Archive through September 05, 2022
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Captain's Log: New Fiction:
Advice to authors:
Archive through September 05, 2022
This is pure speculation, of course, but it seems to me that the volume of submissions would also increase the odds of "less mainstream" material being published.
If there were a couple of market heavy hitters on tap, a particularly well written or clever story about Omega Paravians on a quest to find all the lost socks from all the laundry in the universe might find a place in the Cap's Log.
Such stories would find a place, but Captain's Log is always 200 pages of stuff fighting for 144 pages. The cover virtually has to be "mainstream" and unless the mainstream story is very short (and very good) and the "other" story is very short and very good, there isn't room for two big stories. One big mainstream story and a one-page story or two, sure.
This is such a great line of conversation. It's really been helpful to narrow down and specify idea's I've had for good stories. Like most aspiring writers, I only really want this: a story people read and enjoy.
Knowing where the rubber meets the road is fantastically helpful.
The primary target is a good story told well.
It has to fit the SFU history, geography, technology, and tactics. No officer who makes it to the captain's chair would do stupid stuff that any game player would recognize as a rookie mistake. (Although I could see a story in which some junior officer is elevated to command when everyone senior dies, disappears, gets sick, or something. Mistakes he makes could be major story points, as well as confusing the enemy as to what tactics he is using.)
While you could do a dynamite story about Omega, or Magellanics, or Early Years, far fewer players would want to read it. The main story has to be the cover art. If a customer who isn't sure he wants to keep buying Captain's Log sees a cover/story he is just not interested in, that may be the point where we lose him forever and he never buys another product of any kind.
Any thoughts about military working dogs in Star Fleet??
Garth L. Getgen
It's an intriguing idea. Would they be easier or more effective than a tricorder? Certainly they'd be more man-best-friendlier.
I guess I'm curious as to the application. Pet's seem to be a common trope in all forms of Trek.
But who wins the capability contest? Bio or Tech?
If you could sell the angle, what ever it is, you could pull it off, I think.
Join Star Fleet Academy: must love dogs. Buy bonds.
Quote:Any thoughts about military working dogs in Star Fleet??
OK, taking this at face value ...
Why would they? Ostensibly, dogs are used because of their olfactory capabilities, their ferocity, and their expendability. I would expect that in Star Fleet, there are better options. A tricorder should have a better scanner than any dog's nose could possibly be. Robots would likely be both more deadly and more expendable than dogs. Plus, the phaser is so flexible, it might be worth risking people in many cases.
So, while I am sure that dogs (or some analog) would still exist in the time frame of Star Fleet, I doubt they would ever be used in an organized manner by any part of Star Fleet. I am sure there would be random and unique exceptions where dogs (or some analog) are used for something, but they'd more likely just be pets put to work, and not an organized used of the animals.
I think that the only place you'd see a dog, or dog analogue would be with backwater planetary militias. spaceports and stations would use scanners extensively, but once you get out into the "boonies" of those worlds, you'd rely on either a dog or whatever passes for its analogue.
Imagine a guard is at a normally quiet checkpoint. Nothing ever happens there. S/he also has to make out a report for every time s/he uses a scanner/tricorder on a civilian (legal defense against harassment?). How easy is it for something illicit to get through that sort of porous point?
By contrast, the dog's nose is always going. S/he will sense things out of the normal range of human senses and GIVE the handler the signal that a particular passerby may have something worthy of the scan.
Anyway, that's just my 0.02 Quatloos worth.
The reason I asked is I have a spreadsheet with the name/rank/duty-title of all 120 crew members on the ship in my fiction stories. One line is for a female Marine corporal dog-handler with a K9 named Vixen. I'm trying to remember the plot lines I had in my head that made me add her to the roster. Silly me, I didn't take good notes when the good idea fairy landed on my shoulder.
Any way, I'm wondering, in general: How useful would a K9 be for away missions / boarding actions?? Would it be a good asset or a liability??
Garth L. Getgen
Maybe an uplifted dog...
The problem is that the technology in the SFU is just too good. A run-of-the-mill scanner is going to detect more things better than any animal. It's just going to. And the dog is more unreliable than the scanner. For the scanner, just turn it on and let it scan. The dog sleeps, eats, gets distracted (squirrel!), can be bribed, can be fooled. The scanner just scans as long as it is turned on and powered.
The other thing is that dogs are expendable. I apologize to all dog lovers (like myself), but that is undeniably part of it. If you uplift them to any degree, then you completely eliminate that on ethical grounds. An uplifted dog is no longer a "dog". It is now a person and will be treated that way.
I do agree that backwater worlds and more remote locations might use animals to augment things because of their lack of resources. That makes sense. But, assuming reasonable access to modern (for the SFU) technology, dogs are completely unnecessary.
Now, I do think they will still be around to provide companionship. But that would mean they are simply pets, not trained military animals. Simply put, I don't see any trained military animals (with the extremely rare exceptions that would be called out as exceptions) because technology would do it better and it would be unethical to risk dogs unnecessarily.
Back to the exception. That all said, humans are weird. I can see trained military animals being used in very rare, exceptional circumstances because someone decides it does provide some advantage and then using them anyway despite the inclinations against such. But it would be called out as an exception.
As a plot device, how about a planet where some special environmental circumstances like "background radiation" or something that hinder or prevent scanners from working? Maybe a mine or cave complex where some local minerals give off some kind of radiation that masks scanners, but a dog's nose might still work?
Or how about aliens on the planet that use some kind of local cloaking technology to mask themselves from scanners, but a dog could sniff them out?
And then having a dog on the ground might be very handy indeed. Perhaps as part of a military unit? A rescue unit?
--Mike
Which is more intimidating to the Bad Guy: a Star Fleet officer pointing a phaser set to stun at you, or a trained military working dog able and willing to bite your nibbles off??
Garth L. Getgen
The Canine Corps talk has me thinking about the NeoDiogs from Starship Troopers. Take of that what you will.
I don’t think Fleet Marines would have them. Local citizens probably would in extreme environments.
How sensitive are the various senses among other peoples? I mean, we know already about the Zoolie twin eyes and the Andorian Fez sense, but what about others? How sensitive is the sense of smell among Slirdarians? What about Kzinti? We also know nothing about the senses of Rigellians or Brecon.
In short, is it possible that other folks can contribute the special senses of dogs to units?
On the subject of uplifted animals, I had a thought that might come across as racist. If seen that way, it is not meant that way and I do apologize for coming across that way.
Here in the United States, it is fairly common knowledge that, among people of certain ethnic backgrounds, different endeavors are encouraged. Among these, I've noticed that people of various Asian ethnic backgrounds make up a higher percentage of high-end college students than the percentage of the general population.
While loathe to make a "Cultural Generalization," it suggests that there may be cultural pressure for parents to encourage their children to go into such fields.
Could there be the same sort of cultural pressure among Uplifts? Children are encouraged to go into fields where they can use their innate abilities? Areas like certain diagnostic medical fields (although scanners have probably pushed them out of high contention there), law enforcement, or military scout service?
(I can picture an uplifted Bloodhound in an infantry unit reassuring a fellow soldier, saying something like, "My father's an accountant, and he's handled problems like what your sister's facing all the time..." 
)
Quote:While loathe to make a "Cultural Generalization," it suggests that there may be cultural pressure for parents to encourage their children to go into such fields.
Through the series, believe there have been societies or groups that were "Anti-Tech" or just haven't developed it yet....
Would probably be where the use of animals might happen.....
Jeff Anderson: if you haven’t, you might find David Brin’s Uplift saga worthy reading. Over the course of the series it applies several different views on this particular topic.
Dang my muse…. I suddenly have an idea for a story hook (may or may not be viable) and I am struggling to remember if I’ve seen a game engine mechanic that could be used for the idea.
Am I misremembering a scenario where a random points collection mechanic delays the inactive ships waking up while a cruiser tries to smash the task force…. Is there an accepted rule for this or was it limited to the one scenario?
In any case, provided this exists, can someone point me to where it is published?
Are you thinking about the Surprise Reverse SH2.0? A Fed CC, the Lexington, catches a Romulian Squadron "anchored" conduct last minute prep on, The Day of the Eagle.
The scenario has a mechanic to wakeup the Romulian ships at Weapon Status ZERO, with a die roll total.
That was one place I was fairly sure I’d seen something like that there, but I was thinking it was reused elsewhere.
Isn’t it a mechanic that is often used with un-triggered Monsters?
If memory serves, there's another scenario, "First Of Its Kind." It features a raid against a DNE* that's not quite yet ready to go into service.
It's been going through its final checks in a FRD, but due to the raid, everyone has to rush to get it operational before the raiders blow it to bits.
Again, my memory isn't perfect, but as I recall, almost every system aboard the DNE is, at the start of the scenario, treated as damaged in some way and the repair/damage control have to apply enough "Damage Control Points" to activate them.
Might this work for what you're looking for?
(*As I remember, it's a Federation DN from the basic set, but there are other options in the "Variants" section of the scenario. )
---Which is more intimidating to the Bad Guy: a Star Fleet officer pointing a phaser set to stun at you, or a trained military working dog able and willing to bite your nibbles off??
Garth L. Getgen---
I've been thinking about this angle a great deal.
My brother (and my wife) both have an irrational fear of dogs. The slightest snarl from a canine and they turn to jelly.
For myself, I have absolutely no fear of dogs, or animals in general (likely to a fault).
(And it's not due to a lack of exposure. I've faced down many an angry dog, fussy horses, rattlesnakes, a cougar, and a terribly disinterested black bear, all in my day.)
I do recognize and respect the awesome power and instinctual viciousness of the animal kingdom.
I would think better of hopping a fence guarded by a Doberman, as a cost benefit analysis. My relatives would not do it out of fear.
I guess the end result is the same. Dog wins.
However, if I had easy access to a phaser with a stun setting, the Doberman would get a double-shot without a second thought by me. So I guess I'm curious as to the ease and availability of tricorders and phasers. If I can pick them up at Walmart, then a canine threat is meaningless to me. But if I cant afford a tricorder, and phasers are restricted, suddenly, mans-best-friend is my best friend again.
I have no fear of dogs, but confronted with a 100 pound timber wolf whose teeth were uncomfortably close to my hands, I instinctively raised them both over my head to avoid getting bit. Turns out, doing that is what a grizzly bear does when he meets a wolf. The wolf then translates the motion as "I am bear, you are wolf, we will now fight to the death, take your best shot because you won't get a second one."
More to the point, there are some cultural/ethnic groups on Earth who are very uncomfortable around even the best behaved dogs.
Never have liked dogs too much myself; always been more of a "Cat" person.
(Excuse me while I cough up a hairball.)
Still, I appreciate that other people do love their dogs and I do try to be nice to them for the sake of their owners.
On the other hand, squirrels scare me; they eat nuts!