Manned Bases-Housing
 

Do manned base crews live in the base after wake-up or do they move onto the surface?

I always assume there is some in base housing, but that the plan is to build outside housing as the base moves into the active state.

I would say that it really depends on the base, would Prime expand outside? IMO the answer is no, it is THE command base for the Project! This is perhaps the single greatest issue with the Prime Base module, the abandonment of its primary mission in favor of a "feel good" operation that ultimately backfired.

So the command bases would stay concealed for some time, as would the regional supply bases.

Commo bases? By their very nature, they would be exposed to anyone with the ability to triangulate their location. I feel these bases, as written, were not really thought out very well. But then what form would these bases take?

Agriculture bases, would almost certainly go "public", as soon as they awakened, especially so that they can best use their stocks of seeds, animals and tools.

I largely agree with @dragoon500ly.

Permanent bases that were expected to interact with the public would have short-term/emergency habitation in the base but would expect to build and use surface buildings as soon as practical.

Bases not expected to work with the public but not considered as high value targets would spend longer underground and when/if they built external housing it would need a secure but discrete connection to the base. Perhaps build a hotel/inn with a secret tunnel in the basement.

High value targets like Prime Base and the Regional Command Bases would just be underground for the duration of the Project. Precise location would be tightly controlled and staff rotated out as necessary, but too dangerous to have an external structure.

It depends on how "nice" the bases are in your campaign. It also depends on what your version of the Project envisioned the environment being like at "wake up" ... if it's an irradiated hellscape, the base crew will want to stay inside more, and the bunker will have more amenities. If they expected everything to have "blown over", there won't be as much reason to hunker in the bunker after waking up.

I understand that 4th Edition has "Project dependents", chosen ... somehow. Wives, parents, siblings, in-laws, children, cousins ... ? Anyway, those folks won't be so happy to be locked up underground. Or or they in special "kin and kinder" bunkers?

SPOILER FOR OPERATION: DAIDALOS

Highlight to read:

The Morrow base presented in the new scenario book has a swimming pool and other nice things, presumably all to be used post-wake-up.

--
Michael B.

The base my players just entered via an emergency exit is a single looping tunnel driven by a Tunnel Boring Machine. Most of the interior structures are single wide trailers. Base equipment includes a number of "yard dogs" to pull the trailers out once the base deems it safe to do so.

Certainly an idea, don't know if I would choose trailers, why not go for military-grade shelters or even prefabricated buildings? One game i played in had a "abandoned" factory where the outer buildings could be easily converted into living quarters, with the machinery rooms converting into admin offices, mess hall, etc. .

Instead of trailers, you can get containers designed to become almost anything you need from office space, barracks, mess hall, C4I, warehouse, machine shop, etc. from places like SEA BOX (http://www.seabox.com/products/detai...ndable-shelter) and move them from a tunnel with a few of these if you don't want a bunch of flatbed trailers (https://www.copybook.com/companies/c...netherlands-01)

The other plus with this is you could store an entire factory and move it just about anywhere with relative ease. Makes for a satisfying solution for me.

Works for me!

I've always favored shelters based on standard cargo containers. There is something about being able to ship, lift, drop in place, bolt together, add steps and repeat as necessary. It's an elegant engineering solution.

I would argue that there is less difficulty and greater value in just building new quarters above ground. The bunker stays available as a bunker, your heavy equipment stays in place, etc. Plus you can choose to integrate the Team with the community in housing.