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LordNanoc
November 9th, 2019, 14:28
Hi guys

My players will explore a city, that has been nuked 100 years ago. When they return to the ship, they will have to undergo decon to get their vacc suits or HEVs free of radiating dust and stuff.

Do your ship's airlock hhave decon units in them? How do you play this?
I will make it a bubble, that inflates outside the entry hatch and showers them with chem to decon them...

Just curious if you thought of something and how you play this :)

cya

seycyrus
November 9th, 2019, 15:21
The typical radiation decontamination is simply a very thorough removal of radioactive debris, so it might not differ very much from the sort of decon that takes place when a team goes to an alien world with unknown bacteria, viruses, etc.

esmdev
November 9th, 2019, 20:38
I've always made the assumption that airlocks do the job. Especially since you would also use it after a space walk where there is also quite a bit of radiation.

MadBeardMan
November 9th, 2019, 20:47
I've always made the assumption that airlocks do the job. Especially since you would also use it after a space walk where there is also quite a bit of radiation.

Me too, I make airlocks work like they do in Alien, where there's a cycle of air/water that kills off any bacteria and removes any debris from the uniforms. I know science doesn't work that way, but it works for me and my players.

I also play it that if the cycle didn't work, ie something is attached to one of the characters, then the doors don't open...... had a session in a vehicle airlock that had something nasty in with them...

Cheers,
MBM

esmdev
November 10th, 2019, 04:05
I know science doesn't work that way, but it works for me and my players.
Cheers,
MBM

I remember once reading, in one version of gamma world or another, that in order for the setting to work you have to fudge a lot. For instance the idea that a car from hundreds of years in the past could run, or energy cells might still have power, etc., are just accepted. As hard as Traveller science tries to be I often find myself falling back on that concept. Only a few versions of Traveller ship design even have an option for airlock so I just sort of assume that ships have at least one at one of the in/out sections and it would double as a decon chamber. If it works that's all that matters. :)

LordNanoc
November 10th, 2019, 17:58
I've always made the assumption that airlocks do the job. Especially since you would also use it after a space walk where there is also quite a bit of radiation.

Interesting assumption. I wouldn't want to be a stickler, but in a space walk, the radiation doesn't irradiate the suit nomally. It is more about irradiated particles, that cling to your clothes/vaccsuit. Those you get a plenty, when you i.e. trample trough a post apocalyptic city that has been nuke-blasted to oblivion about 100 years ago :D

I just assumed, they have some decon mechanism on the back entry hatch of their scout S.

What made it interesting was, that they decided to explore the city, using the ATV, that was resting in the hangar of their vessel. Of course they had to leave the ATV at some stage which ment, they had to keep their vaccsuits on afterwards, when they reentered the vehicle :D :D ... all in all very uncomfy and always with one eye on the clock (6 hrs limit on power and air in their suits - but they were allowed to refill in the ATV again).
When they returned, they contaminated the hangar of their vessel, too, so they had to undergo a lot of fuss to prevent radiation in the other areas of their vessel. It was so funny to watch them try and find a solution to get out of the ATV resting in the contaminated hangar and back inside the ship without contaminating all this... :D :D
Players were really happy with how the evening went, yesterday. It was on occasion hilarious, too

sjard
November 11th, 2019, 23:04
I can see doing a standard alien world decon run, but I'm not understanding why you'd need to do an anti-radiation decon a hundred years after a nuclear attack. Unless you're going for cinematic (fallout 3 style) extremely long lived bomb radiation. *

Real nuclear weapon radiation would be, for all practical purposes, long gone by the time 100 years pass (see the 7/10 rule). In other words, after 100 years, you'd be hard pressed to tell more than the most minute difference from natural background radiation.


As a side note Irradiated does not equate to Radioactive/make radioactive. On form of medical sterilization (of medical tools/bandages) is to irradiate them, killing off any biological life on them. This does not make the tools/bandages radioactive.

So just something to keep in mind in case your players know this bit of information and thus find it suspender breaking.


* Intentional ground bursts (less destructive due to smaller damage areas, and so generally not considered as viable for warfare) are a bit of a different story. Local radiation lasts longer but still not multiple centuries longer for the most part (higher chance of nonconsumed fissile materials hanging around).