[Hard SF] Children of a Dead World

Reader mode
[X]Optional Flavor: Venerian. The yellow caustic clouds of Venus were the constant backdrop of their childhood.
[X]Life Support Engineer
[X]Samizdat
 
[X]Life Support Engineer: She's the one in command of the hydroponics and waste management units, dealing with a collection of irascible bioscientists and assorted support engineers to feed the colony and supply air and water. And, of course, deal with the literal mountains of crap that are generated by the thirty thousand colonists on Titan.

[X]Samizdat: Dr. Khouri was a digital activist when it wasn't fashionable to be one, and a battered volume on her room's table is testament to that fact. It's handwritten, in a mishmash of Arabic and English and slang that only she can parse, a collection of memories and orders and emotions spilled out on paper that was passed from member to member before the organization drifted apart and aged. When Basira is gone there will be nobody to read it anymore, and with Earth gone that means nobody else to remember the plucky little Pirate Underground and their so-called 'illegal medicine' campaign. Nobody now will remember Simone Lang the librarian, Yusuf Khalilzad the cableman, or poor little Abubakar Konte who took the fall for all of them. Nobody but Basira Khouri, all the way here on Titan.
 
[X]Optional Flavor: Venerian. The yellow caustic clouds of Venus were the constant backdrop of their childhood.
[X]Life Support Engineer
[X]Samizdat
 
[X]Life Support Engineer: She's the one in command of the hydroponics and waste management units, dealing with a collection of irascible bioscientists and assorted support engineers to feed the colony and supply air and water. And, of course, deal with the literal mountains of crap that are generated by the thirty thousand colonists on Titan.

[X]Samizdat: Dr. Khouri was a digital activist when it wasn't fashionable to be one, and a battered volume on her room's table is testament to that fact. It's handwritten, in a mishmash of Arabic and English and slang that only she can parse, a collection of memories and orders and emotions spilled out on paper that was passed from member to member before the organization drifted apart and aged. When Basira is gone there will be nobody to read it anymore, and with Earth gone that means nobody else to remember the plucky little Pirate Underground and their so-called 'illegal medicine' campaign. Nobody now will remember Simone Lang the librarian, Yusuf Khalilzad the cableman, or poor little Abubakar Konte who took the fall for all of them. Nobody but Basira Khouri, all the way here on Titan.
 
[X]Personnel Manager: While Dr. Khouri is someone who prefers to take this section of administration under her own eye, a capable subordinate here is something of a godsend. Personnel is more than just dealing with the issues that the colonists bring forward or addressing medical/psych issues – it's also public order, ration allowances, monitoring the mood of the colony, skill development and cross--training, and more.

[X]Coffee: Dr. Khouri brought real coffee here from Earth. Ground, sadly. But genuine coffee from home in Lebanon, a few bags of Jamaican and a bag of the supermarket blend that she had a guilty craving for. It's all in a trunk in her room, a small box that's now something more to look at than to open. When the coffee runs out, there isn't any more on the way. The doctor will ration it out, a sip or two just to remember what real coffee tasted like. To remember what home tasted like. It's comforting, at least until it's gone.

We are gonna be so fucking sane, you don't even know how sane we'll be. Sanest people in the solar system.

Coffee is good.
 
Given that things seem to have settled, votes are closed.
Scheduled vote count started by mouli on Jan 13, 2021 at 9:50 PM, finished with 31 posts and 29 votes.
  • [X]Samizdat
    [X] Spacer
    [X]Life Support Engineer
    [X] Zara Kohen
    [X]Samizdat: Dr. Khouri was a digital activist when it wasn't fashionable to be one, and a battered volume on her room's table is testament to that fact. It's handwritten, in a mishmash of Arabic and English and slang that only she can parse, a collection of memories and orders and emotions spilled out on paper that was passed from member to member before the organization drifted apart and aged. When Basira is gone there will be nobody to read it anymore, and with Earth gone that means nobody else to remember the plucky little Pirate Underground and their so-called 'illegal medicine' campaign. Nobody now will remember Simone Lang the librarian, Yusuf Khalilzad the cableman, or poor little Abubakar Konte who took the fall for all of them. Nobody but Basira Khouri, all the way here on Titan.
    [X]Life Support Engineer: She's the one in command of the hydroponics and waste management units, dealing with a collection of irascible bioscientists and assorted support engineers to feed the colony and supply air and water. And, of course, deal with the literal mountains of crap that are generated by the thirty thousand colonists on Titan.
    [X]Coffee
    [X]Optional Flavor: Venerian. The yellow caustic clouds of Venus were the constant backdrop of their childhood.
    [X] Kassandra Whitmore
    [X]Optional Flavor: Israeli pacifist. She wanted to get away as fast as possible.
    [X]Optional Flavour: Hates Coffee. Die Hard Chocoholic.
    [X]Personnel Manager: While Dr. Khouri is someone who prefers to take this section of administration under her own eye, a capable subordinate here is something of a godsend. Personnel is more than just dealing with the issues that the colonists bring forward or addressing medical/psych issues – it's also public order, ration allowances, monitoring the mood of the colony, skill development and cross--training, and more.
    [X]Coffee: Dr. Khouri brought real coffee here from Earth. Ground, sadly. But genuine coffee from home in Lebanon, a few bags of Jamaican and a bag of the supermarket blend that she had a guilty craving for. It's all in a trunk in her room, a small box that's now something more to look at than to open. When the coffee runs out, there isn't any more on the way. The doctor will ration it out, a sip or two just to remember what real coffee tasted like. To remember what home tasted like. It's comforting, at least until it's gone.
Click to expand...
 
[x] Zara Kohen
[x] Life Support Engineer
[X]Coffee

Coffee is good. Also, I saw some people added a section about the main character being an activist back on earth in the previous vote, did that get made canon or no?

Edit: Dang, voted late.
 
Phase One Mechanics
  • Threadmarks
    • Mechanics, Phase I​

    This will have six months per turn in game time, with each turn having departmental actions. You will be able to choose to prioritize two of the action options each turn, and can allocate personal attention from your Director to an action category that allows it, thus gaining another prioritized action in that category or doubling down on an action.

    I say this is prioritized because the bulk of actions are also being worked on by the people already assigned to those tasks. Outside of certain categories that I will elaborate on below, actions may slowly resolve themselves if the circumstances permit – your people aren't stupid and they have every incentive to work to fix things. What prioritization does is allow you to personally affect the outcome of an action – by accelerating its completion/improvement, by enhancing or modifying the outcome, or by keeping the morale of the crews in that section steady.

    Acceleration of completion can be done for actions like extraction of aluminium and ethane for Venus, ensuring that there are adequate stockpiles for the supply runs back to Venus and a healthy reserve. For these actions I will roll a d100 if they are not prioritized, 2d100 if prioritized, and 3d100 if doubled down on.

    Improvement or modification of the outcome can be done for actions such as maintenance or rationing – in this case allowing the players to choose an outcome or direct things more closely, and potentially improving things above and beyond the baseline. If these actions are prioritized I will roll a d100 to determine the extent of improvement. Some actions like dome repair can cost personnel and hence morale, and prioritization of these actions can also allow Dr. Khouri to take actions to keep the working parties' morale steady.

    The departments are as follows:
    • Life Support, dealing with food, water, air, and waste recycling, along with all the machinery that is required for these tasks.
    • Maintenance and Repair, dealing with the maintenance and repair of critical infrastructure on Titan. This is something that needs careful attention, as turn events can require a response from this department.
    • Logistics, dealing with supplying Venus and requisitioning supplies from Venus on the six-months one-way runs to and from Venus. I will also fold extraction and refining of materials for Venus into this category.
    • Personnel, dealing with the morale, skill development, and general inclinations of your colonists. This is highly critical.
    • Major Projects, which may or may not appear each turn depending on circumstances. Into this I will fold such things as research projects, dome expansion, and orbital infrastructure buildup.
    • Personal, which is Basira Khouri's character-centric action set. I will choose one action and the players will choose another, to give the protagonist some independent agency. The players' action can be burned to give personal attention to one action from another department. Given Dr. Khouri's background, that usually will translate to her acting as an enabler rather than a straight up engineer.
    Again, each department can prioritize two actions with Dr. Khouri able to take command of up to one more at the cost of a personal action.
    You will have the following resources to manage, each one affected by the above action categories:

    • Food/Water: This is self explanatory. Its stockpiles will allow rationing to go on for multiple turns while the shortage in production is addressed. More than one turn of shortage will be highly suboptimal. A shortage threshold will be provided each turn.
    • Technical Material: This is spare parts, electronics, production substrates imported from Venus, and other such hard to replace things. They are used for repairs, maintenance and upkeep of the station as well as setup of new production chains on Titan. Again, a critical parts shortage will be highly suboptimal, just as with food.
    • Morale: This ranges from 0 to 100, and is capped due to colony wide effects such as the death of Earth. Morale below 20 will risk a mutiny, morale below 40 affects productivity adversely, and morale above 60 has no ill effects. High morale may have benefits.
    • Requisition: These are points that one can burn for high technology and support from Venus. Venus will be affected by what you requisition, so be wary of taking too much in one sector of production. The Logistics action category allows for requisitioning as a free action.

    These are mechanics for Phase One (Survival) of the quest. Additionally, I will be rolling random events each turn.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • These are only the mechanics for Phase One? Huh that Implies that Phase Two will be different in some way.

    If I had to guess it'll be different because we'll be out of immediate survival mode and into some other mode.
     
    Colony Status
  • Informational
    • Colony Status, Titan

    Population: Rounded to nearest hundred: 30,400

    Status Of Venerian Supply Quotas:
    Hydrocarbons:     On Target
    Metals: On Target
    Venerian Supply Requirement: Nominal at present

    Colony Effects:

    Death of Earth:     The death of the mother world has badly affected the morale - the mental stability - of the colony's population. A great many of the colonists were here on rotations and due to head back to Earth, and now that home is gone. The lucrative careers in the UN space program that some of the chairs of departments were looking ahead towards are gone. Earth, old mother Earth, is silent. Families, friends, acquaintances, all are silent. Morale capped at 50, Morale deteriorates by 5 per turn, people are more ideologically malleable with their anchor torn away...

    Resources​
    ResourceStatusTrend/Upkeep RequirementEffect Thresholds
    Food/Water60 Units StockpiledNo Loss Per Turn, Upkeep Requirement 20, Producing 20 Each TurnHarsh Rationing at 40, Ration Cuts possible from 50 on down. Critical Shortage at 20.
    Technical Material5 Units Stockpiled-5 Each Turn, Upkeep Requirement 10 Per Turn, Producing Zero, Importing 5 from Venus Per TurnSpare Parts Rationing at 0. Parts Cannibalization from then onwards.
    Morale35/50-5 Per TurnSee Mechanics
    Requisition0SteadyNone
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • huh, not as bad as I expected. We have a turn or two to figure out technical materials and moral is not bottomed out yet. With our focus on psychology and starting luxury goods that should be manageable to fix. being stable on food and on our export quotas is a major blessing.
     
    Could be worse, could be better, probably the first priority is going to be to stabilize the bleeding of Morale as that is the first danger zone, and maybe see what we can get from Venus during the next turn.
     
    Looks like to me morale and technical supply's is our first two concerns we'll need to deal with. Morale should be relatively easy to handle due to the luxury goods we have.
     
    Technical materials are even worse than Morale, we have only 1 turn of them, while Morale has whole 3 turns before mutiny.

    Food is stable as long as production does not break down - which depends on technical materials and engineers I suppose.
     
    ctulhuslp said:
    Technical materials are even worse than Morale, we have only 1 turn of them, while Morale has whole 3 turns before mutiny.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We'll have to requisition more stuff from Venus (will that get here soon enough? I fear not) but that will put our Requisition in the negative.
    With Requisition in the negative we'll probably need to improve production and contribution to Venus to get back in their good graces.

    That'll cause further issues.
     
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