Another SF Setting: Pharos IV (revised)

[rust]

While the "bare bones" of the planet Varun and its background setting are

"stewing" in my mind and waiting for some inspiration to hit me and enable

me to create the details of that part of the setting, I have turned to the

technology of the setting: Spaceships, vehicles, robots and personal equip-

ment.

Since BRP does not yet offer the necessary design systems, I am using the

systems of Mongoose Traveller to design the spaceships (explorer / scout,

colonial transport, patrol ship, trader, etc.) and the water vehicles (e.g. sur-

face and submarine research vessels, transport vessels, underwater work

pods, seafloor crawlers, etc.) required by the campaign.

The robots and the various personal gear I will take from Mongoose Traveller

supplements, like the Central Supply Catalog, Scout or Beltstrike, at least for

the initial phase of the campaign.

A major problem is the infrastructure of first the advance base and then the

colony, because roleplaying games rarely mention that kind of stuff, like sea-

floor habitats, construction and industrial machines, aquaculture equipment

and thelike - a lot needs to be "invented" there to create a plausible setting.

And once the technology is covered, the next step will be the characters

themselves, their professions and the specific new or modified skills required

by an underwater environment, as well as the rules for the use of these skills.

Still a lot to be done before this becomes a playable setting ...

[rust]

Meanwhile Atgxtg demonstrated to me that the Mongoose Traveller vehicle

design system is ... problematic, to put it very politely. This saved me from

wasting even more time and effort on attempts to create my vehicles with a

faulty system - thank you again very much, Atgxtg. :thumb:

So now I am looking for something else to replace the Mongoose Traveller sy-

stem. EABA Stuff has been highly recommended by several people, but I do

not like it, and do not enjoy working with it. GURPS Vehicles is too complica-

ted for my taste, but there is a simplified modular aquatic vehicle design sys-

tem in GURPS Transhuman Space - Under Pressure, and this is the one I in-

tend to test now, while my Mongoose Traveller designs go to the scrapyard.

For the infrastructure of the advance base and the colony I will probably use

GURPS Traveller Starships and GURPS Spaceships, which both include modules

for entire habitats, farms, factories and thelike, giving me the data for size,

mass and costs I need to figure out how to transport all that stuff to Varun

on bulk transport spaceships and how to design the advance base and the

colony.

So, back to the drawing board once more ...

[seneschal]

Hmmm, I always thought the thing that shone about Traveller was its vehicle rules. But I played Classic.

If GURPS is too complex, there's always HERO System. Buy your vehicle characteristics and powers just like you would for a character.

So far, you've got your dark, cold oceans stocked with warm-blooded arthropods of various dimensions. Anything else? What do they eat (besides adventurers and each other)? Are they nibbling nutrients from those deep volcanic vents you mentioned? That could make a challenge for PCs, who need those same vents to power their new colony.

As far as infrastructure, you could always have the PCs being the construction crew, trying to figure out where to build it in the first place. Or the initial survey crew trying to determine if it is worth developing. Aside from a breathable atmosphere and plenty of water to drink, what makes sloshy Varun/Pharos IV attractive to colonists? And if it's a month's travel to the nearest place where they can get help or supplies, how do they get started?

[rust]

Thank you for your questions.

I have no idea whether the design system in Mongoose Traveller's Civilian

Vehicles is able to handle ground vehicles and aircraft well, but it fails mi-

serably when it comes to submarines - if designed according to the rules

as written, they are not heavy enough to dive (none of the 4 example sub-

marines in the supplement can dive ...), the nuclear fission reactors have

less power output than an old fashioned steam engine, and so on ...

So far, you've got your dark, cold oceans stocked with warm-blooded arthropods of various dimensions. Anything else? What do they eat (besides adventurers and each other)? Are they nibbling nutrients from those deep volcanic vents you mentioned?

The creature template mentioned above is the equivalent of Earth's "generic

fish concept", and one of the next steps will be to develop the template in-

to a number of unique species, as different from each other as a manta ray

and a herring are here on Earth.

Then I will have to complete the food chain with plankton and some drifting

plants at the surface of the sea, some bottom dwelling scavengers at the

opposite end, the "black smoker crew" and a few species that come from

other templates and therefore are completely different.

Aside from a breathable atmosphere and plenty of water to drink, what makes sloshy Varun/Pharos IV attractive to colonists?

The potential attraction, and the reason to develop Varun, will be naturally

occuring crystals with a comparatively high market value - provided the co-

lony can develop a "crystal mining industry", probably mainly using remotely

controlled machines and robots.

And if it's a month's travel to the nearest place where they can get help or supplies, how do they get started?

The player characters as the first explorers will hopefully discover the crys-

tals, and will then be asked to establish an advance base on Varun, for re-

search as well as for the preparation of a permanent settlement.

Bulk freighters will then deliver the building materials for a first base, and la-

ter the materials and equipment necessary to expand the base into a con-

struction site for the core of the future colony.

Once this core (energy, life support, etc.) and the quarters for several hun-

dred colonists have been established, a colonial transport spaceship will de-

liver the colonists and their equipment to their new home world.

[Mister Apocalypse]

Hmmm, I always thought the thing that shone about Traveller was its vehicle rules. But I played Classic.

I agree. But Mongoose Traveller isn't the same thing. I saw rust's sub design and immediately realized that it would float. Apparently whoever designed the new vehicle system was not aware that a ship must weight as much or more than the water it displaces to be able to dive.

So all the subs written up in the rule book would float.

If GURPS is too complex, there's always HERO System. Buy your vehicle characteristics and powers just like you would for a character.

STAR HERO actually has a system for creating starships. It a bit simplier than the HERO power system.

There is also something for BRP that rust has acess to that hopefully will work for his spaceship designs.

[rust]

There is also something for BRP that rust has acess to that hopefully will work for his spaceship designs.

Indeed, and I really hope that Atgxtg will put it up here to the forum when

he is satisfied with its results, it is a very interesting and useful - and easy -

way to design BRP spaceships - most probably easier and faster than Mon-

goose Traveller and similar systems once it is finished.

[Mister Apocalypse]

Indeed, and I really hope that Atgxtg will put it up here to the forum when

he is satisfied with its results, it is a very interesting and useful - and easy -

way to design BRP spaceships - most probably easier and faster than Mon-

goose Traveller and similar systems once it is finished.

It does need more play testing through. It spits out numbers but we've got to see how those numbers look for actual designs.

Maybe I should try to recruit some more testers?

[Guest Vile Traveller]

Aside from a breathable atmosphere and plenty of water to drink, what makes sloshy Varun/Pharos IV attractive to colonists?

Actually, just that in itself makes it extremely attractive. Building a realistic setting by extrapolating what we know about the universe, it turns out that 'habitable' planets are extremely rare. The fact that it has advanced indigenous life makes it even more unusual.

[rust]

Actually, just that in itself makes it extremely attractive. Building a realistic setting by extrapolating what we know about the universe, it turns out that 'habitable' planets are extremely rare. The fact that it has advanced indigenous life makes it even more unusual.

Indeed. The valuable crystals are mainly the resource that enables the colo-

nists (= player characters) to finance the very expensive colonization project,

as my "plot device" to keep them somewhat independent of governments or

corporations, who would otherwise "pay and therefore give orders".

[Mister Apocalypse]

Actually, just that in itself makes it extremely attractive. Building a realistic setting by extrapolating what we know about the universe, it turns out that 'habitable' planets are extremely rare. The fact that it has advanced indigenous life makes it even more unusual.

Yes and no. A habitable world would be extremely attractive in an of itself, but odds are if a planet is capable of supporting life, it probably will. So it would be odd if such a habitable world didn't have some sort of native lifeform.

[rust]

So it would be odd if such a habitable world didn't have some sort of native lifeform.

However, it would be surprising if this life would be too similar to that of our

Earth in its biochemistry.

Therefore humans and other animals from Earth will be able to eat Varunian

animals, but unable to digest them and gain any nutritional value from them,

and the Varunian predators might find creatures from Earth tasty, but useless

as food (although they are slow learners and will eat them anyway ...).

This is why the colonists will have to import the livestock for their aquacultu-

re in order to produce the food the colony needs.

Since I have already mentioned the finances of the colony, a few more words

on how I imagine this part of the setting.

In the Traveller universe it is easy for a small group of people to use their sa-

ved money, some ship shares and the skeleton of a business plan ("We will do

profitable interstellar trade and get rich") to get a bank loan of several dozen

million Credits to buy a spaceship and go gallivanting through the galaxy as

free traders.

If one accepts this as plausible, a much bigger group of people (about 560)

should be able to use their saved money, their colony shares and a detailed

business plan ("There is this water world in the Demidov Cluster ... crystals ...

mining ...") to get a bank loan of several hundred million Credits for a coloniza-

tion and mining project, I think.

[rust]

And now that the financial problems have been solved, thanks to a friendly

interstellar neighbourhood bank with 750 million Credits to burn (*cough*),

it is time to decide what this money could be spent on.

Once the characters have explored the planet and their patrons have agreed

to choose Varun as their future home, an advance base will be established on

the planet. It will consist of prefabricated modules (power, life support, hou-

sing, workshops, etc.) for about 50 people, plus their equipment (vehicles,

machines, aquabots, etc.).

While the characters will continue to explore Varun, the other members of the

advance team will wait for a bulk transport starship to deliver the parts of a

floating landing platform, and will then assemble it.

This platform will be ca. 150 m long, 50 m wide and 8 m high and will rest on

two SWATH floaters. In the beginning there will be almost no interior furni-

shings, except the electronics needed to handle starship landings and starts

and the machines required to move the cargoes, but over time the platform

will become a regular swimming starport.

A very similar model will much later be used for the colony's mining platform,

from where the aquabots doing the actual mining will be remotely controlled,

and where the crystals brought up from the seafloor will be processed and

prepared for the export.

Back to the first floater. It will be used to import the material needed to build

the future colony's core, a dome with a diameter of ca. 80 m and a height of

ca. 30 m. It will have ca. 66,000 square meters of useable area on 8 levels.

Almost half of this will be used for housing up to 600 people, with 50 square

meters per person. The remaining ca. 36,000 square meters will contain all

the infrastructure: Power Plant, Life Support, Hydroponics, Administration,

Hospital, Research Center, Workshops, and so on and on.

Once the advance team has constructed the dome's hull, filled it with air and

established power and life support, the first of the colonists can come to Va-

run and, for example, start the aquaculture of the colony, go prospecting for

natural resources, or get eaten by some hideous monster in one of the deep

sea trenches ...

Speaking of trenches, the map of Varun has not yet changed much, it now

looks like this:

[seneschal]

Eek! So there's water but no food? Colonists will essentially have to wreck the native marine ecology to support human life? (Not that they wouldn't do it anyway, but still ...)

"Look, Captain Rogers, I know we had a deal and all, but the bank's began to reconsider this whole colonial venture thing ...."

Seriously, though. If a planet's got breathable air, drinkable water, and gravity humans are comfortable with, wouldn't the biology of its animals be similar enough to our own to be edible? Assuming they're carbon-based life forms like us and not Trekkish sulfur crystal beings.

On the financial angle, the Traveller model is based on the colonization of the Americas: Wealthy individuals and charter companies get government permission to create a new colony and bankroll the venture. Desperate, adventuresome colonists risk their necks in the raw wilderness with little actual supervision or support from the company (since the nearest planet is a month's travel away and the stockholders are even further away than that). The financiers are counting on eventually making a fortune on those crystals and whatever other unique raw materials Varun turns out to provide. They'll provide transport and initial supplies for the colonists but won't be good for much else (except perhaps to dump more people on the struggling colony just about the time the minnow tanks fail).

[rust]

If a planet's got breathable air, drinkable water, and gravity humans are comfortable with, wouldn't the biology of its animals be similar enough to our own to be edible?

Not necessarily. In fact, as I understand it, even if the life forms would be

almost identical, little differences in the biochemistry (e.g. "left handed" in-

stead of "right handed" molecules, the wrong amount of certain trace ele-

ments, etc.) could make it impossible for humans to use these life forms as

food. Just think of our Earth, where we humans are unable to get any mea-

ningful nutrition from the most ubiquitous food plants of our world's animals,

the common grass and tree leaves.

[Mister Apocalypse]

However, it would be surprising if this life would be too similar to that of our

Earth in its biochemistry.

It depends on how similar Varun is to Earth. Generally speaking form fits function. LIfe forms would evolve in a fashion that would that would suit the enviorment. So the more a planet is like Earth, the more likely it is that the biochemistry would be similar.

Note that I'm speaking of tendacies here, not absolutes. Obviously, none of this has been proven.

Therefore humans and other animals from Earth will be able to eat Varunian

animals, but unable to digest them and gain any nutritional value from them,

and the Varunian predators might find creatures from Earth tasty, but useless

as food (although they are slow learners and will eat them anyway ...).

This is why the colonists will have to import the livestock for their aquacultu-

re in order to produce the food the colony needs.

It reminds me of one of the old Traveller: 2300 settings. It was a world where the amino acids were different and it made all the local food indigestible by humans.

Have to decided how this will affect plant life? Are the native plants edible to humans or to eath marine creatures? Or will the colonists need to raise plankton?

I'd be leery of making things completely incompatible, or else the humans will just wipe out all the local flora and fauna and replace them with imports from Earth.

If on the other hand, the local life forms have some desirable characteristics (like maybe their natural armor plating has a very high tensile strength, better than the synthetics available) but that the creatures are difficult to deal with (they keep eating the scientists, or excrete a chemical that is poisonous to plankton or some important Eath fish, or maybe they just keep clogging up the equipment), then the humans will have to suffer and find a way to work around it.

Since I have already mentioned the finances of the colony, a few more words

on how I imagine this part of the setting.

In the Traveller universe it is easy for a small group of people to use their sa-

ved money, some ship shares and the skeleton of a business plan ("We will do

profitable interstellar trade and get rich") to get a bank loan of several dozen

million Credits to buy a spaceship and go gallivanting through the galaxy as

free traders.

If one accepts this as plausible, a much bigger group of people (about 560)

should be able to use their saved money, their colony shares and a detailed

business plan ("There is this water world in the Demidov Cluster ... crystals ...

mining ...") to get a bank loan of several hundred million Credits for a coloniza-

tion and mining project, I think.

[rust]

Have to decided how this will affect plant life? Are the native plants edible to humans or to eath marine creatures? Or will the colonists need to raise plankton?

I think that some Earth species will be able to digest at least some of the lo-

cal life, while some others will be unable to do so.

This would give the marine biologists and geneticists among the characters

an opportunity for research projects, always a good way to "bridge" unevent-

ful campaign time while gaining some experience, and potentially also some

status.

For example, a new variant of whale sharks that are genetically modified to

become able to digest Varunian plankton could become a new and important

food source for the colony, and the geneticist who researched the necessary

modifications and carried them out could well become a "local hero".

It would also give me a kind of "escape hatch" whenever the players decide

that their characters will introduce a certain Terran species into the local

biosphere.

For example, they could want to introduce trained killer whales as guard ani-

mals to deal with some dangerous local creature. If this would ruin my plot,

there would always be the possibility that the killer whales and the local bio-

chemistry are incompatible ...

[Mister Apocalypse]

Or you could pull a "World of the Worlds" and have some local bacteria wipe out the whales, or vice versa. It would be funny if Earth whales carries some bug that wipes out the native lifeform that they were supposed to feed upon.

BTW, How smart are dolphins in this campaign? If they are fulling intelligent as opposed to fixed INT, they could be core members of the resarch team.

[rust]

BTW, How smart are dolphins in this campaign? If they are fulling intelligent as opposed to fixed INT, they could be core members of the resarch team.

I think they will have INT 6 or 7, but centuries of using trained dolphins as

helpers for aquaculture farmers, underwater construction teams and other

divers have improved the training methods to a point where dolphins seem

to be more intelligent and versatile than that - think of a very well trained

border collie.

I had fully intelligent dolphins in a previous campaign, and this did not work

well at all. The players relied more on their "expendable" dolphin companions

than on their own skills, some players insisted on roleplaying dolphins - with

truly terrible results, and so on. And I am also not keen on roleplaying dol-

phin NPCs ...

[Mister Apocalypse]

I think they will have INT 6 or 7, but centuries of using trained dolphins as

helpers for aquaculture farmers, underwater construction teams and other

divers have improved the training methods to a point where dolphins seem

to be more intelligent and versatile than that - think of a very well trained

border collie.

"Flipper goes to Varun"

[seneschal]

Gee, if you make Varun much more inhospitable, the PCs would be better off asteroid mining.

Re: dolphins. Keep them as NPCs only but perhaps they're a lot smarter than they've been letting on. They've had thousands of years to study humans and learn to resent humans at this point. Now they're on a water world where they have every advantage and the humans have every disadvantage. Payback time!

What if the "trained dolphins" are quietly staking out colonies of their own and dealing with the locals in their own way. Maybe those "lost" Terran fish stocks weren't gobbled up by native predators. Maybe the dolphins are setting up their own aquatic herds and plankton farms. When they're ready, they'll abandon those despicable (if useful) land-dwellers to their fate, maybe performing a little well-informed sabotage along the way. >:->

[rust]

Gee, if you make Varun much more inhospitable, the PCs would be better off asteroid mining.

Well, think of the warm climate, the sun, the sea, the swimsuits ...

What if the "trained dolphins" are quietly staking out colonies of their own and dealing with the locals in their own way.

A good idea. Once the dolphins have learned what is safe and sufficiently nu-

tritient to eat, or have created their own food supply from "escaped" fish,

there could very well be some dolphins, especially ones born on Varun, who

decide to "go native" and give up their "jobs" with the colonists for a much

more free life elsewhere. - Thank you.

[rust]

"Flipper goes to Varun"

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").

[seneschal]

You're welcome!

Now, when exactly did you say you were coming to my house to run this campaign?

[rust]

Now, when exactly did you say you were coming to my house to run this campaign?

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

[Mister Apocalypse]

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").

In English the title song may have been the best part. It was saccharine sweet 60TVs stuff, but it was usually better than the stories.

You'd think the father would have banned those kids from going into the water. It's almost as bad as telling Timmy to go play with Lassie over by the old well.