The Rech System / 2112 Spinward Marches

[OjnoTheRed]

Hello. I've have (rather obsessively, it is true) detailed a system, which simply started as an idea for a setting for The Ship In The Lake adventure in JTAS 2. I would be very interested in what others think of this, and I would be very pleased if anyone used it and posted comments here.

Constructive criticism welcome. The layout is based on Mega Traveller, and so is the rule set used, but I hope it is adaptable easily to other versions.

The Rech System

 

[Hemdian]

Excellent, Sir. I’ve just given the document a quick scan and saved to my hard disk for later study. But I have to say too many of the write-ups I’ve seen look little more than data dumps from H&E. On the other hand you have gone to the trouble of fleshing out the raw data with facts that bring the place alive. I’m impressed.

Here’s a question: You described wild colonies of chlorine-fixing bacteria are starting to appear. You also mentioned the practice of ships venting to open to allow the chlorine taint in the atmosphere to provide a basic sanitisation of said ships. What risk is there of ships becoming contaminated with chlorine-fixing bacteria and what would the ramifications be? (Can these bacteria survive in non-tainted atmospheres? What do chlorine-fixing bacteria excrete? If a ship refuelled with unrefined fuel and that was contaminated what effect would these bacteria have on the fuel system?) I could imagine this could be an emerging problem ... it’s not been an issue before but it is an issue waiting to happen.

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks for the encouragement, Hemdian. A great question, as well.

I think we can resolve it this way. The old 'vent the ship' strategy is something that's passed down orally and is actually true if done well away from the inhabited continent of Berg. So it's something someone might tell you because they've been told it by grandpa. They are all ignorant of the more complicated reality: microbial and bacterial life has now been introduced to Rech. It could be evolving in directions that produce disease in humans - and will not respond to usual sterilisation techniques because they are already bred / engineered to be resistant to chlorine (leading to runaway superbugs) or dependent on it (which means they will be wiped out if you keep standard disinfectants AWAY from them!).

This also gives a referee an 'out' for animal encounter tables and wilderness adventures away from the continent of Berg: maybe there IS animal life out there after all.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Impressive.

I'll be steeling your TL 5,6 designes for MTU.

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks E.D. No worries - hope they come in useful.

Have a bonus design - the Holden SS Commodore - in Open Office Spreadsheet format and Microsoft Excel pre-2007 format. Spreadsheets include evaluation as well as components under Mega Traveller rules.

Hidden in the spreadsheet are top speeds when nothin' is carried except the driver (weighing in at 150kg - lose some weight there and it goes faster!).

 

[BeRKA]

Very good write-up.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Thanks E.D. No worries - hope they come in useful.

Have a bonus design - the Holden SS Commodore - in Open Office Spreadsheet format and Microsoft Excel pre-2007 format. Spreadsheets include evaluation as well as components under Mega Traveller rules.

Hidden in the spreadsheet are top speeds when nothin' is carried except the driver (weighing in at 150kg - lose some weight there and it goes faster!).

Thanks. Stollen that one as well!

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[HG_B]

Constructive criticism welcome. The layout is based on Mega Traveller, and so is the rule set used, but I hope it is adaptable easily to other versions.[/u][/URL]

Wow, just wow. Maybe Marc will consider using your talents to help flesh out the T% universe.

 

[Gray Lensman]

WOW! Is absolutely right. I especially like the way you
formatted it. Gives it a Megatraveller flavor very well.
Including all the examples of locally produced equipment
a very great thing as well.

A very Great Job indeed,

Dan

 

[Nezach]

Wow, very cool. Reminds me of the write ups from The Traveller's Digest. I loved those.

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thank you all for your compliments - it is always nice to have something well received.

I don't know if other writers are like this, but I tend to only cast a more critical eye over what I've written after I post it for others to see.

I have therefore revised the document (still posted in the same place at Box.net) to remove unwitting repetition, and correct some spelling and grammar errors.

Further, I discussed the likely effects of atmospheric chlorine with a friend studying chemistry. There were two problems, but fortunately balance each other out. Firstly, elemental chlorine is not significantly heavier than nitrogen or oxygen and is not likely to waft into lower altitudes. This made the "escape to higher altitudes" settlements redundant. But on the other hand, a wet cloth over your nose and mouth is a very effective filter, so filter masks are back easily. The more advanced versions with microbial filtering are for the chlorine / acid fogs that occur on Rech.

 

[rancke]

Hello. I've have (rather obsessively, it is true) detailed a system, which simply started as an idea for a setting for The Ship In The Lake adventure in JTAS 2.

The writeup is very impressive. I'm afraid that it's also big enough that I can't muster the energy to give it the attention it deserves. I've skimmed it, and as I said, I'm very impressed, but any detailed comments will have to wait until and if I get around to reading it in earnest.

I do have one small comment. Not relevant to the writeup itself, but to the adventure you mention. In JTAS 2 the planet is called Cocta. The adventure was reused in The Traveller Book where it had been transposed to Heya and some more details added (also, a few details had been changed). I've been working on a writeup of Heya and have been going on the assumption that Cocta and Heya is one and the same world; Cocta is the old (native) name for Heya. That last part is not canon, of course.


Hans

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks rancke. On looking at it again, it could do with 'editing down' to get rid of some repeating parts to make it an easier read.

I did not know that about the adaptation of that JTAS article. I got the Classic Traveller CD Rom and I'll see if I can find it in The Traveller Book.

 

[savage]

Wonderful. It would be great if we had standard formats of this quality. You have set a bar.

I did not see anything on tectonic plates. I was trying to figure out the world's geological history. Perhaps I need a closer read.

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks. I'm ... pleasantly surprised this work is giving others pleasure.

I used the DGP's World Builder's Handbook in constructing the world, and in creating the map divided the world into tectonic plates before establishing rifts and mountain ranges. The Very Big Canyon is a rift with two plates drawing away from each other, and the other equatorial mountains are plate collisions. Remaining mountains near the poles arose from glacial erosion.

I just drew the boundaries and then followed the book about what was likely to be there, and I hope the layout of the map is somewhat playable, even though it's obviously a loving amateur's work not a decent map maker's.

I was also inspired by the Tarsus Traveller module and the layout is an attempt to copy the standard MegaTraveller layout.

I am going to re-edit this and convert it for T5; conversion will be straightforward as the Makers turn designing weapons and vehicles into a breeze and I can concentrate on history and background flavour.

 

[Dagrill]

I was also inspired by the Tarsus Traveller module and the layout is an attempt to copy the standard MegaTraveller layout.

I am going to re-edit this and convert it for T5; conversion will be straightforward as the Makers turn designing weapons and vehicles into a breeze and I can concentrate on history and background flavour.

Hi,

I was extremely impressed that you provide details for the Police and Armed Forces as well, I'd love to see this in a T5 format,

Kind Regards

David

 

[Drakon]

Hi,

I was extremely impressed that you provide details for the Police and Armed Forces as well, I'd love to see this in a T5 format,

Kind Regards

David

Seconded. You have set the bar very high. And I would like to see this in a T5 format also.

 

[robject]

WOW! Is absolutely right. I especially like the way you formatted it. Gives it a Megatraveller flavor very well. Including all the examples of locally produced equipment a very great thing as well.

A very Great Job indeed,

Dan

It looks like Dan said it before I could, but the formatting is sweetly MT-perfect, and that really does it for me. Good work!

 

[Tanuki]

Suggested revisions

Hi there Ojno - Having received my Patent of Nobility from Marc as Marquis of Rech, I did a search and came up with your pdf. I don't know if you're still interested in fiddling with it, but I thought I'd offer a couple of points.

First, recent discoveries made by the Kepler space telescope have shown that class M stars commonly have planets up to the size of Neptune, and less commonly as big as Jupiter, so the "captured planet" mention in the beginning is unnecessary.

Second, a planet in the habitable zone of even a large class M (M0 puts it right at the top of class M stars, the V means it is main sequence - see my blog post on stellar classification at http://lurkingrhythmically.blogspot.com/2013/10/traveller-tuesday-stellar-classification.html ) is so close that Rech will be tide locked. This most likely means a permanent ice cap on the central night side, though atmospheric circulation will keep the atmosphere from freezing out and will make the entire day side reasonably habitable. Indeed, habitability will extend a fair ways into the night side, though photosynthetic plants will, of course, be absent once past the terminator.

The first issue is minor and won't require much tinkering, the second issue will involve somewhat more - you'll want to show the terminator and ice cap on the map, and it will probably have some effects on other parts of the write up - I'll be going through the pdf in more detail tomorrow.

Overall, a very nice write up, though.

Thanks - Brook, aka Tanuki

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks Tanuki - yes, I am going to fiddle with it some more, I want to bring it into the T5 ruleset. I based the 'captured planet' idea on the size mods in the MegaTraveller rule set; thanks for the observation on the science, though, I will definitely take that out in the revised version.

The tidal locking problem presents a bit more of a problem! The general idea stays the same: most of the world is not explored, settlement is limited to a certain area, and the taint in the atmosphere means all life is an exotic transplant by the original colonists. This will be in contravention to the new NILS table but I like my idea and the way it affects the history of the planet.

But it will mean completely re-doing the world map.

What I might do instead is nudge the world orbit out a bit and see how cold it turns out. But that might more work. I'd also need some help with physics: what would be the minimum distance from M0 V star for a planet to escape being tidally locked?