[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with tomakemerchant shipping more interesing

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 4/17/08 8:32 PM, "Richard Aiken" <raikenclw at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 11:53 PM, Timothy Little <tim at little-possums.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> Fortunately charged radiation is pretty easy to shield against.
>> However there is also a fair bit of neutral radiation, though I
>> haven't yet found definite figures.
> 
> Uh huh.  But . . . if you're scoping hydrogen in the gas giant's upper
> atmosphere, can you run your "charged particle deflection shield" at
> the same time?  Wouldn't you be stopping the intake of the very
> substance you're trying to get ahold of?

No.
    1. The vast majority of the hydrogen is neutral, not charged.
    2. You're thinking some sort of field.  A thin sheet of metal foil will
stop most charged particles.!

> IMTU, civilian ships *can* do wilderness refueling . . . but it's
> definitely a "life or death" choice.  Everybody doses up on anti-rad
> and then huddles in the ship's tiny stellar flare shelter, while the
> pilot handles it via remote.  And even so, it's only done if you can't
> afford the time/fuel necessary to find a nice, cool ice ball
> somewhere.

Yeah, finding gas giants is quick and easy.  Finding iceballs is much
harder.

> Like the other fellow said, it's also a "time is money" issue.  In my
> last extended campaign (lasting for just less than a year of weekly
> sessions), the players refueled outside a starport exactly TWICE -
> once from an ice ball and once from a gas giant.

They must not have traveled much to places with low/nonexistent ports...

I kind of like the "Lt. Leary" method.  Ships tend to land in water
(minimizes plasma blast effects), and run out a tube to suck up reaction
mass (water).