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Old 03-01-2014, 09:41 PM
Gelrir Gelrir is offline
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As I've mentioned before, I think it's vital for the referee to avoid any hint or presumption of "the Project knew it would be 150 years, but lied to you, the team members". A stack of three dozen oxygen tanks, conveniently in the corner, too bulky to carry off in the MPV, looks a bit like evidence of foreknowledge.

Digging out won't take 4 weeks, if it can be done at all with the tools available to a Recon team.

Hmm, a person uses about 0.5 to 1 kg of oxygen per day. 5 x 28 = 140 kg of oxygen for a team of five, for four weeks. By volume, it's at least 550 liters per person per day; 550 x 5 x 28 = 77,000 liters. A typical scuba tank holds 2300 liters of air; yes, not oxygen, but for a first approximation we can use that. So: 33 scuba-type air tanks. Adding 77 cubic meters of oxygen into the bolt hole will raise the air pressure a bit (though it's being converted to carbon dioxide by respiration and then absorbed by the scrubbers, as long as they're working).

So: it can be done, but a stack of three dozen scuba tanks, and a small mine's worth of carbon dioxide scrubbers, are required. And if the "stack of tanks" exactly matches the amount needed for the 150 year wait -- another clue.

"You realize with dismay that what you were told -- your team would be awakened a few years after the Atomic War, or not more than 15 years in any case -- seems to have been wrong. The temporal stasis machine was turned off, but the time bubble remained in effect. There was nothing your team could do; fortunately, there was a month's worth of oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbers installed in the bolt hole. And in fact, after a month, the time bubble collapsed, just as the oxygen and scrubbers were depleted."

Maybe a higher "time multiplier" would be useful: say, 20,000:1. The "150 year mistake" would only take up 3 days, not requiring any oxygen tanks or carbon dioxide scrubbers? A team expecting a 10-years-to-wakeup will plan on a 4 hour wait, which turns into 3 days. That would make radio communications more difficult though ...

Anyway, I'm sure you can work something out for your campaign.

--
Michael B.
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