Aberrant: Trans-Dimensional Explorations - SuperGeek Enterprises: Exploration

[Alex Green]

OK, Moving on:

The more I think about it, the more I think anyone with a FTL (Faster than light) drive can totally hose anyone who doesn't have it.

Think of Pax and give him Warp. *Maybe* the aliens couldn't hurt him (although that's not the way to bet), but there's no way he could hurt them. Pax's range is in dozens (or at most hundreds) of km, light speed is something like 3x10^8 km per second. A round is three seconds (a long range warp takes 2 rounds). By the time he decides to zap them they are out of range.

They take a rock and run into the Earth at light speed and it goes bye bye.

However: If we tell the world nova population about this someone with Warp will go over there will a nuke and try to take out one or more of the ships.

This could move the time of the fight up to weeks instead of decades and we aren't ready.

Yes, this assumes:

The Warp+Nuke trick doesn't work (internal security, or they just have too many ships).

They can track us down somehow (or just run around randomly until they find us).

Worse case is they try it and get captured (which we know OOC is very likely).

[Bahamut810]

From what he said, we have at *least* a century.

[phoenix]

Think of Pax and give him Warp. *Maybe* the aliens couldn't hurt him (although that's not the way to bet), but there's no way he could hurt them. Pax's range is in dozens (or at most hundreds) of km, light speed is something like 3x10^8 km per second. A round is three seconds (a long range warp takes 2 rounds). By the time he decides to zap them they are out of range.

That's true, but it assumes the aliens are using some kind of propulsion.. I mean, there's nothing saying they're more than a few decades ahead of us in technology; there could theoretically be some way to open wormholes in the fabric of space-time to travel "faster than light" without any real acceleratory powers. If this is the case, they might not stand a chance against Pax; but as you say, this isn't the way to bet. It certainly wouldn't be that exciting RPing. ::biggrin

[Alex Green]

From what he said, we have at *least* a century.

As long as we don't go there and tell them,

"Ha, with a century we can beat you."

If they are smart enough to build ships then they are smart enough to change their plans.

That's true, but it assumes the aliens are using some kind of propulsion.. I mean, there's nothing saying they're more than a few decades ahead of us in technology; there could theoretically be some way to open wormholes in the fabric of space-time to travel "faster than light" without any real acceleratory powers. If this is the case, they might not stand a chance against Pax; but as you say, this isn't the way to bet. It certainly wouldn't be that exciting RPing. ::biggrin

Sorry, if they have ships large enough to hold half the population of the world and an energy source buff enough to move them around, they are more than a few decades.

Further, if we back trail the aliens and see a thousand squished systems then that means they've been doing this for 20K years. Our civilization is *very* young, the way to bet is they've been out here a while.

[Bahamut810]

I want to assume that they are a member of the 'coalation' or whatever that one group was in 'Trinity' but I am not sure if that is a safe bet or not.

A few things that are safe bets though...

1. It would be easier to win if we had a Warper or Teleporter using the nuke method.

2. It might be in the cards for us to find some new tech on another world. That may make up for anything that our resident (and non-resident) nova m-int inventors come up with that may not work agenst thoes aliens.

[BlueNinja]

To short-track the conversation -

The alien device has limitations. Whether this is because Michal cannot fully learn a non-human language, or because it has built-in limits that he cannot surpass, is not known to the PCs. He cannot look further into the past than one century. So he knows that these aliens have been going at this for at least a century and about a fifty-lightyear trail. Ask and you can get this information ICly.

Eli asked a question that Michal will answer - how does the gate machine work? I'll be detailing that shortly. But Michal is not going to hand over the direct information needed to build a new one, because he has people from the afore-mentioned organizations attempting to steal from him on a regular basis. He has reason to be paranoid of those organizations, and he knows damn well that if he tried to bring forth to the public his knowledge of the incoming alien fleet (which, as he even admitted, might skip Sol), that he would be publically humiliated and discredited because Utopia and the US Government (who have a large say in the Directorate) both have far better spin doctors that he will ever gain access too. That's why he's going with a bunch of unknowns.

The end of Episode 0.5: Introduction is almost over. Once the finals of the job have been laid out, and your characters have decided to accept the job ::wink then I will start up a temporary OOC thread for the XP.

[BlueNinja]

I want to assume that they are a member of the 'coalation' or whatever that one group was in 'Trinity' but I am not sure if that is a safe bet or not.

I own not a single Trinity book. Nor have I read any of them. What little knowledge I have of the 2120's is due solely to what I have picked up from other fans. So if my alien fleet ends up being similar to the Coalition species who are supposedly going to end the psi-precognitive timeline, it is total coincidence.

[Alex Green]

I own not a single Trinity book.  Nor have I read any of them.  What little knowledge I have of the 2120's is due solely to what I have picked up from other fans.  So if my alien fleet ends up being similar to the Coalition species who are supposedly going to end the psi-precognitive timeline, it is total coincidence.

I guess that's both good and bad.

RE: Warp+Nuke.

1) It might work... then again it might not. I can think of any number of ways to prevent this from working (good internal security, SGE's anti-nuke reaction technology, internal forcefields, internal transporters, anti-warp technology, etc).

2) We don’t really know what their assets are. Maybe they just have those handful of ships. Maybe this is just a harvesting party for a galactic empire.

3) If we do this, then a war of extermination is assured. We don’t know they are hostile yet. Ripping up unowned planets isn’t a hostile act.

RE: Going Public.

1) PU didn’t want space exploration until the D-League started it. The Tech Police *will* sweep in and take everything.

The real question is what happens then:

Option #1: The news goes into the open:

1) It gets very strange. ::wacko ::confused

2) Universal Panic? ::blink

3) Loss of support for the Teragen? (Nothing like an external threat to unify people). ::unsure

4) Rogue novas go make contact with the aliens. Maybe start hostilities (Warp+Nuke), maybe tell them where the Earth is so we can trade with them. Maybe both. ::devil

5) Many star-gates are created by many organizations. This would be one of the big problems in the view of Project Pro and the Tech Police. People hide out on different timelines. Untra-high tech timelines are found and the Tech Police are forced to allow all kinds of insane stuff, maybe ending with our civilization tearing itself apart (think what would happen if *everyone* had the ability to make a nuke). ::neo

Option #2: The news is suppressed and SGE is discredited.

1) This sounds like Project Pro’s style. The reasoning behind it would be to keep things stable for a few more decades while they think about what to do with the aliens. ::irate ::nono

[BlueNinja]

Just to clarify, because I don't think I actually said it anywhere, Michal is pronounced "Mik-ul" sort of like the $0.05 US coin but with an M instead of an N.

His father was very, very drunk, and instead of putting down "Michael" left out the e. So as soon as Michal was old enough to start rebelling against his dad, he changed the way it was pronounced.

[phoenix]

Science Joke

While driving on the highway, Werner Heisenberg saw red and blue lights flashing in his rear-view mirror, so he pulled over. After a moment, a police officer came up to his window, ticket pad in hand.

"Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" asked the officer.

Heisenberg replied,

"No, but I know where I was!" ::laugh

[BlueNinja]

Phoenix - groan!

Wow. 19 pages to cover two days. *chuckle* I promise, I shall endeavour to keep a much closer eye on the calendar, marking when days change in the game. Episode 0.5: Introduction, will end when everyone has taken care of their personal affairs and brought the personal equipment neccessary to their treks offworld. So toss out any final questions now, and you'll all get your XP. ::smile

[JasonStarfire]

BN - I sent an email to your Yahoo account w/ character, etc.

Hello everyone else, I'm Jason, player of (Hopefully) "Archimedes". See you all soon

[Alex Green]

Welcome Jason!

[BlueNinja]

Mono-wire would still be difficult to come by, but by 2020 there are a few brands of filament wire with the same strength and just slightly bulkier. Getting a 50' spool of one of those shouldn't be too hard, it's not enough to strain your resources. Most of the basic equipment (matches, electronics) can be picked up in a day, easily, but for the gold and silver coins and the cash - that is going to take you all weekend at the very least. Just remember Michal said that world #1 is supposed to be deserted, so decide for yourself whether you want to take them.

Plus gold coins are heavy as hell.

[Alex Green]

Deserted? I thought it was a "timeline branched off within 100 years" type of thing?

And I'll be getting all of that stuff anyway as I'll be needing it sooner or later.

Some of it Paul put on there just to put on, for example he doesn't need to eat so it's on there either for other people/animals or in case his powers don't work. I'm expecting he'll walk through the gate and then abandon it as useless. Better to have it and not need it than need it but not have it.

RE: Gold being Heavy.

Yes and no. $2,400 of it (at $300 an oz) would be half a pound. It's also the closest thing historically we have to being a universal currancy.

--EDIT--

Correction. Gold is more than $500 an oz but gold coins are about $9 for a one oz coin. Link One pound of coins (16) would be $144 or so... hmm... I would guess the purity on those must suck.

Further Edit: That's $9 over spot, so presumably that $9 to make it into a coin. Note I'm still of the opinion that gold prices into abby would be 300 or so and not the 500 it currently is... but that's shifting this thread into supply and demand markets and I'm probably the only one who's interested. ::indifferent

[BlueNinja]

Actually, one pound of gold coins would be 12 because they're weighed on a different scale than everything else.

As for the world ... Richard said

"Radiation levels still a little higher than Earth norm, but it's not a danger unless you plan on staying for a few years. Pack sunscreen. Still no civilization in sight."

and Michal said

"So any system you hit with less than a century will, almost definitively, have the aliens." He grins, and pulls up a set of symbols. "Which is why I'm sending you to one of those first."

[phoenix]

Don't forget to bring a rope, guys. ::getsome

[Alex Green]

Don't forget to bring a rope, guys. ::getsome

←

That should be an IC reply. ::tongue

-Edit-

And "No civilization" doesn't mean "deserted". It just means nothing was picked up by the probe. There's lots of reasons for that other than extermination... although granted, the level of radiation doesn't sound like the nicer ones apply.

[BlueNinja]

If Anon and Archer don't respond by the time I come home from work in about nine hours, I'm going to go ahead and end Episode 0.5: Introduction, and prepare the XP thread.

The probes have a 1 mile radius. How many places in California can you go and not find any trace of civilization within one mile?

[Expendable]

If Anon and Archer don't respond by the time I come home from work in about nine hours, I'm going to go ahead and end Episode 0.5: Introduction, and prepare  the XP thread.

The probes have a 1 mile radius.  How many places in California can you go and not find any trace of civilization within one mile?

←

There's some nice bare stretches along the PCH and in the mountains around Lake Tahoe, not to mention some mean looking mountains between SF and LA but it does seem unlikely.

-Ex.

[Asbjørn]

Welcome to the forums, Expendable! ::smile

[Expendable]

RE: Gold being Heavy.

Yes and no.  $2,400 of it (at $300 an oz) would be half a pound.  It's also the closest thing historically we have to being a universal currancy.

--EDIT--

Correction.  Gold is more than $500 an oz but gold coins are about $9 for a one oz coin.  Link  One pound of coins (16) would be $144 or so... hmm... I would guess the purity on those must suck. 

Further Edit: That's $9 over spot, so presumably that $9 to make it into a coin.  Note I'm still of the opinion that gold prices into abby would be 300 or so and not the 500 it currently is... but that's shifting this thread into supply and demand markets and I'm probably the only one who's interested. ::indifferent

←

Like BlueNinja said, troy ounces are 10% heavier than regular ounces - a troy ounce weighs 1.097 US ounces or 31.1 grams. 14.59 troy ounces = 1 US pound = 453.8 grams.

Something else to keep in mind is that you can get gold coins in fractions of an ounce - 1/10, 1/4 &1/2 troy ounces. Different sized coins means you can stretch your gold supply.

-Ex.

[Alex Green]

The probes have a 1 mile radius.  How many places in California can you go and not find any trace of civilization within one mile?

First of all, I doubt the probe looked at every blade of grass and every rock in that mile. However, granted, something has gone wrong. The question is what and how wrong?

1) Humanity had an extinction level event (disease, nuclear war, zombie plague).

2) A nuclear power plant melted 15 miles away.

3) Mankind has a telepathic/TK civilization and no technology.

All three of those could explain what happened, but #2 & #3 could still have Billions of people around and #2 might even have technology worth having. #3 might even have a really off the wall solution.

Mind you, from what little we know right now I'd guess something happened between #1 & #2 and civilization has fallen apart (most ELEs damage the planet enough to be obvious).

Oh, and Welcome to the forums, Expendable!

[BlueNinja]

"Could you drop me off in Washington State?  "

*pictures Brandt saying "Here's Seattle!" and letting go*

[Alex Green]

Question for BlueNinja: How long is this mission supposed to last?

[BlueNinja]

Depends on how long it takes you to explore and find something specific. Could be a day or two, could take a month. I'm hoping for something not terribly long.

[archer]

Hehehe. I don't suppose you want to know how fast Ash and Brandt actually traveled, do ya Bahamut? Course, you could always do the math, but that's boring... ::biggrin

[Bahamut810]

I would think at least Mach 2. Am I close?

[archer]

Higher. Much higher.

[Bahamut810]

That reminds me of the Family Guy...but I think that we have already done that joke somewhere on here.

[archer]

Good point. Just leave it a mystery for now. ::biggrin

[phoenix]

Are Mach speeds geometric or exponential?

Put another way, is Mach 2 twice as fast as Mach 1, or is it ten times as fast?

[Alex Green]

Twice. Mach X is X times the speed of sound.

[Alex Green]

According to Goggle.

Mach 1 = 340.29 m/s

That converts to 1225 KM per Hour.

Hypermovement is 500 km per hour per dot, so to break Mach 1 requires 3 dots of Hypermovement (1,500 km per hour).

After that we have the issues of whether Temporal Manipulation and Enhanced Movement affect this (I would say Yes and No respectively), but those are almost side notes and are deffinately ST calls.

This topic has come up before... Here and Here

EDIT: And from my 60 seconds of research on Goggle it appears Jet Fighters Fly faster than Mach 3. Which in turn implies there should be a way to pump up Hypermove considering the flavor text. At some point you just have to say "really fast".

[archer]

I agree, Alex. Based on the flavor text, super-speedsters should be able to go well beyond Mach...especially since there are mentions of novas outrunning jet fighters in various books.

If an ST is really concerned about the horrific wake of destruction... well, there are plenty of other powers available to starting level characters that can also destroy cities fairly easily.

Just look at the efficacy of Weather Manipulation, for example.

Or the ST can simply get rid of that Thunderclap effect.

[Alex Green]

Weather Manip can be bad, but while it's possible in theory to set that up, it's hard to do in practice. For example Paul has WM with the right technique but even if he got 6 succ on his 6 dice it *still* wouldn't be enough under normal circumstances.

The Hypermove Wake of Destruction is worse because it's doable consistantly. Although to be fair it's also close to fixed if the ST simply says EM doesn't *multiply* H-moves damage.

[archer]

The Hypermove Wake of Destruction is worse because it's doable consistantly.  Although to be fair it's also close to fixed if the ST simply says EM doesn't *multiply* H-moves damage.

That sounds fair to me. Besides, EM specifically only improves movement speed; we all just assumed the multiplier also affected the Thunderclap effect. That effect is only specifically mentioned as a side-effect of Hypermovement, and states to just switch out dots in MStr for dots in Hypermovement, no mention of EM at all.

[phoenix]

Or the ST can simply get rid of that Thunderclap effect.

Or even the player, ST permitting. It could be kind of a cool effect to have a speedster zipping around, but having no discernable effect on his surroundings at all.

Also, my biggest problem with Weather Manipulation is that most of its dice pools are Intelligence-based. That's fine if you want to create maybe a super meteorologist type ( ::confused ) but whatever happened to, say, Storm-like characters of only human intelligence? After all, they probably built the power after her in the first place so maybe they should try to accomodate characters like her more.

[AnonCastillo]

With some of my leftover XP from character creation, I'm buying a point of melee.

[BlueNinja]

Before I forget, even though I know none of you can afford it right now, you cannot increase your base Quantum as Tainted. You have to pay the full current*8 for it. Given that everyone should be getting at least 6XP for each episode they're in, that should not be a huge problem for any of you.