Wandering the Wasted North Gameplay Thread

Game Master That GM Guy!

CAMPAIGN INFORMATION

AN OVERVIEW OF THE WORLD

Earth has undergone a lot of changes since the present era. This
section gives a brief overview of the spirit of Broken Earth.

Sparse Population
Earth’s population is roughly one thousandth of the modern
population (roughly equal to what it was in 4,000 BCE). Most
communities number fewer than a hundred people. A town of a
thousand people is a metropolis, and ten-thousand is an empire.
The population isn’t distributed evenly, and there are many parts
of the world where you can travel for weeks without seeing
another human. Also, the distribution doesn’t match the modern
spread; in fact it’s often inverted, as many population centers in
our present world were top targets in the Great War.

Mutation and Monsters
In the immediate aftermath of the Great War, intense biological
changes swept through the world. Evolution went into overdrive,
as many new plant and animal species appeared in just a single
generation. In the age of Broken Earth most of the changes have
stabilized and entire species are no longer appearing, though
minor mutations periodically occur.

We Are Not Alone
Humans are no longer the only sapient species in the world. We
weren’t exempt from the mutations that took place and have a
genetic offshoot, commonly called freaks, who have oddly colored
leathery skin and who are highly resistant to radiation.
The changes have also affected one of humanity’s close
relatives. A strain of chimpanzee has developed human-like
intelligence, full bipedalism, and human-like manual dexterity,
but has also retained the chimpanzees’ strength and ferocity. This
new race, called simians, now lives alongside humans.
Artificial intelligence has also advanced to the point where it’s
comparable to human intelligence. While these machines aren’t
self-replicating, and many have fallen into disrepair, enough still
exist that they occasionally interact with humanity.
There may be other intelligent races on Broken Earth, but
they aren’t common to the PCs’ starting region.

Powers of Mind
Something in the Great War unlocked hidden powers of the mind.
While it’s rare, some humans, freaks, and simians have developed
psionic powers that allow them to read thoughts, glimpse the
future, or move items with their minds.
There are even a few species of animals that have developed
psionic powers, though these animals typically have only a small
range of powers.

Technology Lost
In the immediate aftermath of the Great War, humanity was
focused on survival, and many advances in technology were lost.
This is partially a knowledge loss, but is also caused by the loss
of infrastructure, as many forms of technology we depend on
today require highly specialized manufacturing equipment and
material resources that come from all around the world. Only a
few communities are able to produce electricity, and there are no
new petroleum products being created.
However, many people of Broken Earth take advantage of the
technology created before the War. They frequently use and live in
pre-war buildings, ride pre-war bicycles, and defend themselves
with pre-war guns.

Return to Subsistence Societies
Between the population drop, and the loss of technology, most
people’s lives focus on getting enough to eat. They may be hunters
and gatherers, farmers, fisher folk, or herders. A small number
of people work other jobs like craftsmen, traders, and scrappers,
and most of those people live in the larger towns of Broken Earth.
As a result of the return to a subsistence lifestyle, literacy rates
dropped dramatically. While some farmers pass down knowledge
of reading and writing to their children, many are uneducated.
Those with more specialized occupations are more likely to know
how to read. The best scrappers know that reading helps them
find the best scrap.
Of course PCs are exceptional individuals. They’re likely to
be literate and have more advanced skills.

Nasty, Brutish, and Short
The average life span in Broken Earth is about fifty years. Raiders
and mutant monsters take their toll, but the lack of medical care
is a bigger factor. Diseases once cured with simple antibiotics can
devastate whole villages. Cancer rates are higher as a result of the
increased background radiation. Child birth and infant mortality
rates are also higher than in modern times.
Because of this, citizens of Broken Earth grow up faster than
they do in the early twenty-first century. Children work from a
young age, and can be married as early as sixteen.

THEMES OF THE CAMPAIGN

The post-apocalyptic genre features a wide range of styles and
sub-genres, ranging from the silly to the terrifying. To help
keep players on the same page, this section discusses the default
assumptions about theme and tone in Broken Earth.

Exploration and Discovery
While Broken Earth takes place on Earth, it isn’t the earth we
know today. The Great War, the survivors, mutant creatures, and
time itself have all reshaped the land. What’s more, people live in
relatively isolated communities, and few know what the world is
like more than twenty miles away from their own town. What was
once an easy car ride is now an arduous journey lasting weeks. In
the adventure, PCs will explore this strange new world.
As they explore the current world, they may uncover secrets
of the ones that went before. There are many remnants and ruins
from “ancient” times, but most people know only a little bit about
the world from before the War. At best, most people see ruins as a
source of scavenged supplies. At worst, they view them with fear
and superstition as a form of “dark magic.”

Rebuilding a Broken World
The world is in rough shape, but it’s not so irredeemable that the
PCs can’t make a difference. Indeed, early on in the adventure the
heroes can help bring people together to form a new community.
This community is likely to serve as an impetus for much of the
PCs’ adventuring, as they seek out new resources and alliances to
help the community survive and prosper.

A Serious Place
There are plenty of gonzo post-apocalyptic RPGs out there, but
Broken Earth isn’t one of them. It tries to maintain a serious tone
and treats the characters as though they were real people making
real choices. This is one reason why most mutant creatures are
members of new species, not just one-time monstrosities.
This is not to say that you should never laugh while playing
Broken Earth, but it should be humor grounded in real word
assumptions. PCs might joke with each other, or an NPC might
behave in a humorous way, just as players joke with each other
and there are some people you cannot help but laugh at. It’s not,
however, the kind of setting where you’ll find a giant, talking
cockroach dressed up like Santa Claus.

Scientific Trappings
Broken Earth uses scientific-sounding explanations to justify all
the strange creatures and PC abilities in this new land. While
some characters might refer to it as “magic,” it’s only because they
don’t understand the technology behind it. There’s no magic in
the traditional fantasy RPG sense.
If exposed to close scrutiny, much of the science doesn’t
hold up (or is at best extremely improbable), but in the in-game
universe it’s all perfectly reasonable.

RELIGION IN BROKEN EARTH

Religion survived the apocalypse similar to how the rest of
civilization survived: in broken pieces. Most pre-war religions
still exist in one form or another, but they’ve splintered and
evolved, and they lack any organized structure. For example,
characters might be Catholic and own a weathered copy of the
Bible. They might even gather in a church once a week to read
passages and sing hymns. The church hierarchy, however, is nonexistent.

There are no ecclesiastical schools for priests to attend.
If there is a pope somewhere, nobody in North America knows
who he is. There are also plenty of people who follow no religion,
either simply because they have not been exposed to it, or because
they consciously reject it.
There are also new religions that have developed on Broken
Earth, or ones that have changed so much that they are worth
mentioning here.

Way of the Axe
The Axe Tribe has developed a form of animism that incorporates
many pre-war traditions, including Christian, Ojibwe, and
Odinist ideas, along with images from popular folklore, and
discoveries made through observation. The Way teaches of many
powerful spirits that should be treated with respect, but the most
respected among the tribe is Palbun. Palbun once walked the land
as a giant. He wielded a massive axe and was accompanied by his
mighty war cow.

The Revealed
Many who survived the Great War took it as a clear sign that the
end times had begun and that the Day of Judgment was soon at
hand. Many of these faithful soon found each other and began
calling themselves the Revealed. The Revealed believe they were
spared from the apocalypse so they might redeem the world’s
remaining sinners before the final days.

POSSIBLE STARTING COMMUNITIES

The Axe Tribe:

National parks had little strategic military value, so when the
Great War came, the Boundary Waters parks between Minnesota
and Ontario fared much better than most. Many who survived
the initial attack fled to this area. Slowly they met up and formed
communities. One such band is the Axe Tribe, named after their
favorite weapon and tool.

The Axe Tribe lives off the land, hunting, fishing, and
gathering. They’re also very talented wood craftsmen, particularly
adept at making dug-out and birch bark canoes, which they
use to navigate the lakes and rivers of their homeland. They’re
semi-nomadic, and move their homes with the seasons. All tribe
members are expected to know how to wield an axe, both in battle
and to fell trees. (At large gatherings, tree chopping is a favorite
competition.)

Most members of the Axe Tribe are human, though any
who can prove themselves worthy are inducted into the tribe,
including a good number of freaks, and even a few simians. The
tribe reveres most with psionic powers as blessed by the gods,
however they fear telepathic abilities and see the power to pry
into others’ minds as an evil power.

The Axe Tribe’s spiritual beliefs are an eclectic blend of many
pre-war religions, but one especially notable element is their
reverence for Palbun. They believe that he is a giant who once
roamed the earth accompanied by his bull steer. His skill with the
axe is legendary. The Axe Tribe has crafted many statues of Palbun
at holy sites, but the holiest of all are the statues that survive from before the war.

As the Axe Tribe grew, it split into several smaller bands that
number anywhere from two dozen to two hundred members. All
of the bands are friendly toward each other and tribesfolk. The
adventure assumes PCs come from the Santloose, the easternmost
band in the Axe Tribe. Youngsters from the Santloose frequently
go on exploration missions to discover the lands to the south.

History
When the bombs fell during the Great War, few fell directly on
northern Minnesota, but that didn’t mean people there were
safe. Many died slow deaths from fallout or disease, and with the
loss of modern infrastructure, many starved or froze during the
harsh Minnesota winter. Worst of all, scarcity brought out the
worst in many people, and many died at the hands of their former
neighbors.

Despite all this terror, some managed to survive. The
ancestors of the Axe Tribe were some of those lucky survivors.
They came from many backgrounds, including loggers, members
of the Leech Lake band of Ojibwa, survivalists, campers, and
others who were just lucky enough to find the community.
The first years were hard for the survivors, but they adjusted
to the new world they found themselves in, transitioning to a
hunter and gatherer society. Their single focus was survival, and
these were the lessons they passed on to their children, neglecting
other trivial skills like reading, mathematics, and history. The
first generation raised after the Great War lived through a chaotic
time, and while they lost much of their pre-war culture, slivers of
it remained and formed the basis of a new culture, the Axe Tribe.

Councils
The Axe Tribe has an informal system of government. There are
no elected or declared leaders, but some members are given more
respect or deference and looked to for leadership. When there
are decisions to be made that affect the whole band, they call a
council to discuss the topic.
There are no rules about who may attend a council, though
elders and those who are particularly skilled are expected to
attend, as is anybody who might be affected by the decision. The
more important the decision, the more people arrive. While youth
may attend to listen, they’re expected to keep their opinions to
themselves.

Councils start by somebody knowledgeable explaining what
they must decide, then attendees take turns in speaking, asking
questions, making suggestions, or trying to convince people to
join their side.

Once everybody has spoken, an elder will call for a vote.
This is a voice vote, and if the votes are close, they put off the
decision in the belief that more time to consider will result in
better decisions.

Traditions of the Axe Tribe
In the generations that have passed since the Great War, the Axe
Tribe has developed many traditions. Many of these have roots in
pre-war society, but others were forged from the harsh conditions
of Broken Earth.

Marriage Traditions
As in many societies, marriage is one of the most important events
in the life of somebody from the Axe Tribe, and it is surrounded
in both taboo and ritual.

The most significant taboo is that people of the Axe Tribe
aren’t supposed to marry somebody within the same band, so
a woman born into the Santloose band is required to marry
somebody from either the Missi or Ligfor band (or somebody
from a minor band). While few people think about it in these
terms, this taboo both prevents inbreeding and connects the
bands to each other, which keeps the peace between them.
Occasionally, young people try to get around this taboo by having
one of the couple found a new band which the other will marry
into.

People usually meet potential spouses at the Great Gathering,
which occurs every midsummer. Young people in search of a
spouse will also sometimes live with another band for several
months, often staying with a male relative who married into that
clan.

Once two people agree to marry each other, they go to the
bride’s parents to request permission. Assuming the parents
accept, the husband-to-be leaves his band and lives with the
bride’s family while they construct a house of their own. Either
of the couple is free to end the engagement for any reason during
this time. Once the house is complete, they celebrate the marriage
with a day of feasting, dancing, and storytelling. This completes
the marriage ceremony, and from then on the two are husband
and wife, and continue to live with the wife’s band. It is extremely
rare for somebody to divorce once they are married, but it is
possible. If a man loses a wife by either death or divorce he may
choose to return to his own band or remain with his former-wife’s
band.

The Great Gathering
Every year at midsummer, members of each band gather at the
Holiest Statue of Palbun for a week of feasting, games, trading,
and stories. Every member of the Axe Tribe is expected to attend
the Great Gathering at some point during their life. Typically
tribesfolk start to attend in their teenage years, and continue until responsibilities at home make it impractical.

Funeral Rites
Typically the Axe Tribe sends their dead to the afterlife through
cremation. Ideally they are placed in a canoe which is loaded with
kindling, and the boat is then lit on fire and left to drift downriver. If this is impractical (usually due to the lack of a canoe or river), the dead are simply burned in a funeral pyre. Friends and family gather to share stories of the dead, sings songs, and eat and drink the dead’s favorite food.

Vision Quest
When members of the Axe Tribe reach adulthood, they’re
expected to go on a vision quest as part of their rite of passage.
As part of this, they go into the forest and spend several days
fasting and meditating until they experience a vision. For safety
the youth often travel with groups of others on a vision quest, but
those who are not going through the ritual are not permitted to
be present. After their visions, the questers return to the tribe andshare their visions with the elders, who help to interpret them asa sign of the tribe members’ future.
It’s rumored that occasionally desperate adolescents make
up a vision, but of course that would demonstrate a lack of
dedication.

Bands
The Axe Tribe is divided into several smaller bands, all of which
live in the woods of what was once northern Minnesota and
southern Central Canada. They share a common culture, but
there are slight differences between the bands.
Santloose Band
The adventure assumes PCs come from the Santloose band of the
Axe Tribe, the easternmost of the three major bands. As it’s closest
to Wright Town, it also has the most contact with people from
outside the Axe Tribe, and they frequently trade with members
of the Wright family. The band has nearly one hundred members.
Missi Band
The Missi Band is the largest band of the Axe Tribe, numbering
over two hundred people. They’re based in the southwest of the
Axe Tribe’s range and roam the upper Mississippi River and
winter near Leech Lake.
The Missi band is also the most conservative band on average.
They hold strongest to the belief that they should avoid pre-war
ruins and eschew technology if they don’t know how it works.
Ligfor Band
The Ligfor band is the northernmost of the major bands of the
Axe Tribe, living around what was once the border of Minnesota
and Ontario. They are even more concerned with cold weather
than the rest of the Axe Tribe (which is quite concerned with cold
weather), and they are expert fur trappers and tanners. The Ligfor
band is the smallest of the major bands, numbering just over fifty
members.

Minor Bands
In addition to the three major bands, there are a few minor
bands in the Axe Tribe. These number less than twenty people
and are often a single family. Some minor bands were formed
by ambitious tribesfolk who wanted to venture into unoccupied
territory. Others are just exploiting a loophole to get around the
marriage taboo. The marriage taboo dictates that people from
the same band should not marry, but it does not stop them from
falling in love. Most young couples simply accept that they cannot
be together, and find somebody else. A few go to great lengths to
stay together. One member (usually the woman) founds her own
band, which also means that she no longer belongs to her original
band. Thus she is free to marry somebody from the original band.
The loophole comes with a price, since the new band is expected
to move to new territory and is not able to rely on their former
community for support. These “bands of convenience” are also
unlikely to attract other members (unlike “bands of expansion”
which usually attract a handful of others).

World-View
The typical member of the Axe Tribe holds the following beliefs,
though as always PCs need not be typical.
• Most of life is spent hunting, gathering, and crafting tools
and shelter.
• The world is filled with spirits, both helpful and dangerous.
• Psionic powers are divine gifts and are used to benefit the
community.
• Advanced technology is a form of dark magic.
• Most ruins are haunted by ghosts of the ancients.
• Don’t trust any machines if you cannot understand how they
work.
• Most are illiterate, except for the story keepers and their
apprentices.
• All members of the Axe Tribe are valued according to the
skills they prove.
• Your clothes are mostly tanned hides and furs.
• Your tools are primarily made from plants and animals, with
some metal items built from scrap or traded from Wright
Town.
• You live in a log cabin during the winter, and a tent covered
with leather or birch bark during the summer.

Axe Tribe Slang
Always-People: Humans genetically similar to those from before
the Great War.
Burned-People: Freaks
Chopper: A strong person, assertive, a person of action.
Day of Fire or Day the Sky Rained Fire: The Great War
Dull: Weak, unskilled.
Foundling: Members who were not born into the Axe Tribe, but
later join it.
Mookoosh: Idiot.
Outser: Anybody who is not a member of the Axe Tribe.
Snag: Romantic partner.
Vultures: People who harvest scrap from ruins.

The Iron Shelter:

The Iron Shelter is so named because it was converted froman underground iron mine. Before the Great War, a group of academics and scientists foresaw the very real threat of nuclear war. Hoping to preserve human civilization, they refitted the mine with a miniature nuclear reactor and recycling systems for water and air. They stockpiled food and set aside a section for indoor gardening, complete with powerful lamps. Finally, they gathered massive libraries of reference materials, textbooks,
technical manuals, historical accounts, and popular fiction;
anything that would help future generations understand what
human civilization was like before the fall. They hoped to one day
return to the world above, but if need be they believed they could
maintain a small population indefinitely.

When the missiles flew, the Iron Shelter closed itself off
from the outside world, and the hundred inhabitants escaped
the destruction that followed. For decades everything proceeded
as planned. Through careful rationing and proper recycling, the
inhabitants of the shelter lived completely cut off from the world
outside.

But all that is about to change.

History
Things were looking bad before the Great War, and many sought
a way to avoid it. One such attempt was started by a group of
university students and professors. They sought to establish a
long-term shelter deep beneath the earth. For the site they chose
the Soudun underground iron mine. This mine was already being
used for physics experiments, and there was plenty of unused
mine space that the new project could expand into.
They sought funding under the pretense of an experiment
studying the ability to create a self-sustaining community, the
kind that would be necessary for long-term space flight. They
began fitting the mine with living quarters, subterranean gardens,
and a micro nuclear reactor to power it all.

Almost everything was in place when the Great War broke
out. Almost. People scrambled to get their friends and families
into the shelter and to find last minute supplies. Fights erupted
at the mine entrance about who was allowed in. Finally the cage
screeched to the bottom of the mine shaft for the final time.
For a few days the sheltered watched broadcasts from the
surface, showing images of death and destruction. Then there was
nothing left but static.

The survivors were on their own. They soon formed new
rules to govern their isolated society, creating a constitution. In
many ways this mirrored the laws of the American society they
came from, but they also added crucial laws governing population
control. The founders thought they might be down in the mine
for generations, and their resources were finite, so they instituted
strict controls to ensure that they didn’t overuse their resources.

Daily Life
Inhabitants of the shelter spend most of their time maintaining
the shelter’s electrical and mechanical equipment, tending to the
indoor gardens, and learning about pre-war society in the shelter’s
library. While the shelter is filled with books and computer files
describing nearly every aspect of pre-war life, their knowledge is
purely academic. While they might have thousands of pictures of
everything from dogs to spacecraft, nobody who currently lives
in the shelter has heard the call of a wild animal, smelled dew on
the grass, or seen a sunset.

Democracy
The Iron Shelter is governed by an elected council of five people
that act as both legislators and executives. They serve five-year
terms, with one slot up for election every year in a five year cycle.

Because they tend to govern well and stay clear of controversies,
incumbents almost always win reelections, and most contentious
elections occur when there is an open seat
The current members of the council are Jack Reynolds,
Samantha Vang, Marguerite Olsen, Frank Muhammad, and
Ernesto Morales. Though legally they all have equal power,
Jack Reynolds and Samantha Vang are looked to as the primary
leaders.

Most of the day-to-day work of the council is bureaucratic
bookkeeping like tracking food production and consumption
and ensuring all key labor roles are filled. Only rarely do they
deal with major decisions or create new laws. When they do, Jack
Reynolds tends to be the conservative voice while Samantha Vang
argues for change.

Apprenticeship
Because of tight population controls, there are never more than a
handful of children in the Iron Shelter at any time. Young children
are educated together in a school that resembles the one-room
school house of old. Here they learn the basics of reading, math,
history, and science, as well as information about life in the Iron
Shelter.

When the youths turn thirteen, they leave school to start
what is called their “rotation," where they try a range of the
different jobs that are vital to keeping the shelter functioning,
including engineering, medical, agriculture, inventory, and food
preparation. This rotation typically takes two years to complete,
at which point the youths begin their apprenticeship. The council
assigns the youth a job based on their aptitude and interests, as
well as the needs of the shelter. The teens learn their trade by
working alongside experienced members of the society. While it
is possible to appeal the council’s assignment of apprenticeship,
doing so is rare, and would require extraordinary circumstances.

Rumors of Return
In the months leading up to the start of the Broken Earth adventure,
rumors circulate that the council is considering an expedition to
explore the surface. This has sparked a vibrant debate among the
citizens of the Iron Shelter.

Many would happily remain in the shelter and forget about
the world above. Compared to much of the rest of the world, life
in the Iron Shelter is safe and peaceful. The inhabitants are safe
from marauders and mutants. They’re well educated, and thanks
to strict population controls, there’s always enough food to eat.
Others, however, are less enthralled with life in the Iron
Shelter. Boredom is one of the chief reasons, though few admit
it. Others dislike many of the stifling rules, like the strict limit on how many children a couple can have or how much energy they
can consume. They also point out that with a small population
genetic diversity will become a problem in only a few more
generations, and there’s no way to refuel the reactor.

The most powerful argument however, is that they should
be a beacon of hope. They should return to the surface not for
themselves, but because they alone have the knowledge that the
rest of humanity needs to once again return to a productive, safe,
and prosperous civilization.

World-View
The extreme isolation of the Iron Shelter has led to a common
world-view among most people in the shelter.
• You live in a community of one hundred people. You’ve
known them your whole life.
• You’ve never met anybody from outside the shelter.
• Of all the communities in Broken Earth, the Iron Shelter is
probably closest in culture to the modern day.
• You know a lot of things about the world before the war, but
almost all of it is theoretical, not practical.
• You’ve never seen a plant larger than a corn stalk or an animal
larger than a beetle.
• You understand what technology is, and might even know
how it works.
• There were no psionicists, freaks, or mutant monsters in the
world you’ve read about.
• Everything you own was originally made before your parents
were born. It's been mended and repaired countless times.

Iron Shelter Slang
Brighty: Happy, excited, full of energy.
Broken: Dumb.
Deep: Safe, secure.
Iron: Strong, impressive, true.
Kell: Cool, interesting.
Rack or Rack-It: An interjection to express anger or frustration
(similar to darn).
Sheltered: People who are native to the Iron Shelter.
Surfacer: People who live on the surface.

Wright Town:

As humanity slowly started to crawl its way out from disaster,
many returned to former large cities to reclaim the remnants of
technology they had lost. Many died in the process, falling victim
to radiation or mutant beasts, but those who escaped danger
found wonders from the old world and prospered.
This is the fate of the Wright family, who returned to the
ruins of what was once Duluth. They combed the ruins, and not
only found many tools that they could use, they began trading
their goods to the small number of settlements beginning to
form in what was once northern Minnesota. Over the decades,
the Wright Trading Company has expanded to include not only
members of the family itself, but also hundreds of employees
who scour the landscape for scrap, protect caravans, and provide
other support roles. The actual buying and selling is still reserved
for members of the Wright family, which now includes several
branches.

History of Wright Town
According to family lore, Jed Wright’s father, Anthony Wright, was
born the day the Great War ended. His parents were survivalists
who had stockpiled enough food and ammunition to see them
through the end of the world. Little else is known about them, as
Anthony’s children never met their grandparents, and he refused
to even mention their names.

Anthony started out fending for himself, hunting and
gathering food, and salvaging what he could from the ruins. As
he grew up he started to realize that he could do more serving
as an intermediary. He learned what people needed, found it
someplace else, transported it, and took his cut. Not long after he
started trading, Anthony met a fisherwoman named Sable. The
two fell in love and were soon married. Their children became the
first employees of the Wright Trading Company.

As Jed Wright and his siblings grew, so too did the Wright
Trading Company. They established a base outside of the ruins
of Duluth and hired a dozen scrappers to sift through the ruins
for anything usable. They set up regular trade routes with nearby
fishing and farming communities.

The Wright family weren’t the only ones with this idea, and
early on several other scavengers and traders attempted
to compete with the Wright family, but the family didn’t
tolerate friendly competition. The Wright Company either
convinced traders to work for them, pushed them out of the
territory, or executed them for, “the crime of unlicensed trading.”
On his deathbed, Anthony Wright named Jed his successor
to lead the Wright Trading Company. Unfortunately Jed’s brother
Ben thought he should control the company. The brothers’
arguments turned to brawls and soon to bloodshed. The families
fought for a year and a half, and the violence didn’t end until Ben
and all of his children were dead.

The brothers’ war hurt the Wright family, and for some time
it looked like they might fall from power, but in the twenty-four
years since then, the company has grown even stronger and has
regained its place as the de facto power in the north.

Corporate Government
Though they still see themselves a business, the Wright Company
has become a de facto government, which controls a small town
with the apt (if unimaginative) name of Wright Town. Jed Wright
is the patriarch of the Wright family and, as CEO of the Wright
Trading Company, is also the de facto leader of Wright Town.
He is assisted by several family members, including his daughter
Sally who oversees the traders and his younger brother Jack who
oversees salvage.

Like most company towns, most of the employees who live in
Wright Town are constantly in debt, since the Wright Company
(which operates all the stores in town) sets prices to squeeze
all they can out of their employees. Most of the employees are
scrappers, and while they are paid based on what they find (and
only if they find something), the Wright Family considers all the
salvage in the town to be their property, and anybody who “steals”
is punished harshly.

The Wright Company is concerned with governing only as
it affects their business. They maintain enough order to make
sure that conditions are safe for their customers and workers.
They maintain roads and ports, but otherwise care little for
infrastructure, or education. They dole out punishments for major
crimes like theft and murder with speed but little due process.
There are no jails, and punishments usually involve branding,
losing a hand, or execution.

The Wrights and the Have-Nots
Members of the Wright family live comfortable lives. Not only
do they never worry about their next meal, they enjoy luxuries
like books, guns, and even the occasional use of a gas-powered
generator. They are the closest thing the region has to royalty.
Most other people in Wright Town live in pretty squalid
conditions. They barely scrape together enough to keep
themselves fed, and many go into debt to the Wrights to make
it through the winter. A lack of sanitation and modern medicine
also makes disease and parasites common throughout the town.
There is a very small band between the Wrights and the
toiling masses. Most of these people survive by working for the
Wright family in ways that they deem more important. These
include caravan guards, smiths, and mechanics. Most of these
people dream of marrying into the Wright family. When people
marry a Wright, they always take the Wright name, whether male
or female.

A Community of Loners
Wright Town has the least community cohesion of all the
communities in the region. They don’t necessarily share a history,
culture, or creed. Many squabble with their neighbors, competing
over food, land, and scrap. Others do their best to form smaller
cooperative communities within the ruins of Duluth.

World-View
Because Wright Town is less homogeneous than the other major
communities, the world-views of the citizens are more varied, but
here are a few guidelines of what they might believe.
• For good or ill, the Wright family is the most powerful force
you know of.
• There are monsters out there, waiting to strike.
• Raiders and thugs can be just as dangerous as any monster.
• Some people have psionic powers. You may or may not
understand them.
• You know of advanced technology. You might consider it
magic.
• You’ve probably seen people from nearby communities like
Moose Town or Agate, and maybe even far off travelers from
places like Freaky Town.
• Ruins often contain useful and valuable items hidden among
the rubble.
• Your clothes are a mix of alpaca wool, leathers, and furs.
• Most of your tools and household goods are scavenged or
made from scrap.
• You probably live in the ruins of a building that you have
cleaned up and modified for your own purposes.

Wright Town Slang
Ainch: Pre-war.
Babble: Knowledge, information, especially related to pre-war
information.
‘Canic: Somebody able to fix pre-war machines.
Chem-Head: Somebody who knows a lot about chemistry,
particularly pharmaceuticals.
Dirter: Farmer
The Family/The Fam: The Wright family
Rusty: Unintelligent, slow, incompetent
Scrapper: Somebody who makes their living harvesting scrap
from ruins.
The Sea: Lake Superior
Techno: Cool, new, interesting
Tribal: People who exist by hunting and gathering (such as those
from the Axe Tribe).

Other Nearby Communities:

If you are not interested in one of the primary communities, your
character might come from one of the secondary communities
listed below. These are considered “secondary” not because they
are necessarily smaller or less powerful, but because they are
farther from the start of the adventure and the PCs are not likely
to visit them until later in the campaign. Because of this, you may
also need to work harder to incorporate your character into the
adventure.

Farming or Fishing Communities
There are several farming or fishing communities near where the action begins, including Sandy, Moose Town, Agate, and Madeline. These are simply collections of farmers or fisher folk who live relatively near to each other for their own protection. They only have one or maybe two buildings other than the houses, and are supported by Wright Town.

Freaky Town
A community that dwells in the remains of Minneapolis. Because of high radiation levels, they are exclusively freaks. They mostly keep to themselves, but some want to either explore or conquer neighboring communities.

Green Empire
A large (by post-apocalyptic standards)
power that controls several towns in the remains of Iowa. The
Empire is powered by slave labor and a surprisingly large supply
of diesel fuel.

Kingdom of Geneva
A fortified town in southern Wisconsin
that protects the surrounding farms and villages from raiders and
mutant monsters. The Kingdom has patterned itself after both
historical texts about medieval Europe, and fantasy fiction set in
similar worlds (and many don’t know the difference).

Scrap City
Scrap City is in the ruins of what was once
Chicago, and refers to the place rather than any single community.
The city is divided by several camps of scrappers who compete
over territory and trading privileges. Most bands survive by
trading with either the Golden Empire or Kingdom of Geneva,
though some trade with smaller communities nearby.