Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Chirine,

I was working on this month's adventure and the next thing you know I got it in my head to have a tubeway car worked in to the adventure, as I can't for the life of me think how to get them back to civilisation. Did a Google search and not much luck there.
So, how big are tubeway cars? What would the diameter of say a typical one used for personal transportation be? I know they hold about 8 people, so would 20' be about right? Are there internal compartments or is it a large sitting area with motors and what not underneath?
I believe that you mentioned in a previous post that there are also military ones shaped like tubes or cigars. How big are these ones? How many men would they hold? Would they be multi level? Do they have cargo room? Are they armed?
Would you have any drawings that you would be willing to share with us?
Many of the stories talk about destination disks. About how big are they; would 3-4" be about right? I want to make some props for the game and a disk would be nice.
Also, about how big would an Eye be? Are they all the same size, or do they vary?

Shemek

Hello,

Here are some of my notes regarding Tubeway Cars(taken from this thread and other places)...Not mine.

Hope it helps...

H:0)

Tekumel Tubeway System/Tubeway Cars

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hrugga
One more question for now. Can you please talk a bit about the tubeway system. Are there different size tubeway cars? As far as the tunnels go are there separate tunnels for different directions, or is there one big tunnel allowing cars to go in both directions? Have you ever explored the tubeways without a car(on foot)?
Yes. There are your usual cars, which are spheres with (usually) an upper passenger compartment, and a lower machinery space. (Do not mess with the machinery. It's bad.) The hatch is normally round or oval, about the 'waistline' of the car, but they do vary; think all the models of automobiles, and you get the idea.

There are the larger 'troop carrier' cars, which are the same diameter as the personal cars, but longer - like long 'pills' or medicine capsules. These can go anywhere in the system, but will only stop at the stations with the long platforms - they will not go to the usual stations, as they won't fit. They go to the main stations at the old installations of the Ancients, where they pull up at dual level platforms; the upper is for passengers, the lower for cargo, and there are often automated cargo-handling machines present.

The tubes are single tubes, and all of them operate bi-directionally under the control of the AI that runs the system. It's one car per tube; no 'multi-lane' affairs. There are huge interchange points, basically big chambers with lots of holes in the walls, where the cars transfer from tube to tube. There are also repair and service stations, where the cars are held for use and maintained - and there are also 'private stations' where personal cars are stored, waiting for their long-dead owners.

You can't go in the tubes and survive; there's no air in them. They are maintained at a very low pressure, almost a vacuum, and there's also usually a very, very long drop to get past at the station opening. There is also only very faint, very dim lighting in the tunnels, so it's very hard to see. And you can't use magic, either; the tubeways are lined with metal plates. And the cars move at supersonic speeds, so you can get squished really easily.

The cars all have their own internal gravity engines, so you get no feel of motion when you are zipping along. You want to test that this feature is working, before you get into the car and go on a trip...

There is normally a sort of control panel at the 'front' of the compartment; this normally has ten destination selector buttons, which can be custom-programmed by inserting a memory disk into the slot on the panel, Unfortunately, the disc programming machines are long lost, you if you do find one of these, you have to use trial and erro to find out where they lead to. Do Not Lose Your Notes; This Is A Bad Thing.

The cars, are, of course, a great way to find adventure...

[The tubeways were all underground; no monorails whizzing over the countryside. There were viewscreens, but good luck on getting them pointing where you wanted. The tubeways themselves were featureless metal shafts with little or no lights.

The tubeways' existence was known to all "educated" people of Tekumel. I use "educated" in the 15th century sense; that is, anybody in 15th century Europe who could read Latin and knew who Aristotle was, would have known of the tubeways. Most of them frankly didn't CARE.
Glorious General]


Originally Posted by Atsuku Nare
What's going to live in the temple and the ruins?

Also, your tubeway adventures - were the tubeways always underground? Was there anything you could see from the tube car, to give you an idea of where you'd end up?

And did you (or the Glorious General) ever disclose the existence of this mass-transit system to anyone? Clan, temple, or army? Or did you keep it secret?

Lastly, did the tubeway go through the core of the planet, or did it just run under the crust?

Thanks!
As a player, I have no idea; the players will have to go look. As a GM, I have lists and lists of what's down there.

Yes, the tubeways are all underground. The three viewscreens sometimes work, and you can see what there is to see. The tubes are pretty dark, with only dim little purple lights, and about the only time you can see anything is on the surface / in a station. The screens also can be used to tap into the communications network, which is usually a bad idea as it lets folks know you are coming, so they can get a hot welcome all ready for you.

Yes. We always filed reports, so we could get paid. Getting believed was another issue, though.

Nope, runs down to the core; that's how the technicians got to the gravity engines that are at the core and which provide both the orbital stability and gravity equalization. Please do not touch any buttons. Thank you.

Chirine
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Originally Posted by AsenRG
If they're metal, how comes nobody has broken them down and reused?
Several reasons. First, the metal used is the same as in the hulls of the starships and spacecraft sitting on the Plain of Towers. Nobody knows how to work it, or even what the alloy might be. We're at about the same level of technology as the Greeks and Romans (and yes, I'm over simplifying, here) and we just don't have the means to use the stuff.

Second, too many people use the tubeway car system; start messing with it, and they'll get upset and do nasty things to you. Third, the system is maintained at a near vacuum, so it's more or less inaccessible.

Fourth, the maintenance crews are still active in some sections of the system, and they - being entirely inhuman, and mostly inorganic - take a dim view of people messing about with the infrastructure. They react very badly, and tend to be quite forceful about getting one to not do things. They don't do nasty things to you; they simply vaporize you - or worse. Much, much worse.
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Yes; all the standard - spherical - cars can go to any station. It's only the longer 'pill-shaped' transports that have to go to specific stations, as these are the ancients' troop and cargo carriers. The standard cars are all the same shape and diameter, so they can go anywhere on the system, but do differ in their internal details as they were often personal property of the ancients.

The 'memory discs' have ten preselected destinations on them, and the car will go to them when you press the 'pre-selected' button; otherwise, you get the last ten destinations that were programmed into the car; the destinations from the last disc used stay in the car's memory until a new disc is inserted, or some 'helpful' person reprograms the car. It is possible to wipe the car's memory, which is really annoying as the car will then just sit there and do nothing. It's also possible to reprogram the discs, but one has to be a pretty high-level wizard to do it.

The tubes are on a sort of 'hub and spoke' system; the cars will travel through the tubes, and often change over to a different tube in one of the huge interchange and repair areas. I do not advise getting out and looking around - many of the machines still work, as do the robotic guards.

All of this is why one should always take one's disc out of the console, and take it with when disembarking from the car. It's really bad to lose your disc, too.

Chirine

Tubeway cars don't have safety belts either, but if the gravity compensators fail you'd never notice when the car goes splat in the collapsed tunnel...