Re: [HOE] Bio-Dome 2 Author Replies

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SPOILER SPACE







A couple of responses:
As to the adventure being salvage heavy:
I'm not sure what you're referring to here.  The B2 itself doesn't have much 
salvage,  unless you want to crowd surf through the horde of zombies when 
they break in the place.  As to the battlefield in the Pinal Pass, a reading 
of the complete text reveals that all the salvage is found in a FASCAM 
minefield (p. 11).  In the playtesting sessions run, no one ever ventured 
into the minefield after the first mine was found (luckily for the posse 
member, it didn't go off, but the next one did!).  Plus the rust mites, plus 
the glom--I think that's a pretty good explaination as to why no one would go 
into the battlefield (plus in the original version the posse heard some 
pretty strong ghost stories about the Pinal Pass that scared most scavengers 
off).  I didn't write the Phoenix Salvage table, but if you don't like it, 
don't use it, or use it for the general battlefields that surround the 
Phoenix deadland (as is mentioned in p. 25), which according to Wasted West 
are crawling with walkin' dead.  The M-200 MPSW was added by the editors to 
the original text.  Without using the Salvage table, or even with it, your 
posse must be hard up for equipment to venture into the minefield, especially 
using the new massive damage method.  As written, I really have a hard time 
seeing how GalenRasputin feels that I'm a Monty Haul writer--barring the 
Salvage Table, which was attributed to John Hopler, anyway.

HI Weapons:
Yes, these are pre-War, non-chipped versions of what the Combine uses.  As MG 
Kelley so adroitly pointed out:
"Combine weapons are also modified only to take Combine issued magazines. 
There's a plastic cap on the mouth of the magazine. If it's removed before 
being placed in a Combine issued HI weapon [not pre-war HI weapons], the 
magazine explodes for 3d12 damage.  That was in "Apocalypse Now!", btw."
So, even if the posse grabs some guards' guns, they won't have much caseless 
ammo to blow off, and can't even salvage the ammo off dead BHs down the 
road--plus the chance of being mistaken for undercover BHs (as if they'd be 
dumb enough to use Combine weapons).

The super-grain:
This is how the posse can really shine.  Remember, the main motivation is to 
help this village stave off starvation (not exactly how I wrote it).  
Interaction w/Gersholm revelas the the veggies are [probably bad, but during 
the tour he touts the wonders of this new grain that he has developed, how it 
grows in the desert, etc (p. 19).  The only reason the the B2 produce is 
tainted is because of the influence of the TOFUs (p. 16), and if grown 
anywhere but here (like in Globe) the grain will live up to its promise.  
(The grain is meant to be grown, not eaten, as someone earlier in this 
discussion thread  thought, BTW).

Jay Kyle