You know that I have a deep affection for Mantic Games; ‘The Walking Dead; All Out War’. I enjoy playing it. It is simple to learn, has a number of good expansions to create very narrative experience it you want to follow the story lines from the comic. If you don’t want to follow the comic but want a more home brew type series of games you have those rules also. The expansion sets (Days Gone Bye and Fear the Hunters in particular) have rules for character creation and for playing a campaign. So you can play a ‘long game’ through the initial phases of the apocalypse to the rise of new communities and beyond. Creating your own scenarios as the timeline moves forward can be really satisfying.
I started thinking about what I would want in group of survivors and how it should be composed. Taking a look at my collection to start with, I have a few with shotguns and that would make sense to me as those firearms would be plentiful and the ammunition for them could be found in bulk. Some have what look like submachine guns and carbines which, if you are not careful, will eat your ammunition supply up pretty quickly. Considering a linked set of scenarios I thought about timelines and where the survivors would be in say, five years, when you have looted and scavenged all you could in the area you’re in, remember that even with horses you’re pretty much working a 25 to 30 mile area. I think that would be regardless of where your group starts out. Rural, suburban or urban there are some things that all will share. That’s the passage of time. Food, gas and other things will be expended or become useable. Probably the only thing that will not be quickly used up would be clothing. Consider the amount of blue jeans lying around in warehouses. With all this in mind I started to ponder how to equip my party as time went by. So I broke it down into how I would think things would be after a collapse by time period. This is just a general overview. Your mileage may vary….
The first few years would be both the most dangerous with the complete breakdown of society; walkers are out there in force (You’d also have very little knowledge about how to put the damned things down), and the general lawlessness. It is also the easiest, plenty of food and items for survival, most things still work and there is plenty of material to use in establishing a community. In game terms, loot markers should have a plethora of items like ammo, food and medical items. Vehicles continue to be used as gas and other POL will be available. The game table should be fairly open as things had not grown in yet. The cars are just going to have a patina of dust but not looking all rusty or dirty.
By four or five years there will be a number of changes that come to mind. The walkers will become less of a threat as before as you’ll have cleared out most in your area. Herds could be a problem but you would have established a watch as your group will have stabilized in some sort of enclave. Ammunition will be at more of a premium as it gets used up. Keep in mind that even with the number of hand loaders out there, loose powder and primers will become scarce. Yeah, I know, in the comic (the game is based on the comic) and the TV series, Eugene has a cartridge factory but I wonder where he got the primers from for that amount of ammunition (it is not a documentary). There will be more bows or crossbows along with other hand weapons. Food will be more of the ‘locally made’ kind as well as will first aid items. I would probably put in more Molotov type weapons, tainted gas will burn as merrily as fresh, than grenades or other explosives into the possible loot markers. Vehicles should be weathered as well as any other things that are exposed to the elements for a long period even if they are still serviceable. Sure you could get them to run on alcohol but do some research and see how viable that is when you’re trying to grow enough to keep everyone fed.
After six or seven more years the firearm will probably be out of use for the most part unless you have the ability to hand load and still have supplies. I think that most people will be armed more like the 15th century than 21st century. Ranged weapons will be almost exclusively bows or crossbows and sidearm will be swords or other edged weapons. Access to good steel and the ability to work it will also impact. When you consider the amounts of metal needed to make a sword or axe, a blacksmith would be worth his weight in gold. Food and clothing will be homespun than it was before and medical will be fairly rough and ready rather than the more delicate things. Gas vehicles will be a thing rarely seen. Still you’ll need motor oil and grease for the vehicle even if you had surplus grain for a distillery. Cars will be more a source for metal and other items once their use as transportation has ended.
So there are some thoughts. There are few minis that will cover the last period, blue jeans and broadswords may just be how it is, after all there are tons of them out there. Hm, Blue Jeans and Broadswords would be a great name for a Jethro Tull or Uriah Heep album. Someone get Ian Anderson on the phone…
joehough1960 