Odd Treasure Troves

[sglancy12]

Originally Posted by headquarters

along the lines of Graebeards posts about obsolete technology I guess displays of old gear like ox drawn plows and hand crancked water pumps etc that some place have for decoration or as an educational exhibition would have stuf that could be useful .Most scavengers would go right by not knowing what it is or not having the means to haul it off.

I just re-read Pat Frank's Alas Babylon. A great book whose only flaw is that I think the author over-estimates the Soviet strike capacity of 1959. The number and armament of the ICBMs comes off like something out of the mid-to-late '60s... 5 megaton warheads on soviet ICBMs just didn't exist in 1959.

Nevertheless, one of the greatest moments of the books (for me) is when one of the kids explores the "attic full of junk" the adults have forgotten about and discovers a treasure trove of early 20th century technology:

A hand-cranked gramaphone and a large collection of 78 rpm records.

A sewing machine that uses a foot-petal to provide energy.

A couple of old kerosene lamps with wicks, but no oil.

An old pot-bellied iron stove with lengths of straight and hinged stove pipe

An old fashioned grooming kit including a strap and two straight razors

Any group of TW:2000 players had better recognize how valuable an intact pot bellied stove would be.

So? What kind of helpful cache of supplies have you thrown at your players that they turned their noses up at because it wasn't ammo, MREs, fuel or medicine?

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

[sglancy12]

Just thought of an interesting treasure trove...

What about something like the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation? http://www.mvtf.org/

A private collection of military vehicles... currently there are 240 vehicles in the collection. Most, if not all are functional. The staff has the facilities and th skills to machine parts to restore the vehicles... perhaps even restore or replace their weaponry with something useful.

Obviously the wouldn't be as many tanks in 1997 as there are today, but the tools and equipment for working on tanks might be worth more than the tanks themselves. It's a privately owned tank depot!

For me, this place would have fallen into the hands of the US 6th Army, particularly the 40th ID (Mech), which might partly explain how the unit has managed to keep so many vehicles operational.


A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing.