Tires and meds

[Gelrir]

Well, it's a matter of squinting a bit.

Presuming a sincere Morrow Project, they expect nobody will be in a bolthole for more than twenty or thirty years ... they didn't have fusion reactors before 1979, the Atomic War was in 1989. It's not quite clear to me what the Project was doing with their recruits and cryosleep berths before 1979. Big diesel generators?

(if you're running some variant game ... well ... )

So: the boltholes are sealed, the atmosphere is entirely nitrogen, big tubs of dehumidifier compounds are set out on the floor. Vehicles are up on jackstands, to prevent the tires from getting 'flat on the bottom'; the tires may even be deflated to reduce pressure on the rubber, or the wheels removed and laid up 'flat'. All fluids are removed from vehicles, anti-corrosion measures and preservatives are applied -- the sort of stuff the Air Force does to preserve aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB. A heater, run by the reactor, prevents any dangerously-low temperatures (not too likely underground in any case). Ammunition, foods, lubricants, etc. are chosen with an eye towards 'long lifespan', since even after the teams leave their boltholes their supplies may have to last for years during reconstruction. Food and other organic compounds are irradiated to kill any germs.

I've fired ammunition that's 50 or 60 years old with no trouble -- and have also had issues with ammunition only 30 years old. While they didn't fire a lot of it, there was a video recently at the excellent Forgotten Weapons blog where 100+ years-old ammo was fired in a test:

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/remi...l-8-ammo-test/

And, as referee ... you cheat. Just describe surviving items as "well, that's lucky" or "you don't know if the aspirin is still good, do you?". Plus it's always fun when the characters look at their 100-year-past-the-printed-expiration-date packet of chili.

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cd...y/medical.html

One thing not to cheat on: radioactive half-lives. Tritium is used to activate the glow-in-the-dark markings on various items (military compasses most notably). The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years ... after 12 half-lives it's pretty much kaput.

I find that discussions about how the Project made/chose only things that would last 150 years deliberately cause players to start wondering if the Project was telling a big fib all along.

--
Michael B.