unusual treasures for scroungers/barterers to find
 

Had some ideas the other night when I was reading Lucifer's Hammer again - the scene where the hero dives thru a flooded drugstore for those who have read the book.

You always see people bartering for things like ammo or weapons or spare parts or scrounging for them. But what about having them find other things instead?

Like for instance a crate of toilet paper ("I am not going to be using leaves" from Red Dawn comes to mind)? Or a big cache of Necco Wafers or other similiar candies? Or a working CD player or VHS player and movies? People pay a lot for comfort - imagine going into Krakow not with Reset but instead with twenty rolls of real toilet paper or two packs of Marlboro tobacco cigarettes or two bottles of Chanel or a bottle of pre-war Scotch you found in a wrecked house.

Its also a great way to add to what people could be carrying when you search them after a firefight - instead of the usual useable ammo or food or weapons you find a half pack of Marlboros or a paperback book or toiletry items (there arent going to be a lot of new toothbrushes, razors or brushes being made in 2000)

and those kinds of things can make interesting scenarios as well - i.e. you get into a huge firefight, finally win and find out the reason they opened up on you wasnt that they were marauders or Soviets - instead they were sitting on a hoard of a thousand cartons of cigarettes or fifty bottles of Jack Daniels and thought you were trying to steal it

We had that happen in Gateway to the Spanish Main - we got into a big firefight against what we thought were Cubans -and instead it was against five guys who had found a plane in a swamp carrying a huge amount of cocaine and thought we were there to take it from them -and also in Armies of the Night where we took shelter in a building only to almost get taken down by four hoarders sitting on 500 cans of SPAM

In one of the games I played, we liberated a small town from a bunch of desperado's. The village elders were very helpfull with directions and what have you.

Then we went through the bad guy's lair. Some ammo, yes. A few weapons, granted. Some food, ok.

100 gallons of clorox bleach they had liberated from a wrecked grocery store.

We gave the weapons and ammo to the village. We also gave them 80 gallons of bleach. With instructions from our first aid guy on how to use the clorox to purify water. We kept the food.

There were only five of us in our little band. We only had so many jerry cans for water. The rest of the cans were for methanol.

Nice "reward" from the GM.

My $0.02

Mike

A pound of real coffee. Sugar. From Jericho... bags of salt...

A toothbrush or razor blade

An empty notebook or a pencil.

A canister of unexposed film.

Light bulbs.

Insulin for a diabetic

A 10 day round of Tetracycline

A stray, cute kitten

100 lbs of flour

A sealed box of condoms

2 cords of cut, stacked, seasoned firewood

My $0.02

Mike

An outboard motor for a boat.

A set of wrenches.

Batteries, unopened.

A box of unopened packs of ball-point pens.

One of my players is asking for a bow and arrows.

Several cans of black powder that can be used in muskets and rifles.

Bottles of multivitamins and supplements.

A crate holding boxes of good boots and shoes.

Spices like pepper, ginger, nutmeg, etc.. from places that might as well be on the moon for those left in Europe.

Long Bow and Arrows is covered as basic equipment in the V1.0 ruleset. The "Longbow" skill can be used to make either...

A big box of men's underwear, size 30-32. Cause your momma says make sure you have clean underwear.

A 5 gallon jug full of pre 1982 copper pennies. All ready to be melted down and turned into bullets or something.

Several boxes of aluminum wrap. Good for cooking!

Cans of insect repellent. Or ant powder. Or de-lousing shampoo.

Yes, but that means I'm not going to make it easy for him....

Never said that... ;)


On Topic: baby food and powdered formula. Any adult is going to want those in trade for their kids.

12 pack of canned cokes.

copper wire or tubing

books or magazines

Sports equipment

Art supplies

Working typewriter

*Any* working computer (from an Imsai 8080 with VT-52 terminal all the way to a PC)

Bicycle tires or innertubes

Glues/solvents

All 12 issues of Playboy for 1996.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, circa 1975

A .22 rifle with 100 rounds of .22LR (Realy nice for hunting little critters!!)

A bottle of 100 year old Napolean Brandy.

A sealed crate. (Once opened, nothing there....EVIL GM!!!)

Religious Relics

Historical Pictures of the town from 1870's on

A piece of jewlery. (Unless you are a jewler, is it real, is it Memorex????:cool:)

Scattered clothing, Mens/Ladies/Kids scattered sizes

My $0.02

Mike

A bell & Howell 16mm projector (think of what we all grew up watching films on in grade school) and a selection of movies.

Oh my god, you'd probably save an entire {$AREA}'s sanity if you had that.

Parts for same.

Someone already mentioned clothing. How about sheets & blankets.

Also...sporting goods. People might not have a lot of time for recreational activities, but on those rare occasions, some of them might want to throw the ball around.

twinkies, dingdongs, hoho's, and for those of you that wanna really twist the universe a V1.0 twilight 2000 box set.

An old gramophone and a pile of records with Hitler's speaches that can be played on a faster setting for a hilarious effect.

One time I put in a 1st Edition AD&D PHB, DMG and Monster Manual... ;)

I know what Twinkies are but I've never eaten one. I've never heard of Dingdongs or Hohos either, at least not in this context ;)

Salt will return to the origin of the expression 'worth your salt'. Yep it's mined, but distribution is a problem and it is 'thought to be' essential for food preservation, which is true for some items and methods.

Insulin while it's a good idea, I seriously, very seriously doubt you would find insulin that is not gone south by 2000. If it's the refrigerated type, give it a few days to weeks to go bad. I wonder what the shelf life is on the other stuff. And by 2000, based on the stuff going bad quickly and the diets people are on, I doubt there will be anyone left to take the insulin unless they are type I.. and their life is short if no insulin is avail muy pronto.

Just a thought, but good ideas.. we subbed antibiotics or pain killers for the insulin.

hummmmmm really good ideas. How about a bundle of clean shop rags, you know the ones about a foot square, usually red. I think they are a better deal than the TP, as they can be resued after wash and boil.

Or cloth diapers? Not the landfiller plasitc and absorbent.

Or a barrel of powdered chlorine rather than the washing 5% OTC washing bleach. Even a bucket will make gallons and gallons of the 5% mix, and kept dry last years. Found in hardware stores, swimming pool supply, or any place that sells pool supplies. People looking for food would pass on it, lost in the maze.

Well the Dingdong is my 2nd EX.. the Hoho is my third... guess Twinkie is my first?

While this is true, I make it a very difficult task to make a good one. MOST archers do not, or have never built a self bow or arrow. Yes, there is a growing number that are into traditional archery and making their own bows and arrows, as well as string and arrowheads too. But the number is still small over all. But it's your game, call it like you see it.

Ooh, just thought of a few more: pot, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine - basically any stuff from an evidence locker like that.

While purity would be a problem, a hospital in 2000 would already be operating on less-than-nothing and any infusion (no pun intended) of palliative medicines or even something that could be refined into an anesthetic would be invaluable.

Bag of dog food or tins of cat food...

Rat traps...


Protein is protein...

Yes, you're right. I happen to be one of those few. ;)

The rules make it a DIF task, and I'm alright with that... ;)

I too am 'one of those', though have not whittled a stick in several years. My three I had went up in flames when the garage burnt.. another story.

The DIF task might be easier IF the player could convence you he really has done it before and explain some of the steps though. hehe maybe some bonus points to the roll or something.

Good list.

Along the lines of building your own arrows, a box of modern Broadhead Arrow Points.