Postapocalypse

After civilization falls, the world is transformed into a harsh place where your character's very survival is in question. The only answer is constant scavenging for food and water in a ruinscape of collapsing buildings, rotting food stores, radiation, crazed animals, and desperate bands of raiders willing to take everything you have without shedding a tear. Postapocalypse games are grounded in a (somewhat) realistic portrayal of what life would be like in the aftermath of a world-ending sequence of events. Mere survival may be one of the primary themes of your GM's game.

If you're familiar with books or movies like The Road, Children of Men, and even the Mad Max series, you know what postapocalypse settings are like. The Walking Dead comics and TV show are very much a postapocalypse setting as well, aside from the fantastic element of the zombies that caused the world to end.

Skills: Use the Postapocalypse Skills table for a list of skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.

Postapocalypse Skills

These skills are appropriate for games in a modern postapocalypse setting. When you have the option to choose skills, choose from the following.

Character Species: Postapocalypse settings usually feature mostly Humans.

Foci: The list of suggested foci for a postapocalypse game doesn't generally include foci with magical, science fiction, or other fantastic elements.

Suggested Foci for a Postapocalypse Game

Equipment: Refer to your type's suggested equipment bundle or the Postapocalypse Equipment table for equipment you can choose from when creating your character and for options that might be available to your character when you have more currency to spend.

Manifest Cyphers: This setting usually has no manifest cyphers.

Wound Treatment: The postapocalypse tends to be a realistic genre. Using treatment to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.

Currency: The currency underlying price categories in a postapocalypse setting is most likely barter. An especially organized and resource-rich group of survivors might develop scrip or something similar as usable currency within their own region of influence.

Background Options: Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.

Genre Abilities for Your Postapocalypse Character: At tier 3, your postapocalypse character gains a mid-tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities at the end of this chapter, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.

Postapocalypse Types

• Dealer
• Heavy
• Survivor
• Tender

Creating Postapocalypse Characters

Before choosing a type, create your core character, which (as a quick reminder) grants the following:

• 8 Might / 8 Speed / 8 Intellect
• 6 additional points to allocate in Might, Speed, and/or Intellect
• Capacity to take three minor / three moderate / three major wounds
• Effort: 1
• Cypher limit: 2
• Freely use light weapons
• Cannot freely use any armor
• Two genre skills
• One additional genre skill in exchange for an inability in a genre skill
• Starting equipment

Dealer

You make your way through civilization's ruins as best you know how, trading for supplies with your natural talent for bullshit. When things go south, you run away, or maybe plant a knife in your would-be trading partner's back. You have a way of connecting people to the things they want - or at least promising to do so - and folks sometimes call you a Fixer or Supplier. And though you might be moved to help others with their needs, if we're being honest, your own skin is your most important commodity.

You're adept at talking, so you're probably one of the people your band relies on to deal with strangers, allies, and potential foes for as long as words serve the situation. Others in your band also benefit from your trading prowess, such as it is. But when the situation turns ugly, you're ready to dance away from a double-cross, or maybe instigate the same yourself.

Background Options

• You raised a family before the apocalypse, but lost them in the interim. Now you're always looking for news about them despite the odds being stacked against their survival after all this time.
• You hid a stash of psychedelic drugs somewhere around here six months ago, but you forget where.
• The warlord you stabbed and left for dead a year ago is still alive, according to recent rumors.
• You got into a vehicle accident, and when you woke up from a coma months later, the apocalypse had happened. You're still not quite sure what caused it but are determined to find out one day.
• A few weeks ago you learned that one of the teenagers in the community is probably your child.
• The raider band that made camp nearby a month ago didn't attack your group because of your verbal skills.
• You managed a superstore before the apocalypse, but got separated from it. You believe that if you can get back to it, you'll be set up for decades.
• Last year you negotiated a deal that should've saved everyone, but you were double-crossed.

Dealer Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +1 to Might Pool
• Add +2 to Speed Pool
• Add +2 to Intellect Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use light and medium weapons
• Freely use light armor
• Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Sneak Attack (1 Speed): If you use a light weapon to attack a foe under one of the following conditions, your attack inflicts +5 damage. (This ability doesn't work with medium or heavy weapons.)

• You attack with surprise.
• An ally uses their action to ease your attack.
• Your foe's defenses are hindered due to some other ongoing direct distraction.
• Your foe is unable to take their next turn due to some disabling attack or situation.

First action.

When the Deal Bombs: There's always a risk that someone you deal with will try to turn on you. After successfully persuading, deceiving, interacting positively with, or successfully using Fast Talk or a similar ability on a creature, if they become hostile to you within a day or so, you automatically reduce the wound severity of their first successful attack against you by one step. At tier 3, instead of reducing the wound's severity, you ignore it completely (no damage). Enabler.

Heavy

War never changes - it only changes people like you who have to fight in it or, after the war is lost, battle for survival in a world broken by conflict. For you, the only way forward is to crush even potential enemies so quickly and violently that they'll never threaten you or that which you cherish again.

In an often violent postapocalyptic world, your allies appreciate your protection and, when necessary, your aggressive nature when you must force your way into a location that may contain the resources required to survive another day.

Background Options

• You lost your children in the apocalypse. Now your goal is to help and preserve children whenever you can.
• You recently learned that you have a condition that will require before-times medical care.
• You were new to the army when the apocalypse happened before dawn. Since then, you've been determined to survive to honor your friends and family who died while still asleep.
• Three weeks ago, your ex-spouse rose to a position of power in your community of survivors.
• You raised a mountain lion from cub to adult, but the creature went missing a few months ago.
• You were given a cocktail of drugs to fight in the war, but the war was what precipitated the apocalypse. Now you try to find any remnants of the generals behind it so you can end them.
• According to new rumors, a community to the west can still manufacture ammunition.
• Last month you and your allies successfully defeated one of the warlords ravaging the area.
• You have a scar on your head from a bullet wound and sometimes experience headaches and blackouts.

Heavy Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take three more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +2 to Might Pool
• Add +2 to Speed Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use all weapons
• Freely use all armor
• Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Combat Prowess: You add +1 damage to one type of weapon attack of your choice: melee weapon attacks or ranged weapon attacks. Enabler.

Desperate Feat: While you have at least one moderate or major wound, you add +1 Edge to the Pool of your choice. Enabler.

Expert Combatant: You are trained in a specific weapon attack of your choice, such as swords, axes, or bows; or in a broader category of attacks such as light bashing weapons, light bladed weapons, light ranged weapons, medium bashing weapons, medium bladed weapons, medium ranged weapons, and so on. At tier 2, you can choose to become specialized in the same attack method you chose at tier 1, but you must gain the skill normally. At tier 6, you can become an expert in a specific attack method (either the one you chose at tier 1 or another weapon skill you're already specialized in), but you must gain the skill normally. Enabler.

Survivor

You get by, but sometimes only just. Surviving means enduring situations that may seem unbearable. Sustaining yourself could mean you've had to harden your heart; with limited resources, even others who initially survived the apocalypse might have only put off the inevitable. But not you - you know how to find needful things among the remains of the past, you have the reflexes to avoid danger, and you have the flexibility required to prevail during the most difficult times.

You help your team survive, mainly through your expertise in scavenging for food, shelter, and useful things. You're also reasonably good in a fight, though running away (at least a little bit) from immediate danger always gives you an edge in what happens next, which could be to help an ally.

Background Options

• Your small-town life was placid until the apocalypse, but in the immediate aftermath, you were forced to make some horrifying decisions. Now you seek to atone.
• You were pressed into a raider gang until you were able to flee two months ago.
• You heard rumors of a refuge around here, but when you arrived recently, you found only bones.
• You survived the collapse holed up in a big-box store, but that's all gone because of a comrade's betrayal. Now, you hoard anything useful and find it hard to trust others.
• You emerged from a fallout shelter about a week ago when it ran out of resources.
• You were invited to join a community a few months ago, but you stole from them and fled the area instead.
• You were a before-times sheriff, but your decisions in the immediate aftermath of the disaster led to unnecessary deaths. Ashamed, you're driven to protect strangers to redeem your past failures.
• You kept a child alive for years, but they recently grew up and went their own way.

Survivor Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take three more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +1 to Might Pool
• Add +2 to Speed Pool
• Add +1 to Intellect Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use light and medium weapons
• Freely use light armor
• Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Despite My Wounds: While you have two or more moderate wounds or one major wound, you get a free reroll on one action each round (as if you had spent 1 XP). Enabler.

Enhanced Scavenging (2+ Intellect): When you roll to scavenge the postapocalyptic landscape for something useful and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) Your enhanced effect persists until you take a ten-minute or longer recovery. Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3. At tier 3, the minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12. Enabler.

Get Out: If you move at least an immediate distance away from the most obvious threat or toward what promises to offer safety, one task you attempt next round is eased. Enabler.

Tender

Even under the worst possible circumstances, you usually feel that your life - whatever remains of it - is best lived in service to others. Depending on how you tend to others' needs, they might know you as a Sage, Doctor, Responder, or Minister. But names don't matter. You just want to help others survive, heal their hurts, and, if nothing else can be done for them, see that their ends are humane and painless.

Everyone probably welcomes your presence, or at least your skills, especially those in your group. Without your care and knowledge, their lives could come to a brutal, painful end. If conflict kicks off, you can handle a weapon, but you prefer trying to counteract the threat so you and your allies aren't hurt in the first place.

Background Options

• You watched your family succumb to radiation sickness. You now scavenge relentlessly for before-times knowledge, determined that no one else should suffer a similar fate if you can help it.
• You saved a family from a virulent sickness a few months ago, and they still regularly thank you.
• You relied on a rare medicine to tend to many of your patients; a few weeks ago you used it up.
• A medical student before the apocalypse, you were ill-prepared to care for others when the bombs fell - you had to abandon countless dying strangers. You've found that icy dispassion hard to break free of and still rarely help those you don't know or trust.
• You were part of a survivor community until it was destroyed by advancing radiation a year ago.
• According to dealers that wander through occasionally, a working hospital operates nearby.
• In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, you were nursed back to health by a nameless wanderer who vanished afterward. You now feel obligated to pay that kindness forward, healing others as you were helped.
• Bad luck and a bad reaction caused a friend you were treating to die a few months ago.

Tender Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +1 to Might Pool
• Add +1 to Speed Pool
• Add +2 to Intellect Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use light and medium weapons
• Freely use light armor
• Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Foil Danger (2 Intellect): If you are aware of a danger within immediate distance and succeed on an Intellect roll against its level, you negate that danger for one round. For instance, the danger could be a feature of the landscape like a mud or acid pit, a trap triggered by a wire, or a creature's natural ability (like a snake's venom or a radiation blast from a glowing roach). It could even be a foe's mundane attack or action (such as a weapon attack or their attempt to flip a switch), in which case this ability means they can't take that action on their next turn. Action.

Inspiring Suggestion (2 Intellect): By making a helpful suggestion to an ally, they have a better chance of succeeding at what they're doing. Choose an ally who can see and understand you, then suggest a specific action for them to take, such as "attack the leader" or "climb the wall." If the ally chooses to take that exact action, they gain two assets on that task. First action.

Wasteland Healer (2+ Intellect): With access to a scavenged doctor's bag (or similar equipment), you can use treatment in half the normal amount of time or treat twice as many wounds for one character in the normal time. Enabler.