Given the present conditions, many buildings and infrastructure elements will need at least some level of repair before survivors can make full use of them. Unfortunately, lack of specialized equipment and materials will make the repair of many modern structures at best impractical and at worst impossible. Also, the large population losses of the Collapse make mass manual labor viable for only the largest and best-organized communities. With this said, characters who take possession of a structure for any length of time are likely to want to restore it. This can be a cursory job to restore Shelter or an extended renovation to restore Structural Integrity.
Restoring Shelter
It’s perfectly possible to nail plywood over broken windows and stretch tarps over holes in the roof without paying any heed to a structure’s crumbling foundation and sagging joists. Characters who aren’t concerned with overloading a structure or subjecting it to additional damage may simply return it to livable condition. Restoring one level of lost Shelter is a supply-dependent incremental Construction (MUS) task. This task has a period of four hours, a supply requirement of one unit of light building materials, and a target total equal to the structure’s Living Space. If a structure’s Shelter is restored to a level greater than its SI allows, any subsequent loss of SI will cause the structure to revert to its normal Shelter rating.Restoring SI
Repairs to a structure’s core load-bearing elements are more diffi cult and time-consuming. Restoring one lost point of SI is a supply-dependent incremental Construction (MUS) task. This task has a period of eight hours, a supply requirement of one unit of heavy or industrial building materials (depending on the structure’s dominant material), and a target total equal to the structure’s Armor.Salvaging Materials
Most repair jobs require workers to clear away debris before beginning to rebuild. With luck, some materials can be salvaged from the wreckage of a building and reused. Sifting through one lost SI worth of debris requires one hour and a Construction (AWA) check. With success, the character recovers a number of units of building materials equal to half the margin of success. The type of building materials recovered is appropriate to the materials of which the structure is made - the wreckage of a single-family home is unlikely to yield industrial-grade steel-reinforced concrete.ConsTruCTion
Construction on a prewar industrial scale is outside the scope of this book and outside the reach of most PCs. No one’s putting up new skyscrapers in 2013. However, there is an ongoing need for new structures to replace those destroyed during the Collapse or to aid in the establishment of new communities. Characters may want to construct homes, bridges, fortifi cations, or bunkers.Construction efforts take place in two phases: design and execution. The design phase involves site survey work and the creation of architectural diagrams, materials lists, job assignments, and other paperwork necessary to expedite the work. The execution phase is the physical work necessary to assemble the structure. In the execution phase, it’s unlikely that one character will work alone; the skill check is for the foreman, or the character leading the effort.
Buildings
Characters can erect a wide array of buildings, from modest homes to hardened command bunkers. Design requires a Construction (EDU, TN +1) check. This task takes a number of days equal to the building’s Living Space x 10.Execution requires an incremental supply-dependent Construction (COG, TN +3) check. This check’s period is 60 man- days, its supply requirement is 1 unit of building materials, and its target total is equal to the building’s Living Space x 5 divided by the designer’s margin of success.
At least half of the total building materials used for this incremental check must be appropriate to the building’s intended Armor - either heavy or industrial. If the building is designed
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to provide only Adequate Shelter, not Complete Shelter (i.e. is designed without climate control), the check period is only 20 man-days.
Example: Andy decides to build a well-fortified bunkhouse for his team - unfortunately, with no air conditioning. The building will require Living Space 8. Andy’s base design time is 80 days. Fortunately, he has a functioning notebook com- puter and a CAD/CAM software suite, which reduces the time to 8 days. He receives a margin of success of 5 on his design check.
Andy and three teammates set to work executing his plans (the other four are on guard and maintenance duty). Andy’s incremental skill check has a period of 5 days (20 man-days divided by 4 workers) and a target total of 8 (Living Space 8 x 5, divided by Andy’s MoS of 5). With a minimum of 8 skill checks to be made, Andy will need at least 4 units of in- dustrial building materials - remember, the building is well- fortified - and 4 units of light or heavy building materials.
Non-Residential Buildings
If a building is not intended for habitation, design takes a number of days equal to half the building’s fl oorspace in square meters. The target total for execution is equal to the fl oorspace divided by (5 x the designer’s MoS).
Bridges
Bridges are rated in terms of deck area and maximum load. A bridge’s deck area is equal to its width times its length in meters, while its maximum load is the total amount of weight (not including its own) in tons that it can support at any one time.
Design requires a Construction (EDU, TN +2) check. This task takes a number of days equal to the bridge’s maximum load plus half its deck area.
Execution requires an incremental supply-dependent Construction (COG, TN +4) check. This check’s period is equal to the bridge’s maximum load in man-days, its supply requirement is 1 unit of industrial building materials per 10 tons of maximum load, and its target total is equal to the bridge’s deck area divided by the designer’s margin of success (minimum divisor of 1).
Example: Andy is tasked with replacing a destroyed bridge that used to span a local river. At the best location, the bridge will need to be 20 meters long. To save time and materials, Andy decides to make it just wide enough to accommodate a single truck: 3 meters, giving it a deck area of 60 square me- ters. Its maximum load will be 40 tons, which should be more than suffi cient for any vehicle except a main battle tank. Andy’s base design time is 70 days, reduced to 7 days for computer as- sistance. Andy makes his design check and receives a margin of success of 4.
The community gives Andy a crew of 14 laborers with which to build the bridge. Andy’s incremental skill check has a period of 3 days (40 man-days divided by 15 workers), a supply requirement of 4 units of industrial building materials (40 tons maximum load divided by the fl at modifi er of 0), and a target total of 15 successes (60 square meters divided by MoS 4).
Footbridges
Bridges designed for pedestrians and animals rather than vehicle traffi c follow the same rules given above. However, they only require heavy, rather than industrial, building materials.