It has been an unknown amount of time since the bombs dropped. Nuclear winter set in quickly, and no-one can take track of time when the ash falls like snow and the sun does not shine. There are still some who lived through it, and adults who have never felt the grass beneath their feet and seen the open stars above them.
You do not live in a world of peace, even after the world has been reduced to nothing. Robbers roam this shattered world, taking what they want and burning what they can't have. What creatures are left have been changed into mutated abominations by the chemicals created by the government being released into the air. Even the dead have no rest, as rotting corpses walk the earth and devour man and beast alike, spreading it's disease to others.
You live in the City. It's old name is meaningless anyway, so why bother reciting it? It is an infinite expanse of rubble, entropy, and radiation. The skyscrapers have fallen, and the ground has split open into abysses of nothingness.
You're a survivor. You could be an adventurer seeking out the artifacts of the old world, maybe you're a bandit and ready to pillage and burn whatever is left, or perhaps you're looking to reunite the scattered remains of mankind and bring humanity back in it's rightful place
You may not be able to attain your goals, however. Bandits will kill and steal what remains from your corpse. Mutants will hunt you and slice your throat out. Zombies will overwhelm you in their numbers and eat you alive. If you somehow survive these threats, the mysteries will take you. Dark things breaking through the already thin veil, the shadows of the old world crawling into the new, and who knows what else...
Hey, maybe you might just live? That'll be the day.
This is an RTD based off of STALKER, Metro 2033, Hell MOO, and the original Fallouts. The point of this is to accurately simulate a vicious and dangerous world where death is around every corner and you are painfully aware that your existence is going to be short. As such, the rules are orientated to be incredibly fatal and I'm going to try not to pull my punches. There will be six players in this RTD. When a slot opens up, it's going to be first come first serve.
You have four health points if you are unarmored. This represents both your body's physical state but also your mind holding out against going unconscious; bandages will do as much good as morphine. All humans will have these number of points, while animals have two. Individual zombies only have one, but they rarely come in low numbers. There are four kinds of damage that can bring down these points.
Bleeding: Caused by bullets and knives. The initial damage only takes off one point, but every turn afterward will take off a point of health until you are dead unless you bandage the wound up, regaining your previous health.
Bashing: Caused by blunt objects like chairs or lead pipes. Once the damage goes up to two, each turn thereafter will roll to prevent unconsciousness. Painkillers will regain your health.
Breathing: Caused by radiation and toxins in the air. Every turn spent in the toxin effected area will bring off a point of your main health, ignoring your armor. Iodine tablets and other anti-toxins medication will regain your health, but you can prevent this damage by wearing a gasmask.
Burning: Caused by fire and electricity. If an area is on fire, every turn spent in that area will incur a roll to prevent fire damage. If this goes past your armor and into your main health, then you will catch fire. This will prevent you from doing complicated actions, allowing only basic actions like "jump into water" or "mash button to spray fire-retarding foam on self while screaming". Every turn will cause a point of damage until you are dead. This damage can be healed by putting the fire out and taking painkillers afterwards.
Combat Damage By Rolls
1, 2, & 6: Misses entirely, or simply doesn't effect you.
3: Causes a "light wound", a flesh wound, a tear, or a minor bruise. Three of these will cause you to lose a health point entirely, but will heal with no need for painkillers or bandages after the fight is complete.
4: Enemy/You will lose a point of armor or health.
5: Enemy/You will lose two points of armor or health.
Armor will prevent Burning, Bashing, and Bleeding damage, but also has it's own health points and will not protect you if it's health points are depleted. Gasmasks will prevent breathing damage but require filters to keep doing that.
Light Armor consists of leather jackets, homemade kevlar, and other makeshift protection. This gives you one point of armor.
Medium Armor consists of actual kevlar, stab vests, and other pre-war protection. This gives you two points of armor.
Heavy Armor consists of plate armor, high-tech exoskeletons, and other unusual protection. This gives you three points of armor.
Gasmasks are designed to prevent death from hazardous contaminants. However, the situation is so bad that even filters are a precious commodity. One filter will buy you five turns of protection against Breathing damage; beyond that, you will not be protected.
To restore your armor points, you must attempt to repair it. Every turn spent repairing your armor will restore one point of armor, but can be interrupted if in a hostile place and requires a roll each time which can damage the armor more, even destroying it, if botched.
Carrying things is much more of a problem then you would think. If you don't have enough pockets or storage, you simply can't carry it. This does not count small objects like bandages or bullets, for those take up a small enough volume not to matter. Without extra storage you can carry two items on your person. However, you can get items that increase your storage.
Small Storage are items like pouches and holsters. These will add one storage slot.
Medium Storage are items like small backpacks and trenchcoats. These will add two storage slots.
Large Storage are items like military backpacks and messenger bags. These will add three storage slots.
You can wear three small storage items, two medium storage items, and one large storage item.
Since the bombs dropped, none of the factories have been making items anymore. You gotta scavenge or when you can't find anything make it yourself. Whether it's duct-taping an electronic torch to a shotgun or trying to rip a lead pipe out of a wall to make a nice melee weapon, it's ultimately the same basic idea of finding or creating objects.
In order to craft, you need at least two objects and a way to bind them together. If you want to make an electrified machete out of a car battery and a kitchen knife, you're going to need wire to connect the mess up (If you're curious, that would run out of power rather quickly but would cause burning and bleeding damage at the same time). Crafting will take a turn and can be interrupted, so be in a safe place when you do it!
In order to scavenge, you will need to roll to scavenge.
Scavenging Results
1 & 6: You've uncovered a booby trap. You will get a roll to dodge, but you will get damage depending on what kind of trap it is.
2: You find nothing at all.
3: You find a broken item. Maybe you can repair this, but it's useless for now.
4: You find some small items, like syringes of delicious morphine or bullets. I will roll a D10 to see how many you get, however.
5: You find a really useful item like a gun, or a tool. Anything useful.
If you like, you can specify what you're looking for, but don't be too specific. Look for "a firearm" rather then " A Steyr HS .50 Anti-Materiel Rifle".
* means it's required
Name*: What are you called?
Appearance: What do you look like?
Biography: What's your story?
Author
Topic: From The Ashes, Post-Nuclear RTD: Scavengers Descend [Turn 4] (Read 3280 times)