76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club https://ttrpbc.com/ Tue, 12 May 2026 16:25:45 +0000 en 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club Mission of Gravity Q8: Gaming https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/226/mission-of-gravity-q8-gaming Thu, 04 Apr 2019 22:42:26 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement Apocryphal 226@/discussions Ok, let's talk gaming on this one. Although a number of aspects of Mission of Gravity seemed rather mechanical as a reader, those same aspects fairly screamed traditional RPG gaming to me, where you've got a bunch of characters trying to solve physical problems using their skill sets and ideas. Here, the twist being that the characters are not humans, but space-centipedes. In many ways, this almost reads like a short campaign summary.

But what if you wanted to take a more story-game approach? Then presumably such problems would be fairly easily solved, so they wouldn't be the focus, but maybe interpersonal relations of the crew? Or maybe really interesting would be to have the players resolve various problems, but divide them between humans and Mesklinites and force them to work together to solve the problems, but make that interaction a problem itself, so there's a game-within-a-game in working out how to communicate with one another.

Any other gaming scenarios or themes that this book inspires?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q3: Serial novels https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/219/mission-of-gravity-q3-serial-novels Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:22:42 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 219@/discussions This book was originally published as a serial in magazines. Does that surprise you? Did the transition to novel work for you, or was the semi-cliffhanger structure too much an issue for reading with a modern eye?

Are there any techniques that serial novels use that work for tabletop roleplaying? It seems the travelogue style might be something to work in.

]]> Mission of Gravity Q4: What do you think of the analog future? https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/220/mission-of-gravity-q4-what-do-you-think-of-the-analog-future Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:22:46 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 220@/discussions When I read tales of this vintage, I'm always struck by things they didn't predict. In Mission of Gravity, slide rules are a thing. As is film, developing and projecting. Does it make you pause when people light-years away don't have pocket calculators or video phones? Were there any other "anachronistic" moments that struck you?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q5: Any roses or thorns? https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/221/mission-of-gravity-q5-any-roses-or-thorns Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:24:32 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 221@/discussions What were some of the highlights of this book for you? What parts left you cold? Did you like the light-hearted moments? Did any scene particularly resonate for you?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q1: Do you like Hard Sci-Fi? https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/217/mission-of-gravity-q1-do-you-like-hard-sci-fi Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:22:35 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 217@/discussions Mission of Gravity is a classic hard sci-fi novel. Generally speaking, the science is real and researched and calculated. (I recall seeing a later edition of the book fixed some of the gravity figures.) Notably, this planet was imagined from a real-world discovery: a (later found to be incorrect) wobble of a star, 61 Cygni: What would a planet with a mass of 16 Jupiters look like? And thus, the world of Mesklin.

So, do you like hard scifi? What does that mean to you? What else have you read that meets this definition?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q2: Which character could you best drop into a tabletop game? https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/218/mission-of-gravity-q2-which-character-could-you-best-drop-into-a-tabletop-game Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:22:39 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 218@/discussions There's not that many named characters, which makes for a short list for this question. Obviously a foot-long centipede might be hard-pressed to make an appearance in a hard-boiled detective game, but you have creative license to adjust.

Barlennan, Dondragmer, Lackland. The flyers, the mutes, the box-worshippers.

Beyond that, what did you think of the characters in general?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q7: Art of Mesklin https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/225/mission-of-gravity-q7-art-of-mesklin Thu, 04 Apr 2019 03:08:04 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 225@/discussions Not really a question, but here's some images. Did you find any good ones?

]]> Mission of Gravity Q6: Open source science fiction: Whirligig world https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/224/mission-of-gravity-q6-open-source-science-fiction-whirligig-world Thu, 04 Apr 2019 02:57:45 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 224@/discussions In the afterworld, Clement gives "official permission to anyone who so desires to lay scenes [on Mesklin.] I ask only that he maintain reasonable scientific standards, and that’s certainly an elastic requirement in the field of science fiction. "
Certainly there have been other shared worlds, but this is a very early (if not the earliest) example of an author offering up such a shared space. Heavy Planet collects a few other of these stories.

Could you write a story set on Mesklin? Would you read another story set on this planet?

]]> Book discussion! https://ttrpbc.com/discussion/215/book-discussion Tue, 02 Apr 2019 01:45:26 +0000 76. (March 2019) Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement rossum 215@/discussions Hello folks, how are we feeling about the discussion? Do we need a couple days to finish?

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