The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic

[Havelock Vetinari]

Yes yes, 100 is a lot for house-sized masses of "Screw you and everyone within the general direction of my weapons!" but for normal tanks..Also! Character profile for the SW RPG!

Name:Species:Gender (if applicable):Home Planet:Occupation (with an estimation of income, high, low etc):Abilities:Force Abilities (for force sensitives only, be warned, playing as a force sensitive will attract some attention. The kind you don't want):Equipment/Tools:Weapons:Appearance:Personality:History:

Separate profiles for ships are incoming. Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Light]

SHINY! Five paragraph statement coming up.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Gaaaaagh, so many built-in line spaces.Still, it works, though I'm wondering, for Force abilities, are we supposed to give a specific list of abilities they know (Force lightning, Force push, persuasion, things like that) and they only ever get to use the listed things, or is it more a general estimation of how powerful they are (not very, very not very, extremely un-very, etc.) in the Force?

[Havelock Vetinari]

General estimation with a few examples. The force is very... flexible.Also that...attention? The Jedi Order doesn't like force users not under their authority and Palpatine doesn't like competition. Sith/Force Adepts are going to have it tough.Jedi are just going to have to endure being called baby snatchers and maybe countless attempts at lawsuits, the occasional angry mob, the entire CIS gunning for them....

Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Light]

I just realized. I have the magical power to cool off the topic in terms of posts. Let's try this again and see if it works.Does anyone wanna be staff for Mass Effect: Division?

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Good, that seems quite sensible.And yeah, playing as a non-Jedi Force user is a shortcut to unlimited horror opportunities for character development.

[Xomeron]

I was thinking that P&V would be the first testbed for a multiple resource system; there'd be Ores, Water, Hydrogen, Gold, and Uranium(extremely rare) along with all sorts of other stuff. You would have limited access to them coming in from Earth, so there's pressure to stake your claims and colonize.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Grapple Wizard

[Havelock Vetinari]

I like that idea. Hm. Let's see...maybe we could add in and test out the planetary map system as well.

[Xomeron]

It'd be a good testbed, since it takes place in a solar system we already know plenty about.I'm thinking three resources; Ore(used for construction, found on Asteroids, moons, and rocky planets), Reaction Mass(used in ship upkeep, found on Gas Giants and certain moons), and Water(found in the outer icy planets, used when establishing new colonies and building ships)Keeping it simple, but realistic at the same time.

[Alex Humva]

I'll probably be taking notes on the 2060 RTSRPG to see how it's resource system works or doesn't work.Also, a big, big change I'm thinking of for Fields of Gold that I want your guy's opinions on. In Strith, IP is suppose to be like your military budget. Taxes come in, you pay programs. We had a system of like 10 million 2007 USD equals 1 IP, though that did vary quite a bit. The thing is, upkeep was wonky because of this and projects made no sense; if you pay 10 IP for one week, is that less than 10 IP for four weeks? So it was basically me running a mental checklist which doesn't work all that great for more complex things.So.I'm thinking that, for Fields of Gold, IP isn't an arbitrary amount of funds for an arbitrary amount of time. Rather, it's more like actual money; you can save it. Provinces produce a certain amount of IP per week; in your IP report you keep track of income and whatever net gains or losses you receive, you update it. So say I have three provinces making 2 IP per week; my account starts at 0. Next week, assuming no expenses, I now have 6 IP. Then you can use this six IP to buy your soldiers new armor, to fund blacksmiths to create better metalsmithing techniques, so forth.Similarly, upkeep (which will be much better trust me) would be a negative per week. If I have a legion of troops that costs three IP to feed and shelter, then my weekly report is 3 IP, not 6. It's all very basic math, stuff you could easily do in your head or if you're lazy like me just punch into a calculator really fast. Just keep a .txt file and it'll be great.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Void Prophet Alex Humva

[Havelock Vetinari]

I could see that working quite well.

[Xomeron]

Definitely going to have it work like that in P&V, since you can obviously build up a supply of water, helium 3, and aluminum. But along with that, resources will run out; sure you won't strip Luna of Helium 3 any time soon, but there's only so much ice at the poles.

[Alex Humva]

Resources in FoG will probably be similar, but not as murderously monitored. I'm not going hold you to the last gram, but if a few tons of the stuff just pop up eyebrows will be raised.

[Havelock Vetinari]

So long as the runout times aren't something rather silly, I can see that working. I mean, I'm sure there will still be ice in fifty years.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Alex Humva]

Yeah, despite what Al'Gore may want people to believe, the world won't completely end if we keep burning oil. It'll get nasty, but far from the end of the world that many make it out to be.Question; will sapient AI's be allowed? At the rate of AI programming we're seeing today, by 2060 we'll certainly (famous last words...) have sapient AI, or at very least something that can closely replicate it.

[Xomeron]

Sapient AI...I don't see any technical reason why not. Of course, automated spaceships trade the lack of a life-support system for a much worse onboard maintenance system.And when I said "Ice at the poles" I was talking about Ice on Luna, not Earth.Earth itself will be mostly off limits because every single square inch of territory is claimed by someone or another. But everyone will have access to a Space Elevator to get your stuff off Earth; there are two, one in the Andes mountains and one on Kilimanjaro.

[Alex Humva]

I always figured elevators would be oceanic, but w/e.Alrighty then. Expect the Glorious Allied Technological Confederate States to make an appearance preaching of uplifting machines and going boldly into the future. I'll PM you the specifics on how they go about that.

[Havelock Vetinari]

....Hm. Glorious cyborgs Y/N? :PWe need a general tech level.

[Alex Humva]

I'm just going off of current trends. Which, admittedly, is terrible, because in the 1950s they thought everything was going be nuclear in the future.

[Xomeron]

There's no such thing as "tech levels" because technological advancement isn't a forward shift, but a set of principles that allow other things. To give a vague idea of the technology, think Babylon 5 or Halo a few decades earlier; fusion power, lasers as feasible spaceship weapons but kinetics still preferred for handguns, obscenely powerful computers with strong AI capable of mimicking human intelligence. In my old "age" terms, this is the dawn of the Fusion Age and the end of the Information Age.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Hm. Then this will be interesting.

[Alex Humva]

Mimicking? There's no need to mimic, plenty of engineers, programmers, and mathematicians are pretty certain they're going be able to get adaptive programming soon enough. Soon enough means another decade or so, but it is getting there, and once that hurdle is crossed there's no mimicking, it's actually sapient.

[Kothra]

So for Star Wars, generally how long IRL would it take to cover about half the galaxy with a Class 3.0 hyperdrive?

[Havelock Vetinari]

Jedi and Sith will still be limited. But corruption is everywhere and so are those who fight it. Canonwise, Hyperspace travel normally takes hours or days according to a quick check. In earlier canon it took much more time I think. I'll say....three weeks to get from the Outer Rim to Coruscant with the best Hyperdrive available.. It'll make long trips much larger investments and encourage more planning. For various reasons PC's will be encouraged to band together. If you want to wonder off and do your own thing, great. But don't expect to have access to all the resources a group of PC's working with each other will have.

Cross half the galaxy straight through? Six weeks with the best hyperdrive money can buy. I've seriously considered increasing this to twelve, but I've ruled that out.You'll likely need to stop to buy supplies and such as on the way. Better if you do actually. Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Kothra]

Six weeks real time?

[Havelock Vetinari]

....Whoops. Uh. No.....Let's see...uh, lets see, three weeks RL time. You are crossing a galaxy. Travel times will not be quick. It takes much less time to get to a neighboring planet or sector. But this is a galaxy. It's big.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Kothra]

Three weeks real time is too long. One week at most.Seriously, even with stops in between, three weeks is still dragging things out way too long.

[Havelock Vetinari]

You are crossing a galaxy. A galaxy. It's a huge undertaking and the travel time will reflect that. Even with FTL tech, it's not something done lightly.

[Alex Humva]

At the same time, this is Star Wars we're talking about here.

[Kothra]

This is Star Wars. That happens quite a bit. In this setting it's probably not as big an undertaking as you think it is.On top of this, I don't think any other Star Wars RPG before this (none that I have seen) has had a system like this, and they got quite well without one.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Which is why I would advise you not to do your long trips as straight shots, but stop for stuff along the way. If you're a smuggler, look at the route you're taking and stock up on things you can sell at planets along the way. Further, the fact that previous Star Wars RPGs didn't have any sort of time system at all, much less sensible travel times, says nothing about whether this one should. From what I've read, travel does take time in Star Wars, which is why most people don't do a straight shot from the Outer Rim to Coruscant, and if they do, it's in a movie so they can do a handy-dandy time skip.On sapient AIs... it's unlikely that something like that will ever be done with traditional binary computing. Quantum computers could do a better job of looking sapient, biological or chemical computers could probably actually be sapient, but binary computers just wouldn't cut it.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Ymper Trymon

[Havelock Vetinari]

Hm. If I cut it down to...let's see, two weeks IC from core to rim, that'll leave us at two RL weeks for galaxy crossing.Star Wars also had armies with repeating weapons marching in rank formation. In battle. In the open. On plains.Those same RP's also let someone come right out of nowhere with an army. Myself to be exact and looking back, it really threw off the entire RP. Plus, it also had copious amounts of people showing up at just the right moment. This system will cut down on that last bit, making a mistake and going to the wrong planet is now going to have an effect. This will encourage people to plan and research their course before blazing off.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Basilisk

[Kothra]

Two weeks is acceptable.Yes, I know. That's not as important to the universe as this.I don't really recall that happening. Yeah it happened in Reality far too much, but I don't recall it in Star Wars (at least not in the last one, and I think EW would have struck that down if it did occur).Having a system to fix that is fine. It's just you need to make it so people are still playing the game instead of quitting because they got tired of waiting.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Kothra

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Plus, being on a spaceship gives RPing opportunities. If you're alone, maybe you run into a problem with your ship on the way and have to deal with it. If you've got multiple characters (yours and others) on the ship, then have stuff happen between them or with the ship or with pirates or whatever.A player's goal is simple - get an interesting setting, find a job, keep entertained. If you get bored in the middle of a flight, maybe pirates are interested in your ship and you have to valiantly fight them off. I don't care, just keep happy and realistic at the same time.

[Havelock Vetinari]

It is a delicate balance. Three weeks...was perhaps a bit much.Kothra, you think we should have them submit a profile along with the five paragraph why-should-we-let-you-be-a-sith/jedi statement?

[Alex Humva]

On sapient AIs... it's unlikely that something like that will ever be done with traditional binary computing. Quantum computers could do a better job of looking sapient, biological or chemical computers could probably actually be sapient, but binary computers just wouldn't cut it.

While quantum and chemical computers would be a lot better suited for the job, they're also still mostly theoretical; there's some in the labs around the world, but actually making one for a massive thing like a sapient AI is still a bit iffy. I'm just looking at the trends and what programmers have said and trying to predict off of that. With photonic computing a sapient AI is entirely in the realm of possibility, even if it's still binary.Of course if Xom lets quantum and chemical computers off from the start, far be it for me to reject the better option.

[Kothra]

You mean if they want to play Jedi/Sith? Some statement should be required, but it shouldn't need to be quite so long. Two or three paragraphs should suffice if they provide convincing reasons.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

The previously-stated thing was a five paragraph statement explaining it - the question was on whether the profile should have to be submitted at the same time as this essay.EDIT: The thing with photonic computing is that it's mainly just faster, it doesn't really add any more flexibility to how the computer 'thinks.'

Edited September 20, 2012 by Ymper Trymon

[Alex Humva]

Yeah, being constrained to 1s and 0s puts a real hamper on sapience. It's still possible though, assuming that by that point in the future they've hammered out adaptive programming.I suspect me and you have two different definitions of thought, though.

[Xomeron]

Handhed Electronic computers will be capable of several trillion GigaflopsHandheld Photonic computers will be capable of several billionHandheld DNA-based, Chemical, and Quantum computers will be approaching a million Gigaflops.