Editing PAW (section)

===Assumptions about the setting===
*Humans are basically evil.  When the global economy collapses, many people are willing to kill others to obtain food and other valuables.
*Transport is reliant on horses and bicycles, while river transportation is just making a comeback at the beginning of the campaign.  Transport on known arteries such as train tracks and interstates (which are fallen into terrible repair), are subject to heavy "taxation" by local gangs, while travel in poor-infrastructure areas means potentially not seeing a soul for a very long time.  Because of this, trade is almost non-existent (except on very local levels).
*Many in farming communities survive by continuing to farm.  Their farmsteads are frequently raided by city-dwellers.  Cities have become heavily depopulated and every structure ransacked for non-perishable food items.
*A lot of day-to-day items such as clothing and furniture is simply harvested from abandoned buildings - from the society of the past.  People are walking around wearing ratty Nike shirts and Levis Jeans manufactured over a century ago but that hadn't been worn due to the severe depopulation.  Human capital works in farming, animal husbandry, martial training to protect what you've built, and scavenging "things".
*Steam still works, having ramifications I'm sure others can ponder better than I!
*Sooo ... a bit Steampunk.  But with touches of "Western Steampunk" since it's the US and not-so-Victorian.  But it's on the cusp of re-development and by no means universal.