Morrow Aviation Assets

[nuke11]

Here's a few questions; If you are converting all of these to some sort of fusion, how do you keep the players flying in the general vicinity of the expected game? As a PD you better have the entire continent fleshed out as the players are going to get the bright idea that hay they are fusion I can fly this all day. And this is where the Prime Base module lost me, a fusion power C-130 is a really bad idea.

Then how do you convert these to fusion in the first place? Also what did the project do before the 1987 attempted fusion refit? All of the infrastructure to be abandoned that support the pre-fusion project?

The 1987 date and the 1989 expected war date are hard targets that are known. How much time does it take to go from a plan to a working fusion engine that firstly fits in a vehicle and then has to be modified and made light enough to fit into an airframe. There is some 2 years before the drop dead date and there is a lot of equipment that needs to be re-worked and de-deployed throughout the entire project.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by nuke11

If you are converting all of these to some sort of fusion, how do you keep the players flying in the general vicinity of the expected game?

Ideally, by not introducing aircraft to the characters prior to Prime Base. Seriously, they should be pretty high-level assets, not something the team can just have. And by the time the team has restored the Project they will either have nationwide issues to deal with (if they are in charge) or else will be subservient to some other group (like Phoenix) that controls the aircraft.

Originally Posted by nuke11

And this is where the Prime Base module lost me, a fusion power C-130 is a really bad idea.

I think it's a really good idea. As I said before, aircraft are too useful for the Project to not have any.

Originally Posted by nuke11

Then how do you convert these to fusion in the first place? Also what did the project do before the 1987 attempted fusion refit? All of the infrastructure to be abandoned that support the pre-fusion project?

Answer that for the rest of the Morrow vehicle fleet! Seriously, if they can do it for all the V-150's or Strykers or whatever vehicles are being used then they can do it for some helicopters and a few planes as well.

Originally Posted by nuke11

The 1987 date and the 1989 expected war date are hard targets that are known. How much time does it take to go from a plan to a working fusion engine that firstly fits in a vehicle and then has to be modified and made light enough to fit into an airframe. There is some 2 years before the drop dead date and there is a lot of equipment that needs to be re-worked and de-deployed throughout the entire project.

Yeah, well, the back story was never really well thought through...

[nuke11]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Answer that for the rest of the Morrow vehicle fleet! Seriously, if they can do it for all the V-150's or Strykers or whatever vehicles are being used then they can do it for some helicopters and a few planes as well.

Yeah, well, the back story was never really well thought through...

I have talked with all of the original designers and writers of TMP and Kevin came up with the idea of fusion powered vehicles, so the game wouldn't turn into a Mad Max Road Warrior search for gasoline game. The idea of fusion was to unshackle the players from a constant search for fuel, that's it. The rest of the premise evolved out of the fusion power premise. The glaring holes where never filled in as there was no need to, as anything pre-fusion was glossed over or ignored completely.

So anyone that read the game and played it, the first thing that was changed was the war date. Most increased the date to allow more time for the fusion switch over or to add the new weapons coming out in the 80's and 90's. My group we changed the date to one in the mid 1990's and then a last change to the year 2000.

For either series of games 1st/2nd/3rd or 4th edition the 1987 and 1989 dates are all that are common and are fixed in time.

As to how the project converted from petroleum to fusion is for another thread, but from the 1st/2nd/3rd editions we start sometime in the late 60's to 1987 and the 4th edition we start sometime in the mid 70's to 1987 as well.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by nuke11

I have talked with all of the original designers and writers of TMP and Kevin came up with the idea of fusion powered vehicles, so the game wouldn't turn into a Mad Max Road Warrior search for gasoline game. The idea of fusion was to unshackle the players from a constant search for fuel, that's it. The rest of the premise evolved out of the fusion power premise. The glaring holes where never filled in as there was no need to, as anything pre-fusion was glossed over or ignored completely.

My point was simply that the problem with the introduction with fusion does not really apply preferentially to one type of vehicle or another - if you can gloss over ignore the way the Project created a fusion ground fleet, then gloss over or ignore that they were able to do so for aircraft as well. And if you have an alternate explanation, then use that alternate explanation for aircraft as well.

Personally, I think that there are better ways to handle the backstory that would lead to a better foundation for the game... but who doesn't? Regardless, as you suggested, anything not related to aircraft should really be in another thread.