08-11-2009, 11:00 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Coal missing from High-Tech?
I've been looking at stuff for an upcoming game, and one glaring omission from High-Tech's listings of fuel is COAL! This is the fuel that was used to heat houses from the mid-18th through the mid-20th Centuries, fed the trains that ran across the continents, and created TL6 smog from London to San Francisco, and is still burned today in several electric plants worldwide.
Were the authors unable to come up with G$ prices for bituminous and anthracite coal, or was it a lack of space that led to it being left out?
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08-11-2009, 11:12 PM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
I doubt it was lack of space, considering the Core Rulebooks are larger. A page or two wouldn't have made too big a difference.
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08-12-2009, 08:41 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Didn't notice until you mentioned it, but now that I have its quite obvious. Maybe it was just one of those things that fell through the cracks?
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Waiting for: Gurps VDS Gurps Armory (One can dream) ---- Per ardua ad astra "Through hard-work to the stars." |
08-12-2009, 08:50 AM | #4 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
No, coal is just missing . . . oops. Unfortunately, I'm no expert on historical fuel pricing, so I have nothing convincing to throw out as stats. Try $285 per ton for good, hard coal and $100 per ton for crummy, stinky coal. Those numbers are at least close to fair for the energy content and extraction costs, when compared to the costs for diesel, ethanol, gasoline, and wood given in High-Tech – although they may have nothing to do with historical commodity pricing. (By the same standards, good-quality, clean-burning charcoal would be $300 per ton.)
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
08-12-2009, 11:40 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Given the sheer size of material its bound to happen. Hmm, far as mining it out Dirty Tech wise, could one just use an extrapolation of the Digging Rules?
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Waiting for: Gurps VDS Gurps Armory (One can dream) ---- Per ardua ad astra "Through hard-work to the stars." |
08-12-2009, 01:03 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Quote:
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.
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08-12-2009, 01:06 PM | #7 |
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
I don't know if it helps any, but good coal in my area (not the best coal type but its up there in quality) runs about $50/ton if you haul it yourself. For comparsion purposes, a full size pickup truck bed full of coal is roughly 2 tons.
Of course I live within an hour drive of several coal mines, so proximity plays a part in price. Also, if you are using it simply to heat a house from a single Franklin style coal stove, two tons of coal will last a year and a half or more. (This I speak from experience as we'd get one ton a year to heat us through winter when I was growing up).
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MIB #1457 Last edited by sjard; 08-12-2009 at 01:10 PM. |
08-12-2009, 01:11 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Quote:
(I don't know of any place other than the northern Pocono/Appalachian Mountains in Pennsy that mines anthracite. I'm certain there's nowhere else in North America that does - it was a source of pride where I grew up that the only veins of anthracite in North America were only a hundred miles to the north of us - but I'm not certain about the other five populated continents.)
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
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08-12-2009, 01:21 PM | #9 | |
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Quote:
Most coal in the world is Subbituminous and some places like Australia have a higher than normal amount of Lignite. From worst to best it goes Lignite (barely fossilized oily wood), Subbituminous, Bituminous, Anthricite. Most coal in the US is bituminous (roughly 52%), anthracite makes up about 2%, the rest is subbituminous. We have very little lignite in the US. Edit: I grew up in an area where coal mining history was a big portion of the local history section in school.
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MIB #1457 |
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08-12-2009, 01:39 PM | #10 | |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: Coal missing from High-Tech?
Quote:
Yay coal! |
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coal, fuel, high-tech |
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