Business Entrepreneur in the PAW

[Doctorr Fabulous]

DM/GM for all the NAW-themed D20 games.

[Braticus Caticus]

Got it planned already, Fix broken eyeglasses.

[MacAttack]

Lumber yard.

Using recovered or new materials as available.


Without the rails or trucks running 24/7 someone has to fill the gap.

Once you have the belt driven equipment you can power it from anything. Horses, people, steam, or gas/diesel/sterling engines.

[azrael99]

i would probably become a blacksmith, and later a gunsmith. because firearm will still be needed for food, and defense.

everyone will need tools
many will need sharp tools
some will need weapons
few will need decoration (women will always be women)

i can already make, chisel, knife, machete, probably punch and hammer, i never tried nails but i'm sure i can make some.


i'm good as scavenging material too

[MacAttack]

I'm going to need a few nails and I bet you could use a great roof over that smithy. No use standing in the sun and rain.

[JesterODX]

One thing I figure that none of us stated but unfortunatly may become a very important job if we are faced with a biological situation or other severe situations, at least at the beggining of the end, body removal and burial.


Probably a non paying gig that you'd have to do to insure vermine and disease didnt sprea in your general location...

[2now]

NON violent dispute resolution
being a local record keeper [marriages, births deaths debts, ownerships that sort of thing]

My wife was a head hunter so she would be very busy, helping displaced people find jobs to keep them busy, safe and out of trouble.

I expect to see a return or sharecropper or even feudal type business arrangements, so basically help people find a patron, draft the agreement between the landowner and the labor, track and record the agreement and maybe aid with enforcement if necessary.
break a deal and face the wheel!

[Boondock]

Any dentists still alive in the PAW should do OK.

[AZMedic]

Pimp
Witch Doctor

[silversnake]

NON violent dispute resolution
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break a deal and face the wheel!

That's a hell of a progression in just one post.

[fixinto]

A bar and a tobacco farm.

[Aircobra21]

Clean water dispensary.
Instead of people needing to filter and boil their own water they could go to one of these and save them time. It would also have rudimentary showers

[Braums]

Salvage/reclamation, a barter store, tech repair, and/or setting up a training school for life skills and trades.

[azrael99]

since for blacksmithing i would need lot's of wood i could always sell the extra wood for food, material or alcohol (for burner, first aid........or myself) and i can be a rustic carpenter too

[TripleThreat]

Good luck to all

[Blacksmith]

since for blacksmithing i would need lot's of wood i could always sell the extra wood for food, material or alcohol

Sort of. You will actually need a lot of charcoal. For that you will need a lot of wood. Making charcoal from wood is a whole other trade.

I think money lender comes to mind as a good trade, especially if there are no banks as going concerns. Without that nothing else is going to happen.

[RoneKiln]

Got it planned already, Fix broken eyeglasses.

I can make single vision lenses with hand powered tools and do very basic refractions. We can go into business together.

[Bozowolf]

Taking a idea from some of the PAW movies out there I think the "carrying" books idea comes to mind The Book of Eli.) Maybe even book "hunting." Restoration of educational and learning opportunities. I mean you're still going to need math, reading, and of course writing even in a PAW.

Think of this for a PAW word problem...."Johnny has 200 rounds of ammo. His rifle shoots at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. How long will it take him to clear out a horde of 30 zombies?"

[Turd Fergueson]

Martial arts instructors would probably do pretty well. Also, anybody with farm land, if they were able their crops and land, could make a killing setting up a PAW grocery store. `Moonshine. Anybody who has stored enough medical supplies and has studied a couple of manuals could charge a bundle to be a PAW 'doctor'. Obviously the quality of care would vary greatly, but it'd be a way to turn a profit.
With the tremendous loss of life, it wouldn't be hard for an armed group to go into abandoned or mostly abandoned towns, remove the corpses, and rent houses out to travelers. Also, all of the useful materials that the group decides they don't absolutely need could be sold to people, you could turn an entire town into one big, shitty Costco.
Also, renting out reacquired houses and such would eventually repopulate a town, get a small economy started, build a growing workforce, and as the population grows, more work would need to be done. Food production, construction, law enforcement, 'government', although most likely the leader of the original group that started renting out the reacquired houses would be the defacto leader. So, this leader could start assigning work details, the law enforcers make sure that everybody's doing their jobs, etc, etc. As the population grows further, both from new renters/workers, and from new births, a small army could start to be organized, and people with the appropriate skills would be selected to begin training this new army. Useable weapons would have to be made or salvaged in order to arm the growing military, which would open a whole lot of jobs. Obviously, as the population expands, there would need to be more territory acquired, more infrastructure either built or taken. Good thing that army got started earlier, to clear the land of hostile elements, help relocate refuges so that they can be assimilated into the new, growing society, and to guard new settlements until more soldiers, LE and general security personnel can be trained and stationed in the new settlements. And so on, and so on.

[squinty]

Taking a idea from some of the PAW movies out there I think the "carrying" books idea comes to mind The Book of Eli.) Maybe even book "hunting." Restoration of educational and learning opportunities. I mean you're still going to need math, reading, and of course writing even in a PAW.

Think of this for a PAW word problem...."Johnny has 200 rounds of ammo. His rifle shoots at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. How long will it take him to clear out a horde of 30 zombies?"

Answer: The rest of his life. Johnny didn't train hard enough in the NAW.

OT: I'ma stock up on simple things that will make life easier in an economy of scarcity, where people haven't become self sufficient yet and are still trying to exploit what relics remain of civilization to make up the shortfall.

There's a scene in Threads where, in a small English village relatively unscathed by the recent nuclear war (unscathed here meaning "mostly not turned to glass or ash") there's a throwaway background scene where a man forlornly sits on the side of the road with a bucket of standard kitchen can openers and tries to sell them. "Can opener, sir? Can opener? Never know ma'am. Could save your life! Can opener?" etc.

While personally I'd be damned if I let lack of a can opener keep me from enjoying the last can of Alpo left in the rubble, that guy had the right idea. Before the PAW, don't just stock for your own needs. Stock little things other people won't think of until they start to miss them. Basically, anything in the "Stupid shit you can't live without" thread. Q-Tips. You know you'd miss them after a few weeks grubbing around in the apocalyptic soot and grime, getting all waxed up from the stress and lack of hygiene. Or, remember what a prize a tube of chapstick or a single serve wetnap was in The Book of Eli?

When fallout contaminated rain might come down on you at any minute, who's going to be the hero that thought to fill his BIL with collapsible umbrellas? Yep. When the ozone layer gets cooked away, who do you think has an underground stash of sunscreen, zinc oxide and cheap sunglasses? Oh yeah. What's an extra tube of deodorant worth to someone who has to share a really cramped fallout shelter with all their non-prepper in laws? We can work something out. Down to the nasty pink ham slice MREs? I know a guy with the world's last remaining case of tabasco, and he has spicy mustard, barely past the sell-by date, liven that meal right up, eh?

Basically, a Post-Apocalyptic Spiv.

[Blacksmith]

OT: I'ma stock up on simple things that will make life easier in an economy of scarcity, where people haven't become self sufficient yet and are still trying to exploit what relics remain of civilization to make up the shortfall.

There's a scene in Threads where, in a small English village relatively unscathed by the recent nuclear war (unscathed here meaning "mostly not turned to glass or ash") there's a throwaway background scene where a man forlornly sits on the side of the road with a bucket of standard kitchen can openers and tries to sell them. "Can opener, sir? Can opener? Never know ma'am. Could save your life! Can opener?" etc.

While personally I'd be damned if I let lack of a can opener keep me from enjoying the last can of Alpo left in the rubble, that guy had the right idea. Before the PAW, don't just stock for your own needs. Stock little things other people won't think of until they start to miss them. Basically, anything in the "Stupid shit you can't live without" thread. Q-Tips. You know you'd miss them after a few weeks grubbing around in the apocalyptic soot and grime, getting all waxed up from the stress and lack of hygiene. Or, remember what a prize a tube of chapstick or a single serve wetnap was in The Book of Eli?

When fallout contaminated rain might come down on you at any minute, who's going to be the hero that thought to fill his BIL with collapsible umbrellas? Yep. When the ozone layer gets cooked away, who do you think has an underground stash of sunscreen, zinc oxide and cheap sunglasses? Oh yeah. What's an extra tube of deodorant worth to someone who has to share a really cramped fallout shelter with all their non-prepper in laws? We can work something out. Down to the nasty pink ham slice MREs? I know a guy with the world's last remaining case of tabasco, and he has spicy mustard, barely past the sell-by date, liven that meal right up, eh?

Basically, a Post-Apocalyptic Spiv.

I have a friend from JP Morgan and they are looking to fund post apocalyptic ventures such as yours. How much capital do you think you will need to get started?

[Visionz]

I'd raise sheep.
Wool, meat, and probably the most valuable ... intestines which can be used as condoms.

[IceWing]

IT Professional:aka Librarian - I've got all kinds of books to help rebuild the tech tree. Also some skills to go with them. I've got a digital library my whole group envies. I've got power generation, multiple computers\drives, kindle fires, etc. I can also keep everything charged up. Adding coms to my setup is the next step, including packet radio or something similar.

Project Manager - Just about what I'm doing today professionally.

Salvage

Ferry runs across the river, possibly with a storefront there as well.

ShadeTree mechanic

Construction\demolition

Beekeeper - 2 hives now, hopefully double in the spring.

thats just off the top of my head.

[squinty]

OT: I'ma stock up on simple things that will make life easier in an economy of scarcity, where people haven't become self sufficient yet and are still trying to exploit what relics remain of civilization to make up the shortfall.

There's a scene in Threads where, in a small English village relatively unscathed by the recent nuclear war (unscathed here meaning "mostly not turned to glass or ash") there's a throwaway background scene where a man forlornly sits on the side of the road with a bucket of standard kitchen can openers and tries to sell them. "Can opener, sir? Can opener? Never know ma'am. Could save your life! Can opener?" etc.

While personally I'd be damned if I let lack of a can opener keep me from enjoying the last can of Alpo left in the rubble, that guy had the right idea. Before the PAW, don't just stock for your own needs. Stock little things other people won't think of until they start to miss them. Basically, anything in the "Stupid shit you can't live without" thread. Q-Tips. You know you'd miss them after a few weeks grubbing around in the apocalyptic soot and grime, getting all waxed up from the stress and lack of hygiene. Or, remember what a prize a tube of chapstick or a single serve wetnap was in The Book of Eli?

When fallout contaminated rain might come down on you at any minute, who's going to be the hero that thought to fill his BIL with collapsible umbrellas? Yep. When the ozone layer gets cooked away, who do you think has an underground stash of sunscreen, zinc oxide and cheap sunglasses? Oh yeah. What's an extra tube of deodorant worth to someone who has to share a really cramped fallout shelter with all their non-prepper in laws? We can work something out. Down to the nasty pink ham slice MREs? I know a guy with the world's last remaining case of tabasco, and he has spicy mustard, barely past the sell-by date, liven that meal right up, eh?

Basically, a Post-Apocalyptic Spiv.

I have a friend from JP Morgan and they are looking to fund post apocalyptic ventures such as yours. How much capital do you think you will need to get started?

That depends on how much insider trading they are willing to do. How much advance notice will they give me about the apocalypse before it goes public?