mission essential equipment.

[bobcat]

as for stocking boltholes. food water and ammo aren't enough to rebuild a nation. however just like the fallout games had the GECK i have found a real world GECK to include with your teams equipment.

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki-gvcs.php
all the machines you need to restart a small civilisation. it has been one of my pet peaves that the morrow project crews tended to be more combat and research focused and less we need to rebuild this stuff focused.

[mikeo80]

A few minor nits to pick with you, Bobcat. Yes I agree that Morrow should have had more in the way of prepositioned equipment and supplies.

However, C.O.T. planned that the MP force would be up and running three to five years after TEOTWAWKI. They figured that there would be surviving equipment, supplies and more importantly, personnel for Morrow to help in the rebuilding.

You also had the regional supply depots, like the one mentioned in Starnaman. This is an excellent way for a GM to add or subtract what ever he/she felt MP needed to help rebuild.

The biggest thing to remember is that MP was designed to assist others. Not carry the entire load by themselves. When a team wakes up per game rules, they are usually on their own. PLUS it has been 150+- YEARS since TEOTWAWKI. All of the knowledge and supplies that MP was counting on IS GONE!!! So a research team is a necessary evil just to SURVIVE. A team in TMP universe is in a world of hurt.

Most of the time, what I have seen in campaigns is the Morrow team trying to implement 1850-1870 tech level to an area. This type of tech with a leavening of Morrow fire power to keep the bad guys honest, seems to work the best. With a judicious amount of training in crop rotation, settlement sanitation and water purification, a Morrow team can be a tremendous influence for good in a local area.

My $0.02

Mike

[Matt W]

The Global VIllage Construction Set is an excellent starting point for a "library" of information

I agree that the Morrow Project was intended to assist survivors (many of whom would have useful knowledge/skills) but the Project shouldn't have assumed that EVERY skillset would be available. They should have included a lot of information in every cache

I recommend
http://villageearth.org/appropriate-technology/appropriate-technology-library

It fits on 2 DVDs or 28 CDs. Microfilm or photoreduction might also be useful

[mikeo80]

The Global VIllage Construction Set is an excellent starting point for a "library" of information

I agree that the Morrow Project was intended to assist survivors (many of whom would have useful knowledge/skills) but the Project shouldn't have assumed that EVERY skillset would be available. They should have included a lot of information in every cache

I recommend
http://villageearth.org/appropriate-technology/appropriate-technology-library

It fits on 2 DVDs or 28 CDs. Microfilm or photoreduction might also be useful

This looks like an excellent resource.

When I learned TMP back in the Stone Age, microfilm was the most economical way of storing data. Computers were still big, clunky things. TEOTWAWKI was scheduled for 1989!!! Well before a lot of the advances in computers and miniturization of components came about.

One of the things some of the teams I played in requested microfilm readers with LOTS of books on agriculture, medicine, animal husbandry, metalurgy, wood working, engineering, etc.

My $0.02

Mike

[bobcat]

im just saying 5 years after teotwawki you won't be able to run down to the local john dere dealership to buy a tractor to clar th roads to your local john deere dealership. hell outside of a cache you'll be lucky to find a tractor in good enough condition to do anything with. having stuff like that in with the teams or even in nearby bolt holes would make the mission actually possible.
but thats going off the original mission statement. besides all those machines or would easily fit inside a standard ISO container if disassembled.

now im not saying pull the researchers at all. im just saying keeping the survivors fed and restoring basic services should have held some priority. and thus the equipment should have been readily available.

[robj3]

Bobcat, you're right.

The Open Source Ecology link you posted was very interesting.
Something like the array of devices listed must be available to the Project.

I am concerned by the need for certain feedstocks (e.g. hydrofluoric acid for aluminium smelting, high purity metal powders for the 3D printers) which may serve as production bottlenecks.

However the average field team only has a small part of the set.

Engineering and Supply teams that haven't been described in materials published to date have the balance of the equipment or can build equivalents.


Rob

[Gelrir]

Something that came up in running my current campaign:

If you, the Project, are recruiting thousands of college graduates over a period of decades -- possibly with a preference towards useful reconstruction skills -- you shouldn't have to rely entirely on old military manuals, your subscription to Mother Earth News, etc. for information.

For our campaign, the Project kept a list of "topics we need papers on". Of course, this won't be 'complete' until the Project hunkers down, just before the Atomic War or whatever ...

Thus you might finish your training and then spend three weeks writing -- how-to guides, for example. "Where to get gypsum" ... "How to make sulfuric acid with minimal resources" ... "Welding with and on your V150" ... etc.

--
Michael B.

[kato13]

Academic type papers would be a very valuable resource for the project.

From a play perspective it also works. It allows a further fleshing out of a character by what papers they might have written and allows for an additional minor cache of the most recent documents in some sort of data format (tapes,CDs or other depending on your timeline).

I'm thinking of some type of rural route mailbox that perhaps pulls anything dropped into the box into a hardened underground container. That way you let the USPS do your work.

[ArmySGT.]

Academic type papers would be a very valuable resource for the project.

From a play perspective it also works. It allows a further fleshing out of a character by what papers they might have written and allows for an additional minor cache of the most recent documents in some sort of data format (tapes,CDs or other depending on your timeline).

I'm thinking of some type of rural route mailbox that perhaps pulls anything dropped into the box into a hardened underground container. That way you let the USPS do your work.

Kato,

Why not a bank? The banks still use those vacuum delivery tubes. Drive up to one, insert module, magnetic marker diverts it to another line. The module pops into a holding basket in an underground vault below the bank and separate from it.

[stormlion1]

Always worked with the idea that each supply cache had several small boxes of digest sized "How to" books included in each. Might not include all the required info but could give the average layman a headstart on rebuilding a population.
We also used to include in the regional supply areas a small library of "how to" books as well, usually in a nearby unmanned bolt hole that could be unburied if needed.

[ArmySGT.]

I would think a cache of alcohol powered farm tractor like a reproduction Ford 8n with implements like a plow, seed drill, auger, rake, disc, and brush hog. then a large-ish alcohol still for generating methanol for biomass like rye grass or corn stalks. Nitrogen packed seed stock too.

A bolt hole like a Team one, only no team. Just a tractor or two, or ten.

I don't get why animal pulled plows are included in Team caches with an intended wake up of 3-5 years. Few people know how to hitch one up let alone plow with it. Livestock would be nearly extinct from bio plagues targeting them, starving masses, and fallout. So an alcohol powered tractor together with a large alcohol still makes more sense in recovery.

[kato13]

I would think a cache of alcohol powered farm tractor like a reproduction Ford 8n with implements like a plow, seed drill, auger, rake, disc, and brush hog. then a large-ish alcohol still for generating methanol for biomass like rye grass or corn stalks. Nitrogen packed seed stock too.

A bolt hole like a Team one, only no team. Just a tractor or two, or ten.

I don't get why animal pulled plows are included in Team caches with an intended wake up of 3-5 years. Few people know how to hitch one up let alone plow with it. Livestock would be nearly extinct from bio plagues targeting them, starving masses, and fallout. So an alcohol powered tractor together with a large alcohol still makes more sense in recovery.


This follows my concept of a "Nesting Cache". One of my fears for my project teams is an early wake-up. Before the entirety of the program can mobilize, you might have a team that wakes up 18 months into the timeline due to mechanical failure or such in the bolt hole. This team would have to make it on its own until the remainder of the project can be pulled together.

Such an "early bird" (Project Phoenix uses a lot of avian related nomenclature) would need some form sustenance for survival until the program awakens. I propose an additional cache known to 4-6 teams in an area. This cache would have one years of food plus basic farming equipment to allow multi year generation.

There are some security issues with multiple teams knowing about a single cache, but if it was an asset that was only to be used for emergency wake up (or after all teams have a normal wakup and contact eachother) then those issues can be mitigated.

[Gelrir]

An emergency cache with no security issues for the Project sounds like a good idea. If it contains nothing that shouts "military-industrial conspiracy" or "terrorist weapon supply", there's no reason not to stash a lot of these.

Don't expect them to be super-secure or bombproof; just rely on obscure locations and a low likelihood they'll be needed. Nothing labelled Morrow, no weird electronic locks on the door/hatch. If somebody finds it, it will look like a survivalist's cache (and it is, sort of).

--
Michael Bl

[stormlion1]

An idea I had watching them build a bank across the street from my job. I noticed while they were building the vault that it had two walls, one that contained the vault and a foot of space, then another wall of cinderblocks that were for office space. I am pretty certain something went in there, like concrete or something but what if during the construction phase supplies were placed instead. All that needs to be done is to break down a cinderblock wall and a cache of supplies could be had. Not only that any new construction could be done this way, a foot of extra space somewhere in a newly constructed building and a good sized supply of anything could be hidden. All you need is a sledgehammer to get at it.

[ArmySGT.]

Where are the generous supplies of NBC equipment?

The power washing systems? The super tropical bleach and DS-2? The MOPP suits and replacement filters? Where are the caches of universal anitidote, burn treatment, the intravenous chelation supplies? Where are the radiacmeters and dosimeters for equipping civil authorities like the Sheriff deputies?

Where is the stuff you would need to combat the NBC threat with a Project start of 3-5 years?

Granted this will be useless after 150 years, but the Project didn't plan to wake up 150 years after the War.