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Something about burrowing powers I end up wondering about how others deal with the power because what's happening to all the excavated material? You don't go digging through a granite hillside without generating a larger volume of waste material than the size of the hole you're digging (since it's broken up and looser than it was before being dug out). Without powers that aren't generally available in the game (like easy disintegration of the matter) that 10' cube of ground leaves you that much material to get rid of. It'll also pile up behind you sealing you in without someone hauling it off. So what are some practical ways of dealing with this or do most just tend to handwave this problem away?

The person doing the burrowing/tunneling is packing the material really tight? If using this idea, it can be "explained" thus: The tunnel/path/hole that remains is what is left after the character has compacted the material being dug through?

Mr. Deific NMI wrote:The person doing the burrowing/tunneling is packing the material really tight? If using this idea, it can be "explained" thus: The tunnel/path/hole that remains is what is left after the character has compacted the material being dug through?

That might work for very loose dirt but ground is pretty hard-packed in general and you just can't compress ten cubic feet of rock down to the point it effectively isn't there anymore. Consider the ground in and around building construction like highways, they go to a lot of trouble to compact that as much as they can so the ground doesn't settle enough to buckle and damage the highway. While you might handwave away some of it as having been cut and shaped to function as supports the rest just can't be made to conveniently go away like that. I know for some that's overthinking things but Palladium's more grounded than other systems like Marvel and DC and the debris from the digging should pile up considerably and need disposing of somehow (or if digging for mining purposes hauled off for processing).

It goes wherever the rock for a stone based matter creation power comes from

AlanGunhouse wrote:It goes wherever the rock for a stone based matter creation power comes from

Provided a GM wanted to hand out an extra power to a PC like that.

I was teasing, which is why I added the silly grin.

From my understanding of reading this power, its as you dig you are just filling the space behind you with the matter you are digging in front of you.. If you are rushing.. If you actually want to make a tunnel for everyone to follow you'd have to clear the way for it or use another power to destroy that matter.

But on another perspective it also depends on the GM. If you want the superhero feel and the gm doesnt care it'll probably be handwaved. But if you are a logical/technical type then you need to figure out a clean up process.