One other important supply we've been neglecting: Women. We're bringing guns and books and dice, but don't forget your women.
Are they compatible with 3.5e?
I know at least.... 7 that are. Trust me, if we retards can roll a dice, make marks on paper with a pencil, speak and occasionally erase a mark on paper; then I'm pretty that a woman could as well.
Besides, when there's no TV, Radio, new books or plays being put on; playing "Reconstruction and Logisitics" is probably going to be a fun game to play.
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My own situation....
I'm high upI live in the 11 floor of a condiminium that is pretty much full of old or retired people; most are pretty frail, there's a marine here, but he's got white hair and a hell of a paunch; he likes me even though I look like a damned dirty hippy now (on the other hand, my family has been living here
much longer than he has, so I've got the "societal" benefit of "seniorty in a location"; more than 15 years of being a good kid tends to colour people's attitudes in your favour).
The field of view from where I live is massive.On a clear day I can see across lake Ontario out and across to the US border; on a less clear day I can see as far along the coastline to St.Catherines. Along the coastline I can see as far out as toronto with the naked eye (and even pick out the CN tower and skydome; and pick out much more using a pair of binoculars or a cheap telescope).
Almost all the terrain around my building is lightly treed suburbs, so there are not many things to obscure field of view inland. There's a pile of strip malls and wide roads that congretate near where my building is, so it's hard to sneak up to the building thanks to the roughlyt 200-500 metres radius of asphalted terrain starting from the base of my building. In some places the asphalt and grassy park land goes out further, hence the variations in area of "killing ground" (ie. any terrain without cover from view or attack) from the base of my building to true cover.
My building is built like a prisonOld retired folks tend to be skittish about their safety. Even in a city so safe that I could wander around at any time of the night and not have to
actually worry for my safety. I usually do worry, but that's b/c I'm a paranoid person. As a result this building is made up of cement, cindeblocks, very solid apartment doors (they're not heavy due to very good hinges, but they're decidely thick) and even more solid metal internal doors.
The only big problem is that there are a lot of ground floor windows. The 1st floor apartments here open up to the outside, the exercise area has glass windows, and the party room has a glass patio door. The lobby entrance door is glass as well, and there's a back entrance that is also glass.
So, internally the place is pretty solid; but there
are some pretty big liabilities to a siege.
Of course, if zombies don't know that they can
break glass, then it's fine.
The real problem is looters that do know that they can. So boarding up the 1st floor windows or simply blocking the doors (I'm at a loss for anything save actually bricking shut a door as a method to seal an apartment door from the hallway side).
I've been in scoutsReally, being in scouts is just the start. I've been camping, in some of the worst weather (tents in -40*C (-40*F for you Amerks)); I've hiked for kilometres through pouring rain with a backpack; I've hiked for kilometres and kilometres;
WeaponsI've built my own sword, built other weapons and rebuilt several knives so that they were something that I'd actually trust.
The first involved finding a blank, then pretty much just grinding it before building the handle and attaching it. It's not pretty, but if I go for a joint, the person hit will be feeling it. If I strike and mean it, then their tendons will be fucked until they die. Joints of creatures and machines are remarkabley
fragile (ex. the human knee breaks with 15 lbs of force; kneecapping is actually
exactly that, you have broken the person's kneecap away from their thigh and central shinbone). Different materials will (obviously) give you different results, and while an aluminum blank may seem like it will suck, you have to remember that it's going to be able to move much faster than a steel or iron one would.
The others were made in a variety of fashions; from concealable clubs made from pressure-treated dowelling (veruh essuh tew maek) to what are essentially blunt wooden swords (get 2x4 of something dense, like oak or maple, cut out a handle near the base; liberally use a sander or angle grinder along the surface of the length of wood to remove all the corners that you can, then cover this handle in cloth tape until it's comfortable.
The knives are retired knives that have had a grinding stone liberally applied to them.
I know when I can trust if a tool is mechanically sound or not; I've got some combat knives that I love to use, but don't trust (tang integrity issues); while I've got other knives that I trust, but I'm not so keen on using (hand balance issues).
Then there's the tool chest with 1" size wrenches, crowbars, dowelling long enough to count as polearm length and a machete.
FightingA lot of what I know is from my little brother who's very reluctant to teach krav maga, despite his previous instructor's insistance (and statement that my brother could ease his way up by beign given an instructor's black belt and teach karate before teaching krav maga). Mixed in with some knife fighting and research into how sword fighting works (specifically non-sheild sword figthing) and a personal interest in sambo (whose focus on joint attacking tends to colour most of my other fighting; I focus on joints, groin locations (neck, armpit, groin) and sensitive high nerve areas like the hands, feet and face) have been my largest influences.
I'm not a really big fan of grappling, partly b/c I'm not that good at it and partly b/c it doesn't usually give you a
win.
ShootingThe first time I've attempted nearly anything in terms of "shooting" I tend to go 4/5 or 8/10; rifle sniping; clay pidgeon shooting with a shotgun; firing a tiny cannon on a bipod (aka, the .306 rifle that makes even the 300 lb person that owns it shake when he fires it and gives his shoulder a wonderful purple complexion if he hasn't placed a sweater around the butt of the rifle to cushion the kickback); firing a handgun. I don't have any experience with submachine guns or any type of automatic weapon, but I'm sure that I could pick it up.
Let's not forget Archery. I love that sport. I don't practise it enough, but it's really a lot of fun.
PsychologyI'm damned near impossible to tempt. Sex, food, drugs, booze or shiny things won't lure me away from something that I'm already doing that needs to get done. On the other hand, when I'm in hyper-attentive mode, I will
notice all of those things.
The more intense a situation is, the calmer I get and on more than one occasion I've been the only cool head when something goes wrong; usually I end up fixing what went wrong and I'm almost never the cause of what went wrong.
Isolation barely affects me, and having to beat the shit out of someone who used to be someone that I knew and cared for when they were alive is something that I could visualize myself doing.
BiologyI've got no allergies or long-term diseases.
My vision is
terrible without fairly strong glasses. My prescription is +7 or so in one eye, +7.5 in the other. for an example of where this falls in terms of prescription strength, this prescription is not within the scope of most contact lenses (the go as far as +6 before you need to order specialized contacts; I only wear glasses, and the lenses cost nearly as much as the frames).
On the other hand, I've got pretty good visual acuity and I can pick out things that I'm looking for pretty good (the joke in my gaming group is that I've sunk a lot of ranks into Search; except it's not a joke, it's a method of slowly scanning back and forth starting at one side and working your way to the other; it seems slow, but it works).
I'm lean as hell now and I have to stop b/c I'm thirsty when running, not b/c my lungs are burning or my legs are tired from lactic acid buildup. This is partly due to weight training, and partly a change in breathing technique.
I'd like to think that I'm strong, but really I'm more dexterous than strong. I tend to walk through crowds of people and I only take stairs two at a time, because taking them three or four at a time is actually slower for me than taking them by twos very quickly.
I'm pretty damned tough; cold and heat don't really stop me, rain doesn't make my uncomfortable. Plus I've got guts that can digest things that in retrospect could have made me pretty ill (a human tasmanian devil really), and most illnesses don't affect me that hard.
I do however stress out pretty badly, but that's mostly deadlines and such. Punctuating long periods of boredom with brief periods of terror would probably be pretty easy to deal with.
TacticsI've read.... a lot on tactics in my life time, but really Sun Tzu's the art of war is the most succint package that anyone could hope to have.
Basically distilled it's this:
1. You must be fair with those who work with you, to a fault
2. Deception is the key to victory
3. Choose the location of every battle to acheive victory
4. Know your strengths/weaknesses, and your enemies strengths/weaknesses
5. Attack the intangible elements of an enemy
6. An attack should be like everything against nothing; a defense should be like the mountains themselves
Some of these things don't work for zombies, but some do.
OtherA smattering of other knowledges.
A practiced member of three storytelling circles (seriously, it's either storytelling or playing rpgs for entertainment; and I haven't learned dozens of stories and written notes for dozens and dozens more for nothing). Being a member of actual storytelling circles and knowing how to research, learn, practice and tell stories for an audience is part of why I have a colossal
disgust for people who call themselves "storytellers" when they talk about their GMing or campaign writing.
Not being too specialized in anything. I can help deliver a baby just as easily as I can help plan a defense in a siege.
Honestly, I think that I'd survive a long enough time. The real problem would be the people around me or people that I know that live near me. Some of them I could very well kill with out caring, while others I'd do nearly anything to keep alive. So the question would be whether I'd lone wolf it or try to make my own pack and be the alpha.
Finally, I'm far too pessemistic to believe in any sort of evacuation plan. Give me all of the -fu that you want, but I think that such a plan is ultimately fruitless.
I also tend to take everything too seriously. It's partly why I hate most people.
