Quote from: RPGPundit;1032377I mean, if we were being 'realistic', a crash would almost certainly just kill everyone on board, right?

That would depend on so many factors as to be almost impossible to answer unless we nail down some of the variables.

I mean really, some cargo and passenger pods are designed to crash since terminal velocity will be so low on certain worlds that any kind of common landing system would take up valuable space in the hull.

Quote from: zx81;1032382What about those "magic" gravplates (if they still work)?
In 40 years, someone must have found a pseudoscientific way of using them to save the crew or even the ship in a crash.

There have been several rules about acceleration compensation and overloading that ensure the safety of people and cargo. Most notably in Fire, Fusion, and Steel 1 and 2 and in MgT High Guard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hCTcwNKsk

Quote from: RPGPundit;1032377I mean, if we were being 'realistic', a crash would almost certainly just kill everyone on board, right?

If NPCs don't kill off Travellers, their own ships will.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1032377I mean, if we were being 'realistic', a crash would almost certainly just kill everyone on board, right?

Yes.

Quote from: zx81;1032382What about those "magic" gravplates (if they still work)?
In 40 years, someone must have found a pseudoscientific way of using them to save the crew or even the ship in a crash.

LOL 40 years! No:

Quote from: Skarg;1031892GM: "Ship crashes. Everyone dies."

Except maybe escape pods, or teleporters.
Seriously, it depends on whether it's, say, a ship designed with any capability to operate in the atmosphere in question and/or land on the planet and whether it was doing anything like an attempt to land or not. There are many orders of magnitude between the levels of speed (and energy, squared . . .) in a flight plan slowly coming to a complete stop at a normal angle, and flying in an atmosphere, and hurtling about in space and flying straight into a planet. Only the first one is liable to have much room for survival of an uncontrolled flight into the surface of a planet, unless your handwavium inertial compensators have no limit and/or you have ultrashields(tm) that can withstand any amount of force.

Quote from: Skarg;1032695Except maybe escape pods.

These are considered Basic Jump Capsules pretty much.
See Rules quoted and attachments.

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Yeah those would be great for escaping from a ship, especially if it's in orbit over an appropriate planet. Or possibly ok if the ship is moving at a low enough speed through the atmosphere. But if the ship is racing towards the planet on a collision course, the velocity of the ship relative to the planet could become a problem unless it's quite low. Or maybe you could use them far enough before the ship hits the atmosphere that you can get into orbit instead of hitting the planet, and hope someone will rescue you.

Quote from: GameDaddy;1032477https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hCTcwNKsk

I had forgotten how awesome that crash scene was in Pitch Black.

Quote from: Skarg;1032726Yeah those would be great for escaping from a ship, especially if it's in orbit over an appropriate planet. Or possibly ok if the ship is moving at a low enough speed through the atmosphere. But if the ship is racing towards the planet on a collision course, the velocity of the ship relative to the planet could become a problem unless it's quite low. Or maybe you could use them far enough before the ship hits the atmosphere that you can get into orbit instead of hitting the planet, and hope someone will rescue you.

Now you are talking about Liferafts, Like from Traveller-TNE

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Quote from: Skarg;1032726Yeah those would be great for escaping from a ship, especially if it's in orbit over an appropriate planet. Or possibly ok if the ship is moving at a low enough speed through the atmosphere. But if the ship is racing towards the planet on a collision course, the velocity of the ship relative to the planet could become a problem unless it's quite low. Or maybe you could use them far enough before the ship hits the atmosphere that you can get into orbit instead of hitting the planet, and hope someone will rescue you.

Let's assume the ship was not moving at interplanetary cruising speed (i.e., had yet to flip and start breaking), and randomly ran into a planet it hadn't seen in the way. That would put the relative velocity at up to maybe twice the speed a planet is moving (Solar Example Mercury is 48 km/s so twice that is almost 100 km/s). And yes, nothing can be done about those speeds. But assuming that the ship was at planetary orbital velocity (Ex. 7.8 km/s for Earth), and perhaps de-orbited in an uncontrolled fashion. The pod could jettison, and then sustain 12-13G (survivable for short periods, especially if neck-restrained and not required to stay conscious). That could mitigate that velocity in about a minute.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;1032784Let's assume the ship was not moving at interplanetary cruising speed (i.e., had yet to flip and start breaking), and randomly ran into a planet it hadn't seen in the way. That would put the relative velocity at up to maybe twice the speed a planet is moving (Solar Example Mercury is 48 km/s so twice that is almost 100 km/s). And yes, nothing can be done about those speeds. But assuming that the ship was at planetary orbital velocity (Ex. 7.8 km/s for Earth), and perhaps de-orbited in an uncontrolled fashion. The pod could jettison, and then sustain 12-13G (survivable for short periods, especially if neck-restrained and not required to stay conscious). That could mitigate that velocity in about a minute.

What you are saying is true, but also depends on the thickness of the world's atmosphere. If the world has a multiple moon system, then you can get all Beowolf Schaeffer and aerobrake through the atmosphere of one to slow down enough to reach a moon with an atmosphere.

Oh, for sure. I was assuming no atmosphere (since one shouldn't design one's drop pods to assume there will be any).

Quote from: jeff37923;1032395That would depend on so many factors as to be almost impossible to answer unless we nail down some of the variables.

I mean really, some cargo and passenger pods are designed to crash since terminal velocity will be so low on certain worlds that any kind of common landing system would take up valuable space in the hull.

I suppose you have a point there. I was thinking in terms of Earth-type gravity and atmosphere. If you had crashes on other types of worlds, they might have a better chance of survival.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1033089I suppose you have a point there. I was thinking in terms of Earth-type gravity and atmosphere. If you had crashes on other types of worlds, they might have a better chance of survival.

Well, let me do an extreme example to illustrate. Lets say someone has bailed out of their starship and is trying to engage in a personal re-entry on a world with a UPP of E385000-0. With surface gravity being 0.377g and atmospheric density being 2.0, the guy bailing out has a terminal velocity of only 23.4 meters per second (about 52mph) where on Earth it would be 54 meters per second (about 121 mph). A human could probably survive a crash landing on E385000-0 with some seat belts and airbags alone.

Is terminal velocity for a person (on Earth) really only 121 mph? That's... well not all that survivable, but a lot closer than I expected. I'm surprised that there aren't more objects that survive falls from great heights relatively unscathed.