Re: [HoE] Survivor Settlement Ideas anyone?

["Matthew DeForrest" <mmdeforrest@worldnet.att.net>]

> Does anyone have any interesting takes on survivor villages in The
> Wasted West?  I find that the places of civilization sort of define a
> great deal about the "feel" of the game.  I'm having a difficult time
> deciding how to construct the look and feel of a specific village my
> posse is meandering towards.  What do you folks think?

The first thing you want to do is ask yourself two questions: 1) How far
from the closest ground zero is the town? and 2) How the settlement is
getting its basic necessities: food and water.  The answers to these
questions will dictate the look and defenses of the settlement.

If the settlement is close to a location that was bombed, the defenses will
have to be substantial to fight off the mutants and abominations resulting
from the blast.  If it is somehow isolated, the defenses may be less well
developed.  Geography will play a big factor here, as will access to raw
materials.  If the settlement is in the southwest, the settlement will be
able to use adobe to build walls.  In the northwest, a wooden palisade could
appear.  Demolished buildings can also supply materials for the walls (in
addition to the now useless cars and trucks).

If the settlement has access to well water, you can have a walled town.  If
you have a stream, you have to have a break in the wall to let the stream
enter the town.  If you have access to neither, you need water towers and
cisterns to collect rainwater.

Is the town growing its own food or is it relying on hunting and gathering?
If the former, you are going to have watch towers in the fields to keep an
eye out for raiders.  If the latter, are there trading caravans arriving for
the hides?  Is there a warehouse that has been converted for hydroponics?
If so, you need a generator for electricity (and scavenger parties to find
florescent lights).

Once you have determined these things, decide what the local politics are
and then draw a parallel to a similar society.  For example, if you have a
number of families in town vying for political power (like the Montigues and
Capulets in _Romeo and Juliet_), do some quick research on renaissance
Italy.  What you find is that the town had an outer defense
against rival cities but was also filled with towers inside the city
(Bologna is a good example of this.) The towers were built for both familial
prestige and in case of civil war/interfamily feuding.  If the settlement
you are creating does not have a strong central authority or a sense of
cooperation, you may have individually fortified buildings and no outer
defense.

Hope this helps.

Matt

Matthew M. DeForrest, Ph.D.   Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Wingate University; Wingate, NC 28174-0157

 "Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not
powerless.
 Dead - I say?  There is no death.  Only a change of worlds."
 Chief Seattle,  "Our People are Ebbing Away like a Receding Tide," 1855.