Illustrations for your Gamma World campaign!
Nov 26, 2022 15:52:10 GMT -6
flightcommander and hamurai like this
Post by krusader74 on Nov 26, 2022 15:52:10 GMT -6
I just watched a YouTube video that has a lot of great info and images for a Gamma World campaign. It's titled "Nuclear Waste: What Do We Do With It?" by Sabine Hossenfelder:
There's about 400,000 tons of nuclear waste. The most dangerous component is Plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,000 years, making it dangerous for about 100,000 years. Right now, there aren't any waste storage facilities to hold radioactive waste that long. There is a large cave complex under construction currently in Finland, and there was the Yucca Mountain waste storage facility in Nevada, but that isn't being used due to safety concerns and the fact that people don't like the idea of living next to radioactive waste.
The juiciest bits of the video occur between 10:40 and 16:02. Here, Hossenfelder talks about ways researchers have studied to scare people away from these dangerous sites for the next 100,000 years. It's a challenge. Written language has only been around for 5,500 years. We're assuming a lot to think it will still be around for the next 100,000 years or that people will still speak English, etc.
The description in the video links to 2 such research reports:
Some of the ideas developed in these papers sound like they came from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. These may be very useful in a Gamma World setting:
There are dozens of pictures in the 1993 Report that offer a gold mine of illustrations for a Gamma World scenario. Here are a couple of screen grabs:
There's about 400,000 tons of nuclear waste. The most dangerous component is Plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,000 years, making it dangerous for about 100,000 years. Right now, there aren't any waste storage facilities to hold radioactive waste that long. There is a large cave complex under construction currently in Finland, and there was the Yucca Mountain waste storage facility in Nevada, but that isn't being used due to safety concerns and the fact that people don't like the idea of living next to radioactive waste.
The juiciest bits of the video occur between 10:40 and 16:02. Here, Hossenfelder talks about ways researchers have studied to scare people away from these dangerous sites for the next 100,000 years. It's a challenge. Written language has only been around for 5,500 years. We're assuming a lot to think it will still be around for the next 100,000 years or that people will still speak English, etc.
The description in the video links to 2 such research reports:
- 1984 study about how to build a final deposit site: Reducing the likelihood of future human activities that could affect geologic high-level waste repositories.
- 1993 Report from Sandia Lab: Expert judgment on markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Some of the ideas developed in these papers sound like they came from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. These may be very useful in a Gamma World setting:
- Keep the burial locations secret except for an "Atomic Priesthood" that would know the truth.
- Breed animals that would change color when exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, e.g., the "ray cat."
- Protect the surface of buried waste storage areas with a "Landscape of Thorns" (1993 Report pp 150-151) or a "Spike Field" (1993 Report pp 152-156) designed to cast fear in people (see below). Also pictured in the 1993 Report: Menacing Earthworks, The Black Hole, Bubble Landscape, and Forbidding Blocks. These pics are great.
- Messages would be posted at different levels in the cave complex. But because we can't assume people will read English in 100,000 years, they will be accompanied by pictures of human faces, depicting horror and nausea (see below).
There are dozens of pictures in the 1993 Report that offer a gold mine of illustrations for a Gamma World scenario. Here are a couple of screen grabs:
If you play Gamma World or a related RPG, you should definitely download the 1993 Report (linked above or in the video description on YouTube) and browse through all the illustrations!
