Coal missing from High-Tech?

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

So, roughly $285 for a year for coal, using Kromm's numbers, vs. $2000 for 20 cords of wood someplace with really bad winters (HT15).

Yay coal!

Yeah, one of the reasons we used it while I was growing up (and my parents still use it). Also compare that price vs $200/month 1990, or $589/month 2008 for propane, or the $600/month 1990 or $1200/month 2008, to perform the same heating with electricity.

Yay Coal! indeed.

[Kromm]

Wood is a terrible deal if you have to pay for it. Such is the price of heating with building materials, really. (Granted, High-Tech acknowledges that a cord could as easily cost $50 as $200, and that 20 cords/year is the extreme upper limit, with 3-6 cords/year being more typical . . . so where good wood is common and climates aren't Arctic, we're talking more like $150 and coal isn't worth the trouble.)

[Bruno]

Yeah, most folks heating with wood in Canada have their own woodlot to grow it on, and do all the labor themselves - cutting, splitting, stacking, seasoning, etc etc etc.

It takes a lot of time and personal effort, but has a minimum dollar cost involved, if you do it that way.

Wood Pellet Stoves are another thing altogether, but I haven't got a CLUE how they're supposed to work.

[Ragitsu]

Yes, you can.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

Yes, you can.

Um...can what?

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Jonas

Hmm, far as mining it out Dirty Tech wise, could one just use an extrapolation of the Digging Rules?

GURPS Dirty Tech An e23 original!

Okay, maybe it's just enough for a Pyramid article. The important thing is, there are ways to get this into the RAW that don't involve major surgery to GURPS High-Tech.

(Not that I'm going to write the supplement; I have no knowledge of the subject.)

[Jerron]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Wood Pellet Stoves are another thing altogether, but I haven't got a CLUE how they're supposed to work.

They are basically processed wood. Recycled stuff, scraps, sawdust, all put together into burnable pellets. Many have agitator-type mechanisms to stir the stuff for efficient burning.

Figure slightly higher priced wood, but at a better efficiency. Not really worth it compared to most alternatives, including natural gas or fuel oil, but cheaper than propane.

Game stats not included.

[combatmedic]

The solution is obvious: Kromm must write GURPS: Fossil Fuels. It will cover the heroic struggle of man to extract and exploit the petro-chemical wealth of Mother Earth. Big Bad John will be on the front cover, caught in the act of hurling Hugo Chavez into the La Brea tar pits. BBJ will look suspiciously like John Wayne. Oh, and fat baby angels will be grilling wet ribs on a floating propane grill, hanging in air above the fight scene.

[safisher]

Originally Posted by Kromm

No, coal is just missing . . . oops.

That is probably the best way to put it. I had some notes on coal, but looks like it never made it into even the rough draft. Of course, the playtesters did not catch it either. My focus was trying to include the most common/interesting tech that would appear in an adventure in which details in the book would be useful. I either forgot about coal, or decide it was not sexy enough. As it is, I would have been required to cut something in that section, and I'm not sure what it would have been.

[benz72]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Please find the page or two of content to cut, that will displease the minimal number of people.

You can't actually ADD a page or two. You either add 16 pages at once (A full register of paper) or you CUT content to keep it at the current pagecount.

I'd vote for adding 16 pages... but nobody consulted me before it went to print... oh well