Clinton replied to me: > The adventures I'm envisioning are dealing with Morethan raiders/pirates, > human special interest groups (mercenary missions), and if the PCs are > interested in it possibly some higher risk missions involving the Morethan > - possibly even some privateering against their fleets and assets (very > risky considering the size and armament of Morethan spacecraft).
Hello Clinton, a year ago I wrote a series of TL10^ torch drive ships (with their own stardrive, not gates) to explore freighter-vs-pirate scenarios. Back then, my conclusion was that delta-V was going to be the most important factor for intercepts, and freighters would have choices such as expending all their fuel on an off-axis burn to escape the raider, if they could bet their lives on getting a tanker in time before they drift helplessly into deep space. Spaceships doesn't really cover such things as dumping part of the cargo to maximize delta-V, unfortunately. > PCs may also find > themselves afflicted with a Morethan Gremlin/Imp infiltrating/sabotaging > their ship (possibly trying to use it to damage a gate during transit). What is a gremlin? > Much smaller deep space gates may be the way to go - capable of sending > 10KTon ships would "only" cost about 170 billion each and take about > 1/30th of a Morethan jumpgate of materials. 8 small gates could be > constructed (allowing the 18 ly gap to be bridged in both directions) or > even just 2 if long delays are acceptable. I would be tempted to go even > smaller but the Morethan's do like their big intimidating spacecraft. Small gates might be the humans' strategic answer to Morethan expansion. > The lower castes were mostly formed after the exodus of the Morethans, and > the "losers" of the meritocracy have had little power or influence and no > other options until contact with human space was re-established. Is that true? What keeps people at the second, third or tenth place of the meritocratic examination to add back-stabbing, either literally or figuratively, to the required skills for advancement? Ultimately, both legitimacy and stability of any government rests on the consent of the governed. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
