[Item] Portable Generator

[saulres]

Weight 10? 15?

3? batteries gives 15? minutes of power.

When a character is carrying a powered portable generator, the lights are considered on in that tile for search purposes.

A powered portable generator can be seen in the character's description.

[Lagn]

Shouldn't portable generators use gas cans?

[saulres]

I dunno, I've never built one. But I thought they were battery powered. Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong thing?

I don't really care what the fuel source is honestly. It's just the overall concept I think would be cool.

[Wozzy]

10-15 sounds fair. 1 gas can for 15 minutes also sounds pretty fair if you put the effort into finding them (weight might be an issue, but if you're using this, you're definitely using strength).

The one change I would make is this:

You have to "Use" it, in which case it becomes places and then starts the 15 minute timer. It can be picked up at any time to pause the timer, but it can be picked up by anyone or outright destroyed (like a target, grants standard target shooting xp and counts towards badges).

[Igor_Dolvich]

Portable generator should use fuel/gas can... you generate power using electric motor. Batteries, on the other hand, don't generate power, they store power.

[Trialist]

Portable generators tend to be heavy, in the range of 100-200 lbs. They are portable, yes, but that is compared to standard power generators - that is, large stationary buildings. Generators tend to burn gasoline to create energy. If you'd want to hook one up to a random house, then that would also require wiring it to the house's power grid to get the lights up and running. If you aren't looking for something that burns fuel, then I think you are just looking for a large-sized battery of some sort, not a generator.

I suppose a person could cart around a portable generator and fuel, with hooking up a large searchlight to light up rooms instead... but at that point, it's just a glorified flashlight.

Although, the idea of some buildings (especially emergency buildings, like Hospitals) to have their (stationary) own portable generators that can consume fuel to turn the lights on for a limited time would make sense.

[SocialJusticeWarrior]

Placing, fueling, and destroying generators? I'm reminded of Urban Dead.

[saulres]

[Trialist]

Well, I think that finding an appropriate name would be simple enough once everyone understand what the idea is trying to implement. There are lots of different lights out there. I guess I was just a bit confused as to what was being suggested.

Just to be sure, you are talking about an item that is found and carried by a character, used to effectively turn on the lights in the square the character is in for a short time, and then gets used up? As in, use an item on a square, that square is now considered to have powered lighting for the next 15 minutes/1 hour or whatever an appropriate duration? I assume that it can only be used indoors, and that the character needs to be indoors to use it - otherwise, you could get some silliness such as somebody using the item outside a stronghold to light it up and show how many characters are inside.

Or do you mean an item which the character carries around, and it lights up every tile they visit for 15 minutes/whatever? That would probably be a bit more difficult, given that not all tiles normally have power running to them.

[Lagn]

[Kandarin]

This is a good idea but should be part of the Renown Generator ability.