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

[Genesis]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

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.

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?).

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).

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.

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.

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

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?

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."

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.

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, 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.

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)

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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?