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The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2017, 04:26
by Björn Hellqvist
This is a partially non-canon (one can always hope it will become canon) background of the Loop, blending facts from the books with my own guesses and extrapolations.

The Mälarö Facility, or "The Facility for Research in High Energy Physics" (commonly referred to as "the Loop"), was built by the newly formed Riksenergi (National Energy Agency) together with state-owned AB Atomenergi (Nuclear Energy, Inc) on the island of Munsö, some 26 km (16 miles) north-west of downtown Stockholm. Construction began in 1961, combining the best of Swedish engineering and know-how. Tunnels were blasted deep into the bedrock, creating the enormous loops for the world's largest particle accelerators, centered around a huge chamber housing the Gravitron. The facility was powered by the Bona reactor, a subterran nuclear powerplant whose most prominent feature was the three huge cooling towers, the tallest rising 253 meters above the rural surroundings. The light water reactor and major particle accelerator parts were supplied by Asea AB.

The scale of the Loop – or rather Loops – was daunting. The main particle accellerator, Prim-1, had a diameter of 26 kilometer (81,5 km in circumference), unsurpassed to this day. It was three times the length of the most well-known accellerator today, the Large Hadron Collider. Then there was the secondary accellerator, Prim-2, at 20 km in diameter, and the auxilliary accellerator, Aux-1, with a diameter of a "mere" 16 km. Add to this the access tunnels and other underground installations, and we have one of the most impressive engineering feats ever seen. It isn't known how a small nation like Sweden could afford such a massive undertaking, as large parts of the project's budget was classified, but there's speculation that private investors, international corporations, universities, and the US government provided funds in exchange for access to the facility and the results of the research conducted there.

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2017, 05:12
by Jynk
Going by the Killer Birds mystery, it seems like the Loop isn't always the cause of the crazy random happenings. To what degree would you say the Loop influences what goes on around it like people creating microchips to implant in birds or dinosaurs wandering the countryside. Would there be an instance where someone gained abilities like Eleven and how was the Loop related to that event? I feel like I might have missed it in there, but Tales has aliens in it to some degree, right?

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Wed 04 Jan 2017, 12:56
by pelorus
I was wondering about this.

Weird tech seems ok. AI. Anti-grav/Magnetrine. (This kinda reminds me of Robotech)
Extradimensional beasts (entities like from Stranger Things) and time travel (dinosaurs) seem ok.

But the outright supernatural? Magic? Psychic powers?
And Aliens? Although the extra dimensional entities are much the same thing.

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 03:57
by Jynk
I would not go so far as to say magic... but psychic powers developed because of exposure to the Loop seems probable. Not something a player character should have, though.

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 04:39
by Björn Hellqvist
I was wondering about this.

Weird tech seems ok. AI. Anti-grav/Magnetrine. (This kinda reminds me of Robotech)
Extradimensional beasts (entities like from Stranger Things) and time travel (dinosaurs) seem ok.

But the outright supernatural? Magic? Psychic powers?
And Aliens? Although the extra dimensional entities are much the same thing.
I agree with Jynk - no magic. In the world of the Loop, the weird tech works within scientific parameters. The rifts in the space-time continuum have caused beasts and noisome substances from both Earth's past and from 51 Pegasi B to enter the Mälaröarna area. Experiments in the US and most likely Russia might have caused similar effects. There might be a connection with the resonance cascade registered at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico in the early 2000's, and unconfirmed reports of a catastrophic experiment in Pripyat, USSR, in 1986 tell of a massive rift that necessiated the evacuation of more than 50,000 people.

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 05:40
by cwilsontrull
I would not go so far as to say magic... but psychic powers developed because of exposure to the Loop seems probable. Not something a player character should have, though.
Oh my gosh.. this totally coincides w/ the adventure I'm putting together for my group. 

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 16:31
by pelorus
I concur.

Though "sufficiently advanced tech..."

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 19:46
by Björn Hellqvist
I concur.

Though "sufficiently advanced tech..."
Good old Arthur C Clarke.

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 21:27
by pelorus
When the knowledge of fusion, particle accelerators and the magnetrine effect came in the 1950s, it broke the boundaries between the possible and the impossible. Huge transport vessels fly, cyborgs and robots can think, scientists create time portals and objects that replace people’s identities. Strange beasts roam the landscape, and humanity can contact people and creatures from other times and places. 
  • We assume that the Loop itself has a field effect -  weakening dimensional borders, popping grey singularities into existence, swapping out matter from alternate dimensions. 
  • We can assume that the Magnetrine effect allows for floating devices. We can see land speeders, cargo loaders, floating liners. It works best in the Northern Hemisphere and maybe even works better within the Loop. There's not a lot of detail about what the Magnetrine Effect actually is. It's a bit like Handwavium and Unobtainium. `````````
  • We have fusion reactors which means that energy is practically infinite  and indeed should be cheap. 
  • We have AI - how this links to the other effects must be due to the Megnetrine (making robots lighter through maglev effects) and fusion (removing the weight requirements of heavy batteries). This means that fusion reactors can be small. Not small or cheap enough to be used to run a torch but portable. 
But wait...
Objects replace people's identities?
And we can contact people from other times and places?

Re: The Loop - construction, facilities and experiments

Posted: Thu 05 Jan 2017, 22:16
by Björn Hellqvist
Yeah, there are some weird effects that are hinted at. I think it's best not to try to figure out how it's supposed to work, as that is outside of the scope of what the Kids know, but there should be enough info for GMs to make up Mysteries based on the weird science of the Loop.