Gates, Gate keys, and Gate locks

[zot]

Originally Posted by Skarg

Yes, in theory.

When a gate starts to flicker somewhere, that means there is one minute from then to go alert the repair crew (minimum IQ 15 and 50 ST available to use somehow, probably Aid spells which require additional turns and DX rolls) - in this case maybe involving more using of gates and get them to come back and do it. That team needs to be very responsive and not on a bathroom break, and the distant Wizards Guild branches with the gates need to trust each other to allow the maintenance crew to rush through and cast spells in their gate room. (They probably do, if they trust each other enough to have mutual gate rooms, though it's another interesting situation for possible backstabbing and/or covert operations...)

No, it wouldn't have to be that tricky at all, you just put five gates on top of each other with priority rules that ensure fail-over. Inspection crews would go around and periodically check how many gates are left, using a key patrol protocol like security guards do.

All the gates are inside of gate stations, like train stations, with a crew and a crystal ball (maybe several of these). If all the gates in a station that go to a particular location happen to fail, the crew uses the crystal ball to contact the gate network so an emergency technician can either come in through a gate from another location or as a last resort, a senior emergency tech can Long Distance Teleport in and make a new gate for a junior gate crew to use.

Senior emergency techs would be responsible for a territory, traveling the gate networks to familiarize themselves with each gate station so they can teleport to it at need. Each station would have a distinctive appearance to help technicians teleport there.