Advanced Low Berth?

[Terry Mixon]

Here it is with the Aslan rolled in. I had to bump it to size 8 for the 100-slot medical chamber, bumped the arms up 1 notch to make sure they could handle Alsan, and add the Aslan race to the list. Using the same 20% discount as before, it's only KCr170. If you wanted to bump Medic up to 3 with an effective DM of +4, the cost goes from KCr170 to KCr320.

It won't fit in a standard low berth mounting, so some external work would be required for it.

 

[Geir]

Well... Actually no. But I have now!

View attachment 4014
In my game I would add +50k to the standard 50k systems, so 100kCr.

However, the Robot Handbook has something very similar on p181. This is only Medic 2 and costs 90kCr.

Lots of variants you can build.

If you look at the Robot Handbook autodocs, especially the more advanced models (p. 147), they have that built-in medical skill and low berth capability, so there's a market all the way up to Medic 4, which at TL15, gives you +5 to survive (+7 if done slowly???), which should be good enough unless you're sickly to start with. But the price tag is high.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Lots of variants you can build.

If you look at the Robot Handbook autodocs, especially the more advanced models (p. 147), they have that built-in medical skill and low berth capability, so there's a market all the way up to Medic 4, which at TL15, gives you +5 to survive (+7 if done slowly???), which should be good enough unless you're sickly to start with. But the price tag is high.

The price tag is why I made my suggestions here lower end. A model for a rich noble’s yacht could shoot for the sky.

 

[Fresnel]

N.b. Minimum you can roll is snake eyes 2.

However, as fun as maths is, I am not so bothered about RAW as a Referee running a game.

In MTU a TL14+ Low Berth might operate on a completely different physiological principle than the TL10 versions. So wrt the OP you might simply wave away the Medic rolls with TL14÷ units. Ymmv.

 

[ottarrus]

Okay, Low Berths are generally a "roll the dice and see if you die." They're also fluffed as the cheap way to travel.

But not everyone likes that, so are there any official "advanced" berths? My assumption is that someone would build them, if for no other reason than a noble is more likely to pay money for an "emergency low berth" system on his yacht that isn't going to have a risk of killing him. (or for that matter, the Imperial navy probably doesn't want to lose the super experienced engineer who is doing his time in the frozen watch.).

IMTU, low berth revival mostly depends on two things:
- Your overall health [aka END score]
- The skill of the medical personnel who induced and then revived you from cold sleep
Now, every qualified steward [Steward 1 skill] is a trained first aid provider with Medical 0 skill. But ships don't advertise a qualified Steward, only that a 'a steward' is present to attend to passengers. And every single low passenger signs a release stating that they are 'in good health', that they know, understand, and accept all risks in traveling low, and release the ship and crew from liability.
And there are a lot of different results in a failed revival roll other than just death... permanently reduced END score, permanently reduced INT score, or coma for example.
The board here has considered the time in low berth as a factor as well, but there's a lot of Traveller canon of people being in low berth for hundreds of years and surviving. This leads me to simplify it and just use the one revive roll.

 

[Grognardia]

The board here has considered the time in low berth as a factor as well, but there's a lot of Traveller canon of people being in low berth for hundreds of years and surviving. This leads me to simplify it and just use the one revive roll.

The three colony ships to the Great Rift traveled for nearly 2,500 years and had 100,000 colonists (in suspended animation) aboard each ship, of whom 750 or so were awake at any given time.

And this was with 2050 AD tech.

 

[tytalan]

See I’m of a completely different mind set. I want low berths to be dangerous and deadly so I’m MTU the base roll is a 8+ and most ships don’t have either a more advanced version or a medic. In my universe low berths are used for colonization, criminal transport, medical care and cold watch. In fact anyone under the age of 16 has an even greater risk 10+ base. Otherwise once you start stacking on the bonuses the chances of death when using low berths is zero which means that the low berth lottery makes no sense at all and the warning is BS. I want the use of low berths to be the last option and most of the time otherwise it doesn’t make sense for your typical Free/Far Trader or Sub Merchant to have regular staterooms. You can fit 8 low berths for every stateroom and you don’t need as much common space if the passengers are in low berths, also you don’t have to worry about your passengers attempting to high jack your ship.

 

[Condottiere]

If we knew how they worked, and why it was dangerous.

Then, what mitigated that.

 

[ottarrus]

The three colony ships to the Great Rift traveled for nearly 2,500 years and had 100,000 colonists (in suspended animation) aboard each ship, of whom 750 or so were awake at any given time.

And this was with 2050 AD tech.

Not to mention the Miracle of Avery Alkhalikhoi [one of the several 'deus ex machina' that I simply don't buy in the Bearers of the Flame]
And simpler is generally better anyway. If the referee has a plot hook for a malfunctioning low berth, fine. Otherwise you either mishap or you don't.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Yeah, the only reasons for cold sleep to be Russian roulette are to be grimdark and to emulate some books that few people today have read. My rule is that equipment in reasonable condition operated by skilled personnel has no real chance of killing its occupants; the Medic role is to determine how long the passenger is at a minus to stats for after thawing out. (In universe this is called freezer burn.)

 

[tytalan]

Yeah, the only reasons for cold sleep to be Russian roulette are to be grimdark and to emulate some books that few people today have read. My rule is that equipment in reasonable condition operated by skilled personnel has no real chance of killing its occupants; the Medic role is to determine how long the passenger is at a minus to stats for after thawing out. (In universe this is called freezer burn.

Than in your Traveller universe you should remove all the extra staterooms from your adventure class merchant ships and replace them with low berths because there’s no reason to waste money on none low berths passengers on those small ships. Also Traveller has always had a bit of a grimdark aspect to it.

 

[Condottiere]

I doubt it works on humans at technological level seven.

Let's say that it works faultlessly at technological level sixteen.

Let's default results at technological level twelve.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Than in your Traveller universe you should remove all the extra staterooms from your adventure class merchant ships and replace them with low berths because there’s no reason to waste money on none low berths passengers on those small ships. Also Traveller has always had a bit of a grimdark aspect to it.

Many people will pay for middle passage because the thought of being zipped up in a coffin, pumped full of cryogenic fluid while still conscious...

I personally would opt for middle passage or not go.

 

[swordtart]

The cost delta in MGT2 isn't as great either. When a middle berth was 8 times the price of a low berth, you might cheap out. When basic passage is less than three times the price of low, you need to be desperate to travel low.

I also tend to use low berths as convict transport, and especially for deported people since the object here is to ensure they leave, arrival elsewhere is entirely optional. IMTU government contracts constitute a lot of my low berth traffic. Some medical tourists prefer to travel low to put off the effects of debilitating illness until they get to a facility that can treat it.

As there also tend to be less checks on Low Berth passage. Because you can't hijack the ship from low berth and many low berth passengers are from low economic backgrounds and may not even have much of a record, pursers can be a little less exacting. Low berths make more profit per ton than cargo and all the other types of passage (at least for short hops) you might bend the rules to fill them. So some criminals use it when on the lam, ditto eloping couples, people fleeing conscription etc.

I would also expect someone in a low berth to have less of a signature to NAS detectors making people smuggling a possibility (and if you do get stopped by a customs cutter defrosting someone to check their story is a faff and most captains (and even corruptible customs officials) will prefer to avoid it.

Another slight factor in why people might not travel low is baggage allowance. 10 Kg is very little. Of course if you can only afford Low then it is probably plenty, but a wealthy passenger who travelled low for some reason might struggle. It is also somewhat less secure as you are relying on the crew to keep it safe rather than keeping it on your own person. You wouldn't want to risk large sums of specie or letters of credit as losing that could make it very difficult at the other end.

"Yes, that's right Sir, just drop all that gold into this box and we'll make sure to return it to you when we wake you... assuming you survive of course... ha, ha, only joking sir we have an excellent record, almost 98% survival. My my, that is a lot of money..."

 

[Condottiere]

 

[tytalan]

This has little to nothing to do with the subject. Single cell organisms are incredibly more resilient to freezing than complex multi cell organisms.

 

[Condottiere]

They can survive.

So, if it's specific to their singular make up, what might be required would be compartmentalized freezing, where different parts of the body are frozen differently.

Which would also allow individualized treatment, for different people.

 

[Fresnel]

They are also placed in a cryoprotectant solution...

 

[Condottiere]

This could become similar to using the transporter in Star Trek.

We tend to think of suspended animation as a magic solution to extended Travelling.

But, presumably the heart stops, and the brain is crystalized.

 

[tytalan]

They can survive.

So, if it's specific to their singular make up, what might be required would be compartmentalized freezing, where different parts of the body are frozen differently.

Which would also allow individualized treatment, for different people.

Multiple cell organisms have the problem of crystallizing of the water in the cells shredding them. The more complex the organisms the more of a problem.