Make The World Seem Real
I’m curious: what’s a common or obscure thing you know how to do that could help you and those around you if/when there’s a local apocalypse? Think supply line breaks, floods, power failures, earthquakes. Does this skill ever show up in your games, even as support for some background color?
I for one am not that good at food; given enough supplies I won’t let you starve, but I’m no Maestro D’.
On the other hand, if you want something mended, I’m your best bet. Patches, mends, rivets, ties, seams, skin if I had enough demand to practice – these show up in my “make the world seem real” all the time. That mattress stitch? Works for deep tissue wounds too. Subcutaneous stitch to minimize scarring? Gotcha. Massive, nasty scarring but gets the job done? Sure, couching will do it. How do you take your real-world skills and use them to make your AW seem more real?
I’m a general handyman with wall repair and plumbing. When I want to make the world seem real, I talk about dust, mold, and other smells. That can be as warm as the smell of something cooking or those fly covered guts baking in the sun.
Man I’m useless. I dunno. Therapist?
Time to put on that mad look, wear an aluminium colander strapped to your shaved head, and get into the fortune telling biz. Reading people is more than half of the job. 🙂
As an exterminator I’ve seen stuff in the real world that could fit into a game. Bedbugs so bad they’re crawling on the walls. Rats eating one of their kind caught on a trap. Children pouring breakfast cereal with roaches in it. I’ve been in many homes that look like they’ve been through the Apocalypse.
Meguey Baker See you mention looking at stitches and I start thinking that it goes both ways and this is what goes through my head…
Setter: I stand there, teeth clenched, looking at what they did to your mattress. I’m rolling for read a sitch.
Pity: But this isn’t a charged situation…
Setter: You don’t know how I feel about fabric, or sleep for that matter. Heddles and treadles! I rolled a 7. Okay, so looking at the mattress, which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
MC: Uh… um… well… I guess the bullet holes are pretty small…
Setter: Yeah, you say that now but in a few days those holes will be twice as big. Great, I know just what to do – I pull out some heavy duty suture, honest to doff nylon suture, and start to backhand a mean, clean pursestring.
MC: Hold up, where did you get nylon?!?
Setter: It’s cool, I can spend the stock, I’ve got a supplier. I’m closing up these holes and, after a few nights, you won’t even be able to see the stitches – full recovery!
Pity: Wait, what?
Setter: Look, it says right here, normally it costs 2 stock but if you’re treating an NPC, it only costs 1 stock and I got that.
Pity: …but it’s not a person, it’s a mattress.
Setter: Dude, open your brain!
I’d be a Quarantine, because I can sleep really well
I can build snow shelters, and I know how to build a solar still to clarify water (or recycle it!) without boiling.
Adam D Ooo! Super useful!
Erik Buchanan Yep. Exactly.
I’m good with Google Searches and can fix very minor IT problems. Also, I speak German. So I guess I should be a zombie that’s groaning “hiiirrn” a lot. At least I’m not very fit physically and half blind without my glasses, so I won’t be much of a threat to the survivors. Yay.
I can use epidemiology to fight the diseases that will invariably spread after the fall of the hospital system and with the displacement of millions of people.
I’m pretty handy with a saw/axe, am happy to split logs, and am pretty good at building and maintaining fires. I’m okay when it comes to fishing. I can brew decent beer and serviceable mead/cider. I can teach you to swim and to catch crabs. I’m pretty good when it comes time to end a session, open my brain, help, or stay the f*ck down.
Sabine V , so, what happens when the tech goes weird? Bugs, viral attacks, patching cables?
David South I do want to know more about what that looks like with busted supply lines!
I fix things. All sorts of things. I can make a mostly safe generator, and I can provide refrigeration.
This has made it easy for me to narrate all sorts of mechanical color and be consistent with real world mechanics when explaining parts needed or malfunctions, etc.
Meguey Baker knowing how diseases spread is half the battle. You can use epidemiologic principles to determine if a disease is food or water-borne, or spread via coughing/sneezing as opposed to direct contact, or from insect/mutant bites or (as is often the case) it may spread by multiple methods. Then once you know that, you can make steps to prevent its spread, even without fancy antibiotics or drugs.
David South That is fascinating. I have a very rudimentary sense of such things, but reverse engineering the vector from the presentation is a whole ‘nother bug. Haha.
I can start with a sheep and end up with clothes, I have a pretty good working knowledge of what plants around here are good for what, I know ~7 ways to start a fire…
In the AW game I ran, the characters were baffled by the store they found that seemed to sell…string. Lots and lots of string. At least there were some pairs of good, sharp, small scissors.
Lars Logue I want to know how to make a generator! Neat! I know the basics behind pre-industrial earth- or water-cooled very basic refrigeration, but I’ve never tried for real.
True facts: I want to learn how to build and use a lathe. Because that’s a tool that can change a world.
Carrie Schutrick I love that!!!
I guess I could mostly help with morale. I can spin stories and sing a tune. And I can teach/entertain children so the others have their hands free.
Other than that, I know basic science, I’m not squeamish, and I’m a fast learner.
Oh, I forgot about my USAF skills, I can load and maintain a 30mm gatling cannon, load and arm a whole bunch of different gravity bombs, load and fire an AGM-65 missile (TV/IR guided) but that would require a partial A-10 for me to tinker with (need the cockpit and a working APU to provide power), and load chaff/flare pods. I can operate a microwave communications rig and the portable generator it needs. I can also weaponize it (can you say microwave shotgun defense, kids?) Also, single pad cryptography if I have a partner with the same code book.
How do I make that real in the post apoc world? Well, I can talk heavy weapons tech and actually postulate what would and wouldn’t work.
Well, I have a few things.
I’m entertaining — I sing, dance, act, and read well. That can be helpful when spirits are ground into the dirt.
I’m a nurse, and was an EMT. I know how to keep calm in the face of injury and illness, and while a number of the techniques I know and use rely on a supply chain that’s disrupted, there’s a lot that can still be done with boiling water, cloth, wood, needle, knife, and thread.
I take orders and support my group well, and don’t resent hard or gross work. I don’t want to be in charge, I just want someone competent and kind in charge.
Jesse Cox ” I don’t want to be in charge, I just want someone competent and kind in charge. ” Hell. Yes.
Oh, yes, as Todd Zircher said: I’m a fairly good source for cryptography that’s hard to break without computers; I can tell you about one-time pads and running keys and I’ve memorized Pontifex.
Todd Zircher “Oh I forgot, I’ve been an actual Gunlugger” 🙂 I get you about the actually postulating what would and wouldn’t work.
Carrie Schutrick That is a Very Good Store!!!
Mario Bolzoni you are good for morale, it is true. I have first hand experience.
I’m just hot.
I read a book on Fair Division once and was immediately struck by the idea of a Hocus based on formal distribution of resources using equitable, envy-free procedures.
One bit I didn’t see mentioned in my quick skim is teaching. Organizing and managing adults really isn’t all that different from dealing with children, and during any large scale emergency situation, people will need to get organized in some kind of fashion.
Hunting, arctic survival, close combat, infantery training, teaching and growling if the community needs a Deathmetal band 😉 Could be useful….