Where I find my inspiration

[PFVA63]

Hi,

to all the above discussion you must consider that satellites, debris and other orbiting objects are not necessarily orbiters, and as already pointed out, even if you consider something built like a tank the impact of a hyper velocity mass is likely well capable of knocking an orbiting "tank" out of its orbit, tumbling and spinning across space intersecting many other orbits.

I believe that the articles referenced also indicate that meteor showers and meteor storms, as well as orbiting debris, can a threat to orbiting objects. Spraying the space above a planet with at least 3.6million "impactors" over a given period, especially considering that these "impactors" would all have a uniform mass of about 0.1kg each, of time would likely be considered a meteor shower on steroids, when compared to a naturally occurring meteor shower where the particles can range in size down to dust flakes and whose density may be measured on the order of tens of thousands or the low 100,000s.

If 3.6million particles are not considered enough, other factors to consider, in addition to just increasing the number of attacking ships, is the fact that each of those cruisers referenced from Mongoose Traveller's High Guard is that each ship also carries (I believe) 12,000 barrels of Sand for the Sand Casters and 2880 "torpedoes" (which appear to be 2.5 dton weapons in the Mongoose Rules). If you want you could also through all or part of these along a vector toward the planet as well. (I'll have to check later to see what total mass of "impactors" a "torpedo' might carry.)

Beyond this, also consider that objects in orbit do not represent fixed points in space, but rather they are also in motion. Also, as an experiment, if we were to draw a set of circles representing a planet and the different range bands of orbits for typical satellites, and then draw a set of lines across these rings, with the lowest being tangent to bottom of the lowest orbit band and the highest being tangent to the top of the most densely populated orbit band, you'll see that each "impactor" would cross all range bands to some extent and many "impactors" would cross many of these range bands twice (on the entrance side and then on the exit side).

Because of factors like these, the "impactors" should have a fair bit greater chance of hitting orbiting objects than just looking a objects moving through a single volume of space at a single orbit band.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

Just a quick PS. to the above post. My thoughts could probably be summed up by describing the proposed attack as an attempt to create an "artificial meteor storm-like event" to precipitate a "Kessler" syndrome type event among the objects orbiting a planet. I had suggested using something like maybe a half dozen typical cruisers as an example of what might be used to try to bring this about.

If it is the concern among some here that such a force would not be able to generate enough "projectiles" to ensure enough collisions among the objects orbiting a planet, then other options are available.

For ships approaching from a distance at constant acceleration, ejecting any objects along a trajectory that would intercept the planet's orbital regions could/would be a potential threat (including even ejecting any solid or liquid waste onboard).

Alternate options could include the use of merchant ships and/or jump tugs slowly ejecting large numbers of iron ore, asteroid mining wastes, and/or other such objects as the ship accelerates along a path towards the planet (in a corkscrew like spiraling path around the main vector).

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I think the real disconnect here is between seeing something possible as a threat to space assets, and using something as a weapon against similar space assets. In the first case, people are concerned because even a .01% probability of something damaging or destroying, say, a communications satellite, has consequences for the company/government involved: they have to put up a new one, recover/de-orbit the old one, handle the losses until they do, etc. And, over time, that .01% is a real possibility. In the case of attacking an orbital defense force, you *have* to hit enough things hard enough to damage/destroy them that it makes an impact on that force - a .01% probability of hitting something isn't enough. For the person protecting an individual craft against orbital debris and random meteorite impacts, they want to reduce the 'impact' of *anything* down as close to 0 as possible. An attacker has to make that number as close to 100% as possible for a certain number of the enemy.

The average Joe makes sure everything is right in his auto: brakes, steering, accelerator, belts, oil, etc. Because if his brakes go out - even if he is schooled in techniques to minimize the resultant damage/wreck - his day sucks. However, for the villain to "hit" the driver, he can't just rely on taking out his brakes. He has to lock his steering, freeze his accelerator, cut his brake line, and time it for that really vicious downhill hairpin curve with the 1,000m drop. Otherwise, the driver will simply drive his car into the bushes on the uphill side of the road and call a tow truck. The probability of any one of those things going wrong is small, but it is important to the driver. The villain has to make sure all of those things go wrong.

 

[Timerover51]

Going back more to the initial idea of the thread, I think that the following quote from H. Beam Piper's Lone Star Planet sums up pretty nicely inspiration for planet development in Traveller. It covers the reason for the settlement of New Texas, but it could be applied to almost any group that I can think of.

They had taken this little mission-fort down, brick by adobe brick, loaded it carefully into a spaceship, brought it here, forty two light-years away from Terra, and reverently set it up again. Then they had built a whole world and a whole social philosophy around it.

It had been the dissatisfied, of course, the discontented, the dreamers, who had led the vanguard of man's explosion into space following the discovery of the hyperspace-drive. They had gone from Terra cherishing dreams of things that had been dumped into the dust bin of history, carrying with them pictures of ways of life that had passed away, or that had never really been. Then, in their new life, on new planets, they had set to work making those dreams and those pictures live.

And, many times, they had come close to succeeding.

These Texans, now: they had left behind the cold fact that it had been their state's great industrial complex that had made their migration possible. They ignored the fact that their life here on Capella IV was possible only by application of modern industrial technology. That rodeo down the plaza—tank-tilting instead of bronco-busting. Here they were, living frozen in a romantic dream, a world of roving cowboys and ranch kingdoms.

 

[Carlobrand]

Hi,

Just a quick PS. to the above post. My thoughts could probably be summed up by describing the proposed attack as an attempt to create an "artificial meteor storm-like event" to precipitate a "Kessler" syndrome type event among the objects orbiting a planet. I had suggested using something like maybe a half dozen typical cruisers as an example of what might be used to try to bring this about.

Which I think we've pretty firmly established isn't going to happen in a Traveller setting above about tech level 9.

If it is the concern among some here that such a force would not be able to generate enough "projectiles" to ensure enough collisions among the objects orbiting a planet,

It wouldn't. I've suggested you look at the nature of the impact. Your impactor will penetrate with relative ease, that's not the issue. The issue is that it will pretty much punch through like an AP round through a tank - because the rules require orbiting craft to have hulls like tanks in order to withstand micrometeoroid damage. The stricken craft won't shatter; it's hull will hold its damaged innards inside, except for a conical spray that will follow the impactor out the "exit wound".

MegaTraveller's Hard Times supplement explores using lighter hulls for disposable vehicles in the aftermath of a collapse of the Imperium, as TL 6-8 worlds struggle to re-establish their orbital capabilities. However, with the advent of fusion power and gravitic drives, it's actually fairly simple and cost-effective to put a tank-like satellite in orbit. In fact, you can give your satellite battery-powered gravs pretty cheaply; the owner can then retract solar panels and land the satellite under its own power whenever it needs repair or upgrade. That presents the added issue that a world of TL 10 or better can bring its orbital infrastructure down to ground if given a few hours warning of attack.

then other options are available.

For ships approaching from a distance at constant acceleration, ejecting any objects along a trajectory that would intercept the planet's orbital regions could/would be a potential threat (including even ejecting any solid or liquid waste onboard).

Alternate options could include the use of merchant ships and/or jump tugs slowly ejecting large numbers of iron ore, asteroid mining wastes, and/or other such objects as the ship accelerates along a path towards the planet (in a corkscrew like spiraling path around the main vector).

Sometimes, when we hit on a clever idea, we find it very hard to look at that idea from the other side. However, part of good science in general is being able to look at your idea from the other side.

Let's sum up the problems this way:

First, your targets are too well-armored to trigger a cascade event. They can die; they just aren't likely to take anyone else with them.

Next, the orbital space being targeted is huge, the targets very small, yielding an extremely low probability of hitting anything. Your answer has been to escalate to what is now several large spacecraft dumping massive amounts of ordnance in an effort to achieve something like a reasonable likelihood of hitting something.

Now, to get the needed velocity, those spacecraft need to start some ten or so billion kilometers out, assuming a top acceleragion of 6G - farther if they're slower. We're talking in the rough neighborhood of about week in flight. Traveller military ship sensor ranges are on the order of about three light-seconds, but our modern systems are able to detect ship-sized objects from way farther than that - especially when you think about how much energy these ships put out. If they have a dense enough orbital infrastructure to be at risk from your plan, then they also have enough tech and infrastructure to see you way out there (and if they don't have the tools to see you at that distance, it's not likely they have much of anything in orbit for you to hit.) So, second problem: Starport authority is aware of your movements pretty much from the point you jump insystem, even several billion klicks out.

Next, the course needed to intercept the planet while accelerating pretty much all the way there is NOT the course needed if you had planned to do the standard turn-around-and-decelerate-at-midpoint approach. Planets move, and it takes a lot less time to reach the planet's orbit by accelerating the whole way than by spending half the trip speeding up and the other half slowing down. So, third problem: within a few hours of your jump insystem - while you're still looking at several days of acceleration ahead - Starport authorities know your course and will decide you're at best behaving very oddly and at worst are a threat.

Starport authority sees a number of large ships arrive insystem - way out in the middle of nowhere instead of at the usual 100-diameter exit point. Starport authority watches those ships take a course that will only reach the planet if those ships are accelerating the entire way. Are they going to be suspicious? You betcha.

From this point forward, it depends on the system you're in. If there are sufficient military resources, they scramble the SDBs or send out warships, and you end up in a battle before you reach your release point. If there aren't military resources - well, then you're just not in a system that has much orbital stuff to hit, because any world with significant space assets also has defenses for those assets. Figure any system with more than a hundred million or so souls is going to have one or more squadrons of SDBs.

And, whether you succeed or fail in that battle, the planet would still have several days from the point you were noticed to the likely date of impact to secure their orbital infrastructure and get ready for you.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,
I've been reviewing a lot of my Traveller material, ranging from CT up to the new T5 draft, as well as posts here, and I am having trouble finding reference to much of what you have posted.

Specifically, could you provide references to where it has been shown that trying to instigate an artificial "Kessler Syndrome" type event has been shown to be impassible above TL 9, where it is stated that the AV of a satellite is 4, that at TL 10 and above all satellites will make use of gravitic technology allowing them to enter and leave orbit at will, especially including any orbiting power plants, high ports, and/or factories whose operation may require them to be in microgravity, etc.

Furthermore, just because a technology/capability can be provided at a price does not mean that price will be worth paying. for example, on a TL10 world if two companies are vying for the same contract to provide satellite based comms or entertainment, it would seem that the company that could provide the services cheaper may have the advantage. As such, I don't see any reason to expect that both/either company will include in their bid that their satellites would include gravitic technology and the ability to orbit/de-orbit on their own, since not including this capability would result in a cheaper satellite, and the orbiting and de-obiting by an independent gravitic vehicle would seem to be a relatively inexpensive option.

Or put another way, as an analogy, in our would even if run flat tires and other such features can be put onto a car for a price, not all cars will utilize this technology because other options still exist, which don't require the added expense of that technology.

As for other aspects of your post, the fact that an attacker would have to start far out and that the defender will likely know that you are coming, is not a problem at all and in fact may actually be a plus. specifically, the proposed attack is intended to make use of the fact that space is so big, and distances are so great, and that Traveller assumes Newtonian based physics and the capability of constant acceleration, that an attacker can pick multiple points to initiate an attack so far out from the intended target that it would be likely impossible for the defender to try and patrol those locations to try and prevent any such attack.

In addition to this, since the defender would likely detect an attack coming, any attempts to mitigate or reduce the effects of such an attack would likely hav impacts on not just his fleet dispositions, but also operations on the world in question. Even if he could de-orbit, or at least re-orient his satellites and other orbital objects to try and lessen the risk to them, this would in turn impact their operations. A de-orbited or re-oriented comms, weather, or power generating satellite is likely not providing the comms, weather or power generating capability that it was put in place to do. A de-orbited or re-oriented factory in micro-g will likely have its production impacted. A high-port or other such object would also be significantly impacted as well.

In general, an attempt at inducing a :Kessler Syndrome" type event kind of appears that it might have two main goals; that of disrupting the operations on the planet in questions, and that of disrupting the operations of the defenders fleet. Even if a "Kessler Syndrome" is not initiated by an attack, in a situation where the operation of the satellites and other orbital objects around a planet becomes greatly impacted due to trying to mitigate the chances of success in itself has already accomplished something. In addition to this if the shuttling of supplies and personnel from a planet to orbit is also disrupted then the utility of that planet as a staging base for the defenders fleet is also disrupted, etc.

As for the attack itself, since orbital mechanics are fairly well known, an attacker can jump in system at multiple points, a far distance fro the planet, and start his attack. His intentions are likely well known almost immediately, but since his distance is so great the defender will either have to accelerate out a high G himself or make a micro jump to where he expects the enemy to eventually be. However, since the ships that make such a micro-jump will be out of pocket for about a week and will have to have set there destination in advance, the attacker can alter his course accordingly and will know that he'll have probably something on the order of at least 6 days to do whatever he needs. And if his course is altered enough, the defenders will likely find themselves out of position against a fast moving enemy, provided that the enemy hasn't already jumped out of system having dropped all his "cargo".

If on the other hand the defender chooses to try and accelerate out to meet the attackers, a smart attacker will likely have tried to position his initial assault's start location in such a way so as to provide him ample time to release his "cargo" and jump out before the defender makes contact.

 

[Omnivore]

No longer a contributor to this board.

 

[aramis]

Smart bullets work because they deflect atmosphere - truth is, the smart bullet concept is problematic in space, because you would generally not have sufficient reaction mass to make much difference, and if you reserve some for terminal guidance, that's reaction mass you didn't use for velocity increase. Traveller is "broken" on that score by the gravitic drives (which have a minimum size precluding missile use for anything under about 1Td), and which allow stupidly high ∆V.

Even so, actually ramming is an iffy proposition given the speeds and required reaction times - the canonical starship missile is much like the AIM-9 series - it's not an impactor, but a self-propelled shotgun that puts a bunch of impactors into you - and most of them miss.

 

[Omnivore]

No longer a contributor to this board.

 

[Shonner]

Watching The Fifth Element inspires me. I ignore that FTL radio chatter parts. That way, there is some unknown info. Just like in Traveller.

Also, SPI's Universe rules inspire me to play more Traveller.

 

[Timerover51]

Hi guys.

I'm new to the forum ... but not new to Traveller. Well, not to Classic LBB Traveller, anyway. I'm happy with that as a set of rules providing a framework for my Sci Fi RP gaming, so I have never felt the need to move on to other variants.

I'm sure this has probably been discussed many times before, but I thought I'd share a few of the ideas that have given me inspiration for the design of my Traveller universe.

I recently enjoyed re-watching "Centennial" on DVD, and I think this gives a wonderful flavour of what frontiers life can be like. BUT the American frontier was not the only kind of frontier - and I find that stories like the African Queen and Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" give plenty of other ideas for what "frontier" life might be like in a universe of limited communication speeds. Indeed, the "Great Game" from "Kim" is the inspiration for a campaign scenario I am building up on the eve of the 5th Frontier War - pitching the characters into the murky world of interstellar intelligence gathering (there will probably be a certain amount of the Thirty Nine Steps pitched in as well ... but NOT James Bond!!!)

So those are some of my inspirations. They work for me ...

Again, going back to the original intent of the thread, specifically the African frontier in the 19th century, I figure that there are several possible story lines in the following account, written by Sir Samuel Baker, on his exploratory journey to locate the sources of the Nile River. The book is The Albert N'Yanza, by Sir Samuel W. Baker, and can be downloaded from the Project Gutenberg website.

Khartoum is the seat of government, the Soudan provinces being under the control of a Governor-general, with despotic power. In 1861, there were about six thousand troops quartered in the town; a portion of these were Egyptians; other regiments were composed of blacks from Kordofan, and from the White and Blue Niles, with one regiment of Arnouts, and a battery of artillery. These troops are the curse of the country: as in the case of most Turkish and Egyptian officials, the receipt of pay is most irregular, and accordingly the soldiers are under loose discipline. Foraging and plunder is the business of the Egyptian soldier, and the miserable natives must submit to insult and ill-treatment at the will of the brutes who pillage them ad libitum.

In 1862, Moosa Pasha was the Governor-general of the Soudan. This man was a rather exaggerated specimen of Turkish authorities in general, combining the worst of Oriental failings with the brutality of a wild animal. During his administration the Soudan became utterly ruined; governed by military force, the revenue was unequal to the expenditure, and fresh taxes were levied upon the inhabitants to an extent that paralyzed the entire country. The Turk never improves. There is an Arab proverb that "the grass never grows in the footprint of a Turk," and nothing can be more aptly expressive of the character of the nation than this simple adage. Misgovernment, monopoly, extortion, and oppression, are the certain accompaniments of Turkish administration. At a great distance from all civilization, and separated from Lower Egypt by the Nubian deserts, Khartoum affords a wide field for the development of Egyptian official character. Every official plunders; the Governor-general extorts from all sides; he fills his private pockets by throwing every conceivable obstacle in the way of progress, and embarrasses every commercial movement in order to extort bribes from individuals.

From the highest to the lowest official, dishonesty and deceit are the rule—and each robs in proportion to his grade in the Government employ—the onus of extortion falling upon the natives; thus, exorbitant taxes are levied upon the agriculturists, and the industry of the inhabitants is disheartened by oppression. The taxes are collected by the soldiery, who naturally extort by violence an excess of the actual impost; accordingly the Arabs limit their cultivation to their bare necessities, fearing that a productive farm would entail an extortionate demand.

You could adapt this to a corrupt noble with a group hired by another noble to overthrow him (with tacit Imperial approval), an out-of-control colonizing effort, a Balkanized world with room to expand, or your group being some of the unpaid mercenaries that decide to take over. There is a lot of material in Baker's books that would be grist for the Game Master's mill.

Note: Additional Material from Baker's works can be found in the Random Static forum.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Man, you are a readin' fool! Lots of good info with inspiration in the stuff you quote.

 

[rancke]

You could adapt this to a corrupt noble with a group hired by another noble to overthrow him (with tacit Imperial approval), an out-of-control colonizing effort, a Balkanized world with room to expand, or your group being some of the unpaid mercenaries that decide to take over.

Sounds like a job for the Imperial Missions Force.


Hans

 

[Timerover51]

The following is taken from the book, Camps and Trails in China, by Roy Chapman Andrews, viewed by some as being the inspiration for Indiana Jones. This should give a Game Master a lot of possible ideas for an adventure or campaign.

Conditions at Yuchi when we arrived were most unsettled and for some months there had been a veritable "reign of terror." A large band of brigands was established in the hills not far from the city, and we were warned by the mandarin not to attempt to go farther up the river. A few months earlier several companies of soldiers had been sent from Foochow, and the result of turning loose these ruffians upon the town was to make "the remedy worse than the disease."

The soldiers were continually arresting innocent peasants, accusing them of being brigands or aiding the bandits, and shooting them without a hearing. At one time accurate information concerning the camp of the robbers was received and the soldiers set bravely off, but when within a short distance of the brigands the commanders began to quarrel among themselves, guns were fired, and the bandits escaped. A Chinaman must always "save his face," however, and when they returned to Yuchi they arrested dozens of people on mere suspicion and executed them without the vestige of a trial. Finally conditions became so intolerable that no one was safe, and after repeated complaints by the missionaries, a new mandarin of a somewhat better type was sent to Yuchi.

 

[Timerover51]

I came across this in the Andrews book cited in the previous post. i thought it absolutely delicious for creating a one-off adventure or including that in an on-going campaign as a sidelight. You just need something illegal in your Traveller universe on a particular planet.

Just across the frontier in Burma, opium is grown freely and much is smuggled into Yün-nan. Therefore its use has by no means been abandoned, especially in the south of the province, and in some towns it is smoked openly in the tea houses. In August, 1916, just before we reached Yün-nan Fu there was an exposé of opium smuggling which throws an illuminating side light on the corruption of some Chinese officials.

Opium can be purchased in Yün-nan Fu for two dollars (Mexican) an ounce, while in Shanghai it is worth ten dollars (Mexican). Tang (the Military Governor), the Minister of Justice, the Governor's brother and three members of Parliament had collected six hundred pounds of opium which they undertook to transfer to Shanghai.

Their request that no examination of their baggage be made by the French during their passage through Tonking was granted, and a similar favor was procured for them at Shanghai. Thus the sixty cases were safely landed, but a few hours later, through the opium combine, foreign detectives learned of the smuggling and the boxes were seized.

The Minister of Justice denied all knowledge of the opium, as did the three Parliament members, and Governor Tang was not interrogated as that would be quite contrary to the laws of Chinese etiquette; however, he will not receive reappointment when his official term expires.

Note: The Mexican Dollar mentioned was a trade dollar minted in the US for trade in China, and was based on the size and weight of the Spanish colonial Silver Piece of Eight, because of the very large quantity of silver Pieces of Eight shipped to China during the Spanish colonial period in Mexico.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Some cool ideas. I will keep these in mind, since MTU has numerous polities of different flavors and a bunch of unincorporated worlds. Something like these could take place in a few of the polities.......

 

[Blue Ghost]

Hi guys.

I'm new to the forum ... but not new to Traveller. Well, not to Classic LBB Traveller, anyway. I'm happy with that as a set of rules providing a framework for my Sci Fi RP gaming, so I have never felt the need to move on to other variants.

I'm sure this has probably been discussed many times before, but I thought I'd share a few of the ideas that have given me inspiration for the design of my Traveller universe.

I have always been impressed by the point that communication being limited to the speed of travel replicates the conditions of the "age of sail" -and so when in Book 0 it says "Many times, it will be useful to think of a situation in present day terms, scaled down a little. For starport, think of airport or seaport" I scratch out "airport" and think seaport only ... and not a major international port, either, with many ships coming and going, either ... but a small working port with perhaps one or two regular shipping movements a day if that. I'm British, so I'll use British analogies. Basically, I think that for the majorities of starports, Holyhead is a better analogy than Dover; Mallaig a better analogy than Aberdeen. (Indeed, I think Mallaig is perhaps the classic Class B starport on a world with a population digit up to about 6.) The airport analogy just doesn't cut it for me. Even a class A starport on a population A world is going to handle nothing like the number of flights as Heathrow, or even Leeds Bradford airport. Maybe now we're talking Dover seaport ... but that's all.

When trying to envisage the nature of the communities served by interstellar trade carried by Free Traders and the like, especially those population 6 and under worlds, I try to envisage the Western Isles in the 19th and earlier 20th Centuries, when the "puffers" were in their heyday. The worlds of Para Handy and the Vital Spark, that is. And I really would recommend anyone embarking upon Traveller for the first time to read the "Tales of Para Handy"!

I also recall the Star Trek description of space as "The Final Frontier". And yes, of course this was part of the marketing that Gene Roddenberry had to adopt to get the show aired in the first place (explaining to network executives that it was like "a wagon train to the stars" - but the point remains essentially a good one. Worlds in far flung regions like the Spinward Marches SHOULD be like frontier communities, with all that entails. I recently enjoyed re-watching "Centennial" on DVD, and I think this gives a wonderful flavour of what frontiers life can be like. BUT the American frontier was not the only kind of frontier - and I find that stories like the African Queen and Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" give plenty of other ideas for what "frontier" life might be like in a universe of limited communication speeds. Indeed, the "Great Game" from "Kim" is the inspiration for a campaign scenario I am building up on the eve of the 5th Frontier War - pitching the characters into the murky world of interstellar intelligence gathering (there will probably be a certain amount of the Thirty Nine Steps pitched in as well ... but NOT James Bond!!!)

So far as the great battle fleets of the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate is concerned, I have found that High Guard Rules really are consistent (at least if you're fighting at TL 14 and 15) with the "age of sail" analogy. It is a mistake to try to think in terms of mid to late 20th century naval warfare, with the killer blows being delivered by small, nimble "fighters" flying off "carriers" ... and fast, nimble MTBs (PT boats to the Americans) being able to deliver crippling attacks on much larger ships. They can't. Think age of sail ... think of battles like Trafalgar and even (going back much further) Lepanto. Big ships killed small ships ... and victory generally went to the fleet which put the greater firepower into the line.

Of course, armoured hulls and the single spinal mount restriction mean that we are much more akin to the later 19th century ... to the age of the ironclad. And, interestingly, to an era in which there were no great naval conflicts other than the Battle of Hampton Roads.

So those are some of my inspirations. They work for me ...

Hey there Amber;

I think your own European 18th and 19th century history can work for inspriation if you're into geo-political scenarios. That's for setting, but as for flavor all of the groups I've ever GMd for I always use high-adventure as the template; i.e. Indiana Jones kind of stuff, only it includes the entire team.

One time I had the players in three separate air rafts racing through the river catacombs of an underground complex, fleeing both pursuing gunmen and a torrent of flood water released from a water shed (I seem to recall they were under a mountain lake, and the flood gates to the lake had been blown). I had them make rolls to avoid stalagmites and stalagtites, as well as to choose the right channel, all the while evading enemy fire, and trying to t return fire on a platform that was bobbing and weaving at high speed. Just call me Mister Nice

Another was having another player group trying to regain control of a ship that was tumbling as it went into re-entry. Without grav plates. With damaged controls. In retrospect I should have tossed in a schizophrenic pilot who hadn't take his meds to liven things up.

I guess what I'm saying is that other than you standard recon fire team stuff, I tend to grab cinematic examples and thrust them upon the players. I've read lots of anecdotes about player groups analyzing data and talking about what to do next. Yeah, when I ran adventures I let that occur, but, once the smelly stuff starts hitting the fan, it becomes white-knuckle adventure time;

Me; "You guys are half way across the rope bridge with some ugly natives chasing you. Roll against your perception."
Players; "Perception roll? WTF is that?"
Me; "Take half your Int and Dex. Add the two, then roll less then that to be successful."
Players; "Mines 12."
Me; "Strike that, standard 7+, include any forward observer skill."
Players; "Got it...success! What do I notice?!"
Me; "Coming at you from the other end of the rope bridge is a company of angry natives,"
Players; "Whait a minute! That's from Temple of Doom!"
Me; "Ehh....yeah, big deal. You're surrounded on the rope bridge over a swift running river with six-hundred pound water born reptilian pouncers below that happen to resemble a cross between crocodiles and piranha. What actions do you take?"
Players; "Well, I've got a grav belt...."
Me; "Regrettably you used up your last charge, remember? Besides, it can only carry you, and maybe one other person without kit. What now?"

Again, call me Mister Nice

 

[SpaceBadger]

Edit: Deleted and Moved to new thread as I changed my mind about appropriateness in this thread.

 

[Timerover51]

Here is an interesting comment by Winston Churchill on the tribes of the Northwest Frontier area of Victorian India, now the area of Pakistan that is still causing an immense amount of trouble. It is taken from his book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Nor are these struggles conducted with the weapons which usually belong to the races of such development. To the ferocity of the Zulu are added the craft of the Redskin and the marksmanship of the Boer. The world is presented with that grim spectacle, "the strength of civilisation without its mercy." At a thousand yards the traveller falls wounded by the well-aimed bullet of a breech-loading rifle. His assailant, approaching, hacks him to death with the ferocity of a South-Sea Islander. The weapons of the nineteenth century are in the hands of the savages of the Stone Age.

This would make for some interesting adventures or campaigns, assuming that the unruly natives had acquired very high Tech level weaponry.

 

[Timerover51]

Another good book for inspiration is Exploration Fawcett, by Lt. Col. Percy H. Fawcett, giving an account of his various expeditions into the Amazon region at the borders of Brazil and Bolivia, where he was in charge of surveying the border. He disappeared in the Amazon region in 1925, and has not been accounted for as yet. The book is fascinating reading of what was then the frontier of both countries in the exploitation of the rubber trade.

Among his other reports is an account of encountering a 62 foot long anaconda. Considering that he was a surveyor, and did have a considerable amount of measuring instruments, I find the statement to be perfectly believable. Such a snake would be far larger than one other specimen of anaconda or any other large constrictor snake that has been reported.