NEW Adventure Module!

[Gelrir]

Our local group will be starting on this scenario in a month or two, so I'm still plowing through the book.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I do wish the authors had included a page or so of well-presented arguments in favor of the "purge" alliance. There are some phrases and fragments, but no paragraphs of their beliefs in their own words. The people of Bernar have "... churchmen whose sole job is to make sure their folk are stayin' clear of El Maqina Diablo." What sort of church is this A variety of Christianity doesn't seem likely, given the "sole job" of the churchmen. There's also a group of Amish who apparently share the anti-technology belief. Since the player-characters are hopefully going to be visiting possible allies in the area on diplomatic missions, having a taste of how the people of Bernar have convinced everyone about their crusade would be useful.

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

More reading of the Operation: Daidalos scenario.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

• A surviving, working tactical nuclear weapon seems technically unlikely ... but eh. However, the trigger for the whole Purge story-line is "a scurrying mountain man" carrying tales back to incite the rabid anti-science cultures. This would seem to imply that any tale at all -- true or not -- would have set them off. The nuclear weapon isn't actually needed to start the war, just some Mountain Coot telling tall tales. "I think we're all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said! Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish ... "
• I'm still unconvinced by the "tectonic survey" and precision earthquake detection powers of the Daidalos people. I've decided to scrap the whole nuclear-weapon-and-massive-earthquake plot, and to go with ... an airplane. The people of Daidalos were chosen for their aerospace skills; the town has a runway and "launch gantries" somewhere. Getting the Luddite crusade all riled up would only take something as simple as a biplane flying around.

More thinkings needed ...

--
Michael B.

[nuke11]

More reading of the Operation: Daidalos scenario.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

• A surviving, working tactical nuclear weapon seems technically unlikely ... but eh. However, the trigger for the whole Purge story-line is "a scurrying mountain man" carrying tales back to incite the rabid anti-science cultures. This would seem to imply that any tale at all -- true or not -- would have set them off. The nuclear weapon isn't actually needed to start the war, just some Mountain Coot telling tall tales. "I think we're all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said! Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish ... "
• I'm still unconvinced by the "tectonic survey" and precision earthquake detection powers of the Daidalos people. I've decided to scrap the whole nuclear-weapon-and-massive-earthquake plot, and to go with ... an airplane. The people of Daidalos were chosen for their aerospace skills; the town has a runway and "launch gantries" somewhere. Getting the Luddite crusade all riled up would only take something as simple as a biplane flying around.

More thinkings needed ...

--
Michael B.

I'm not completely set on the nuke either at this moment. I never put much thought into a replacement, but I do like your idea of an airplane, it does seem to fit into the anti-tech groups manifesto and ideology.

I have been thinking about how the team gets into the base thou, as written I think there could be a problem with how it is done.

[Gelrir]

I have been thinking about how the team gets into the base thou, as written I think there could be a problem with how it is done.

SPOILERS

Yeah, I think the authors underestimate the size of the island, and the amount of 20th Century "stuff" on the island.

"... a Morrow Project installation somewhere on Catalina Island ... In 2167 nothing remains of the facility, but careful searching with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) or metal detector will locate the steel door ... buried under about five feet of soil, rock and vegetation ... "

So we're to expect a team will search the entire island with a metal detector, and whenever they get a signal they'll dig at least five feet down They'll be doing a lot of digging!

Attached is an elevation view of the base for our (classic era) version.

--
Michael B.

[nuke11]

SPOILERS

Yeah, I think the authors underestimate the size of the island, and the amount of 20th Century "stuff" on the island.

"... a Morrow Project installation somewhere on Catalina Island ... In 2167 nothing remains of the facility, but careful searching with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) or metal detector will locate the steel door ... buried under about five feet of soil, rock and vegetation ... "

So we're to expect a team will search the entire island with a metal detector, and whenever they get a signal they'll dig at least five feet down They'll be doing a lot of digging!

Attached is an elevation view of the base for our (classic era) version.

--
Michael B.

The only item that I have seen in the rules is the MAGNETIC SENSOR at 15kg and can be vehicle mounted, which kind of gives me the idea this is not what we think it should be. Now I'm not sure if 5 feet down is even detectable (another research project I guess)

I have begun doing up stats for portable metal/mine detectors for the game.

The elevator is what has me scratching my head.

Overall I like the module.

[Gelrir]

The only item that I have seen in the rules is the MAGNETIC SENSOR at 15kg and can be vehicle mounted, which kind of gives me the idea this is not what we think it should be. Now I'm not sure if 5 feet down is even detectable (another research project I guess)

Presuming that the "steel door at the top of the elevator shaft" is reasonably thick (any armor value at all), I feel that 5 feet of depth will be easily found by any sort of metal detector. Making a super-sensitive metal detector isn't always useful ... you pick up all the other stuff in the area, olod plumbing, rebar, your own gear, etc.. Military detectors look for land mines with a few ounces of metal, at least a few inches underground ... I suspect a hundred kilograms of stainless steel will set them off fine. You'll still have to be within 3 or 4 meters, though, at a guess.

"Feet" ... bah, mixing metric and Imperial units ...

The elevator is what has me scratching my head.

• I was also puzzled ... how was concrete during construction, motor vehicles, etc. supposed to have gotten into the underground base The seaward opening seems to still be "original", undisturbed rock (until the base is unsealed).
  
• Opening the elevator shaft automatically resuscitates the base crew ... updates would have been awkward.
  
• "the elevator was destroyed when the [surface] facility was leveled" ... but the shaft is capped by a steel door. Why wasn't the elevator below the steel door And, when the elevator was in use, the card slot at the bottom of the shaft would be hard to reach.
  
• The areas beyond the door at the bottom of the elevator have breathable air: "opening the doors atop the elevator shaft has triggered an automatic sequence that vents the inert gases used to preserve the facility and bleeds in oxygen." So: you open the top door, climb down 80 feet, open another door ... and everything is already peachy That's gonna be some thrilling venting! Plus, oxygen being "bled" from tanks is gonna be cold ... though presumably there are heaters.
  
• It would be interesting to know the "five other languages" that the airlock instructions are labelled in. Given all the required California-only Project ID cards up to this point ... who do they expect will be reading it
  
• I just now made a small graphic showing what I think they're trying to describe. Note the two human figures for scale, the inset ladder in the shaft, and the ... very much a guess ... location of the upper card terminal.

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

SPOILERS

Another issue -- the people of Daidalos happen to have a "mobile drill rig" that can make an 18" diameter hole thousands of feet deep, to fit their "tactical nuclear device" That's a lot of drill casing, if nothing else.

--
Michael B.

[mmartin798]

So we're to expect a team will search the entire island with a metal detector, and whenever they get a signal they'll dig at least five feet down They'll be doing a lot of digging!

There may not be that much digging. The use of magentometers mounted on aircraft is used to scan for ferrous metals quite regularly. These aircraft mounted sensors can detect metal deposits 1000m underground with some pretty fine resolution, easily for the detection of a door.

The magnetic sensor is not well defined in either 3rd or 4th edition. But the description fits fairly well with the airborne sensors I have researched. The only difference would be the way it is mounted. In the air, the sensor is either a unit suspended under a rotary wing aircraft or on a stinger-like boom off the tail of a fixed wing aircraft. If the sensor were mounted to a metal vehicle, then it would be safe to say the rules description of a dead zone would be quite fit. I would think the dead zone would be closer to the 15m in 3rd edition rather than the 1m in 4th edition.

So to find this base, they just drive around and have the autonav marking the detected deposits and depths. Then look for the one that seems the most like an underground base, go to what looks like a hatch candidate and then start digging. What happens to the group as they drive all over the island is a different matter.

Note: I don't have this module, so I am just basing this on the information in this thread.

[Gelrir]

There may not be that much digging. The use of magentometers mounted on aircraft is used to scan for ferrous metals quite regularly. These aircraft mounted sensors can detect metal deposits 1000m underground with some pretty fine resolution, easily for the detection of a door.

Hmm, if that's the range and resolution of a MAD boom, then finding any underground structure (let alone the door) will be trivial ... just a few passes over or near the island should be enough (especially if you know or suspect it's on the coast). The island is about 200 square kilometers in area, but much of it is only 5 kilometers wide. I wonder how the magnetic detector "indicates" information ...

--
Michael B.

[mmartin798]

Here are a couple PDFs for your consideration on airborne magnetometer surveys:

https://www.geosci-instrum-method-data-syst.net/5/181/2016/gi-5-181-2016.pdf

https://www.geosoft.com/media/uploads/resources/technical-papers/Aeromagnetic_Survey_Reeves.pdf

If there are enough other ferrous minerals in the area, that may help mask the location, but a solid steel door should still show if you take more passes closer together.

[Gelrir]

Very interesting stuff!

"The airframes of modern aircraft are primarily constructed from aluminium alloys which are non-magnetic; the main potential magnetic sources are the engines. As a first approach, then, magnetometer sensors have always been mounted as far away as possible from the aircraft engines."

In an armored car the whole vehicle is a magnetic source, alas.

"Permanent magnetisation of the aircraft which will be unchanging unless engines are changed or magnetic objects (such as toolboxes) are brought on board."

Not sure how the Project avoids that. Careful with re-arranging your machine guns!

Finding the base itself (which has thousands of tons of rebar and structural steel) will make finding the actual entrance much easier. Keep in mind that whatever capabilities you describe for the Project magnetic sensor will be brought up again by your teams!

--
Michael B.

[mmartin798]

Keep in mind that whatever capabilities you describe for the Project magnetic sensor will be brought up again by your teams!

I have been giving this some additional thought. To work, the magnetometer would have to be some kind of standoff distance from the team's vehicle. Going with something a kin to the fixed wing aircraft solution, the sensor could be mounted on a collapsible 3-4m pole that attaches to the body of vehicle, giving a final height of 4-5m above ground level. Driving with the sensor up would limit their speed and the types of terrain they could drive in. This does not stop them from doing measurements in rough areas, as they could go there with the sensor down, stop the vehicle, raise the mast, take the measurement, lower the mast, drive to the next location in the search grid and repeat. It would take probably 1-2 minutes to raise the mast, 1-2 minutes for the sensor to stabilize and take the measurement, another 1-2 minutes to lower and secure the mast with about 1 minute for general chaos running around the vehicle. So about 12 measurements per hour not counting travel time in rough terrain. There is still the 15m diameter blind spot directly below the mast caused by the large ferrous mass constantly there. This might be a suitable compromise for making the base a bit more difficult to find.

[Desert Mariner]

I don't have the module so am not party to all of the details of available equipment, etc. But I do work for an engineering consulting company that conducts this type of survey for civil and archeology applications.

There are other options for this type of survey (this includes magnetic, GPR and LIDAR). For those difficult to access areas, we've used a mountain bike. More recently, the use of drones has saved massive amounts of time and money for surveys.

[Ash247]

Venting shouldn't be that much of a problem, Morrow normally just use Nitrogen to store their bases. So to make it breathable you just have to add Oxygen to make a 80(nitrogen)/20(oxygen) mix

[Gelrir]

Venting shouldn't be that much of a problem, Morrow normally just use Nitrogen to store their bases. So to make it breathable you just have to add Oxygen to make a 80(nitrogen)/20(oxygen) mix

It's certainly nitrogen in our local campaign; but I don't imagine the base is sealed with negative pressure (which invites infiltration of gases through any cracks or bad seals). So, some nitrogen has to be removed to keep the air pressure from increasing.

The base might have an "oxygen remover" as part of the environmental system -- it can thus "self-store", instead of requiring vast amounts of nitrogen to be provided every time it's opened for re-stocking. Perhaps before the Atomic War there was a terminal connection aboveground, as part of the now-missing elevator, to suppress the "pump in oxygen" reflex.

I was more impressed/concerned about the speed with which the base transformed from "static/inactive" to "ready to walk around in".

SPOILER

I suppose the excess nitrogen could be vented underwater (it is a coastal base, after all).

--
Michael B.