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Shadowrun construction materials?

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Blackwaters

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« on: <10-06-12/1315:29> »
What is the most common construction materials for internal walls in the Shadowrun world in 2072?  Today it is drywall, but would it still be drywall or plasticrete?  Or something else?

DaveDaveDaave

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« Reply #1 on: <10-06-12/1415:43> »
Barrierfoam from WAR seems amazingly dirt cheap and fast and very easy to work with, granted for one story buildings only unless you are spraying onto some sort of support mesh/frame. Almost to the point of blowing 5 Karma and learning Shape Armourfoam.
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CanRay

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« Reply #2 on: <10-06-12/1548:16> »
Drywall is probably still used for walls for the most part, it's cheap enough, and might even be able to be synthetically created enough to make mining the components for it obsolete (And we all know how the Corps love to put Blue Collar workers out of jobs!).

For internal support bracing, Plasteel is the likely usage as it's durable but still has flex to it (which allows the building to bend slighty due to natural events, like explosions.).
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Noble Drake

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« Reply #3 on: <10-06-12/2030:04> »
Drywall is listed on the Barrier Ratings table, so I'd say that's a pretty solid case for it still being around - even if it isn't what is most often used in modern construction anymore.

DaveDaveDaave

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« Reply #4 on: <10-06-12/2113:29> »
With Vitas 1 and 2 perhaps a lot of the buildings would have been built , esp in the barrens around if not before the turn of last century.  Plascrete and more modern building techniques might only appear in decent areas or new builds?
An Awful lot of people believe a lot of very strange things indeed for no valid reason I can see. They can`t all be right but it is quite likely they all can be very wrong.

PeterSmith

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« Reply #5 on: <10-06-12/2254:40> »
...and might even be able to be synthetically created enough to make mining the components for it obsolete...

Yes and no. It's easy to get syngyp (synthetic gypsum) from coal-fired power plants, it's pulled from the scrubbers that sit in the exhaust stacks. It's also roughly the same per-ton cost as mined gypsum (at least it was when I worked for a drywall manufacturing company), enough that the place I worked at had a few facilities that only used syngyp.

Drywall is listed on the Barrier Ratings table, so I'd say that's a pretty solid case for it still being around - even if it isn't what is most often used in modern construction anymore.

Oh? And what, pray tell, is replacing gypsum wallboard these days?
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CanRay

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« Reply #6 on: <10-06-12/2302:18> »
Oh? And what, pray tell, is replacing gypsum wallboard these days?
I don't know about today, but I bet Horizon has All-Natural Gypsum Wallboard on the market.

Made from real Gypsies!  ;D
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Noble Drake

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« Reply #7 on: <10-06-12/2348:43> »
Drywall is listed on the Barrier Ratings table, so I'd say that's a pretty solid case for it still being around - even if it isn't what is most often used in modern construction anymore.

Oh? And what, pray tell, is replacing gypsum wallboard these days?
In case I said that in a confusing way, I meant "anymore" as in the 2070s of the Shadowrun-verse, not as in now.

As for what is being used most commonly in the 2070s - I don't know, haven't found it stated anywhere definitively... but some old adventures (Mercurial, as an example) have spots where they state the barrier rating of various walls at 3 or 4, so they are likely meant to either be drywall or some kind of plastiboard (SR1 lists plywood at 3 and construction plastic at 4)

Blackwaters

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« Reply #8 on: <10-07-12/1241:52> »
Ok if we say it is drywall, would you count each wall as being made of 2 layers of drywall?  Or does the structure rating account for the fact that walls usually have one layer of drywall on each side of the wooden frame?


JustADude

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« Reply #9 on: <10-07-12/1248:55> »
Ok if we say it is drywall, would you count each wall as being made of 2 layers of drywall?  Or does the structure rating account for the fact that walls usually have one layer of drywall on each side of the wooden frame?

I wouldn't over-analyze it.

The book is abstract enough it should probably be best considered to be the rating of a standard interior drywall wall.
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Blackwaters

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« Reply #10 on: <10-07-12/1256:43> »
Yeah, I'm just looking for ways to reduce effectiveness of UWBR.  I know am changing topic here, but any suggestions on how to balance UWBR?

DaveDaveDaave

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« Reply #11 on: <10-07-12/1411:23> »
Yup for the price of an Executive lunch the office installs a passive radar sensor 2 or 3 rooms in. Just far enough in so the radars on cars won`t trigger it. Have it hardwire connected to a siren and Panicbutton (tm). Bit risky to carry on the mission when the loudspeaker is yelling "Armed intruders using UWBR radar in building, KE response time averages 6 minutes, expect drones sooner."  I`m sure there is something that can then be switched on to bounce radar signals about randomly to buggerup the UWBR readings?

Unlikely to have a lot of false alarms as UWBR is a pretty niche item that only specific proffessionals or erm shadowrunners would be likely to carry.
An Awful lot of people believe a lot of very strange things indeed for no valid reason I can see. They can`t all be right but it is quite likely they all can be very wrong.

KarmaInferno

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« Reply #12 on: <10-07-12/2356:06> »
It would help if the books used proper real world terminology.

SR text treat UWB radar as functionally the same as "millimeter wave" or terahertz radar.

It's really not the same thing.



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Novocrane

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« Reply #13 on: <10-08-12/1114:37> »

WellsIDidIt

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« Reply #14 on: <10-09-12/1154:25> »
Quote
Ok if we say it is drywall, would you count each wall as being made of 2 layers of drywall?  Or does the structure rating account for the fact that walls usually have one layer of drywall on each side of the wooden frame?

Well according to destroying barriers, the armor/structure rating is for: "1 meter square and about 10 cm thick (SR4A, pg. 166)."

10 cm is just under 4 inches (3.94 rounded) and Drywall is usually used in 1/2" sheets (some areas use 3/8" sheets for interior wall and 5/8" greenboard in high moisture areas). Using the 1/2" standard, that means one structure/armor rating worth of Drywall is nearly 8 sheets of Drywall (4 walls effectively). In all reality, this makes a lot of sense, Drywall is pretty much just a privacy screen, it does not stand up to any kind of force really. For more evidence on this view:  Box of Truth. Even a .22 pistol will go through 3 drywalls (6 sheets of drywall) without any other factors. Anything that serious runners are firing is going to swiss cheese drywall. This is why hosing an area inside a building is bad when you don't know what's on the other side of the walls.

That said, that 10cm wall is going to have other stuff inside/on it as well: Studs, wiring, insulation, switch housings, paint, posters etc. It would be a fair call for the GM to adjust things to make it one armor/structure rating per wall or two, especially in decent neighborhoods.

In areas like the barrens, a drywall may literally just be a single sheet put up, so it would vary from area to area (a lot of buildings use this tactic for maintenance/employee only interior sections as well.

All that said, for many modern buildings, plascrete (which can be made in clear for window use according to fluff), plastiboard, and Kevlar Wallboard are all also common materials with the latter being likely most reserved for secured/risk locations.