Post-apocalyptic TL 5/8

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Didn't TL5 have all of these things? It certainly had good timepieces, maps, and realistic art (photography is TL5).

Yeah, I was thinking a bit TL4 on the locks and clocks. Photography is TL5, but it followed much of the still heavily-stylised features of 18th century art.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why? Fiberglass isn't going to be available. What are you making these out of that isn't already a TL5 material?

With the bows, I was thinking of the concept of compound bows (i.e. cams) rather than materials. Regardless of what you make it out of, camming allows a person to use a much stronger bow.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Also why bother? Fancy bows are a luxury hunting fad when you have guns. Instead of cannon? What do TL8 martial arts styles have that TL5 styles did not?

Bows have some stealth advantages, but their popularity will depend on just how hard it is to get hold of decent firearms. I was brainstorming "possible" rather than "exceptionally useful".

The martial arts advantage is that, if the knowledge survived, instead of having one pretty good local style you get to pick the best bits from the many styles known across the world. This applies to a fair variety of things apart from martial arts.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Maybe. FAEs require some sophisticated chemistry and it's not something that you can learn from The Way Things Work.

Yeah, I'm not sure of the practicality. But I figure that someone is going to try it; getting the stoichiometric ratios right with any of a wide variety of things (e.g. powdered milk, a fan and a flare, as seen on Youtube and Mythbusters) will make a helluva big boom.