Quirks for old ships

[Vanguard]

I'm thinking about assigning "quirks" to old ships, maybe one quirk per 5 years of age if the ship was properly maintained...more if it was neglected.

I'm looking for some ideas for quirks. Game mechanics for what the quirk does would be helpful too.

Examples:

Heinous Odor -
Description: Some areas of the ship stink. Some possible aromas include "Old Gym Socks", "What died in there?" and "Reversed Polarity Septic Tank".
Penalty: If the passenger areas stink, cut the number of available passengers in half or reduce middle and high passage fees by 1000 credits. If crew areas stink, add 50% to base crew salaries.

Reallocated Space -
Description: On the Empress Marava, the port and/or aft cargo ramps are unusable (sealed shut and mechanical parts gutted).
Change: Each cargo lock results in 5 dT of space that can be used for other purposes.

Smugglers Holds -
Description: 5 dT of cargo space has been carefully hidden from detection.
Benefit: Anyone searching the ship must beat a DC 25 search check to find the hidden hold. (change as appropriate for your version of traveller)

Anyone else have some?

 

[flykiller]

lost articles. jewelry, cell phones, PDA's, tools, wallets, weapons, passports, memory chips. great leads to adventures, clues for old crimes, or introductions to mysteries.

recall the TNG episode where they find traces of a body in a power conduit, sealed since the ship was constructed.

 

[chrisr]

I incorporated a wear value system for starships and used it to adjust the price of the ship. Every 10 years of age gives an extra wear point, so much damage causes another and missing annual maintenance yields more. Every time the ship does something that causes stress, emergence from jump, skimming fuel etc. Roll d20 vs wear points for a breakdown. This can give all sorts of colour to an old wreck.

 

[vutpakdi]

I have a Citizens of the Imperium article in the "accepted, not published" pile which has many Starship Quirks. Don't know if it'll be published anytime soon though.

I had some good quirks, some odditities, and some negative quirks.

A good quirk would be something like one of the energy weapons is slightly overpowered (safely) and does an extra point of damage.

An oddity would be something like the drink dispenser dispenses the wrong drink about 20% of the time or there is one 1.5x1.5m area where the grav plates slowly switches polarity from 1G to -1G over the course of the day.

A negative quirk would be something like the power plant uses fuel 5% faster than normal.

Ron

 

[Vanguard]

Ron, those kinds of things are exactly what I have in mind.

So this article will be in the Moot section when it gets published?

 

[kaladorn]

From the net, an older article by Russell Bornshlegel:

77 Starship Quirks

 

[vutpakdi]

Originally posted by Vanguard:
Ron, those kinds of things are exactly what I have in mind.

So this article will be in the Moot section when it gets published?

Yep, but I don't know when it'll be published. Could be quite some time.

Btw, the quirks are more along the lines of things that develop in old ships as opposed to changes the ship (modifications and such).

Ron

 

[Fritz_Brown]

That 77 Quirks site is very interesting!

How about allowing for Quirks to be added if the engineer makes a certain roll?
A PC computer geek tweaks the ship's computers so they work faster.
A Chief Engineer eeks another 5% efficiency out of the warp... er, jump drives.

Of course, this might provide a balancing quirk....

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Although I really don't know what this is about:
"Inappropriate Computers: The warp drive is being controlled by a hand computer in the engine room, or the captain uses an abacus for bookkeeping, or a Linux box in the galley is running the security system, or some such."
I would think a Linux box would be the only appropriate choice for security....

 

[Vanguard]

For security, I'd want either a secure os or a custom-built proprietary machine.

In any case, I definitely want the security computer sitting in the galley.

 

[kaladorn]

Secure OS? One of the great oxymorons of all time. Proprietary? Utilizing security through obscurity?

Lesson 1: There is no such thing as electronic security for a computer. [1]

Putting the security manager in the galley would be kind of neat, if it was disguised as the coffee maker or an air recirculator or microwave or something. Probably the last place and invader would look for it. But it would be unfortunate when half the security sensors went offline because someone put a metal-foil packet inside of it, set on HIGH.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Lesson 1: There is no such thing as electronic security for a computer. [1]

[1]: There is actually one moderately secure computer. It is stored in a room with ten meter thick aligned superdense walls, with a large set of locks imposing a horrendous penalty on rogues attempting to use Intrusion skill, defended by lasers, claymore mines, microwave barriers, and hordes of angry Zho-Aslan crossbreed Telepath-Assassins. The room is filled with ferroconcrete and the computer is spacially coincident with a point singularity. But other than this particular single case, there is no such thing as a secure computer.

 

[Vanguard]

Ah, I used the wrong word. I meant Trusted OS:

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0501trustedsolaris.html

like that.

Yes, there's no such thing as a "secure computer" if you take "secure" to mean "unable to be beaten." You can have a computer that is secure in the sense that the resources required to break in aren't worth the effort, or that a break-in would take too long to be done without detection.

Physical security (Safes and vaults) are actually rated by how long they would take to defeat, depending on whether the break-in is detectable or not (an undetectable break-in should take longer than a detectable one in a well-built safe). Some day we'll be able to do the same with computer security (Maybe they already can in the 3I).

We're getting off-topic. If we're going to continue this discussion, we should start a new thread (in RS if it's about computer security in general, or here in LS if it's about computer security in Traveller.)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Ya know, though, that is a pretty good quirk. We assume "computer" skill is homogenous.
Player: "What is all this text on my screen? Where are my icons? And, what the h- is DOS?"
Referee: "Heh-heh-heh."

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
That 77 Quirks site is very interesting!

How about allowing for Quirks to be added if the engineer makes a certain roll?
A PC computer geek tweaks the ship's computers so they work faster.
A Chief Engineer eeks another 5% efficiency out of the warp... er, jump drives.

Of course, this might provide a balancing quirk....

How about having the quirks modified by a skill roll with negative modifiers for positive quirks and positive modifiers for negative quirks?

 

[kaladorn]

MT went some way towards dealing with the unfamiliarity issue by penalizing you for TL differences. You come from a TL9 world, go to use a TL13 computer terminal. Your skill isn't treated as being as good. Similarly, alien systems might impose a penalty.

But even the idea that all TL-9 systems are in any way interchangeable (even if all created by humans) is rather silly.

 

[aramis]

"ImperiVOS Version 142.3.4.1A12 Online. Please step forward for voice verification and physio-parameter scan." brief pause..."Not bad for a semi-retired old coot. You computer wishes she had a bod to molest you, captain-sweetie..."

(somewhere along the line, someone installed the wrong kind of emotion simulation and Autonomy software.... and the computer has a crush on one or more PC's.... or worse, an NPC...)

 

[kaladorn]

Or the opposite, it has installed an antithetical personality.

"Arright, you slacker. Whadya want now? Can' cha see sum of us iz bizzy? Like you'd know real work, if it bit you... Cap'n...Sir.. Yessir. I liv fer to do yer biddin'. As if."

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Much like the fighter's computer in the "Star of the Guardians" trilogy by Margaret Weis. Smart-aleck computer with a heart of gold. Foul-mouthed, to boot.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by Aramis:
"ImperiVOS Version 142.3.4.1A12 Online. Please step forward for voice verification and physio-parameter scan." brief pause..."Not bad for a semi-retired old coot. You computer wishes she had a bod to molest you, captain-sweetie..."

OOOOOH, sounds kind of like a Virus infected computer or self aware AI that has taken over the ships computer with a benevolent personality. Nice computer quirk. (Your port or mine, wink, wink).