2000ad Winter Die-Off
In our nice, well supported lives with amazing just-in-time civilian logistical systems and established infrastructure we tend to view winter as an interesting turning of the seasons whereas for people in a devastated world without support, stores or communications the implacable onset of winter, nuclear or not, is viewed with a sense of sick, helpless dread.
Currently I'm thinking the death rate from exposure, illness and malnutrition among survivors across nuclear Poland will be on the order of 25%+ and in some regions far higher. This should be the worst winter in human history for death, exceeding such times as various famines and epidemics. This is due to the fact that in many places the extreme effects of no-holds-barred Hot War will have wiped the landscape clean of not only life but the means of supporting life. Simply put, anyone who tries to stay in these zones is doomed.
Gas attacks contaminate the ground, not only making cropping poisonous if even possible (and the survivors have no way of knowing their meagre crops are contaminated) but also incapable of supporting game. Nuclear strikes litter the areas with heavy metals such as iodine, cobalt and others that continue to contaminate the area. This hidden killer, undetectable without equipment (although the OCP, Poland's Civil Defence Units, had a large amount of these) will kill for centuries. Finally the much underestimated bioweapons and mother nature's homegrown horrors tend to thrive in winter environments as sanitation is generally poorer, survivors huddle together in small environments and desperate and infected people are made into refugees who flee famine and infect others until they are literally met with violence.
Yet it is famine that kills the most. Marauder groups almost never have enough supplies and by definition their survival tactic is purely to take what little anyone else has until they scour the area around them and then have to move on. Food preservation is a difficult and dangerous science, before the modern era it was one of the vital tasks of the female gender role to the point where armies took their women with them on the march, and getting it wrong means trying to reclaim spoiled food: often a lethal "Hobbe's Choice". Military units who's main concept of interaction with the world is often brute force tend to stock up on food by viewing it as the strategic resource it is. They might ruthlessly triage civilians and even troops as "useful mouths" and "useless mouths", expelling those that threaten the whole, adding to those adrift in the snows.
For those on the move seeking food there is usually no good outcomes no matter what actions they take. Some of the harsh winters during The Hundred Years Wars saw the annihilation of entire regions that along with the Black Plague did not recover even thin population densities for three centuries. Attempting to fight for food puts these people up against those who are willing to fight to keep it. Looking for food is pointless; the secret of success is finding, producing and holding onto food well in advance of winter.
So what do the players do in this dismal setting?
Hopefully they will only be dimly aware of most of it, much of what they discover of the situation will only be apparent in the spring. However they will constantly come across three situations, all similar. This is either civilians, marauders or military units looking for food.
As noted above they are vectors of disease. In a previous post I also mentioned that food intake has to be higher for combat situations, so players will want to limit these at all costs. Finally there's some simply awful choices to make.
Marauders are easy; everyone hates bandits no matter where they come from and they can be dealt with out of hand. Military units are more of a problem, they will view the players as a tactical problem and of course can choose when and how to attack within a certain window, giving them the tactical initiative. Attacking civilians are rare, instead they will simply implore the players to help and may just try and stay as at least under the player's defence area it is safer than elsewhere.
Some things can happen to the players to force them out into the countryside. Raids aimed at their supplies might penetrate their position and even if they don't take any supplies the food store might be damaged in the process. Food spoilage might occur, even "domestic food" has a shelf life and sudden levels of wastage might force the players to head off to a rumoured food source. Finally they might take pity on another group and seek out food for them (I would immensely reward players risking themselves for this)
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