Tainted Atmospheres

[Renaissance Man]

I've rolled up a world with a dense tainted atmosphere and I've been trying to think up cool, at least somewhat "realistic" ideas about what that means.

The only documentation I have about tainted atmospheres is that they need a filter mask. Meanwhile, the planet is only TL3, which means they either import their masks, fashion crude ones that work (hmmm, some steampunk ideas here...) or the natives have built up some kind of immunity.

But the question remains... what is the contaminating agent?
Right now I'm going for spores from local flora/fungi life, but I was wondering what some of you planetary scientists think.

Thanks!

 

[far-trader]

Dense Tainted might be breathable at higher altitudes, where the atmosphere might actually be simply Standard, untainted, with no need for breathing assists. Taints would tend to be heavier than air and settle in the lower atltitudes. The highlands could be where your TL3 society lives. While the lowlands are the habitat of the dreaded myst beasts that are adapted to the atmo.

As for the taint it could be just the smog created by your low tech society (if large enough), sinking to the lowlands, full of nasty soot and such.

Or it could be natural, vog (volcanic smog) full of ash and sulfur dioxide with lots of nice acid rain and acidic lakes (not quite Corrosive atmo B but getting there).

Both getting close to Exotic atmo too, in the lowlands, if you want to throw some terrain hazards at the players venturing in the lowest valleys. Places where the atmo soup is not breathable.

Maybe the smog/vog hides the ruins of a once great civilization the remnants of which are the low tech regressed highlanders. Or maybe that's just a rumour started to support the local trade in maps and guides...

 

[Renaissance Man]

Love this board... that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talkin about. Thanks far trader!

 

[far-trader]

You're welcome

 

[rancke]

I've rolled up a world with a dense tainted atmosphere and I've been trying to think up cool, at least somewhat "realistic" ideas about what that means.

The only documentation I have about tainted atmospheres is that they need a filter mask. Meanwhile, the planet is only TL3, which means they either import their masks, fashion crude ones that work (hmmm, some steampunk ideas here...) or the natives have built up some kind of immunity.

Yes, a lot of writeups interpret that to mean that visitors to the world need filter masks to breathe, i.e. that the natives have immunity to the contaminant. Other possibilities is that the taint can be filtered by simple cloth masks or other masks that can be manufactured at the local TL (and don't forget the possibility of technological niches that are in advance of the world's High Common TL; the masks they make could be TL5), or are seasonal ("We don't leave the caverns during Pollen."), or that there are regions where the taint is bearable and that the natives live there.


Hans

 

[aramis]

Or the natives are not immune, but don't care. See also "Shaggies"...

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Some great ideas here already!

I just wanted to add that, guided by the World Builders Handbook and the Atmospheres Special Supplement, taints can also be a touch of a non-standard gas mix.

In one world I'm working on now (which I'll put up here when it's in more advanced form) the atmosphere has a chlorine taint in mild quantities. In substantial quantities (30 ppm or more), it's a poisonous gas that induces vomiting and all sorts of bad effects. In fact, it was used as an early chemical weapon in WWI before they switched to mustard gas and nerve gas.

In smaller quantities, it will certainly smell very strongly (like an overpowered swimming pool), and won't make you sick, but it is inadvisable to breathe it in if you can help it. Cl2 is also heavier that N2 or O2, so will tend to settle into valleys and depressions, creating an eerie yellow-green cloud that is disturbed by the slightest touch.

So the "taint" in this cases turns out to have a mild irritant effect, and a gas mask (probably a respirator rather than just a filter) would be a good idea. What I've reasoned about the 'natives' (all human) is a highly developed algae or bacterial based chlorine-fixing process. So a filter mask is required - but of local manufacture only. But still developing the idea.

 

[rancke]

I just wanted to add that, guided by the World Builders Handbook and the Atmospheres Special Supplement, taints can also be a touch of a non-standard gas mix.

I'm actually working right now on a world that is described in Behind the Claw as having a dense atmosphere with "an unusually high concentration of lighter gases", and I find myself at a loss. What does that actually mean? What gases and how do they affect people who venture outdoors?


Hans

 

[aramis]

That could be a lot of hydrogen & helium being released from beneath the crust, Hans... which have some odd effects in concentration.

 

[rancke]

That could be a lot of hydrogen & helium being released from beneath the crust, Hans... which have some odd effects in concentration.

I'm afraid that doesn't help me much. What effects? And where would they be released? I assumed these lighter gases were part of the air mix. If they're lighter than air, wouldn't concentrations go straight up without contaminating the air? What effect does hydrogen have on the human who breathes it? Helium is inert, so it would be harmless, wouldn't it?


Hans

 

[aramis]

Not always, tho it requires odd conditions and hydrogen in certain concentrations is explosive....

More likely is biologic or geologic releases... Random animal moves through a hydrogen eruption and BOOOOM.

 

[Icosahedron]

In a still atmosphere, the lighter gases will rise and eventually 'evaporate' into space, but in a turbulent atmosphere, and/or one in which they are quickly replenished, they could remain mixed with other components at low altitudes for a long time.

Hydrogen is your typical 'insidious' gas, perhaps leaching into sealed areas and creating local hazards (your car has been standing for a few days, the Hydrogen in the still air inside has pooled near the roof. You open the door and the interior light comes on...)

Helium may be inert, but it doesn't support life. Presence of large quantities of Helium or Nitrogen, resulting in a lower overall percentage of Oxygen, would make it much harder to breathe (and maybe you get a squeaky voice, too. )

 

[rancke]

In a still atmosphere, the lighter gases will rise and eventually 'evaporate' into space, but in a turbulent atmosphere, and/or one in which they are quickly replenished, they could remain mixed with other components at low altitudes for a long time.

And then what? Why do I need a filter mask? What happens if I venture out of doors without one?

Hydrogen is your typical 'insidious' gas, perhaps leaching into sealed areas and creating local hazards (your car has been standing for a few days, the Hydrogen in the still air inside has pooled near the roof. You open the door and the interior light comes on...)

Explosions are hardly alliviated at all by filter masks.

Helium may be inert, but it doesn't support life. Presence of large quantities of Helium or Nitrogen, resulting in a lower overall percentage of Oxygen, would make it much harder to breathe (and maybe you get a squeaky voice, too. )

That would make it an exotic atmosphere, not a tainted one. You need oxygen masks for atmospheres with too little oxygen, filter masks for atmospheres with stuff you don't want to get into your lungs.


Hans

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Rancke2, it does come down to some imagination and what you feel moves the story along for the purpose of the game. i.e. cheat

But in the spirit of Traveller (i.e. get some "science" behind the "science"-fiction), I found looking up various gasses in Wikipedia gave me some answers. For example, I didn't know about the WWI Chlorine poisonous gas thing, and following on from there learnt about it accumulating in craters and trenches (mustard gas did the same thing).

A lighter gas. Hmmmm. Well, Fluorine might fit the bill there. It's slightly heavier than oxygen, does exist in the form Fl2 but is also an oxygenator. Have a look on Wikipedia and see if that fits the bill.

Remember that smaller concentrations of a gas might render the atmosphere classified as a "taint" but that same composition with a higher concentration of the nasty gas might render it exotic, or even insidious.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

I read somewhere that the Na'vi homeworld is Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Ammonia and Hydrogen sulfide. This is why the humans have to wear those face-masks.

Definitely tainted atmo ... sure stink like Hell, too.

 

[rancke]

Rancke2, it does come down to some imagination and what you feel moves the story along for the purpose of the game. i.e. cheat

If I was going to cheat, I'd just change the taint, probably to a mild industrial taint, since this world has the Industrial trade classification (For some reason BtC does not use industrial taints on a single one of the Industrial worlds (it does give industrial taints to worlds with populations so low it beggars belief that their industrial byproducts would be able to contaminate an entire planetary atmosphere -- go figure)).

But in the spirit of Traveller (i.e. get some "science" behind the "science"-fiction), I found looking up various gasses in Wikipedia gave me some answers. For example, I didn't know about the WWI Chlorine poisonous gas thing, and following on from there learnt about it accumulating in craters and trenches (mustard gas did the same thing).

A lighter gas. Hmmmm. Well, Fluorine might fit the bill there. It's slightly heavier than oxygen, does exist in the form Fl2 but is also an oxygenator. Have a look on Wikipedia and see if that fits the bill.

I don't think chlorine and fluroine qualifies as lighter gases.

Remember that smaller concentrations of a gas might render the atmosphere classified as a "taint" but that same composition with a higher concentration of the nasty gas might render it exotic, or even insidious.

But how do you get concentrations of lighter gases? Except in places where they escape into the atmosphere, but that wouldn't be a world-wide taint.


Hans

 

[Starviking]

But how do you get concentrations of lighter gases? Except in places where they escape into the atmosphere, but that wouldn't be a world-wide taint.

Hans

Well, the gasses could be quite useful to industry, given Traveller's cheap interstellar travel they might even be exportable.

How about this then: the planet's industry and most of its settlements cluster around the gas vents - so while the taint isn't worldwide, it is virtually civilization-wide.

 

[Icosahedron]

The bottom line is simple, Hans, whoever wrote the BTC thing was writing a game, not a scientific treatise. ie they made it up. Your best option is to do the same. It may not even be possible for it to make sense scientifically. Just wave your hand.
Filter masks may be a panacea for most taints, but maybe they're not appropriate for this one?

EDIT: OTOH, maybe it depends what a filter mask is. Is it just a chamber stuffed with cotton wool, or is it a high-tech device with different modules for different taints that chemically or physically extracts taints from the air, like a portable air scrubber unit?

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Maybe it depends what a filter mask is. Is it just a chamber stuffed with cotton wool, or is it a high-tech device with different modules for different taints that chemically or physically extracts taints from the air, like a portable air scrubber unit?

Yes - I took this approach for a world with a chlorine gas taint. The overall TL was only 6, but the environment TL turned out to be 10. Enough for advanced genetic engineering required to develop chlorine fixing algae or bacteria. I figured filter masks shoved the air through disposable filters that must be regularly replaced, and players would need to buy local filter masks to go outside.

 

[ThunderChilde]

Or perhaps it the tainted atomspere there grew several medicinal plants or compounds easily refined with tl6 tech. Then have it buys its its tl10 biotech from a near by planet, in exchange for the medicinals, setting up a trade loop. Part of the games paradime is that most world have to have trade to get along, and during the long night, many failed or went extinct all together. This planet would typify why that is.