I've recently watched Interstellar and the latest season finale of Doctor Who (which, as I've stated, was kind of blah) but both of them involved the time dilation effects of black holes which has led me to start thinking about a scenario for the Saturday RPG group with our Traveller game.
Something occurred to me yesterday while goofing off with ME3. I've been struggling with the timeline - specifically, when to set this theoretical game - and was fluctuating between " during ME1" and " prior to ME1" which ultimately limits the amount of time available since ME1 begins in 2183 and ME3 ends in 2186. While reviewing the official timeline, I realized that I missed a perfect time period: 2176 - 2178, 6 to 8 years earlier. Why? The Skyllian Blitz and the attack on Torfan. Specifically, in 2176, the "Skyllian Blitz" transpires. It is defined as "Batarian-funded pirates and criminals launch a surprise attack, later known as the Skyllian Blitz, on the human colony of Elysium. The assault is repulsed by the Alliance Navy and ground teams." This is where the "War Hero" background for Shepard occurs. This provides a golden opportunity as, logically, the PCs can be at Elysium in the opening chapters, then segue into hunting ...
Took my pistol to the range this a.m. and put a couple hundred rounds though it (225, to be precise.) While my miserable shot grouping isn't the subject of this post - clearly, I only have a single point in Guns (Pistol) - what did occur to me is how frequently I lost track of the bullet count and was momentarily surprised when my magazine was empty. This led me to thinking: how is it that PCs in a RPG are able to know exactly how many rounds they actually have fired? In an Ultra Tech situation, that's easy - an ammo counter might display this, ala the M41A Pulse Rifle of Aliens fame or perhaps the character has a HUD running that tells him this - but in a more modern society? I spent four years in the Army as an infantryman and even in a carefully controlled environment like a gun range, I lose track of my count. In GURPS: Tactical Shooting , there's a bit about Situational Awareness on page 11 that remarks simply that the game presumes everyone is aware of things that...
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