09-01-2021, 12:56 PM | #71 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
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And on a planet that can't support regular rocket launches don't you think that the it's difficult for small ships to be able to land then take off from? Unless, of course, you have superscience that makes taking off from those planets easier.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. |
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09-01-2021, 01:18 PM | #72 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
Adventurous tramp freight is pretty much limited to backwaters. Mostly because if it's not an isolated backwater there's going to be local people more qualified to solve whatever problem is at hand than the crew of a random spaceship.
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09-01-2021, 02:43 PM | #73 | |||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
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Actually, I would say that the proposal is malformed. The space shipping industry is inherently interplanetary. It isn't controlled "on any planet"! But that aside, you may be able to plausibly say that any large economy will be dominated by megacorporations. But frankly, you can also plausibly say that it won't. Without even needing to make an argument for it really because structure of speculative economies isn't an area with especially solid known principles. Some settings do provide reasons that vast civilization-spanning corporations might be less favored than they seem to be in current Earth history though. Quote:
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You could have adventures that are actually directly related to your business and thus either not the jurisdiction of or not something you want to present to local troubleshooters.
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09-01-2021, 02:45 PM | #74 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
Perhaps. (They also expect it to have superscience.)
But similarly people expect a James Bond-inspired games of international espionage to have scenes in picturesque and glamorous locations around the world, and that does not require Bond to either own a private jet nor be flight crew on a tramp air-freighter. Lots of times we find GMs who are designing settings ask questions in these forums about fundamentals that frame their settings but that will not be in the control of PCs. For example they ask about population densities, city sizes, and numbers and distributions of skilled-trade practitioners in low-tech settings. They ask about gravity on flat worlds. About the signs that might be left on a planet that had been terraformed millions of years ago or on which a technological civilisation had wiped itself out tens of thousands of years ago. Just because the OP asked about ground-to-orbit capability without superscience does not mean that only tramp freighters in space are relevant.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 09-01-2021 at 02:48 PM. |
09-01-2021, 02:54 PM | #75 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
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Granted, I don't see tramp freighter spacecraft really being a thing in a hard science setting.
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09-01-2021, 03:11 PM | #76 | |||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
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Though admittedly that setting does involve superscience for FTL travel, and limited-superscience (fusion-powered steam rockets) for ground-to-orbit services on planets with too little trade and development to afford non-rocket launch facilities. Quote:
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09-01-2021, 03:13 PM | #77 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
Indeed not. Limited orbital injection windows favour scheduled services.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
09-01-2021, 04:26 PM | #78 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
For one example, military campaigns will be very different if one can land a recovery boat that is able to return to orbit (a la Starship Troopers), vs. having to capture the beanstalk/laser launch site/etc. or die in the attempt.
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09-02-2021, 07:29 AM | #79 | |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] getting into orbit without superscience?
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