David replied to me: > I think you might do well to expand the skill range. Then you could > have things like anachronistic technology as sport. Maybe they're > into pulp-era atomic rocket races, where all the navigation, piloting, > etc, is done by hand, with a sliderule and pencil.
Hello David, I was thinking about a frontier starbase, a cross between Deep Space Nine and an one-horse Wild West town. If they had enough resources for SCA spacecraft, we'd be in Iain Banks' Culture. For example, I liked the suggestion of an undertaker. First you go "huh?" (don't they drop corpses into the next star?) then it becomes "doh!" (burial rites have an important social purpose). Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be a craft skill in 3E, the best I could find was the science of Thanatology, and a science lab would just feel wrong. And Susan replied to me: > Sure - custom parts makes sense too, but keep in mind transport of clay > (which is heavy) is generally considered uneconomical. Hello Susan, we're talking about special clay for special purposes, like ceramic hull tiles. That would require limited amounts, and it would put a premium on controlled processing. > Well in a sense the DNA tools is a custom part - you'd import the machine > but something like capillary tubes you'd likely get locally if you could > (fragile and a pain to transport). Would DNA tools in a workshop really > sound iffy? What is worse -- having one box in ten (or even every other box) damaged during transit, or having one lot in a hundred contaminated because the frontier tinkerers are not up to the professional standards of the core worlds? I'm thinking of the TL10 equivalent of capillary tubes, likely the sensitivity of DNA tests are going to be up. The Phantom of Heilbronn is an example what a mismatch between analysis skills and lowest-bidder supplies can do. > Is there a hospital? A sickbay. Ten automeds, three operating rooms. > a university or college? I don't think so, but now that you mention it I need at least primary and middle schools. In a stable population, over 10% are school age (assuming 10+ years of school and 100- years of life). The starbase will have mostly single adults without children at first, but that will quickly turn into young families with children. A classroom is GURPSified as a conference room or a lab, depending on the subject. For 1,000 people, call it four 20-man conference rooms and one lab. Does that sound OK? > I guess it's more rightly under Artistic skills (but then so is video > production which you gave as an example). > While a copy shop might make sense, I was thinking the situation where you > get the office with a bunch of older copy/printmaking equipment stuck in a > room somewhere and left as you upgrade to new equipment, and there are > is still printmaking equipment that would get used in a copy shop. Huge > Paper cutters, binding machines, heavy duty staplers. High-tech printing isn't > just photocopying. Those were the services I'd expect from a copy shop. Mere printers will be found on most starships, but for the fancy stuff they go to a specialist shop on the station. > Hmmm... looking through the books I'm surprised there is no book-binding, > printing, or an offical skill default for any of them. Which I guess means > it's a professional skill, or artist. Professional Skill (Printing)? > 3E calls it part of weaving. OK. > If you want to be a bit odd - a chemisty lab can use the cooking craft > skill (though typically that's a chemisty skill); also the cooking could be > used by folks who do small scale soap making (which involves, molds, > measuring equipment, mixing equipment). With cabins, I get kitchens and bathrooms in proportion, so cooking workplaces will be covered. That some of the cabins have their own small kitchenette and others are hotel rooms with restaurants downstairs is below the resolution of the rules. Thanks, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
