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Old 06-18-2023, 08:52 AM   #1
briansommers
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Default Underwater colonization…how?

I want to build tunnels and domes etc for an underwater “hexcrawl”.

Does gurps have anything for something like this or will I have to hack something myself?
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Old 06-18-2023, 01:52 PM   #2
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

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Originally Posted by briansommers View Post
I want to build tunnels and domes etc for an underwater “hexcrawl”.

Does gurps have anything for something like this or will I have to hack something myself?

Do you mean like a "Sealab" kind of structure? What tech level? From tech level 9 onward it should be technically possible to have a Bioshock style city built on the seafloor.

Gurps ultra tech should have pretty much everything you need. It includes a variety of underwater vehicles, and pressurized/armored space suits would work fine under water, depending on the depth and pressure. There are also game mechanics for pressure sickness - probably a little unrealistically lenient in terms of being survivable but this is an RPG after all. It also has fun stuff like man portable sonar to spot threats.

The main thing you'd want to decide early on is how fragile the structure they are exploring is, and if random weapons fire has a chance of causing structural failure. If this is very far under water then any walls strong enough to enter the water pressure should hold up to normal gunfire, but armor piercing bullets might penetrate or crack it. The main danger would be explosives.

What would your players be fighting down there? Undersea mutants/sea monsters? Pirates/terrorists? Corporate security forces? Automated defenses?
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Old 06-19-2023, 07:46 AM   #3
briansommers
 
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

Yeah TL9 sounds about right.

The worst thing with gurps with me is where do I start. But UT sounds good and what I need.

The PCs biggest threat would be sea monsters/bugs, etc.

Totally forgot about bioshock…
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Old 06-19-2023, 07:54 AM   #4
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

Checking my copy of GURPS Atlantis (a 3/e supplement), I see that it has about 27 pages on doing things in submarine environments, including material on vehicles, structures, and combat. You might like to take a look.
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Old 06-19-2023, 10:44 AM   #5
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

For 4e rules on underwater activity check out pyr.3-26 underwater adventures.
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Old 06-19-2023, 11:54 AM   #6
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

If you're inside not-Rapture, the fact that you're on the seafloor barely matters unless the hab is at ambient pressure and you're applying realistic biological effects for high pressure.


(Ambient vs. controlled pressure might be an interesting question. High pressure is kinda hard on surface-dweller physiology, but maintaining the pressure differential is also hard and makes it significantly harder to do anything outside.)
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Old 06-19-2023, 02:10 PM   #7
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

Transhuman Space: Under Pressure has some useful info for undersea adventures.
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Old 06-19-2023, 05:46 PM   #8
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

The actual best place for underwater cities is just below the surface. Deep enough to be safe from storms but not so deep as to require astronomically high building costs because of high pressure. Cities floating with neutral buoyancy near the surface, with a few recreational areas at the surface, would be the most likely sort of sea city to get built.

By the way, I once read a Sci Fi story with a two mile wide geodesic sphere being built underwater. Once completed, it would be filled with air and be able to float in Earth's atmosphere. I forget most of the details, but it would make an incredible encounter.
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Old 06-19-2023, 09:52 PM   #9
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

TL9 is probably the first that it could be anything approaching a "colony".

As early as TL7, it might be possible to have something like an underwater equivalent to an Antarctic outpost or some of the early space stations - a small facility, housing a handful of people, highly dependent on outside supply. The question is why you would want to (at TL7, the answer is probably "Mr. President, we must not allow an underwater colony gap.").
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Old 06-20-2023, 12:55 AM   #10
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Default Re: Underwater colonization…how?

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As early as TL7, it might be possible to have something like an underwater equivalent to an Antarctic outpost or some of the early space stations - a small facility, housing a handful of people, highly dependent on outside supply. The question is why you would want to (at TL7, the answer is probably "Mr. President, we must not allow an underwater colony gap.").
James White's The Watch Below had a group of human beings surviving in air pockets in a sunken ship at early TL7 (I think it may have been during WWII). But I suspect (I haven't read it) that he may have been making some physically unrealistic assumptions.
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