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Straight Razor
Ok a couple of the posts this past few weeks have got me thinking. There are some people with a lot of knowledge and experience with some less-than-common things. How about we collect in-game affects / rules for these.
I'd like to see a good one for trivial office politics too.
I'll post one on blimps (LTA airships) lates, but right now i have an hour till my Bio final.
stevebugge
QUOTE (Straight Razor)

I'd like to see a good one for trivial office politics too.

Have a look at my "Life Follows Gaming 2" Thread, we had quite the screw up perpetrated by our IT / Communications guys. We probably would have no difficulty getting others to vent about their RL experience with Office Politics and Institutional Blunders.
Straight Razor
yea... that is what gave me the idea
nick012000
Dilbert- Shadowrun edition! rotfl.gif
stevebugge
I guess I'll try to get it kicked off. I work in freight forwarding, International Household Goods for a specialty. I do a lot of work with customs, LTL trucking, and LCL and full container freight. Inthe 2060's the basics have probably barely changed, the business has changed little since the invention of the Intermodal container in operation, and little since the 18th century as far as law and documentation go. With Riggers in control a 6500 TEU Container ship can probably be crewed by around 8 people (15 is about normal today).

http://www.maersksealand.com/HomePage/appm...s%2Fvessel_tour

Links to a virtual tour of one of Maersk's ships, as you may recal from R3 Maersk is still one of the major shipping companies in the 2060's. China Shipping and COSCO were likely absorbed by Wuxing. Other major lines will probably require more research to make a reasonable guess at where they are in 2065.

Containers are fairly water tight, and depending on their load may remain afloat or neutrally bouyant just below the surface for days or weeks before finally filling enough to sink. Additionally they are fairly airtight, so without ventillation people smuggled in a container would smother in a few days. The floor of a container if typically covered in wood, to assist in securing freight, there will also be a beam on each wall as well as hooks for tie downs. The walls would likely have a barrier rating of about 10 (SR3).

Post questions I'll try to answer any I can
Straight Razor
Ok. here is my LTA info.
http://ltaprojects.com/_wsn/page3.html here are some relevant pictures. you can play where is waldo looking for me.
size: 1,000 cubic ft of H will lift 60 lbs, and the cloth it's self is 15 or so Oz a yard.
construction: The cloth we use runs about 35$ a yard. helium is expensive too 30cense a cubic meter.
to cucullate the size and cloth needed. decide how long or tall you want it to be then. ((1/2hight)^2*pi)*length=volume this is just a simple cylinder, but we got the length and hight need for the volume of H needed. The cloth needed will be 40/(hight*pi)*length. use what ever units you want here. of course the blimp will be cigar shaped, but estimates on a cylinder is close enough.

also you are going to have to build the car that attaches to the envelope. this is where people ride and all the mechanical parts are. This is pretty straight foward. the only trick is the keep it as light as you can without cutting into safety.

One should know that ALL blimps have a DO NOT PULL DURING FLIGHT handle on them. this will cut open a large cut on top of the ship letting out the helium. This is because a crashed blimp is very dangerous being blown around on the ground. as well it is less expensive to fix the whole than tumble damage.
Also a blimp requires a large ground, crew 6 * the number of passengers, to handle the blimp during take off and landing. this can be a dangerous job.

Most airships are blimps, meaning they have to ridigide skeleton. Rigid airships are no longer a good design with modern construction materiald and techneque.

Also: as for takeing bullets. The goodyear gets shot ALL THE TIME. were talking about 300,000 cubic ft of H. Even if you cut out a hole the 4' wide it would take hours for it to deflate.
LTA is a misnomer too. An airship is not actualy lighter that air. the goodyear runs at a couple hundred pounds. Since it has such a large surface airea though, the fins and the propellers keep it in the air, becomeing lighter that air is actualy a great fear of poilets, blimps fall up. then the envelope pops due to expanding gas pressure, then you fall WAY down. there are a number of systems that help to controll and prevent this. the only one worth mentioning is the balonet. it is a smaller baloon inside the actual envlope, it is inflater and deflater useing regular air blown in from the atmosphere. to regulate the air pressure withing the main envolope. the rest is all background stuff .
Dog
Before I answer, I want to make sure I understand what you're asking. Do you want to know what IRL experience we have that could apply to gaming? Or do you want to know what rules we've created based on that experience?
Straight Razor
both work. just collecting knowladge
Dog
Well, I did a couple of years doing crisis work with the homeless. Lotsa drug users, lotsa violent drug users. Lotsa prostitutes. Lotsa gangrene. (Any wonder I tend to get absorbed in fantasy worlds in my spare time?) I could provide some insights on that, answer questions or something.
I also did some time on a remote northern aboriginal reserve. Learned a little about their culture, and a lot about their politics. Would that help?
Straight Razor
yes.

nezumi
Here's a houserule based off my work.

If you are attempting start a new project in a government agency, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-2 the project is stupid, poorly managed or unfunded and fails. On a roll of 3-4 the project is good and gets three quarters of the way through its implementation before the managers realize it's 50% over budget and six months late and it is cut off (and fails). On a 5 the project is a good idea, makes it through implementation and gets into production, only to be split up by inter-office politics and hamstrung so it functions only half as well as it should and doubles everyone's paperwork. On a 6 it's supported by a congressman. It runs 200% overbudget, takes 5 years to 'finish', doesn't work properly (if at all) when completed, but does reach production and runs for at least 5 years.

Hope that's useful smile.gif
Birdy
Straight Razor:

At least the guys from the Zeppelin-Works in Friederichshafen disagree with your view on rigid-hull Airships. Their Zeppelin-NT is a classic "rigid" construction. Those ships do have their benefits. Like the potential for "in hull" cabins and engines. Or size, you can't build a proper sized blimb. Proper sized as in this
Straight Razor
Well... yes. if your making an ultra-huge freight transport, semi-rigid is useful.
even in smaller airships(but not smaller than 400,000 cubic feet) having in internal keel in the envelope can offer its advantages.
the big down side is always the weight though.
the whole internal cabin, clasical rigid construction is total nastargia. it just is not actualy practical. one could make a smaller non-rigid envelope that can carry more people in an external car.
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