RL Disaster Experience? (Warning: My Players Stay Away)

[pawned79]

Does anyone have any real life experience dealing with large scale disasters, like tornado’s and the like? We are playing an FR game that is currently based in Phlan. As you know, Phlan is infamous for its ability to sustain disaster after disaster. One of the most well known plagues of Phlan is dragon-attacks. I am DMing next week and I want to drop a dragon into the city, devastate the area and then leave the aftermath for us to deal with. I really want to convey the emotion of utter destruction of the event. Suggestions? RL stories?

Patrick

 

[Kilmore]

Well, we haven't had much in the way of dragon attacks around St. Louis since the Piasa incident hundreds of years ago, but we did have that big flood 10 years ago. That was less of a sudden wreck and more of a long term miserable experience, though.

I was in Charleston S.C. for Hurricane Hugo, though. Still I had a couple of days to get ready.

 

[spyscribe]

Well, it's not a large-scale disaster, but a couple of years ago there was a fire in my apartment building and the thing that hit me most and stuck around the longest was the smell.

Didn't even notice it at first, it's so shocking to walk into your home and have the windows smashed, walls half-gone, etc. But it sticks with you for days, gets into everything--especially clothes, hair, anything air-permeable. Things untouched by fire or water had to be thrown out because they reeked of or were stained by smoke. And after about twelve hours, everything reeks of smoke and mildew.

Your average medieval villiage isn't going to smell too great to begin with, but even so, it's going to be striking.

Hope that helps.

 

[Malcolm]

faces.

The disaster effects that stand out the most to me in the places I've been/helped are the faces of the people.
Words like sad, empty, broken are all wastrel compared to the reality of the moment.

What I have done in home campaigns:
1.) Gather pictures of the people After the disaster has occurred. Pictures of them working their way through the wreckage, standing around in the aftermath, or talking to paramedics.

2.) Compile them together in a slideshow on my laptop.

3.) Quietly run them. Turn off all other noises. Don't speak, discourage the players from speaking. Run them in no particular order just one time each frame. In both gaming sessions and Sociology courses this has been known to create a sobering effect. (i'm getting a lil choked up just thinking about it now)

 

[pawned79]

Malcolm,

Do you still have those pictures from the slide show? If so, I would love to get them from you if that is possible.

pawned79@knology.net

Zip file would be awesome,

Patrick

 

[Kilmore]

I saw a picture of an American marine returning from the front lines at the battle of Iwo Jima. It was a fairly close up picture, you could see a hospital tent right behind him, and the mountains of the island where the soldiers were still fighting in the background.

But the look on the soldier's face was completely undescribable. Maybe I can find it.