Cold Space FAQ

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There needs to be more rule-book-available information on how to choose "Mother's Milk" skills. Some examples- perhaps by culture or region or period- would be helpful. Just saying, "work it out with the GM," isn't helpful enough.	As a designer, I am always hesitant to tread on what I consider the GM's territory. As a GM, I appreciate designers who give me room. This is, as always, a virtue and a vice. A virtue with those ticklish GMs who are like me, and a vice with those who prefer a bit more direction. The question of Mother's Milk skills when you have widely varying cultures and a general change in those cultures over time is difficult. I can give some guidelines, though: 1: Always keep in mind that the real purpose of MM skills is not to give more skills to competent adult characters, but to enable a child-character to be played. MM Skills should therefore always be appropriate to a child in that culture. For example, a child with a skill in drinking would be extraordinarily rare in American culture. 2: The skills should also be appropriate to the specific family conditions of the character. Look at the initial Cash of the character as an indicator. Is this the child of penniless immigrants working their way through low-paying jobs? Then skills like Streetwise and Endear and maybe Brawl might be appropriate. Are the child's parents rich? Then perhaps Engrace or Taste or Evaluate. From a rural background? Maybe Husbandry or Tracking or Weather. 3: As a general rule, I prefer to give a couple of social skills, a somewhat technical skill, and a 'floating' skill - sometimes a self-defense skill, sometimes a scholarly skill, or maybe another technical skill. However I routinely violate this pattern myself.
Where are all the non-spaceship vehicles? Contragravity craft are mentioned in the historical background, but I can't find any such vehicles in the book. Do helicopters still exist or have they been replaced by CG craft? Are there still air-breathing jets and cars? Can't tell from the book (though tanks are briefly mentioned...). How has CG been applied to modern aircraft and ground craft? There is a wealth of detail missing here.	Well, we will be coming out with a vehicle supplement, but jets and cars are both pictured in the book, so they would definitely be there. Contragravity used as a drive is clumsy and unwieldy. Contragrav vehicles are big - think airships, not helicopters! It would be difficult to imagine a contragrav vehicle less than 30 meters or so long, slow and massive. Most Contragrav vehicles use fans or propellers for speed and more maneuverability. Helicopters are light and nimble. Both are used in the Cold Space setting. In the meantime, the StarCluster Vehicle design guide can be used to create any vehicle in Cold Spce except contragrav vehicles if you do not use anything beyond Tech Level 7. Tech Level 6 would be more appropriate at the beginning of the Cold Space time period. Also, any vehicle available in our world would be available at the same time in Cold Space. Some worlds might require modifications for a vehicle to work. Jets are not going to work on Mars or the moon, for example. The inhabited colony worlds outside the Solar System would all support earth-type vehicles, with only minor adjustments - larger wing surfaces and bigger air intakes on jets for worlds with a thinner atmosphere, for example.
While quite a few spacecraft are given, and there are lists for modifying and adding equipment, there are no notes or guidelines given that would allow one to create their own craft. How heavy is a "Corkscrew Drive"? (for example...) I do have more questions, but these should get the ball rolling.	We'll also have rules for creating your own starships in a supplement - perhaps we'll roll it in with vehicles. We figured GMs can do a lot with customizing the available types, and the hard-core spaceship desgners out there wouldn't mind waiting a bit for the supplement. The Solothurn Drive at varies with the mass of the ship lifted, at 0.2 times the mass of the spaceship, including the NERVA (or other) reactor, down to a minimum size of 5 tons. Ships without reactors (chemical ships) would require 0.07 times the mass of the ship including the oxidizer-burning engine.
In order to get the skills and stats that I needed for my character concept, I had to go way ahead and see what the requirements were. Then I could go back and work out the right combo of schools and background to get to that goal. Is that supposed to happen?	It's frequently necessary, particularly in directed chargen. I do it all the time! You might also want to try waiving the requirement with a roll - or by GM fiat. Some characters may need that.
Another aspect I would like to see in the chargen rules is some way to get skills outside of the profession tables- unless it is intended (as is suggested in the rules) that you divert from your profession to another for a year to get other skills. Hmmm...USAF Fighter Pilot becomes exotic dancer or engineer for a year to get other skill choices. Okay- stranger things have happened.	Ah! Well you can always build your own profession, perhaps as an offshoot of your current profession - a specialization as it were - like going into Military Intelligence from the Army. Put the skills you'd need in that profession, and join it. You can also, as we suggest, join an already existing profession, but a Army Ranger taking up Exotic Dancing is a bit silly! Another alternative, which is not in the Cold Space rules, but is a perfectly reasonable extension of them, is to take up a hobby, and use a skill germane to that hobby intead of your professional skill. We used that in Blood Games - join a gun club and you can get firearms instead of biology or whatever. The Professions are meant to be guides, not straitjackets.
Don't you think it's curious that you have climbing skill, but no swimming or running skill? Just a thought... Perhaps covered by "gym"...	We had Swim as a listed skill in StarCluster 2, but since a reasonable competence is always assumed, anyone can swim if they want to. Not in a competitive situation, or in extraordinary circumstances, but certainly a few laps in the pool. Swim is a useful skill only in extraordinary situations, unless you are on a water planet, and we had no profession that would have Swim as a skill. Most characters can assume reasonable climbing skill, but extraordinary climbing - rockfaces, sheer walls, etc. - is part and parcel of the duties of several professions we chose to put in the book. Again, you can always introduce a new skill, as all skills work the same. Just choose the governing attribute, then define it, and you are set. Swim and Running would both use END, for example. Usually for extraordinary situations in swimming or running, I would ask for an END check.
I'm sure the Greens and other Eco-types are shuddering as they scan Cold Space. Orion and NERVA are not particularly environmentally safe, are they?	With Contragravity, they won't be used in atmosphere, so it's not a big concern. Space is already radioactive, so drop->ocean. NERVA is far less nasty than most people think, though Orion is just as environmentally bad as you'd imagine.
Why is it so important to have colonies? What is out there in space that is worth spending a serious chunk of the GDP on? Governments must get something back in return from the colonies or else they would have stopped after the first colony to prove they could do it.	There are a lot of reasons, and few of them are economic. Directly, space colonization would be a drain on the budget, because the colonies would spend a long time getting up to speed sending things back worth buying. However, national prestige, strategic defense interests, political considerations, and the like make it inevitable if it can be done at all, and once one nation is doing it, they all will want to. Besides, the indirect economic benefits are immense, and only get bigger as time goes on. It's an investment.
What the heck is a gyrojet anyway?	Gyrojet was the brand name for a pistol and rifle actually made in the US - I'm not making this up - in the sixties. The bullets were actually tiny rockets that used offset venturi valves to spin the 'bullets'for greater accuracy. The big benefit is no recoil, which makes them immensely useful in space. We have used it as a generic term to signify any spin-stabilized hand-carried rocket weapon.