[gurps] Sub Trek

[Jay P. Hailey]

> The SeaQuest episodes had the look and feel of an
> underwater Star
> Trek - you have one ship, supposedly one of many but we
> don't get
> to see the rest of the fleet, doing a mixture of
> scientific, diplomatic 
> and combat missions.

I think this was, in many ways, deliberate.


 In space, on an epic five-year
> mission, that 
> makes some sense. You could build optimized warships, lab
> ships 
> or VIP shuttles, but unless you send them out as a squadron
> all
> the time the one you might need could be lightyears away.
> Hence 
> multirole cruisers. 

Right.
 
> But what about Earth? If the UEO had the resources for one
> ship 
> the size of the SeaQuest, why couldn't they cover the
> oceans with
> specialized vessels?

Notice that in Seaquest, we never, ever saw helicopters, the natural enemies of Submarines.

We also never saw the rest of the fleet.

In the season 1 closer we see people who supposedly are from a Carrier Group.

But you never see these ships and they never affect what's going on with SeaQuest at any given time.

> How realistic is the assumption that the oceans overtake
> the land 
> area in importance, anyway?


Notice, too, that SeaQuest never mentions deep ocean pressures.

This condition mounts up quickly and is very difficult to cope with.  I think we'd have an easier time setting up a moon base than a Deep Ocean Base.

But in SeaQuest the massive crushing pressures are never mentioned.
 
> And disregarding the stated political background, could a
> combined
> transport/combat/research craft find a niche in a
> corporate-state 
> cyberpunk world? In that case, it is not really a warship,
> just armed
> for self-defense.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Onno

SeaQuest really wanted to be Star Trek, but more Politically Correct.

I heard that Early in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - they were getting scripts more like an espionage based show.

So a Cyberpunk type of scenario would seem to feature

A) Stealth - the Submarine's primary benefit

B) Remote mining and remote activities - telepresence robots built to withstand ocean floor pressures.

C) Being Cyber punk -  perhaps a break down in the UN's treaty of the Oceans.  So Various megacorps can make money looting the ocean floor for mineral wealth all the while being completely oblivious to the damage they're doing to an already damaged environment.

Depending on the tastes of your players - perhaps they could play Eco-terrorists scavenging machines and weapons to damage the corporate exploitation.

Or perhaps they could be operatives of "Underdog, INC" a Plucky, innovative yet earnest and honest corporation, trying to wedge itself a place in ocean floor mining, amidst competing Mego-Corps, who do not play fair.

Or perhaps the PCs could be an amphibious mercenary group, selling their services.

A big multi-role cruiser like SeaQuest just wouldn't happen. Too many resources tied up in missions where the benefit is much too abstract or nebulous for Cyberpunk style Corps or governments.

Jay ~Meow!~