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

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Genesis

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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?

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).

Originally Posted by Genesis

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).

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.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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.

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.

Originally Posted by PU6-Perks, p.17

Chauvinistic
An extremely low level of broad-based Intolerance
(p. B140). You’re always aware of differences in sex, skin
color, etc. even if you don’t actually react poorly to others.
Thin-skinned individuals might occasionally react to you
at -1 as a result.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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

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.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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?

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.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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?

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.

Originally Posted by Genesis

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?

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