Stellar EMP
- Thread starter Fritz_Brown
- Start date
Theo D Lite
SOC-11
Excuse me, but wouldn't a starship and indeed any small craft be designed to withstand solar flares? Even if a mega flare overwhealmed systems wouldn't starships and small craft have redundant backups that were off line and could be brought back into service once the level of radiation dropped to equipment tolerance levels?
Admittedly on planet expidition gear could not be so highly protected so losing comms at one end of the link makes it impossible to communicate, but having only one part of the equation knocked out makes it easier to restablish a link.
Finally does EMP affect anything that is actually not operating at the time of the pulse or is this just one more urban myth that I've grown up with?
Admittedly on planet expidition gear could not be so highly protected so losing comms at one end of the link makes it impossible to communicate, but having only one part of the equation knocked out makes it easier to restablish a link.
Finally does EMP affect anything that is actually not operating at the time of the pulse or is this just one more urban myth that I've grown up with?
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
Yeah, actually, it can effect equipment that is turned off. The issue is that EMP is such a high magnetic field that it induces high electrical currents in whatever conductors it crosses.
Ironically, this means more modern equipment is more vulnerable. Microcircuitry is less tolerant of high current levels, and the distances involved in switches are small enough that that current WILL jump any gaps. Tube-based items are less vulnerable, as they are designed for higher currents. And, of course, the bedroom light circuit in your house is least likely to be effected. But, for a mega-EMP, it could electrocute you if you're wearing braces. (At least, that's the description I will use in the adventure....)
OK, Mal, I like your idea. Is there a way to increase the emag part of this thing intelligently? Or, would there be a magnetic/particle field that would INCREASE the effects of the flares, rather than shield the planet?
Ironically, this means more modern equipment is more vulnerable. Microcircuitry is less tolerant of high current levels, and the distances involved in switches are small enough that that current WILL jump any gaps. Tube-based items are less vulnerable, as they are designed for higher currents. And, of course, the bedroom light circuit in your house is least likely to be effected. But, for a mega-EMP, it could electrocute you if you're wearing braces. (At least, that's the description I will use in the adventure....)
OK, Mal, I like your idea. Is there a way to increase the emag part of this thing intelligently? Or, would there be a magnetic/particle field that would INCREASE the effects of the flares, rather than shield the planet?
The closer to the poles you get, the worse the effects due to the confluence of lines of flux. Put your ground station close to a pole and voila!, concentrated effects.
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
OK. That is one piece to the puzzle.
Now, what would be present on the planet that would contribute to a creature with an affinity for eating electrical things?
Now, what would be present on the planet that would contribute to a creature with an affinity for eating electrical things?
Maybe a plasma based lifeform?
Excuse the extreme leaps of logic or lack there of; it's just a quick jumble of thoughts but I hope there might be a kernel of something playable in here:
Planet is low gravity (moon?) but metal rich. Lots of volcanic activity fills atmsophere with particles, creating tremendous capacitance. Strong planetary magnetic field focuses solar radiation, charging the atmosphere with raw energy. Storms march continously across the planet's surface.
Life begins where lightning strikes silicates in pools of liquid sulfur, disrupting the compounds forming there; each time they reform, they create duplicates of themselves. As metals become mixed in, the compounds are able to generate sufficient current from the ambient energy fields to fission and the cycles become self-sustaining.
A billion years pass ...
Silica based sesile organisms have evolved, converting metals and silica from the soil and energy from the atmosphere into biological building materials. At first, they passed 'genetic' instructions (a lot like programs) via direct contact, then by static discharge. As distances grew between organisms, mating was accomplished by ion discharge (plasma pollen?).
Replication was first accomplished by fission, evolving eventually to utilizing clouds of charged metal-silicate particles (plasma plankton?) that drift away from the parent organism to settle somewhere down wind. By this time, the sesile organisms appear as 3-4m tall semi-transparent spires, flecked with metal, humming with bio-electricity (neon blue crystal castles?) or fields of handsized crystals crackling with waves of piezio-electric energy (possible animal intelligences?).
Some ejected plasma plankton evolved to follow a new life cycle, becoming parasites on other spires and fields, where they draw energy and materials until they fission. Other plasma clouds evolved further to feed off the parasites. The spires use static discharge as defense against these parasites, disrupting the plasma clouds long enough so they are blown away by the ever present wind before reforming.
One of these parasites or predators sees the ship (all metal and full of power) as one big happy meal. Even the batteries in hard vacc suits would probably draw predators.
Wacky (Mal)? Unrealistic? Implausible? Illogical? Brilliant? Hopefully it sparks some creativity.
Excuse the extreme leaps of logic or lack there of; it's just a quick jumble of thoughts but I hope there might be a kernel of something playable in here:
Planet is low gravity (moon?) but metal rich. Lots of volcanic activity fills atmsophere with particles, creating tremendous capacitance. Strong planetary magnetic field focuses solar radiation, charging the atmosphere with raw energy. Storms march continously across the planet's surface.
Life begins where lightning strikes silicates in pools of liquid sulfur, disrupting the compounds forming there; each time they reform, they create duplicates of themselves. As metals become mixed in, the compounds are able to generate sufficient current from the ambient energy fields to fission and the cycles become self-sustaining.
A billion years pass ...
Silica based sesile organisms have evolved, converting metals and silica from the soil and energy from the atmosphere into biological building materials. At first, they passed 'genetic' instructions (a lot like programs) via direct contact, then by static discharge. As distances grew between organisms, mating was accomplished by ion discharge (plasma pollen?).
Replication was first accomplished by fission, evolving eventually to utilizing clouds of charged metal-silicate particles (plasma plankton?) that drift away from the parent organism to settle somewhere down wind. By this time, the sesile organisms appear as 3-4m tall semi-transparent spires, flecked with metal, humming with bio-electricity (neon blue crystal castles?) or fields of handsized crystals crackling with waves of piezio-electric energy (possible animal intelligences?).
Some ejected plasma plankton evolved to follow a new life cycle, becoming parasites on other spires and fields, where they draw energy and materials until they fission. Other plasma clouds evolved further to feed off the parasites. The spires use static discharge as defense against these parasites, disrupting the plasma clouds long enough so they are blown away by the ever present wind before reforming.
One of these parasites or predators sees the ship (all metal and full of power) as one big happy meal. Even the batteries in hard vacc suits would probably draw predators.
Wacky (Mal)? Unrealistic? Implausible? Illogical? Brilliant? Hopefully it sparks some creativity.
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
Hmmm. Wacky, and good, Ran. But, it won't work for this one. (May work elsewhere, though....
)
Rossoneill
SOC-12
On the radiation data issue ,
in the files on t20 in the moot it has some rad damage charts that are not in the t20 book
in the files on t20 in the moot it has some rad damage charts that are not in the t20 book
