Re: [HoE] [HOPLER] Rad Zones, Rad Checks, and the Wasted West

[PEGHopler@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/29/99 3:50:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
crow_steve@hotmail.com writes:

<< While looking through the Doomsayers book again, I came across something 
 that seemed a bit puzzling...
 
 When talking about Amarna, page 37, it notes that an errant bomb landed 
 outside Coeur d'Alene.  I'm not sure what it meant here by an "errant" bomb: 
   is there some reason that Coeur d'Alene shouldn't have been bombed?
 
 The paragraph in question is a little vague as to if the bomb landed _on_ 
 the city, but a little further on it talks about Amarna being built five 
 miles near the _ruins_ of the old city, so I kinda get the idea that the 
 bomb...well, "ruined" the city.
 
 Okay, with me so far?  Now, we move on to Sybaris.  This is a shanty town 
 built 5-6 away from Amarna.  It's apparently a pretty busy place, from the 
 description.  A little simple math tells us that Sybaris can't be more than 
 11 miles away from the irradiated ruins of Coeur d'Alene.  It could actually 
 be at ground zero in Coeur D'Alene itself, but let's assume the folks are 
 smart and built it so you've got Coeur d'Alene - Amarna - Sybaris in a more 
 or less straight line.
 
 But...according to the basic rulebook, page 103, everyone from 5-30 miles 
 has to make a TN 5 Vigor check _every hour_ to avoid radiation poisoning.
 
 So, everyone in Sybaris is making Radiation/Vigor checks, every hour, to 
 avoid rad poisoning??
 
 Granted, most of my HoE types have figured how that d10s and 3+ 
 Coordinations are real good things to put in to Vigor.  But for the general 
 populace, isn't this a little...much?
 
 I'm sure someone could work out the probabilities, but for your average 
 brainer, with 2d6-3d8 Vigor, exactly how many cases of Radiation Poisoning 
 would be occurring in Sybaris per day?  And why would people be going there 
 given these chances?
 
 In general, do people find this 30 mile radius thing a bit...restricting?  
 Or should I just take Pinnacle's route, and ignore it, as the whole Sybaris 
 thing seems to suggest?
 
 On a related note, has anyone figured out a way to...well, figure out a way 
 to speed up or compress Radiation-vigor checks?  Making 24 rolls a game-day 
 tends to really put a crimp in _role_ playing, although it does wonders for 
 _roll_ playing.  Given a group size of 6 people, that's a big 144 rolls - 
 more if I, say, compress time.
 
 Or, by having my current adventure in a relatively small city, but within a 
 city that is 28-30 miles away, am I doing the wrong thing, and for extended 
 says, I should just set all adventures further out?
  >>


The rad zone rules in the main rulebook were meant as very general 
guidelines. The actual danger zone around any impact site is up to the 
Marshal, and is very dependent on the particular terrain and weather in 
question. A town only 5 miles west of an impact, but on the other side of a 
mountain with strong prevailing winds blowing east, could be perfectly safe 
while another town 50 miles away to the east might be hotter than the inside 
of a microwave. Basically, the Marshal should use whatever makes the most 
sense and fits best in his story.

Hourly checks can mean a lot of rolls, but they were intended to make players 
either take precautions against the radiation or spend only limited stretches 
of time in hot areas. If you spend a lot of time in a radioactive area simpy 
bump the TN up by +2 to +6 depending on how much time goes by. If the roll is 
made, the hero's fine. Otherwise they take Wind equal to the amount by which 
the roll is missed. 

Sincerely,

John Hopler
Pinnacle