The game BEFORE the SHTF!
Conflicted is a Survival Card Game. Each card in the deck has a scenario that will stretch how you would respond in an SHTF situation. What would you do? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
SCENARIO – You hear a noise in the back of your house, and you found about 12 orphans scavenging for food in your garbage cans. They appear to be kids under 6, 7 years old. Taking them in would diminish your supply timeline by 50% and you aren’t sure you can replenish your supplies once they run out. Plus it would take manpower to watch over all of them, and you can spare little since everyone in your camp is constantly exhausted from hard work and rationed meals. Leaving these kids to their fates would mean their deaths, or worse. How would you handle this situation?
Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Peace,
Todd
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Todd Sepulveda
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I don’t believe I could let them starve. It sounds like they are going feral already. So, feed them, train them to be scouts (most wouldn’t suspect a child) If there is a material or part you need, they could be on the lookout for it. They could potentially be employed as spies, to infiltrate nearby groups. In the end, you could potentially add fiercely loyal members to your clan. (I’m Scottish/Irish heritage)
Im with you on this Drake. Firstly, just the fact that some little kids are caught out alone and no doubt scared stupid would tell me straight away that they would have to be enormously gratefull for any semblance of a normal family life. Taking them in and assimilating them would surely be good insurance later on down the road and straight off they can help with chores leaving older members able to devote more time for other things like recon, intel gathering, maintenence, heavier chores, food procurment or security etc…… and secondly, really………….how much does a little kid eat………bugger-all and having them around your kids will make them all feel better about whatever predicament has forced you all together in the first place. I know from my own childhood these actions REALLY DO creat a feeling of absolute devotion and fierce loyalty.
My Fear would be that this has been done already and they could be the first probe to attack. I would watch them for a time and see if they return to a camp or if they stay to soak up what resources the trash holds. Everything foreign should be dealt with slowly and with the greatest advantage to yourself.
chase them away.
Take them in but watch them carefully. Some could be plants by predators. Over time, if I have a group of like-minded families to meet up with, I would parcel them out to trusted others to share in the cost of caring for them.
Had to write this twice thanks to the question about the moon being left blank…
I would take them in, no question. The allocation of food would be difficult but turning them away would be a loss of humanity that would really not be worth preserving.
I have 4.5 and 1.5 yr old boys. So younger than this group and i would like to point out children are more capable than you think. Now the youngest i just let follow us around and carry him on hikes but the older one is a trooper.
He stacks fire wood with me, helps me cook on the fireplace during pioneer night. Pulls a leaf bagger behind his four wheeler. Can hike over two miles unassisted with his bag. Works in the garden. Can build a fire, collects chicken eggs, feeds the goats, understands how to bring me tools by name, digs fence post holes (although slower). And does a great job of being a second set of eyes on his younger brother.
So having around 5-7 yr olds, who knows how much more they could learn and help around the homestead.
Couldnt agree more. Seems like youve got your little buggers all sorted out
I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t take them in. The others might have different ideas and a possible conflict couldn’t be avoided. They would have to grow up fast and work as best they can.
“Taking them in would diminish your supply timeline by 50% and you aren’t sure you can replenish your supplies.” This implies is small group, ill-equipped and short on food and skills. “Everyone in your camp is constantly exhausted from hard work and rationed meals” this indicates the survival of the group has low probability.
The fact the children have survived this long on their own implies they probably have the skills to survive which you seem to lack. They could teach them to you and also share in the work. This would be an asset and increase the chance of survival.
First I would never associate with such an incompetent group. Second we have plenty of food with tools and skills to replenish it. Third our passive defence system would alert us to their presence long before they got close and they would be brought into our group.
We would take them in…they would become part of our family, together we would face the future challenges. Many years ago, life was similar for my brothers and I, so many folks were very kind. I would do the same.
People, we’re talking about adding 12 dependants. My first thought would be to watch out. 6 year olds couldn’t survive on their own. I would smell a trap.
taking in strangers in a shtf environment is dangerous to say the least, you could get a knife in the ribs in the middle of the night and all your stuff stolen, especially if these are feral children which on the face of it seems quite likely.
still you makes your choice and you take your chances, lets just hope they aren’t fatal ones.
Raised two boys. In their 30s now. An 8 yo can be a handful. A feral, 8 yo, streetwise, orphan. X 12. Think about it. It would require confinement. Indefinitely. You don’t know what you don’t know. The investment of resources to cultivate possible future members, plus the obvious risk, make this a one answer scenario. They tell it walking.
I agree with the idea of keeping tabs on those kids for a while to see what all they are into- before bringing them into the group. People are one of the most important and critical resources- sometimes overlooked, and unfortunately often exploited 9especially these days).
But when SHTF, the only people who are making it, are those who band together. Besides, it just wouldn’t sit right with me or my family to let them wander about as potential targets for the many predators that will be out and about during such a time.
While I do believe the taking-them-in-and-making-them-loyal plan sounds great, IvankalsFine, lonewolf and Woody are right, there are more dangers taking them in than a possible advantage in the future. My gut instinct would be to take the children in, but children don’t typically survive longer than their parents in shtf situations. There’s a great chance it’s a trap and these kids will stab you in your sleep and take your supplies for themselves. They don’t want to share either. On top of that, if their parents we’re prepared for the shtf situation, it shouldn’t be my responsibility to take in every stray that comes along. My family comes first.
My heart can’t take it to just leave the children. I most definitely will take them in and feed them. My parents always taught me that when we do good things, good things will come to us. This children may be spies but if you are prepared than there’s nothing to be afraid of. If something goes wrong, just improvise. If they kill you, well that’s fate. All I know is that I won’t regret helping them out. That’s how I think. Just be prepared and help each other out. We can’t predict the future and SHTF can happen anytime. Not all people are prepared for that and that’s why we should do what we can to help each other. With the survival skills that we have, we can improvise things. I believe there’s always a solution to every problems.
When speaking about survival, it reminds me of one of my favourite survival book. It’s really easy to understand and very useful in so many ways. It contains so many survival guides that most of us don’t even know of. My favourite part of the book is that it helps the readers to learn making their own medicine using medicinal plants that most of us don’t even know that it can be use for that purposes. The book teaches how to identify and prepare the plant for medical uses. But that’s just a small part of it. There are so much more survival guides in that book.
If you’re interested in that book, you can go HERE: https://tinyurl.com/ycsvbxe7
Ack, such a quandary. I love kids. I would WANT to help them. But, like others, they would not have gotten that close to my house without my knowledge, so I can’t relate to this scenario.
IF I came across 12 orphan (how do I know they really are?) children, I would point them in the direction of help, if there was any out there. I would not attempt to help them for all the reasons previously stated. I would feel terrible. Awful. But my group has to come first and I don’t have the rations for 12 additional people, no matter what their size.