Research Lab Question

[Jak Nazryth]

I am in the first stages in a planned restart of my Traveller campaign some time this spring.
I need opinions on research labs involving ancient technology.
Part of the possible next phase of the game might involve an important NPC who has spent years researching ancient technology.
Question...For a Lab, does there need to be micro specific labs devoted to separate types of technology?
Such as... Research Lab - ancient engine tech, or ancient weapon tech, or ancient power plant tech, or ancient jump drive tech?
The NPC in question does not have a typical 400 ton lab ship but a smaller 200 ton research/exploration ship that investigates possible sites, does some initial testing / experimentation, and if a site proves promising a "real" lab ship with more complex labs is called in. Or if a devise is discovered and is small enough to fit inside a relatively small cargo bay (between 15 and 20 tons max) it will be returned to "home base" for more thorough testing there. Possible devices could be an intact engine, power plant, or remains of a small craft etc.. from ancient sites.
Anyway, can one 4 ton lab be used as "ancient tech lab" or should it be more specific?
Comments and advice?
Thanks.

 

[SSWarlock]

IMO.. :wink:

The technological principals used by each settlement of the Ancients varied so greatly that I don't give a bonus to skill rolls related to studying their relics unless the settlement is either one the players have studied before or the settlement was of the same group as another settlement the players have studied before. Now, that said, any player group that is studying the Ancient language does get a bonus since the various settlements used the same language. It's just the physical artifacts that vary so greatly in terms of technological principals.

 

[Nuclear Fridge Magnet]

I'd have to agree with the 'different tech' problem, but that in itself suggests the need for a smaller ship sent to carry out a 'forensic recon' study. Identifying which particular style of Ancient tech is present at, say, the Blackwater dig on Inthe before committing a full-scale, expensively-equipped lab vessel would be a lot more cost-effective than just turning up in orbit with the 400-ton ship and finding out that half the lab equipment and database isn't suited to studying the relics at the Blackwater site.

Sending such a smaller 'recon' ship would also lead to its own problems. Opportunistic relic-hunters and rich collectors who think that Imperial law doesn't apply to them :roll: would take a keen interest in its travels. Having a few heavily-armed people along to fend off looters might be worthy of an adventure or two...

 

[SSWarlock]

Very good points, NFM.

 

[phavoc]

snip -
Question...For a Lab, does there need to be micro specific labs devoted to separate types of technology? -snip

Yes, and no. For basics to determine if the tech is Ancient or not, you could have a small lab with some general instruments that could determine if the tech was from around here or not. For smaller ships you don't need to be specific about the widgets and scanners. But a larger ship might have dedicated bio-lab (air filters, triple airlocks, separate atmosphere systems), a weapons lab might have an extra meter or three of armor around it for accidental weapons discharges, etc.

But in order to more fully understand what it is, how it works, and how you can actually deploy that pocket universe, you should have to have a much bigger lab, with trained experts and their monkey assistants, err, lab assistants.

In some ways a 400ton lab ship might not be enough to fully explore and understand the tech. You are going to have multiple thought-processes going into not only understanding it, but each scientist or team will pursue their own path, which means you'll need multiple labs to give them the ability and equipment to do so.

A dedicated relic-hunting ship is probably going to have some cargo space available to transport back small artifacts, and a very basic set of instruments and tools onboard to make determinations.

But, if they follow reasonable science protocol and aren't looters in nature, they are going to first survey the suspected site with passive instruments, carefully dig (and record their efforts) up the site, and do as gentle of tests (physical and electronic) on the items until they know more. Preserving the site so that they don't destroy something like the manual or remote control that looks like doo-doo should be foremost in the minds of legitimate tech seekers. Looters, on the other hand, want to do a quick smash and grab and get out.

You may even want to design a larger lab ship (or convert say a liner?) for digs of this type. In that case you may have a primary research vessel and then a dedicated cargo ship for taking away all the goodies you find (in big, safe storage containers) back to a real lab at a university or research station.

 

[AndrewW]

You may even want to design a larger lab ship (or convert say a liner?) for digs of this type. In that case you may have a primary research vessel and then a dedicated cargo ship for taking away all the goodies you find (in big, safe storage containers) back to a real lab at a university or research station.

Make the cargo ship multi-use. Can bring in initial equipment perhaps a habit module, some vehicles and the like. Can also bring in replacement personnel and take back those who are leaving. Assuming long term operations.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

A couple responses above almost hit the nail on the head.
To keep this as short as possible, I’m leaving out a lot of the back story, so here are the basics.
This is an important NPC the players have a chance to interact with once my game restarts sometime this spring…
Young outstanding smart woman inherits the family ship yards along with her twin brother at the age of 22 (Now in her early 50'). She pushes the envelope in design and tech while he goes the opposite route focusing on the cheapest “shoe box in space” designs.
For reasons I won’t mention here, she believes that finding and reverse engineering ancient tech is the key for “her side” of the design facility to get the edge over “the big guys” like Ling and other cannon ship yards.
She took an unfinished 200 ton advance military scout because the buyer backed out, and converted into a lab/exploration “exploitation” ship. Since most of her “hunting grounds” lie outside the 3I borders (mostly in the Trojan Reach) she doesn’t give a whip about laws or ethics. She only wants advanced technology to make her ships better than anyone else. So, she is a pirate of sorts if you look at it in the proper light. She will have enough cargo to take anything she finds promising back to her main research facility. Or call in a larger lab ship she has leased to more thorough on-site testing.
Anyway, since space is a premium on a 200 ton ship, just wondering if a single lab would be reasonable for an “ancient tech” generic lab, or would there need to be each lab be more specific?

 

[phavoc]

Anyway, since space is a premium on a 200 ton ship, just wondering if a single lab would be reasonable for an “ancient tech” generic lab, or would there need to be each lab be more specific?

If she's dedicated this ship to technology 'salvage' then I'd say she's gutted the insides (maybe removed a missile magazine?) and jiggered the quarters to be large enough for ships crew and then the research guys. With something this so small you are going to only have space for a single lab, and smallish at that. While in transit it might be stuffed to the gills with gear, since there's really nothing to work on for outbound flights.

The cargo space (on the outbound flight anyways) is going to be stuffed full of supplies and ground support equipment (tents, lights, perimeter security gear, instruments, etc). I'd assume that some of the bulkier gear would be more disposable so they would happily leave it behind to stuff in some ancient tech to bring back to the labs.

 

[Hopeless]

So whats stopping you from having your npc have a tesseract chamber inside a regular lab ship which holds your ancient lab?

The tesseract chamber means the interior is larger than the exterior (yes I am a doctor who fan...) so can hold pretty much anything necessary perhaps include a prototype teleportation or better yet transmat device allowing new acquistions to be stored inside.

You could have several adventures just exploring the interior of the tesseract chamber you could even have villains trying to steal their npc's lab ship only to discover there's far more to the npc than they realise! :shock:

 

[Jak Nazryth]

So whats stopping you from having your npc have a tesseract chamber inside a regular lab ship which holds your ancient lab?

The tesseract chamber means the interior is larger than the exterior (yes I am a doctor who fan...) so can hold pretty much anything necessary perhaps include a prototype teleportation or better yet transmat device allowing new acquistions to be stored inside.

You could have several adventures just exploring the interior of the tesseract chamber you could even have villains trying to steal their npc's lab ship only to discover there's far more to the npc than they realise! :shock:

TL 14 not TL 18-20! :lol:

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Anyway, since space is a premium on a 200 ton ship, just wondering if a single lab would be reasonable for an “ancient tech” generic lab, or would there need to be each lab be more specific?

If she's dedicated this ship to technology 'salvage' then I'd say she's gutted the insides (maybe removed a missile magazine?) and jiggered the quarters to be large enough for ships crew and then the research guys. With something this so small you are going to only have space for a single lab, and smallish at that. While in transit it might be stuffed to the gills with gear, since there's really nothing to work on for outbound flights.

The cargo space (on the outbound flight anyways) is going to be stuffed full of supplies and ground support equipment (tents, lights, perimeter security gear, instruments, etc). I'd assume that some of the bulkier gear would be more disposable so they would happily leave it behind to stuff in some ancient tech to bring back to the labs.

No missile mags in the original design, but I get your point. She using a mission equipment bay and converted it into lab(s). I'm using the generic 4 ton lab per mongoose. In reality we know that's pretty small, but since Traveler is a sci-fi/sci-fantasy I'll go with it. I might submit both the original design and her modifications the closer my reboot gets. Still working through the design and I only have some thumbnail sketches for deck plans, elevations, sections, etc.. Based on TL 14

 

[Hopeless]

So whats stopping you from having your npc have a tesseract chamber inside a regular lab ship which holds your ancient lab?

The tesseract chamber means the interior is larger than the exterior (yes I am a doctor who fan...) so can hold pretty much anything necessary perhaps include a prototype teleportation or better yet transmat device allowing new acquistions to be stored inside.

You could have several adventures just exploring the interior of the tesseract chamber you could even have villains trying to steal their npc's lab ship only to discover there's far more to the npc than they realise! :shock:

TL 14 not TL 18-20! :lol:

So? :wink:
As long as you don't tell your players, let them provide the explanation its often more amusing that way! :mrgreen:

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Just finished the last fantasy GURPS game for 2012 last night. At the end of the game I asked the group if the would want to pick up where they left off in my Traveller game around March or so, and everyone of them said "sure" one said "Yeah, I love Traveller". So looks like I'll be slowly gearing up to continue in the next 3 months or so. There are however 2 new players, so my Traveller group will consist of 6 players instead of 4 this time. Gosh I hope I can nail down a little 200 ton long range exploration ship by then...
This is a perfect timing for new players to join the game also. The former player (turned NPC) was a Noble who owned 51% of the ship, thus it was "his" company ship. Since he will not be returning 4 remaining players (along with the 2 new players) will be making a complete break from the Noble (and his ship) trading in their ship shares for something new (The noble will buy them out for 100% control of the players old ship). But all the ongoing plot hooks and "main plot line" is still in play, they will simply be in charge of their own destiny, fully owning their own ship... (which ever that might be)

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Book 4 - Psion has Internal Relative Dimensional Adjustors though no TL's assigned to them. Also time machine options so you could create a Time And Internal Relative Dimensional Adjustor Ship.

TAIRDAS. Hmm that doesn't sound right. Reminds me of something else. I must be missing something :wink: