10-30-2021, 11:14 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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test driving GURPS Realm Management
I'm in the process of starting up a new GURPS campaign, set in the city of Pavonis Portal from GURPS City Stats, and this seems like a good time to try out GURPS Realm Management. So I'm going to post questions here as I work through the rules.
I'm assuming a starting time a few decades after the construction of the orbital elevator. I'm not going to start by assigning resource points and see what I can build; I already know what PP is like, but I'm going to try to describe this in RM terms and work backward to resource points. So: The single crucial economic basis for PP's existence is the Mars orbital elevator, extending from Pavonis Mons to Deimos. Does that have a representation in terms of resource points? It's clearly not agriculture (most food is produced locally, but there's not a significant surplus); or military; or workforce. Could it count as a sort of natural resource? Or is good trade location something else entirely?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
10-30-2021, 11:28 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Pavonis Portal has 50,000 inhabitants, and is TL10, which grants a maximum sustainable carrying capacity of 600 inhabitants/square mile. That implies an area of at least 83.33 square miles, which will fit into a radius of 5.15 miles. Since Pavonis Portal has six sectors developed (out of 10 potential), it actually needs 138.89 square miles and a radius of 6.65 miles.
On one hand, in terms of area, it's about 1.7x a standard city-state's area, which falls under the 2x for +1; so its realm size value seems to be +7. On the other, its diameter is also about 1.7x a standard city-state's diameter, which is more than 1.5x but less than 2x, so it seems that its size in linear dimensions is +8—it's slightly stretched, perhaps.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
11-01-2021, 09:34 AM | #3 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Quote:
Realistically, it probably has some industry, because industries pop up around break and bulk points. The city doesn't actually have to control its surrounding farmland, though it might. if you can't feed your population via realm management, that means you'll need to continually be importing food, I think.
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11-01-2021, 02:07 PM | #4 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Quote:
Quote:
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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11-01-2021, 04:01 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Chagrin Falls
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
My assumption for Martian agriculture would have been tunnels and hydroponics, which implies the area can be below ‘normal’ surfaces like living domes &c. (Assuming those too are not in tunnels). How does RM handle stacking like that?
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11-01-2021, 04:05 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
That's a good question. I haven't been able to locate an answer yet.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
11-01-2021, 04:46 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Wouldn't you just use the effective usable area, regardless of how many levels that might be? It's not footprint on a planetary surface that matters, but useful square miles of space where you can do stuff. If you've got two levels under your dome which happens to have 0.5 mi^2 of area, you've got a 1.0 mi^2 realm. RM isn't really concerned with exactly how that working surface is arranged.
See the first full paragraph on RM p6. Quote:
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11-02-2021, 04:19 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Quote:
Checking GURPS Future History, I find that the population density of a European city ranges between 6400 and 32,000 per square mile, so a city of 50,000 would occupy between 1.56 and 7.8 square miles. Assuming it's fairly flat (tunneling laterally is no more expensive than tunneling vertically), just under 10% of the inhabited area would be "urban," while the rest would be "farmland." But is that assuming terrestrial ideas of what farmland or crops are like? On Mars, plants grow in (expensively) manufactured soil or in hydroponics; could the required area be significantly reduced?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. Last edited by whswhs; 11-02-2021 at 06:39 AM. |
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11-02-2021, 08:21 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
This is either the "Fertile Territory" or "Habitable Land" enhancements on p. 25 of GURPS Realm Management.
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11-02-2021, 08:57 AM | #10 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: test driving GURPS Realm Management
Quote:
Its not a finite expendable resource though. Resource points are consumable and don't automatically regenerate. The orbital elevator is a static resource that generates wealth depending on the outer economy.
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