Rules Questions

[Jacob]

Sooooooo off hand (without loading the book because this computer is slooooooooooooow) I remember the intent of the skill being "You need to RP calling in using a big old school military radio setup (which is an exception to "Radios don't work in Whisper Hill" largely due to the honking nature of the thing) and then you call "By My voice, Asplode to Baddy Painted by Laser!" Due to Accelerant mechanics, coordinates have nothing to do with anything--your friend says "Inflict Painted" and then you get a call "Damage to Painted."

Generally speaking, I'd treat such a thing as a Weapon. Like a sword--people shouldn't be taking it away from you, but it can be Destroyed, and if you leave it unattended...

GaelicWolf, you want to talk about leaving things unattended?

[Mason M. Rath]

Jacob,

Cool. That's what I supposed it would be, but I wanted to clarify it and make sure that this was an exception to the general tele/radio interference that afflicts WH.

Modern radios, would not be monstrous per se. To give you an example, see . Now anyone with actual military experience, please feel free to correct the living #$*% out of me, as I've never served (i.e., I have a great respect for what the armed forces do).

Should it be a legit radio or some sort of foam bastardization?

[Henry Gondorf]

I think the rule of thumb is "The less recent, the better" when it comes to some tech. I am not talking about going steam punk. But I always had the feeling a radio for drone warfare would look like this: http://images.hoodbiz.org/nlarge/radio_ ... 569265.jpg. I figure radio waves still exist but Whisper Hills has a way of confounding the new age stuff. Therefore if the equipment worked at all in deep jungle it might have a chance here.

[gaelicwolf]

[Mason M. Rath]

[Jacob]

That's the right sort of radio, and foam replication is your friend for both safety and weight reasons.

I think my favorite "abandoned property" moments were still one gent's reaction of "Belligerent hill people took my things," and people realizing they actually couldn't outbid an established extraordinarily wealthy NPC on a magic book...

The point is: if something is important to your character in game, please treat it as important. The notion of "Oh, I'll just leave the Widget of Awesome laying about" could get you in trouble.

[Merana33]

Most if not all modern technolgy is designed around the silicon microchip. It's fast, inexpensive, and incredibly versatile. As the technology has gotten more advanced, the density of the little gates and switches that reside on each microchip has gotten higher, leading to smaller, more powerful devices. The trouble being is that as those gates and switches get smaller and more tightly packed they become HORRENDOUSLY sensitive to electromagnetic interference. To make matters worse, with most modern hardware if just one of those ever smaller gates and switches malfunctions or burns out the chip in question will glitch or just flat out stop working entirely.

Back in the dark ages of the 1980's and 90's there was a strong belief by many military device manufacturers that the next major conflict would involve atomic weapons and their lovely side effect of producing large scale electromagnetic pulses (EMP) which tend to fry the ever loving crap out of stuff not designed to resist it. So naturally, they built hardware to resist EMP, especially focusing on communication technology. Much of that "cold war" technology is now seen as horribly obsolete by modern standards and has hit the surplus market en-masse. However one undeniable fact remains that most modern devices cannot claim: it was designed to survive an atomic war.

There is something to be said for older technology. When something is designed to survive the most hostile conditions imaginable it tends to last FOREVER, and work when other things dont.

Food for thought: While most modern electronics would fry when exposed to the EMP burst of an atomic detonation, the venerable vacum tube would be completely unaffected and would continue to function.

[Henry Gondorf]

*Seeing last post* Thank you for once again proving that Fallout is just a little more scary than it should be by virtue of being honest about tech.

Second, as for making a boffer safe retro radio: using that model as a guide post you can make one, possibly two, from a block of foam and a old children's nursery toy phone. I would not say leave it in the rain but it would be a hell of a lot less to lug around.

[slinkster]

[Jacob]

Correct. For safety (and other) reasons, we're not actually going to ever chain anybody to anything. A minute of RP with an appropriate prop and you're good to go.