Warped II!
A roleplaying game of questing in a mutant post-apocalypse
It is October 18th, 2061 and the world has been abandoned. Billions of people have uploxed their minds to the satellites that orbit an Earth that is full of overgrown, empty crumbling cities.
Earth has become the playground of the uploxed. Competing gangs of cyborg creatures roam the wastes, hunting down the last real humans for sport. Camera drones buzz around the countryside, filming these fights for the entertainment of the uploxed. But in Norwich, a small city in what remains of England, there is relative peace. The uploxed require radio transmission to operate their drone-bodies, and the tower that covers Norwich has been switched off. This had made Norwich a safe zone, and many survivors have flocked there.
But humanity isn't quite what it used to be. Strange mutations are spreading among the populace, aided by a cryogenics organisation from the old world, Walt Labs. Some of the mutants succumb to a madness that drives them to eat each other's hearts. A gang of Londoners recruit such mutants for their own purposes. The Church of the New Millennium offer immortality for the living but are banished from Norwich. The Keep maintain peace in Norwich, but have become more strict in their edicts. The Postwick Mob hold tight control over the tower, threatening to switch it back on if their tribute isn't met.
Warped! II is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game of factions, quests and intrigue.
You can be either a faction member or an independent agent. Faction membership comes with considerable perks, including special powers or bodies and access to higher value faction quests. However independent agents have more freedom to pick their own path. If you played in
Part I, you may either create a new character or you can resume your old character. If you resume a character, I will convert the character sheet across and tell you what's been happening the last 6 months.
There are a lot of sections below, so I've marked out which ones can wait until after you've made a character.
Unlike
Warped!, which was focused on personal exploration and survival, this is a game revolving around quests (both personal and factional). You take on the role of an active person shaping the destiny of postapocalyptic Norfolk. Here's how to play:
1- Create your character, making sure to give yourself at least one personal goal.
2- When play begins, I will describe where you are at the start, and you'll have a number of quests you could undertake (including personal quests).
3- You choose what you're going to do (the
Quest Picking Phase).
4- You'll start travelling and I'll roll on the encounter table and we'll go through the
Encounter Phase.
5- Then, if you survive and still want to continue on, you'll arrive at your destination and begin
Quest Fulfilment Phase6- Then, if you succeed you'll do the
Quest Reward phase, which might involve reporting back. If you need to travel to report back, you'll roll another
Encounter Phase.
7- Then the cycle begins again...
During encounter and quests scenes, you'll roleplay your character, choosing actions for them. Before moving on, you can always take your time and explore a location, talk to people etc. But when you do start travelling, I'll trigger the next phase and make the appropriate rolls.
First decide whether you're playing a mutant, an uploxed, a neozombie, or a human (see next section). Then, decide whether you'll be unaligned or belong to a faction (see their respective sections).
Bio
Name:
Appearance: (you can choose to fill this in after you get your mutation if you like)
Profession: (e.g. Builder, Doctor, Warlord, Spy, Gamer etc.)
Faction: [Either Unaligned, or one of the 10 factions]
Type: [Human/Uploxed/Mutant/Neozombie - not all types can belong to all factions]
Personal goals: (Pick 1-3 goals that you would like to achieve. Achieving these goals is a way to gain experience.)
Stats Stats start at -1. Distribute 7 points across them, ranging -1 to 2
Body (using your physicality): -1
Wits (using your mind): -1
Empathy (dealing with people): -1
[Mutants Only]Weird (using your mutant powers): -1
[Uploxed Only]Connexion (interfacing with the digital realm): -1
Health
Conditions: (none; these add -1 to relevant rolls)
Luck: (normally 2)
[Mutants Only]Hunger: 0
[Uploxed Only]Distance: 0
Rep
(See the bottom of the factions section for your starting rep)
Kudos: 0
[Mutants only]Mutation:
Experience Tallys: (none)
Stuff
Den: (if you're unaligned, pick somewhere in the Radio Free Zone for your safehouse and describe what it looks like: a flat, a bunker, a farmhouse, a truck etc.)
Signature Gear: (choose a single notable handheld or wearable item that says something about your character & gives +1 to relevant rolls)
Inventory: (any junk you pick up during play)
You can be one of the following types:
Uploxed
The uploxed have had their minds uploaded to a digital paradise called Nexus. You have a strong connection still with Earth which prevents you fully embracing Nexus and so it can be a struggle to interact with the digital space. In many ways you are more comfortable controlling and focusing on your physical morph back on Earth.
A morph is a robotic shell the uploxed use to interact with Earth. They control these bodies remotely through radio signals. This means going underground or into metal lined spaces is usually impossible, and the Uploxed cannot operate in areas (like Norwich) not covered by radio signal. If your morph is destroyed, you can always get another one, though its quality will depend on your faction ties and kudos.
The uploxed can choose to have an avatar: a visual representation of how they appear to others in Nexus.
You faction or lack of it decides your morph. You can pick any avatar you want and change it whenever. See sections below for more details.
Uploxed gain the Connexion stat representing how adept they are at using Nexus. They are also functionally immortal. They can suffer Distance as a consequence of failed Body rolls: when Distance reaches 10 they can no longer control morphs and are out of the game. There is no reliable way of decreasing Distance.
Mutants
Mutants are people from the 2020s who were cryogenically frozen and experimented on during that time. Mutants gain a random mutation which is assigned to them by the GM; there are 1000+ permutations. If you like, you can start with 2 mutations at a cost of -1 to a stat of your choice)
One downside is mutants suffer from the Hunger. When this inner starvation grows too great, they flip out and become slathering monsters. Hunger can raise as a consequence of failed weird roles. When hunger get to 10, you become unplayable. You can always choose to roll a new instant mutation by spending 1 hunger. There's no reliable way of decreasing it.
Neozombies
You still inhabit your original body, but now instead of a brain you have a computer inside you. You need to regularly charge yourself with power but otherwise you don't hunger, thirst, etc. You have no Connexion stat (but may gain one in play) so put character creation points only in the other three stats.
Humans
You are a human. Start with +1 luck. You'll need it.
There are 10 factions you can be a member of: the four Uploxed Factions (Eyes of Gaia, GML, Legends, TERRATERROR); the three human factions (The Keep, Land Pirates, Postwick Mob); the two mutant factions (Walt Labs, The Londoners), and the The Church of the New Millenium. If you are a faction member, you can only do your own faction's quests, but you get access to better quests. If you are an independent agent, you can take low-level quests for any faction you have neutral or positive rep with.
Uploxed Factions
Most of the Uploxed faction are robots and cyborgs roaming the wastes. They do have a few human, mutant and neozombies agents.
Uploxed Morphs
Eyes of Gaia - Robo-bugs: pick a creature with more than four legs. Your morph resembles that creature but is about eight feet tall. (E.g. octopus, spider, cranefly, ant, millipede, pillbug, crab). You start with three features associated with that creature (E.g. pincer claws, wings, tentacles). Eyes of Gaia undertake quests to protect nature.
Great Marmite League - Cyberbeast Hunter Guild:pick any mammal- you have hijacked the body of one of those mammals, with a metal exoskeleton and armor. The flesh is atrophied within. Gain three additional features associated with that mammal (claws, bite, great strength, scent etc.). The GML fight other Hunters and hunt down humans for Kudos. They favour direct approaches and displays of overwhelming force.
Hunter Guild: Legends - Cybercryptid: pick a fictional or mythological or urban legend creature: your body is a Frankenstein-like biomechanical mashup made to look like that creature. Pick three features of that legendary creature (acid saliva, towering physique, signature weapon etc.). The Legends fight other Hunters and hunt down humans for Kudos. They favour long schemes and cunning.
Terraterror - Drone: you control a swarm of small flying drones. The number of drones you have is equal to your Terraterror rep x2. Terraterror is an entertainment organisation who gain kudos by filming fights, bizarre occurrences, interviews etc. on Earth.
Bodysnatchers
All uploxed factions include a few bodysnatchers, a kind of neozombie. You're not remotely operated, rather a tiny drone with the personality routine of an uploxed programmed into it has attached itself to a corpse and is controlling it. Not as durable as morphs, the main benefit is you can pass as a normal human. The Keep routinely use metal detectors on new people for this reason. A bodysnatcher isn't a full intelligence and can never rise above +0 wits. They don't feel pain and can push their flesh suit to insane lengths, so the cap on body is +4, which can be reached in character creation. When you destroy a body (or before) you may propeller onto a fresh one.
Sympathisers
Some real humans and mutants become accepted as sympathetic agents of the Uploxed factions.
Human Factions
Humans are mostly second-generation survivors, grown up in a shattered world where most people are gone and killer robots roam the land. Mutants can join The Keep and Postwick Mob.
The Keep: The Keep are the most organised humans in Norfolk, having seized control of the whole of the city of Norwich which they control from an ancient castle on the hill in the centre of the city. You get a room in a castle or a safehouse in town. The Keep engage in quests to make Norwich safe and rescue human survivors.
Postwick Mob: More a criminal gang than anything, they have a walled compound in Postwick, surrounding the tower. As they could turn on the Tower at any point, they can demand a tribute from factions that would rather they didn't do so. Quests involve running rackets, collecting protection money.
Land Pirates: Vicious raiders and human-supremacists who want to wipe out both mutants and robots from the face of the Earth, they live off the spoils of their raids. Quests involve smash and grabs, ambushes, urban exploration.
Mutant Factions
There are two mutant factions and you have to be a mutant or a human to be a member of one of them:
Walt Labs: a pre-collapse company who want to re-establish civilisation, and they best way to do that is improve humanity through use of newly generated mutations. Quests involve weird science and base development.
The Londoners: a gang of hardened mutant warriors who are fighting a war in London against the Eye, they have opened a recruitment branch in Norfolk to recruit and train fighters for their campaign. Quests involve fighting other factions and capturing rogue mutants.
The Church of the New Millenium
The Church are an organisation that was driven out of Norwich by the Land Pirates and now reside in Ipswich. They believe that the Second Coming happened 15 years ago and that they have learned the secrets to bodily resurrection promised in the bible. They are the only faction with radio jamming technology. The Church engage in quests to expand their power across the Earth, protecting and converting living humans.
Neozombies
Most church members have had their brains uploaded into computers which now inhabit their skulls where the brains used to be. They have batteries and cords in their stomach, but other than having a terrible pallor they can often pass as ordinary humans. Like all neozombies, they have no bodily needs and, if kept in good condition, can live a very long time.
Human Believers
You are a child or a woman of child-bearing age brought up in the church. When you are old enough, you will be granted immortality.
Converts
Human and mutants can be converts to the church, and may earn their immortality through raising their faction rep.
Faction Reps
After you've picked your character, copy over the relevant starting rep:
Unaligned
Mutants: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep +0church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes -2pirates
Tourists: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep -1church +0gml +0legends +0terra +0eyes -1pirates
Assassins: -1walt -1london +0mob -1keep -1church +0gml +0legends +0terra +0eyes -2pirates
Apostate: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep -1church +0gml +0legends +0terra +0eyes -1pirates
Runaway: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep +0church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes +0pirates
Loner/Saviour: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep -1church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes +0pirates
Petitioner: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep +0church +0gml +0legends +0terra +0eyes +0pirates
Pariah: -1walt -1london -1mob -1keep -1church -1gml -1legends -1terra -1eyes -1pirates
Factions
Walt Labs: +1walt +0london +0mob +0keep +0church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes -2pirates
Londoners: +0walt +1london +0mob +0keep +0church -1gml +0legends +0terra -2eyes -2pirates
Postwick Mob: +0walt +0london +1mob +0keep +0church -1gml -1legends -1terra -1eyes +0pirates
The Keep: +0walt +0london +0mob +1keep +0church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes -1pirates
Church of the New Millenium: +0walt +0london +0mob +0keep +1church -1gml -1legends +0terra -1eyes -2pirates
Great Marmite League: -1walt -1london -1mob -1keep -1church +1gml -2legends +0terra -1eyes -2pirates
Legends: -1walt +0london +0mob -1keep -1church -2gml +1legends +0terra -1eyes -2pirates
TerraTerror: +0walt +0london +0mob -1keep -1church +0gml +0legends +1terra +0eyes -2pirates
Eyes of Gaia: -1walt -2london -1mob -1keep -1church -1gml -1legends +0terra +1eyes -2pirates
Land Pirates: -2walt -2london +0mob -1keep -2church -2gml -2legends -2terra -2eyes +1pirates
If you are unaligned, pick one of the options below:
Humans
Loner: Everyone you knew is dead or gone. Start with an extra weapon of your choice.
Petitioner: You've made a deal with the uploxed: gain 20 kudos and they'll uplox you. Until then, you're at their beck and call for any dirty work. Start with neutral relations with everyone.
Saviour: You've got family or friends you want to keep safe. Detail 1-4 people you like. You'll always have a private quest available from these people as if it were a faction quest.
Runaway: You grew up in the Church of the New Millenium but escaped before they made you into a Neozombie. You start with knowledge of some of their secrets and a vehicle you stole to getaway.
Neozombies
Apostate: You were once a member of the Church of the New Millenium. Perhaps you were a true believer, perhaps you were a convert. You're a neozombie now (see above) and you start with a clean slate with everyone except the Church and the Pirates (who hate almost everyone). Both humans and uploxed see you as almost one of them.
Bodysnatcher: You're a freelance bodysnatcher (see above). You're accepted by the uploxed, and can pass as human among everyone else.
Uploxed
Tourist: You're just here to see the sights. Gain a single drone body. You can gain more drone bodies by spending kudos. The only benefit is most people think you're harmless.
Assassin: You're a robot killer for hire. You gain a bipedal armoured chassis, two weapons of your choice, and one novel way of transporting yourself (your choice).
Mutants
Fresh Popsicle
You stumbled out of cryogenic freezing as a relic from the past, without ties or any understanding of what's going on.
Monster
You've been wandering around the wastes for some time. Start with 1-5 additional mutations and take the same amount of hunger.
Any Type
Pariah: You've never been great at making friends. You start with one game-changing artefact from the old world (work with the GM), and negative rep with everyone else.
Experience
Players can gain up to ten experience tallies (any tallies gained over this amount must be spent before your next action or they are lost). You can cash in 5 tallies for any one of the following benefits:
+1 on one of your stats (max 3 in a stat)
Gain a new profession (max 3 professions)
Gain a new favoured action
[Mutants only]Gain a new mutation but take -1 to the stat of your choice (max -2 in a stat)
Change one of your personal goals at no cost
Quests and Quest Rewards
Completing Quests is the only way to gain experience tallies. There are two kinds of quest: faction quests and personal quests.
Faction quests are common knowledge to their faction members and completing these quests gives you various combinations of increased tallies, rep, gear and kudos.
Personal quests are goals you set yourself. You can have up to 3 personal goals at a time. You can add new goals after either succeeding at prior goals or abandoning them. (Each time you abandon a personal goal you lose one luck.) Succeeding in personal goals just give you tallies (though in completing the goal you may also come across gear, change your rep, etc.)
An easy quest is worth one or two tallies, a very hard quest would be worth five or more. Personal Quest tally values are decided by the GM after personal quests are taken on.
Open-ended undirected personal goals will be converted by the GM into actually completable quests. E.g. if you pick "kill all mutants" as your personal goal, it'll be converted into a quest to kill specific mutants, after which you're free to keep the same goal again until they're all dead, or reassess your priorities.
Example Quest:
Carol's Crafts
Requirement: +0keep rep
Carol is trying to make a popstick masterpiece and needs some crafting glue.
Quest Location: Abandoned stationers in north Norwich
Report Location: The Keep
Reward +1 tally, +1 random junk
Destroy the Convoy
Requirement: +2pirate rep, faction:pirate
Accompany a raiding party to intercept a new convoy of London mutant cars coming from the south.
Quest Location: meet at the usual rendezvous point at the city limits.
Report Location: N/A
Reward +5 tallies, +1 random weapon, roll three times on treasure table, +1pirate rep
Find My Brother - Personal
My brother has gone missing in north Norwich and I want to find him.
Quest Location: the warehouse district in north Norwich
Reward: +3 tallies
Under the hood
The system uses a 2d6 (+ relevant stat, +1 if your role is relevant, +1 relevant gear, -1 for relevant condition) roll. 10+ success; 7-9 it works but there's complications; <7 it doesn't work and there's complication. Complications aren't always going to be directly emerging from the situation, though they may do. A complication may sometimes be a condition (like a wound), or loss of gear. You can always overcome a complication by spending 1 luck. If you critically fail a role you used to overcome a deadly complication, you will automatically spend 1 luck if you have it. If you don't, you may die.
Professions and gear add +1 to relevant rolls (max +1 for each). You can gain Favoured Actions by spending tallies. A Favoured Action is a discrete kind of action (like looting, punching, persuading, intimidating, running, sneaking, foraging, using your mutant power in a specific way, etc.), ideally an action you're already good at. Whenever you roll a 14+ when performing that action, it will have extraordinary success above and beyond what is normally possible or likely.
Faction Rep
There are different factions in the world. Players who interact with factions can gain or lose faction rep. Starting faction rep depends on your faction reputation. The faction rep is added to empathy rolls with those factions. Successfully checks, and performing favours for different factions will raise your level. Harming faction members or their stuff is the main way to lose faction rep. Higher levels of faction rep gain you access to higher level faction quests.
Kudos
The uploxed use a digital reputation currency called Kudos. You can spend Kudos to gain favours with Uploxed. 1 kudos = 1 favour. To cash in the favour, either ask for it in Nexus (if you are uploxed) or ask in front of a live camera feed (e.g. in front of a TERRATERROR drone).
More details about the phases below (though you will pick up this in play).
Quest Picking Phase
You will know all quests you're eligible to undertake, though for the factions it's not that there's a job board or anything, but rather these 'quests' represent existing connections, opportunities and tasks you know about. All you need do is declare you're going to do that quest and start walking in that direction and I'll trigger the encounter rolls.
Encounter Phase
When you travel anywhere, I'll roll for you on the following tables. The world is full of scarcely-looted ruins, rival factions, and so forth. It's almost certain that a journey will be eventful. No encounter will be rolled if you're already in the quest location or very close by. If you have to travel across the map or within a large city like Norwich, then a roll will be made.
Encounter Type Table - Roll 1d6+luck
1 Roll on the table of locations and table of factions and the table of environment.
2 Roll on the table of locations and table of factions.
3 Roll on the table of locations and table of environment.
4 Roll on the table of locations, factions, environment and treasures.
5 Roll on the table of locations, factions, and treasures.
6 No encounter.
7 Roll on the table of locations, environment, and treasures.
8 Roll on the table of locations and the table of treasures.
9 Roll on the table of locations and twice on the table of treasures.
Table of People - Roll 1d12+luck
1 Roll three times on this table.
2 Roll twice on this table.
3 1d3 Heart-hungry mutants.
4 1d6 Land Pirates!
5 1d3 Eyes of Gaia
6 1d6 GML pack.
7 1d6 Legends party.
8 2d6 Terraterror drones.
9 1d4 Church of the New Millenium.
10 1d6 Mob.
11 1d6 Keep.
12+1d4 Unaligned survivor.
Table of Treasure
(Actually several tables with hundreds of possible results. Guaranteed to be interesting.)
Table of Locations
(Not actually a table: I just pick the most interesting relevant building or landmark on your route.)
Table of Environment - 1d12+luck
1 - Roll twice on this table and once on the table of factions
2 - Roll twice on this table
3 - Deadly alarm system
4 - Serious flooding
5 - Structural damage
6 - Unexplained old world phenomena
7 - Wild animal(s)
8 - Dangerous chemicals
9 - Unruly plants
10 - Inclement weather
11 - High walls or fences
12+ No danger
Quest Fulfilment
Raiding the enemy, rescuing the child, delving into the ruin, seizing the goods, making the drop off, meeting the diplomat... you'll get a description of the scene and will have to make decisions for your characters in pursuit of your goals. Once you've got the goods, you might still need to get home to safety. Where and what point a quest is successful should be clear from the outset.
Quest Reward
Once you've succeeded, often you'll have to report back for your reward. The reward will be known from the off, though might include random elements which are only discovered after completion.
Game End
Warped II will come to an end if/when one faction or an alliance of factions achieve ascendancy. In practical terms, the game will end if all the towers are disabled or all the towers are enabled.
Circles are radio tower ranges. At game start, the Postwick tower is off, and the Dead Zone actively jams signals. Uploxed characters can travel anywhere there's non-jammed signal.
Link to the Discord.