[AtE] The Realistic Limit of "Hand-Made"

Jinumon · 10-01-2016, 09:39 PM

Hey all,

I'm currently considering running a survival game in a post-apocalyptic setting I've had kicking around in my head for a while I call "Earth Gone By." The basic premise is that pollution, terrestrial cooling, etc cause the Earth to die a quiet death that people don't immediately notice and are too late to prevent it. Some of humanity retreats into Mega-Cities surrounding what are called "Forges" where people drill hundreds of miles through the crust of the Earth to tap the slowly fading geothermal energy for heat and power. The rest of the world is left to scrape out a living on Earth's slowly cooling corpse. Given the scarcity of resources and abandonment by the majority of world powers, the general Tech Level of the world is limited by shortages of raw materials and man-power, effectively limiting people to what they can make by hand. The campaign is set to take place 200-300 years after the Forge Cities have closed their walls to the outside world. Without the appropriate infrastructure, electricity is limited if available at all, thus digital storage is no longer an option and understanding of many sophisticated technologies has faded. My question is this:

Given the above circumstances, and discounting the occasional piece of Old Tech that has been kept operational, what is the effective, realistic limit on technology?

After the End defaults to TL 4, which seems reasonable enough. However, I do know that many firearms were handmade even well into the 1800s, which seems firmly in TL 5.

Basically, I'm trying to avoid having to go through High-Tech page by page and decide what is and isn't off-limits, and would like to apply a blanket rule similar to that provided in After the End 1: Wastelanders. The GURPS community has proved extremely knowledgeable in the past regarding a myriad of topics.

Please and thank you,

Jinumon

10-01-2016, 09:39 PM	#1
Jinumon Join Date: Mar 2013	[AtE] The Realistic Limit of "Hand-Made" Hey all, I'm currently considering running a survival game in a post-apocalyptic setting I've had kicking around in my head for a while I call "Earth Gone By." The basic premise is that pollution, terrestrial cooling, etc cause the Earth to die a quiet death that people don't immediately notice and are too late to prevent it. Some of humanity retreats into Mega-Cities surrounding what are called "Forges" where people drill hundreds of miles through the crust of the Earth to tap the slowly fading geothermal energy for heat and power. The rest of the world is left to scrape out a living on Earth's slowly cooling corpse. Given the scarcity of resources and abandonment by the majority of world powers, the general Tech Level of the world is limited by shortages of raw materials and man-power, effectively limiting people to what they can make by hand. The campaign is set to take place 200-300 years after the Forge Cities have closed their walls to the outside world. Without the appropriate infrastructure, electricity is limited if available at all, thus digital storage is no longer an option and understanding of many sophisticated technologies has faded. My question is this: Given the above circumstances, and discounting the occasional piece of Old Tech that has been kept operational, what is the effective, realistic limit on technology? After the End defaults to TL 4, which seems reasonable enough. However, I do know that many firearms were handmade even well into the 1800s, which seems firmly in TL 5. Basically, I'm trying to avoid having to go through High-Tech page by page and decide what is and isn't off-limits, and would like to apply a blanket rule similar to that provided in After the End 1: Wastelanders. The GURPS community has proved extremely knowledgeable in the past regarding a myriad of topics. Please and thank you, Jinumon