(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #163

[Nils K Hammer <nh0g+@andrew.cmu.edu>]

Sorry I'm so far behind in TFT that I don't know gate mechanics, but I used
to play rpg with a bunch of physicists, and some of these issues came up
with them as well as being read in fiction.

I've never liked the image of a collapsing gate being infinately sharp or
some such munchkin attracting mechanic. My intuition indicated that the
gate is akin to a donut shaped force field, so when it collapses the force
will push anything in the center out. In my view, a victim trapped halfway
through will be spat out like a watermelon seed. I don't even expect much
harm unless they are resisting the expulsion somehow, such as being too
massy to be moved by the initial force, or striving mightily against it,
or carrying lots of complicated gear attached to themselves, which might
be pinched off. This view was supported by at least one physics genius.

Castle defense; there is a new mundane technology for finding tunnels and
bunkers using gravity gradiometry. Perhaps there should be magical spells
for doing this, which would be an important precursor for planning an
attack. I was wondering whether the mundane technology could be defeated by
flooring tunnels with extra dense material, seeding false return areas with
extra low dense material, and arranging spaces in chaotic curvey "organic"
layouts. My grandfather wrote a paper in the 1960's called
"vertical attenuations in airborne gravimetry", so I assume the original
detect-tunnel spell would be only usable from a non-moving position, but
a later improved spell could be used while flying.

Nils K. Hammer


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