[Space] Affinity in the Long Night

David Johnston2 · 03-18-2023, 09:29 PM

I was generating a not particularly nice world and just thinking what happens to it if the Long Night hits. It's Habitability 2, RVM 0. Diameter .74. So at TL 10 it has a carrying capacity of 59.2 million. So cut it off from interstellar trade and following the post-apocalypse guidelines they lose the ability to maintain their effective TL 10. Effective tech declines to 7. Everybody dies. Makes me wonder how fast. I suppose the central issue is how long your power plants last before going kaput.

Now conceivable they could just increase their population beyond their carrying capacity and just reduce the median living standard. With about a hundred million people it can maintain a TL 8 according to the guidelines. But now it's got a CC of 31.6, meaning the stable median income would be 7,836.

Wow. If they want to survive they have to turn themselves into North Korea. To have a carrying capacity of 100 million at TL 8 you need an affinity of 4. Any colony lower than that will either die or live in grinding poverty and the former is more likely.

Prince Charon · 03-18-2023, 10:58 PM

Dark. Also, they'd be in danger of dying out anyway, since they're on the edge, need everyone to pull together to just survive, and there's going to be quite a few people who think 'just surviving' isn't enough, and may get violent about it (and even if they don't, there's the risk of plagues that TL8 medicine can't cure).

Sounds like the backstory of a dead world rediscovered after the Long Night ends, or of an interesting idea for a 'reintegrate this world into civilization' story if they're found still clinging to life. The latter would of course have people resisting reintegration for various reasons, some of them even sort of rational if they know their history.

David Johnston2 · 03-18-2023, 11:44 PM

Well they aren't living on a world with any animal life except for humans and no offworld contact during the Long Night, so pandemics are unlikely to be an issue until the offworld ships start to show up again. Mind you wide-spread malnutrition and uneducated immune systems means when they do show up the results could be devastating.

ericthered · 03-20-2023, 11:31 AM

I've run games where the world discovered was "grinding poverty". I think it really depends on how self-sufficient they are in the first place, how sudden the collapse is, and if they have any back-up plans at all.

You mention "North Korea", but we actually don't know what their wealth level are at. Looking at global wealth levels, this looks like "South America", or even "China/Russia", or perhaps the best comparison is Iran. There are a lot of people in this world who live on a fraction of the developed world.

03-18-2023, 09:29 PM	#1
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	[Space] Affinity in the Long Night I was generating a not particularly nice world and just thinking what happens to it if the Long Night hits. It's Habitability 2, RVM 0. Diameter .74. So at TL 10 it has a carrying capacity of 59.2 million. So cut it off from interstellar trade and following the post-apocalypse guidelines they lose the ability to maintain their effective TL 10. Effective tech declines to 7. Everybody dies. Makes me wonder how fast. I suppose the central issue is how long your power plants last before going kaput. Now conceivable they could just increase their population beyond their carrying capacity and just reduce the median living standard. With about a hundred million people it can maintain a TL 8 according to the guidelines. But now it's got a CC of 31.6, meaning the stable median income would be 7,836. Wow. If they want to survive they have to turn themselves into North Korea. To have a carrying capacity of 100 million at TL 8 you need an affinity of 4. Any colony lower than that will either die or live in grinding poverty and the former is more likely. Last edited by David Johnston2; 03-18-2023 at 09:37 PM.

03-18-2023, 10:58 PM	#2
Prince Charon Join Date: Dec 2012	Re: [Space] Affinity in the Long Night Dark. Also, they'd be in danger of dying out anyway, since they're on the edge, need everyone to pull together to just survive, and there's going to be quite a few people who think 'just surviving' isn't enough, and may get violent about it (and even if they don't, there's the risk of plagues that TL8 medicine can't cure). Sounds like the backstory of a dead world rediscovered after the Long Night ends, or of an interesting idea for a 'reintegrate this world into civilization' story if they're found still clinging to life. The latter would of course have people resisting reintegration for various reasons, some of them even sort of rational if they know their history. __________________ Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.

03-18-2023, 11:44 PM	#3
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	Re: [Space] Affinity in the Long Night Well they aren't living on a world with any animal life except for humans and no offworld contact during the Long Night, so pandemics are unlikely to be an issue until the offworld ships start to show up again. Mind you wide-spread malnutrition and uneducated immune systems means when they do show up the results could be devastating.

03-20-2023, 11:31 AM	#4
ericthered Hero of Democracy Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: far from the ocean	Re: [Space] Affinity in the Long Night I've run games where the world discovered was "grinding poverty". I think it really depends on how self-sufficient they are in the first place, how sudden the collapse is, and if they have any back-up plans at all. You mention "North Korea", but we actually don't know what their wealth level are at. Looking at global wealth levels, this looks like "South America", or even "China/Russia", or perhaps the best comparison is Iran. There are a lot of people in this world who live on a fraction of the developed world. __________________ Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! Last edited by ericthered; 03-20-2023 at 12:48 PM.