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Old 08-04-2021, 02:38 AM   #1
MaryAnn
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Default Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

What skills are used to develop, technically and regardless of costs, finances, policies, etc., to terraform a planet?

According to Biotech, an Ecological Engineer rolls against Biology (Ecology), but I don't know if that alone would have it all covered or not.
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Old 08-04-2021, 02:53 AM   #2
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryAnn View Post
What skills are used to develop, technically and regardless of costs, finances, policies, etc., to terraform a planet?

According to Biotech, an Ecological Engineer rolls against Biology (Ecology), but I don't know if that alone would have it all covered or not.
This is going to involve a lot of skills. You clearly start with Geology (current planet type) and Geology (Earthlike), to see how big a change you need to make, plus Physics (Astrophysics) to check if the star system will remain suitable and stable for a decent length of time: no point in starting a job this big if it isn't going to last.

After that, it will depend on the scope of the changes. If you already have an Earth-like ecosystem and just want to revise it, that's a very different job from replacing an atmosphere, adding a hydrosphere, and bootstrapping an ecosystem.

A society with a lot of terraforming experience will probably develop an appropriate Expert Skill for doing the evaluation phase, and specialisations of Engineering for doing the job, but we don't really know a lot about what would be involved in practice.
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Old 08-04-2021, 03:15 AM   #3
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

A wildcard skill, Terraforming!, might be a option. I imagine a lot of this subject is theoretical at this point, so any ambiguity in regards to what remaining skills are involved in the process can be just waived by having the wildcard skill. This isn't the fine grain approach that GURPS takes by default but it's certainly something to consider.
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Old 08-04-2021, 03:58 AM   #4
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Looking at Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars - a reasonable bit of hard sci-fi once you scrape her politics off it - terraforming Mars involved asteroid bombardment, vapourising parts of the crust with an orbital mirror and a great deal of geological and other heavy engineering, as well as seeding with gene-modified life. Venus, by contrast, later in the series, was tamed with orbital shades and bombarding the upper cloud layers with algae IIRC.
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Old 08-04-2021, 04:32 AM   #5
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
This is going to involve a lot of skills.
That may be a substantial understatement. It's like asking "What skills are required to turn a patch of wilderness into a functioning society?" Only much, much bigger.

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
A society with a lot of terraforming experience will probably develop an appropriate Expert Skill for doing the evaluation phase, and specialisations of Engineering for doing the job, but we don't really know a lot about what would be involved in practice.
Changing Times acknowledges the existence of Expert Skill (Terraforming), but notes that it's purely used for formulating descriptions.
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Old 08-04-2021, 04:37 AM   #6
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

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Originally Posted by Tymathee View Post
A wildcard skill, Terraforming!, might be a option.
I think you'd have to be a superintelligent, unaging, posthuman being to get proper use out of it...

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Looking at Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars - a reasonable bit of hard sci-fi once you scrape her politics off it - terraforming Mars involved asteroid bombardment, vapourising parts of the crust with an orbital mirror and a great deal of geological and other heavy engineering, as well as seeding with gene-modified life.
Or one could work one's way through the entire card deck from Terraforming Mars (the board game), with the expansions...

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Venus, by contrast, later in the series, was tamed with orbital shades and bombarding the upper cloud layers with algae IIRC.
There are complicated issues there. Basically, as I understand it, you have to get rid of a lot of the atmosphere, and maybe lock a lot of carbon up in the geology. And possibly do something about the vulcanism...
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Old 08-04-2021, 06:30 AM   #7
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

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I think you'd have to be a superintelligent, unaging, posthuman being to get proper use out of it...
Of course the theoretical character(s) would have the necessary background to wield such a skill. MaryAnn mentioned nothing in regards to character generation, only what question they've asked for what skill(s) would help with terraforming. A wildcard might as well as easily be learned through instantaneous miraculous superscience learning if we can glean anything from Kromm's stance on instantaneous spell learning.
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Old 08-04-2021, 06:56 AM   #8
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

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That may be a substantial understatement. It's like asking "What skills are required to turn a patch of wilderness into a functioning society?" Only much, much bigger.
I think you could fairly omit all the social aspects. Or most of them, anyway; you might need Law to ensure that people went along with the ecological restrictions needed to keep things on the proper developmental path. But actually getting a functioning society going would be something you did after you had a shirtsleeves environment.

Not that that simplifies the problem all that much.
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Old 08-04-2021, 01:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

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Originally Posted by MaryAnn View Post
What skills are used to develop, technically and regardless of costs, finances, policies, etc., to terraform a planet?
It's going to depend on the planet, the stage of terraforming, and the available technology.

A slightly more realistic alternative to Terraforming! would be Expert Skill (Terraforming) which covers various scientific and technical skills as they relate to general knowledge of terraforming. I would be known by terraforming project managers who leave the details to specialists.

At very high TL, terraforming might be as simple as making a Crewman (Spacer) roll to deploy the terraforming pods, which automagically make terraforming happen, or to tow the planet to a better orbit.

For a "hard" SF attempt to terraform an existing Earthlike inner planet with an insufficient or unsuitable atmosphere (e.g., Mars, Mercury, Venus) this list is a start:

Accounting is vital to keep track of funds required for such a massive project.

Administration is vital to organize and run a terraforming project. At the lower end, it's going to be an engineering feat equivalent to the Great Pyramids or the 1960s NASA moon rockets. At the upper end, it's going to be equivalent to the Great Wall of China or Operation Overlord.

Astronomy (Planetology) to identify suitable targets for terraforming and to do remote sensing of the planet's atmosphere, surface, and interior from orbit.

Animal Handling to raise animals on a massive scale, possibly under artificial conditions, for purposes of providing biomass, CO2, etc. to a partially terraformed planet.

Biology (Earthlike Ecology) to envision what the terraformed planet's biosphere should be.

Bioengineering to genetically engineer species used for terraforming and/or for the new environment.

Chemistry - Many different specializations (e.g., biochemistry, geochemistry) will be needed to determine the chemical composition of the planet's surface and atmosphere and to suggest chemical methods of altering them. This information gets passed to the engineers and technicians who develop practical applications.

Electronics Operations (Matter Transmitters) - If Matter Transmitters or "Matter Replicators" are available they will play a vital role in terraforming. They can add matter to the planet's surface or atmosphere, destroy pr remove unwanted matter, or alter existing matter into more useful forms.

Engineering - Many different specialties will be involved e.g., Civil, Hydraulic, Robotics, as well as superscience specializations like Force
Fields, Gravitics, Tectonics, Weather Control, etc.

Explosives (Demolitions or Nuclear Ordinance) to blast features of the planetary landscape.

Finance - Someone's got to figure out how to make the project pay for itself. This might involve forming a corporation and selling shares of stock, floating bonds, or arranging loans on a massive scale. For profit terraforming will inevitably include Market Analysis and Propaganda (AKA marketing and advertising).

Farming to grow plants on a massive scale, possibly under artificial conditions, for purposes of providing biomass, increasing O2 concentrations, reducing CO2 concentrations, etc. to a partially terraformed planet.

Forward Observer to bomb the target planet with asteroids or comets to add water or mass to a planet, or for other purposes.

Geology (Earthlike) to determine if a planet identified by astronomers actually would be a suitable target for terraforming, to gather data about the planet's minerology and tectonic activity, and to environ the geology of the terraformed planet.

Law - Terraforming is real estate development on a massive scale. If there's a functional government, or even competing interests for the same planet or solar system, there will be lawyers.

Meteorology to envision what the terraformed planet's atmosphere should be and to control meteorological processes used for terraforming.

Physics (Geophysics) to determine the terraformed planet's desired physical properties, providing engineers with necessary data to proceed. In particular, physics will be needed to figure out how to create or alter the planet's magnetosphere to protect its surface against cosmic radiation.

Politics - If there's a functional government the powers-that-be are likely to be involved in decisions regarding terraforming. If a megacorporation is running the project there needs to be a consensus by senior management and major stakeholders that the project will pay off. This might involve other Social Influence skills as well as Market Analysis, Propaganda, and/or Strategy.

Professional Skill (Terraformer) to perform the specialized day-to-day technical work of terraforming a planet not covered by other skills.

Strategy will influence decisions about when, where, and how quickly to terraform a planet if there's any sort of military or grand strategic (e.g., nation defense or trade policies) element to the project. Strategy rolls might also be needed to figure out why rival nations are terraforming a particular planet if their motives aren't immediately obvious.

Last edited by Pursuivant; 08-04-2021 at 01:19 PM.
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Old 08-04-2021, 02:49 PM   #10
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Default Re: Terraforming Skill (or Skills)

Arguably the skill is administration. Which you use to hire the small army of people with all the relevant skills.
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