rust

Yep, and one step further, and the biomembrane can be used to filter oxy-

gen out of the seawater, which could lead to the production of a new type

of artificial gills. And other membranes could be used to filter valuable re-

sources from the water.

And you can use all these devices as props and places to go for the colonists:)

Exactly. And there is still this megacorporation that wants to destroy the

colony because it welcomes the escaped genetic slaves. Just think of all

the possible ways to sabotage the construction of the various projects, or

to send a few "terrorists" to destroy the expensive new equipment -and

of all the additional "job opportunities" (adventures) this can provide for

the colony's security officers ... >:->

The colonists could collect the sound wave energy from footsteps, talking, etc. It doesn't have to be very loud (this is a sci-fi setting, after all:lol:) and could be from normal human activity. And think of how much sound a typhoon would make:eek:

I agree, but I still have doubts whether the colonists would like that techno-

logy. The best way to find out is to let an NPC, probably one of the colony's

scientists, make the proposal to the governing council of the players' PCs.

I will try to "sell" the idea to them, but I am almost sure that they will not

want to spend money on it.

Yep, another very good idea (the algae stuff) !

While my colonists have not much use for biodiesel as a fuel, I am sure that

the stuff can also be used as the raw material for the production of some

sort of "bioplastics", which could replace the expensive carbon fibre materials

used now in many of the simpler applications ... there seems to be a kind of

"green" chemical industry on the colony's horizon ...

I'm really on a roll with the "green" and free energy today, I hope you don't mind:)

Not at all, this is exactly the kind of "input" I need to improve my setting !

I am not sure whether my colonists would appreciate the idea to use sound to

produce energy, especially since they are trying to keep their colony as quiet

as possible (I think the players consider this helpful to attract tourists to the

planet in the future - once the pirates have been dealt with and the trade

routes are open again).

However, sound is used for the colony's typical hunting weapon, a sonic stun-

ner, and to some degree for the undersea mining equipment, although the so-

nar operators of the submarines that serve the mines definitely hate this.

And more desalination ...

Thank you again !

I have just decided to put a prototype wave energy and desalination plant

high on the "To Do" list of the Avalon Reserach Center's marine technology

department, with the aim to build the first such system at the Archipelago

Algae Farms (an aquacultural settlement) in the near future - the ideas from

the links are just too good not to use them.

Thank you very much again for the link !

I especially like the Solar Sailor catamarans, one of them looks almost exact-

ly like my imagination of a typical short range passenger transport boat on

Pharos IV, like the ones used to transport passengers between the space-

port and the capital city.

The boats on Pharos IV are equipped with solar panels, but until now I was

convinced that they could only provide some additional energy for seconda-

ry systems, not enough power to propel the boat - very good to know that

this is possible even with today's technology.

Does that mean that Pharos IV is wobbly?

No, at least not in the short term. Since my knowledge of geophysics is very

limited, I decided to use what I considered the most simple model I could

find, with "perfect" ocean currents, jet streams, and all that, and made sure

that the planet has no moon (no tides to calculate ...).

There may be some "side effects" in the long run, like the planet perhaps be-

ing wobbly, but for the time being I simply ignore them ...

Oops, I forgot to answer that one ...

Unfortunately Pharos IV has almost no axial tilt and no polar regions, the

energy transport by the ocean currents is unhindered by continents, so

the regions near the poles are only a little colder than the rest of the pla-

net.

While I like the idea, I have doubts that I could make it work for Pharos IV.

Thank you very, very much for all the interesting and useful informations

and ideas, they really are most welcome !

The Pharos IV colonists have built their first power plant using an ocean

current to produce energy some years ago, but it will mainly be used to

replace the oldest of the fusion power plants they brought with them.

I always wanted to use "green" energy for the development of the colo-

ny, but until now I did not have the time (well, was too lazy ...) to do the

necessary research, so your links come at the perfect time.

The energy would not be the real problem when it comes to the proposal

to use lasers to replenish the ozone layer, the main problem would be mo-

ney. At the moment, the colony simply could not afford a project of this

kind, and the leaders of the colony (a group of player characters, by the

way) currently need all the money they can get to arm the colony in order

to protect it from a newly appeared group of pirates / raiders.

So, the laser-ozone-project will have to wait a couple of game-years, I

think, with all those nasty pirates at the system's "border" ... >:->

Weather is going to be a real issue.

Yep, weather is a real issue.

Cyclones and extremely heavy rainstorms are quite common on Pharos IV,

so all floaters and water vehicles have to be designed and built according-

ly. For example, most of the major ships are SWATH catamarans:

Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the long term, all the major settlements except the surface spaceport

(there is also an orbital spaceport) will probably be seafloor settlements.

The colony's capital, Avalon City, already has a sizeable deep sea quarter,

Avalon Deep or "Downtown", where now all the vital installations of the

colony are located.

Out of curiosity, what are the adventures going to be

like on this planet? What will the main themes be?

Our group has been playing characters involved in the development of the co-

lony for 9 real months / about 80 game-years now.

The adventures are based upon the "axis events" of the colony's history. The

first adventure was the discovery of the planet, then came its exploration,

the search for finances and colonists to establish the colony, the construc-

tion of the first floating settlement, and so on.

At the moment we still have a mostly unexplored planet, the relics of the Buil-

ders and conflicts between the various groups of colonists as potential ad-

venture themes.

Apart from these colony-based adventures there are many (nowadays most)

adventures dealing with the offworld relations of the colony.

Pharos IV is on the very edge of the known space, so there is an entire sec-

tor to explore, there are new trade routes and pirates, there is diplomacy to

deal with the established regional powers and their rivalries and occasional

wars, and so on.

With the colony as the background, and the development of the colony as

the "reason" of the game, we can play almost all kinds of science fiction ad-

ventures you can imagine - even "urban" adventures, although until now

only on other, more developed planets.

Have the sea turtles lay egg cases like skates ...

Another very good idea, thank you again !

Now I only have to make these egg cases taste terribly, in order to keep the

dolphins from eating them ...

Thank you very much for the many interesting ideas, I think I will put most

of them on my "To Introduce" list !

I especially like the amoebas (something new to "discover" for the scientist

characters) and the idea with the poisonous larvae (someone forgot to ask

the right questions when introducing the adult forms).

Some of the other species could "immigrate" to Pharos IV through an as yet

undiscovered "Gate" at another abandoned station of the "Builders", which

could make for a nice advenuture: Find out where those strange critters co-

me from, discover and explore an abandoned (?) alien deep sea base ...

I considered sea turtles, but unfortunately they need at least some land to

lay their eggs. However, this might well be different with non-Terran spe-

cies ...

Edit.: I have just introduced your Sea Trees, as a native species of the pla-

net Donen 19, to Pharos IV. They will become a part of the artificial Barrier

Reef near the capital Avalon City in the year 90 n.L. (after landing). The ARC

(Avalon Research Center) has decided to introduce them in order to expand

and stabilize the reef, which serves both as a protection of the capital from

tsunamis and as a leisure area for the Avalonian divers (and, hopefully, a fu-

ture tourist attraction).

Again, thank you very much !

For me, the 100 % are the limit of what an average person can achieve.

It is what a well-trained sniper can do with his rifle, or what a professor can

know about his field of study.

It is not what could theoretically be done with that rifle under perfect circum-

stances, or all that could be known about the field of study (I have no doubt

that even Einstein had to look up some information now and then).

Since "building" an entire biosphere is a real long-term project, my colonists

are always on the lookout for potentially interesting (and non-dangerous)

creatures to introduce to Pharos IV.

Apart from algae and the usual small creatures (plankton, corals, invertebra-

tes, etc.) they have already introduced some marine mammals (dolphins, du-

gongs, wrillabees, Bryde's whales), quite a lot of fish (including several whale

sharks, the "heraldic beasts" of the colony, and tunas, the first non-mammal

predators) and some small reptiles.

Cats have been introduced as the traditional seafarers' pets, and some rats

have managed to immigrate without permission.

And then there are the native deep sea animals ("snails", "worms", "octopoids"

and some others), which are now protected by a law that prohibits the intro-

duction of new species which would inhabit the sea beyond a depth of 1,500

meters.

So, (almost) all of the ecological niches have now been filled, but there are

still very few species in each of the niches - often only a single species.

Therefore, if you have any ideas of what could be added, please let me know

- any proposals would really be most welcome.

Yep, Brin (with dolphins) and Leiber (with swords and sorcerers) really make for a good read.

Clarke's Dolphin Island

Thank you very much !

I did not know of this book, and now I have ordered it right away - Clarke

is one of my favourite authors, and dolphins indeed are always fun.

I am currently re-reading some of the "Golden Age" Underwater-Science Fic-

tion ("The Deep Range" by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Undersea Trilogy" by Frede-

rik Pohl and Jack Williamson) - very interesting and very well written, with a

lot of useful "colour" and ideas for my setting.

Thank you very much - playing English roleplaying games seems to be a good

way to learn the language.

The files are on their way, I hope you will like some of the stuff.

Thank you very much for the ideas !

Pharos IV did indeed have a serious problem with accidentally introduced spe-

cies. The worst case was a kind of free-floating algae, the size of a human

fist, which were covered by a layer of slime that contained a contact poison

lethal to its homeworld's predators - and all Terran species. The colonists re-

cognized the problem almost too late, and it was a major operation to get rid

of the algae.

Since I have used this plot very early in the colony's history, it could be a

good idea to use a similar one again now ...

The colonists have discovered one abandoned alien deep sea base with a

"Gate" to the devastated homeworld of the so-called "Builders" and to some

other planets (including Green - greetings, Puck !). It became obvious that

the "Builders" had left their homeworld soon before some kind of natural desa-

ster would have destroyed their civilization there, and therefore these aliens

may still be "out there" somewhere - and there could also be other bases and

"Gates" on Pharos IV, allowing them to return whenever they like ...

Since the colony on Pharos IV has become a safe haven for escaped genetic

slaves (humans bred as slaves), there is an ongoing conflict with the inter-

stellar megacorporation which produces and sells the slaves.

There have been several attempts to destroy the colony, including a long-

term plan with an asteroid brought on a collision course with Pharos IV, and

a number of "terrorist" attacks.

One of these attacks killed my favourite NPC, the "Council Speaker for Off-

world Affairs" (foreign minister) of the colony, when the PCs had a rather bad

day, and another one almost killed the crown prince of a nearby star kingdom

when he visited Pharos IV for the 50 Years-Celebrations ...

Did I get that in any way near understandable ?

Yes, near enough.

If you think that German would not be a major problem, you could send me a

PM with your E-Mail address, and I would send you the material (currently 3

PDFs with together ca. 70 pages and 6 maps / sketches) in return.

By the way, if anyone else should be interested, too, just drop me a PM, and

I will send you the material.

I'd love to read more about Pharos IV.

Thank you very much !

The problem with my Pharos IV setting is the language - it is in German.

I really intend to translate it one day, but currently I am unfortunately too

busy with other things ...

Thank you very much for the feedback !

Here is how I imagined the situation to develop in my setting:

The destruction of the ozone layer was an important part of the reasons for

the mass extinction event on my Pharos IV water world, with the UV radiati-

on killing much of the sea surface plankton, although most of the aquatic spe-

cies had less problems with UV radiation, because they were protected by

the water layer above them. They died because there was no more plankton

to feed on.

Since the supernova happened several centuries ago, and the star Pharos is

an F type star with a high amount of UV radiation in its spectrum, the ozone

layer has at least partially been restored naturally before the colonists arri-

ved.

However, the UV radiation level on Pharos IV is still very high, and the colo-

nists have to protect themselves accordingly.

As the colony is not exactly a wealthy one, the colonists probably will just

wait for the natural ozone layer to rebuild itself. It would be an interesting

idea to speed this up with laser satellites or thelike, but currently I do not

see how the colony could afford this.

If you are the only person who gets to decide what your character thinks or feels, you're a wargamer, or powergamer.

I also do not get it. :confused:

When I create a character, I make a character concept. This concept descri-

bes the personality of the character, what he likes and dislikes, and so on.

And then I roleplay this character according to that concept.

I do not need a rule to decide who can influence the character in what way,

because I know it from the character concept and the way the character

developed during the game, and I play the character accordingly.