New Setting Idea from CNN... a modern earth out of oil.

[Calico_Jack73]

I just surfed over to CNN and read an article about the declining oil supply. Check it out:
CNN Article

Anyway, that got me thinking about the effects of running out of oil. America would be totally isolated... no oil, no airplane flight. Power would only be available from steam... we'd go back to using firewood as our primary means of heating our homes. Large steam engines wouldn't really work without the oil necessary to lubricate moving parts. All other power requires oil for lubrication so oil would still needed for those power sources.

Scary stuff... but it could make a hell of a campaign setting.

 

[William Ronald]

We would likely find alternative resources, as we already have wind and solar power on a small scale. Hydrogen fuels, derived from water, and ethanol are also alternatives to gasoline.

The scenario could resembel the Mad Max movies if there was a sudden lack of oil and an economic collapse. A good book that details the U.S. after an economic collapse is the novel Wolf and Iron by the late Gordon R. Dickson. It also has an interesting and fairly scientific portrayal of a gray wolf.

 

[Storm Raven]

Anyway, that got me thinking about the effects of running out of oil. America would be totally isolated... no oil, no airplane flight. Power would only be available from steam... we'd go back to using firewood as our primary means of heating our homes. Large steam engines wouldn't really work without the oil necessary to lubricate moving parts. All other power requires oil for lubrication so oil would still needed for those power sources.

Wood? When we know how to make nuclear power plants?

 

[Belen]

I just surfed over to CNN and read an article about the declining oil supply. Check it out:
CNN Article

Anyway, that got me thinking about the effects of running out of oil. America would be totally isolated... no oil, no airplane flight. Power would only be available from steam... we'd go back to using firewood as our primary means of heating our homes. Large steam engines wouldn't really work without the oil necessary to lubricate moving parts. All other power requires oil for lubrication so oil would still needed for those power sources.

Scary stuff... but it could make a hell of a campaign setting.

There are other source of oil that do not include petrol and they can even create crude from trash now. The tech is young, but growing.

In any event, there are other tech resources that can be used. It might be a sucky ten years, but a new tech would emerge to fill the gap.

However, I can see a lot of wars over that available oil. Not many other countries have the ability to use the new tech in place of crude. It's likely that we'd see WW3

 

[RangerWickett]

It's likely that we'd see WW3

And how would you propose to war with foreign nations? Harsh words? As cool as it might be to see a massive war fleet row its way out of New York harbor, across the Atlantic to steal England's oil in a bitter battle using the most advanced spears we can produce, I don't see it happening.

I kinda wish we'd just convert to renewable resources a little faster. That way if we do screw up and kill ourselves in a nuclear war, the next sentient race won't be out of luck.

 

[PoppaGunch]

And how would you propose to war with foreign nations? Harsh words? As cool as it might be to see a massive war fleet row its way out of New York harbor, across the Atlantic to steal England's oil in a bitter battle using the most advanced spears we can produce, I don't see it happening.

I kinda wish we'd just convert to renewable resources a little faster. That way if we do screw up and kill ourselves in a nuclear war, the next sentient race won't be out of luck.

What a dismal outlook...

I respect that. Heh.

 

[nonamazing]

While it is true that we are already sitting on several alternative sources of energy, Calico Jack makes a very good point about oil being necessacary for lubrication in just about every single machine in the world. Even your can opener has oil in it. A very sudden disappearance of oil could cause the world to grind to a halt.

Consider this: A group of radical eco-terrorists manages to create a fast-reproducing bacteria that consumes oil molecules. They want to destroy all oil so as to force to world to use more enviormentally-friendly sources of power. But their creation spreads far more quickly than they imagined, destroying every single petroleum-based product in the world in a matter of days, including the oil-based lubricants in machines. The world is suddenly forced to adjust to the fact that even their simplest machines don't seem to work anymore. It could make the basis for an interesting setting.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Wood? When we know how to make nuclear power plants?

Yep. We'd make the shielding out of balsa. What's the problem with that?

Anyway....

If you're dealing with a high-fantasy kind of thing "running out of oil" is very cool. I'd stay away from a real-world scenario like the CNN article suggests. For example, the CNN report doesn't seem to include output from Venuzualea (currently not producing, thus inflating price) and the advances we've made in recent years with floating platforms points to oil harvesting technology that is only improving. Also bear in mind that if we ever figure out how to extract Canada's huge deposits of sand oil it'll be like a new Saudi Arabia suddenly popping into existence. If we ever do "run out" of oil, it'll be a long slow whimper than a sudden bang. And long slow whimpers don't make for good RPG settings (imagine: "We were running out of oil, things were bad, but then we realized we had time to think of something, so we did and then we all had tea")

However, there's no reason we can't use your idea, toss in some sci-fi, and have ourselves a game.

OK, picture this: Megacorporation X gets together with Radical Ecoterrorists and hatch a plan. The Megacorporation is going to have the final say on all energy production by hacking the DNA of a bacteria which will feast on oil deposits (and ignore animal/plant oils through the miracle of science fiction). The Radical Ecoterrorists will spread the bacteria. In the meantime Megacorporation X builds lots of nuclear reactors and positions itself to become an energy monopoly. However, the Radical Ecoterrorists use some of the funding they get from the Megacorporation and use it to bomb the bejezzus out of the nuclear plants. Yes, there is some radiation, but they figure that Mother Earth will be able to absorb it in time.

Now you have bacteria with hacked DNA hanging around the same people who just got doused with radiation. That's just perfect for it to turn people into zany monsters/orcs/zombies/whatever.

Happy gaming!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Consider this: A group of radical eco-terrorists manages to create a fast-reproducing bacteria that consumes oil molecules.

Jinx! Buy me a Mountian Dew!

 

[Zappo]

I kinda wish we'd just convert to renewable resources a little faster. That way if we do screw up and kill ourselves in a nuclear war, the next sentient race won't be out of luck.

That's quite a problem. I don't think that a race could reach a technological level where it can make a massive use of renewable resources without passing through a fossil fuel stage. Fossil fuels are simply a lot easier than anything else.