RE: (TFT) Killing Joe, amps

[David Michael Grouchy II <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

> Jay Carlisle wrote:
>
> Lightning according to the World Book I've been using from the early '80s
says strikes vary widely but 100,000,000 volts isn't uncommon.

> ... it's volts * amps = watts if I recall so what are the implications for
lightning here?

> I also pulled from National Geographic Explorer 'Struck By Lightning' that a
strike on a home can send from 20,000 to 200,000 amps through home wiring (200
amp normal load) but of course copper is a conductor.

> 1,000,000 volts @ 1 amp = 1,000,000 watts aprox= 3704 pts dam
> 1,000,000 volts @ 1 micro amp = 1000 watts aprox= 0.370 pts dam

Jay
       Even if the lightning strike does 110 to 5,000 amperes to the
characters' weapon the question is how much of that strike has to pass through
the inside of that character to make contact with the ground. Some? All? None?
In the time I spent investigating lightning strikes on radio, cellular, and
power line towers I found that lightning could sometimes follow the tower,
sometimes the cable, and sometimes jump back and forth from cable to tower
burning it's way through the insulation repeatedly.
       If I had to put this into game terms I feel compelled to use a
different approach. The lightning will probably view the character with mild
interest, if any at all. It is looking for an electron rich target that can
heat up a lot. By heat up I mean resistance, similar to a resistor in a
circuit. A target that will still conduct the current but will convert a good
bit of it to heat. Characters have too much water in them to look really
good.
       Many of the strikes I investigated left snake trails of carbon where
metal and wiring used to be. A lightning strike on a tower tends to blow the
climbers off of the tower. The lightning strike I experienced was two meters
away on the roof of the second tallest office building in down town New
Orleans. It struck out from an antenna next to where I was working and showed
no interest me at all. While the hair on my head and arms reacted a little, I
couldn't swear that that was the induction field and not just my own surprise.
The antenna and sky were having their own conversation and left me out of it.
       I would play lightning, and describe it, as passing more around the
character. Maybe even leaving a blackened carbon strike pattern on the outside
of their clothing and armor. Only in the case of a lightning spell doing
enough damage to kill a character, and consequently disenchant their magic
items, would I consider the lightning to find the character electrically
interesting enough to strike through them.
       In conclusion electric pitting in metals, ruined clothes, maybe even
burning all the hair off are effective descriptions. A trail of carbon dust
about the size and shape of a snake that passes through the character is
reserved for lighting strikes that actually kill them. A trail that leaps back
and forth between their tissue and armor wouldn't be surprising at all.

       David Michael Grouchy II



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