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Originally Posted by Marc
It seems to me that the effect of EMP in the Twilight world is somehow excessive in comparison with the dimension of the nuclear exchange described in the rulebook. I think that the damage described in the book is quite optimistic compared with the possible reality, with people still living near impact points (like in Warsaw), with rural communities able to produce food, etc... But the EMP's seems to have an excessive efficiency to fry everything able to process a single bit.
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Yes and no I think. We brought up an issue back in RPG host where we had been speaking of Chernobyl nowadays. It appears that despite contamination the area is far from being a barren desert (Human alone is away but why risking your life when there is no need for it). here are some articles about it.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...chernobyl.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4923342.stm
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0810-Chernobyl.html
Of course, if you read it carefully things are far from ideal and the point is contested. I'm convinced that some are way too positive but i wouldn't be surprised if other were way too negative. I put you a counter article here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6946210.stm
I would expect these to remain an issue for some times and I bet that the truth lies somewhere in a middleground. Nevertheless, in the case of T2K where people are desperate, with little mean to leave, having people living quite near a burst area might not be that silly. That has been a large issue about T2K but, in fact, their view might not be that bad (in my opinion).
about EMPs nobody really knows I think and, in term of game play, their point is a good one. For my part, setting the game at a slightly later period, I have less powerful nuclear burst as MIRV are about 550kt in average (except for a handfull of 20Mt burst over the US by SS-18 Satan) and everything wasn't fried (90% was) as many elements were out of line when the attack occurs. For exemple, if you take the case of France, a number of nuclear power plants are off line (as far as I know) and held in reserve, in case of emergency. The months long exchange and most people being ignorant about EMPs would have strong effects, nevertheless.
For my part, I wouldn't start my car for some times and the second vehicle of the familly is old enough so it has no electronics (from a rough estimation, at least 20% of the vehicles in the village would still be running, by the way. Many people have older ones in storage). I would lose 80% of my computers but one will remain in working order (actually 2 as they are older models in storage) and we will retain a working fridge (older model also). Getting electricity will be more of a problem but water will be fine as we have a well in our cave
. Hopefully my cousin is now living 100 miles away and the guy is a specialist in individual electric power plant with a 20 years experience in African and third world countries. Moreover, as I have plenty of wind and a full load of electricians, engineers (including one who was making nuclear power plant)... readily available in the familly, I would plan for a wind power plant. Another advantage of my area is that they are plenty of horses around woods everywhere, lots of water and good farm lands.
Marauders and general unrest will be much more of a problem.
The only weapons that I have are matchets, swords and crossbow but expect my mother to hide some submachinegun somewhere (+ at least 2 or 3 handguns with full load of ammunitions). As I live in a countryside, you can also bet that several people still hold some stocks from WWII (I have heard of huge ones but these remain rumors to these days). Strangely, when the government issued a law (10 years ago) asking people to bring what firearms they had, only 12 gauge hunting rifle showed up.
Where are the Mausers, Sten, MP-40 and MG-42 all gone?