Low Berths and Pregnacies

[hal]

Hello Folks,
Something came up in a campaign last Saturday, and I wondered if anyone had given any real thought to what happens when we look at low berths from the original classic Traveller rules, and in every other incarnation since then.

What happens when a woman who is pregnant enters into low berth? What effect would this have upon a developing baby in the womb? What would the effect be upon exit from Low Berth?

The reason I ask, is because one "thread" of events in my campaign, centers upon a really heartless Grandfather who undertook "freeing" his son from a woman the grandfather didn't approve of. After certain behind the scenes machinations, the grandfather succeeded in driving a wedge between the woman he hated and his son, her husband. Long story short - the grandfather arranges to have the woman placed in low berth with stolen freeze tubes from an old scout ship that should have been scrapped, but never made it to the scrap yard. The freeze tube contains the woman, and she has been in low berth for nearly 36 years thus far. His revenge would be that upon his son's death, she would be released to be on her own, and suffer the double whammy of lost loves and remaining young while her beloved have aged.

So, thoughts on how a pregnancy is affected by low berth?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by hal

What happens when a woman who is pregnant enters into low berth?

Probably a large increase in the chance of low berth problems (any of which will result in death of the fetus), but if it works properly, the pregnancy is suspended.

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Probably a large increase in the chance of low berth problems (any of which will result in death of the fetus), but if it works properly, the pregnancy is suspended.

Agreed. Original rules made low berth so deadly I don't know why anyone would voluntarily travel that way. In practically any setting I'd say unless the tube was specifically designed for pregnant mothers it would very likely kill the fetus and somewhat likely kill the mother as well.

[hal]

What I'm wondering is whether or not I should be treating this as two entities in low berth, and rolling separately for both, or if I should treat the Mother as one entity - but give her a penalty to her HT saving roll. If she makes her normal HT saving roll, everything is fine. If she fails her HT saving roll by the amount of the penalty, then she's fine, but medical complications arise for the fetus. If she makes her HT roll sufficiently well, then there are no complications for either the mother or fetus.

The old rules for Traveller (classic) required that the person roll to see if they died upon leaving cold berth, but that survival roll was modified if a medic or doctor was present upon the person leaving cold berth.

in GURPS TRAVELLER, I don't think this was as bad a risk.

It figures into a scenario I'm running for my gaming group at the moment. While not directly applicable to a player character, the "Mystery" I'm running for one player character is that her mother who has been missing for 36 years (stuffed away in cold berth), may have been pregnant when she was put unwillingly into low berth.

[Drifter]

The second option sounds best to me.

That story line sounds great. As GM I'd would make sure the fetus stays alive, if only for a further plot point/complication.

[sn0wball]

I haven´t my books here, but wouldn´t this depend on the kind of technology used in low berthing ? I think different editions have treated low berthing as a offshot of grav technology or making in bio-chemical/physical in nature, where the body is prepared for being actually frozen or something. With the former, the atoms of the fetus will be frozen just as their mothers (or any bacteria inside her...). A biochemical procedure could be far more complicated or even impossible with a pregnant human.

On the other hand, if you consider that low berths don´t just work for humans but also for a broad range on non-human lifeforms, you could easily assume that a pregnant woman is biologically closer to a non-pregnant human than to a, say, hiver, so there could be no problem at all.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sn0wball

I haven´t my books here, but wouldn´t this depend on the kind of technology used in low berthing ?

It's canon that low berths are at least moderately dangerous, and pretty much any moderately dangerous medical procedure interacts poorly with pregnancy.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It's canon that low berths are at least moderately dangerous, and pretty much any moderately dangerous medical procedure interacts poorly with pregnancy.

It would seem that GURPS low berth rules make low berth deaths less likely.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by hal

It would seem that GURPS low berth rules make low berth deaths less likely.

That's why I only said 'moderately dangerous' instead of 'ridiculously dangerous'.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That's why I only said 'moderately dangerous' instead of 'ridiculously dangerous'.

Point Taken. Per page 108 in GURPS TRAVELLER, we have the following in the sidebar regarding revival from low berth:

"Success is automatic if overseen by a person with Physician 10+ or Electronics Operation (Medical) 10+."

This means then, that the process is sufficiently safe, that an EMT or Physician who isn't even deemed to be a Professional (assuming that 12 is the level at which someone is deemed to be professionally capable) can insure that no one dies of it.

"Otherwise, roll against HT; the occupant dies on a critical failure."

For someone to have to roll a crit failure against HT, the roll has to either be 10 higher than the stat, or it has to be a 17 or 18 on three die six. Either way, the numbers favor survival as contrasted with the original rules...