Sensors from Scout Book

[asorrells]

After reading through the different sensor packages available in the Scout supplement, I find myself wondering what they actually do, in a system mechanics sense. Further, since I don't have a strong background in the sciences, I'm afraid I don't quite understand what a Neutrino sensor would tell the player characters about an object they scan with it. Can anyone shed some insight on how I use these scanners in my game? What makes them worth my PCs' hard-earned credits?

- Thanks.

 

[EDG]

A neutrino sensor would theoretically be able to detect any nearby fusion reactors. Or stars, for that matter. Or distant supernovae, even.

But that's about it. Problem is, neutrinos are sleeting through everything all the time, and barely interact with matter at all. Having several kilometres of rock between you and the neutrino source (whether it's near or far doesn't really matter if the neutrinos are travelling through space) may block a few, but not many.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_detector has more info.

Presumably a neutrino detector in Traveller uses nuclear damper-related tech to force neutrinos to interact with it in order to detect them. But whether you'd actually be able to detect anything useful with it, I don't know - maybe if you calibrated it to take out background noise (e.g from the primary star and cosmic rays) it'd be more useful.

 

[alex_greene]

That is exactly how you use the sensor.

You run the ship on batteries and solar sails, having shut down all fusion powered drives in the vicinity, and take a good, long background sweep of the area to monitor the neutrino background. Then you move the ship to another location, and take another scan of the background from that angle.

If there's a neutrino source out there that's closer than the background stars, the SIN sensor will detect it. Likewise, if an object out there is soaking up the neutrinos, however faintly, it will show as a shaded area against the background.

And once an anomaly is confirmed, you take the ship in closer and scan with the densitometer and more active sensors.

 

[asorrells]

Ah, thanks. That helps a lot. So, what produces neutrinos, besides reactors and stars? Also, what about other sensors, such as telescopes, the life scanner, and the SA3? How might I use them in my game? By that I mean, how do I incorporate them into the narrative in a meaningful way; that I give my players bang for their buck and that I properly convey the information they are gaining from these sensors.

 

[EDG]

Ah, thanks. That helps a lot. So, what produces neutrinos, besides reactors and stars?

That's about it. I think fission reactors can produce them as well as fusion, but fusion reactors produce much more neutrinos than fission. Antimatter might also produce neutrinos?

 

[alex_greene]

Nuclear fusion produces neutrinos. Not certain as to whether other nuclear processes such as radioactive decay, nuclear fission and atomic transmutation (TL 18+) can generate neutrinos either.

The following processes could possibly generate neutrinos:-

- Nuclear Dampers: in disintegrating free neutrons and destabilising already-unstable nuclei, the nuclear damper could generate a burst of neutrinos rather than the expected wash of ionising radiation particles, gamma rays or free neutrons from the targeted nuclear material.

- Disintegrators: In destabilising all matter, a disintegrator might also generate a burst of neutrinos from the targeted matter. Could that process also involve proton disintegration? We'll have to ask some passing TL 18+ alien and find out, won't we?

- FInally, I always posited that a gravitic drive, including the gravitic M-drives of ships, producs a continuous stream of neutrinos in a sort of wake from the grav plates, more or less extending outwards 180 degrees from the direction in which thrust is being applied.

And of course bonded superdense armour would absorb a smallish percentage of neutrinos, meaning that vessels so armoured would show up as markedly darker and more opaque than ships armoured with lighter hull material such as Crystaliron.

 

[drnuncheon]

Also, what about other sensors, such as telescopes, the life scanner, and the SA3?

For the life scanner, watch some Star Trek - they use it all the time.

In game terms, in addition to what's in the rules, I would let it reveal certain information from the animal encounter tables - I'd let it detect the creature's general type (Carnivore/Herbivore/Omnivore/Scavenger), size, and Pack score. The TL14 Analysis version could conceivably give most of the encounter table - specifics of the type, stat ranges, natural weapons, etc.

The SA3 would be for studying things like sunspots and solar flares. I'm not sure how to make that especially relevant in a game as more than background or excuse to get them someplace, unless they used it to detect a menacing solar flare or some remnant of the Ancients. You wouldn't want to overuse that sort of thing.

 

[alex_greene]

They'd use it to study unusual stellar phenomena, such as huge magnetic storms, flaring activity, X-ray or gamma-ray eruptions or generally inexplicable spectral shifts in the light emitted by a star.

Some ideas:-

- The SA3 shows a slight blueshifting of a star's spectrum, indicating a period of increased activity leading to the local star system becoming uninhabitable due to high levels of radiation within the space of the next 50 years;

- The ship is part of a network of monitoring vessels in various orbits about a star which is prone to violent coronal mass ejections, and the Service needs to be able to predict the occurrence of those CMEs so they can plan an early warning system for incoming and outgoing vessels;

- The Service is asked to scan the star with their SA3s to get a reading on the strength of the local star's solar wind, to provide a "weather report" on prevailing conditions for the annual Solar Sail Regatta.

 

[EDG]

What's an "SA3", for those of us without the book?

 

[AndrewW]

What's an "SA3", for those of us without the book?

Stellar Anomaly Analysis Array.

 

[C. Chapman]

Damn, just how many times did the USS Voyager get into trouble by investigating "anomalies"?

Colin

 

[alex_greene]

If they'd investigated anomalies without getting into trouble, the show'd have been cancelled after Season 2.

 

[C. Chapman]

Woulda been nice if they'd come up with fewer episodes featuring anomalies though. After all, given how often they decided to investigate anomalies and got in trouble, someone should've said, "No! No more freaking diverting to investigate anomalies! Seriously, it sets us back every damn time we do it! Let's just keep heading for home!"

Colin

 

[lastbesthope]

Imagine the scene:

Paris: "Capt., I'm detecting an anomalous stellar formation of the port bow"
Janeway: "On screen!"
Tuvok:"Paris you nitwit, that's just a green version of the pink one we ran into last week, drive on!"

:lol:

LBH

 

[EDG]

Or the old "Sir! Sensors are picking up an unknown form of radiation!"

Well... how the hell can your sensors pick it up if it's an unknown form of radiation!

 

[GamerDude]

Imagine the scene:

Paris: "Capt., I'm detecting an anomalous stellar formation of the port bow"
Janeway: "On screen!"
Tuvok:"Paris you nitwit, that's just a green version of the pink one we ran into last week, drive on!"

Yeah, but you forgot about the 50 minutes of empty screen time since no one wants to watch Voyager travel around with nothing happening ;-)

 

[GamerDude]

Or the old "Sir! Sensors are picking up an unknown form of radiation!"

Well... how the hell can your sensors pick it up if it's an unknown form of radiation!

By detecting the changes in the quantum flux it caused by that radiation, and the giant sign of "PLOT HOOK" the screen writers put up over the view screen.

 

[alex_greene]

The radiation's type might as yet be unknown, but it could still be detectable by the anomalous reactions it causes to matter. A particle they'd not encountered before might cause ions to be emitted within the neutrino detector tank and create bubble tracks of a density they'd not seen, all strange spirals. Or it might be accompanied by a magnetic component that can be measured by the potential it creates across the ship, bow to stern.

Some other particle might create some strange effect analogous to the gravitic field effect powering M-drives and grav plates, making living conditions on board ... a little disorienting.

There's always got to be some sort of a science behind the unknown effect, and the chance that the characters can identify it - or catalogue it as a new phenomenon, and get the radiation named after them.

 

[GJD]

There's always got to be some sort of a science behind the unknown effect, and the chance that the characters can identify it - or catalogue it as a new phenomenon, and get the radiation named after them.

"Sir, I'm picking up a new radiation source on the long range sensors. It's spiking.... Oh no!"

"What is it, ensign?"

"We're all doomed, sir! It's a massive flare of dangerous radiation!"

"Details, ensign! What kind of radiation?"

"It's a Bob Smith field sir. The worst kind of exotic radiation there is..."

"My god, a Bob Smith flare... There's only one thing we can do... activate the Fred Bloggs field!"

G.

 

[alex_greene]

There's always got to be some sort of a science behind the unknown effect, and the chance that the characters can identify it - or catalogue it as a new phenomenon, and get the radiation named after them.

"Sir, I'm picking up a new radiation source on the long range sensors. It's spiking.... Oh no!"

"What is it, ensign?"

"We're all doomed, sir! It's a massive flare of dangerous radiation!"

"Details, ensign! What kind of radiation?"

"It's a Bob Smith field sir. The worst kind of exotic radiation there is..."

"My god, a Bob Smith flare... There's only one thing we can do... activate the Fred Bloggs field!"

G.

That's why my medics all have exotic surnames. Xylo Syndrome or Brenfield radiation always sound far more interesting. Even Tliaqrnad Syndrome (a condition that affects one in 175000 Zhodani males over the age of 95) sounds cool, until you discover that Tliaqrnad is Zhodani for "Miller."