Old Boys Club

[seneschal]

Unfortunately, recent life events have forced me to accept that -- like it or not -- I actually am an old boy.  Dear God, people, I am now the same age (with the same low stats!) as the Classic Traveller veterans I rolled up when I was 17.

Trif!  G33k!  Soltakiss!  Squeeze your saggy hips through the stained airlock of my surplus Scout trader, and together we shall set forth to conquer the galaxy!  Uh, wait guys.  That's not a moon, is it?  😱

[Bill the barbarian]

3 hours ago, seneschal said:

That's not a moon, is it?

No, just Phil...

[Qizilbashwoman]

i don't know how this started but have you guys played untitled goose game yet? seems thematically appropriate

https://goose.game/

[g33k]

10 hours ago, seneschal said:

Unfortunately, recent life events have forced me to accept that -- like it or not -- I actually am an old boy.  Dear God, people, I am now the same age (with the same low stats!) as the Classic Traveller veterans I rolled up when I was 17.

Trif!  G33k!  Soltakiss!  Squeeze your saggy hips through the stained airlock of my surplus Scout trader, and together we shall set forth to conquer the galaxy!  Uh, wait guys.  That's not a moon, is it?  😱

I have NO problems going through your damnded airlock, thankyouverymuch.  <supercilious sniff>

But I hope I don't have to climb any ladders... my knees aren't what they used to be...

But... conquer the galaxy?  I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to miss the late-morning nap, because I'm not sleeping well these days.

 

Otherwise, count me in!

 

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, g33k said:

I have NO problems going through your damnded airlock, thankyouverymuch.  <supercilious sniff>

But I hope I don't have to climb any ladders... my knees aren't what they used to be...

Just tune down the artificial gravity. At 1/10 of your standard gravity weight ou'll feel sprightly again.

2 hours ago, g33k said:

But... conquer the galaxy?  I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to miss the late-morning nap, because I'm not sleeping well these days.

Circadian cycles are a lifestyle choice on a space-ship. I still get a headache when I consider the song title "Night Flight to Venus" - and yes, they mean space travel. At night. Find the problem.

[seneschal]

The challenge of napping aboard a Traveller starship is that you have a 25 percent chance of not waking up from cold sleep, even with Medic - 3 in attendance.  The technology was intended to transport livestock, after all.

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, seneschal said:

The challenge of napping aboard a Traveller starship is that you have a 25 percent chance of not waking up from cold sleep, even with Medic - 3 in attendance.  The technology was intended to transport livestock, after all.

Life support in a Scout is notoriously bad, but still good enough to avoid cold sleep with a crew of up to four or five people.

Do I remember correctly that cold sleep passengers automatically took part in the revival rate lottery?

 

But then, Traveller made a bunch of mismatched estimates about future technology. Of the few technologies it used unobtainium for, three are considered impossible with the current understanding of physics (gravity control, FTL, psi), one has defied engineering for the past fifty years (fusion reactors).

True, cryosleep is considered to produce 100% casualties under current technology, too. But then, nobody in their right mind would ship more livestock than necessary to carry the frozen embryos which have a revival rate of better than 99%.

[seneschal]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Life support in a Scout is notoriously bad, but still good enough to avoid cold sleep with a crew of up to four or five people.

Do I remember correctly that cold sleep passengers automatically took part in the revival rate lottery?

 

But then, Traveller made a bunch of mismatched estimates about future technology. Of the few technologies it used unobtainium for, three are considered impossible with the current understanding of physics (gravity control, FTL, psi), one has defied engineering for the past fifty years (fusion reactors).

True, cryosleep is considered to produce 100% casualties under current technology, too. But then, nobody in their right mind would ship more livestock than necessary to carry the frozen embryos which have a revival rate of better than 99%.

Yes, one of the aspects of intergalactic travel is the low lottery, betting on a collected money pot as to who will and won't still be among the living at the voyage's end.  That kind of slipped past when I was a kid but it strikes me as cynical and evil now.

[g33k]

😱 😱 😱

😳

... and you... and you... want me to JOIN your insane survival lottery???!?

[g33k]

6 hours ago, Joerg said:

... the song title "Night Flight to Venus" - and yes, they mean space travel. At night. Find the problem.

You're in a metal box.

It's "night" whenever you turn off the light.

 

If you have a spaceship that you can board on Earth at the beginning of the night, and get to Venus making landing about 8 hours later... well, just land near the sunrise.

Boom, night flight to Venus.

 

[Qizilbashwoman]

1 minute ago, g33k said:

If you have a spaceship that you can board on Earth at the beginning of the night, and get to Venus making landing about 8 hours later... well, just land near the sunrise.

38–261 million km (24–162 million mi) means flying between 1,3 and 9 million meters per second. So, uh, buckle the heck up.

[theWoozle]

ya know. back in the day, I, or we, couldn't possibly understand how to roleplay actual retired people trying to avoid adventures in a surplus scout. Today, I can envision it's more like taking a road trip through mexico in an old RV than being Han Solo storming into a spaceport and checking the local job board for an adventure. 

[soltakss]

21 hours ago, seneschal said:

Trif!  G33k!  Soltakiss!  Squeeze your saggy hips through the stained airlock of my surplus Scout trader, and together we shall set forth to conquer the galaxy!

I have enough trouble getting into the passenger seat of a car, nowadays. Airlocks and ladders should be fine, though.

21 hours ago, seneschal said:

That's not a moon, is it?  😱

As said in Red Dwarf, "The trouble is, space is black and Black Holes are black and grit, well, grit is black, it's an easy mistake to make!"

 

21 hours ago, seneschal said:

Unfortunately, recent life events have forced me to accept that -- like it or not -- I actually am an old boy.

Likewise, unfortunately. I realised this when I found out that I was older than most, if not all, of the Old Men Who Play RuneQuest.

I have been playing RQ for nearly 40 years (40 years in 2022), which sounds like it's a long time. 

21 hours ago, seneschal said:

Dear God, people, I am now the same age (with the same low stats!) as the Classic Traveller veterans I rolled up when I was 17.

I remember, as a teenager with a 30 inch waist, trying some jeans on with a 38 inch waist and laughing at the Clown Trousers. Not so funny now, mind, as I spill over the top of 38 inch waist jeans and refuse to buy 40 inch jeans.

What gets me is that I am older than most Action Heroes' Dads in films, you know, the ones where the Action hero comes on with a geriatric parent to save and that parent is in their early 50s. People younger than me are grandparents, which is a very odd thought.

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

Circadian cycles are a lifestyle choice on a space-ship. I still get a headache when I consider the song title "Night Flight to Venus" - and yes, they mean space travel. At night. Find the problem.

What was it that Susan Ivanova said on Babylon 5, that she didn't sleep well when it was dark, "But it's space, it's dark all the time", "Yes, i know ..."

[Joerg]

44 minutes ago, soltakss said:

What was it that Susan Ivanova said on Babylon 5, that she didn't sleep well when it was dark, "But it's space, it's dark all the time", "Yes, i know ..."

A flight to Venus brings you closer to the sun. Might be a lot brighter than comfortable...

[seneschal]

2 hours ago, theWoozle said:

ya know. back in the day, I, or we, couldn't possibly understand how to roleplay actual retired people trying to avoid adventures in a surplus scout. Today, I can envision it's more like taking a road trip through mexico in an old RV than being Han Solo storming into a spaceport and checking the local job board for an adventure. 

That was a challenge for me, too.  I wanted to be a dashing Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon but since even fisticuffs is lethal in Traveller I instead ended up sneaking around like Harry Mudd.

[SDLeary]

5 hours ago, theWoozle said:

ya know. back in the day, I, or we, couldn't possibly understand how to roleplay actual retired people trying to avoid adventures in a surplus scout. Today, I can envision it's more like taking a road trip through mexico in an old RV than being Han Solo storming into a spaceport and checking the local job board for an adventure. 

Yours for a reduced cost! And... It lets you do both!

SDLeary

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by SDLeary

[Kloster]

16 hours ago, soltakss said:

I have been playing RQ for nearly 40 years (40 years in 2022), which sounds like it's a long time. 

You beat me by 1 year. Congratulations.

[soltakss]

On 10/7/2019 at 1:10 PM, Kloster said:

You beat me by 1 year. Congratulations.

At those ages, an extra year makes little difference. i'm still almost as rubbish as when I first started.

[Sean_RDP]

Actually going into space would reduce the aging process.  Something gravity / space time or something. 

[seneschal]

😄. See my NASA rant elsewhere in the Mythras M-Space threads.  We can play Borderlands 9 and Runequest Glorantha IV while actually enroute to Ganymede.

Edited October 11, 2019 by seneschal