Re: Neogi and Umber Hulks - air breathing?

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Sat 08 Jul, Matt Hoffman wrote:
> On Jul 7, 2006, at 5:33 PM, Adam Miller wrote:
> 
> > The closest thing to this would be a misinterpretation
> > of the (badly) worded deathspider entry (p 42, 2nd
> > column, paragraphs 2&3).  Boiled down, it says that a
> > crew of 30 slaves, 8 neogi, & 8 umber hulks use as
> > much air as a 34-man crew.  What it REALLY was trying
> > to say is that neogi breath less air, and umber hulks
> > breathe more, but combined, its a wash.  So thus, it
> > really should have read that they use as much air as a
> > 46-man crew, not a 34-man crew.
> 
> Now, I'm not the math-iest of people here... but the way I understand 
> arcane space physics, the air usage guidelines don't actually state 
> that size S creatures *breathe* less air, rather that they just 
> displace less air from the atmospheric envelope, and similarly size L 
> creatures displace more air, thus monkeying with the air usage formulae 
> as they're laid down for nice and normal size M creatures.

CoAS, Chapter 1, "Breathing in Space", pg.11:

"Larger-than-man-size creatures (ogres and giants, for example)
drag along enough air to last twice as long (4-40 turns)."

"Larger objects, such as ships, are rated for their tonnage. Each
ton represents 100 cubic yards of space, which brings along
enough air to support one human-size crew member for four to
eight months."


The rules repeatedly talk about the size of crew members in
relation to their air usage, and while I can't quickly find it
I'm pretty sure I read that smaller than human-sized crew use
less air, and larger more air.


> But I could be wrong, and it's all semantics really, because no matter 
> how you describe it the practical interpretation is "bigger creatures 
> means less air for a given jaunt aboard a spelljammer."

I'm afraid this isn't an issue...

The amount of air reduction for the size of creature isn't
significant, as air is so much less dense than flesh - about one
thousandth.  So, a body being there displaces about a thousandth
of their mass in air.

I think.

Assuming SJ physics works the way I think it does...


> That's one thing to bear in mind about this discussion though... maybe 
> Dreamer was referring to something along those lines: a reference to 
> Neogi using less air (due to their being size S) being mistakenly 
> interpreted for being a Neogi racial ability.
> 
> Another thing one might consider, in the 34/46-man crew air usage 
> contrivance above: do we know that all 30 slaves are size M? One can 
> safely assume that the author intended for that, since size M is the 
> norm, but with the large populations of goblinoids in wildspace it 
> would be just as easy to assume that the formula is complicated by an 
> integration of size M humanoids with some possibly size S goblinoids 
> (goblins and kobolds). Again, I'm retarded in math, so I couldn't work 
> out a formula that nets you a 34-man air usage result. And now that I 
> think about it it really would be a waste of time and is neither here 
> nor there anyway.
> 
> .... Gosh I've a headache now.

I've got these headache pills marked "for SJ use only"... [grin]


I'm really bad at maths, so I use a computer!

(Specifically, the BASIC command line; a PRINT statement followed
by a calculation!)

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/