A Run Away Hide Away is a place in the story where a runaway character can live and survive. it can be different depending on setting. Here's how to give your runaway a home:
Think about your setting
The most important of all, as everything links back to the setting...
The hideaway can be anywhere:
- A city
- A stranger's house
- A shelter
- somewhere in a large park
- A church
- A friend's house
- The woods
- A small hut
- A cabin
- A campsite
- A cave
- A deserted island
- A ruin
- A foreign land
- Another planet
- A hidden realm
Basically there are a lot of options! But it's all built on setting. Depending on your Worldbuilding skills and your character's goal you can either succeed or fail. Running away can be difficult in fiction just as in Real Life.
Dude, where's my stuff?
Dependent on setting.
In a city you can get nearly anything if you have money and a place to go home to (It may be more difficult in a foreign country). Even shelters provide food and materials.
In a setting usually desolate or abandoned like an island or forest, materials and food are a challenge to get. If you weren't smart enough to take some with you, you may end up crafting your own tools and clothes. You could occasionally steal from near-by cities or colonies but they'd take careful planning. Plus you don't want to get caught after running away. There may not even be anything close to civilization around leaving you to fend for yourself.
You'd need to require a number of skills and know where to find certain resources:
Food:
- Vegetation - plants, trees and flowers. There are various fruits and vegetables and even some flowers are edible (fact).
- Wild life - The idea of hunting and killing animals may creep you out... Boars and pigs are pork; consider wild birds a chicken substitute if no chickens can be found... Cows are beef; Crocodile meat can be food while the skin can be made into clothing. Fish, oysters and shark meat are also good.
- Water - A freshwater source is necessary. Freshwater sources are usually waterfalls or small ponds. Your own pee can even be distilled and consumed (gross fact).
Materials:
- Wood - from trees
- Stone - can be mined or picked up off the ground.
- Cloth - if there's sheep, theres wool. Wool can make cloth. The cotton plant can also help.
- Dye for clothing can be made by boiling certain materials in hot water and letting fabric steep in them.
- Bamboo can be sharped to make a spear.
- Metal can be melted to make knives.
- Stones can be cut and softened to make several tools.
- Clay can be used to make brick.
Flying solo or making friends?
There are advantages and disadvantages to running away alone.
Pros:
- All resources for yourself
- No traveling companion makes traveling for longer periods of time easier
Cons:
- no one to talk to
- no one to take care of you
- Must avoid battles or die!
Running away with a group:
Pros:
- people to be with
- emotional support
- people to tend to the injured
- More members in a battle
Cons:
- resources can be easily depleted
- Fighting
- Someone might rat you out
Of course depending on the characters the pros and cons change. Depending on plot and setting you'll either want to kill yourself, get new friends and go home (bad); or start a colony, live like a pioneer and stay away from civilizations influences (good, the last one is questionable depending on the motive).
Wait a minute, where do I come from?
Another thing to think about is what setting your character is running away from? Did your abused runaway finally snap and run from their abusive family in the city? Is the rebel in a not so utopian future sick of the rules that bind him?
This will effect the other subjects after this one. Take your time and think. Computers don't fall from the sky and TVs don't come from trees. Electricity can't be made from dirt either... When you're running away, you should also bring some useful survival type resources to help you.
An Economy Is You
If you plan to colonize a new world, or maybe you're LARPing and getting a little too into it, the economy will be spurred or started up by you...
Some advice:
- Use your resources:
- if you have farm land, start growing
- if you're at the ocean, start fishing
- Field of flowers? Start picking
The key is to use the resources available, conveniently a resource that never stops coming... like fish in the sea, flowers and crops all year round if there's no winter... and exporting (selling) them. Crafting your own products is another good idea!
Money is another issue. Before money you had to trade something of equal value to get what you wanted. Sometimes simple resources like food and treasure were traded for other suplies, while sometimes girls were forced to marry in order to gain important resources and power. If trading, then you really have to think about what's worth trading in order to get what you want. If choosing money, where does money come from? Is it wise to use money? Are we connected with other cities or other colonies? More runaway camps near by?
