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How Retro ?

I love the Leif Ericson, even though I had the glow-in-the-dark "Mystery UFO" instead. Check out the rest of that section of his site for several cool alternate "Ericson-verse" designs.



Like the PA system in Stingray?

the LE could work as a traveller ship.

I lived in england in the 60's and loved Stingray. Looking at the ship, the design reminds me of the Yacht in the T4 mainbook...well...sort of... ;)



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Gadrin, remember Fireball XL5? That was the first Gerry Anderson show I ever saw. I wish I still had my XL5 coloring book and playset. Those were the days!

Vaguely, I'm sure I watched all those shows, I just don't remember them that well.

One of the Tech Channels showed Thunderbirds a few years back and I'd watch them to see if anything interesting was in them; mainly for "that's TL8 and that's TL9" type of Traveller mentality, and ideas for starports and the occaisional high-tech lair.


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Like the PA system in Stingray?

Good lord, that's hilarious. I'm in the US, and I loved watching the Thunderbirds when I was a little kid - and now my kids love it - but I don't think Stingray every played here. It doesn't look as polished as Thunderbirds did, was it earlier?

The inspiration for beating to quarters from the future history of my non-OTU that has a very British Navy tradition to it. The Scouts are descended from the US services and are more wild and free-wheeling. It goes with all the privateering and piracy that happens along the edge of Earth's Empire and the general flavor I want in the services.

You know, cocked hats hot-glued to the vacc suit helmets, stokers shoveling uranium into the reactor cores for more steam as they get up to ramming speed, and a lookout in the for'rard mast to keep watch for asteroids in the fog of the Coal Sack Nebula. Now, that's retro.
 
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*laughing my @ss off*

You people are retarded...*shakes head and laughs more* God, this stuff is freaking hee-larious.

The last bit with the cocked hats and U238 stokers, wow, great stuff, and maybe on a #comedy.imp.net# channel but I would never go quite that far....*still snickering* wow...

On the other hand, I am swiping the 0G and Vaccsuits and 'Gonging' Vector Changes and such,....hmmmm, gonna have to discuss this with my officers....oh, sorry thanks. *grins*
 
I remember Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, UFO, and the best one ever... Captain Scarlet vs, the Mysterons.
 
I remember Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, UFO, and the best one ever... Captain Scarlet vs, the Mysterons.

Captain Scarlet was the best. I have that show and the Thunderbirds on DVD now and my kids love them. My deck plans have always been inspired by the Jerry Anderson ships. The big ships in particular - with lots of swooping architecture and fins. Very dramatic, atomic boomerang stuff. If there were open frame modular designs in CT I would have had Eagles from Space:1999 IMTU.

Glad everyone go a laugh out of my tongue-in-cheek description of how ships work in my paleo-proto Traveller. ;) But actually the cocked hats are worn on the head and removed prior to donning the vacc suit helmet. The signals midshipman collects the hats, gathers the tea cups, and puts them all away so they don't float around the bridge. Then he's off with the flag book and blinker for signal duty. Just wanted to clear up that inaccuracy.
 
Wheels are so much cheaper than Grav, and bullets cost a lot less than laser cartridges.

Wheels are safer too: if you have a "blowout" on your Air/Raft it's a long way down. But in an ATV its not likely the whole team will get killed.

But what are "laser cartridges"?
 
Ummm.

Captain Scarlet was the best. I have that show and the Thunderbirds on DVD now and my kids love them. My deck plans have always been inspired by the Jerry Anderson ships. The big ships in particular - with lots of swooping architecture and fins. Very dramatic, atomic boomerang stuff. If there were open frame modular designs in CT I would have had Eagles from Space:1999 IMTU.

Glad everyone go a laugh out of my tongue-in-cheek description of how ships work in my paleo-proto Traveller. ;) But actually the cocked hats are worn on the head and removed prior to donning the vacc suit helmet. The signals midshipman collects the hats, gathers the tea cups, and puts them all away so they don't float around the bridge. Then he's off with the flag book and blinker for signal duty. Just wanted to clear up that inaccuracy.
God, I do so love the Eagles, they are like the quintessential Modular Cutter. I also really do love the Paleo-proto TU, although I did mean it about it being a Comedy show, can I use it for MTU, as such. I dig the Ritual and Tradition. :D

Oh, and umm...If I Insulted someone with the 'retarded' comment...Aramis just sent me an Infraction for it and I had thought that the Pun was Apparent, but maybe not... am I being too Subtle here, or too Clever again? Just curious I don't want to make anyone angry...I mean, as I recall, Gadrin was about to Strangle me during CharGen in ANTI-CRISIS, but I think I may have changed his mind. :D Thanks btw Gadrin for giving me the chance to shine...and no I am not Insulted at being 'Bozo the Nobleman'...:smirk: makes for a good cover....what was dude's name? Scarlet something.
 
Some answers...

Wheels are safer too: if you have a "blowout" on your Air/Raft it's a long way down. But in an ATV its not likely the whole team will get killed.

But what are "laser cartridges"?
True but wheeled vehicles can't reach orbit. :p

And 'LASER cartridges' are one shot, ultra capacitors and the eject if bad and when used. They stand in for bullets as a ammo stop, and cool effect.
 
God, I do so love the Eagles, they are like the quintessential Modular Cutter. I also really do love the Paleo-proto TU, although I did mean it about it being a Comedy show, can I use it for MTU, as such. I dig the Ritual and Tradition. :D

Take it and abuse it as you will. While all the stuff about uranium stokers and cocked hats isn't my usual serious universe, the beat to quarters, middies on deck, and scouts in cowboy hats is true. Since I'm not hampered by the OTU I drew all my inspiration from sources like Kipling, actual military traditions, sci-fi authors like Pournelle and Drake, and a lot of "that sounds cool" bits.

So the Imperial Main Fleet Navy is TL-15 and has a strong RN feel to it, but the lower tech (10-13) Colonial Fleet (the one patrolling the edge of civilization) is more like the American Gunboat, or Brown Water Navy. Less formal and rigid, more can-do without getting all the forms filled in first. A lot of the reason for the split has to do with the role nobility plays in these branches: you can purchase a commission in the Imperial Main Fleet, and it has all that that sort of thing implies. In the Colonial Navy you just better be good at what you do to gain advancement, and the nobility doesn't much enter into it it since it's a service that is looked down on as ungentlemanly.

The Scouts are kind of like the US Cavalry all the way up to the modern day, and they have all the imagined rituals and traditions ("Gary Owen", cowboy hats, and all that), including the ones that got crossed-over from the future-Russian colonists like cossack dancing and horse racing with much saber swinging. The internal rivalry between the two groups is useful sometimes for adventures and rolling up characters. The Scouts are as much a serious military arm as they are just exploration.

The Marines all look (and too often sound like, but that's my fault) like they'd be right at home at Rorke's Drift or Kyber Pass - red tunics, black trousers, white helmets, and lots of bagpipes. The US Marines morphed into the Colonial Fleet Marine Forces. Now the elite troopers, the Jump Troops; those guys are what the Foreign Legion turned into, right down to the kepis, nome d'guerres, and "March (Jump?) or Die" attitude.

But once in a while my players have over the years gotten too serious and over many drinks, and too much Gilbert and Sullivan on my part, we put together a "joke" universe of one subsector with cocked hats and walrus mustaches. I thought of just transferring it to Space:1899 when that showed up, but that game was too rigid and serious.
 
Coolie beans.

Thanks and by the way, I too, read most of those authors and use some of their stuff in a fashion, and I dig the IN/CN compare/contrast....uh, the fox is getting hinky...I might be out for the night..curses.

Looking forward to more....
 
Sabredog, Stingray came out before Thunderbirds, 1965 if memory serves. When my family moved to our new house that year, it was the first tv show I watched in that house.

Regarding your "Space:1889" setting, have you seen Steam Trek? Granted, they stoke their boilers with dilithium coal, but still...;)

edit: Frack! The link doesn't work. Try this: http://www.steam-trek.com/
 
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When I saw the heading for this discussion, I immediately thought of the retro look of David Lynch's Dune, a kind of affectation or product of fashion.

I'm thinking that technology evolves from designs that take their cue from function, which then become refined and eventually free from the underlying tech. We see spacecraft today that are dominated entirely by crushing limitations on takeoff weight and limits on power sources and life support. In the future we have in Traveller, those limitations are long swept away.

Potentially we might see space craft that become style and fashion statements, and that look becomes the retro. As a comparision, take the clunky and blocky ships of the Earth Alliance in B5, versus those of the Minbari.
 
When I saw the heading for this discussion, I immediately thought of the retro look of David Lynch's Dune, a kind of affectation or product of fashion.

I'm thinking that technology evolves from designs that take their cue from function, which then become refined and eventually free from the underlying tech. We see spacecraft today that are dominated entirely by crushing limitations on takeoff weight and limits on power sources and life support. In the future we have in Traveller, those limitations are long swept away.

Potentially we might see space craft that become style and fashion statements, and that look becomes the retro. As a comparision, take the clunky and blocky ships of the Earth Alliance in B5, versus those of the Minbari.


Good points.

The Fifth Element has those clunky looking taxis, but of course can fly, versus the starships in the series which look much more "techie", so there's a retro-mix in that movie.

Parts of Star Wars has very common looking things, most of the starships (not the Empire's TIE and so on) are very "blunt" designs and obvious tech. In that way, the setting is rather nice. When you come across a piece of technology, it's generally obvious.

Dune was rather strange at times (I didn't care for the movies but loved the books), it's actually often very primitive but of course has some incredibly high-tech moments and gear in it.


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