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Sam Baughn · 07-02-2016, 04:03 PM

In my current game the PCs are a group of TL9 space explorers who are checking out an uninhabited planet. They landed with fairly minimal equipment in their drop pod and are now looking to set up a base of operations.

They have scouted out a good location and started gathering materials to construct a defensible enclosure in case the local wildlife prove to be threatening. They have plenty of food and have located a water source, so no worries there.

The main thing they want to do immediately is set up some fences. I said there was a raised area of about 900 square feet which would be suitable for fortifying and nearby plants which could be turned into boards, poles and cordage fairly easily. I ended the session at that point, intending to look up the rules for building and present them with a more detailed timetable in the next one.

Looking at the Low-Tech Companion 3 rules, it seems that they would be considered a carpentry team. They have one character with high Carpentry and Engineer (Combat) skills and another with decent Carpentry plus two others with only semi-relevant skills. A TL 4 Carpenter earns $790 per month, so it seems that if they were treated as TL 4 (which seems reasonable if they are mostly working with hand tools) they would generate ($790 * 0.55 * 4) = $1,738 of goods per month.

A cheap 1" thick wooden wall is $6.20 per square foot. If they build it five feet high, that's $34 per foot. If we assume the 'month' in LTC3 is four weeks of 40 hours per week they are generating $10.86 per hour. That means it takes four people over three hours to make every foot of wall. To enclose the fairly small area they want to protect will take them over two months.

That seems incredibly slow. Do I have the rules right and is there anything they can do to speed things up?

07-02-2016, 04:03 PM	#1
Sam Baughn Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and some other bits.	Building walls with the LTC3 rules. In my current game the PCs are a group of TL9 space explorers who are checking out an uninhabited planet. They landed with fairly minimal equipment in their drop pod and are now looking to set up a base of operations. They have scouted out a good location and started gathering materials to construct a defensible enclosure in case the local wildlife prove to be threatening. They have plenty of food and have located a water source, so no worries there. The main thing they want to do immediately is set up some fences. I said there was a raised area of about 900 square feet which would be suitable for fortifying and nearby plants which could be turned into boards, poles and cordage fairly easily. I ended the session at that point, intending to look up the rules for building and present them with a more detailed timetable in the next one. Looking at the Low-Tech Companion 3 rules, it seems that they would be considered a carpentry team. They have one character with high Carpentry and Engineer (Combat) skills and another with decent Carpentry plus two others with only semi-relevant skills. A TL 4 Carpenter earns $790 per month, so it seems that if they were treated as TL 4 (which seems reasonable if they are mostly working with hand tools) they would generate ($790 * 0.55 * 4) = $1,738 of goods per month. A cheap 1" thick wooden wall is $6.20 per square foot. If they build it five feet high, that's $34 per foot. If we assume the 'month' in LTC3 is four weeks of 40 hours per week they are generating $10.86 per hour. That means it takes four people over three hours to make every foot of wall. To enclose the fairly small area they want to protect will take them over two months. That seems incredibly slow. Do I have the rules right and is there anything they can do to speed things up?