A Meta Gaming Blog talking about How to Frame Narrative, Exploiting and Exploring Biases, and Using Work Productivity and Motivation tools in a TRPGs most of the time.
I've tackled Organization mechanics before in My notes on Organization in TRPGs in 2016 Jun 07. Whats changed is that 4 years since I've finished more books and applied more of my understandings as well observed more of both my family business (used to 900, 500 regular and 200-400 contractural).
I plan to make it like rolling a character. Roll 7d6. As well the Player Assigning the Die to each stat. He can "Game it" by reading the rules or he can just go with the flow with Traveller Character creation. Organizations are going to be a critical part the game system and I hope people will have as much fun rolling Organizations as they roll Characters.
I'll be using a d66 for Industry, but that should be determined by the PC's (Players) characters. If the Players are making a particular group of characters and it would be convenient to make them all in the same company.
There will be Compound-Stats
Str and Con = Capitalization or how much reserves, assets, capital, credit, etc.. the company has..
Dex and Str = Organizational "Prowess" or the Modifier when the Character needs to draw from the Organization's resources.
Social Status = Capitalization + Charisma + Die modifier.
Organizational Stats
Strength (OStr)
Strength of an organization is manpower. This determines how many people are “regular” full time employees of the organization. They dont have to be employees, but they spend as much time or more as an employee on the goals and operations of the organization.
OStr. The rough number of organizational members is equal to 3^(OStr). These are full time and regular employees. An Organization with a OStr of 6 = ~729 people.
Dexterity.
Dexterity is the ability of the Organization to Coordinate. This measures its communications, organization, roles, and maturity of the organization’s defined responsibility. The better the score the more resources and manpower the Organization can apply to a task, the more problems and challenges it can juggle or tackle.
ODex. This modifies the Organizations to react to changes in the market, or to perform Projects, Programs, or Organize into Portfolios. The ability of the Organization to be able to react and adapt to changes. This can be measured in scale of time, some company can react within a week, others weeks or in 4-6 weeks. Others in 1-2 months or in Quarters.
Constitution.
Non-Manpower Resources of the Organization. An organization’s Constitution can take the form of Leverage, Capital, Reserves, Market Value or Brand, Client-Portfolio, or Any force that wills the Organization to Exist. Leadership and Shareholders or board members draw from the Constitution to apply all the other attributes. An organization can have So much Resource it doesn't need Charisma/Marketing to sell. Examples are State Sanctioned Monopolies, which control such a lucrative and essential industry and the market they don't need any marketing or charisma to influence people or clients.
OCon is a Multiplier to Strength to get the “Capitalization” or the general gross Size of the organization.
Intelligence.
Intelligence is Organizational Knowledge Assets (PMBOK), Competency, and the Enterprise Environmental Factors that allow the organization to do its job. This includes Electronic Tools or Documentary Tools and processes.
Wisdom.
Wisdom is both the Capability Maturity Model, Company Culture, the Collective Emotional Intelligence of the Company (360 Evaluation and Cohesion), Quality Systems and Process Literacy of the Organization. An organization with a very good Wisdom (Culture, EQ, etc…) has the ability to improve without having to resort to “Throwing Money” at the problem.
Charisma
Charisma is the Organization’s Leadership as it deals with other organizations, clients, partners, and Stakeholders. It is also its Brand and Self Image. Some powerful Brands have cult-like status and are able to demand so much purely on Influence and Brand. Multi-level Marketing is an example of an organization that exists purely as a Branding and have little to no constitution. Many organizations “Fake-it till they Make it” have exceptional Charisma.
So from my background in Construction and manufacturing, as a Safety Officer, and Quality Management officer, as well as inspiration from Seveneves and Delta V I've come to the conclusion that the best incentive for Exo-skeletons to Augment Physical labor is from the demands of making every human as productive as possible in the Early Years of Space Infra development.
The Skyhooks, the Space Stations, the Shipyards, the Artificial Habitats will all depend more on the Humans who are more resilient to radiation and able to take initiative when disconnected from a master control system. Like the author of Delta-V Daniel Suarez I agree that living in Cis-Lunar Space is its own Industrial Revolution with very Strange and counter Intuitive elements. There are odds that we may not develop good robots in time and that the faction who will Pioneer Space is those who can keep a healthy, thriving, and competent work force there.
Exo Skeletons begin with basic Assist uses, but then begin to Extend to more enhancements until EMU's begin to look like Yellow Gorillas dancing in the shipyard magically putting together vessels and habitats.
This is the standard Basic Vacc Suit Worn inside a Ship, Vessel, or Station in case of a breach and emergency.
This is the standard Work Suit for heavy labor conducted in space. Ships, Stations, and any Space Infrastructure is expected to have many of these for any maintenance, emergency or construction task. The exo skeleton built into this suit allows it to generate 1200 Watts of work for it battery life for 100Watts of effort.
The resistance of the Crew Vacc Suit reduces the work output of a 300 watt human to 200 watts. This subsidizes or assists the humans so they can perform the full 300 watt output for the battery life of the exo-skeleton.
This allows the users to generate full 1000 Watts of work with 100 Watts of effort.
Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.
Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+4 Spare Parts. Spare parts are 60metric tons per 1dton (4metric tons per 1 cubic meter).
Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.
Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.
FUNCTION
Intra-vehicular activity (IVA) as secondary protection incase of Life support failure, limited EVA 1 day. This is used to Work Inside the Non-Rotating/Non-Gravity section of the ship (Which is 80-90% of the ship). Crew is expected to wear this the whole time they are outside Grav Habitat. (While in the Artificial Gravity, they wear a TL9 Body-Fit Vacc Suit 2200 model (5-10kg including its helmet; only meant to minimize Pressure Sickness, and survive an hour at most in Pure vacuum - as its pressure management systems fail) in case of Habitat Hull breach or destruction.
Work in Vaccum for Long Periods, even in extreme periods of work where the worker is in the suit for 40-80 hours. The life support section allows the wearer to curl up in Zero Grav and self-comfort. It's been designed to allow for herculean tasks and these tasks tend to be called for. Provides 1200 Watts of Work (for the duration of the Battery) at a level of effort fo 100 Watts (+1100 Watts Asssitance).
Assist in Movement in Pressurized Crew VaccSuit. Adds 200 Watts of assistive Work Strength.
Assist in Movement in Pressurized Crew VaccSuit. Adds 800 Watts of assistive Work Strength.
Life Support
Expected to be from the Vehicle. Backup Life Support: 10 hours (trained Spacers can reduce their life support demands to a day; this 10 hours is meant for heavy exertion). But Safety standards and protocol considers ExtraVehicular Work in this suit as Emergency Work and sets a safety limit of 4 hours.
40 man-hours of heavy exertion 80 man-hours for light. Can be serviced and supplied in a Vacuum.
NA
NA
Powered Life
20 hours.
40 hours with powered movement. Unlimited with a power tether
20 hours
10 hours
Work Output (WATTS)
-100 Watts of Work. (loss from the resistance of the pressurized suit)
+1100 Watts of Work (so 100 Watts of Effort equals 1200 Watts), -400 Watts unpowered.
+200 Watts of Work. -50 Watts unpowered.
+800 Watts of Work.-200 Watts Unpowered.
PRESURE
Near Full
Full
NA
NA
Operating Pressure:
0.8 Atmosphere, 81.06kPA, 11.7 psi (see Altitude sickness and decompression sickness)
101 kPa (14.69 psi) or 1 Atmosphere of pressure.
NA
NA
Work in 1G
considered under a load of 40kg (10kg of work to move, and 30kg for the weight of it) working in a pressurized suit in 1G.
considered under a load of 12kg Powered and 90kg Unpowered working in a pressurized suit in 1G. (combination of resistance of the limbs, its mass, even if it can struturally stand on its own).
Maintenance
7 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing
40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.
40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.
40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.
Work-Life
5 years or 60 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 3.5KCr / 60 months = 60Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
10 years or 120 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 16KCr / 120 months = 135Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
TOTAL WEIGHT
30.0 kg
60.0 kg
10.0 kg
30.0 kg
TOTAL COST
$3,500
$16,000
$1,500
$4,500
Life Support Weight
20.0 kg
20.0 kg
Life Support Cost
$3,000.00
$10,000.00
Life Support Parts
Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)
Grade+4 (500Cr per Kg)
Wearer Weight
60-100 kg
60-120 kg
60-100 kg
60-100 kg
Suit without Lifesupport
10.0 kg
40.0 kg
10.0 kg
30.0 kg
Suit without Life Suppor Cost
$500.00
$6,000.00
$1,500.00
$4,500.00
Suit Parts
Grade+2 (50Cr per KG)
Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)
Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)
Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)
Notes
Extra Suits are expected for Redundancy and Spare. Vacc Tape is used to patch it up.
Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.
Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.
Reduced Life Support Space. The life support has to be stripped down to allow for the Drives and power Pack. Life Support is reduced to 3 hours. Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.
I stopped using the word "Quality" because in Quality Management and Engineering it means something else. As wel get more Technical, its better to use the Term GRADE (from PMBOK)
Simplifying everything to Type or Category, Their Mass and Volume (in Bulk) and Their Cost. I used a simple exponent of 3. 3x more and 1/3 less per level.
Types could be: Life Support, Machinery, Drives, Computing, Etc... Grades Increase the Cost per Kg of a Certain Type of parts.
Assuming
100KCr per 14 cubic meters. 14 cubic meters at 2.7tons = 37.8 tons of aluminum in 14 cubic meters. Lets Half that
Aluminum is 2.7metric tons per 1 cubic meter. Lets put Spare Parts mixed it with packaging, ceramics (which have a lower density), and polymers.
Lets put Spare Parts at roughly 20 metric tons in 14 cubic meters.
So lets set a price per KG. Grade+0 is at 5Cr. 20,000KG = 100,000Cr.
So Spare parts or Commodity parts at Grade+0 = 5Cr per 1KG. 100KCr for 20 metric tons (14 cubic meters).
Grade+0 Spare parts are 5Cr per Kg of spare parts for Grade+0. 100KCr per 1dTon 20 metric tons of mass.
Grade+1 Spare parts 15Cr per Kg. or 300KCr per dton/14cu.m.
Grade+2 Spare parts 50Cr per Kg. or 1MCr per dton/14cu.m.
Grade+3 Spare parts for the Life Support and Tech at 150Cr per Kg. or 3MCr per dton/14cu.m.
Grade+4 Spare Parts for Life support and Tech at 500Cr per Kg. or 10MCr per dton/14cu.m.
Grade+5 Spare Parts at 1.5KCr per Kg. (x20,000 to get the per dton/14cu.m)
Grade+6 Spare Parts at 5KCr per Kg. (x20,000 to get the per dton/14cu.m)
The GM can make inferences and expert judgment of what a Grade of parts can do. Take any of the "Trade" details you see in Traveller (GURPS, Mongoose, Classic, Mega) and apply the rational of Grades and you can have some more variance.
When writing up the Operational Safety Limits of a Scifi Space Suit as a Construction and Work Place Safety Officer is VERY DIFFERENT.
A lot of writers kinda shit on Safety protocols and Union Breaks. I don't recall exactly how many movies and books portray Union breaks and Safety limits as Strawmans - making it out to look stupid and gratuitous. I received the safety reports and learn about the family who gets a 2-4M windfall when their breadwinner dies at work because of our aging Tradesmen (unlike the majority in the industry they are all insured; we pay at painfully the market rate but unlike most of the industry we give medical and insurance; We are an ISO 45k, 9k, 14k company; which means we get double to triple the checks of a regular company in compliance).
I'm a safety officer with an unusually weak immune system while also scion of a family business in manufacturing and construction.
I shake the hands of workers who lost fingers in operating machines now and then, and when I congratulate them for their 20+ years of service in the company xmas party. I've been told by Sales People to remove the laser safety sensor to reduce the Price so they can win the bid for our business.
I write in the Fluff that the suit can operate for 10 hours under heavy exertion (the users VO2 consumption is high) and under low activity, the person can survive in the suit for 20 hours and a bit more depending on their body mass (correlating with their consumption) and I can't help but mention that regulation would Put a limit of operating at that Suit at 4 hours, that Extra Vehicular Work in that suit is considered Emergencies (which Trigger Hazard pay clauses), and that any extreme duress has to be voluntary... while knowing that some people in this Line of work have long accepted the Risks and know that more often than not they dont have a choice and the "Life Insurance" payout to their families is what makes them accept the risks.
And I draw these suits and imagine the workers who will live and die in such suits in the future.
Changed the Shadows Layer into an OVERLAY layer. I used the Overlay property on the layer to create the shadow effect that applies to both the BASE COLOR and the STRIPES. you can now change the BASE COLOR without having to recolor the shadows.
Changed the Highlights Layer into a SOFT LIGHT. Same as the OVERLAY layer, it allows anyone with the PSD to change the BASE COLOR without having to redo the highlights and shadows.
Manufacturer: Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+2 Spare Parts. Spare parts are 60metric tons per 1dton (4metric tons per 1 cubic meter).
Assuming Grade+0 Spare parts are 100KCr per 1dTon 20 metric tons of mass (half the density of aluminum). 5Cr per Kg of spare parts for Grade+0.
Assuming Grade are x3 more expensive every level in quality and value (x3, x10, x30, x100 etc...).
Grade+2 Spare parts for the suit is 50Cr per Kg. or 1MCr per dTon.
Grade+3 Spare parts for the Life Support and Tech at 150Cr per Kg. or 3MCr per dTon
Grade+4 Spare Parts for Life support and Tech at 500Cr per Kg. or 10MCr per dTon.
Function: Work in Vaccum for Long Periods, even in extreme periods of work where the worker is in the suit for 40-80 hours. The life support section allows the wearer to curl up in Zero Grav and self-comfort. It's been designed to allow for herculean tasks and these tasks tend to be called for.
Life Support: 40 man-hours of heavy exertion 80 man-hours for light. Can be serviced and supplied in a Vacuum.
Powered Life is 40 hours with powered movement. Unlimited with a power tether.
Work. if a human can produce 300-400wats, the suit can produce around 1000-1200 watts of work for its 40 hours of independent power supply.
Pressure Type: Full
Operating Pressure: 101 kPa (14.69 psi) or 1 Atmosphere of pressure.
Work In Zero G. Pressurized Work in this suit is considered light load thanks to the exoskeleton dealing with most of the suits own resistance and mass.
Common add ons Thruster and Cabling Attachments.
As well as special Welding Rigs that deal with the large about of heat the process generates.
Work In 1G. considered under a load of 12kg Powered and 90kg Unpowered working in a pressurized suit in 1G.
Special Use:Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.
Operating Life:
Maintenance: 40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.
Work-Life: 10 years or 120 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 16KCr / 120 months = 135Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
Suit Weight: 40 kg; 6KCr (150Cr per Kg; Grade+2 Parts)
Life Support Systems weight: 20kg, 10KCr (Grade+3 Parts; 500Cr per KG)
Total Weight: 60kg at 16KCr (12KG load when Powered in 1G; in Micro or No gravity the suit is aided by the exoskeleton)
Typical Weight: Carries 40kg to 60kg of supplies. from rations, wipes,
What can you do with the PSD file:
Change the Color. my son messing around with the colors. Select the base color layer and use HUE, BRIGHTNESS, and SATURATION to manipulate the color.
Redo. I plan to draw Exo Skeleton Attachment. Thrusters and other Variants. A combat version though will be very far in the horizon.
as I examine the EMU for my next work, I realize a lot of things as I tinker and trace over the EMU.
1) no gravity (EVA usage) means legs and but serve to direct some
2) legs are for stability in low g or when you need to magnetic walk to conserve on delta-v propulsion (walk instead of waste gas).
3) the backside can be a much larger area for (as some EVA suits are designed) both for entrance and life support. There is no "sitting" in this suit and expandable fabric space can be placed in the "trunk".
Basically, the Spacer can pull out their legs from the pants and self-comfort and first aid. Cleaning up after "relief" is easier.
It is pretty much a Vehicle than suit.
4) the exoskeleton aids movement in a small pressurized vehicle of the EMU. At first the exo-skeleton will assist in comfort as you move the articulated parts of the suit. Its not like moving around 5-10kg strapped on your arms (the extra mass being a workout but also making fine manual work difficult)
As the exoskeleton gets more sophisticated and advanced workers can now join, close, seal, etc... more and more with the strength of the suit. Again the right tools mean less force and accidents. When you overexert strength you sacrifice control, but when a machine is doing the heavy lift you focus on telling it to stop.
as you expend more effort you focus on having more leverage and muscles for the job instead of having more control over the job.
The best example is safety with sharp knives over dull knives. The more force you need (Blunt knives) the more accidents tend to happen.
5) mechanical hands will be the norm. the Spacer's hands are protected with a layer of controls. grip strength and exoskeletons make a laborer able to do most straightening out and labors without expending Delta-V reaction mass (which is so hard to get to space in the early years).
