[OCC]: Space Merchant

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

page number on "combination gadgets" please.

If the Fabricator / Robofac items aren't going to do the job I want, it's not really relevant at the moment... But Combination Gadgets can be found on Ultra Tech page 16

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by samd6

I'm here. I was thinking of storing my wealth as seeds, spices, and entertainment

Seeds are already stored, though I suppose storing more of them won't hurt... but value will fluctuate wildly. Spices are good, if rather heavy for their worth. Entertainment in this case won't be the actual data (which is stored in the main computer banks) but the devices that display it. Good hologram projectors aren't cheap.

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

If the Fabricator / Robofac items aren't going to do the job I want, it's not really relevant at the moment... But Combination Gadgets can be found on Ultra Tech page 16

Thanks!

[ericthered]

Justin, if you want in, be sure to build the character FAST.

Height: 6'3" Weight: 312 lbs.

ST 11

These are incompatible. a 6' 3' 312 man has ST 14+. GURPS acknowledges the correlation between height, weight, and strength.

Also, please give point values.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Fabricators and Robofacs can only create lower-tech items, so no warp tech (including com gear), and no diamonoid materials. Computer stuff is fine though. No gadgets please. You can have it as sig gear if you want, but the feed stocks are as expensive than buying the item in many cases. (think 3-d printer technology).

Just to verify... You have decided to "Nerf" this tech for your game, which works much more efficiently than this as written in UT, correct?

Originally Posted by ericthered

These are incompatible. a 6' 3' 312 man has ST 14+. GURPS acknowledges the correlation between height, weight, and strength.

I hate to correct the GM, but not according to Page B18 in the very first sentence under "Build."

Originally Posted by GURPS in the Basic Set Page 18

You are free to select any height and weight the GM deems reasonable for a member of your race.

It may be improbable, but it's certainly not rules forbidden.
In a game such as this, it's even easily explained if he's from a lower gravity world.

In real life, I know a number of people who weigh over 300lbs and don't have a ST over 11. They have enough ST to move themselves around but for load bearing beyond that or any feat of ST, but some are weak as a kitten beyond that.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Just to verify... You have decided to "Nerf" this tech for your game, which works much more efficiently than this as written in UT, correct?

correct, Robofacs are not as in UT in two respects: they cannot make warp drives (unless you have a special, large, and expensive version), and they cannot manipulate molecules (though they can do a lot of standard chemistry). Most TL 10 items can be made, though the goodies take some specialization. You will have a cheap warp-Autofac on board.

I hate to correct the GM, but not according to Page B18 in the very first sentence under "Build."


It may be improbable, but it's certainly not rules forbidden.
In a game such as this, it's even easily explained if he's from a lower gravity world.

In real life, I know a number of people who weigh over 300lbs and don't have a ST over 11. They have enough ST to move themselves around but for load bearing beyond that or any feat of ST, but some are weak as a kitten beyond that.

Indeed. I just read that part. Low gravity world is a good explanation, particularly if he grew up on a small hunk of rock.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Justin Bedard

N1: You always have the appearance of staying calm. although you may be scared out of your wits, this gives a bonus +1 to allies for fright checks.

We aren't using fright checks. sorry.

also, is ST half-price?

ST is half price. Its just not worth as much in this game. (and current dimensions are fine)

Don't charge for DR on the cybernetic leg, or even for the biological one. Its equipment.

Home gravity is likely to be one of two numbers: terran standard (if he grew up on ships, where gravity is artificial and kept at 10 m/s^2 for historical reasons) or Auqa's gravity, at 12 m/s^2

(yes, I know earth is at 9.8. Terran standard is still 10).

[the_matrix_walker]

Gabriel Bell was born on Ceres Beta in a squalid encampment at the outskirts of the city. The stink of the fungi processors saturated the air from the north. The Ore processors were built the minimum safe distance away to the south, to prevent the smoke and gasses from contaminating the food supply. And so the city planners, in their wisdom, housed the workers in the space between. Assurances of safety did not prevent the shortened life expectancy of those who lived there. While one or the other of these factories might have been tolerable, the combination was not. Asthma and other respiratory ailments abound.

No one wanted to go there, and no one really wanted to be there. Separated from the city, a peacekeeper or ambulance could take an hour to arrive. The perfect blend of despair and apathy to breed the decay of civilization and the rise of nefarious crews of opportunists with nothing to loose. Gabriel had a knack for trusting the right people, and grew up luckier than most. His father even managed to apprentice him to a corp sponsor before the Greenlung took him.

Gabriel was 22 when he got sick. He was just finishing his apprenticeship. His father had arranged for a better life for him than working in the factories, but he still came home to the district, he still fell victim to it's curse. The fungal infection was severe and fast spreading, and in a matter of days he went from a cough to requiring a respirator to survive. He actually felt that he was luckier than his father, going quick, rather than feeling his chest fill with wet green spaghetti for a decade. As he lay in his hospital bed, his lungs burning with each hiss of the breather, a man came to him with an offer.

The man had a solution you see… He was from a medical ship, and they had the technology to cure him. The process was incredibly expensive, and Bell could work a lifetime and never pay the debt. But this off world doctor told him he found another who would cover the costs, but at a terrible price! The man had a client with dangerous hobbies, a Grav-Jumper who’s last stunt failed spectacularly, sending him into a roll down the side of a cliff face that pulped the bones of his limbs. All his money could not change the fact that he could not let the accident be known, he would not settle for cybernetics. Gabriel’s life could be saved, but not a simply the cost of an arm and a leg… but for the whole set! Gabriel did not trust the man, and he had learned to trust his instincts, but the alternative was certain death. So Gabriel agreed. As they drove across the city taking Gabriel to the shuttle, he could see that an evacuation was beginning, they had finally found a place to go. Gabriel know they couldn't have enough ships for the job, they had been preparing for the day they had a destination for decades, but as the population grew, the fleet never did. He wondered if they even bothered to tell his neighbors about the evacuation as they loaded him onto the medical ship bound for Aqua. He realized they wouldn't have of course, why tell the dregs when they're not getting seats? They'd just get in the way.

Soon after his recovery from the surgeries, Bell discovered that the source of the cure that was so expensive, was also used in it's raw form as a garnish on his dinner plate… That which was exotic and rare at home, was prolific on Aqua… He realized that with better communication and trade among the colonies, he would still be whole… and that there must be thousands of stories like his own. With that realization came more than a simple desire to make a buck, and Gabriel Bell set out to change things for the better.

[ericthered]

Tweaks on back story (or background details):

There was no habitable world in Ceres-Beta's system, and they didn't know of any. The original ship that started the colony had been cannibalized for parts, leaving them stranded and slowly starving until ships from Aqua made contact.

The rich client's body wasn't rejecting the cybernetics, The client was. It was politically ill-advised to use them, and would have 'made him look stupid and reckless'. The client's identity is still a secret, and Gabe isn't sure which prominent citizen of Aqua is wearing his limbs (though he has a few guesses). Gabe made it to Aqua as part of the deal (cheaper than keeping the limbs on life support). he pretty much always knew just how badly he had been taken advantage of, but it was that or death.

I hope that works for you...

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Tweaks on back story (or background details):

There was no habitable world in Ceres-Beta's system, and they didn't know of any. The original ship that started the colony had been cannibalized for parts, leaving them stranded and slowly starving until ships from Aqua made contact.

The rich client's body wasn't rejecting the cybernetics, The client was. It was politically ill-advised to use them, and would have 'made him look stupid and reckless'. The client's identity is still a secret, and Gabe isn't sure which prominent citizen of Aqua is wearing his limbs (though he has a few guesses). Gabe made it to Aqua as part of the deal (cheaper than keeping the limbs on life support). he pretty much always knew just how badly he had been taken advantage of, but it was that or death.

I hope that works for you...

Sure, no problem... So is everyone going to be from Aqua then? No chance on capitalizing on knowledge of our home colony and returning there to trade... I get it ;)

I hope you aren't disappointed that the story of loss of limbs wasn't more exciting... But I really like the symmetry of the merchant getting swindled out of and arm and a leg...doubled!

As for the guy rejecting the cybernetics... I was even thinking that was just what he was told, and there may be more to it than that... or that his genome was just the right flavor and if that guy got sick they might come looking for him! lol Whatever works for you!

[ericthered]

Matrix:
All characters will have ties to Aqua (no, citizens are not 'auqatic'). Other worlds are known, but they are more of outposts than anything else. Beta-Ceres was rescued from its plight a few months after Mr. Bell's surgery, and based on timing its likely that his "rescuers" informed The Aquan government of the situation when they arrived in the system.

Beta-Ceres is actually still a working outpost, importing its food and trading for a few rare metals, but its even smaller and a known world, firmly in Aqua's sphere of control.

This isn't actually about "not capitalizing", its about the state of humanity. Large hives where men are cheap are almost none-existent: humanity was nearly destroyed, and in general human life is precious as never before.

Justin: Just the disadvantages one eye and one leg. The built-in effects can be replicated with tech, so no payload, telescopic vision, ect.

The alien language was offered as a package with other traits. It is not normally available, and certainly not at the accented level. Aliens around here are not friendly or well known. Universal Programming Language is not an language either: programming languages are part of the programming skill, and none apply across species boundries. That said, most of humanity uses the same basic set of programming languages (and indeed programs)

Talosian: please finish up the character. We hope to start soon.

Crettin: I'd like confirmation you're still playing...

Healer 1 [10]

VH Surgery/tl 10 IQ+2+1 16 [16]
H Diagnosis /tl 10 IQ+2+1 16 [12]
E First Aid / tl 10 IQ+2+1 16 [4]
H Physician / tl IQ+1+1 15 [8]

total 50

has now become:

Healer 1 [10]
Healer 2 [20] (learned)

VH Surgery/tl 10 IQ+3 16 [8]
H Diagnosis /tl 10 IQ+3 16 [4]
E First Aid / tl 10 IQ+3 16 [1]
H Physician / tl IQ-1+3 15 [2]

total 45

It bugged me. Go spend your 5 points.

(learned talents act like they are skill points, but have no reaction bonus and don't effect learning times. You can trade for them in play and they don't have the cap. You can't use them on 5 pointers though)

The IC will go up soon (today). Character CONCEPTS are now finalized. details may still be worked with.