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05-21-2011, 10:16 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Silver Spring, MD
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Chain Link Vs. Car
In my game last night, the players (action cops in a TL7 fantasy world) had to get into a ghost town that had been sealed off by chain link fence in order to stop the road pirates that had hijacked a shipment of hazardous material (refined ectoplasm) before the magical containment's duration ended and it got loose.
I couldn't find anything about the DR of a fence--plenty of info on steel bars and wooden planks and piles of cement, yeah. Nothing on chain link. I rolled some dice and mumbled and took what I remembered from that episode of Mythbusters and they got through, no prob., because, of course, the PCs needed to get into the ghost town so I could start shooting at them. But has there been anything official on the strength of a fence like this? Or other type of fences? |
05-22-2011, 09:49 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
Unfortunately it's a heavy "It Depends". The fences the Mythbusters always end up driving into when a remote-controlled vehicle goes awol are temporary fences, not "real" ones. They're not fixed to the ground by fence posts, they're just standing on feet. These kinds of fences rely on their weight and symbolic value to stop people - you could totally knock these over with a car, although how drivable your car would be after I'm not sure. Depends on your collision speed I suspect.
It would be simpler and inflict less vehicle damage to just get out and haul out the wire snips, and a hacksaw for the crossbars. These are typical not only around film shoots, but also around some construction sites (usually in more sub-urban areas, urban areas install permanent fences). A "proper" fence should have heavy posts sunk into concrete blocks buried in the ground to a significant depth. Usually steel posts. This version is much sturdier. It's much stronger, too, if it has the hollow steel crossbars at the top and bottom of the chain link. If it's just link strung between the two posts, it's much more vulnerable to abuse. A chain link gate is different from a fence. It comes with a natural break point in it. This is what they tested on Mythbusters - it's not the chain link you break through, it's the lock or the chain holding the gate closed. Note that they never actually bust through the portable fences when something goes AWOL...
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05-22-2011, 10:08 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Edmond, OK
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
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05-22-2011, 10:21 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
That wasn't a temporary fence - that was a fence with posts sunk properly.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
05-22-2011, 12:00 PM | #5 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Edmond, OK
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
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05-22-2011, 07:50 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
I just rewatched the episode - the car was in fact drivable. The airbags deployed and the horn was stuck blowing, and the alignment was off, but it was still perfectly good for fleeing zombie hordes from in.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
05-22-2011, 11:00 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Silver Spring, MD
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
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The PCs got the car a bit down the road before they had to abandon it. But what the heck is the DR? I think we really need more examples of the DR and HP of ordinary things. All the guides that I can find--and I admit, I don't have a great memory--are for massive structures. |
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05-22-2011, 08:40 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
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05-23-2011, 01:59 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: Chain Link Vs. Car
A sheared off post stub could do a lot of damage to a vehicle. Take out suspension, tear a tire, crack an engine sump. I suppose my point is that a fence is not homogenous like a wall.
My 2c.
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