities.

Grav and advanced materials should allow for crazy buildings, grav tubes, and waterfalls that fall up.

Everything should talk or have obscure UI that is as far from us as touchpads are to the 17th century.

Food should be different too, for instance I would expect vatmeat to be the norm and the idea of actually raising and butchering an animal to be as quaint, a bit queasy and out of date as butter churning to us.

Then, after you get them acclimated to that sort of thing, throw them back into TL2, not sparing the disease, hard manual work, animals are a real threat, and lack of meditech.

 

[Condottiere]

My real issue would be weightlessness during the one week in transition, without adding in a hamster cage.

 

[infojunky]

There's an early White Dwarf article that had an interesting idea. The article was written for early Traveller, and it wasn't clear that vessels had inertial dampeners to counteract the extreme G forces experienced by the crew of a vessel in flight.

What they did was look to the M-Drive to provide a stable 1G environment within the vessel AND push the ship along to its destination.

Weird, I just read that article today, it's in Andy Slack's collection of his White Dwarf articles.

Here's how it worked.

1G M-Drive: Crew must strap in and be subjected to 1G acceleration G Force.

For thrust over 1g 1d6 per g of temporary damage was assessed. With some suggestions for Hardware solutions that had shown up in SF Literature.

Basically, you use part of the G Rating produced by the M-Drive to protect the crew, to various degrees, and the rest is used for thrust.

This Solution Mr. Slack attributed to another White Dwarf author. But essentially you got the bulk of it.

I have considered this more than once for my games, Note this was also brought up in FF&S with the amount of available compensation being limited by Tech Level. In relation to CT, in Mayday a ship is limited to 1g of acceleration while attempting Damage Control.

If one deconstructs the Maneuver Drive numbers from High Guard one finds that Initial compensation is included in them at 1% per g compensated over one. I have been pondering coupling this with with the Tech Level Limits from FF&S.