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Old 05-17-2013, 06:17 PM   #1
shkspr1048
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Default Energy Output Statistics

Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
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Old 05-17-2013, 06:39 PM   #2
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
What unit? Volts, amperes, watts, dice of damage? What do you want to use it for?

Bill Stoddard
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Old 05-17-2013, 06:41 PM   #3
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
Short answer is 'no', though for real world systems this can be looked up.
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Old 05-17-2013, 06:59 PM   #4
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
In Infinite Worlds there's about a page on using various sources of energy to recharge a parachronic conveyor.
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Old 05-17-2013, 08:59 PM   #5
shkspr1048
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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What unit? Volts, amperes, watts, dice of damage? What do you want to use it for?

Bill Stoddard
Watts, and for conversion to Mana using energy spells.

Also, any advice on how to build a spell for collecting energy from a constant source like a wall outlet, letting it build up, and then releasing the accumulated energy into a spell all at once?
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Old 05-17-2013, 10:05 PM   #6
malloyd
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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Watts, and for conversion to Mana using energy spells.

Also, any advice on how to build a spell for collecting energy from a constant source like a wall outlet, letting it build up, and then releasing the accumulated energy into a spell all at once?
My advice is *don't*. Seriously, either you are going to have to set the energy to mana conversion so low that plugging into an outlet is useless, or you are going to end up with "ceremonial" castings being capable of anything at all in a day or two - remember 86400 seconds/day, if the outlet is useful at all in a second (1 energy), by the end of the day.... If you absolutely have to, efficiency has to drop enormously, like three orders of magnitude, to preserve any sort of balance on powerful spells

And don't use the rules for Energy spells, they aren't very good. Decide how much free energy you are comfortable with mages having *all the time*. Then write your own Plug In spell that gives you that much out of a normal electrical outlet (typically 2 or 3 kW before the fuses blow). Keep in mind that each point of available energy/turn is effectively a 5 or 10 point advantage with the limitation (only near an electrical outlet) you are giving out for free to any mage with this spell. If you set it too high, nobody without the spell will be remotely able to compete.

Write a more advanced spell providing maybe 10 times as much before you incinerate yourself, but requiring a more powerful source - logically the minimum would be 10 times the standard line - 20-30 kW, about the main line into a typical household or one powering an industrial machine, but you can set the efficiency as much lower as you like. And forget about ever allowing mages to pull more than that - in principle a power plant could be 10,000 times that again, but you do not want two orders of magnitude more energy available, let alone six.
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Old 05-17-2013, 10:25 PM   #7
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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My advice is *don't*. Seriously, either you are going to have to set the energy to mana conversion so low that plugging into an outlet is useless, or you are going to end up with "ceremonial" castings being capable of anything at all in a day or two - remember 86400 seconds/day, if the outlet is useful at all in a second (1 energy), by the end of the day.... If you absolutely have to, efficiency has to drop enormously, like three orders of magnitude, to preserve any sort of balance on powerful spells

And don't use the rules for Energy spells, they aren't very good. Decide how much free energy you are comfortable with mages having *all the time*. Then write your own Plug In spell that gives you that much out of a normal electrical outlet (typically 2 or 3 kW before the fuses blow). Keep in mind that each point of available energy/turn is effectively a 5 or 10 point advantage with the limitation (only near an electrical outlet) you are giving out for free to any mage with this spell. If you set it too high, nobody without the spell will be remotely able to compete.

Write a more advanced spell providing maybe 10 times as much before you incinerate yourself, but requiring a more powerful source - logically the minimum would be 10 times the standard line - 20-30 kW, about the main line into a typical household or one powering an industrial machine, but you can set the efficiency as much lower as you like. And forget about ever allowing mages to pull more than that - in principle a power plant could be 10,000 times that again, but you do not want two orders of magnitude more energy available, let alone six.
I might go for logarithmic scaling. For example, maybe each 10x the energy gives only 2x the mana. Going from a kilowatt line like a house line to a megawatt power line would give you 8x the mana, not enough to totally disrupt the universe.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 05-17-2013, 10:34 PM   #8
Refplace
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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I might go for logarithmic scaling. For example, maybe each 10x the energy gives only 2x the mana. Going from a kilowatt line like a house line to a megawatt power line would give you 8x the mana, not enough to totally disrupt the universe.

Bill Stoddard
I like the idea of decreasing efficency.
I think the whole mana power source thing would benefit from a revisit.
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Old 05-17-2013, 10:37 PM   #9
cosmicfish
 
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Default Re: Energy Output Statistics

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Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
For the sake of simplicity, say that you can get about 560W sustained out of a household outlet (~700W for a few minutes), double or triple that on big breakers like the ones for your furnace or washer. Personal generators kick out anywhere from 1-10kW depending on size. No idea about the third rail.

Most electronics will list either the power or the voltage and current (amps). Power is voltage (DC) times current, or voltage (AC) times 0.64 times current.
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Old 05-18-2013, 08:14 AM   #10
Fred Brackin
 
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Is there a supplement that contains information on how much electrical output comes from various sources (household outlets, personal generators, the third rail on subways, etc.)?
Yes, but they were 3e. The Classic Technomancer pdf

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG30-6087
I
is worth buying for many other reasons so that would be my recommendation.

First do note that this "gathering energy slowly" thing is something that the rules specifically forbid. So maybe there's a reason not to do it.

The closest canon procedure is the Raise Cone of Power spell from Thaumatology which takes _hours_.Or the minor draw Power Spell in Urban Magics which produces only trickles mostly intended to maintain spells and not major amounts of energy.

All that said, the convenient chart from the energy spell section of Technomancer (which didn't make it into Magic 4e) lists a household outlet as providing .01 FP per second.

Accumulations based on this figure should certainly be limited in capacity as per the calculation in the Conduct Power Spell. A Magery 3 HT10 individual could accumulate only 62 FP over 6200 seconds.
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