Need a town for a post-apoc base in CO

[Crakkerjakk]

I know we have several Coloradoans here, so I thought I'd ask:

I'm running a postnuclear war game set in Colorado. I need a small town for my PCs to use as a base. Ideally, I'd like it to be somewhere somewhat mountainous, with some oil/mineral resources nearby, big enough to maybe have some machine shops, but since a nuclear war happened, the major cities all have slightly radioactive craters in their centers and are generally the centers of a more quickly adapting machine civilization that does tend to kill humans if they get in their way.

So, any suggestions? I was looking at maybe Canon or Estes Park.

[thrash]

Canyon City is host to thirteen prisons -- not exactly an ideal post-apocalypse population.

Estes Park may be too close to Denver to escape the starving, radioactive hordes.

I suggest Durango: decent college, lots of gas wells, buffered from major cities by multiple mountain passes. For the traditionalist, base the campaign instead in nearby Bayfield, whose high school mascot really is the Wolverine. (Calumet is a real location on the Front Range, but it's a ghost town.)

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by thrash

Canyon City is host to thirteen prisons -- not exactly an ideal post-apocalypse population.

Estes Park may be too close to Denver to escape the starving, radioactive hordes.

I suggest Durango: decent college, lots of gas wells, buffered from major cities by multiple mountain passes. For the traditionalist, base the campaign instead in nearby Bayfield, whose high school mascot really is the Wolverine. (Calumet is a real location on the Front Range, but it's a ghost town.)

Actually, all those prisons in Canyon City give me a good idea for the "authoritarian ***holes" faction.

Problem I see specifically with Bayfield is I'm generally assuming that most of the dams were targeted, along with all major cities, interstate intersections, and military bases. And Bayfield is downstream from a reservoir.

In general I would like a little closer to Denver area. I mostly want the machines to be not messing with people outside the metro areas because large metro areas are such rich resource extraction opportunities in the first place, but I want that to change partway through the game and have the machines start pushing into the PC's territory. Problem is finding a town close but not too close to Denver that isn't 100% tourist related and would be able to present some light industrial salvaging opportunities, have some arable land nearby for farming, and mountains for hiding in and general difficulty to reach.

What about Frisco, or some of the small towns along Lake Granby?

[Irish Wolf]

If Calumet isn't downstream from a reservoir, it might actually make a good spot. Nobody's going to nuke a ghost town, after all, and the machines might eventually want to access the coal mines for some reason (to scavenge the rails? To use the coal for the steel mills elsewhere?).

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Problem I see specifically with Bayfield is I'm generally assuming that most of the dams were targeted, along with all major cities, interstate intersections, and military bases. And Bayfield is downstream from a reservoir.

There were never enough warheads, much less delivery systems, in the Soviet arsenal to make this remotely plausible. Do you have any concept of how many dams there are across the western states? No one is going to waste a nuke on little Vallecito.

(The locals might decide to smash a couple of the projects that divert Colorado River water to Denver, Albuquerque, or California, however.)

What about Frisco, or some of the small towns along Lake Granby?

Note that both Lake Granby and Dillon Reservoir are artificial. There are natural lakes in Colorado, but they tend to be very high in the mountains.

The problem with Frisco (and similar mountain towns around Denver) is that they were created for mining, and were never really self-sufficient for food production -- no arable land to speak of, and a very short growing season. The towns at higher elevations (Keystone, Vail, Breckenridge) transitioned to ski areas, and Frisco's economy is dependent on tourists. There's probably also a segment of wealthy retirees from Denver who want to live in the mountains while staying close to I70.

The town that probably best fits all your criteria is Buena Vista (pronounced "byuna vista," not "bwena veesta"). The Arkansas River valley is agriculturally productive, the town is close to Denver but far enough to have its own industry, and the weather is relatively mild. There is a prison, but it hasn't taken over the town the way Canyon City's have. What tourism they have is more likely to be river rafting than skiing, or staging for expeditions into the surrounding national forests.

Gunnison, Grand Junction, Delta/Montrose, and (again) Durango might work, but are all farther from Denver.

[Nymdok]

Take a look at silverton in San Juan county? Its got NatGas Fileds to the south in La Plata county. The problem is that there isnt a single machine shop in that town I dont think, so youll have to insert one by hand.

Nymdok

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Take a look at silverton in San Juan county? Its got NatGas Fileds to the south in La Plata county. The problem is that there isnt a single machine shop in that town I dont think, so youll have to insert one by hand.

Silverton is a weird little town. It's cut off by two mountain passes (Molas and Red Mountain), but it sits at the end of a working steam railroad from Durango (D&SNGRR). There might actually be a working machine shop, either to keep the town going when it's snowed in or to keep the train running. Still no farmland, though, and the gas fields are closer to Durango anyway.

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by thrash

Silverton is a weird little town. It's cut off by two mountain passes (Molas and Red Mountain), but it sits at the end of a working steam railroad from Durango (D&SNGRR). There might actually be a working machine shop, either to keep the town going when it's snowed in or to keep the train running. Still no farmland, though, and the gas fields are closer to Durango anyway.

Silverton is downright creepy. We drove from houston to Grand Junction via Silverton. Got there about 6am or so and people were in this Diner eating breakfast inther Pajamas and bunny slippers. Odd. Surreal even.

Nymdok

[Crakkerjakk]

Thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate it!

Originally Posted by thrash

There were never enough warheads, much less delivery systems, in the Soviet arsenal to make this remotely plausible. Do you have any concept of how many dams there are across the western states? No one is going to waste a nuke on little Vallecito.

(The locals might decide to smash a couple of the projects that divert Colorado River water to Denver, Albuquerque, or California, however.)

Note that both Lake Granby and Dillon Reservoir are artificial. There are natural lakes in Colorado, but they tend to be very high in the mountains.

My apocalypse kicks off midway through TL 9/10, so nukes are more common, but you're probably right that smaller dams wouldn't be targeted.

Originally Posted by thrash

The problem with Frisco (and similar mountain towns around Denver) is that they were created for mining, and were never really self-sufficient for food production -- no arable land to speak of, and a very short growing season. The towns at higher elevations (Keystone, Vail, Breckenridge) transitioned to ski areas, and Frisco's economy is dependent on tourists. There's probably also a segment of wealthy retirees from Denver who want to live in the mountains while staying close to I70.

The town that probably best fits all your criteria is Buena Vista (pronounced "byuna vista," not "bwena veesta"). The Arkansas River valley is agriculturally productive, the town is close to Denver but far enough to have its own industry, and the weather is relatively mild. There is a prison, but it hasn't taken over the town the way Canyon City's have. What tourism they have is more likely to be river rafting than skiing, or staging for expeditions into the surrounding national forests.

Gunnison, Grand Junction, Delta/Montrose, and (again) Durango might work, but are all farther from Denver.

Yeah, I was also concerned about agriculture in the high mountains. I was actually looking at Salida, to the south, but Buena Vista looks even better. Near perfect, in fact. Thanks very much for your input.

[alexondria]

Also if you want rid of the dams nothing says every explosion had to be a nuke.