First up a thank you to all those who took the time to respond to my spin around some gas giant worlds.
On Sat, 10 Oct 2020 22:22:12 +0100, Timothy Collinson wrote:
> (I'd have liked a
>rule where 'small gg' or 'large gg' made a difference, but no matter.)
That's actually fairly easy to fiat: For a transition between any given
layers in a small GG, treat it as one layer "less" from a large GG (that
is, Wisp in SGG is not even in atmo on a LGG; topmost 'shallows' in SGG is
Wisp in LGG, etc.).
If you like, you might also fiat that fuel intake in SGG is half what it is
in the _same_ layer of a LGG (that is, if you're in SGG 'shallows', you
only get half the fuel per pass that you would in LGG 'shallows').
This gives the players some choices to balance: Go for the LGG and quicker
refueling, but with higher risk of damage, or go for the SGG with lower
risk of damage, but take longer to refuel?
Yes, I like this. As you say, nice and easy.
The only reason I asked was because World Builders' Handbook makes a point of dividing gas giants that way and I don't recall anything ever making anything of that bit of information.
So, notwithstanding, a couple of later comments [1] about it not making a difference - which I completely agree with - I still like the idea of giving the players some decisions to make. Especially if there are additionally decisions about travel time to a gas giant in any particular system (and presumably, 'likelihood of something nefarious lurking in its depths').
Alex also wrote:
>I think they all blend together, but you seem to have not taken into
>account the relative skim rate - in the Extreme Shallows, it takes 10x
>as long as it would in the Deeps (2d6 min), so the _March Harrier_ would
>be settling in for a 14-15 hour marathon. Cue Parrot Sketch...
Doh! Of course. Not 90 minutes but 900. See, I should never be allowed loose with actual rules. Well, nothing more complicated than a Task check anyway and even then an opposed one is stretching me. That's why at the risk, nay, near certainty of embarrassing myself, I showed all my working.
Still, my point remains that for a reasonable pilot and some risk averse 'shallow' refuelling not in a hurry, it kind of seems safe enough to do this. Well, as safe as anything Travellers are likely to get up to.
Alex also pointed out where I'd missed the Hull damage repair.
Yes, of course, I was looking in the ship combat section. Again, rules... there might be a universe in the multiverse where I actually have a clue.
I knew there were some 'spare parts' in the corner of the hold for something. Not to mention the 3 tons belonging to The Captain - we've never established *quite* what it contains.
I'd also forgotten about the refining time, but as was suggested later, the crew were planning on doing that during the Jumps.
Kaladorn wrote:
>Do not all Piloting rolls in MgT2 allow Dex?
That's what I thought - that's why I was adding them.
That's fairly consistent with prior versions of fuel skimming. 6-12-18-24 hours are all not unheard of.
Yes, I did think my 90 minutes was a bit brief on reflection but I'd gone to bed by then.
As I say, many thanks for the insights and corrections.
tc
[1] including Kaladorn's nice idea about small gg meaning faster passes and Alex's nice wrinkle about turbulence adding contaminants!