#3/34: Building on "Alternate Spaceships"

[DaltonS]

One of the most interesting things in this article were the new rules for using GURPS Spaceships to design buildings. I have a few questions:

1. "Mountains of Steel and Glass" - What sort of armor systems should be used when designing buildings? (Materials: glass, brick, concrete?)
2. "What's the story?" - How should building height (length) translate into number of stories (floors)?
3. "Where did I park the car?" - A garage (even underground) rarely needs an airlock like a hangar bay. Would this increase vehicle capacity?
4. "Power & Utilities" - Modern buildings often depend on external resources (power, water, gas, etc.) provided by an urban infrastructure. How should this be modeled?
5. "My 'penthouse' is ... rather special." - Can the upper 'hull' section of a building be or contain an "Upper Stage" vehicle? What about a "Top Deck" helipad?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Dalton "I'm still waiting for GURPS Real Estate" Spence

[Kale]

Originally Posted by DaltonS

"Mountains of Steel and Glass" - What sort of armor systems should be used when designing buildings? (Materials: glass, brick, concrete?)

I'd say you can ballpark it with 'Stone' armor for concrete or brick. Glass would probably be a building with no armor systems. For instance even ships with no armor are assumed to have a thin skin in the DR3 (note this is DR, not dDR) range. This would be a pretty good approximation for glass. Heavy glass could probably put you in the same general bracket as the stone or wood armors.

"What's the story?" - How should building height (length) translate into number of stories (floors)?

A quick Google search reveals a typical commercial building is 12 to 18ft tall per story.

"Where did I park the car?" - A garage (even underground) rarely needs an airlock like a hangar bay. Would this increase vehicle capacity?

Maybe not; you need more space for the driveways for the cars to get in and out. The parking spots are sized for an average sized car so you need room next to each vehicle to allow people to get in and out of them (might be some Small Car and Large SUV spots in the mix). Between that and ramps and driveways the required access space would probably eat up any actual gains.

"Power & Utilities" - Modern buildings often depend on external resources (power, water, gas, etc.) provided by an urban infrastructure. How should this be modeled?

Require an 'Engine Room' (call it a Utilities Room) component. This would have electrical transformers, gas hookups, phone/communications lines, water supply, etc for the building.

"My 'penthouse' is ... rather special." - Can the upper 'hull' section of a building be or contain an "Upper Stage" vehicle? What about a "Top Deck" helipad?

An upper stage vehicle would surely be possible. Just remember that if the takeoff is particularly firey the launch might toast the floors beneath! You could probably toss a couple metallic armor sections on the middle section to represent blast shields to protect the rest of the building if you care about it.
Treat a helicopter pad sort of like an external clamp perhaps? Rather than an actual clamp, the mass would represent the weight of the roof reinforcement and landing pad. You can also probably use a sub-SM sized component for this for very large buildings.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by DaltonS

"My 'penthouse' is ... rather special."[/b] - Can the upper 'hull' section of a building be or contain an "Upper Stage" vehicle?

I would allow that, but it would be kind of... 80's cartoon.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I would allow that, but it would be kind of... 80's cartoon.

It would also be awesome. This would fit perfectly in a James Bond or Supers style campaign.