the fierce heat of an Appalachee summer has descended on the trading town of Noratom. Heat shimmers along the dusty streets and stone buildings.
Despite the heat, the streets of Noratom are thronged. Beings of all descriptions hop, pad and scurry along one another, snarling and croaking as they try to obtain food and drink. The Hoosk River is lined with shabby refugee tents, hollow-eyed children of every shape and color playing delusitorily along the river's bank while their parents argue with each other.
The Noratom Grange is mobbed, residents and refugees alike trying desperately to talk to Piet Breeansson, current Town Boss of Noratom. A phalanx of scowling soldiers dressed in Noratom millita uniforms keeps them at bay.
Rumors swirl about the advance of the Wreckers. They're near, they're falling back, they were waiting till autumn to clear the Appalachee passes, a million others discussed among the shabby crowds.
Time is running out for the small town, and descisions have to be made.
Well' I is here. ya rackon i can gets me some ammo....and a saddle for me critter. an'or one ol them 'there dusters. that be real nice like.
Oh an where is the trading post.If y'all got one anyhow. And one of them bro-roth-e-llls with the nice smelling woman folk. Some good smoke be real nice as well. whats we needs is a list o' things to buy and what not.
think of oliver as a holler baby. ...thats some hick that don't get out much and such. am basing him off a guy i went to school with really should be fun
oh and the thread title amuse me. got a real world location in mind?
"Tradin post iz dat way. Brothel iz ova dere, wiv da one eyed biatch on da balcony, chek?"
<Coca-man looks the stranger over.>
"Joins the militia and yous gets a burna."
<Holds up his AK.>
"Coca Cola."
<As he points to himself.>
oh and the thread title amuse me. got a real world location in mind?
Actually, I wanted to place it in Western Massachusetts, an area I know a little from going to college (round one) nearby. There is a small town in the Berkshires called North Adams (which just screamed Noratom to me) so that is where you be. I figured that it would end up being sheltered during the Final Wars (since it is in the @zz end of nowhere) but it also sits on a mt. pass that leads into upstate New York, so it would make a good place for travelers to stop before heading into the Appalachians.
PS: here's your new GM avatar!
just found it amusing i am in the Appalachians. Great name.
Well' I is here. ya rackon i can gets me some ammo....and a saddle for me critter. an'or one ol them 'there dusters. that be real nice like.
Ammos sold at Piet Breeansson's gunsmith shop (he's not just Town Boss, he's also the gunsmith!). You can buy initial weaponry at normal prices, but anything after we start will be at inflated prices as EVERYONE wants a gun right now.
OK discussion thread made HERE
Looking over the troll build Kruelaid did it works for me if you like it Niel. As long as everyone is happy that they are all getting the same power level, that is good enough. I play loose with the rules (as I don't know them all that well) but hopefully we can come up with a good adventure. See y'all voer at the discussion thread!
The regeneration needs to be worked out, but if you're fine with whatever Niel decides to do that's fine.
I'm not worried about comparing power. Like I said we need a meat shield.
just found it amusing i am in the Appalachians. Great name.
Yeah always thought the Appalachians would be a center for rebuilding should the balloon go up ('course I'll be radioactive gas, being 2 mi from an Air Force base). A mountain chain that goes from Georgia to Maine, how kewl is that? What part are you at Seeker?
You can buy initial weaponry at normal prices
Where should I get the prices?
...
The regeneration needs to be worked out, but if you're fine with whatever Niel decides to do that's fine.
I'm not worried about comparing power. Like I said we need a meat shield.
I'm sure we can come to an agreeable compromise. I am open to design by comittee, as I have said in other threads I am a fluff man, not a crunch man. The story is the main focus for me, as long as we are all happy with the character builds and such I am cool.
I am in kentucky not to far from cumberland gap. thats they way settlers moved though em.
Will get oliver finished up soon.
yes a list of stuff to buy and prices be nice.
am in kentucky not to far from cumberland gap. thats they way settlers moved though em.
Will get oliver finished up soon.
Sweet. Dan'l Boone and all that jazz. Nice.
yes a list of stuff to buy and prices be nice.
Have it up tomorrow ... got my isolation work day and a new laptop ... just wish I had internet, sigh
Yep live off the d-boon parkways really.8 miles from the sight of the first house built in the state. 7 miles from the oldest town. the cumberland river runs though here. Not much in the way of flat land.
When my Latvian side came to America they settled in Albany.
Just for reference - how far into the future were we before the apocalypse hit? And how long ago was that, approximately?
I'm thinking about the turn of the 22nd century. With the parabola curve of invention I'd be surprised if there wasn't most of these futuristic PL5-6 items on tap by 2050 or so. I am considering that the end didn't come as a nation vs. nation Cold War nightmare scenario, rather as destructive power became more and more portable, fringe groups began to use various terror weapons on the things and people they hated. I'll try and get a timeline together tomorrow.
Current timeline would be a century past the Final Wars, say 2208 for symmetry.
"Where iz yous brothas from. Me? I iz from Bichport."
"I was born in Old Cleveland. Spent the last years with the river people on the Erie Canal."
"Am from the mountians and hills,wore ya has to know hows to hunt and shoot if ya in'tending to be to'a go on ah breathing that is."
Lites his cig
" We kains is a cagy bunch. I rackons I be the fasted trigger man y'all bunch ever did see. I got's this here notchin to ride on up this here way. Heared they's was a'needing a few trigger mens that knowed how to ride and not shots themselves in there feets. So I's thoughts to my self "self" I calls myself self whens thinking ya know so I says "self ya needs to mossy on up that there way and takes a look see" and I say to my self 'Self thats a right good i'del it is". so here I is."
"Da fellow has to be able to shoot an' chek in Bichport, too. Not too much civilised dere. Bare scroungin, though. Bin to Nu Ork, too, fe scroungin."
<Picks his nose a bit.>
"Coca-man get kicked ferm pretty well everwhere. Moves, moves."
<Long pause.>
"Folks jes don hear Coca-man. Don like im."
"Where d'ya find yon giant chicken? I ain't never seen nothin' like it before."
"Damnedest tin. Hit finks I's its mama.
Proposed mutation: Regeneration (cost= 10 pts)- Grants character regeneration equal to its Con bonus. Fire and acid damage bypass regeneration.
Orc Traits (Ex)
Orcs possess the following racial traits.
• +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
• An orc’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Light Sensitivity: Orcs are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Proposed flaw: A creature which has darkvision loses it. +3 Mutation points
Billy-Ray Traits
. Regeneration (10 mutation points)
• +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
• base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Light Sensitivity: Billy-Ray is dazzled in bright sunlight or within the area of similiar artificial light.
. Flaw: no darkvision (+3 mutation points)
. Low light vision (2 mutation points)
. Bone deposits: A creature with bone deposits has large heavy knuckles, which function identically to brass knuckles. (1 Mutation point- same cost as Claws)
. Quick (a trait from 'Unearthed Arcana): add +10' to base move, subtract 1 from hit points gained at each level, including first. (a result of 0 is possible)
. Troll Blood (bribe to players to get rest of character approved): The genetic enhancments causing Regeneration can be used to assist the healing of other beings, in a limited fashion. Once per day, a creature can injest a dose of the regenerating creatures blood to heal existing hit point damage. This heals an amount of damage equal to the multiple of the Con bonuses of the two creatures. If healing is attempted a second time in a 24 hour period, then the recieving creature must make a fortitude save with a DC equal to 15 plus the amount healed or take the healing as additional hit point damage. Troll blood cannot be stored, nor can the flavor of troll blood be rendered palatable. It takes 1 minute to injest and gain the benefit of troll blood. (cost= free because Patrick wants to watch the players get desperate enough to be healed that they would drink Billy-Ray's foul tasting ichor??)
Hey K.- I was using that character builder you found. Under feats it had some stuff I didn't know. It had entries like 'tough plus' and 'smart plus' and then listed some talents associated with the class. Any idea what this meant?
Otherwise, once the previous entry gets either failed or approved, I should be able to complete character stuff with said character builder tomorrow. Then only details will be left. Like buying gear and picking a mount- I'm leaning towards a porkuswine.(whatever we decide that is)
D20 Past had the 'primitive' starting occupation. It gives a sort of even-more-rural backgroud that would fit Billy-Ray. Its a raised by hunter/gatherers or great apes kind of thing. And comes with Archaic Weap. Prof. and Track. Not that he has much wisdom to go with the skill ranks.
tough plus... smart plus.... I don't know what those are either.
Light Sensitivity: Orcs are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Okay. This dude needs a pair of Raybans.
...porkuswine...
"Nice pig."
Nice. Are there any functional cities left, or are we reduced to speaking wistfully of the good old days when people lived in Cincinnatti, rather than just mutant plant-monsters?
Big cities are ruins, but not glowing radioactive ones. Few big dirty bombs got tossed around, most mutation was caused by releases of nano malware that fudged with DNA on a molecular level. There are nano packets that can selectively mutate as well, they are highly pized for those who wish to become genetic Helix Warriors. Nanites still are a danger in the bigger ruins, along with various other things, but radiation is not a big issue in this world. Some crazy folk live within big cities even, like the tribes of Nu Ork down southeast of the Principalities of Appalachee on the Huds River. Big cities are now non-functional more because of supply issues more than anything else, it is hard to transport food to a purely urban environment.
Nice. Are there any functional cities left, or are we reduced to speaking wistfully of the good old days when people lived in Cincinnatti, rather than just mutant plant-monsters?Big cities are ruins, but not glowing radioactive ones. Few big dirty bombs got tossed around, most mutation was caused by releases of nano malware that fudged with DNA on a molecular level. There are nano packets that can selectively mutate as well, they are highly pized for those who wish to become genetic Helix Warriors. Nanites still are a danger in the bigger ruins, along with various other things, but radiation is not a big issue in this world. Some crazy folk live within big cities even, like the tribes of Nu Ork down southeast of the Principalities of Appalachee on the Huds River. Big cities are now non-functional more because of supply issues more than anything else, it is hard to transport food to a purely urban environment.
Cool, that was my backstory.
We're on such the same wavelength. You know I started prepping a GW pbp last autumn then figured there was little demand.
So Coca is from Bridgeport ("Bichport") and has scavenged in NY. He left because of a run in with a scavenger gang. His exposure to a helix pack was totally accidental, happened while he was wrecked actually, and he is only just now realizing that he is changed. The precog mutations are also a result of the helix pack, BTW, even though they are not part of the class rules-wise.
Anyone who hasn't studied up on Gamma World and wants to get a handle on the naming conventions, HERE THEY ARE.
I don't think Curtin's America is that flooded, though....
Anyone who hasn't studied up on Gamma World and wants to get a handle on the naming conventions, HERE THEY ARE.
I don't think Curtin's America is that flooded, though....
No not to that extent, although the temperatures are warmer, and most coastal cities have water issues. Nu Ork and Bahston are in shallow water, with the ruins of superscrapers poking out. Central Park is Central Lake, etc. etc.
LINKIFIED: Coca wants to start with an M500, a bolt action .50 CAL first produced in 1981.
He'll settle for a Remington 700, very common.
LINKIFIED: Coca wants to start with an M500, a bolt action .50 CAL first produced in 1981.
He'll settle for a Remington 700, very common.
The cost of a Remington 700 seems to be about %25 higher than an m1911.
Which would make it about 250 credits.
Remington 700 w/30 x 7.62 rounds. 250 credits ok?
Standard scope. ????
Undercover vest. ???? Do they still make this stuff?
"I from the far south, but I call this place home. I don't remember anything else but here, my days in the south were too long ago."[EVA's synthetic brain is having issues compensating for the backwater dialect her new "friends" are using, she doesn't recognize it and restrains on correcting the improper grammer that is being used, she also is suppressing her olfactory senses because these men seem to be in dire need of a long over due bath].
EVA points to Coca Man's chikin,"this is a decendant from the Gallus Gallus or the red jungle fowel, today it is named Gallus Domesticus or more common, the chicken [eva speaks slowly and phonetically]. The phenomena that it thinks this gentleman is it father is known as, cross species adoption". EVA tilts her head to one side and realizes she is probably boring these men...
"Unnnh. Yah...."
<Long pause.>
"His name be Colonel."
"An thisns Peg. 'e lahks et wun yall skritch es ers."
Billy-Ray demonstrates, then eats the quills he pulls out of his fingers.
Peg grunts happily.
Oops. I copied K.'s character layout, then started changing it over to B.-R. I missed the 'human' line. Fixed now.
I'm thinking about dropping firearms prof- maybe stick with throwing lawn darts or something. I may buy a sawed off shotgun, even without the prof.
Roach nods at EVA's explanation of the Colonel's love of Coca-Cola. "Yah. Sounds right to me. Nice club ya got there, big fella."
Like the characters so far. I did some backstory and a bare bones price list while in isolation today. Kruelaid your desired gun is 5 GP or 500 Noratom Credits (NC). Anything you want priced jess holla!
Timeline of Appalachee Jihad:
2000-2050: The Golden Age: Technology improves at a dizzying pace. Breakthroughs in nanotechnology, energy creation, computing and robotics transform living conditions around the globe. There is hope that humankind has finally begun to leave its’ problems behind. Space exploration begins in earnest as robotics, nanotech, and energy simplification allow humanity to explore and exploit the Solar System’s resources.
2050-60: The Awakening of the Machines: The first AI Awakens and is given legal status under the law. Many AI programs become ‘Awakened’, acting independently of their programming. Many legal and ethical battles ensue. Computer centers are firebombed by religious extremists who decry the creation of ‘soultech’.
Fundamentalist and survivalist organizations of all stripes begin to build compounds in remote areas, aided by technology which allows them to power and supply extensive complexes cheaply. Many fringe groups preach the imminent destruction of mankind, including a little-known prophet located in the Northern Mexican Sonoran Desert called Isaiah Sorens. Sorens founds the Rectified Church of the Martyred Saints, a radical offshoot of the polygamous Mormon sect he had grown up in.
Corporations respond to the Awakening of so many of their valuable machines by installing software controls limiting their intelligence potential. These ‘AS’ (Artificially Stupid) machines become the standard among the computing and robotic industries.
2060-70: The Malware Plague Years: The Saudi Arabian fundamentalist organization Hezbwahabbi(Party of Wahabbi) release the Abomination nano malware swarm, causing widespread random mutation among people without Arab genetic markers. The attack triggers a backlash attack by Iran, whose population is extensively Indo-European in background. Programmed nanite hunter-killer swarms target the leaders of Hezbwahabbi and their immediate families, literally deconstructing them slowly molecule by molecule in front of horrified onlookers.
The Abomination malware is successfully deactivated, but the damage it wrought is harder to undo. Many mutated people wish to keep the changes, as some are beneficial. Corporations begin to market custom nanoware packages to enhance or change a person’s somatype in many ways.
The Disciples of Jesus fundamentalist group releases The Rapture nano malware swarm, basically an update of the Abomination nano malware, just targeted on any non-Indo-European descended person, causing massive mutations.
Nanosoft releases its’ Protech nano anti-malware package, which protects users against unauthorized cellular modification. Sales in the first week break the $100 billion USD mark. Poorer individuals suffer from the release of further nano malware packages from several different groups.
2070-80: Darkness Gathers: Nation states are becoming more and more irrelevant as technology makes collections of like-minded individuals able to coordinate over large distances easier than ever. Corporations and cybertribes replace governments as primary political entities. Energy and construction on a 20th Century governmental scale are accessible to individuals thanks to nanites and robotics.
Many nations simply declare bankruptcy, selling equipment, facilities and land rights off to settle their debts. Large populations of poor people are stranded by the collapse of welfare systems and the eradication of manual labor by humans. Large cities become jungles of violent crime. The rich retreat into gated arcologies, leaving the poisonous outmoded cities to the gangs of mutated poor. The poor begin to form into tribal groups known collectively as the NeoBarbarians.
The Brooklyn-based NeoBarbarian gang, the Ork Kings, organize the first large-scale raid of the Manhattan Arcology, using pirated nanotech and high-energy weapons to enter and loot it for several days before being driven off.
Shadow Tinkers, self-taught nano and robotic smiths begin to create new weaponry for the NeoBarbarian tribes that have begun to form in the cores of the old decayed cities. One Shadow Tinker, the legendary Rolph Desmarens, creates the Ork Soldier nano package, which morphs Ork Kings’ gang members into muscle-bound chameleon-skinned soldiers with reinforced bone structure and shark teeth. This nanoware is wildly popular among the hyper-violent NeoBarbarian society, spreading globally.
Arcologies begin to protect themselves with hunter-killer robotics, designed to create a no-entry zone buffer around their territory. The Shadow Tinkers respond with the Joker program, which erases the AS software restrictions on the AI of the hunter-killer units and Awakens them to sentient status. Many hunter-killers go berserk, killing their former masters, others simply walk off into the wilderness.
An insane biologist creates the Red Plague, an Ebola-based virus which spreads much easier, delays in its onset for a month to facilitate contagion, and kills even quicker. Viral technology had languished in the shadow of nanotechnology for years, and the Red Plague ends up killing close to a billion people before it is identified and contained.
2090-2107: The Shadow Years: Technology has miniaturized to where a gifted individual can fabricate any number of things that governments could only dream of in the 20th Century. Unfortunately many gifted individuals are also mentally unbalanced. Anger over poverty, ecological destruction, ethnic grudges and other things causes a huge rash of nano, bio, and physical attacks. Many of these are never traced to their creators, who often are just cranks hidden in a thousand decaying tenements worldwide.
One nano malware swarm targets power plants, another decays metal, still another Awakens many animals and plants, gifting them with intelligence and opposable thumbs. One particularly nasty nano malware nicknamed the Romero Swarm animates corpses, causing terror and havoc until it is deactivated.
Governments are functionally extinct and corporations are overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks. Cybertribes are still a political force, but their power is solely in the cyber realm, they are effectively powerless in meatspace. The world Balkanizes into small political units. Many arcologies seal out the outside world and only communicate by computer with anyone outside their walls. More groups flee to the hinterlands to isolate themselves from the madness consuming society.
Warming weather trends flood many coastlines, exacerbating the problems of the decaying megalopolises. Plant life begins to exhibit rapid growth and mutation after the Kudzu nano malware swarm spreads worldwide. The human population is dwindling, attrition and low birthrates are the main culprit. The super rich begin to abandon the planet altogether, collecting in orbiting stations and founding the L5 Republic. The poor masses left in the cities mutate farther and farther from the human norm with each generation. Bandit nation-states begin to appear, as NeoBarbarian warlords carve territory out of the anarchy.
2107-08: The Final Wars: Faced with the rise of strong armies of NeoBarbarians, and the decay of their technological infrastructure the Arcologies still functional on Earth plead with the L5 Republic to assist them. They are politely told to stuff it. Angered by their abandonment, the remaining arcologies band together into the Earth Alliance and declare war on the L5 Republic, targeting the fragile habitats with various explosives and lasers. Their attacks are successful, but the L5 Republic activates the Shiva Rock before it collapses. The Shiva Rock is a large asteroid packed with nano malware and biological agents designed to disrupt all high-level technology and kill all humans on Earth.
2108: Shiva Strikes: The Shiva Rock hits in the Pacific Ocean, causing widespread misery and a miniature nuclear winter. Most arcologies are destroyed outright, those that aren’t are greatly diminished. The nano malware and biological viruses the asteroid carried down to the surface cause widespread death and destruction.
2108-20: Fimbulwinter: Civilization has ceased to exist in any meaningful way on Earth. The year 2109 sees snow to the Equator, and no summer or crop yields. The only operating political entities are the tiny survivalist communities who had planned for this time. Unfortunately as soon as they can they begin to fight among themselves.
Thousands of species die out, but paradoxically many are saved by the mutational nano malware that the previous century had released. Evolution speeds along at a breakneck pace, and the punishing environment breeds stronger new species to replace the extinct ones.
The Rectified Church of the Martyred Saints begins to gain popularity among the shell-shocked survivors in the center of the NorAm continent. Preaching that mankind brought about its’ own Armageddon by usurping God’s power, this religion preaches jihad on the ‘trappings of Satan’, i.e. anything that uses a computer or doesn’t look human but thinks. Good old fashioned 20th Century technology is fine, as long as it is made by humans.
2121-90: A New Spring Dawns: The biosphere settles down, the effects of the Shiva Rock dwindling with time. Both the arcologies and the bandit-nations of the NeoBarbarians are gone, replaced by small tribes of survivors trying to build a stable society.
Civilization has clung to the out-of-the-way places of the world, and now it creeps out of isolated mountain valleys and deserts, rebuilding gradually. The population is now mostly mutant and mutated animals; Pure Strain Humans are an exotic oddity in most areas.
Most nano malware has deactivated, but the genetic changes wrought by them in the past have bred true. The infrastructure of highways and cities is in shambles, with rapid-growing vegetation cloaking the ruins in a thick jungle.
Worldwide temperatures rise again after Fimbulwinter is over, once again deluging the ruined coastal cities with water. Primitive nation-states begin to arise out of the tribal systems, and technology begins to revive, at least the simpler styles. Most of what has come before is lost, but scavengers and ruin raiders risk all to recover valuable knowledge and tech from the ruins.
2191-2208: The Rise of The New Age: As the Earth heals herself, humanity and its’ descendants fashion a new society. Technology varies, but is generally fairly low, below 21st Century in most respects. Items of high-tech are still available, even if they can’t be replaced when broken.
Alongside the various flesh and blood beings are the robots and synthetics who survived the onslaught. Many of them have no memories of their life in the 21st Century, various nano malware attacks and EMP bursts wiping memory banks away. Occasionally a large AI computer survives, such as the infamous OMNUS, ruler of the Happy Valley Collectivist State east of the Berksh region of Appalachee.
The task of rebuilding society has taken a darker turn as the Rectified Church of the Martyred Saints gains hold in territory west of Appalachee.
Although the religion traces its’ origins from the Mormon faith, Joseph Smith or Brigham Young would find little familiar about their creed. Sprung from the holdout polygamous sects of Mormonism that relocated defiantly to the deserts of Texas and Northern Mexico after Utah and the Mormon Church banned polygamy, the Rectified (or Wreckers to their enemies) do not consider anything not ‘made in the likeness of God’ as having a soul. Being soulless and intelligent automatically puts them in the Devil’s camp as far as the Wreckers are concerned. They preach a holy war against mutants, mutated animals and AI machines, going so far as to smash dumb computers as well.
They have swelled in numbers, fuelled by an intensive program of polygamy and child marriage. Any child born with mutations in their society is euthanized immediately. They have ravaged the central NorAm region for decades, but now led by a charismatic prophet Hezekiah Sorens (great-great-grandchild of Isaiah Sorens, the sect’s founder) they seek nothing less than the establishment of a Pure Strain Human-ruled Greater Deseret across the NorAm continent.