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[RPGs that time forgot] Bill Coffin's Septimus

Started by The Butcher, March 19, 2013, 04:58:32 PM

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Novastar

#30
March 26, 2013, 11:01:32 PM
IIRC, if ALL of the matter in our solar system was used to create a Dyson Shell 1 AU from the sun, it would create a shell only 8cm thick.
Quote from: dragoner;776244Mechanical character builds remind me of something like picking the shoe in monopoly, it isn\'t what I play rpg\'s for.

Joey2k

#31
March 27, 2013, 08:43:25 AM
Forgive my possible ignorance of the laws of physics, but if you lived on the inner surface of a Dyson Sphere (or Shell, I guess), what would stop you from being pulled off and into the sun?  Or is the assumption being made that any civilization advanced enough to build one of these things would have also solved the problem of gravity?  

(I understand why we aren't pulled off the earth, the earth's gravity, while much weaker than the sun's, is much closer to us.  But where is the opposing gravitational force acting against the sun's in a Dyson thingy?)
I'm/a/dude

Sigmund

#32
March 27, 2013, 10:05:13 AM
Quote from: everloss;640079Yup. There is possibly more things related to the number 7, but I stopped reading.

I wonder if it's supposed to be drawing from Revelations.
- Chris Sigmund

Old Loser

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Quote from: John Morrow;418271I role-play for the ride, not the destination.

Sigmund

#33
March 27, 2013, 10:07:06 AM
Quote from: Premier;640175Technically, a real Dyson sphere, as proposed by Freeman Dyson, is a vast swarm of solar collectors orbiting a star, so many of them (assumably arranged in layers) that virtually 100% of the star's light is captured.

The sci-fi Dyson sphere, which would more accurately be called a Dyson Shell, is the rigid megastructure described by others. I don't mind when sci-fi authors or fans borrow concepts from real science and modify it for their own purposes, but than they should also change the name.

One of these megastructures is featured in an Alistair Reynolds novel... pretty good story too.
- Chris Sigmund

Old Loser

"I\'d rather be a killer than a victim."

Quote from: John Morrow;418271I role-play for the ride, not the destination.

Novastar

#34
March 27, 2013, 10:31:53 AM
Easier to link to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere, than try to answer questions piecemeal. ;) :D
Quote from: dragoner;776244Mechanical character builds remind me of something like picking the shoe in monopoly, it isn\'t what I play rpg\'s for.

RPGPundit

#35
March 28, 2013, 12:49:42 PM
Quote from: cnath.rm;640483and at least in Niven's take on it, in the case building one in our solar system, it would be assumed that the entire asteroid belt, along with at least a couple of planets, would be destroyed and used to build the whole thing... :)

That makes some sense, though really what would make more sense is if said advanced society had the technology to create solid matter out of basically nothing, out of hydrodgen atoms in space or something like that.

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#36
March 28, 2013, 07:26:54 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit;640955That makes some sense, though really what would make more sense is if said advanced society had the technology to create solid matter out of basically nothing, out of hydrodgen atoms in space or something like that.

RPGPundit
The majority of mass in our solar system is actually in the core of our systems outer gas giants. All the hydrogen is the system and asteroids in the belt, are barely a blip compared to the core mass in the 4 gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune).

Getting to said mass, is the trick, though...
Quote from: dragoner;776244Mechanical character builds remind me of something like picking the shoe in monopoly, it isn\'t what I play rpg\'s for.

RPGPundit

#37
March 29, 2013, 06:08:28 PM
Quote from: Novastar;641051The majority of mass in our solar system is actually in the core of our systems outer gas giants. All the hydrogen is the system and asteroids in the belt, are barely a blip compared to the core mass in the 4 gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune).

Getting to said mass, is the trick, though...

Well, again, super-advanced-society-beyond-our-imagining and all...
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Premier

#38
March 29, 2013, 08:52:59 PM
Quote from: Technomancer;640622Forgive my possible ignorance of the laws of physics, but if you lived on the inner surface of a Dyson Sphere (or Shell, I guess), what would stop you from being pulled off and into the sun?  Or is the assumption being made that any civilization advanced enough to build one of these things would have also solved the problem of gravity?  

(I understand why we aren't pulled off the earth, the earth's gravity, while much weaker than the sun's, is much closer to us.  But where is the opposing gravitational force acting against the sun's in a Dyson thingy?)


People would be living inside buildings, either hanging "down" (towards the Sun) from the shell's inner surface, being a part of the shell itself or built on the outside.

If you have the technology and resources to build a bloody Dyson shell, constructing structures large enough that you feel like you're outdoors shouldn't be a problem.
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

cnath.rm

#39
March 29, 2013, 09:09:06 PM
Quote from: Premier;641446People would be living inside buildings, either hanging "down" (towards the Sun) from the shell's inner surface, being a part of the shell itself or built on the outside.

If you have the technology and resources to build a bloody Dyson shell, constructing structures large enough that you feel like you're outdoors shouldn't be a problem.
If I remember right, the whole thing is supposed to spin or something to give outward force and keep the oxy from all leaving, though it's been a good few years so I don't remember for sure.
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Novastar

#40
March 30, 2013, 12:55:55 PM
Spinning would also only give a Dyson Shell a "habitable zone" near the axis of rotation. The further "north" and "south" of that axis, simulated gravity would decrease (reaching nill, at the poles, IIRC; I believe the decrease also rises sharply the further from the axis you go, due to a sphere's geometry)
Quote from: dragoner;776244Mechanical character builds remind me of something like picking the shoe in monopoly, it isn\'t what I play rpg\'s for.

fellowhoodlum

#41
March 31, 2013, 08:22:50 PM
I like the mystery potential it brings.  Someone used multiple solar systems' worth of material to build the shell.  As a player I would really like to discover the reason why...

Is it their centre of civiliasation?  A refuge or place or safety? A zoo? Or a roach motel?

cnath.rm

#42
March 31, 2013, 09:43:59 PM
Quote from: fellowhoodlum;641863I like the mystery potential it brings.  Someone used multiple solar systems' worth of material to build the shell.  As a player I would really like to discover the reason why...

Is it their centre of civiliasation?  A refuge or place or safety? A zoo? Or a roach motel?
I read on story where a dyson sphere was more or less placed where humans would find it, figuring that with that much space that humans would never need/want to go further.
"Dr.Who and CoC are, on the level of what the characters in it do, unbelievably freaking similar. The main difference is that in Dr. Who, Nyarlathotep is on your side, in the form of the Doctor."
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Take care Nothingland. You were always one of the most ridiculously good-looking sites on the internets, and the web too. I\'ll miss you.  -"Derek Zoolander MD" at a site long gone.
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