Fire and lowtech questions.

[Jaware]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

From the Basic Set, p434:

I understand that. I have read the passage a bunch of times.

what my question is, do those modifiers from heat, apply to that roll.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Jaware

I understand that. I have read the passage a bunch of times.

what my question is, do those modifiers from heat, apply to that roll.

For the amount of heat you are dealing with I would say no.

Once you start dealing with temperatures that are making steel molten then it becomes a more serious question.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Jaware

I understand that. I have read the passage a bunch of times.

what my question is, do those modifiers from heat, apply to that roll.

Ah, I'd go with no - this is a different roll from the one detailed above in the Heat section, with which the modifiers are associated.

[Jaware]

Originally Posted by starslayer

For the amount of heat you are dealing with I would say no.

Once you start dealing with temperatures that are making steel molten then it becomes a more serious question.

The book clearly states that intense heat, such as being inside a fire, uses those rules.

and as he is laying inside a puddle of burning petroleum with mixed salt Peter and other additives designed to make it burn hotter, I would say yes.

[Jaware]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Ah, I'd go with no - this is a different roll from the one detailed above in the Heat section, with which the modifiers are associated.

It seems fair. Instead of rolls every 30 minutes with modifiers, it's every second without modifiers.

[Anthony]

Realistically, metal armor by itself is pretty cruddy as protection against fire, it has extremely high thermal conductivity and not a lot of thermal mass, so it will just heat up rapidly and burn you right through the armor.

However, the padding under the metal is perfectly good protection against heat (can easily be 100x as good as the metal itself), and because the metal blocks air circulation and direct contact with flame, padding that's normally flammable will probably not ignite if under armor.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Jaware

The book clearly states that intense heat, such as being inside a fire, uses those rules.

and as he is laying inside a puddle of burning petroleum with mixed salt Peter and other additives designed to make it burn hotter, I would say yes.

That was part of my point about the welding glove and an arc flame.

I feel was already being quite generous giving alchemical fire twice the heat of woodfire, and it just does not compare to an arc flame or OA flame- leather provides protection about in line with the GURPS numbers for arc flames, molten metal and OA torches, its not going to get worse as temperatures go down.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Realistically, metal armor by itself is pretty cruddy as protection against fire, it has extremely high thermal conductivity and not a lot of thermal mass, so it will just heat up rapidly and burn you right through the armor.

However, the padding under the metal is perfectly good protection against heat (can easily be 100x as good as the metal itself), and because the metal blocks air circulation and direct contact with flame, padding that's normally flammable will probably not ignite if under armor.

Right, but metal armour without a heavy cloth underlament did not exist. The high thermal conductivity of metal with the insulation of the underlament would be better than that of the underlament by itself even if you ignore the anaerobic environment, this is actually the processe used by some high heat welding grippers- the metal spreads the heat more evenly and prevents the molten metal from 'digging in'[1]. Couple this with the fact that the underlament is most likely damp from being worn (and not having any real space to evaporate into) and it should hold off significant damage from flame for some time (being poached from steam evaporating in your own armour is likely not fun, but better than being burned without it).

[1] https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vHGOF...Xq6xXFXXXp.jpg

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They also hurt more than other injury types of similar survivability, I believe.

...the ones that don't are usually worse. Full thickness burns can be almost painless because the underlying nerves are gone. Of course, those are also extremely hard to heal without skin grafts and very prone to infection. Before modern grafting techniques, burns units used to be famous for the constant underlying smell of necrosis.

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

I think we're saying the same thing, but it IS possible to die from inhaling smoke that isn't hot enough to injure just from it's temperature.

Usually because of toxicity - although medieval smoke probably would be less scary since you'd be mostly burning wood; modern smoke has all sorts of fun stuff from burning polymers...

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Usually because of toxicity - although medieval smoke probably would be less scary since you'd be mostly burning wood; modern smoke has all sorts of fun stuff from burning polymers...

As long as you burn anything with carbon you'll get CO2 which is an asphyxiant. If there isn't enough oxygen for full combustion you'll get carbon monoxide as well which is highly toxic.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Usually because of toxicity - although medieval smoke probably would be less scary since you'd be mostly burning wood; modern smoke has all sorts of fun stuff from burning polymers...

Plenty of fun stuff from wood too. And whatever paints and sealants they used.