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Old 03-12-2019, 04:58 PM   #251
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Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

In support of the two Kickstarter projects,
Dire Sheep Farming!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...sters-2-and-ga

And

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...del-at-norvorn
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Old 09-09-2019, 08:27 PM   #252
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Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

When I read abput this, the dwarven farming write up sprung to mind. Fungal Leather.
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Old 09-09-2019, 11:53 PM   #253
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When I read abput this, the dwarven farming write up sprung to mind. Fungal Leather.
Do you know how it's made? Could the Guild of the Worm replicate the technique?
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Old 09-10-2019, 12:13 AM   #254
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From what I've read its made from a mat of "agricultural byproduct" which I think is a mat of compressed and dried cow manure or other fibrous decomposing material that is placed on a dense base of pre-fruiting fungus which then grows a collagen rich stalk through the dung.
If rather than the stalk of the fungus, the roots of fungus were used then it would be a matter of finely controlling the growing environment to keep the fungus growing a thicker and thicker root mat through the growing medium.

Timing and cutting the right layer is next step, followed by sterilizing the material to prevent further growth.

Given the assumptions with the setting its feasible, there might be something like an incredibly expensive early thermometer involved though.
[Edit] I think they have the glass technology required.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40562633...rooms-not-cows
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Old 09-10-2019, 12:55 AM   #255
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Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

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Given the assumptions with the setting its feasible, there might be something like an incredibly expensive early thermometer involved though.
It wouldn't be any more difficult than the temperature control required for brewing ales though, would it?

For thermometers, I think the halflings were the manufacturers of fine glass goods, and we had telescopes and brass astronomical instruments in there, so they sound viable.
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Old 09-10-2019, 01:37 AM   #256
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It wouldn't be any more difficult than the temperature control required for brewing ales though, would it?

For thermometers, I think the halflings were the manufacturers of fine glass goods, and we had telescopes and brass astronomical instruments in there, so they sound viable.
While it might be a bit more complicated than brewing ales as you are dealing with a solid rather than a liquid there is one other technique that might work.

The cooling system for the city is a slowly working system that draws the heat of the earth up to the heights of the mountain. The consistency of the system is such that the temperature of the water is predictable at fixed distances from the cooling cisterns. This consistency is exploited by the guild of the Worm who through trial and error have discovered where the perfect conditions exist to create all manner of wondrous products from simple fungi.
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Old 09-10-2019, 03:37 AM   #257
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This consistency is exploited by the guild of the Worm who through trial and error have discovered where the perfect conditions exist to create all manner of wondrous products from simple fungi.
... the first of which is a fungal "thermometer," using different indicator breeds which thrive at different specific temperatures.

But yeah, I was thinking that they'd have a fairly stable, consistent and predictable thermal environment.
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Old 05-23-2020, 01:33 AM   #258
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Foundation Valley
A group of six family farms, founded by preppers.

Starting resources and Assumptions
Each of the farms started as a prepper bolt hole.
An initial high level of concern over defense, a large part of the pre-end resources were devoted to this.
Enduring isolationist tendencies, these are big weaknesses when it comes to efficiency and reliability, but conversely increase the effectiveness of security.

Thoughts

An ideologically unified and driven group might have a higher chance of success.

Notes
Out of the maybe 200 prepper locations that were present in the general area at the time of the fall, only these six survive. While well prepared for initial breakdown getting sufficient food production started was a task that many failed at. This is/was a fairly remote location away from major roads and settlements.

Crop failure has been and is a major issue, in these conditions each individual species planted or raised might fail one year in eight. At best this means the loss of expected food, at worst this means the permanent loss of a food source. The most likely effect however is the loss of two crops, this year’s and next year’s as seed supplies are renewed. One year in twenty or thirty will have a catastrophic failure, multiple key crops might fail or it could be something as simple as next year's seeds getting ruined by pests. Gardening rather than growing crops reduces the risk slightly, but having neighbors is how this community survived. (Smaller groups may survive, it's just that the likelihood is reduced, the Lykov family are an example of a small group that survived for quite some time. The records of their endeavours show what might be required to survive, this includes guarding a single rye plant for days and running down elk.)

The End
Grim global warming combined with societal collapse due to food shortages.
Rough Timeline
25 years before the end, the first foods start either disappearing from shelves or becoming far more expensive items.
- Coffee
- Vanilla (well real vanilla)
- Chocolate
- Bananas
Other foods that suffer upheaval as traditional growing areas become unsuitable
- Peaches
- Almonds
Fruit will also become more expensive as more crops are damaged by weather events. Reduced insect pollinators will have the greatest effect on fruiting trees as well.
Droughts in continental areas increase the volatility of wheat and other cereal crops.
Rise in counterfeit food. (for example Manuka honey, in 2014 1,700 tonnes were produced worldwide while a total of more than 10,000 tonnes was sold, similarly melamine has been added to milk and soy powder to increase the apparent protein content)
Global refugee population 300 million.
Sea level one meter higher, with more to come.
Environmental laws are enforced on farming as well as other industries, there is a corresponding reduction in global food production.
Influence from animal rights groups further reduces total animal production.
Food prices rise due to competition from biofuel production.
Tree planting is happening almost everywhere and as a result food production is intensifying.
In some countries the increased construction of vertical farms increases the short term carbon output. Nations that still use fossil fuels for power generation may have increased net carbon output by switching to vertical farms.
15 years before the end, a greater reliance on vegetable protein increases phosphorus use, US reserves (assuming some poor management or profiteering) are exhausted at this point. Major remaining reserves are in Morocco. Some oceanic locations can be mined as well. These locations become the focus of global political attention.
Plummeting insect populations increase the labour required to produce some crops.
Increased automation means only larger farms are economically viable in many places. Amalgamation leaves fewer though larger financial entities in control of food production.
Political decisions increase the effects of food shortages. Basically added nation level controls on the export and import of food make it more difficult to sell surpluses and import food to cover shortfalls. Poorly planned subsidies also reduce overall efficiency.
Wheat, rice and maize now account for 80% of the food consumed by humanity.
10 years before the end, gardening becomes more popular as consumers are having to deal with unreliable or expensive food supplies.
Increase in out of biome crop pests.
Increase in disease due to reduced cold periods and increased atmospheric moisture.
Average crop yields are reduced by 10% due to these reasons alone. (Though technological improvements, where present, can more than cope with this, the best food production is perhaps thirty percent better than its current level)
Huge increase in refugees globally.
Sea level two meters higher.
Environmental cascade effects increase global CO2 emissions.
Climate bands change in continental landmasses causing widespread and sustained crop failure which requires massive infrastructure shifts to fix.
0 the population correction event.
1 year after the end, climate shock, numerous changes in the global climate brought on by the widespread demise of human society happen. These include an increase in temperature variation of four or five degrees celsius as well as a short term rapid drop in CO2 levels. Both of these help cause mass tree die off over the next several years. Which leads to a spike in CO2 emissions as decomposition and wildfires increase.
Survivors dramatically reduce wild and feral animal populations through mass hunting.
2-5 years after the end, climate chaos, at this stage it might be likely a surviving prepper group simply joins a larger community.
10 years after the end, forests begin to regrow across much of the planet. There is a switch here, there are several reasons why that might not happen.
21-22 years after the end, local drought.
46 years after the end, local summer monsoon rain.
60, current date.

continued...
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Old 05-23-2020, 01:34 AM   #259
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Foundation Valley continued

Foundation Valley is located in arid low rolling hills among a sparse forest. Each farm is surrounded by a perimeter of oft patched rusty barbed wire and a light sprinkling of traps. Several dams have been constructed on higher ground and ditches follow the contours of the terrain to distribute water during dry periods. The majority of food production is from garden based systems utilising some permaculture ideas rather than more traditional crops, this increases reliability and produces a greater sustainable yield by area, at the cost of a greater labour requirement.

The six farms, while similar, all have some form of specialization; they are Timber production, Metal Working, Horses, Dairy and one family that does everything else, such as medical tasks and other miscellaneous skills.

Harvest time is intensely busy as food is preserved in a variety of ways, this group has learnt through hard lessons that seed preservation is critical and as a result a lot of effort is devoted to storing and securing seeds. Soil maintenance also happens at this time of year with garden soils being built up.

While eschewing straight lines and keeping the size of the cultivated area to a minimum for reasons of camouflage, the garden setup is relatively traditional. Each farm is based around a large house with numerous outbuildings, as a result of fire damage these rebuilt buildings are generally low and dark timber structures.

Crunch
Rather than a yield based crunch this time it will be based on percentages of the diet.
The main species planted are corn, beans, potatoes, cabbage, onions, squash and kale. About 20 other plants are grown, originally there were closer to 30 species grown but crop failures and other disasters have wiped out several cultivars. Traditional fruit trees are absent, berries, both farmed and wild, to some extent, fill that niche

Inner gardens, these represent the area around each central house, maybe an acre of cultivated area in a two acre space. 60-70% of the food requirement is grown in a typical year here.
Outer gardens, these are larger areas used for larger more crop-like plantings. Again 60-70% of the total calorie requirement is grown.
Livestock, The following animals are kept; Pigs, Ducks, Goats, Horses and Rabbits. These animals are kept in sprawling barbed wire fenced enclosures and survive on a combination of what they can find and the surpluses generated by the other systems. These animals generate 10-20% of the Valley’s food.
Hunting, Trapping, Fishing and Foraging, These methods provide 5-10% of the Valley’s food requirement. This is typically not a major activity due to the irreplaceable and hard to find resources that it tends to consume. The hunting is now rich in small game, indeed in places there is a herbivore population boom as predator numbers have yet to catch up. The residents while the might curse the damage wildlife does to their gardens do rely on a healthy population of wild animals as the last resort in times of starvatio

From my reading of various prepper articles fiber production is generally lacking or non existent*. This will result in shortages as the years progress. To acquire clothes, rope and the multitude of other products made from fiber the residents of Foundation Valley have to resupply maybe once every year or two. A small mounted group will head out to scavenge, steal, trade or raid for these goods. While in every case the residents likely load up their horses and grab an AR-15** (or TL equivalent) for these "shopping" trips the means they use to acquire what they want is left to the GM. The only fiber equivalents that the valley could create locally are animal hides and bark (bast) fiber.

With this particular scenario there are numerous cases where one crop or animal could easily be replaced with another to fill a niche, chickens for ducks, cattle for goats. Chickens are likely to be bred to the point where they require factory-like conditions and cattle are large easily hunted animals so they were moved down the list.

Digression
The initial prepper farmers focused on maintaining a high yield of food from their farms, this is an important issue, there is however a “but”. The goal of a survival farm (or garden) is to feed yourself and your family, to do this, sure you must produce sufficient food, but you must also ensure that there is a relatively complete diet available all year round. Secondly having a wide variety of crops (including lower yielding cultivars) will increase reliability as there is an increased chance of having a crop that has the characteristics to survive a particular set of adverse conditions. Thirdly not everything you can get from a farm is food, failure to consider this will lead to difficulties in the future. One last thing to consider is how much labour is required to produce a given yield, there are a huge range of crops and animals that while not producing large amounts of calories do not need much work to maintain.

*Some articles do make reference to hemp, there is a considerable amount of work (and some skill and equipment) required to process this though, for the purposes of this example Foundation Valley either lacked the foresight or does not have the available manpower to process it. Water availability may also be an issue when it comes to processing

** The firearm paradox, having firearms, ammunition and the skills to use them are fairly central to most prepper scenarios. Maintaining skill consumes ammunition and causes wear reducing the available firearms and ammunition.
Conservatively each family might have consumed 30,000 rounds since the end maintaining skill levels. However given the number of failed prepper farms and bolt holes that could have been looted in this example, it isn't that unreasonable to assume they have ammunition. The modular nature of the AR-15 platform would mean it is likely that they can have fully functioning weapons. Though a specific part may be more susceptible to wear and corrosion (possibly magazines or small internal components like gas rings), in which case they would almost certainly have other rifles.

Larger bunkers

Other ideas
Orc agriculture, (this has already been sketched out, but it doesn't look very "orcish", like several of these examples it may not pan out.)
A well funded and planned AtE settlement. Using a random start location and time since the end, maybe a permaculture focused system. Maybe create a start point and then ask the forum for future events.
A comparison between TL4 agriculture and AtE pseudo TL4 agriculture.
Elven agriculture.
An example of a "utopia" start location, something like an agriculture museum with a rural university campus nearby.

Adventure seed

Rumours have been circulating about a group of isolationist types out to the west. The story goes that they have been spotted carrying pre-event weapons and were scrounging for clothes of all things. Now an astute trader might spot an opportunity to make a good amount of money.
The group of isolationists will likely be in need of recently manufactured items and new seeds. The players will have to make some guesses but if they are lucky they could make a fortune from the weapons this group has.
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Old 05-24-2020, 02:50 PM   #260
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Default Re: [ATE] Farming example

Oops, I forgot this bit.

Trade

Desired goods

Insecticide, poison. Reducing the pest population is the quickest way to improve the yields of foundation valley. Possibly even doubling their projected food production.
Water filtration and irrigation, while bulky simple pipe and hoses would increase the efficiency of the irrigation system.
Clothes and fiber products are also desirable goods.
Oils and lipids will also be valuable, while the group does have sufficient fats in their diet there are numerous other uses for these products.
Sugar is another product that has numerous non-dietary uses as well as being a luxury product.
Medicines.
News, information and stories.
New people.
Spices.


Surpluses and Stockpiles

In a typical year the group should have a surplus of 6-7 tonnes of food, though they are only likely to trade their older supplies and even then they will be cautious about their reserves unless they receive goods that improve their crop yield or reliability.
Weapons, with some 200 or so families and smaller prepper groups failing to survive in the local area it is likely that the residents of foundation valley have hundreds of weapons.
Similarly metal (and any fire resistant) items that a prepper would have stored or acquired will be abundant.

Given their isolationist tendencies, large number of firearms and possible ideological sentiments some additional caution would be advised.
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