Overlooked Disaster

[Lt Gargoyle]

That is very true, since that is also one of the most important things for survival that we need.

It is also the one non of the survivalist I have meet thiink about. Even if its a Tsunami type event. The fresh water will generally need several weeks to recovers from the salt contamination and then there is always the possiblity of longer time peroids do to the garbage and debris deposited with the mad rush of ocean waters.

[Aramanthus]

I think it'll all depend on how far the waves make it towards the source. But you are right about it being a serious problem for people after a disaster.

[Jeffrey W.]

Right on Lt Gargoyle, regarding the lack of available drinking water due to volcanic ash, ocean salinity, fuel spillover, and industrial polution contaminants.

I factor all of these obstacles (and more) into my Chaos Earth game settings, but imagine that many others do not.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was an excellent example of challenges that survivors of the Cataclysm might face, in regards to finding drinkable water. Many other examples exist also, but that is my most recent experience which comes to mind.

Jeffrey W.

[Lt Gargoyle]

I would not have thought of this until the Tsunami that hit in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina myself. But I will confess I love the end of the world movies and science. So since the two major disaster of the last decade and the stuff I have seen from Africa, I get to use my imagination on stuff like chaos earth.

[Aramanthus]

Which is a great way to run a game. Use things that happened in real life, to add to the problems for the players.

[Lt Gargoyle]

I like it because it also give the players something to visualize as well.

You look at the mass devestation as you stand on the hill over looking the beach of the lake you were hoping to replenish your dwindling water supply with. ( think of this disaster here you ) You can not help but turn your heads away as you see the dead bodies of not only the animals but of other humans who had the same idea as you, laying scattered about the lake of ash-mud. The foul stength penatrates through the cloths you have been using to protect your mouth and nose for the ash that lingers in the air.

[Aramanthus]

That is a very good description of what you might experience in that circumstances.

[Lt Gargoyle]

I like it because it also give the players something to visualize as well.

You look at the mass devestation as you stand on the hill over looking the beach of the lake you were hoping to replenish your dwindling water supply with. ( think of this disaster here you ) You can not help but turn your heads away as you see the dead bodies of not only the animals but of other humans who had the same idea as you, laying scattered about the lake of ash-mud. The foul stength penatrates through the cloths you have been using to protect your mouth and nose for the ash that lingers in the air.

thats why in my game, the pcs have dug a well and use water purifier filters, then boil any water they get from it that they plan to drink, wash water just gets filtered. When we have to move on again ofc this will get harder.

Do your characters know how to find water? Because I willing to be if we went out and asked a million people how to find water they would say a facet. And when you ask them to imagine they had to find water without modern means they would say a lake or river they know of. Most people do not. And I know several survivalist that could not find water to that level. I'm hard pressed to find fresh drinking water if you took surface means away.

But I will play on your senario. After digging your well of fifteen feet you feel the sting of every oxgyen starved muscle. As you bring the first bucket of water out of the hole you notice others looking at you. thier eyes mad with lust for the bucket you hold in your hand. you tell them they can have whatever they can fetch from the well but as they look into the freshly dug well the ash that has been falling non stop for days now is already making a sluge of the water. They turn to you. Some pull thier guns. others start yelling, begging on behalf of this child or this old person who hasn't drinken in four days. they are begining to mob around you.

Or better yet as you move through the ruins of the town you are hoping to scrunge up some salvage from you notices dozens of people watching you. And in the middle of the crowd a man you had given a well to help is pointing at you. You hear him telling the others it was you who save so many from thirst. And it is you the hero who can save them now. They mass around you. The hero and when you can no longer provide for thier needs they start getting angry. Why should you have all those high tech toys that they can not have? Why should you have the last canteen of fresh water? Why are you so entitled to have what we desire? Why are we being punished and you are not!!! (yea) (take it from him!) Why are you not helping to save us? (take it) You find yourself surrounded once more by a mob of angry people who have lost everything. Thier eyes crazed with firy anger. You make a mad dash for you power armor, you barly get the helmet on before they are on top of you. So many have gathered you find yourself tackled to the ground. Your suit needs just a minute more. then you feel the first hit. Someone is trying to bash your head in with a metal bar. You laugh as you know the bar can not hurt you while the helmet on. then it happens. your head falls back as the next blow impacts. your suit is powered up but you are in trouble.

[Lt Gargoyle]

Do your characters know how to find water? Because I willing to be if we went out and asked a million people how to find water they would say a facet. And when you ask them to imagine they had to find water without modern means they would say a lake or river they know of. Most people do not. And I know several survivalist that could not find water to that level. I'm hard pressed to find fresh drinking water if you took surface means away.

But I will play on your senario. After digging your well of fifteen feet you feel the sting of every oxgyen starved muscle. As you bring the first bucket of water out of the hole you notice others looking at you. thier eyes mad with lust for the bucket you hold in your hand. you tell them they can have whatever they can fetch from the well but as they look into the freshly dug well the ash that has been falling non stop for days now is already making a sluge of the water. They turn to you. Some pull thier guns. others start yelling, begging on behalf of this child or this old person who hasn't drinken in four days. they are begining to mob around you.

Or better yet as you move through the ruins of the town you are hoping to scrunge up some salvage from you notices dozens of people watching you. And in the middle of the crowd a man you had given a well to help is pointing at you. You hear him telling the others it was you who save so many from thirst. And it is you the hero who can save them now. They mass around you. The hero and when you can no longer provide for thier needs they start getting angry. Why should you have all those high tech toys that they can not have? Why should you have the last canteen of fresh water? Why are you so entitled to have what we desire? Why are we being punished and you are not!!! (yea) (take it from him!) Why are you not helping to save us? (take it) You find yourself surrounded once more by a mob of angry people who have lost everything. Thier eyes crazed with firy anger. You make a mad dash for you power armor, you barly get the helmet on before they are on top of you. So many have gathered you find yourself tackled to the ground. Your suit needs just a minute more. then you feel the first hit. Someone is trying to bash your head in with a metal bar. You laugh as you know the bar can not hurt you while the helmet on. then it happens. your head falls back as the next blow impacts. your suit is powered up but you are in trouble.

the only people the party know for sure are alive is each other, haven't encountered any other survivors yet, we don't have any PA or anything like that, one guy is a burster (well close to he is uncontoled tho) who tends to go Akira a bit if he gets scared, thats about all for scary things we have.

We dug our way out of a collapsed tunnel in a mountain and headed down, found a decent forest and dug down using gear we had found in an emergency shelter in the tunnel walls (thats also where the filter came from) so we have very little fire power, but we do have water and the ability to hunt and cook. (we hunt using traps)

We are holing up till the ash stops falling, and trying to figure out wth one of our mates can turn into the human torch and what is going on. No NEMA yet, the 2 weird things we encountered we ran from, its a real ordinary guys adventure. (Their are some npc's also from the tunnel, but between the fact that one guy in the party was a security guard on his way to work and has a neural mace, and the guy that can catch fire, they are letting us run the show, helping out where they can). All we can see on the ash choked horizons is the fire of burning cities, we have no ability to radio out, and the car we found that some one had left had a radio that worked, but there was nothing to listen to, not even an emergency message, and the car was so choked with ash that it wouldn't start.

There aren't any mobs that may riot for water, just the party, 2 students, and a little girl (who also has weirdness going on, haven't figured her out yet). There was another survivor but the ape things got him.[/quote]


Take the Alternator and the fan out of the Engine and attach it to the front of the alternator, then attach the positive negative cables from the starter to the battery and jury rig it to connect to the alternator. (tell the GM your character watched TLC alot) then place it so it is able to become a wind mill (so ask questions like which way is the wind blowing the most. ) then take the headlights from the car and pull some copper wiring out and you will have reuseable light. let the battery charge through out the day and then attach the light when you are in need of light. Good luck.

[RockJock]

This scenario is a great reason to bring along a scientist, rogue or not in the group. Off the top of my head I have a pretty good idea of where the water table is throughout my state, what type of rock it is in, and the surface features from vegetation to topography that give you a best chance to find water. I studied water tables while in school in a tangential sense, but I have also helped drill water well, used lined pipe, helped with pumps and so on.

We don't usually go for the "play yourself" idea, but I have run a scientist with a hodgepodge of skills mixed from a book and experience. Sit down and make a few Rogue Scientists with the idea of them being a field biologist, plant pathologist, geologist, even a county agent. You can come up with a great variety of skills that would fit in reality, and in the game mechanics.

As a quick example, I'm a geologist in real life. I have science skills such as Basic and Advanced Math, Chemistry, Analytical Chem, and a fairly high level, with skills like Archeology(I have basic dig skills, and can do the mapping, dating skills and so on), Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Botany at a lower level. I also have skills like Land Navigation, Spelunking, Basic Electronics, Basic Mechanics, Sensory Operations Gemology, Excavation and Rescue, General Repair, Mining, and Prospecting as add ons to my career field. I think people tend to forget the latter sets of skills when they make a science type character.

[Aramanthus]

That is true Harry. But there are places like here in the midwest where there are vast formation of limestone. If you are getting your water from below the limestone that would take care of at least the acidic nature of that water. As for other things you'd still have to filter for and purify for other things anyway.

[Lt Gargoyle]

Now how to get around it. There's actually a simple trick to getting drinking water from contaminated sources. Here's how: You take two bowls (or pots/buckets) that are different sizes with one larger then the other (Works best if one is far larger). Fill the larger of the two with water and place the smaller one inside in such a way that even if you push it down to the bottom of the other, the water in side can't get in. Seal the top in plastic wrap and palce a small weight like a small stone in the middle of the plastic so that it comes bends downwards over the smaller container. Now, heat the water, not enough to boil, only enough to produce steam. After a bit, condensation will form on the cooler plastic wrap and drip into the smaller container giving you clean drinking water. You can also use normal evaporation to accomplish the same thing (Unlikely in Chaos Earth with it being 30 below). This method actually works, it's been used by sailors and woodspeople for centuries (except in the days before plastic wrap they would use leather, metal and fabric to do the same thing)!

(Ps: We did this once in science class when I was in Junior High with salt water being the "Contaminated Water" and it worked.)

Signed,
Harry Leferts

Dude this is cool. I am going to go to the beach this up comming weekend and get some salt water and practice this. I am excited to test this sense one of my side projects is in developing clean drinking water for the envoirment.

[Aramanthus]

From the ocean, you'll need something to desalinate the water. I believe they are using reverse omisis to do this thing.

[Lt Gargoyle]

From the ocean, you'll need something to desalinate the water. I believe they are using reverse omisis to do this thing.

thats a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condenser_(laboratory) Liebig condensor, it gives you pure, distilled water. Drinking distilled water gives it's own set of problems, so I would advise adding fruit juice (either concentrate or actual) if you can, but yes that gives you pure water, a better choice than toxic certainly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distilled_ ... lled_water If you live of distilled water for any length of time you will need mineral dietry supplemants, but given the situation we are describing a condensor is a good call, nice idea.

Thanks I will check into this as well. I would not allow myself to survive like that unless I was forced much like the these situations we have been discussing here. However, Harry Leferts said he had done his method in science class. So I want to give it a try, I know of other methods of distilling water with boiling it. But it is a pain in the butt!

I would like to have several methods up my sleeve so I am never thristy , I think its the survivalist in me.

[Aramanthus]

As long as there are methods people know they should survive.

[Lt Gargoyle]

As long as there are methods people know they should survive.

Can not argue that. I just like knowing as many as I can.

[Aramanthus]

So do I. I'm always glad to know some of that and others who know some things I might be lacking.

[Lt Gargoyle]

Sense we had discuss wind mill technology I thought I would share this with the group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vnyYWV7 ... annel_page

[Aramanthus]

Ah but what sort of disaster are you referring too? Or are you referring to the solution to the problem?

[Lt Gargoyle]

Ah but what sort of disaster are you referring too? Or are you referring to the solution to the problem?

it was a temp solution to the power problem.

[Aramanthus]

Oh ok. That makes sense! Thank you for answering my question!

[Lt Gargoyle]

Oh ok. That makes sense! Thank you for answering my question!

No Problem.

[Nadrakas]

In the San Madrid Earthquakes of 1811/1812 Church Bells in Boston rang!

Earthquakes caused by the New Madrid Fault result in larger affects than those in California: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake of Magnitude 6.7 covered about 6,000 square miles, whereas a moderate 1895. San Madrid Earthquake of 6.7 covered roughly 50,000 square miles The 1895 Earthquake was felt from Southern Louisiana to Northern Michigan and from Central Kansas to Eastern Virginia and Eastern Pennsylvania - It would have been felt in Washington. (Note: This was not the "Big One" of 1811/1812, which would have covered an even larger area. You can read up about the 1811/1812 NM Earthquake here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake - I don't normally use Wikipedia, but it has several links that are useful.)

So, let's list the "Big Environmental Disasters" that happen in the early days of the "Coming of the Rifts" in North America (Forget the rest of the world for a moment...though we can imagine at least one or two more Supervolcano's probably explode elsewhere on the planet, not to mention hundreds of mega-Tsunami's that make the Sumatri one's look like a splash in a bathtub).


DAY 1:
1. "Blue Lines" (ie: Ley Lines" Erupt). Most people would not consider this a "Natural Disaster", but they are a natural part of the planet. They interfere with transportation, communication, and cause panic just by their existence...not to mention that Monsters and Demons come thru them.

2. Storms are spawned from the "Blue Lines." They consist of anything from super-charged regular storms (Rain, MDG Lightning, Hail the size of Watermelons, etc) to the plain...weird (Demons falling from the sky, blood rain, etc).

3. Mega-Tsunami's push at least 100 miles inland on the Eastern Coast of North America. The Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. is wiped. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the coast of Newfoundland are devastated, and Prince Edward Island disappears under the relentless waves.

4. The West Coast of North America is savaged by mega-Tsunami's, mega-storms, and rapid-fire Earthquakes (7-9 on the Richter Scale)

5. Mount Saint Helens and nine other western volcanoes erupt. (Some ideas: Newberry Volcano in Oregon, Mono-Inyo Craters in California. For ideas of the initial 9, check this USGS site: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/publications/assessments.php. You will have to download their DJVU program before reading the USGD reports. Anyway, I suspect that many, many more volcanoes, new and olde, would erupt in the days, months and years to come.).

6. A massive Cat-5 hurricane (Texas Sized) engulfs the Caribbean up to Florida on top of the mega-Tsunami.

7. (Conjecture...) The San Madrid Fault Line lets off a series of Earthquakes. Several are 9+ (Perhaps one or two 9.9), dozens of aftershocks of 8+ and thousands more of 7 or less. (I would suspect that the quake would be felt throughout the entire North American Continent)

8. The Mississippi River surges over it's banks, flooding every single community from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. (Presumably caused by the San Madrid Fault earthquake. I would also suspect that other rivers, streams, lakes and bodies of water would be similarly affected.)

9. Northern Canada sinks into a devastating Winter from BC to Manitoba and stretches all the way to the Arctic.


DAY 3:
The Yellowstone Super-Volcano Erupts. Lava, rock and sulfur fills the air and rains down on the US & Canada from the Pacific Coast to Nebraska.


DAY 4:
The entire area from the Rockies to the Midwest is covered by 15 feet of Ash from the Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption. (See the following site for area coverage, videos, and explanations http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm. A GM could also have the Long Valley Caldera in California explode if he/she wanted to...not that too many would notice another Supervolcano exploding.)


DAY 5:
The sun is blocked by the ash and particulates spewed out by hundreds of volcanoes and at least one Supervanolco exploding, burning cities and forests, storms and "abnormal" disturbances. Temperatures drop around the world by an average of 30-40 degrees F. In the Tropics by 20-30 degrees F, and upwards to 50-60 F in the Northern Hemisphere. Plants begin to whither and die. Animals begin to die from starvation. Global Winter sets in.


DAY 6:
Things get gets worse as the survivors realize that the environment is not the only thing that they have to endure. Monsters and Demons begin to appear, killing and torturing the survivors.


In short, I would hazard a guest that from day 1 to day 5 an estimated 80% of the population of North American will die from the "Natural Disasters." The rest are left to the tender mercies of the Monsters and Demons coming from the Rifts.

A very grim future...one that will test the mettle of everyone.

One that will require leaders.

One that will require Heroes.


~ Nadrakas