Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
Actually rats are known to eat just about anything ranging from cardboard, to electrical insulation. If anything, I'd expect more rats since there would be a lack of controls, and lots of food sources. Don't forget, NYC is not abandened, there are several groups of people, so there would still be plenty of trash and sewage to keep the rats happy. Besides, it plays on a primal factor, I've seldom seen players not chringe when a DM takes the time to properly deliver a rat attack, its all in the delivery!
|
Lee,
Too true. Enemies like rats, wolves and of course cannibals are great in that they play on primal and cultural fears far beyond their real-world impact.
Rats may be able to survive on garbage, but people still need to produce the garbage, at least the "food" garbage that allows rats to thrive. You'd see a period of intense growth when there is uncollected trash and unburied bodies, but when the food garbage is gone and they have to feed on far less nutritious material, their population will crash.
Sewage production will largely cease when there are few people to produce it, and what little remains will not be as rich a food supply as before the war. That said, while "Giant Sewer Rats" are indeed a common fantasy trope, I can't actually find anything that says rats eat sewage itself. Rather, I think they eat food waste and live in sewage tunnels because they are convenient, but food waste will be almost nonexistent in survivor communities. Some rats will remain, relative to the food supply. Two years after there will be rats mostly near where people live, but they will be again limited by their food supply. Unlike pre-war, survivors are going to waste as little food as possible (what they don't eat they will recycle or use as compost) and probably adopt an aggressive attitude towards rat control. So, there will still be controls on the rat population.
I feel like something of a killjoy! I was helping a friend playtest a Hârn adventure last week and we were attacked by wolves, and I couldn't help pointing out why that was a little unlikely under the circumstances. ("Yeah, yeah, shut up, Farley Mowatt.")
Quote:
|
...wouldn't you'all like to join us in our home-cooked meal...and then have the PC make a run for the trees and discover the butchered remains of last nights dinner guests?
|
Still a great memory from your Morrow Project game (AL R-14?) for me, no matter what! Nonetheless, it's such a common occurrence in post-apoc RPGs I even call it an "SWC" ("Surprise, We're Cannibals!") event.
1) A group of "normal" NPCs sics the group on a bunch of "cannibals", whereas they are really getting the players to do their dirty work for them.
2) Members of a cult or religion or other sect under a charismatic leader who has deliberately instituted cannibalism in a ritual form. Both as a central belief and a tenet of group identity (shared taboo-breaking).
3) A group that deliberately cultivates an image and reputation for savagery and cannibalism as a means of psychological warfare and for self-defence. I mean, unless you test the meat for human protein you kind of have to take their word for it!
4) A criminal syndicate that is really killing people and selling their bodies as meat.
Tony