Off-grid self sufficient housing

[JimMarn]

One place I worked, same as the tapes at a lower elevation, lost conectivity with several out lying offices in other states.

They called me frantically and asked me what to do. My boss had already briefed me. 'Go to paper and when the network comes back up all that wil lahve to be entered into the database,' I said. The howls of agony.

After I hung up from several of those type of calls, my boss told me they had been trained to go to paper in such an instance. I wasn't tellng them anything new.

They were still unhappy.

The office I was in had to evacuate for Hurrican Katrina, but for this the company had a back up method that worked. They shut down servers and computers, and trucked them to the backup location over 300 miles away, and got back up and running again. After the storm was over with, and local connectivity came back up, they moved everythng back.

My boss, I don't know if it ever got approved, typed up a report that the backup equipment should already be at the back up site, and we would just copy files over. Customers were not happy about the delays as the gear traveled both directions in the same month.

 

[BRJN]

I still think that a "Construction" skill with possibly cascade skills like carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc. should be added. These are really unique skills that the current lists in any version don't cover.
If you were running some sort of colonization scenario these would be critical skills along with farming.

There certainly can, and a Frontier-oriented campaign can use them. Reformation Coalition, the Spinward Marches pre-First Frontier War, Interstellar Wars, Pocket Empires all have nice spaces available that the colonists can make into their new home.
Surely a group of folks with a starship can find a reason to drop in and make themselves helpful (or maybe obnoxious).

 

[willtron3030]

Yep, never ignore the basics

The colonists on a world that is somewhat Earth-like have to concentrate on shelter, food, and the basics until they are sufficiently established to start specializing.

When thinking about colonies, on earthlike worlds or otherwise, Vinay Gupta's "Six Ways to Die"(PDF) often comes to mind: 1) too hot, 2) too cold, 3) thirst, 4) hunger, 5) illness, and 6) injury. In an SF RPG, I make it eight, and add "0) Can't breathe", and "7) your condition is unsustainable". They're prioritized by how quickly you'll succumb to them.

Gupta builds on that list with a concept map that arranges systems and services on a polar plot, placing them in the zones where they address a risk, at a radius indicating whether it's done at an individual level, the family, the community, etc., on up to the nation-state. It puts emphasis on shelter, water, food supply and preparation, sanitation, and energy. The prioritization of comms over medicine and security is because the SCIM paper linked above deals with natural disaster response, but it's an excellent overview. I want to re-do that systems plot to include eight zones.

"Your condition is unsustainable" is the hard, long-term item. Ignore this one, and one of the other seven will eventually kill you. The focus of early colonists should be bootstrapping toward complete independence (at a lower, subsistence TL if need be, as a fallback), or achieving economic independence. If they can't make everything they need, they should at least be able to create enough economic value to trade for what they can't obtain for themselves, plus hopefully a little more to reinvest in economic/tech development. I think some of that thinking goes out the window if they are Gov-6 and the colony is just a mining or Ag operation for another polity, or if they are confined to trade with a monopsony/monopoly.

A bunch of colonists with nothing but hand tools are pretty much toast even in the long run. They simply can't do what needs doing without sustained outside support. They need some degree of power machinery to get the job done.

Agreed. Until they can produce and maintain hi-TL power distribution or decentralized power production, you'll likely see everything that can be, run off of low/mid-TL energy sources (biomass (wood/peat burning, fossil fuels, methane), draft animal, hydro, wind, and solar).

I created a semi-monastic society, the Hillerites, whose mission is to preserve humaniti by studying low- and mid-level technologies from every culture they come in contact with, and adapting those technology principles and skills for other low- to mid-TL planets where they can sustainably improve agriculture, industry, and living conditions. They come across at first blush as a bunch of tree-hugging zealots, but they do good work -- usually. Their history has a few blips, once or twice introducing unexpectedly disruptive technology into economies, or invasive species of plants or animals into ecologies. There are non-human sophonts that see the Hillerites as trying to weaponize human fecundity. You'll often find a them at new colonies or low-TL planet.. and you can ID them by looking for the folks politely lecturing and arguing with large ag/industrial concerns, planners, engineers, and local government. They began as a patron, hiring players to adjust the orbit of an asteroid that was predicted to wreck a recently colonized planet in a few years. Sometimes there's just no substitute for high tech to avert a Fiery Meteor of Doom.

 

[Enoki]

Electronics and Mechanical should do for most instances of tool use- but yes buildings and civil engineering are another matter.

Those are more equivalent to dealing with true electronics (ie., circuit boards, and discrete equipment) or being the equivalent of an auto mechanic (fixing machinery).

That's why I think a Construction skill is needed.

 

[BRJN]

I'm reminded of the idea of a tactical insurance actuary as a player character...

I've created an insurance agent as a patron for a D&D campaign.

 

[kilemall]

Those are more equivalent to dealing with true electronics (ie., circuit boards, and discrete equipment) or being the equivalent of an auto mechanic (fixing machinery).

That's why I think a Construction skill is needed.

While I agree that actually building and tearing down a building is a different skill set, the actual tool use shouldn't be.


I'm using them as a broader skill set like Engineering, in particular Electronics was classically defined as 'operating' not just circuit monkey.


In a sense Combat Engineering already covers this as a military subset of civil engineering. I wouldn't use that specific skill, but perhaps something like it or the Naval Architect skill altered to something like Civil Architect, without necessarily being able to use the tools effectively.

 

[kilemall]

I've created an insurance agent as a patron for a D&D campaign.

Heh, qualifying skills for insurance-


Admin-1
Gambling-1
Broker-1
Persuade-1 (or equivalent, possibly Bribery/Liaison in some situations)


An actuary would drop the Persuade part and have skill-2 in the others.