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Old 12-25-2018, 11:59 PM
Gelrir Gelrir is offline
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I've been slowly going over sections in detail. A general problem: the table of contents isn't very good (and there's no Index). For example, the "survivor groups" (all the local nations and communities) fills pages 17 to 71 of 154 numbered pages (thus 1/3 of the book): but "survivor groups" (Chapter 2, second B) is as detailed as the table of contents gets for those pages.

Some puzzling decisions by the writers in regards to the nation-community of Amega S'hana:

MANY SPOILERS

Steven Baxter is an NPC Project member from a different team than the player-characters; he was captured 3 years (or not, see below) before the module date by the Coachella Valley community ("Amega S'hana", which isn't given a translation into the Cahuilla language); his team stumbled into a shootout with a patrol from one nation (the Nueva Republica, aka Mexicanos) and just as the bullets stopped flying the Amega S'hana army showed up. Six of his team members were killed in the continuous battle; he and one other survivor were captured, along with one remaining Morrow Project fusion-powered XR-311, and taken to the Coachella Valley (aka Palm Springs for the rest of you non-California). The two Project members were placed in a "prison camp" and kept there for a year (per page 73) or three years (per page 103) as convicted spies (despite their gear, language, etc. differences from the supposed enemy). Eventually the other Morrow prisoner died, and Baxter "pushed ... to his limit" escaped; he found a Project cache, resupplied himself a bit, and then spends two years eluding the Amegans, until he contacts the player-character team. None of the above are problems (though the date thing needs a fix); but:
  • Baxter has Project radios, and the "wake up codes" for several other teams (he's the coordinator of all Recon teams in California) ... but hasn't used the radios to wake up any of those teams, though he's been hanging around the area, "... hoping all the time that some other MP team might eventually find him." Why didn't he wake one or more teams up? The player-character team was awakened by someone else, not Baxter.
  • another issue: on page 105 the text states Baxter "[...] does not like the Amegans but will grudgingly say that they are trustworthy and honorable if treated respectfully at all times. Baxter doesn't like the Mexicanos at all." Very, very odd: he spent one or three years in an Amegan prison camp, from which he was driven to escape -- and his only contact with the "Mexicanos" was during the same battle in which the Amegans captured him. Why would he like the Amegans any more than the Mexicanos? Well, he is insane, I suppose. Stockholm syndrome?
  • no mention is made of his feelings about Colonel Mulderry, commander of the Border Rangers, the man who captured Baxter three or five years ago, and probably killed at least one of his team mates in that battle -- and "who will be anxious to take the team to into the capitol" for questioning.
  • the description of the Amegans' understanding and treatment of the Project teams is inconsistent. It seems they were willfully ignorant of Baxter's obvious "not a spy" status when they captured him. But on page 104: "Unknown to Baxter, the Amegans had altered their judgement of him and his teammate soon after retrieving them from the desert [...] With their usual sharp wit and decisiveness they set to studying the vehicle, attempting to unlock its secrets." So asking him about the "secrets" was a no-no? The circumstances of his captivity aren't described much, but apparently he wasn't questioned (except about his supposed espionage activities) and was driven to escape.
  • the "Amegans" are Tech Level C (solar electricity, wind turbines) to E (agriculture, weapons). They're described as having a half-dozen internal-combustion military vehicles, but otherwise steam engines are the most advanced vehicles; Tech Level E weapons are circa the American Civil War. Okay, all well and good -- very "Mad Max". But the "great secret" is the fusion power plant of the captured XR-311. I can certainly agree the Tech Level C to E locals can realize it's amazing, but (page 104 again): "While they are still many years from creating a working fusion power plant themselves, the Amegan scientists have made great strides in understanding fusion power and its potential applications." The 4th Edition says about Project reactors: "Inside almost all the Project’s vehicles was an electrodynamic confinement reactor - a vacuum chamber containing a complex grid of electromagnets which could hold a fusing ball of plasma and tap its energy to produce electricity. The big advantage of this system was that vehicles only needed to refuel every 18 months or so. The big disadvantage was that a high-voltage, high current electrical source was needed to start the reactor." I have my doubts about the Amegans being anywhere near understanding the reactor -- if they know it's fusion it will be due to the label on the casing.
  • a related issue: if the reactor runs out of fuel after 18 months ... shouldn't the captured XR311 be out of fuel by the date of the module?
  • also about the Amegans: they have a stated population of 25,000. People under 18 will be about 25% of the population; "old" and the sick, criminal, etc. will be at least 15%. That leaves 15,000 productive adults. In the United States currently, 10% of the population are age 15 to 19 -- let's call that "high school" age; so the Amegans would have 2,500 people at that age level. Another ten percent are aged 20 to 24. In 1940, about 25% of white Americans over age 25 had a high school diploma; about 5% of white males over age 25 had a 4 year college degree. If we presume the Amegans can do as well overall as the most favored social group of 1940, then there would be (25,000 x 0.65 x 0.05 =) 813 college graduates (of all ages) in Amega S'hana ... which I consider too high for such a small self-sufficient community, but let's continue anyway. High school teachers, doctors and pharmacists, and "liberal arts" degree holders will make up half of these graduates (to an approximation, and not counting the chance of multiple degrees); so there are 406 people who might have STEM degrees. Assuming that graduates each year roughly equal the loss to death, emigration, or other "loss of status" events, there might be about 25 STEM degree graduates per year, out of 50 graduates total. Okay, so they have a well-established small ... hmm (page 66) "Nixon Gutierrez is Chair of the Engineering Department of Palm Springs University." Pretty fancy for a post-apocalyptic town college.

It's still an interesting and informative module, and our local group is looking forward to playing through it.

--
Michael B.
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