Web, there are a few little adventures/mini-modules in the Challenge mags that are about salvage and recovering useful commodities (Pennsylvania Crude is the first that comes to my mind) and I love the idea of a campaign or part of a campaign revolving around those sorts of themes.
In my campaigns I've always encouraged my players to create characters with a variety of skills including non-combat skills. After all, once wholesale recruitment and the draft were implemented, the proportion of pre-war professional military would decrease compared to citizen-soldiers from all walks of life.
As for Howling Wilderness creating the conditions for the virtually permanent death of the USA as an entity, I strongly disagree. In any case HW doesn't have total destruction of the US from whisky to echo and it doesn't suggest at any point that the US is on a one way slide into oblivion. I am 100% certain that with a long enough campaign and a dedicated group of players that I could realisticly depict the recovery of the US from a starting point as described in HW.
And once again, on a list of possible deal breakers, I rate the drought in HW very low on the list. You don't like the drought? Have it end in 2002. Where's the problem?
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 "It is better to be feared than loved" - Nicolo Machiavelli
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