Terraforming - The process

[2330ADUSA1]

Hello everyone, what I would like to see published is a book oTerraforming from 2300 AD. It could be a general topics book, but one that goes through the process and what methods might be taken and why. When you think about it it might end up being a Colony setup book as well too. From the setup of the Colony ship of what crew to resources are taken, and for what purpose and etc. Maybe a process with some GMs could be laided out for advancing a colony success over years in regards to their growth and etc.

It would be fun to have a whole complete GM path to follow to setup and plot out growth of a colony and the terraforming that might need to go along with it to make the whole project succeed or fail. Great for that GM created new system for any arm and setting up a new colony on it to brave it all alone and etc.

What are others thoughts on this topic?

Penn

 

[rust]

The problem I would see with this is that any terraforming project
has to be designed for the specific planet in question, and therefo-
re there is no "generic" terraforming. Each project is different, de-
pending for example on the average temperature of the planet, the
composition of its atmosphere, the surface gravity, the availability
of water, and a lot of other factors. The methods available to the
terraformers, both physical (e.g. orbital mirrors, ice comet drops,
etc.) and biological (e.g. genetically modified bacteria, algae or li-
chens), depend on the available technology as well as on the finan-
cial budget of the project, and are influenced by many factors, like
the distance from the nearest source of supplies.

Most of my settings are of the kind you mentioned, a young colony
established on a planet that undergoes terraforming, with the play-
er characters and their descendants (colonization and terraforming
are slow processes ...) as the leaders, troubleshooters or other im-
portant personalities of the growing colony.
I like this kind of setting, because it gives the characters a perma-
nent base (the colony), a permanent task (to help to protect and de-
velop the colony, but also to improve the influence of the characters'
families, etc.), a changing environment (the terraforming proceeds,
the colony grows) and many different options for their activities (ex-
ploration, internal conflicts, external conflicts, diplomacy, trade ...) -
all in all an excellent setting for a "sandbox" campaign.

I prefer "hard" science fiction, and I have therefore researched both
futuristic colonization projects and terraforming methods rather well,
in order to offer the characters a background and a technology which
are plausible and free of holes and contradictions. This does of course
not make me an expert on these subjects, but I think I have enough
understanding of them to know what it would take to write an entire
supplement on them. In my view one could either write a very short
and superficial one, but this would be better published as a chapter
or two in another supplement, or a comprehensive one, which would
probably become too long, too dry and too technical for most gamers.

With this in mind, I think what Colin will include in his supplement on
frontier life will be all most gamers will actually want to know and use,
a more detailed supplement would in my view hardly sell.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

With all the Number Cruchers that play Traveller, I feel it would be a desired resource book. Now if it was wanted it could be focused on 2300 AD line of Traveller...I think alot could be covered in it. Mybe not it's own book, but a couple of chapters within another related one.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Perhaps the way to do this would be to use the UWP and discuss how to move the ATM and HYD values up or down.

What would it take to move an ATM1 to an ATM2 for example. What techniques could be used to REDUCE the HYD value from A to 9. How do you raise the TEMP from Cold to Temperate. More importantly, what are the consequences (beyond the desired UWP change) to what you are doing.

For example, you want to increase the average temperature. One of the ways to do that is to increase the amount of Greenhouse Gasses; Methane and CO2 are two likely candidates, but there could be others. Neither of these gasses are really good for people, so even a slight increase will change the ATM, perhaps changing an ATM5 to an ATM4 (Thin to Thin-Tainted). BALANCING changes to ATM and TEMP is a big trick, but there are ideas about how to do this. Also, how you terraform a world that already has a biosphere (ATM 2-9) is going to be quite different than how you terraform a world with no life (ATM0-1, A-C).

This discussion is WAY beyond what I can do, but others might have the right expertise.

 

[rust]

More importantly, what are the consequences (beyond the desired UWP change) to what you are doing.

This could almost become a chapter of its own. For example, many
planets without any oxygen producing biosphere will have a similar
atmosphere as the early Earth, made up of nitrogen and carbon dio-
xide. With water present, it is comparatively easy to use oxygen pro-
ducing algae to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthe-
sis. However, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, while oxygen is not.
Unless the process is very carefully monitored and controlled, the pla-
net will get a breathable atmosphere - and descend into an ice age.

 

[SSWarlock]

The problem with terraforming is any target planet has already achieved its natural environmental equilibrium as dictated by the laws of physics and will continue to move to such a state regardless. It's much simpler, cheaper, and faster to work within the natural laws of the universe and just design, build, and maintain small (relative to a planet), sealed artificial installations. Especially when not all the natural laws are known.

That said, minor tweaks to a naturally self-sustaining environment that's already mostly livable is something else entirely.

 

[GypsyComet]

Terraforming is also expected to be a lengthy process, as in centuries or longer. If the process is a short one it is because the planet was already pretty close to goal conditions.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

Well I too think what would be fun details to also have is a system inwhich to design the Colony ship with amounts in tons of resources and what to bring and amount of crew and etc. All these details would be awesome to have and then for the GM to have this framework and then with charts to see how the planets whole system along with what wa sent turned out. Then you could plot a colonies grouth over say the next 20 years and this way the player can interact with it as part of that growth and maybe have some effect on it.

Penn

 

[phavoc]

Some things can be done to change a planet's atmosphere, hyrdosphere, or biological setup. You can't really do anything with gravity on a permanent basis (not without raiding Grandfather's workshop I suspect).

Some things like heating and cooling, can be done externally to the planet. Say you wanted to lower the temperature - you could deploy large reflective shades orbiting between the planet and sun to lower the direct amount of sunlight. Or, conversely, deploy them to reflect more sunlight on the planet. This, of course, requires a totally different set of technology and upkeep.

If the planet is subject to volcanism and spews out bad gases, you could conceivably construct atmosphere processing plants that inject 'good' gases to offset the bad (perhaps a bio-engineered thing, or whatever).

But HOW you terraform a planet is going to be different for each one. Depending on what you are going to do, it may take centuries, or perhaps just a few decades. Maybe you'll have colonists settling on the planet during the process, or maybe you are doing it to a planet already inhabited.

I think your best bet would be to compile suggestions and other processes that are out there and build your own little reference guide. Heck, if you can, compile it and share with the rest of us.

I just don't think that its something that would appeal to the larger audience. Terraforming is very long-term, and most PC's are gonna be dead before its complete. But some of us just like to read about this shit, so I say go for it!

 

[rust]

Terraforming is very long-term, and most PC's are gonna be dead before its complete.

It works pretty well as a background element of a "generational"
campaign, one where the first generation of player characters es-
tablishes the colony and begins the terraforming and is replaced
(retires, is killed in an accident, whatever) after a few decades by
the next generation, and so on. The terraforming then provides
each generation of player characters with a different and perma-
nently changing (not always improving ...) world - as an example
from literature think of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

 

[IanBruntlett]

as an example
from literature think of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

...and that's why I bought Traveller 2300AD and eagerly await "Tools for frontier living"

 

[phavoc]

Terraforming is very long-term, and most PC's are gonna be dead before its complete.

It works pretty well as a background element of a "generational"
campaign, one where the first generation of player characters es-
tablishes the colony and begins the terraforming and is replaced
(retires, is killed in an accident, whatever) after a few decades by
the next generation, and so on. The terraforming then provides
each generation of player characters with a different and perma-
nently changing (not always improving ...) world - as an example
from literature think of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

Sure, as a background for an adventure, it's great. But you don't need the specifics of how things are being done, the costs, etc. All you need is the environment that the adventure will take place in. A ref can simply state the planet is in the process of being terraformed.

For adventures there's also Nive/Pournelle's Mote series. That postulates a fallen empire that is being reintegrated, and many planets had been terraformed, but with the fall of high-tech, some of them were having a lot of issues (that's where the idea of spitting out an engineered bioplasm into the gases being ejected from the volcano. without the higher tech machines, the planet's population was slowly choking to death).

 

[Rick]

The concept might be better written up as a series of S&P articles - perhaps with a small adventure/several adventure seeds at the end of each one! Just sayin'.

 

[Easterner]

I'm pretty sure all you need do is slap one of these W-Y automated atmo processors and it does all the work...so long as nothing takes up residence in the sub-levels.

 

[rust]

I would prefer some of these, they are much less expensive,
and if necessary one can even eat them: