07-10-2018, 09:41 AM | #41 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
I was talking about this with C last night, and she raised the question of dental work. In 1914, I think this was comparatively crude, with fillings made from gold/mercury amalgam as a rule. Does our visitor have crowns, onlays, dental prosthetics, or even dental work carried out with porcelain rather than metal? At some point a doctor might look in his mouth.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
07-10-2018, 11:10 AM | #42 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
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Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
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07-10-2018, 06:33 PM | #43 | |||
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
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07-11-2018, 01:28 AM | #44 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
Sure. My point was that because such vests were available at the time, this chap's kevlar might be immediately recognised as armour.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
07-11-2018, 03:49 AM | #45 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
I'm pretty sure that resin hardened fabric was experimented with during the Great War so the idea might be one that could be identified by a skilled materials scientist.
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07-11-2018, 04:13 AM | #46 | |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
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Likewise, wax-soaked leather was in use in the 18th C, and into the 19th in the Orient. And for men's shoe uppers. From which we get the wonderful tradition of spit-shining our boots. Women's shoes have been hardened with various resins and resin-like substances, including wax, pine resin, pitch, tar, hide glue, and more, for centuries. So the concept would be readily familiar to clothiers, cobblers, tailors, and materials scientists alike. They might not know what the resin was, but would recognize the mode. |
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07-11-2018, 08:33 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
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Remember to never underestimate primitives. Especially when the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard in 1914 is not especially primitive. He may have never seen a hypo, but a clever forensic team could guess roughly what it is at the time. Butterfly knife fashion multitools were a weird fashion, indeed they still look kinda weird. But they would only prove that there was something unusual about him. The I pad (if that is what it is) might be a little hard though. As for the gun, well obviously it is a gun. As for the sight, "By jove, clever fellows putting a flashlight on a gun". I am imagining he would first guess he was some sort of foreign agent as ordinary decent criminals don't have the juice to rate that kind of tech. Next he would try to trace the stuff and underestimate the difficulty ("Hey Mr. Zaharoff, have you any idea what this is"). But his first assumption would be that they were extremely clever contraptions that did in fact come from somewhere on Earth. I suspect his first reaction might not be puzzlement but overoptimism. His first assumption would be that the products were rare but could be traced on Earth.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 07-11-2018 at 08:51 AM. |
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07-11-2018, 10:06 AM | #48 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
One thing that occurs to me about the pat down is that there may not be much reason to look for a wallet specifically. Before World War I, most people were not expected to carry identification papers. Of course a check for a passport might be in order, but I think that might be carried in a separate small folder. Drivers' licenses existed, but few people drove automobiles and the victim wasn't found in an automobile. If it were considered necessary to learn his identity that would likely call for a general search for all papers and other identifying marks.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
07-11-2018, 03:48 PM | #49 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
Yeah, but that's going to happen long after a DCI in the Met has lost control of the case. I was thinking that the NPC in question will probably recognise a bulletproof vest as such immediately.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
07-11-2018, 03:55 PM | #50 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with the Actions of an NPC
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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