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Hālian wrote:What happens to kineticists or Mizol-level telepaths who fail the trials? Are they put down or?

The warrior trials are more of a test of character and group cohesion than of individual skills, so an individual will usually only fail if she gives up and refuses to continue, or if she is so spectacularly incompetent that her companions give up on her. (In the latter case, she may meet with a sudden and unexplained deadly accident.) But if an individual does drop out, she becomes a part of the civilian class.

Telepathy, even at high natural power, is usually not dangerous without specific training. Most psychokinetics aren't dangerous unless amplified, and for a naturally lethal PK to fail the trials would be literally unheard of.

What are some common Loroi pastimes?

CF2 wrote:What are some common Loroi pastimes?

For the military castes: drill.

Is there any particular pattern to the way spoken names are said in Trade?

GeoModder wrote:

CF2 wrote:What are some common Loroi pastimes?

For the military castes: drill.

Warrior Loroi who are "off duty" often still have chores to do, some official, and some to do with informal "groups" that crewmembers form. During actual "free time" the options are limited by available space and resources. Some examples would include (but not be limited to):

• Conversation (telepathic). This is the most common pastime, and usually a part of all the other pastimes. This can be informal chatting, or more like listening to a speech or recitation, one or more individuals recount an event, or remember a lost comrade, or recite a professional sutra or heroic myth.
• Exercise and athletic competition, such as can be squeezed into available space and opportunity.
• Games: board-style games (like chess) and some "puzzle" style games (sort of like a Rubik's cube or a metal ring game) in which the two players competitively change the state of the object. Such games need to be relatively compact and portable, and they need to have rules that cannot easily be defeated by telepathic or telekinetic players; so, in general, no games with concealed hands (like most card games) or with easily manipulated physical elements like dice-rolling. Games with moving pieces (like the Loroi version of chess) tend to have pegs that go into slots so that they can't easily be shifted telekinetically without someone noticing. There will also be computer versions of these abstract games, as well as less abstract combat simulations.
• Music - usually played live by one or more crewmembers while the others listen.
• Grooming - they probably spend more time at this than is strictly necessary.
• Gambling - mostly on the outcome of a contest or event.
• Individual hobbies - crafts and the like.

White wrote:Is there any particular pattern to the way spoken names are said in Trade?

Not sure what you mean. For a warrior, a spoken name usually consists of her rank/title, caste/clan(archaic), personal/spoken-name, and occasionally an epithet (which is an archaic practice but which is still occasionally used). If that's what you meant.

Arioch wrote:Games: board-style games (like chess)

Alright! Now that's the kind of thing you need to make inroads with a foreign military as a tactical wunderkind!

Arioch wrote:Games with moving pieces (like the Loroi version of chess) tend to have pegs that go into slots so that they can't easily be shifted telekinetically without someone noticing. There will also be computer versions of these abstract games, as well as less abstract combat simulations.

Are there any games common to the Loroi where cheating without detection is an active part of the game? How welcome are listel to games that have a limited number of possible actions that can be taken in order to win -- are they excluded from the reindeer games or is memorizing every best-course action no guarantee that selecting the perfect action in the moment is something that a listel can pull off?

CF2 wrote:Are there any games common to the Loroi where cheating without detection is an active part of the game? How welcome are listel to games that have a limited number of possible actions that can be taken in order to win -- are they excluded from the reindeer games or is memorizing every best-course action no guarantee that selecting the perfect action in the moment is something that a listel can pull off?

Memorization games (like the card game Concentration) would be trivial for a Listel to win, and so such games would not be popular with adults (along with games that PK's and telepaths can easily cheat at), but memorization games tend to be things that children are encouraged to play both to test and to improve memory; I don't know a lot of adults that play Concentration for fun anyway.

Being able to memorize sequences of moves may be beneficial in a game like chess, but to be able to choose the best move in a dynamic situation (Big Blue style) requires being able to evaluate all of the known moves. Listel have excellent memories, but they are not computers, and so they won't be able to do this much better than anyone else.

When it comes to telepathy, being able to probe the opponent's intentions while guarding your own is a subtext of pretty much every game.

Arioch wrote:When it comes to telepathy, being able to probe the opponent's intentions while guarding your own is a subtext of pretty much every game.

Lotai for the win, then.

Victor_D wrote:
Lotai for the win, then.

Except when the opponent is a human with poker face.

I guess this is the main reason Alex baffle the Loroi crew so much. Not because his appearance, but because they are used to trust telepathy to discern their opponents intentions and predict their actions.

raistlin34 wrote:I guess this is the main reason Alex baffle the Loroi crew so much. Not because his appearance, but because they are used to trust telepathy to discern their opponents intentions and predict their actions.

If they ever became privy to his thoughts about them they'd probably wish they hadn't.

Depends on what he is thinking at the moment, military stuff would get an obvious pass but basic male... thoughts about the Loroi themselves? Most men would be awestruck by a Loroi and the Loroi don't seem to be prudes to react negatively when a male is physically attracted to them. Now there are some deviants who will get a blaster shot to the head if someone reads their thoughts but many humans would react the same way as well.

dragoongfa wrote:Depends on what he is thinking at the moment, military stuff would get an obvious pass but basic male... thoughts about the Loroi themselves? Most men would be awestruck by a Loroi and the Loroi don't seem to be prudes to react negatively when a male is physically attracted to them. Now there are some deviants who will get a blaster shot to the head if someone reads their thoughts but many humans would react the same way as well.

I dunno, would they actually be used to male interest? I mean, their males apparently mate due to physical dependency, so...

boldilocks wrote:I dunno, would they actually be used to male interest? I mean, their males apparently mate due to physical dependency, so...

What he probably meant was that the Loroi are likely used to the following sequence of events:

I arrange a mating encounter.
I meet a male.
The male couples with me, we don't dance around the issue.
We go our merry ways.

This is totally different from the sexual dynamics of human pairings, where males have to court females and females often reject many males before choosing the one they like. This does not happen in Loroi society at all, as far as I am aware. Both sexes are used to getting on with it whenever they meet.

If the Loroi could get over Alex's obviously alien appearance, I don't think they'd have many inhibitions to intimate contact if that was allowed. As for Alex, well, he's just a guy, he can't help himself.

Victor_D wrote:This is totally different from the sexual dynamics of human pairings, where males have to court females and females often reject many males before choosing the one they like. This does not happen in Loroi society at all, as far as I am aware. Both sexes are used to getting on with it whenever they meet.

If the Loroi could get over Alex's obviously alien appearance, I don't think they'd have many inhibitions to intimate contact if that was allowed. As for Alex, well, he's just a guy, he can't help himself.

In this case, I'd prefer an Alex who was a sexually conservative hopeless romantic, desperately trying to woo Loroi women with dinners, flowers, ballads, and a kiss on the hand. Maybe even sort of Casanunda like in his wooing. (https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Giamo_Casanunda)

Victor_D wrote:... he can't help himself.

Where in the comic is this implied? You know a lot of "us guys" can help it, and without being 40 year old virgins, either.

CJSF

cacambo43 wrote:Where in the comic is this implied? You know a lot of "us guys" can help it, and without being 40 year old virgins, either.
CJSF

Quiet, man-thing! Stow that penis and comport yourself under the staircase where your cave-dwelling kind belongs, lest you molest some woman!

boldilocks wrote:In this case, I'd prefer an Alex who was a sexually conservative hopeless romantic, desperately trying to woo Loroi women with dinners, flowers, ballads, and a kiss on the hand. Maybe even sort of Casanunda like in his wooing. (https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Giamo_Casanunda)

I think nothing romantic will even come up in the story, because Arioch will want to subvert the cliché a bit. You can look, but not touch, that sort of thing

cacambo43 wrote:

Victor_D wrote:... he can't help himself.

Where in the comic is this implied? You know a lot of "us guys" can help it, and without being 40 year old virgins, either.

CJSF

Can't help himself think "male thoughts", feel an attraction, in case that wasn't clear. And don't tell me guys don't think like that, even if they're happily married. It's natural and unless you act on the thoughts randomly flipping through your brain, all's fine. But the Loroi could be surprised, if they ever managed to read his thoughts, somehow.

boldilocks wrote:

cacambo43 wrote:Where in the comic is this implied? You know a lot of "us guys" can help it, and without being 40 year old virgins, either.
CJSF

Quiet, man-thing! Stow that penis and comport yourself under the staircase where your cave-dwelling kind belongs, lest you molest some woman!

LOL!

CJSF

Victor_D wrote:think nothing romantic will even come up in the story, because Arioch will want to subvert the cliché a bit. You can look, but not touch, that sort of thing

Oh, I agree with that, I'm just saying that in terms of a culture clash I'd prefer the more ridiculous.

So, I'd been reading a few of the Insider pages again (because why not?) when I noticed in the "Small Craft" section of the 'Shipboard Weapon Profiles' entry, it says quite emphatically that Small Craft have no jump capability.

This got me thinking, does the Highland have a jump drive? I mean, it does have Inertial Compensation, a prerequisite for having a Jump Drive, but taking a quick look at the x-ray/deckplans of the Highland on the WIP Thread (Page 3 of that thread, middle-isa of the page), there doesn't seem to be enough space for what I imagine to be the big, bulky Jump Field Generator. (How big are those, anyway?)

Then again, it was never implied that the Highland was jump-capable, but I thought I'd ask anyway. :p