To implement 'Aliens' movie in Mongoose Traveller

[N0-1_H3r3]

I'd peg her as 3rd in Command, hence 3rd officer.

Except that 3rd Officer would be 4th in command, traditionally (using civil aviation terminology, which seems appropriate given that the Nostromo is a civilian spacecraft). The second-in-command is the First Officer (after the Captain/Pilot in command), with the Second Officer and Third Officer after him.

Alternately, it might be a role analogous to this one, which does seem to vaguely fit Ripley's job during the movie...

All this is reminding me that I haven't seen Alien recently or frequently enough. I will have to rectify this problem.

 

[Mithras]

Wow, what a great link, I never thought Wiki would have info like this, and wouldn't know where to look even if I had.

This and related articles will keep me entertained this evening

Oh, the Internet :roll:

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

Seriously though: can anyone post or PM me the stats from the Colonial Marine Manual for the sentry gun, smart gun and flame thrower? Please?

 

[Scootaguv]

Jon PM sent.

 

[lastbesthope]

I'd peg her as 3rd in Command, hence 3rd officer.

Except that 3rd Officer would be 4th in command,

D'Oh!!!

OK, so that mismatches but since she never mentions Lambert in her references to Rank I still think Ripley is 3rd in Command on the Nostromo.

LBH

 

[Shiloh]

I'd peg her as 3rd in Command, hence 3rd officer.

Except that 3rd Officer would be 4th in command, traditionally (using civil aviation terminology, which seems appropriate given that the Nostromo is a civilian spacecraft). The second-in-command is the First Officer (after the Captain/Pilot in command), with the Second Officer and Third Officer after him.

Heh. First thought is that Hollywood isn't exactly reliable in its interpretations of rank and its function. But...

Alternately, it might be a role analogous to this one, which does seem to vaguely fit Ripley's job during the movie...

*does* seem spot-on (and is a great wiki entry), so perhaps I'm doing tinseltown a disservice.

 

[Bendigeidfran]

Granted, Alien didn't bother trying to explain gravity on the ship - probably for the better - did the franchise ever try to explain it?

 

[Beastttt]

well since none of the ships had any parts that spun
and to have everybody floating on wires would cost a bunch of money
they had some form of artificial gravity like many other space movies

the only movies that I can remember that went deep into low gravity was Armegedon and they said that these little jets will counter your pushing off the rock when you walk
there by eliminating from the budget all the wire-fu except for the buggy ride to jump closer to the surviving shuttle

Granted, Alien didn't bother trying to explain gravity on the ship - probably for the better - did the franchise ever try to explain it?

 

[Greg Smith]

I don't recall the Alien movies explaining it.

Obvious other movies without it were 2001 and 2010.

 

[Travellingdave]

Granted, Alien didn't bother trying to explain gravity on the ship - probably for the better - did the franchise ever try to explain it?

There is a line in Alien about switching off the artificial gravity when they are first landing on the planet. That's about it. It's easy to miss.

 

[EDG]

Obvious other movies without it were 2001 and 2010.

I thought in 2001 the inner hull of the sphere at the front of Discovery was spinning? There's a bit where Bowman's running around it on the ship.

And in 2010 the Alexei Leonov had a big spinning mid-section.

 

[lastbesthope]

the only movies that I can remember that went deep into low gravity was Armegedon and they said that these little jets will counter your pushing off the rock when you walk
there by eliminating from the budget all the wire-fu except for the buggy ride to jump closer to the surviving shuttle

Yeah, they got it rightish on the asteroid, but completely wrong on the space station, the gravity they had on that was in the wrong vector for the given rotation. Ignoring the fact that docking with a rotating station in the confniguration shown would be blooming hazardous and the station would likely be torn apart under the strain of the two docked shuttles.

LBH
(Professional Rocket Scientist)

 

[Silvereye]

The other big lack of artificial gravity was the Lewis and Clark in Event Horizon. (And the 'Horizon itself until they passed the Damage Control roll with a Skeleton Crew too!)

From the Aliens RPG:
Distances
Earth to LV-426 (Acheron) is 24 Light years. The Sulaco was a Colonial Marine Frigate (Jump-4) meaning it took 2 weeks to get from Earth to LV-426 (Jump x 5 light years per week).

Messages
It is possible to reach 60 Jumps per day, if you have the credits/influence. However regular communications from Acheron probably took the cheap (slow boat) approach and were Jump 4.

Sulaco
The Sulaco was a colonial Marine Frigate. Its normal compliment is 2 Marine strike teams (the cast of aliens made 1 team), a couple of auxiliary personnel to operate the ship. In Aliens, it was obviously running light for a quick reconnaissance run - lacking the second team and the auxiliaries.

Weapon stats are pretty horrible in the system. You're likely much better looting the tech manual for more meaningful numbers.

 

[nbkbruce]

So has anyone statted up the xenomorphs? I'd be interested in seeing those if they're still around.

"What do you mean 'they cut the power?' How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!"

 

[EDG]

Yeah, they got it rightish on the asteroid

Sorry, but the words "rightish" and "Armageddon" should not ever go together in the same post...

FFS, they blew up a rock the size of Texas by planting a couple of nukes a few hundred metres below its surface! Think about the scales there... (never mind everything else that was wrong with the film).

It's down there with Volcano and The Core in the category of "films with no pretense of realism whatsoever".

 

[lastbesthope]

Yeah, they got it rightish on the asteroid

Sorry, but the words "rightish" and "Armageddon" should not ever go together in the same post...

The ony bit they got rightish was needing thrusters to increase the downforce, that's about as rightish as they got it.

Of course if the thrussters pushed down from say your shoulders then as soon as you bent over forwards you'd end up on your backside :lol:

Like I said they got one or two things rightish, but almost everything very very wrong.

LBH

 

[lastbesthope]

Having read up on Low BErths in Trav rules I think I'd just make them work in the Alien universe, with a very small cchance of random failure. In Alien the cryotubes seem to be a tried and tested technology.

LBH

 

[rje]

I assume a low berth which behaves like a hibernation chamber.

From the Aliens RPG:
Distances
Earth to LV-426 (Acheron) is 24 Light years. The Sulaco was a Colonial Marine Frigate (Jump-4) meaning it took 2 weeks to get from Earth to LV-426 (Jump x 5 light years per week).

Messages
It is possible to reach 60 Jumps per day, if you have the credits/influence. However regular communications from Acheron probably took the cheap (slow boat) approach and were Jump 4.

Sulaco
The Sulaco was a colonial Marine Frigate. Its normal compliment is 2 Marine strike teams (the cast of aliens made 1 team), a couple of auxiliary personnel to operate the ship. In Aliens, it was obviously running light for a quick reconnaissance run - lacking the second team and the auxiliaries.

Just done some watching:

Alien, from LV426 to Earth after the Nostromo landed: 10 months.

In the same log entry she states she should hit the frontier in the shuttle in about 6 weeks.

LBH

So.

Nostromo can go 24 L-Y in 10 months. Roughly 2 L-Y per month. 0.5 L-Y per week. A slow, massive cargo hauler.

The Nostromo's shuttle can travel from LV-426 to the "frontier" in about six weeks. So the edge of human space could be 12 to 22 L-Y from Earth, depending on how fast that shuttle is. Could be faster than Nostromo, perhaps. (I detect "speed of plot" and "wild guesstimation").

Sulaco can go 24 L-Y in two weeks; 12 L-Y per week. If a "strike team" is a squad, then it sounds like it typically carries up to 20 people, more or less? In traveller terms, that would make it something like an Escort. 600 tons, give or take?

 

[Mithras]

Why are we quoting other movies?? The Core was great, my sons and I loved it, (and Armageddon) I also loved the recent Journey to the Centre of the Earth, cool, fantasy SF like 99.9% of all TV/Movie SF. And, yes, I have a degree in Geology!!!!! I love my subject, I also love any pop culture references to it.... We are playing Traveller, and these movies form for them powerful visuals for the games we run (which are much more hard science - by the way). One of my sons really enjoyed Armageddon and wrote a short story based on it; I notice that there is an old JTAS Amber Zone that features an asteroid aout to hit a world and I know that if I run that my son will be absolutely full of awesome ideas, from what he saw in Armageddon. You've got to remember that Hollywood movies may not be made just for you, but that a few 12 year olds somewhere will find them just inspiring!!

Yeah, they got it rightish on the asteroid

Sorry, but the words "rightish" and "Armageddon" should not ever go together in the same post...

FFS, they blew up a rock the size of Texas by planting a couple of nukes a few hundred metres below its surface! Think about the scales there... (never mind everything else that was wrong with the film).

It's down there with Volcano and The Core in the category of "films with no pretense of realism whatsoever".

 

[Mithras]

I would look at the 800-ton Mercenary Cruiser as a direct comparison to the Sulaco. Carying twomarine squads, in two cutters with ATVs.

If a "strike team" is a squad, then it sounds like it typically carries up to 20 people, more or less? In traveller terms, that would make it something like an Escort. 600 tons, give or take?