[OOC] Streets of Rage: Devil's Playground

[Serious Paul]

Okay a conversation between 3278 and I spurred this. (We have the luxury of being able to perosnally hang out)

What sort of fortifications would you as a gang or individuals taken ahead of time in the Library? It seems to make sense there would be some. You're a gang. You've had gang battles before.

So kick the idea around a little and we'll take it into account. The beauty of PB3's is we don't have be perfect. We can edit!

[MissTeja]

Well, I would presume we (every one of us) would know the place like the back of our hands. A bunch of street kids with a library - all to themselves? Anyway /in/ or /out/ of that place would be known by all.

There would be hiding spots, too - if not natural, then definately kid-built. Who wants to play hide and go seek the old fashioned way? Not these street kids. And when trouble comes 'round, they're used for more than just game play.

[Sticks]

:asleep I suppose it would have been who of me tae presume that there was a sewer entrance and act accordingly. My apologies.

[MissTeja]

S'alright dude! I just kinda figured since we've all been living there for quite awhile and this is most likely not the first time something like this has happened, we would have figured that out by now. You're playing the game with enthusiasm, though. That's definately a good thing.

[Serious Paul]

Review what's been posted and discuss it amongst yourselves.

[Anguirel]

I don't know if you've ever seen little kids with a "secret hideout" but they love to make booby-traps for them. Most of the time these are a waste of the name, they don't do anything, but then, most of the time the kids don't have access to any sort of ordinance. The most common traps I've seen for local forts are pit-falls fo some sort (which would be a pain in the ass to make in a library, but poorly patching an existing hole might work), trip lines (which wouldn't be hard at all and are usually pretty effective if you use the right type of line and tie it off well enough) and break-away ladders/steps. The last one I think we could do pretty well. Having a step you avoid out of habit, but the pursuer hits it and snaps it, at least slowing them down and possibly having some additional surprise associated -- like a concussion grenade or the like rigged to blow. Unfortunately I don't think we have the "Home Alone" style set-up, as much fun as that'd be.

I do think Toyman would have rigged small ramps into each set of stairs so he could drive his R/C cars up and down them. Those ramps could probably double as slides given the kind of treads and tires such cars would need to have to handle the Barrens. That gives people (possibly not UG, Chopper or Deke unless they requested the slides be big enough) a quick way down any flight of stairs.

Edit: In regards to hiding places, I suspect everyone with a mind to hide on occasion has a bolt-hole of some sort in the building. We probably also have loose-floor-boards or bricks that pop out or whatever to store anything of value when it isn't in use or at least when we all go somewhere together and don't want to bring everything with us.

The tunnel leading to the bridge, as I recall, is gas filled some times of the year, so I'd say edit Sticks' and Speed's posts to be not "Check where it is," but rather, "Check if it's available or if it's got poisonous gases in it." As a side note, Toyman does have a respirator so if we use that as a way out and it's clear presently, he could go last and blow the gas lines open without suffering too much in the way of ill-effects, but blocking pursuit.

[Chopper]

Not only do those tunnels fill with gas, ity also creates intense heat. So a resperator will not do alone, you also need some heat protectant gear.

[3278]

The staircases in a public library are likely to be wide, so there's no reason you couldn't have r/c car-width ramps on either side, just by throwing boards down on the edges of the stairs. If people tended to kick these, or ride them, or any of the other things people would do, eventually, Toyman would have to nail them or otherwise fix them in place, else he couldn't necessarily guarantee he can get a car up any given flight of stairs without having to physically be there and move the boards. Simple ramps, and moreover, they're large enough for Chopper, UG, or Deke to simply ride down, one foot on each ramp. For that matter, any one of those three is capable of simply leaping the whole flight of stairs in one go, anyway, so the point is ultimately moot.

I didn't recall anything about the tunnel filling with gas, but I can't be sure I'm remembering everything. Does anyone remember where that might have been said?

I've assume the library has four entrances. The main entrance must be to the south, onto Main Street, for traffic and access reasons, but each cardinal point must have at least exits, and certainly a lot of windows. I cannot imagine that a single window would be intact, but by the same token, we'd have boarded them up long ago. We must get our asses kicked fairly often; we know the drill. Besides, the first rule of squatting is to close up the holes.

That said, we /must/ have some means of blocking the doors. In this case, we're apparently barring them with the pool table, which is certainly going to hold better than a 2x4. But that table has to be held in there with something, even if we're just pinning it in place between the door frames and the book theft sensors. Otherwise, we'd have to stand there and hold it the whole time, which wouldn't make it very effective.

Deke has gone to the east entrance; I've assumed this is another lobby-like area, terminating in a series of doors, most of them already barred and "boarded" [although the board is as likely to be metal as wood], but the center two open so we can use them. Deke's put a skateboard ramp* from the main lobby up against the doors as block and cover, leaving just enough room to fire or to step through. If he needs to secure the doors, I assume he'll need to block or lock them somehow; we can't just rely on leaning stuff up against the door to keep people out. We must have some kind of lock.

Ideally, what we should be doing is asking questions OOC before we make our posts. "Can we lock the doors?" "How many windows are there?" "How is the mob armed?" Things like that. Then we don't have to edit, and everyone knows what's going on. I didn't think to do that, and I should have. Anyway, here's our chance to fix it.

*Half pipes and r/c cars. Whee!

[Anguirel]

Not only do those tunnels fill with gas, ity also creates intense heat. So a resperator will not do alone, you also need some heat protectant gear.

Toyman's only armored item is a coverall, designed to help protect against fire and chemical, so likely insulated against heat as well. Of course, it's actually for protecting him from his own creations in the chem lab but it'd work for this as well.

[Anguirel]

I didn't recall anything about the tunnel filling with gas, but I can't be sure I'm remembering everything. Does anyone remember where that might have been said?

First post of this thread:

Sub Basement 2. This was the utilities controls,and maintainence area. Most of it is taken up by the large steam boiler that still uses coal, wood or whatever you can find to burn in the winter. Tunnels on the North side allow you to travel form your home to the bridge undetected-but its not a journey with out its dangers. Several times a year these tunnels fill with noxious gasses that could kill a rhino, and scalding steam in the hundreds of degrees farneheit.

[TheScamp]

We must have some kind of lock.

It'd be pretty easy to rig up a simple reinforcement mechanism, where we put up a big piece of metal or something (or the pool table) in front of the doors. Then, we can just angle a few pieces of metal pipe up against the door, and brace their bottom ends in either brackets bolted to the floor for just that purpose, or even just some holes that Deke or UG or whoever whacked in there with a sledgehammer.

[Chopper]

Many libraries today use metal shelving systems, simular to those found in retail stores, but more book case like. Metal shelves could be detatched and make for an easy substitute for metal piping. And they would be great for boarding up windows, as they usually have rows of holes going down their length which would allow for nails.

I do like the idea of us setting up various booby traps. Sounds like what a group of kids would do. The booby trapped step sounds logical, however it wouldn't be on the stairway leading to the basement> The Harley hits every step twice on the way down.

[Chopper]

What direction does the front door of the library face btw?

[3278]

We've assumed that the front door faces to the South, toward Main Street. However, all four cardinal directions have doors. For our purposes, it's nice to have the main entrance facing the volcanic wreckage, since it means we have to worry less about attacks from that direction; instead, we need only [mostly] defend the three auxiliary entrances at the north, west, and east.

[Chopper]

So then the cart ramp would be facing North (rear of the building). So would the combo entrence of the cart ramp & stairway be the only north entrence or is there a 2nd entrence that was used by the public?

[Serious Paul]

Okay some slight changes to what 3278 and I agreed on.

Entrances:

Primary on Main Street which faces South.

Secondary on 655th Street.

Tertiary-on Blue Water highway.

Service Ramp and Stairs on McCain Avenue.

The reading rooms are blocked with enough rubble and what not to make them impassable. I am assuming all the doors are barricaded somehow.

[TheScamp]

Looking at the map, I don't see any way to get down to the sub basements other than via the old elevator. Are the downward stairs in that northwest corner, continuing the sprial (sort of) that goes up to the 2nd floor?

[Serious Paul]

You are correct. The old stairs are in a damaged portion of this library, so damaged they are impassable. You guys have rigged the old elvator shaft with handholds.

[Sticks]

After talking to Paul I decided I had better make a post about our security at the Library. I figure we weren't the first people to have lived here-based on our age-and that this place is quite obviously one of the better living places in our area. We have heat, water, and power.

So we had to come by it somehow, which is kind of irrelevant right now, but once we had it we most likely reinforced it somehow. We had to realize its value and had to have taken steps to secure it.

So based on Paul's maps I figure we have three real entrances to defend, and a crap load of windows. So here are my suggestions:

• One we would have had UG and Deke pull a couple of junked out cars into the building (Given the size of at least the main entrance to most public libraries this is possible) and placed in front of the entrances to block them off.
• Two we then filled the cars with rubble and broken glass. We most likely would have had our rigger, Toyman, who has a greater than our average skill of demoltions booby trap those somehow. Barbed wire, maybe some pyrotecnics (Nothing fancy just flash bang style stuff) and maybe some gasoline! (Just add match. WHOOSH!)
• We would have sealed as many windows as possible, maybe leaving firing style ports for us to use. After PMing Paul, I was informed that when we moved into the library most of the upper windows had already been sealed in this fashion.

After thinking about our situation for a while, I realize we may not want to leave the library. It is pretty fortified. My initial reaction was to flee post haste, but I now realize that perhaps we should hold down the library, and fortify.

We're hitting them pretty hard with a lot of fire power (Deke's shotguns, and Ares SMG attacks.) and when you add in Cain's spirit and spell attack well we have to have them reeling. If I were the guy leading them I'd have to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. (13 kids did this?)

What are your thoughts. Paul encouraged me to take a second or two to think pretty critically of our situation, I want to make sure that this time everyone gets some input in.

[Chopper]

Toyman probobly has a few ramps that allow his toy cars to launch out of the building from some of the first floor windows that may be higher then man level. Like 7 or 8 feet up from the floor, using ramps in the inside, outside it just looks like a vent opening.

We moved around the bookcases in subbasement 1 so that in case of an emercency, we can topple one of them, resulting in a domino effect that blocks off the inside doorway of the matinence ramp.

These are just ideas, Paul of course gets final word.

[Serious Paul]

So far looks good to me. I'll pipe up if it gets crazy!

[Anguirel]

Toyman is very careful with his fire when it comes to his place of residence. He's lost one home to flames already, so if those cars are rigged to ignite, it would only be if the entire region is stone and he's pretty damn certain it's not going to spread. In theory, it shouldn't be hard to do that at some basic level.

As for fortifications... This isn't quite a castle, but there were a few brilliantly designed castles that could be held indefinitely against an army of a few thousand by thirty men. Thirty. Against multiple thousands. I figure thirteen can hold off a few hundred over the short term in a sufficiently fortified place. I'm not sure this library is, but we can certainly take down a few dozen pretty quickly with minimal casualties on our own side.