Odd Treasure Troves

[Brother in Arms]

I had a few thoughts....

One has anyone ever seen the show hoarders Now most of these people on the show hoard garbage and junk not fit to be around but some of them hoard things like Books and tools. My old boss legitimately was a firearms, ammunition and accessories hoarder. Some people hoard canned food and batteries and household goods useful things to the end of world traveler. My moms house is a mixture of all the above!

The second thought was Liberty tool shed and captain Tinkhams.....two real places here in Maine that have nothing but antique tools and farm equipment!!!!

I read that John Denver was a gas hoarder in the 1970's had several underground tanks full of gasoline/petrol on his property.

Perhaps these are all easy ideas and there could be something more bizzare but also useful.....

what about a place with functioning hot water Say a farm house with a wood boiler and gravity feed water tank (not that uncommon here in the north east)

ill think of more soon

[pmulcahy11b]

Hoarding books...I'm guilty.

My mother calls me a hoarder, but I don't think I'm that far gone. But perhaps my biggest aspect of hoarding is computer parts and files. I have some old RAM in my closet that wouldn't fit in any computer made for quite some time now. And I have files that I wrote on my first computer in 1991 (just converted into something readable by today's programs), and some of the JPGs have been on one of my computers since the beginning.

A lot of time, these things become useful. It's not hoarding -- I know where to look for everything.

[TrailerParkJawa]

My mother tends to hoard. Its irrational. She keeps unopened bank statements from like 15 years ago, receipts that are decades old, etc. Not very useful in a T2K sense. Aside from a nice source of paper to start a fire with.

[WallShadow]

Functional uses for "useless" items

While not a "private" stash, there are a few things mentioned in passing in the Allegheny Uprising strategic reserve that might actually turn out more valuable than at first glance.
--Crates of DoD and tax forms; lots of paper, which, if densely compressed, will slow down projectiles if the reserve's location becomes a combat zone. Also useful with moderate treatment (soaked with water and dried) as toilet paper. Not great but better than leaves, brother. Perhaps also useful if soaked in water, rolled tightly and bound into 11-inch-long "logs", dried, then soaked in waste fat/oil for erszatz firewood. And finally, as a source of information about the addresses of small businesses that might have hidden/abandoned resources nearby that could be used in the recovery efforts.
--Crates of oil pipeline xrays, which are negatives. Which contain lots and lots of recoverable _silver_. Also, the filmstock itself might come in handy to water proof small items, or as sunglass lenses.
More as they occur to me.

[unkated]

I think that might be where they filmed Dawn of the Dead - certainly a facility something like that.

No. Dawn of the Dead was filmed at the Monroeville Mall. They even refer to it (the zombies swarm the mall due to some bearly-remembered instinct for shopping).

I (along with a dozen friends, awake at stupid o'clock in the morning on different Sat nights/Sunday mornings) was one of the extras, but near as I can see I ended up on the cutting room floor.

Uncle Ted

[unkated]

Coke requires kola beans which do not grow in non-tropical environments, generally; however, some are cultivated in northern italy or southern germany, according to this map:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/KolanutYield.png

Also note a crapton are grown in central southern California, but well enough away from LA that they might not be fallout contaminated.

What was the yield of weapons used on and around that region

We can use nukemap to maybe determine what the crops would be like...

Also: I had a character (didn't get to play, unfortunately) among his treasures was a 12 pack of canned coke.

Are you pushing for actual Cola Wars

Picture a mad-eyed senior officer....

"Dammit, major! My men will need to have heart to push those dammned Mexicans out of California! They'll need the promise of Coke! Served by cute American girls in short shorts! Your battalion WILL take that area this week, and secure the area until the harvest is complete!."

Uncle Ted

[unkated]

Iron Mountain

I used to work for Iron Mountain about 12 years ago.

In addition to tons of paper records (government & corporate), there are private physical storage areas, with anything from photo albums to sets of china (these are rare, because access is difficult and the storage is expensive - but then, what is there is probabaly of value - or was of value before TDM and nuclear war.

There (is) also a (very) large data center, designed to hold corporate (and government) electronic data. While the data may be of limited value, you will get a large functioning data center in a place specifically designed NOT to be damaged by natural and unnatural disasters, including nuclear attack, and is not near a specific target. The computers, of course, can be re-purposed, and corporate finance and operations records for a few hundred randomly selected US Fortune 5000 corporations deleted (heck, its available on back-up anyway).

Uncle Ted

[dragoon500ly]

Just for entertainment...Try surfing some of the survival food web sites, the claims and counterclaims can be amusing. Although the five gallon plastic buckets holding four weeks of food for one person are intriguing...

[unkated]

Ugly Sweaters

A trunkful (or suitcase or storage box) of particularly ugly sweaters, part of collection of that which should not be worn: bright, clashing colors, peculiar shades, decorated with elves, trees, moose, reindeer, big red hearts, badly rendered ice skaters, large silvery stars, etc.

There could be matching socks in the bottom.

Found in an attic or basement in November in a northern climate. (Last folk passing through in summer did not need or want them them).

You can provide a clue by having a shredded sweater on the stairs leading to the rest. "Is that a smurf"

Uncle Ted

[dragoon500ly]

Have the team exploring an abandoned house, and finding a hatch in the backyard. Exploring the hatch leads to a bomb shelter...packed of U.S. Civil Defence supplies, nothing like 50-year old canned water and enriched crackers for dinner. Would that be a +5 for the upchoke roll!

[unkated]

Slightly off the road, your PCs find a set of trailers, slightly weathered.

On further examination, these are carnival rides, abandoned by the trucks that towed them a years or two back. Some rides have been plundered, in that seats or some decorations are missing.

With some persistence (if the ride is opened up), some of the rides have their own generator or engine - each with 0-50L of gasoline (2D6-2 x 5) that can be siphoned out.

Uncle Ted

[WallShadow]

<Snip>
On further examination, these are carnival rides, abandoned by the trucks that towed them a years or two back. Some rides have been plundered, in that seats or some decorations are missing.

With some persistence (if the ride is opened up), some of the rides have their own generator or engine - each with 0-50L of gasoline (2D6-2 x 5) that can be siphoned out.

Uncle Ted

Some of them also have hydraulics, from which might be siphoned the fluid. That is if you're not going to salvage the systems themselves.
You never know when you might need an MG/periscope on an extension arm.
Might also be handy equipped with a rake or hook attachment to try to remove objects without getting too close (AP mines).

[dragoon500ly]

Visiting a friends house, who runs the local civil war living history unit, and his arms room got me thinking...a 12pdr Napoleon, a dozen Springfield and Enfield rifle muskets, Spencer rifles and carbine, Colt and Remington cap and ball revolvers, sabers, bayonets, enough to field a company.

Amazing what one can find in the Deep South!

[WallShadow]

Visiting a friends house, who runs the local civil war living history unit, and his arms room got me thinking...a 12pdr Napoleon, a dozen Springfield and Enfield rifle muskets, Spencer rifles and carbine, Colt and Remington cap and ball revolvers, sabers, bayonets, enough to field a company.

The Napoleon is the prize here, followed by the rifles and revolvers. The Spencers are going to have the same problem faced by the Southerners who captured them--once the rimfire ammo's gone, it's a fancy club.
The Napoleon, though, could take out soft-skinned vehicles and make a APC think twice. IIRC some ACW artillerists live-fire their weapons with appropriately-diametered food cans filled with cement. One wonders what would happen if a nice hardened steel spike is centered along the long axis of the projectile

[swaghauler]

The Napoleon is the prize here, followed by the rifles and revolvers. The Spencers are going to have the same problem faced by the Southerners who captured them--once the rimfire ammo's gone, it's a fancy club.
The Napoleon, though, could take out soft-skinned vehicles and make a APC think twice. IIRC some ACW artillerists live-fire their weapons with appropriately-diametered food cans filled with cement. One wonders what would happen if a nice hardened steel spike is centered along the long axis of the projectile

While I generally agree with you on the cannon, I think the black powder pistols and rifles will be more useful and the caps are a pretty easy fix. The better (more useful) use for those food cans is to fill them with stones or scrap metal fragments and just bend the top back down. They fragment wonderfully upon impact.