Damocles 2017

[ArmySGT.]

The most glaring omission from the module is first the second elevator which has been addressed in another blog. One personal elevator large enough for a hospital gurney with a 1500 kg capacity, the other a cargo elevator at least 3.5 meters deep and 2.5 meters wide with a 5000 kg capacity. But the biggest thing missing was the utilities. Next to or between the elevators should be a large utility shaft containing a service ladder defending to all levels. Two large ventilation ducts, primary supply and primary return to supply fresh or recycled air to all levels (breathing is important). Next is the power lines (440VAC, 220VAC, 110VAC and 440VDC, 110VDC), Telecommunications and networking cables, plus compressed air lines (2000psi, 700psi, 100psi and filtered 100psi Emergency Air Breather EAB supply). Then there is potable water supply, pure water supply, and septic disposal line. A new level need to be added to handle air processing, water treatment, air compressors, water demineralized, water storage, Oxygen generator, nitrogen concentrator, along with all necessary storage and transformers and converters. Also I added bulk storage on this level for operating supplies.
When I last ran this module it was back in the early 90s and half the players were former military including a former Navy SEAL. I had to detail the base as much as possible because my players would look for the details and expect common sense. Stupid oversights don't fly.
Damocles would have been a D.A.R.P.A. project and with no active military bases in the UP anymore (all closed) it is not likely that this is where Damocles project would be located, a former missile complex that was repurposed would be much more likely. Two books I found very handy are "Last Line of Defense, Nike Missile Sites in Illinois" and "US Strategic and Defense Missile Systems 1950-2004" by Osprey in the Fortress series. In fact I recommend many of the Osprey books if you want idea what certain groups might have and what they might look like, even the books on Zeppelins can help with Ballooners.

I use the Osprey books quite a bit. Especially the series on Native American tribes to flesh out the encounter groups. The fortress series for colonial period wooden forts, and Viet Nam or WW2 bunkers and such for scenario set up.

Lots of good points on setting up an underground facility.

Point to ponder....... Damocles is and may have been meant to be a one off prototype. Never actually meant to take over or run the North American defense network. A proof of concept model if you will. Which gives the PD the possibility that there is another complex with a Damocles II contained within that is even more capable.

[Capt Gideon]

Project Damocles 4th Edition

I have run the Project Damocles three times, once with Second Edition and twice with Third Edition rules. Now I am planning to run it a forth time under the new rules. I have redesigned and detailed the original facility twice and have never been truly happy with it. This time I plan to use a real underground facility that lies abandoned by the USAF, the 850th SMW Titan I Launch Site A. The Titan I launch facilities were the largest and had the shortest service life of all ICBM facilities, being deactivated in the mid 1960's. It was a massive facility interconnecting three silo complexes with a twin antenna complex. two massive dooms structures at and over 100-feet in diameter, as well as support tunnels and other underground structures. It is very easy to see how this complex could be taken over as a underground D.A.R.P.A. research facility. There are no longer any military installations in the upper peninsula of Mich. so the reason for having the facility there makes no sense. This site is actually visible on Google Maps just off the I-90 Freeway east of Rapid City SD (Ellsworth AFB), find the 171st Ave Exit and follow the 171st North about a mile and a quarter there is a dead end road heading east, this leads to Launch site alpha complex, look on satellite view and you can pick out the features. Doing an image search has given me dozens of line drawings and pictures of the interior of the tunnels which are great for building the feel for where the players are at I placed the Fusion Reactor Development project at the bottom of one silo with the old liquid oxygen tank serving as a liquid Deuterium storage giving an explanation of why the reactor has stayed fueled for 150+ years and giving the players a possible way to refuel their fusion reactors and packs should it become necessary. I put Damocles in another silo complex along with robotic research, modified the antenna complex so that one is a high gain trainable satellite antenna and the other is a phased array radar. The top of the Damocles silo has a bunker with an elevator that leads down to floors in the silo where the SU and MDU are stored. The remaining silo can be used for anything or nothing, I had the idea to use it for a future adventure where the team must find the components of and transport, prepare and launch of a Delta IV rocket to launch a satellite using the third silo.

[mikeo80]

WOW !!!

Very nice. Excellent resource!!

My $0.02

Mike

[nuke11]

For those looking for the launch complex enter this into Google to get the access road;

22549-22557 171st Ave, Owanka, SD 57767, USA

[nuke11]

The original module give some good points as to why Damocles was built in the upper peninsula of Michigan (page 11). These still hold true for the 3rd or 4th edition timelines. it will be interesting to read the re-write of this module updated for the 4th edition.

I like the idea of using the old missile complex as a DARPA black project site, but depending on the timeline used it is really close to active silos that would be targeted.

You also have to take into account that by START I/II agreements, all of these sites where to be decommissioned, so it would raise the interest of the Soviet Union (or Russia depending on the timeline) if one of these complex's showed signs of use afterwards. Erecting new above ground structures could be a problem.

An interesting place to look at is one of the AT&T L-5 Junction Centers an example here http://www.missilebases.com/ballardmissouri. They are 4 story in most cases underground hardened bunkers. There where a lot of them around the country.

[Capt Gideon]

Pre SALT/START

The Titan I sites were all decommissioned prior to any of the SALT or START treaties beginning in 1965, some only serving 3 years of active service. Titan I required a 15 minute fueling prior to launch like the old Atlas system, so as soon as the Titan II and Minuteman I started to come on line the Titan I were rapidly decommissioned along with the Atlas series. Several of the sites still exist and you can find interior pictures of the old facilities which I like to give a feel of the place, here are some I have found.

[stormlion1]

I find those picture heartbreaking.

[Capt Gideon]

Repurposing

I know how you feel. That is one of the reasons I like the idea of turning a site into an underground research facility. By 2017 the U.S. will have 450 Minuteman III missiles in three wings located in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. So the Titan I site is no longer near any other ICBM facilities. Ellsworth AFB is a Strategic Bomber Base (B-1B) so it would be a first strike target. But a Team would be in the area for Rapid City and possibly another for Sturgis/Deadwood area.

[ArmySGT.]

One of the things about Damocles, he can cannibalize or rebuild parts into remotely operated devices. He can't apparently manufacture new. Damocles can design anything. A good portion of him is a design facility.

It is a handicap for Damocles. However, would it be in the Projects best interest to give Damocles control of CNC machines to make parts

I don't think so.

[rob]

My 2 cents, well 3 cents

I was looking through the forum's subjects looking for ideas, etc., and found this thread. I am running a 4th edition campaign located with a Recon type in south central Pennsylvania. I have the team being awakened by Damocles to look for a former US Government site near their location. So far the PCs have found the site which is known as OSCAR (forgot right now what have that standing for). OSCAR is a major advancement in AI well over what Damocles was/is. I used this to reflect changes in technology since the
1980s. OSCAR is a major leap in AI, with its own personality which has befriended a little NPC girl. It will turn out that OSCAR does have communications with Damocles, Prime and Regional bases, as well what few satellites remain functioning in orbit or are working but these ideas are for future events.
On a side note, one the PCs had a brillant idea of asking for manifest of what was stored at OSCAR, among the things were 12 UH-60 helos that are fusion powered and some heavy equipment, all sealed up. This will be interesting...

[ArmySGT.]

After the module....

Follow on mission...... After securing a cooperative (helpful) Damocles.

Damocles drops this bombshell.

His Helium3 is nearly spent. In fact the original tank of Deuterium is gone and he is on the reserve tank of He3. Which is at 10%.......

Damocles needs either or faces a shutdown reactor in 18 -24 months.

A fusion power block buys time but, at reduced capacity. The fusion power block will not power the facility on the mainframe that is Damocles himself for 12 months.

Damocles needs either Deuterium in large quantities, He3 in a large quantity or both.

Damocles is querying his data banks for a solution. The Morrow Project team presents a capability that Damocles lacked..... The ability to travel outside the facility at great distance.

Damocles is asking (rather nicely in fact) for the Recon Team G-9 to mount a mission to K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base and Naval Station Great Lakes.

He needs the Recon Team to reconnect him to the Defense Network at those locations. Damocles cannot "see" the current state of the massive complex of "Igloos", the storage bunkers containing weapons, munitions, and critical spare parts.

Damocles will then need the Team to collect parts and bring them back to the facility. There Damocles intends to construct a processing facility to make deuterium on site.

Follow on for "Operation Lucifer"......

Recon G-5 and George Watkins of Science Team (unknown).

Damocles presents a solution to a 3 ton Soviet SS-17.. Bring him the plutonium...... Damocles does not need the rest of the carcass, though the inner casing does protect from radiation... assuming the Team or George Watkins can strip it down it may still be quite heavy say 500 to 800lbs.

This plutonium will assist Damocles in manufacturing a breeder reactor to make Helium 3 onsite for fusion power plants.

Damocles may make additional requests or may offer assistance in other ways..... Such as sending locals to assist Recon G-5 with bring the plutonium back.

Damocles will convert civilian vehicles to operate on methanol. The locals bring him parts and materials and Damocles can use his maintenance drones to make the conversion. Whether that is several snow mobiles and a sledge in winter or a large agricultural tractor with a freight wagon.

Good Luck!

[ArmySGT.]

This is a plot whole.....

Since Damocles is in a war gaming scenario; why is he using live ammo

[stormlion1]

He ran out of blanks Probably something like being cut off from communications and detection of nuclear strikes changed his priority's. In 4th edition we now have the possibility that Damocles could not only repurpose and salvage equipment but produce new ones. Through the miracle of 3D Printers he can produce new parts from stockpiles of raw materials. Might make things more interesting.

[Ieqo]

Before you go wild giving Damocles new toys to play with, just remember that canonically he wasn't finished yet. He was hooked up to NORAD and SAC traffic nets in "listen-only" mode. The war occurred before testing was complete, so he hadn't yet been as fully plugged-in as his designers intended (it also explains why there were a bunch of civilians in the complex when he had his little..."episode"). So if you stick to that limitation there's no reason to worry about him going "Skynet" on you, and you have a good justification for keeping his arsenal small.

Things like this are one of the reasons I tend to stick with the "retro" EotW scenario: it allows me to spend more time on the "forward story" rather than trying to update backstory.

[stormlion1]

Another possibility to use is Damocles was finished, run in the 80's and the early 90's and then shut down and placed on inactive mode with a skeleton caretaker crew. When the nukes finally went off he was reactivated accidently and was left as he was as a shut down operation trying to fully activate itself. Just replace the civvies with military caretakers or even civilian caretakers.