Gaming w/Jemal : Star Drift

[Jemal]

Character creation rules added to first post. Any questions just ask.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I've decide I want to play a young cute doctor, who is half human half alien. But I'm lost on what kind of alien I can create that's believable to me (biologically plausible) and still humanoid.

I found a random alien generator online that gave me a bunch of decidedly not humanoid, but I did hit upon a winged race of herbivores with no sense of smell, and a cultural dislike of clothing. Push the gravity down the air pressure up, and the wing span out I can buy bat wings or maybe angel wings. However it pushes my suspension of disbelief for a race that different to successfully produce a child with a human. And I'm not sure if either count as humanoid.

Where do you draw the line for humanoid, is I race with bat wing arms humanoid, how about a hexopedial (predictive text loved that word. ) race with angel or demon wings. Is the hybrid form of a lycanthrope a humanoid? I've never counted a Wookie as humanoid, how about Trance Gemini from Andromeda she has a tail.

I promise I'm not trying to be a post just seeing where your line is

 

[Jemal]

I think 6 legs is pushing it but the rest of that is fine.
As far as 'humanoid', I'd call it a basically upright posture, bipedal (POSSIBLY quadrupedal if the upper body is very humanoid), 2-4 arms, opposable fingers (Or other means of fine tool manipulation), single torso/head, mouth for consumption/noise production, eye(s), ear(s). Extras (wings, antenna, tail, head-tails, hair, tentacles?) allowable if they're not over the top.

If a human could dress up as it for Halloween without special skills/CGI, then it's pretty fair game too. (Wookie, werewolf, most aliens from any popular sci fi)

 

[drothgery]

If a human could dress up as it for Halloween without special skills/CGI, then it's pretty fair game too. (Wookie, werewolf, most aliens from any popular sci fi)

Though I'd suggest as a matter of practicality that aliens (or robots, depending on how good AI is in this universe) really ought to be able to speak 'common' natively or have a 'universal translator' on-hand (or not-so-universal). Wookie roars and R2D2 beeps might be okay in movies, but they're hard for PCs to deal with.

 

[Binder Fred]

If you can do large-scale things in space, that means you pretty much have access to an entire star system's resources. And that's... a lot (consider that everything the human race has used, ever, is a small fraction of what's available on earth... and that's a tiny percentage of what's just in the solar system)... and a lot of pretty much everything, in just about any star system. Add in fast FTL, and given that there pretty have to be lots of empty systems for every inhabited one, and then you've got at the very least dozens of star systems' resources. There's no reason to go after anyone else's resources; you can pick off uninhabited systems at will.

Well, three quick points before I shut up on this:

1. We *are* presently using up the vast majority of our planet's easily obtainable non-renewable ressources (the words in italic are key here). I'm a geologist, so I have a fair undestanding of these things, and the fact is that new discoveries are harder to find (all the easy ones, near surface, etc having been found), harder to put into production (farther away, deeper, more refractory to processing) and cost more to operate once they are in production. If exploration methods ever stagnate for a decade or two, we're in deep sh*t.

2. Sure, technicaly the entire center of our planet is a giant ball of fe-ni-cu, but the important thing in base ressources is not the size of the ressource, but at what cost you can get it per unit of the substance in question. A nearby system with a lot of space-borne volatiles and desirable substances will always beat out a far system with resources stuck in gravity wells plus under X km of rock, no matter if that system is already inhabited or not. And if that first system happens to have all its extraction infrastruture already in place *and* a supply of trained personnel *and* be inhabited by barbarians that probably won't be able to resist much, well...

3. If a system is truly always ressource independant (and population pressures being closely tied to space+availability of ressource as they are), what's the point of creating an empire? You gain litterally nothing except huge war and then occupation expenditutes. If you gain nothing, people don't do it. People *are* busily building stellar empires in our present universe - case in point, the victorians - so they must be gaining something. What is it?

 

[Binder Fred]

Honestly I hadn't originally thought about explaining it too much because I had just assumed people would roll with it.

Well this *is* a sci-fi game... and you did ask for questions in your very first post, right?

I found a random alien generator online that gave me a bunch of decidedly not humanoid, but I did hit upon a winged race of herbivores with no sense of smell, and a cultural dislike of clothing. Push the gravity down the air pressure up, and the wing span out I can buy bat wings or maybe angel wings. However it pushes my suspension of disbelief for a race that different to successfully produce a child with a human. And I'm not sure if either count as humanoid.

Strict definition of "humanoid" is two arms, two legs (which implies mostly bipedal), bilateral symetry. Head you can play with, I'm guessing, so long as you have the organs somewhere?

As to your questions:

Just curious, but why does she(?) need to be a half breed? Unless Jemal has some indications otherwise, that would indeed seem to be entirely unlikely... unless it was deliberate? Say your other race is so strange in thought/custom, that they (or us, or both together) needed to build an organic bridge between them to communicate? A living translator equipped with the wiring of both species? Jemal did say that we had one extra-galatic species in the deck if we wanted to use it. That could be your parents. Of course, the reasons behind the "deliberate" might be more personnal (love comes to mind), though then you have to have had fairly powerful parents to have managed the interbreeding feat with ressources they commanded (doesn't have to be *your* parents though, nothing says the new breed has to be infertile (though probably only with itself without outside help, granted)).

By the by, if you're still going with your less gravity, higher pressure idea, you'll need some constant replenishing source injecting gas into the system (say accelerated degasing of the mantle or something, so heavy volcanic activity?), or dropping the gravity will automatically drop your air pressure as well... Unless there's something preventing the atmosphere from leaking into space or something? Eh... A Dyson Shell/Niven Ring would seem to fit that bill nicely, actually, now that I think about it! What do you think? If you or your parent race is extra-galactic, the entire megastructure, star included, might be their spaceship, presently anchored near the shallows of our own milky way...

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I think 6 legs is pushing it but the rest of that is fine.

Oh when I said hexapedal I was refering to number of limbs not legs. 2 legs, 2 arms, and 2 wings, = 6

Though I'd suggest as a matter of practicality that aliens (or robots, depending on how good AI is in this universe) really ought to be able to speak 'common' natively or have a 'universal translator' on-hand (or not-so-universal). Wookie roars and R2D2 beeps might be okay in movies, but they're hard for PCs to deal with.

That won't be a problem seeing as my character will be half human. Raised in both cultures, multi linguial.

As to your questions:

Just curious, but why does she(?)

Yes

need to be a half breed? Unless Jemal has some indications otherwise, that would indeed seem to be entirely unlikely... unless it was deliberate? Say your other race is so strange in thought/custom, that they (or us, or both together) needed to build an organic bridge between them to communicate? A living translator equipped with the wiring of both species? Jemal did say that we had one extra-galatic species in the deck if we wanted to use it. That could be your parents. Of course, the reasons behind the "deliberate" might be more personnal (love comes to mind), though then you have to have had fairly powerful parents to have managed the interbreeding feat with ressources they commanded (doesn't have to be *your* parents though, nothing says the new breed has to be infertile (though probably only with itself without outside help, granted)).

My main reason for being a half breed is wanting to play the child of two worlds at home in neither type of character, and since we're going with the all humanoid possibly related because of [redacted], I thought I could get away with it. Star Trek does it all the time. If Jemal is interested in the half extra-galatic thing, I'll let him pm me. I don't wanna step on his toes, but I'm game if he's up for it.

By the by, if you're still going with your less gravity, higher pressure idea, you'll need some constant replenishing source injecting gas into the system (say accelerated degasing of the mantle or something, so heavy volcanic activity?), or dropping the gravity will automatically drop your air pressure as well...

You are presuming earth too much. Yes if we lessened the gravity of earth the atmo would leak away, but it would take millions of years... So what if it started much much higher, and this is where it's leaked to now? Or beyond that what I was thinking of is, Yes a heavier N₂, O₂ Ar, CO₂, would leak away with lighter gravity. But what about a N₂ Ar, O₂, CO₂ would be heavier without leaking away as quick simply because the Argon is more massive. Krypton would be even heavier but is less common in the universe.

Now if our atmo has too much CO₂ or we use some other greenhouse gas temperatures will climb, but you simply place it at a father orbit, or a cooler star, or lower albedo and achieve the same temperature. Always ways of making things work. Oxygen content would be the same but a lower over all percentage, and the atmo thicker so humans would have labored breathing.

I'm thinking a moon about mars diameter with with about 0.6 Mₑ orbiting HD 28185 b, with about 1.2 atmospheres that with maybe a 8 foot wingspan and hollow bones and some lightening of the body should allow flight if we keep weight below 80lbs.

If you're worried about it, the moon may be replinishing it's atmo with captured gassed that have leaked from HD 28185 b.

 

[Binder Fred]

You are presuming earth too much.

Well, yes, I was sort of assuming same temperature ranges and gas composition. That said, enviro-suited alien are cool, it's true

Yes if we lessened the gravity of earth the atmo would leak away, but it would take millions of years... So what if it started much much higher, and this is where it's leaked to now?

Multi-century thawing cycle, maybe? A wandering planet with frozen volatiles rather quickly degasing when captured by a chance-met star? Remember though that your atmospheric loss to space may be slow, but you still need at least a good handfuls of million years of the present condition for organisms to have evolved to take advantage of them (ignoring useful pre-adaptations and assuming we're talking natural rates of evolution for the moment, of course). VV can likely give us a better timeline on that: how long *does* it take to evolve wings from scratch, VV?

Or beyond that what I was thinking of is, Yes a heavier N₂, O₂ Ar, CO₂, would leak away with lighter gravity. But what about a N₂ Ar, O₂, CO₂ would be heavier without leaking away as quick simply because the Argon is more massive. Krypton would be even heavier but is less common in the universe.

Your N₂, O₂ CO₂ and Ar would still be leaking out at accelerated rates though (since that's solely a factor of gravity and the average speed of each individual gas molecule, as affected by its mass and temperature), so you'll have to depend entirely on your initial "boosted level" of Ar to 1. compensate for the higher loss over time compared to earth, and 2. generate your increased air pressure. That would seem to indicate that you'll have to up its relative proportion quite a bit. Quick calc shows that if you wanted to up air pressure to 2 atm in pressent earth condition solely by changing the mix, as it were, you'd need about 50% Ar compared to the 1% we have now (I'm not entirely up on my gas cynetics though, so that might be wrong)... Is there a reason your atmo needs to be breathable by human? This is M&M after all. Just take a Run out of Air complication and/or a 1 PP Immunity-your atmo (this last only if you're expecting to meet it again in game, else you can power stunt it) and there you have it... Or, you know, just go with the "increased degasing" or "nested dyson shells" ideas I initially mentionned?

It might also be a good idea to check with Jemal on the spread of artificial grav equipement in our galaxy (and the possibility of turning if off in only *some* sections of any particular ship/habitat?). I have the impression that Jemal might be going with the SG, Star Trek, Star Wars etc tropes on this one (i.e. 1g everywhere). As we'll probably be spending very little/no time on any PC's home planet, that might limit her flight ability some, to say the least.

If you're worried about it, the moon may be replinishing it's atmo with captured gassed that have leaked from HD 28185 b.

Worried is not the term I'd use: it's just part of the fun of a sci-fi game for me.

For example: Capturing superheated gas from a star? I understood the process to usually go the other way around (solar winds, etc, stripping away a planet's atmosphere). Is that possible?

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Sorry, for the miss understanding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_28185_b is a 7 Jupiter mass gas giant in the habitable zone of a sun like star 138 light years away. So the body I'm describing stealing atom is a moon slurping from it's gas giant parent rather than a planet slurping from a star.

As for possible, I'm not sure. Even a gas giant is going to loose some atmo, due to stellar wind, and anything in orbit is bound to pick up some of that.

EDIT

It might also be a good idea to check with Jemal on the spread of artificial grav equipement in our galaxy (and the possibility of turning if off in only *some* sections of any particular ship/habitat?). I have the impression that Jemal might be going with the SG, Star Trek, Star Wars etc tropes on this one (i.e. 1g everywhere). As we'll probably be spending very little/no time on any PC's home planet, that might limit her flight ability some, to say the least.

Which is why I've decided not to go with the wings.

But I'm not sure what to do. I guess I'm just like if we are using M&M I should at least have something from it.

 

[Jemal]

Will post in more detail later on the questions, heading to bed now. Just wanted to say one thing : I tend to prefer the 'rule of cool' over Hard SF, so even if it's not 'physically probable', if you think it'd be fun then go ahead with the planet/moon.


Also in general, keep in mind the Fiction equivalent of the Anthropic Principle