Alternate history transport

[Dalillama]

Those figures make me think Megalos oughtta have a ton of canals. An apprentice Earth mage can replace a dozen or so navvies, and needs the practice. I figure an earth elemental would probably do a treat too.

[AlexanderHowl]

Well, the cost is 1 FP per cubic yard (minimum 2 FP), and the spell lasts for 1 minute. If you have an apprentice with Shape Earth-12, he or she would find it more productive to spend 6 FP to move six cubic yards of earth and then rest for an hour. With a failure rate of 1/4, you would want four apprentices working, so they could move 18 cubic yards per hour (on average). If we assume a work/rest regiment as above, the apprentices would move 54 cubic yards before lunch and 54 cubic yards after lunch, which would allow them to move around 200 tons of earth every day, making them probably five times as effective as an equal number of mundane workers.

I imagine that a bunch of mage with Magery 0 would just learn Seek Earth and Shape Earth so that they could earn a decent living moving earth and stone. Since they are five times as effective as mundane workers, they could charge four times as much, meaning that they would qualify for a Comfortable Job (mundane workers would have a Struggling Job). I imagine that you would see teams of them making canals, dikes, roads, etc throughout Megalos and Cardiff. They also probably spend their off hours making fun of less practical mages.

[(E)]

With only a little bit more complication the Earth mages would be able to work in a full canal as well with the assorted benefits that might provide. Shape earth would also be of use for lining the canals with clay. Some of the knowledge spells would aid in the surveying as well.

Assuming the canals are about 6 yards wide and 4 feet deep there is a reasonable amount of forward progress each mage-day of work.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Those figures make me think Megalos oughtta have a ton of canals.

Unclear. Yes, Earth spells are pretty impressive for canal building, but they're equally impressive for road building.

[Dalillama]

A canal is a vastly more efficient mode of haulage than a road.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

A canal is a vastly more efficient mode of haulage than a road.

At low TLs, certainly.

I play in a long-running AD&D campaign where the GM has some weird ideas about economics. When some dwarves of mine set up a city, use of Earth magic to build a canal network quickly and cheaply (about ten dwarves with magical tools to build a mile of canal in a day, the tools were donated by a very wealthy enchanter) enabled me to avoid having to disagree with the GM.

[AlexanderHowl]

Megalos also possess extensive river systems and very large lakes, so canals would likely exist to connect them together. Roads would be built along the canals too because you have to have a place for the draft animals that pull the barges against the current to walk. I would suggest that the major canals would be 24' wide and 6' deep, which would allow two way heavy traffic, with a road on each side of the canal, since the mage would have to do something with the shaped earth.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

A canal is a vastly more efficient mode of haulage than a road.

For bulk cargoes but only for an army's supplies rather than its' troops.

Even for bulk cargo canals or any other means of transport will generally only appear to connect a source and a market for those cargoes _after_ the sources and markets appear.

You could try a "If we build it they will come" approach and quite possibly go bankrupt if they don't come in a timely manner.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

A canal is a vastly more efficient mode of haulage than a road.

Of course, you can build a road much more quickly than you can a canal, at least if your workforce has Magery 1 (to allow them to use Earth to Stone). Shape Earth has 1/3 of the cost of Earth to Stone, but a road doesn't need to be nearly as deep as a canal. I think canals also need to be wider than roads, but we'll ignore that and just put each at 6 yards wide. A 6-inch thick stone road should be more than sufficient (the first concrete highway in the US was apparently 5 inches thick back in 1916). A single 6 FP casting of Shape Earth for a 18'x4' canal gets you 3 yards of canal. A single 6 FP casting of Earth to Stone for a 18'x0.5' road gets you 8 yards of roadway. Thus, the road can be made a bit shy of 3x faster than the canal - and that's with a probably excessively thick road (you could probably get away with 3 inches thick, for 16 yards per casting).

[smurf]

The main problem with canals is that they silt up. And as mentioned before they are extremely labour intensive to build. Maintenance requires constant dredging and in major renovation works requires the sections of the canal to be drained.

Width of a canal is also important and also lock systems. The Kennet_and_Avon_Canal runs for 87 miles and incorporates over 100 locks to navigate hills.

This project started in 1718, began use in 1723 and was finally completed in 1810. If anyone in a RPG is looking for a job, then Canal Navvy work would be plenty if not on the cheap side.

The Somerset Coal Canal joined to the K&A in 1798 and a little bit later in 1810 the Wilts & Berk Canal. Both took over 10 years to complete from inception to completion.

Canals can be a great place for adventures when they are under construction too. In addition you could have 'witch' hunts against 'oath takers' and 'combinations'. This would be a departure from the 'Guilds' to 'Unionism'.