Wasteland Life: Mutants, Rugged Stuff, Frontier, Self-Reliance, Survival . . .
 

Greetings, all!

I'm trying to plan an adventure where PCs encounter a hidden splinter society living in a wasteland where paranormal phenomena are common. I know the trope is somewhat cinematic, but I would like to at least make it reasonably plausible in the context of the setting in question. I'm interested in all sorts of aspects - traits, skills, equipment, culture, whatever.

Setting's relevant bits: the setting is TL6+3^ with retarded science of genetics and microelectronics, but (this will surely be important) a presence of neoforge technology - which can be functionally described as a 'manually operated TL9 3D-printer' (i.e. can make assorted stuff on demand without need of assembly lines, but sucks at automation). Nuclear physics doesn't exist - laws of nature are different in this setting; there are some other types of radiation, though.
The planet is mostly peacefully balkanised politically.

The zone:
The Alienation Zone is a place which started experiencing anomalous phenomena about a century ago, and has been largely evacuated. Possible phenomena include: weird radiation that causes disadvantages and/or death (but some percentage survives and becomes more resistant in the process); electromagnetic phenomena similar to C&C's 'ion storms' that make satellite imagine of the area, and atmospheric flights in it, extremely problematic; occasional space-time anomalies that are more harmful than interesting; occasionally corrosive rains (of the borderline-realistic sort); spontaneous transmutation of regular minerals into alchemically-infused, more valuable ones. That sort of stuff. The idea is that the zone should be rather risky for normal humans (well, human-likes) to loot, inherently 'adventury', and provide some amount of valuable stuff that local mutants can trade to the outside world. Also, probably some TL6+2^ ruins too.

The inhabitants:
The whole reason why there are inhabitants is probably best described as a mix of religion and patriotism. Essentially, unlike other nations/clans, they refused to evacuate when the anomalies began. Most died. The survivors and their descendants got tougher in the process. They also eventually experienced a cultural shift that allowed them to stay away from their homeland for up to 50% of a year.
As far as traits go, I think about giving most of them Resistant to Metabolic Hazards +8, PF 10, maybe Regeneration (up to Regular, and likely Weird Radiation / WR Only) (BIO50), plus an assortment of individual traits - representing that no two have been born/changed alike.

(If some hazard afflicts disadvantages, is there a way to take these disads permanantly for points, but make sure the aforementioned hazard will not make them worse?)

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Equipment:
I'm thinking it would be logical for the cultural traditions to make 'Rugged, Cheap' the default quality of equipment (including vehicles . . . which probably translates into having half as many Systems in a vehicle for the same mass). Mass modifiers are ×1.2 ×1½ = ×1.8. I'm thinking of bumping it to ×2 and throwing in some protection against some of the more specific hazards typical for the zone. How does that sound? The cost ends up being ×1. (High-Tech, page 10)
Note that as far as vehicles go, 'cheap' is supposed to mean 'clunky', but not maintenance-capricious (the usual meaning of 'cheap' in SS).
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The Survival skill:
Closest thing to a specialisation for a weird wasteland that I've seen in GURPS was in 3e - the Survival (Chthorran) skill. Given that the actual terrain types in the 'wasteland' range from prairies, through savannah, through oases, with the occasional jungly bit . . . I'm not sure if a single specialisation is right. OTOH, adding a bunch of specialisations (Wasteland Desert, Wasteland Plains, Wasteland Jungle . . .) seems wrong too. Requiring a Perk would seem odd too. I'm unsure what to do with this.

Also, the whole setup probably encourages a wandering/hunter-gatherish lifestyle despite a high TL, with all those moving bad-stuff-areas.
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On culture:
I wonder how does a culture look like if it mixes conservative linked-to-land'ness with the need to innovate in order to survive, as well as be sufficiently friendly while acting abroad and trading with the normal-landers.
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What other things should I pay attention to on this topic? What comments there are on things already said?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

I would just declare it - natural weird hazards occasionally afflict disads temporarily, these will clear up according to the schedule. Long-term exposure, extreme or unusual conditions, etc., may result in such disads becoming permanent - put them on your sheet. If you start play with a permanent version of these disads, you may take points for them. In either case, having a permanent version on your sheet makes it so that the temporary effects don't hit you - you're already warped in the appropriate way. I don't think a special build is required for that.

That sounds totally workable to me. You end up with big, clunky equipment that survives the zone, but is noticeably bottom-shelf outside it. What specific hazards would equipment need to survive that the bonus from Rugged doesn't already cover?

I would probably take the usual Survival specialties, then layer a "weird" penalty on top of them - a prairie is a prairie, unless it's all radioactive and mutated. Then it's a prairie with a couple big caveats on it. Give -4 to all survival rolls in the Zone (and a special critical failure table, probably). I think a perk is totally appropriate here: Weird Survival [1], negates the survival penalty due to Zone weirdness. Specialized by terrain type? I would probably demand that, but if you think that's too much noise, scrap it. Yeah - I'd demand the specialty, and call Weird Experience a [5] UB that covers all relevant "zone weirdness" penalties, including Survival (all specialties).

Semi-anarchic in the zone, but with a strict "us" and "them" mentality regarding normal-landers. There's probably a lot of space in the Zone (judging by what you've said about depopulation), so if you've got a quarrel with someone you can always just walk the other direction when everybody picks up stakes to move camp. Decentralized power, with strong hierarchies within small groups - clans with patriarchs, maybe, but there's room for diversity among different zone-peoples.

How chaotic is the place? Is geography relatively stable? Does Navigation take a weirdness penalty, as well as Survival?

Do zone-people from families that've been there since the beginning breed true - that is, is mortality rate among zone children the same as it was in the beginning, or (for all the diversity of mutations), is resistance to the weirdness now pretty much universal? How quickly does this stuff take hold?

Will PCs be outsiders, or from the Zone? How deep can outsiders expect to penetrate into the Zone before they're overcome by the dangers? How long can outsiders last?

Is the weirdness uniform, or does it ramp up as you get closer to an epicenter(s)? Can this epicenter(s) be identified on a map? Do outsiders know what ground 0 was?

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

The trickiness is that irradiation grants random disadvantages out of a large pool of variation at certain thresholds. So e.g. one character has Disturbing Voice due to misfiring neurons in the appropriate areas, another gets No Depth Perception due to desynching eye control, and a third will maybe get a Susceptibility (Disease) from a weakened immune system. I'm a bit worried that if it were a PC, this option would be a 'free ride' due to being able to leverage almost any physical disad into a 'buffer' from further disads at the early stages of irradiation.

Corrosive rains / suspiciously sped-up rust, sandstorms, probably some EM nastiness, some occasional weird mold/shroom/barnacle that decides to inhabit it. I don't actually have a table of random nasties yet (and I want them to be nasty but not immediately deadly for an expedition).

Oh well, I guess ultimately a Perk is the way to go - Exotic Environment Training, let's say, by analogy with Exotic Equipment Training.

Speaking of Perks, I just realised that a bunch of Immunities to Specific Hazards might be in order, once I figure the more nasty and important hazards for the random nastiness table.

Yes, the ability to just go away (as long as you/your group can survive there) seems like a good one. Are strong hierarchies in small groups necessary, and why?

Regarding the strict 'us' vs. 'them': I like the idea of constant awareness of the differences, but I want to make sure they're neither hostile nor aggressive towards outsiders. I wonder what flavours of that can be - a 'patronising' flavour can be one, surely.
Well, relatively stable. The hazards move around, but at such a rate that hiding into shelter or moving camp should be an option. Navigation should probably not so much as take a weirdness penalty, as be denied bonuses from having a compass or GPS, and the occasional lack of bonus for a map (when using outdated, pre-incident maps); then of course there's the factor that an area can be temporary impassable, denying a route. Regarding Survival, I generally want it to be quite difficult for outsiders, but reasonably OK for locals and long-term stalkers.

The surviving zoners breed true amongst themselves. In case of crossing with an outsider, the chances of breeding a zoner are much lower, which tends to self-correct in the long term.
I'd probably say the cutoff points moved somewhat: Most of the child death have shifted into very early miscarriages instead. And an overwhelming majority of those who do survive, have the necessary resistances (and some flaws in other areas!).
Life expectations are probably lower - perhaps as low as 40-50 human years. I'm trying to balance the death/birth/survival ratios so that while zoners started out with a 10:1 death:birth ratio in the first generation, they're only somewhat below replacement now, and about to reach a stable or slowly increasing population in a generation or two.

PCs are outsiders. None of them are stalkers, though. Regarding how deep - hard to measure. But I think the overall amount of trouble from getting in there should be ×2-×5 times as bad as failed survival rolls in normal places, but such that unsuitable equipment is less useful to mitigate difficulties, and the problems are more weirdness-flavoured. Hmm, maybe ask for two Survival rolls - one for usual hazards, one for zone weirdness.

I'm not quite sure whether the PCs will actually go there. But I do plan them to meet an NPC from there as a hookup for the next (well, one of the next) adventure. And I'd rather be ready if things go deeper.

Hmm. I think there should be slowly moving, appearing and disappearing epicentres.

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

I would solve this by saying that radiation grants some form of Resistant advantage at the same time it grants the disadvantage (this will usually still be negative points), so the player who wants to have been already subjected to radiation can buy an advantage to reflect this fact.

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

OK - then as Anthony says, you probably want a separate advantage that shields the character from further weird radiation damage. If you lack the advantage you take further weird mutations as normal, but picking up permanent weird mutations occasionally bestows the resistance advantage (or makes it available for purchase? Perhaps it comes in levels, and you need a certain number/type of mutations to get enough to be totally immune?).

Well, normal rugged adds to the item's HT, which would help it resist corrosion/rust/nasties by default. Do you want items made from endogenous "weird" materials to have extra bonuses against weird damage? In that case, invent a new materials quality. Maybe something like Weird Construction: +2 HT against Zone anomalies and hazards, but -1 HT against normal wear and tear. +0 CF. This'll partially cancel out Ruggedization bonuses and make the items simply Cheap in the outside world, but will make specially-made gear a must for adventuring in the Zone. Play with the numbers a bit if that's too big a boost. Maybe it only gives +1 HT to Zone stuff, but occasionally spawns its own Zone weirdness of a lesser, annoying (as opposed to dangerous) fashion.

Yeah, that sounds like a perk to me - why did you want to avoid doing it as such?

Not necessary, I suppose, but they tend to crop up when survival is hard and population density is low. People need each other to survive, disputes need to be settled according to some schema... I was just giving an option. Tightly knit small groups are the norm among low-population density people in hostile environments all over the place (with obvious exceptions). I said strong hierarchies because you prompted with "conservative."

Yeah, that'd fit. They don't have to be hostile, but they probably see themselves as separate, at this point. Language drift might be an issue, but cultural drift will be extreme (especially if the rest of the world is still urbanized). Not to mention the physical manifestations of the mutations. Zoners might see them as a point of pride, and have a whole culture of mutation aesthetics that prizes odd traits that outsiders find disconcerting ("I love how her tongue forks!" "Oh stop it dear - I just can't get enough of your fur..." *makeout noises*)

Well, locals and long-term stalkers have the appropriate perks. But outsiders aren't likely to get a month's walk into the Zone and discover that the landscape behind them has changed and they're forever lost, right? (I have a setting where that's explicitly the case, the whole world over, actually - so I'm partial to the notion, but it doesn't seem like what you're going for exactly)

So the populations are robust at this point. How often do outsiders breed into the Zoner population? In another hundred years of accumulated mutations will Zoners be a whole different species (or set of species)? What's the Zoner take on this phenomenon?

If you go this route I'd ask for one skill roll (a more normal-flavored skill roll, albeit with weird critical failures), and layer on top of that a GM roll for "weirdness encountered" where you set up a table of possible events and dish them out at random intervals. That way the PCs can respond how they like and the flavor of the Zone doesn't get subsumed into a "we successfully avoid having weird stuff happen to us today" roll.

Oh, that's very interesting. Does the Zone migrate over time? Is it expanding or shrinking? Does anyone know what causes the disturbances? Why lies at the hearts of these epicenters?

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

Yes, the mutants have the Radiation Resistance trait, but I don't see how that solves the problem.

See, a given absorbed dosage results in a certain amount of flaws (a successful HT roll allows to take the Bad Stuff of one line above, but not ignore it completely; this is largely irrelevant, though):
(A Fol is essentially a Weird GURPS Rad)
10 Fols (I): -10 temporary points worth of disads / no permanent effect.
35 Fols (II): -25 temporary/-1 remaining permanent even after healing.
100 Fols (III): -75/-5, and occasionally lethal in the long term.
350 Fols (IV): -150 / -25, and usually lethal in the long term.
1,000 Fols (V): -200/-100, but almost always lethal very soon.
3,500 Fols (VI): lethal almost immediately.

My idea is that zoners effectively have an accumulated dose of 35 Fols or so. This means they have at least -25 worth of Disadvantages that count as symptoms for purposes of irradiation.

So let's say a zoner gets exposed to a 'hot' source with an unmodified dose of 650 Fols.
Since zoners have PF10, that's an effective dose of +65 Fols - enough to trigger the next stage.
Let's say the zoner fails the HT roll (unlikely, but I want to go simple). That means the zoner must bump the amount of symptoms to -75/-5. But the zoner already has -25 worth of symptoms, so after healing, the zoner will not gain any new permanent disads; it also means that the zoner only gets an extra -50 worth of disads from the irradiation.

Essentially, this is the combination of a weird analogue of 'Accumulated Rads' (a Disadvantage that was discussed recently on this very forum), and the right to count certain disads as a flat reduction to the number of disads afflicted by a specific source.

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

Radiation Resistance is already part of the template. How to price a flat immunity to a fixed point-equivalent amount of afflictable disads (but not more) is unclear to me.

I'm just not sure whether +2 HT is actually good enough.
I do like the idea of a totally different quality-class that provides greater protection, but only against zone-specific stuff. Now I'm pondering whether this is too implausible in the context.

Mostly because being careful around any sort of trait bloat. But the more I think of it, the more it seems like a once-and-for-all solution.

Hmm. Now I'm wondering about plugging in at least some bits of ubuntu into those societies.

Seeing selves as separate - definitely, but I'd prefer to see this as 'different, but neither better nor worse' (even though they're sure better in their main environment).
Language shift is something I already thought of, yes.
Æethetics - hmm, that makes one consider of having a separate racial Appearance level, despite technically being of the same race(s) as the surrounding continent.

No global geographical changes behind one's back. Radically changing weather/climate is probably the most drastic geographic change available.

I think zoner+outsider families are rare, because zoners don't spend more than half their lives outside, while outsiders have a certain amount of difficulty staying in the zone.
Different species? That's probably going too far.

Hmm. Maybe average two rolls - the normal survival and the weird survival, and see which one(s) are failures/successes.
Both successful - things are OK, some phenomena encountered harmlessly.
Weird success, normal failure, net result successful - a hazard has been avoided by smart use of ambient weirdness.
Vice-versa, net result successful - weird complications, but things went OK.
Weird failure, normal success, net result failure - things were OK, but the weirdness suddenly ruined everything.
Etc.

Well, southern parts of it are receding gradually. Otherwise it mostly migrates within established boundaries. So you'd rather not try to colonise certain right-now-okay areas, unless you're ready to deal with the weirdness returning eventually.
The cause of disturbances is very vaguely linked to spacetime anomalies resulting from attempts to make FTL gates. (And yes, the anomalies started some time before the FTL gate experiment was performed - and on a different planet too.)

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

Honestly, since you're inventing a new sort of radiation, I'd probably just say "this is how it works." Permanent radiation-induced disadvantages shield you from random new permanent disadvantages. Would outsiders who end up with permanent disadvatanges on their sheets get similar protection? That is to say - if you go on an adventure in the zone and pick up [-5] in permanent weird mutations, then go home long enough to heal the rads before heading back out there. Then he takes 35 Fols effective. Does he get an additional [-25] temp healing to [-1] permanent, bringing him to [-6] total at the end of the day? Or does he get [-20] temporarily, but they all heal?

I was suggesting +2 HT on top of the Rugged bonus, but only vs. weird stuff. From what you've said so far there are Zone-specific products that are themselves shaped by the weird effects found there - why not make one such possibility resistance to further warping? Or however you want to justify it - it's certainly an expected trope that extant stuff in hostile environments can withstand said environments.

You can also go halfway - not totally separate racial appearance levels, but a common Zoner-specific quirk "Prefers Zoners" or the converse for outsiders.

Workable. Beware roll-bloat, of course, but that's always the temptation in these circumstances, I suppose.

Wait, so do the people on this planet have any inkling of these FTL experiments? Or did they just get the weird end of the stick?

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Self-Reliance, Rugged Stuff, Will to Live, Survival...
 

The listed values are the maximum values (non-cumulative at any point in time). I.e. someone who has -5 in permanent disads, and goes for another irradiation that has the '-25/-1' result will temporary gain an extra -20 worth of disads, but not an increase in permanent disads. Someone with -25 worth in permanent disads from a previous exposure will suffer no additional effect from the '-25/-1' result, as s/he/it already has -25 irradiation-based disads.

The problem comes from the fact that a random outsider with inborn Haemophilia [-30] will suffer an extra [-25] of temporary disads (and [-1] will remain forever), while someone with Haemophilia left over from a previous irradiation will gain no additional disads. It makes sense from the PoV of laws of nature in the setting, but the latter character has some sort of advantage over the former, and I'm puzzled about how to differentiate the two point-wise. (Having a PF above 1 is a totally different matter.)

Yeah, it's certainly an expected trope. Hmm. Maybe I'll even occasionally go as far as to imitate a lesser form of Serendipity as far as zone-hazards go for equipment (but not users).

Probably the most accurate description would be a form of Broad-Minded/Xenophilia that removes reaction penalties for all sorts of 'viable' oddities. Which probably interacts weird with the non-hostile Chauvinistic.

Three rolls instead of one for things that are not second-by-second. I think I'll manage.

All research material was more-or-less lost in the disaster (and stuff was too secret to be backed up far away from the disaster epicentre). There are occasional attempts to get back on tracks by other factions, but these are essentially dead-ends right now. I might change my mind later, but this is unlikely, as the campaign is meant to be in one solar system only.

Re: Wasteland Life: Mutants, Rugged Stuff, Frontier, Self-Reliance, Survival . . .
 

As far as the local culture goes, if I was doing it, I would have a few groups, broadly categorized by their economic strategy:

Traders who collect valuables in the zone and do a lot of trading with outsiders (although they can still do quite a bit for themselves).

Gangs and/or clans of bandits that prey on everyone else using hit and run tactics with their retreats covered by anomalies (few of these guys but they make an impression).

Foragers who live off the land and either dislike outsiders or just don't care to be economically dependent on them.


Within those categories you could have different groups. Eg the group of ubuntu traders who rely on a good reputation and the allies they have made for prosperity and the miserly traders who are always tough negotiators (maybe going as far as price gouging) and depend on accumulated wealth for prosperity.


Depending on how many languages were spoken in the zone to begin with I might expect a pigeon to develop and it might be useful to have at least one party member who speaks each language regardless of where you plan go in the zone considering the nomadic nature of the locals.

Also one or more sets of local nomenclature for (at least) zone phenomena.