Star Trek RPG - Setup thread

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Originally posted by SidonianGal

Now you've gotta explain "dree and tholing" because Nia's not the only one who's never heard of that term. :iiam:

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These are real enough words; at least they appear in my dictionary (admittedly 'dree' is labelled archaic or dialect). That last part actually works in its favour, though, because my reasoning was that Bizhi is not quite from Earth, so he will occasionally utter a word that seems unusual or regional to someone from Earth, or who is only familiar with the type of English spoken at Starfleet Academy. It is not something he does consciously; it's just supposed to be the way he talks, which someone who knows him for a while or paying close attention might notice, like Nia did, even if she cannot quite place it.

Understood, stolz, and thanks. Others on the Tesla could certainly ask him to explain what it means, if they wish.

Yes thanks for the details. I'd imagine Kylah is probably the most likely given her specialty in languages. The only use I've found of both terms together seems to be from Robert Burns--are we assuming a general Scottish feel for Bizhi's family and/or community?

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Originally posted by choie

Yes thanks for the details. I'd imagine Kylah is probably the most likely given her specialty in languages. The only use I've found of both terms together seems to be from Robert Burns

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I am fond of Robert Burns, but was not aware of that. Nevertheless— well spotted!— the Scottish vocabulary connection was deliberate. I may be able to articulate why, even though, however,

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--are we assuming a general Scottish feel for Bizhi's family and/or community?

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We never precisely fleshed out his ethnicity beyond the fact that he was a proud Martian. (And Mars was settled by all sorts of people.) Note also his name, which has both Finnish and Chinese elements; that was not random either, even if I cannot recall the precise chain of logic or inspiration that went into it off the top of my head.

How interesting! I did see the Finnish elements but not Chinese--for some reason Bizhi made me think South Asian or Indian. It's an evocative tapestry and I hope we'll unwrap more of his culture and history on Mars and elsewhere.

If I recall correctly, the ultimate origin of the name "Bizhi" was: I made it up, and later Elendil's Heir and I discovered it coincides or is pretty close an extant Chinese name. Maybe it occurs in India or elsewhere as well? So we are all still discovering various things about him!

Which is just as it should be - he contains multitudes, as Whitman wrote. Thanks, stolz!

"Carbon dioxide, that's really important; you can help keep an eye on the readings and alert me if it goes over 5000 parts per million."

Nice stolz.

During the COVID era I have learned more about CO2 concentration than was ever on my Bingo card...

(Photo from carrying around a CO2 monitor to assess whether it is a good idea to unmask - this is good (420 = outdoor air))

https://photos.app.goo.gl/E1usPV2m4EwP9dZYA

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

In his tricorder scans, Rawlings finds nothing unusual on or near the shuttle.

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Hee. Probably the only time in their lives that Rangin has been mistaken for Rawlings. :devil:

(Just teasing. I always have to pause and check to see if I've used the right name. They share a lot of letters!)

Semi-funny/alarming story: last night I stepped away from my desk for a few minutes and when I came back my PC (a desktop) had a blank screen except for a warning message telling me to reboot the system because it couldn't find a boot device. Vaguely remembering having seen this message years ago, I followed the various instructions I found on my phone/google, but nothing worked.

I saw that it could be anything from a simple incorrect setting in my BIOS of which drive to search first to find the boot routine to a physical failure of the hard drive. Bear in mind, this is a bespoke desktop dating from 2011. (But I'd had it configured very ahead of the game, spec-wise, not much different from a starter system now, in fact. Also, trivia note: I purchased and had it put together by a PC techie from the Straight Dope forum. drachillix I believe his screenname was?)

So since nothing was working despite following all the instructions--my boot routine was correctly configured--my heart sank. I thought, crap, I need to take this into a shop, and given its age would probably have to be dumped. 11 years of data gone (because yes of course I haven't made a backup in ages).

After a couple of hours of desperate tinkering, I thought, okay maybe it just overheated I hope? So I shut it down until this morning, then restarted in Safe Mode. And, happy ending: thank God that seems to have fixed things.

Moral of the story is: I HAVE to suck it up and back my system up and bite the bullet to transfer to a new computer--something I've put off because of how much I hate transferring systems. I even have a replacement, which I got in 2017(!), but it's sitting in its original box, as untouched as Kylah at the Academy. My current PC was so high-end for its time that it's remained perfectly serviceable for my needs, mainly since I don't game--aside from rare replays of ancient franchises--and especially since I'm no longer doing graphic/web design work.)

Whew. ANYway, the reason I recount this undoubtedly dull and mundane tale to you gents is that it couldn't help thinking of Nia's reaction to the Tesla situation, and what appears to be its apparent remedy.

TL;DR: I crashed for no apparent reason, had to turn everything off and on again, which is essentially what's going on with our Yorktown crew. Riveting account, I know! That is all. :)

Glad to hear disaster was averted, SidonianGal

One lazy man's play (I say, using gendered language because it is from experience) is that external hard drives have gotten so cheap (give or take $25 a TB) in the absence of a coherent backup strategy (to be clear that's about me, not you :) ) just ordering some and dumping sh*t onto them is a quick and dirty solution...

(You may know that already but the big unlock for me was trying ti figure out a disciplined approach versus well hell this is good enough!)

Thanks general_urko! Ha, yes, I've had a 1TB drive waiting for me for only slightly less time than the new PC. :) My lack of progress is almost entirely due to the tedium of re-installing a boatload of software that made this task seem way too onerous. Except now I have cloud-based Office, and having given up the design stuff except for my own enjoyment, my needs have changed quite a bit.

Just laziness and gosh-darn truculence, that part of me that always juts out her jaw and says "I don't wanna, and you can't make me!" Even when the person who wants me to do something is me.

Glad it turned out OK, but yes, the occasional backup and even purchase of a new computer makes good sense.

Thanks for the catch about Rawlings/Rangin. D'oh! I'll fix that.

There are some great photos of the 1942 Battle of Midway here, including several of the original USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier, and her planes: https://www.nationalreview.com/photo...war-2/#slide-1

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Originally posted by SidonianGal

Thanks general_urko! Ha, yes, I've had a 1TB drive waiting for me for only slightly less time than the new PC. :) My lack of progress is almost entirely due to the tedium of re-installing a boatload of software that made this task seem way too onerous. Except now I have cloud-based Office, and having given up the design stuff except for my own enjoyment, my needs have changed quite a bit.

Just laziness and gosh-darn truculence, that part of me that always juts out her jaw and says "I don't wanna, and you can't make me!" Even when the person who wants me to do something is me.

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There are utilities that are supposed to be able to "clone" an entire working system onto a fresh drive, e.g., for Windows there is stuff like Clonezilla and Macrium Reflect.

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

There are some great photos of the 1942 Battle of Midway here, including several of the original USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier, and her planes: https://www.nationalreview.com/photo...war-2/#slide-1

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True story: my wife's grandfather commanded the first US aircraft squadron to engage the Japanese at Midway. And the hell of it is, they saw the Japanese planes first, from above - but knew that because at the time US planes at the time were inferior, they would lose...but engaged anyway. He was shot down (as was his entire squadron) & wounded but survived to live well into his 80s.

Wow, great story! U.S. naval aviators, especially in the torpedo squadrons, took very heavy losses in that battle. The fighter pilots and dive bomber crews fared a lot better.

That's extraordinary, general_urko! What bravery! Do you know if the rest of the squadron survived, or was your grandfather-in-law the only one? I can't even comprehend living through such things.

EH, did we know that Ollos is seven hours away before? For some reason I thought it was closer--I think I misinterpreted the "three hour" thing. So to clarify, does a three-hour window on a seven-hour estimate mean that the actual journey could be as little as four or as much as ten hours? (Sorry, this sounds like a rudimentary question, I know. My brain isn't firing on all cylinders tonight.)

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Originally posted by SidonianGal

That's extraordinary, general_urko! What bravery! Do you know if the rest of the squadron survived, or was your grandfather-in-law the only one? I can't even comprehend living through such things.

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Not everybody died, but not everybody survived - we don't know more than that (I mean maybe there are records that answer the question, but we didn't learn more than that from him).

Another crazy thing that I can't imagine: when he was lying in a ditch wounded after crash landing, the things he got really animated about was yelling at the anti-aircraft gunners that they weren't aiming right...I feel like I would have checked out in that situation!

No, you didn't know how far away Ollos was before, because you weren't limited to Warp 1.4 then. It will be seven hours away at the Tesla's current top speed; your LS should be good for three hours or so more than that, if all goes well.

I'm about to go out of town again, and my Internet access may be spotty. You may all keep posting, of course, but I might not be able to post again until late Sunday.

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Originally posted by general_urko

Not everybody died, but not everybody survived - we don't know more than that (I mean maybe there are records that answer the question, but we didn't learn more than that from him).

Another crazy thing that I can't imagine: when he was lying in a ditch wounded after crash landing, the things he got really animated about was yelling at the anti-aircraft gunners that they weren't aiming right...I feel like I would have checked out in that situation!

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Good lord, now that's courage under fire. Those tales are so harrowing. I so regret not having learned more from my father about his service, but the times my sisters and I asked, he seemed disinclined to go into detail so we didn't press. Although I know that, for taking and maintaining control of an evocatively named French town during the Battle of the Bulge, his division called themselves the "Sons of Bitche."

(That it was your grandfather yet my father in WWII shows that there's probably a greater difference in our ages than I realized, ha! :) )

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

No, you didn't know how far away Ollos was before, because you weren't limited to Warp 1.4 then. It will be seven hours away at the Tesla's current top speed; your LS should be good for three hours or so more than that, if all goes well.

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OH OF COURSE, ugh, I didn't even think of the speed difference. Thank you! Whew, I'm glad I asked so I didn't make a fool out of Nia. I suppose her breathing issues could explain any ignorant miscalculations! Alas I have no such excuse.

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I'm about to go out of town again, and my Internet access may be spotty. You may all keep posting, of course, but I might not be able to post again until late Sunday.

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Are you and a bunch of others in the justice system secretly having a three-day bash to celebrate the extraordinary flurry of high-profile and successful activity this week? Wouldn't blame you at all! Yesterday in particular was a wonder.

Seriously, have a good weekend and we'll hold down the fort for you.

Nah it's Kylah who goofs, and she can't use lack of oxygen as an excuse, poor girl. I see she mistook where the environmental controls are. I thought they were one of the panels near the seats, but it must be aft-er than that.

Speaking of directions and the layout of the shuttle, I'm sure anyone savvier than I can answer this: The text says "Rawlings is seated in the back row, to port (left) as you face the stern (back) of the shuttle. " I'm assuming that when our narrator/GM says "left," that means ship's left, of course? Rawlings would be to our right if we're facing stern. Oui ou non?

It literally doesn't matter a bit to anyone but me, but what can I say, I'm a visual gal.

It is unambiguous which side is the port side: it is the left-hand side of the ship looking forward (and we know which is the forward direction of the shuttle). It is usually indicated with a red light. That, at least, is a fixed side and does not depend on which way someone is facing. Therefore, it does sound a little odd to describe the port "as you face the stern".

I put it that way because you would necessarily be looking back at him, as he is in the back row. But yes, port is port and starboard is starboard regardless of which way you happen to be looking.

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Graham sees from the Nav display that, if the shuttle remains at warp, it will reach the planet in just under seven minutes. Of course it is SOP to drop out of warp at least several minutes before entering orbital range, proceeding on impulse power for final approach. The Tesla does not look like it has gone off-course at all, fortunately.

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Oops I was pretty unclear... just to clarify Nia's question re: whether the Tesla is off-course--she meant to ask how much their detour to Olios has affected their journey back to the Yorktown. Does it mean it would now take them longer to get to Cavinre VII? (Or, if necessary, for the ship to get to them? Of course the ship can go at full speed if necessary.)

Or... wait, I'm sorry, I'm really not in a great headspace today. Just re-reading the original description of Ollos, you do mention that this star system is along their plotted course to the ship. Is Ollos itself close enough to the original route that we didn't have to change direction or add any extra distance/time to getting back to the ship?

The Tesla cannot, in its current condition, make it to Cavinre VII under any circumstances. It would take too long at Warp 1.4 and LS would fail long before you got there. Ollos is somewhat near the shuttle's previously-plotted route from the Starfleet prison to Cavinre VII, but not directly on it. You definitely had to change direction and thus added additional distance and time to any USS Yorktown rendezvous. The ship (its other duties permitting, of course) could certainly double back to pick up the shuttle.

Sorry I didn't make that clear earlier.

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Originally posted by general_urko

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

There are some great photos of the 1942 Battle of Midway here, including several of the original USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier, and her planes: https://www.nationalreview.com/photo...war-2/#slide-1

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True story: my wife's grandfather commanded the first US aircraft squadron to engage the Japanese at Midway. And the hell of it is, they saw the Japanese planes first, from above - but knew that because at the time US planes at the time were inferior, they would lose...but engaged anyway. He was shot down (as was his entire squadron) & wounded but survived to live well into his 80s.

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You PM'd me his name, for which I thank you, and I just looked him up in The Battle of Midway by Craig L. Symonds. His experiences are discussed on several pages. You're mistaken about a few details, I believe, but he was definitely there and was injured. He's also mentioned in Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange, which was for many years the standard book on the battle. I don't have that book on hand, but the Amazon "Look inside" feature let me confirm that he's covered in it, apparently even more extensively.

Hey, question from the ignorant player to benefit the so-called expert she plays: Would the shields protect the Tesla in a crash? Are they now essentially covered in a sort of energy-based bubble wrap?

Also, do the shields require the same engine fuel that's running out? Once the impulse drive splutters out of fuel, are they essentially engineless and basically they'd have to "glide," as much as a God-only-knows-how-heavy shuttle that's not built for aerodynamics can "glide"?

Argh, Nia would know this but me, not so much. If the shields are more protective than I know, I think Nia should take the risk using the ocean.

Also I tried to research WTF the gauge that indicates "steadiness" would be called, but failed, which is why I'm using things like 'pitch, yaw and roll' instead of the overall term for that, which is probably more tech-sounding rather than what sound like terms that likely date back to frickin' Bleriot.

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Originally posted by SidonianGal

Hey, question from the ignorant player to benefit the so-called expert she plays: Would the shields protect the Tesla in a crash? Are they now essentially covered in a sort of energy-based bubble wrap?

Also, do the shields require the same engine fuel that's running out? Once the impulse drive splutters out of fuel, are they essentially engineless and basically they'd have to "glide," as much as a God-only-knows-how-heavy shuttle that's not built for aerodynamics can "glide"?

Argh, Nia would know this but me, not so much. If the shields are more protective than I know, I think Nia should take the risk using the ocean.

Also I tried to research WTF the gauge that indicates "steadiness" would be called, but failed, which is why I'm using things like 'pitch, yaw and roll' instead of the overall term for that, which is probably more tech-sounding rather than what sound like terms that likely date back to frickin' Bleriot.

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This page lists various glide ratios; for example an unpowered helicopter or Space Shuttle gets around 4.

"The Immunity Syndrome" suggests power to the shields and propulsion is from the same source (?)

Re. instruments, maybe you mean the Attitude Indicator?

Very good questions, SidGal. The shields would protect the shuttle quite a bit, but not entirely. A hard-enough crash, and the shields would do you little good. And yes, the same deuterium fuel which feeds the engines (both warp and impulse) also powers the shuttle's other systems: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Deuterium. You'll want to be on the ground before the Tesla runs out of gas and turns into a brick. Mr. Gravity will not then be your friend.

Correct as to the attitude indicator, stolz, and thanks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator

Ah, Muchas gracias to you both, gentlemen. The difference between flying in space vs. in gravity did occur to me, so that's something! Grateful for the links too!

You can see how a Class-F shuttlecraft's hatch opens at 1:40 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JV9...ssorEnterprise

Thanks for the visual, chief!

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Please include in your next post what, specifically, you'll be taking with you from the shuttle, if anything. Be realistic as to what [your character] can carry while swimming.

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Yipe. Fellow players, I hope your PCs can think of ideas here, because I'm at a loss as to what would be useful from a shuttle to take along with us, at least anything that we could simultaneously swim with. Other than the blankets anyway. Should we brainstorm?

How we'll even survive swimming in near-freezing water is a mystery to me!

I got the impression the situation was developing pretty rapidly and there was not much time for the characters to stand around fussing over individual items. But, there should not really be much stuff to sort through. The default personal gear was "toiletries, a spare uniform, a change of underclothes, a communicator and a phaser-1". That seems like it all fits into a small gym bag or beach sized bag that could be slung over the shoulders keeping the arms more or less free (at least to get across the three to five meters) or simply tossed over to the unbroken ice. The spare clothes will probably be pretty welcome, should anyone get wet, otherwise they will have to stand around wearing nothing but a thin space blanket (unless future Starfleet uniforms magically repel water to the extent you can keep them on even after getting soaked).

The question is, is there even anything useful/bulky on the shuttle worth taking---I have the impression it was earlier established there was nothing in the way of extra lights, foul-weather gear or exosuits, etc. I guess if there is a length of rope or the last couple of water bottles/emergency biscuits they could be stuffed in a bag or thrown across the gap. Those silver blankets, if they are like real ones, have negligible bulk.

Remember your personal gear was stowed in the luggage area under the shuttle (see post 552 in the game thread), and is now inaccessible. Some things you might take with you, near at hand in the crew cabin, are phasers, communicators, tricorders, the doctor's medikit, the shuttle repair toolkit, emergency blankets and emergency rations.

As to the scenario in which the Tesla's crew finds itself, I will now tell you I was inspired by Clive Cussler's 1978 novel Vixen 03, in which a U.S. Air Force transport plane makes an emergency landing on what the pilot believes to be a wintry mountain meadow... but isn't.

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

As to the scenario in which the Tesla's crew now finds itself, I will now tell you I was inspired by Clive Cussler's 1978 novel Vixen 03, in which a U.S. Air Force transport plane makes an emergency landing on what the pilot believes to be a wintry mountain meadow... but isn't.

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Well I'm glad it wasn't inspired by Alive!

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Originally posted by choie

Well I'm glad it wasn't inspired by Alive!

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The USS Indianapolis had it pretty rough, too.

:o My God, that's a horrible thing. I'd say I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this, but it doesn't really surprise me since my WWII knowledge--especially the Pacific theater--is shamefully woeful. And the Captain's fate... (shudder)

The Indianapolis's story is also retold by Quint, the grizzled old shark-hunter, in the movie Jaws.

Choie wrote, "In reaction to Mt. Rawlings's offer to help...." He's big, but he's not that big.

That's quite an array of Trek tools you found online, SidGal - well done! Some I recognized, but I could never have named them.

Thank you! I got lucky with finding a thread on the Trek BBS (boy I'm only now realizing how antiquated that name is!) with this fantastic 3D-modeler--he may have been the one to build the walkaround version of the Galileo we saw on Youtube ages ago. For those tool image/charts, he seems to have painstakingly looked for every tool he could identify in a TOS episode, recreated them in graphic form, and added what I assume is the right name.

For Nia's purposes all I had to do was look for stuff that a) could fit in a shuttle repair kit and were likely to be included, and b) had names that sounded likely to generate heat, or at least energy. I'd tried looking elsewhere and I loved one tool from Memory Alpha--something like a sonic drill--and thought "hey, you can create heat with sound, that'd be nice out-of-the-box thinking for Nia." But then I saw it showed up only in TNG and later. The Plasma torch thingy should hopefully be useful though.

Oh there is one funny thing I came across... In the TOS episode "The Squire of Gothos," a shuttle crew landed on a previously unknown planet and were stranded. In that instance they were shown to have been equipped with a Lasar emergency beacon, described as "a device utilized by Starfleet landing parties in the 23rd century, used for attempting to make contact with a starship in orbit when normal communications were not possible."

That would've come in handy if I'd spotted it earlier! Even if for game plot reasons the thing wouldn't have worked, I wish Nia had looked for one anyway. Ah well, chalk it up to her dwindling mental state.

Post 948 in the main thread:

"Rangin says, his teeth chattering, "I don't think we have time to experiment with the phasers. I'll try it on myself." With fumbling fingers, he adjusts his phaser-1 to the lowest-possible heat setting, checks and rechecks it, then points it at his left boot."

If, at Graham's suggestion, Rangin had blown his own foot off given all that has gone before it seems as if Graham could spend his last minutes freezing to death with some sense of satisfaction. :)

Heh. Something of the kind had crossed my mind. Either that, or Graham would offer to "help" him with the setting of the phaser.

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Heh. Something of the kind had crossed my mind. Either that, or Graham would offer to "help" him with the setting of the phaser.

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Haha even better!

Alas, he missed an opportunity to mock Rangin for not being xenobiologically adequate! Or at least we didn't get to see it. :)

I'm embarrassed by how long it took me to figure out how to spell MÄKELÄINEN in all-caps. Man I hope we get on a first-name basis with Bizhi fast! :fist: darn umlauts!

Finally yes that is a new entry to the (admittedly lonely) Sidonia page on Memory Theta re: Sidonian medical discoveries courtesy of Starfleet Medical. (It's the section now after the "Diaspora" entry.) Hopefully it makes some sense.

Good stuff, SidGal - thanks. That fits in well.

Yay, thanks chief! New research is being done all the time on these weird alien species, so Starfleet records must needs be updated often.

Quite right. Maybe you should apply for a Federation Xenomedical Society grant...?

I'll be out of town through Friday, with variable Internet access. If you don't hear from me for a few days, you'll know why. You may continue to post but I may be delayed in replying.

You mean we'll have to interact just with each other? Ew.

Just kidding of course. Safe journey, chief!