TL12 + Xeelee Sequence

[Joseph Paul]

Reading Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence stuff looking for how to represent some of the wonderous constructs from his stories in GURPS terms.

Things like changing the Plank constant and the consequences of that. Building material made of bonded protons - a single proton thick. Your monomolecular wire has nothing on this.

Has any one else played with statting these kind of effects up in GURPS?

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Reading Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence stuff looking for how to represent some of the wonderous constructs from his stories in GURPS terms.

Things like changing the Plank constant and the consequences of that. Building material made of bonded protons - a single proton thick. Your monomolecular wire has nothing on this.

Has any one else played with statting these kind of effects up in GURPS?

Is this from The Culture series, or from his other writing? I just started on that series and I have to say I'm interested in replicating it in GURPS terms for my campaign setting.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Reading Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence stuff looking for how to represent some of the wonderous constructs from his stories in GURPS terms.

Things like changing the Plank constant and the consequences of that. Building material made of bonded protons - a single proton thick. Your monomolecular wire has nothing on this.

Has any one else played with statting these kind of effects up in GURPS?

Sounds like super science, so anything you want. With super science, there is no right answer, just the answer you like best.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Is this from The Culture series, or from his other writing? I just started on that series and I have to say I'm interested in replicating it in GURPS terms for my campaign setting.

The Culture is Iain M. Banks. Baxter is a different bloke.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

The Culture is Iain M. Banks. Baxter is a different bloke.

Oops! In my defense, was very tired when I wrote that and had Culture sort of on the brain.

Baxter's book Phase Space was brilliant, but I haven't read anything else by him as of yet. I do realize having now had some sleep that that's about whom you're talking and know the difference... :-)

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Sounds like super science, so anything you want. With super science, there is no right answer, just the answer you like best.

Yes, yes but in what way am I to wave my hands?

1) Baxter has a degree in Math and one in Engineering and has taught Physics. This begs the question - 'How hard is his science?'

2) A more involved discussion of the consequences of certain technologies would go a long way towards enhancing play by broadening the understanding of what might or might not be able to be done. This helps a non-advanced degree GM make those decisions.

3) While it may take super science to create the artifacts and materials the effects or strengths of some of those things have real answers. I am suspecting that the proton building material plays with the strong nuclear force. That should mean that to harm it you need to hit it hard enough to break those bonds. That should prove...daunting.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Yes, yes but in what way am I to wave my hands?

1) Baxter has a degree in Math and one in Engineering and has taught Physics. This begs the question - 'How hard is his science?'

Mostly hard, I would say. He tries to hew to the Wells method of a single impossibility per story, but the plot devices of unshown possibility do mount up. In particular, in RING and RAFT, there's nothing totally pulled out of thi8n air, but some of it is highly conjectural like the nightflyer's FTL and I'm not sure the "flaw" explanation would allow it take advantage of the closed time-like curve effect for time travel, considering. But it makes for a hell of a show!

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

3) While it may take super science to create the artifacts and materials the effects or strengths of some of those things have real answers. I am suspecting that the proton building material plays with the strong nuclear force. That should mean that to harm it you need to hit it hard enough to break those bonds. That should prove...daunting.

The bonded proton stuff is similar to the scrith from RINGWORLD, only scrith is foamed to allow it to have volume. Both are descibed as having strength on the scale of an atomic nucleus. Scrith can be bent or punctured by sufficiently large meteor impacts, though the Ringworld's spin of 770 miles per second is the primary component of kinetic energy here.

[Joseph Paul]

Anybody want to take a swing at calculating a HT/HP/DR for that stuff?

[Tyneras]

I remember that. IIRC the object was about the size of earths moon, and if we assume the minimum of 770 miles per second.

Moon = 7.35*10^22 kg = ((7.35*10^22)*2.2)^1/3)*8 = 4.312*10^23 HP
Speed = 770 miles/sec = 770*1760 = 1,355,200 yards/sec

Collision damage = (4.312*10^23 * 1.355*10^6)/100 dice of damage

so 5.843*10^27 dice of damage, or 2.045*10^28 damage on average.

The Ringworld has about 2*10^28 DR, or 20,000 yotta DR.

[Joseph Paul]

That's a lot of DR.

If the proton material is compacted so that the protons are touching each other the density is going to go up even though the electrons are missing. How much waste space is there in a hydrogen atom?