Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

[deaddmwalking]

Nuclear doctrine called for using nuclear weapons to try to eliminate the ability of the target to counterattack; thus missile launch sites were targeted. For reasons that should no doubt be obvious, missile launch sites were generally NOT located in the middle of densely populated urban areas.

Most silos were based in Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Wyoming and other western states.

If the US launched missiles first, and anything like a 'full launch', it might not make sense to attack now empty missile silos, but reprogramming the targets for 1600 missiles before they're destroyed by incoming missiles isn't really practical.

[Prak]

Ok, point taken, but that supports my previous post. It would stand to reason that there were likely multiple missile silos in Wyoming, as the least populated state. But even if there were, the blast radius of an RDS-37 (the most recently developed nuke of the Soviets in 1960, also the largest they had at that point) is relatively small, at least compared to the size of Wyoming. If the Soviets launched every nuke they had in 1960, and if they were all RDS-37s, they would only cover about 10% of the US in blasts, assuming no overlap. Also, as you move west, states tend to be larger. So even providing that all 1600 nukes the Soviets had were aimed at strategically important sites in the Western states, that leaves a lot of the US that is more indirectly than directly affected by the blasts.

It would not take a lot of nukes to fuck over the Earth due to indirect effects--something like 100 15-kT nukes would “disrupt the global climate and agricultural production so severely that more than a billion people would be at risk of famine.” And the RDS-37 had a (nominal) 3 mT yield, or 200 times that of the 15 kT bomb dropped on Hiroshima. My point here being that Canada would not be substantially better off than, I don't know, Hartford, CT or Louisville, KY.

[deaddmwalking]

If the Insurance Capital of the World still stands, you're not playing Mad Max. If the global communication network is primarily intact, a world of isolated groups who struggle to survive isn't particularly likely.

You might be right that some areas are not directly irradiated and might not have been impacted by fallout - and with the half-life of many of the radionuclides relatively short, if 50 years have passed, you're probably fine to visit those places. But if not everyone has access to a Geiger Counter, wandering the wastelands is like playing Russian Roulette with radiation sickness.

[Dogbert]

Consider also good old Doomsday Devices. Both sides have doomsday weapons to ensure M.A.D in case they lose. Currently the Russians have Poseidon, and before Poseidon (if I remember right, can't remember where I read this) they had a group of submarines ready to poison the oceans with nuclear crap to ensure an actual E.L.E.

Besides the nuclear airplanes You-know-who ordered to take off the time he pretended to be sick with covid, however, I don't know the USA's doomsday weapons.

[Prak]

If the Insurance Capital of the World still stands, you're not playing Mad Max. If the global communication network is primarily intact, a world of isolated groups who struggle to survive isn't particularly likely.

You might be right that some areas are not directly irradiated and might not have been impacted by fallout - and with the half-life of many of the radionuclides relatively short, if 50 years have passed, you're probably fine to visit those places. But if not everyone has access to a Geiger Counter, wandering the wastelands is like playing Russian Roulette with radiation sickness.

Part of my aversion to saying Canada is the main play space of the game is... 50s Americana is kind of a big part of the foundational idea of the game, and I have no clue what Canadian pop culture in the 50s was like.

End of the day, I really might just open a US map from the 50s in Photoshop and try to figure out what areas got a direct hit from a nuke, and then apply a sort of "what are the logical consequences of a couple tens of thousands of nukes being detonated in a day or two" logic exercise to the rest of landscape to get an idea of what reality would be and where I need to depart from reality to have a playable setting.

[deaddmwalking]

That's not a bad idea. Pick up a blast marker or 'circle shape' and overlay it on each of the big cities; then sprinkle a few more for good measure. The swiss cheese that doesn't have holes is where people survive.

There's a song about the War of 1812 from the Canadian perspective - it's a parody of an American song called 'The War of 1812' and they reference how the 'Americans ran so fast they forgot to take their culture'.

[tussock]

Radiation flow after the bombs is interesting too. It follows prevailing winds and basically rains down on the first mountains it meets in that direction. Around Chernobyl the worst fallout was on the near sides of the downwind mountains. And it's spotty as, depending on where it actually rained heaviest over the next day or two, local knowledge about where it gets bad would be quite valuable, but it's not so much flat lands become the bad zones.

The plants pick it up, but don't generally look or taste any different, and the animals that eat those plants concentrate it, and the animals the eat those animals concentrate that. Which tends to give you the best mutations in frogs (which absorb everything) and creatures at the top of the local food web. Fish are generally fine, once the dust settles. Giant Ants are kinda wrong but also very fitting, just don't forget your giant frogs and two-headed fire-breathing wolves.

And probably, river deltas are wonderful concentrators of everything, so the remaining fresh water coastal wetlands are good for swamp creatures too.

Plus, long wave radio, people in the 50's and 60's had them everywhere, hobbiest stuff for nerds, listen in on all sorts of not-even-coded military chatter all around the world, talk to dissident poets in communist Russia. The blasts will take out the reflecting layer in the atmosphere for a while, but they'll come back into use. You can run one on a hand-cranked generator, not terribly mobile, but fairly trivial to get working again.

[Prak]

One of the not-particularly-50s-Americana-based setting aspects is going to be socialist trucker convoys*, so CB radio was definitely a thing in mind.

*I haven't messed with the timeline before the nuclear exchange too much, but I did tinker with the midwest a bit, having socialism stick around more in the rural areas.

[czernebog]

On the flip side from getting the science right, have you looked at any period SF for inspiration? You could do worse than mining Star Man's Son (aka Daybreak: 2250 AD) or similar to see how pop culture in the 50s envisioned their world after a hypothetical nuclear armageddon. (There's a wide spectrum here. If you can stomach Heinlein's politics, he had some short stories about life after the nukes fell, but The Chrysalids or even A Canticle for Leibowitz might be more palatable and still genre-appropriate.)

[Prak]

What do people think of parallel stats? Like you have your main character, but then you also have a second set of stats for a mini game that uses the same systems and traits but is separate so you don't have to choose between being good at the main game and being good at the mini game?

[JonSetanta]

What do people think of parallel stats? Like you have your main character, but then you also have a second set of stats for a mini game that uses the same systems and traits but is separate so you don't have to choose between being good at the main game and being good at the mini game?

I think I know where you're going with this from the Other Thread About You Know What and my advice is to use the normal 6 stats provided.

Allow a bonus feat or two for this "minigame" that adds numeric bonuses to those of the original stats, so someone with 10 CON can still get something like a +3 bonus.

[Prak]

Well, I wasn't thinking about parallel to Str, Dex, et al. I was thinking you have your main character sheet, and then you have your mini game stats that have stuff based on your race and class that are specific to the mini game, and instead of trying to decide between, ok, for example, Two Weapon Fighting or Two Handed Fucking, you have two weapon fighting for the main game, and then for the sex mini game, you instead have two handed fucking. I don't mean that you necessarily have a minigame analogue to your feats, but you could.

[JonSetanta]

I understand your intent, but having done similar in the 90s with AD&D and cohorts it becomes complex managing two character sheets.

If you intend to keep ability scores as they are for a PC, I'm all for it.

Maybe just 3-5 levels of "Sex Expert" or whatever, complete with manual feats and some spells or whatever, just don't go for 20 levels of it.

[Prak]

Honestly, that makes sense. Even I struggle to believe there could be enough (meaningful) Feats and class abilities to cover 20 levels. Even with 5e's "one feat every four levels"

[JonSetanta]

You could make 6 classes, each one keyed to a single ability score, with different techniques appropriate.

STR is all about rough and vigorous motion. Grappling. Bruising accidentally.
DEX is finesse, naturally, and pressure points as well as... certain target locations.
CON is just plain mindlessness. Tantric Yoga comes to mind. Just keep going and going and going.

The mental ones would be caster types with minor feats of magic, each one flavored to Arcane, Divine, and.... dirty talk for CHA?

[Prak]

Cha would be dirty talk, teasing, appealing to senses beyond touch, basically. The kind of person who can get their lover off barely touching them.

I kinda want to do more class analogous, though. The warlock stuff would be fun

[Omegonthesane]

Wis isn't particularly good at applying any given technique, but listens hard and adapts based on the other person's reaction.

Int is trained in the use and maintenance of dildos, specifically, rather than anything relying mainly on their actual body. EDIT: I wrote that as a joke but it would actually fit if the Int class is a post apocalyptic mechanic or something.

[JonSetanta]

Int is trained in the use and maintenance of dildos, specifically, rather than anything relying mainly on their actual body. EDIT: I wrote that as a joke but it would actually fit if the Int class is a post apocalyptic mechanic or something.

Japanese rope techniques, really rare and exotic vibrators, oils, etc.

[Curmudgel]

I'm getting ready to play a low level Fiend of Possession in a 3.5 game and am hoping to learn of a good item to initially inhabit which I had forgotten or overlooked. They will mainly serve as a multitool wielded by a psionic thrall. A chief criterion is to be considered as many of armor/shield/melee weapon/ranged weapon/light weapon/one-handed weapon/two-handed weapon as possible, so as to facilitate playing with flying/morphing/variable/changeling/sizing/metalline et al enchantments.

Things I'm currently considering: a sang kauw(shield) from OA, a poison ring from the Dragon Compendium to simply emphasize portability, and a Shield Gauntlet from Races of Stone with the Spring-Loaded modification from A&EG.

If there were some sort of shortbow with a shield boss surrounding the whisker biscuit that I could make Elvencraft it would be ideal. Failing that, something that doesn't require an Exotic Weapon Proficiency or cost more than 2000 gold for a masterwork version would be preferred. Using ammunition pricing rules to make a +10 shuriken isn't an option.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Prak]

What would a functional, not-broken Artificer class for 3.x look like?

I think the class presented in the Eberron campaign setting book is mostly ok, but I will readily admit it can be very easily abused and voltroned together with other mechanics to create a character who can do anything. So, beyond "no, I'm not allowing you to get free wishes/make level inappropriate items" DM level changes, what might that class look like? I would hope there's some version possible that isn't 5e "you can make a few tricks that only you can use, and have one major item that likewise only you can use" style artifice.

[erik]

Would it be terrible if an Artificer was kinda like a wizard who rather than casting spells could create custom staves that they decide which spells go in and refill the charges daily? And throw in some construct crafting jazz.

[NigelWalmsley]

I think it basically comes down to how married you are to the idea that the Artificer does most of their stuff by poking at the magic item creation rules. If the Artificer has to do that, it's going to be difficult to produce something that isn't at least a little bit a broken pain in the ass. If you're okay with just writing a bunch of tech-based powers for the class to have, I think something like Koumei's Gadgeteer would have you covered.

Or, to build on erik's suggestion, you could just declare that "Artificer" is a word that means "refluffed caster type who has taken the Effigy Master and/or Techsmith PrCs". Maybe give them an Animal Companion-alike that is a construct of some sort.

[erik]

Ah yes, I forgot good ol' Option A: "Someone already wrote what you want. And that someone is probably Koumei." Everything else is Option B.

[Prak]

Well, it's a good point, I suppose. I might be too tied to the "an artificer is someone who shits out full-on magic items, possibly like candy" for something that isn't at least potentially breakable to really be satisfying to me. That said, I think an artificer class should be able to at least have an option of making gear for the party, rather than just being "Magic Iron Man" as the 5e artificer comes off to me (ie, the "you can make magical devices, but they only work for you and are just fluff on spells" model). That said, I do think Koumei's artificer broadly works for what I'm wanting.

[merxa]

I had a player who used this artificer class, he seemed to have enjoyed it, the weird science ability is very flexible, so it might not be suitable in games where low level magic is heavily restricted. Otherwise, the utility can be high, but powerlevel wise I'd put it a little below rogue maybe.