Re: The Beholder Imperium-- Ships and Technology of Beholderspace

Greetings,

In our last episode, steve swenson said:
>> 	I'm sorry, but that made no sense... (:  What periods are you
>> talking about?  Originally you said that they could only be used for
>> two continous hours before a day of rest was needed.  Did I misunderstand
>> something?
>
>  I'm confused why don't you explain what you think I meant. Perhaps I
>mis-stated something.

	You said that the main gun can fire for two hours continuously,
but then has to reacharge for a day.  The time to destroy a class F
body is 1d4 days.  My question is, if the gun can fire for only two hours
at a time, does that mean that it actually take only 2*(1d4) hours to
destroy the planet or that it takes 24 * 1d4 hours to destroy a planet,
which works out to 12 * 1d4 day?

	Make more sense?

>> 	Let me get this straight:  You create a super planet-killer, and
>> want the list to find a way to kill it?  (:  My suggestion is plague.
>> Maybe the rebels could find a way to create the "blinding rot" mentioned
>> in the novels.
>
>   Well, not exactly I want some ideas for the "chink" in the Beholders
>armor.  Biological weapons... hmm that would be akin to poison and therefore
>a vilifying act.  I was trying to create "The oppresed forces of good
>prevail despite the power of the evil villian" I don't really want a lesser
>of two evils type of set-up.  However, because my pcs delayed so long there
>is more than just a hint of desperation in the resistance.

	If you want a chink, then put one in... (:  Getting on board this
thing seems difficult, so I doubt the "good guys" would get a chance to
sabotage anything.  And don't worry about the morals of killing bad guys,
they'd die when the ship exploded anyways...

[Snip]
>   Okay! All the PC's have to do is get on-board and sabotage the drive. Now
>I just need to leak the plans to the PC's or the Resistance... Hmm this is
>starting to sound like a movie I saw recently.
>
>   If we equip all beholder-Megaships with this drive then they are
>incapable of moving through the flow.  Poof! Now we know why the beholders
>never pursued their bretheren to the spheres.

	That's one explination... (:

[Snip]
>I was trying to find ways of filling the space on those cruisers. I wanted a
>mixture of magic and science used by the beholders since the "I, tyrant"
>book hints that they are (were) both magically and technically advanced.

	Sounds like you're trying to create a fantasy Star Wars.  You
*can't* make a direct conversion from sci-fi to fantasy.  If you really
want space to be filled up, just say that the "engines" are *huge*, and
take up most of the space.

> The problem is my idea's of "Technology" keep coming back to our own.
>I noticed that the computer revolution might have started in the 1500's had
>the designer of this machine been funded by the Queen of England.  A museam
>built the machine from his plans and found that it did indeed work and was
>capable of calculation to a degree of accuracy only slightly less accurate
>than ENIAC of the 1940's.  Perhaps I'll save this one for the gnomes.

	It wasn't an electric computer most likely, but a Turing machine
(or was that Von Neumman machine?), which is *mechanical*.  It wouldn't
be a "computer revolution" until they got electricity and stuff.

>Technology for me has been defined in terms of electronics and computers...
>what can I say I'm part of my environment.  I need some input on technology
>that doesn't rely on computers and could be fairly easily powered/enhanced
>with AD&D magic.

	How about better catapults and ballistas?  Boost their power/
reloading time/accuracy with magic, and there you have it.

>  The Laser, and the Electric lamp are both devices that benefit from a
>magical power source instead of a battery (Magic can supply larger amounts
>of power or even an apperant infinite amount of energy to a device.

	Hmm...  The lamp, maybe.  But a "laser" would probably not be around.
It takes more than power for a laser.  It takes an understanding of light
and energy, which I doubt beholders have.  They probably wouldn't even
think such things.  Big flamethrowers I could see, but the fact that light
could do damage wouldn't even enter their big heads (in theory).

	For example, take a world without birds and winged insects.
Would flying be invented on a world like this?  They don't have any
examples of flying things in their environment to try and emulate.

	By the same logic, if a mage can create a beam that does damage,
and doesn't have to use light, then where would they get the idea that
amplifying light could do the same thing?  Does that make sense?

	If you want lasers and beholder intelligence and computers, then
put them in, and make up whatever reasons you want.  It is your campaign
after all.  But don't try to find logic in it.  Even the cannon SJ stuff
doesn't make sense... (:

>  The Battery as we know it is not likely to be considered or used, instead
>a magic capacitor or generator of electrical based spells  would be featured
>as per Chronomancer.

	Except that the egyptians had simple working batteries.
They used them to gold-plate their art.  And why do we even *need*
magical batteries?  Do mages run out of power?  Do magic items?
A capacitor is an advanced device which stores power.  So is a magic
item.

	I hope that makes sense.  The moral is, there's enough
unexplained things in your world already.  Don't try to make
sense out of it, just enjoy it... (:

-Static

--
                         "Read more, kill less."

       --==<< http://k2.CWRU.edu/~static (Stories and Games) >>==--