rust

The Home page still tells me that I have no permission to access it.

Unless the Home page consists only of a message that tells me that I have no permission to access it, I seem to have the same problem as Byron Alexander.

Thank you very much, I will take a look at it.

I add my praise for providing a forum for my favourite game.

I would not argue that.

No, he is not, you are misreading his post. :cool:

I don't think so, people usually do not enjoy to dig up graveyards, so the buried posts will probably rest in peace.

Thank you all very much for your ideas. @ Atgxtg: The Animal Handling info from RQ 3 would be most welcome.

Yep, or I could connect the animal's INT with the tasks and treat them as skills. For example, the tasks up to the animal's INT get a skill of INT x 10 (in the case of a dolphin 80 %), all tasks above the animal's INT get INT x 5 (40 % in the case of a dolphin). It seems I will have to playtest the different ideas to find the one that works best.

Yes, I think you are right, eight tasks / tricks for a trained dolphin is really not much. It seems I will either have to use your proposal or to define more general tasks in- stead of individual "tricks". The latter would have the advantage to require only one difficulty, but I am not sure whether I will be able to come up with eight logical and useful tasks ... something like "Transport", "Rescue", "Protect Area" and thelike. Edit.: After thinking about it, the 8 tasks could perhaps look like this: Basic Commands ("Come", "Wait", "Go", "Take", "Give", etc.) Attack Creature Protect Person Guard Area Search Person Rescue Person Transport Item Deliver Message

Okay, third attempt - third time lucky, they say ... Here is a short first draft for a spot rule for the training of animals, a spot rule I need for the dolphineers and dolphins of my Varun setting: Animals with fixed INT can be trained with the (new) Animal Handling skill, a Communica- tion skill with a Base Chance of 05 % and the specific species as a specialty, in my case Animal Handling (Dolphin). Each animal can learn a number of tasks or "tricks" equivalent to its INT value, so an ave- rage dolphin with an INT of 8 can learn up to 8 different tasks, with each task a simple activity like "Bring Item", "Carry Item to the Base", and so on. The difficulty and required time of the training also depends on the INT value of the spe- cific animal. I am not yet sure how to handle this, but I am thinking along the lines of taking the INT of the animal as a bonus for the Animal Handling skill. For example, a dolphin trainer with an Animal Handling (Dolphin) skill of 45 % would add the dolphin's INT of 8 to get a success chance of 53 %. As for the time, I think that one attempt to teach one task per week could be plausible enough to use it. For example, to teach a dolphin of INT 8 all the 8 tasks it can learn would take at least 8 weeks, provided all of the trainer's rolls would be successes. Please let me know what you think about this - Thank you.

Ah ... everything posted over the last two weeks is gone ? :shocked:

Thank you very much. With two good options to choose from now, I think I will have to discuss this with the players to decide which one (or a combination of both) to use.

Unfortunately the SOFAR channel is a bit deep down for most purposes, and it only works when both parties are within the channel at the time of the in- tended communication. I think the standard procedure for long range communication on Varun will be to send a message drone (dolphin shaped ) to the surface, from where it transmits the message to a communication satellite, where it is stored and / or immediately transmitted to another (again, dolphin shaped ) drone over the target (if it is a stationary one), and that drone then dives down and delivers the message. Mobile targets, like submarines, would have to surface occasionally and to contact the "server satellite" for any new messages. By the way, to build an "artificial dolphin" is not difficult with GURPS Robots, but the flexibody drivetrain it requires is quite expensive.

There are no AI systems in this setting, the closest thing are advanced ex- pert programs that can simulate intelligence without being creative, but re- quire a rather big and expensive computer. The only radio systems that have any range under water are VLF and ELF, which require truly huge transceivers and have a terribly low data transfer rate (think slow morse code). Laser works over short distances only, and is interrupted when the water is not perfectly clear, and sonarcom only has a short range and is very "noisy" for all marine creatures.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. There are three main reasons: a) Dolphins work independently, for example while herding a swarm of fish or protecting it from predators, they do not need the permanent attention of a colonist for such routine tasks. Underwater communications are very limited in range, dolphins can work outside of the range of communicators. c) It is nice to have another mammal from Earth around as a "fellow colonist".

Working on the modification of the BRP system for my Varun water world set- ting, I encountered two little problems where I would welcome your advice: Much of the actual work in the water world colony on Varun will be done by remotely controlled AUVs, drones, robots and thelike. Since BRP does not have a Remote Control skill (or I missed it), I think about introducing such a skill, with specialties like Aquaculture, Construction, Mining and Survey. The alternatives I see would be to make it a Craft skill or a Technical skill, but the ability to remotely control a machine is not really a craft, and it is more in the Manipulation category than in the Technical skills' Mental catego- ry, I think. One of the professions on Varun is the Dolphineer, someone who trains and "commands and controls" dolphins, and therefore needs a very specific set of skills, from veterinary medicine to diving and diver sign language (which is also used to command dolphins). Since I have not found any Animal Training or Animal Handling skill, I think I will make the training and animal care part of Dolphineering a Craft skill to avoid the introduction of several subskills (Animal Handling, Animal Training, Knowledge / Dolphins, etc.) Well, what do you think ? - Thank you.

This will probably depend on the number of PDF sales, I think.

Up to this point the setting has been somewhat generic, it can be played with different systems. Now it is time to take a look at the actual system used. Here is my first draft of my ideas for adapting BRP to the Varun setting, but there will of course be more than a few changes before this becomes "final". Power Level Normal, no Powers Characters Point-Based Character Creation Education/Knowledge Roll Total Hit Points Fatigue Points Encumbrance Skill Categories Complimentary Skills Allegiance Aging and Inaction Professions Aquafarmer Diver Doctor Dolphineer Engineer Explorer Journalist Mechanic Merchant Pilot Politician Priest Seafarer Security Officer Scientist New Skills and Specialties Animal Handling Craft (Aquaculture, Seafloor Mining) Firearm (Sonic Weapons, Spearguns) Hardsuit Diving Heavy Machine (Seafloor Crawler) Knowledge (Varun Nature, Varun Project; specific other cultures and planets) Language (Diver Sign Language) Melee Weapons (Diving Dagger, Diving Spear) Pilot (Shuttle, Spaceship, Submarine) Repair (Spaceship Systems) Science (Cartography, Marine Biology, Oceanography) Technical Skill (Marine Engineering, Spaceship Engineering) Varunian Cultural Skills Knowledge (Varun Project) + 20 % Swim + 20 %

Yep, this is what I intend to do for all other seafloor facilities, but I wanted to design one of them in a little more detail to get a plausible value for the density, which I can then use as a "shortcut" for all future calculations. Besides, the design gave me a nice list of all the stuff in the setting's main location, and makes it much easier to write a description of it for the play- ers. But juggling with stuff like "137 VSP = 18.495 dtons" once is quite enough for me, from now on density will rule. By the way, the Ghara Dome, without furnishings, vehicles and inhabitants, has a little more than 14 kg per cubic meter.

Meanwhile I have designed the SWATH Carrier (= "floating starport") and the colony's domed habitat Ghara Dome with the GURPS system to find out how much construction material will have to be transported to Varun, and what it will cost. The SWATH Carrier has a mass of 4,800 tons, its parts require a transport volume of 8,100 cubic meters, and they cost about 70 million credits. The Ghara Dome has a mass of 3,300 tons, requires a transport volume of 8,800 cubic meters and its parts cost about 150 million credits. So, with another 70 million credits for the mining platform, the biggest items of the colony's equipment will cost a total of about 300 million credits - less than I had expected. And the bulk transport starship that the colonists will have to charter for the transports also has to be less big than expected. The next step here would be to calculate the approximate mass, volume and cost of all the other, minor stuff (machines, vehicles, robots ...), but this has to wait, because I am beginning to suffer from mild symptoms of a "numeracy burnout". I mean, whoever invented "1 dton = 500 cubic feet = 100 VSP = 13.5 cubic meters" and similar conversions obviously had a sadistic streak. :eek:

An author once remarked that about 90 % of the details he came up with for the background of a story never makes it into the actual published novel, and in my experience the percentage of the details of a roleplaying setting that actually make it to the table is not much different. For example, when I tell the players in a science fiction campaign that a cer- tain planet has only mild seasonal variations and a year of 439 days, they ra- rely realize that I had to determine the planet's axial tilt and the star's mass and the planet's orbital radius and make some calculations to know this with- out "winging" it. However, I like to design settings, and so I do not care too much whether all my material is actually used, I am quite satisfied that it is there, that is has comparatively few "bugs", and that it could be used if someone wanted to do so. If it is really used, that is the cream on the coffee.

This reminds me that I have to read "The Legacy of Heorot" and "Beowulf's Children" by Niven, Purnelle and Barnes again, to get a bit of inspiration for the ecological desasters that can be caused by colonists who do not yet understand the ecosystem of the planet they are on. :cool:

I am afraid it was "soon after you have moved that house to southern Germany" ...

Ah, my setting's "flippers" tend to have a high damage bonus and an impres- sive number of attacks when angered or mistreated, and I promise never to use such an incredibly silly title song (at least the German version was a textbook example of "rhyme or be eaten").