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View Full Version : deadEarth - A Post-Apocalyptic Let's Play. (Almost)



Wraith
2013-03-30, 06:46 PM
The year is 2023, only nine years after it all began. Just over eight billion people died in the holocaust or in the nine years since. There are only a few hundred million people still known to be alive. That may sound like a lot, but it is not. You can travel for weeks at a time and not see another person or any sign of post war civilization.

In 2014, the largest world war ever almost wiped out Earth's human population. What everyone thought couldn't happen, happened. Somewhere in the Caribbean, a warhead was launched at Moscow. Russia responded with massive retaliation. When the U.S. saw that Russia had launched, they fired on Russia and other strategic targets.
The war was quite possibly the shortest in history, lasting only an hour or so. Even so, within hours the radiation enveloped the globe, devastating more than ninety-five percent of the world's population.

Information Age people have been unwillingly thrust back into the Dark Ages. If you think acid rain was bad, wait 'til you encounter fallout rain. If you thought smog was bad, you can't even see the sun through the dust cloud in the sky. You are now a part of this world whether you wanted to be or not. You must try to survive any way you can. If starvation or the cold of night don't kill you, your friend surely will, for the scrap of food that you found or the weapon that you carry. Whichever way you go, and whatever you decide to do, whether it be to conquer the world or just find your way to a place you can call home, be sure to remember one thing: trust no one.
Every morning when you wake, you will see the same thing: gray skies, incinerated remains, and deadEarth. You will wonder if you will ever see the sun again. You will wish that you could wake up from this nightmare.

deadEarth was published in 1994 and republished in 2002, both times to capitalize upon the fame and fortune that was fulled by the original FallOut and then the re-surged FallOut Tactics. The sort of "aim for the moon and if you miss you'll still land among the stars" mentality that has on occasion birthed some truly great franchises in their own right.

deadEarth is not one of those franchises.
It's badly written, poorly organised and full of contradictive and downright oblivious mistakes, even in the early stretches of character creation. deadEarth is the game that, were it's creators to aim for the moon, they would instead have ricochet'd off a passing satellite and careened wildly into the sun. :smallamused:

And even that, to the right sort of person, can be amusing. Few things are as satisfying as stopping to watch the flames after a really good crash. And deadEarth's character creation process is one hell of a good crash.
Let me put it bluntly; character creation involves rolling everything at random, three times, to give you three characters to choose from.... So that you might have one at the end who a) survives and b) is vaguely playable.

Oh, yes. deadEarth's big claim to fame is that there is a reasonable chance that you might not survive long enough to play it. You have an freakishly high chance of dying during character creation, and it's never quite clear as to what happens if all three of your 'toons end up unviable. Presumably you have to roll another 3 characters, but as written you might just have to sit and watch everyone else play.....

That can't be right, can it? Having heard the stories - nay, the legends - of this game, I thought I'd give it a try for myself and see just how bad it can get.

I'm using some Random Dice Roller (http://www.roll-dice-online.com/) that Google provided for me, and the rules are (legally) free to read at Scribd.com (http://www.scribd.com/doc/19872961/DeadEarth-Players-Handbook-Illustrated?in_collection=2331557). Feel free to join in.

Right, to begin. deadEarth has three major stats. The first is Moves, which is how many actions I can take per round in combat and how fast I can run in Miles-Per-Hour.

A nice simple 2d6 - I roll a nice, middle-of-the-road 8.

Next is Resiliency, which determines how much damage I can take before I explode into chunky salsa. d6 +3 gets me 7, which is pretty good.

The last stat is Strength, which starts at 0 and increases according to my skills and randomly generated 'perks', which are known as Radiations. For the record, 3 is considered "Arnold Schwarzenegger at his Hollywood peak" and 5 is "Super Human".

What happens next is Age, rolled on a percentile. Generally, older people are slower and weaker, but they get a bonus to their skill points. More importantly, older characters have more Radiations than younger ones - Radiations are randomly determined 'perks' that are ultimately responsible for breaking and killing characters, or - if you're incredibly lucky, turn you into a Godlike super-being; there's a d1000 table in the book, and they are full of all sorts of fun and wonderful things, from growing additional limbs and having precarious heart defects to sci-fi symbiotic growths and gender dysmorphia.
And worse.

I first roll 12: roll again, add 50 skills points.
Then, 58; which, apparently, is decrepit. That gives me -9 Moves, -5 Strength and -7 Resiliency, on top of 1130+d6x10 Skill Points and 4d6 Radiations.

....Oh, god.
I'm 4 rolls into the game, and I'm crippled. I have a strength of -5, which gives me a maximum carrying weight of (30+[strengthx10]=) Negative 20 pounds. I can almost wear clothes and walk around at normal speed.

....We.... we can probably resolve that with skills, right? We'll keep going and see what happens.

Next, height: 48+6d6 gets me 26, so I'm 6' 2" tall. This lets me work out my weight, for which I roll 5d6 and then consult a chart. So, 74 inches crossed by *rolls* 16 gets me....

....Umm....

....The appropriate modifier doesn't exist. Table C1 - the same one that told me how old I am - should tell me how much I weigh, and it's blank.

deadEarth : 2 - 0 : My Character.

After a bit of research, Google tells me that my modifier should apparently be either x2 or x3 my height, so I'll go with the former and hope for the best. I'm 74" tall and I weigh 148lbs, which gives me +2 Moves, -1 Resilience and -1 Strength. Hmm. I can now only carry Negative 30 pounds in weight.

I also have -1 Resiliency. I think I read something about this.....


If your resiliency is ever permanently reduced to zero or less, you will have a 33% chance of death every day from common bacteria and viruses. Your body will no longer have the ability to fight off infection, and just about everything will be able to kill you.

.....Yeah, I should probably do something about that.
Luckily, I can now choose to add 1d6 to one of my stats, or 2d6x10 to my Skill Points pool as a freebie before I start buying skills. I'm going to add it to my Strength, hoping that I can buy enough skills to then bring that and Resiliency out of the Negatives. I roll a 5, which brings me to my current totals:

Moves: 8 - 9 + 2 = +1
Resiliency: 7 - 7 - 1 = -1
Strength: 0 -5 - 1 + 5 = -1

Let's see if my Skills can help me.

Character skills begin by rolling 2d6 for each of our skills; any that come up '12' become Natural Abilities, which mean dice using those skills explode more easily, and any that are rolled as '2' become Natural Inabilities, which are much harder to explode. Seems easy enough.

....There are NINETY-EIGHT SKILLS to roll for. What the hell, man!?

*grumble* Fine, here goes; 2d6 rolled ninety-eight times. And we're doing this for fun, remember?

Natural Abilities:
#11 - Brawling
#56 - Mechanics
#84 - Weapon Smithing

Natural Inabilities:
#8 - Bemuse
#67 - Reason

So, I'm looking at a guy who is good with his hands, but not much for conversation. Which'd be really good, if he were capable of lifting a screwdriver. Or even his own fists.
I'm going to try to fix that with skills; they're bought one d6 at a time, so if I have two rank in a skill I roll 2d6 for tests, and so on. Buying Rank 1 costs 10 skill points, 2 costs another 10, 3 costs 10, 4 costs 20, 5 costs 30 and then so on.
A lot of skills also have pre-requisites of another skill at an 'advanced' level - 4d6. So, if I want to buy any dice in, let's say, Beast Handling, it's pre-requisite is Beast Lore which'd have to be at 4d6.
In other words, I have to spend 50 points before I can buy 1 dice of Beast Handling.... And some skills - like 'Robot Engineering' - have up to ELEVEN pre-req skills. That's 550 Skill points in pre-req skills (some of which have pre-reqs of their own!) before you can put a single point into building robots.
I'm not going to try building any robots, I think.

Go back up to my Age roll - I have 1130+50+ (d6x10=30) = 1210 points to spend.

I'll spare the details, but sufficed to say I'm going to buy up plenty of ranks in my Natural Abilities, and also Weightlifting, Running and Boxing as at high ranks they add dice to appropriate stats.

By the end it, I'm looking like this:

Moves: +5
Resiliency: 0
Strength: +3

Armour Penetration 4d6
Boxing .................6d6
+ Brawling ............6d6
Chemistry .............4d6
Construction .........4d6
Drive Automobile ....4d6
Math ...................4d6
+ Mechanics .........4d6
Metallurgy ............4d6
Physics ................4d6
Running ................6d6
Senses .................4d6
Smithing ...............4d6
+ Weapon Smithing .4d6
Weight Training ......6d6
Wrestling ..............6d6
WS Rifle ...............6d6

Skill points left over: 80 (I can use these to buy more Radiations or make final tweaks to my skills when all is said and done).

That's a pretty eclectic list of skills, and even with that lot and their pre-reqs I STILL have a 33% chance of dying in my first session of play even before a fight breaks out. I find myself in the fairly pathetic position of hoping that my Radiations are going to save me. Speaking of which....

I have 4d6 Radiations to roll for. These are, as I said earlier, 'perks' that assign random traits to my character - there's about an equal number of beneficial and disadvantageous, and the important thing is that I must roll for, record, and apply them in order as some Radiations can go back and alter ones that I've already rolled for previously.

4d6 = 10 rolls of a d1000. Let's do this.

(1) 308: Sense of Direction - 'Sense of Direction' is now a Natural Ability. Effect: Binary (It only applies once, as opposed to Cumulatively)

A first candidate for my spare skill points. At least, it would be if 'Sense of Direction' were a skill available to buy - presumably it's an extension of the 'Senses' skill, but I had to pretty much make that up for myself....

(2) 603: Ignition - You can light flammable materials with the power of your mind. Cost: 3 skill points. Range: 20ft. Effect: Binary.

...That's actually pretty cool. This game doesn't seem so bad at all, maybe I was misinformed.

(3) 038: Torment - You can use your guile to drive someone to distraction. If you make a successful guile roll (against your opponent's reason), you can cause someone to be distracted for the rest of the day. This distraction may be an obsession about their clothing, personal appearance, what someone thinks of them, etc. Distraction causes a temporary natural inability to all skills, and a -10 to initiative.

Okay, so now I need to go back and buy Guile. One more memo to bare in mind for later.

(4) 876: Counterfeit - +D6 to guile and outright lie. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: cumulative.

Well, alright!

(5) 501: Elementary Deductions - Add 2D6 to investigate. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: binary.

(6) 831: Subtle - Gain an extra skill point every time you roll influence or interrogate. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: cumulative.

You get 1 skill point - which, basically, is the same thing as XP - whenever I make a check against one of my skills. In other words; double XP for making skill checks. For skills that I haven't bought, mind, but double XP none-the-less. Two more for the list.....

(7) 199: Eunuch - You are now genderless. You have no sexual preference or sexual organs. The groin is no longer a 'double-stun' area. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: binary.

......WHAT?

(8) 323: Insurance - You may spend 10 skill points to add one point to your resiliency reserve. This ability will not add any permanent resiliency, it will simply be a reserve to instantly replenish your resiliency. Cost: 10 skill points. Range: self. Effect: binary.

So I can spend 10xp per day to temporarily avert my save-or-die vs. the common cold roll. Eeehh....

(9) 322: Imminent Death - Count the number of radiations on your list (as of now, 9) and roll percentiles. If you do not roll above the number of radiations in your list, you die. From now on, every time you add a radiation to your list, you must roll percentiles above the number of radiations on your list or you will die. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: cumulative.

Well, this is more like it. I was beginning to think that deadEarth had let me down, but no - I have three save-or-die rolls to make before I even introduce myself to another player. And notice that this Radiation is cumulative - I could potentially roll it again, and have to make TWO save-or-die tests every time I gain a Radiation.

I roll a 43, at least. Nearly there!

(10) 001: Seven cardinal virtues - Gain all of the cardinal virtues. Add (997) faith, (902) hope, (830) charity, (755) justice, (701) fortitude, (099) prudence, and (016) temperance to your list of radiation manipulations. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: permanent.

Oh Christ, why did I say that? So close to the finish line, and I gain 7 more Radiations. Each with Save-or-Die implications. Wish me luck....

Save-or-die: 40 (vs. DC 10)

(10a) 997: Faith - Your belief in a higher power will keep you safe. Remember to say your prayers. Add (271) spirit guide to your list of radiations. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: permanent.

CRAP.

Save-or-die: 22 (vs. DC 11)

(10aa) 271: Spirit guide - You have a little guy on your shoulder telling you what to do and where to go. Lucky for you he knows what he is doing. If anything bad is going to happen to something in your group, the game master will make sure it happens to you last. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: binary.

Save-or-die: 70 (vs. DC 12)

(10b) 902: Hope - As long as you maintain hope you shall never fail. You may double any of your rolls twice per gaming session if it will help someone beside yourself. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: permanent.

Save-or-die: 99 (vs. DC 13)

(10c) 830: Charity - That which you give will come back upon you tenfold. (Well not literally.) For each 10 dollars you give to someone less fortunate than you, gain one skill point. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: permanent.

Save-or-die: 7 (vs. DC 14)

......Well.

......S***.

One down, two more to go, I guess. If you guys want to see it, of course? :smallwink:

Final tally, for those who might want to see a character sheet:
Height: 74"
Weight: 148lbs
Age: 58 years


Moves: +5
Resiliency: 0
Strength: +3

Armour Penetration.....4d6
Boxing.....................6d6
+ Brawling.................6d6
Chemistry.................4d6
Construction.............4d6
Drive Automobile........4d6
Guile........................1d6
Investigate...............2d6
Math.......................4d6
+ Mechanics.............4d6
Metallurgy...............4d6
Outright Lie .............1d6
Physics...................4d6
Running...................6d6
Senses...................4d6
+ Sense of Direction...0d6
Smithing..................4d6
+ Weapon Smithing....4d6

Radiations:
Sense of Direction
Ignition
Torment
Counterfeit
Elementary Deductions
Subtle
Eunuch
Insurance
Imminent Death
Seven Cardinal Virtues
- Faith
-- Spirit Guide
- Hope
- Charity

DECEASED

TuggyNE
2013-03-30, 07:09 PM
I love deadEarth.

By which I mean "I love watching people futilely try to roll up characters in deadEarth and record their experiences in an amusing way." :smallbiggrin:

Deffers
2013-03-30, 10:37 PM
I, too, love deadEarth.

It's like... what if FATAL had a good twin? With, like, a nega-goatee made of sheer positive energy and laughter? That, hilariously, TRIES to spare you from the agony of playing it, and if you fail to die, gives you a character that's so ludicrously broken the game turns into a farce? deadEarth answered that question.

Anybody ever seen that thread on some other roleplaying forum where one of the characters rolled was an electric-blue midget that could travel at either the speed of a car or the speed of sound? Or the perpetually naked, obese ninja that was incorporeal in daylight?

Arbane
2013-03-30, 11:30 PM
Anybody ever seen that thread on some other roleplaying forum where one of the characters rolled was an electric-blue midget that could travel at either the speed of a car or the speed of sound? Or the perpetually naked, obese ninja that was incorporeal in daylight?

This one? (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/downloads-games/deadearth-resources/)
Edit: No, this one's got the midget, but no ninja. it's still all hilarious.

Rhynn
2013-03-31, 12:41 AM
The year is 2023, only nine years after it all began.
...
More importantly, older characters have more Radiations than younger ones

Well this just makes perfect sen*head asplode*

TuggyNE
2013-03-31, 01:14 AM
Well this just makes perfect sen*head asplode*

Yeah, that little gem is perfect cognitive dissonance. Fridge Logic ALL the things! Except in reverse.

Wraith
2013-03-31, 07:22 AM
I think it's vaguely implied that those who were alive on Judgement Day all received a massive dose from the original bombs, whereas everyone born afterwards just gets the background fallout from food, water, air, etc.

....That you don't start receiving Radiations until age 21 is another matter entirely. :smallconfused:

MBI
2013-03-31, 11:30 AM
Oh man, this game.
I bloody love deadEarth. Like, seriously. I started to actually like that system almost (But not quite) beyond the point of irony. To the point where I was getting ready to run a PbP on these forums before my laptop died.

The one thing more fun than rolling up characters is rolling up monsters for the players to encounter. I had some hilariously evil things planned. And then some just plain old hilarious things.

Also, it is possible to get trapped in an infinite loop in which you gain radiations faster than you can roll for them.

TuggyNE
2013-03-31, 05:37 PM
I think it's vaguely implied that those who were alive on Judgement Day all received a massive dose from the original bombs, whereas everyone born afterwards just gets the background fallout from food, water, air, etc.

Sure, but why would you be playing an eight-year-old (at most)? Anybody nine or over would have exactly as much radiation mutation (arguably, perhaps a bit more; I'm not an expert in the precise biology of radiation sickness) as anyone else nine or over. That's what having a disaster nine years ago means. :smalltongue:


Also, it is possible to get trapped in an infinite loop in which you gain radiations faster than you can roll for them.

That sounds awesome. And terrible. :smalleek:

Mewtarthio
2013-04-01, 01:22 AM
So, I checked out that link. First thing I notice is a guy pointing a gun at me exhorting me to Read or Die! So, what's this ultra-important first impression that that want to be absolutely certain everyone reading knows?


Your goal as a player of this game, a reader of the stories surrounding it, and a believer in its truths is to survive.

Wait, a believer in its truths? Is this some sort of cultist holy book? I eagerly await to see exactly how the mechanics support this philosophy, whatever it may be. The intro mostly has Philosophy 101 stuff in it--Nietzche quotes and the like--so maybe I'll have to reverse-engineer the philosophy.

More specific advice is directed towards the players:


Always use skill over cunning and brawn, no matter how devious and physically adept you may be.

There, you see, Wraith? That's your problem! You were using too much cunning and not enough skill! Perhaps, now that I've pointed it out to you, you'll have better luck with your second character.

GMs have their own section, as well:


Be creative in your campaigns and open-minded with your decisions. If a player has an idea, hear him/her out.

You know, that's surprisingly reasona--


If the player is wrong, s/he will die for it later.

Wait, what?


Remember that you alone control a player's surroundings; if a player steps out of line warn him/her. If the player does it again, treat him/her cruelly and without mercy. If the player persists, destroy him/her.

That? That is the exact opposite of open-mindedness.

Feddlefew
2013-04-01, 06:42 AM
(7) 199: Eunuch - You are now genderless. You have no sexual preference or sexual organs. The groin is no longer a 'double-stun' area. Cost: none. Range: self. Effect: binary.

......WHAT?
That's not how eunuchs work!
It was at this point I snorted hot tea with lemon all over my laptop. I hope your happy.

Wraith
2013-04-01, 01:45 PM
Also, it is possible to get trapped in an infinite loop in which you gain radiations faster than you can roll for them.

Sounds like the 'Symbiote' Radiation.
Basically, you pick up a semi-sentient brain-slug (well... you randomly determine where your Sybmiote attaches which - if you're really lucky - can be your heart, face or even your crotch....) that, whenever you gain a Radiation, *it* also gains a Radiation and applies it to you as well.

So, if you pick up a symbiote early and then roll something like 001: Seven Cardinal Virtues, all hell breaks lose. You gain 8 Radiations, which makes your Symbiote roll 8 more Radiations! And there are several Radiations that give you multiple extra effects, each of which applies to both of you..... :smalleek:

See also: Ian Jackson, the crotch-fungus GOD of deadEarth (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/downloads-games/deadearth-resources/). :smallbiggrin:


It was at this point I snorted hot tea with lemon all over my laptop. I hope you're happy.

I regret nothing. :smallbiggrin::smallwink:


There, you see, Wraith? That's your problem! You were using too much cunning and not enough skill! Perhaps, now that I've pointed it out to you, you'll have better luck with your second character.

Of course! All I needed was skill! All of my inherent, finely-honed skill... at.... rolling randomly on badly written tables...? :smallconfused::smalltongue:

================================================== ===

Okay, fine. Mewtarthio think he has cracked the subtle enigma of deadEarth character creation - use 'skill'. I'm not quite sure what this means, so I'm going to carry on with what has served me so well (?) up to now; making it up as I go along.

From now on, no more HTML dice roller. If we're gonna do this, we're doing it bareback with REAL dice rolled by my own fair hands (stop laughing!). I got skillz, they'll pay my post-apocalyptic billz..... Or something.

Okay, dice rolling for great justice. For the record, I'm rolling my dice across the cover of my much-beloved copy of Aberrant, a vastly superior game, in the hopes that proximity to greatness will rub off on deadEarth. Let's see....

2d6 = 7, d6+3= 7, d100 = 75. d100 again = 43

Moves = 7 (-3 due to Age)
Resiliency = 7 (-1 due to Age)
Strength = 0
Age = 43
Radiations = 3d6 (-d6 due to the first Age roll)
Skill points = (800+d6x10) = 820

Holy crap, that's virtually playable! I might survive this yet!

Height = (48+6d6) = 68", or a nice, normal 5' 8" if you don't want to work it out. :smalltongue:
Weight = 5d6 = 14 which means "buggered if I know, I still don't have the right table to work it out".

Well, last time 16 was Height x2, so I'll wing it and say it's probably the same. I weigh 136lbs, which gives me +2 Moves, no change to Resiliency and -1 Strength. Man, that's only one bracket down from my last victim poor character, this game really ramps up the penalties in pretty short order. Still, looking pretty good so far, and with my freebie +d6 to my strength (+4) I'm actually looking respectable:

Moves: +6
Resiliency: +6
Strength +3

WRAITH SMASH PUNY HUMANS!

.....Remember what I said about rolling everything 'for real'? And now we're at the Natural Ability/Natural Inability section?

Yeah, 'bout dat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFMP1TsdiJY). Screw that for a lark.

Natural Abilities:
Drive Cart
Drive Tracked
Electronics
Medical Doctor
Sense

Natural Inabilities:
Drive Sailcar (Seriously, this is a thing)
Resolve

So what I'm hearing, is that I can completely ignore my Inabilities and instead build CYBORGS. That's TOTALLY how Electronics and Medicine crosses over, and I don't care who says otherwise!

I've decided to give this guy a name - the last one was a mangled shadow of humanity before I got anywhere near him, but this guy? I like this guy, he has potential, so I'm going to give him something awesome to try and live for. Say 'hello' to Samuel D. Megatron, PhD!

The 'D,' stands for 'Danger', ladies. :smallwink:

....Apparently Cybernetic Engineering is a real in-game thing, and it has ELEVEN pre-requisite skills, which need to be 4d6 or higher (50 skills points each). FINE! If that's how it's gotta be, that's how it's gotta be. I remember how this goes, I'll be long dead before I need food or clothing or anything so why bother with skills for that, right? Besides, it's only 550 points, I have nearly 300 left over from that.

Biology - 4d6
Computer Operations - 4d6
Cybernetic Engineering - 4d6
+ Electronics - 4d6
Electronic Engineering - 4d6
First Aid - 4d6
Math -4d6
Mechanics - 4d6
Medic - 4d6
+ Medical Doctor - 4d6
Physics - 4d6
Robotics - 4d6
Robotics Engineering - 4d6
Sensors - 4d6

There's an unsurprisingly large knowledge of Robots that comes with Cybernetics, so I decide to do the logical thing that comes to mind; max out my "Drive Tracked" and "Vehicle Gunner" skills so that, once I have built my very own T-1 (http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Series_T1), I can climb aboard and ride astride it's head to glory like Attilla the Hun: 2000AD!

+ Drive Tracked - 4d6
Vehicle Gunner - 4d6

And, finally, 2d6 into handgun, so that when my infernal contraptions finally gain sentience and turn against me I have at least one clean, painless way of escape before The Reaping begins.

WS: Handgun - 2d6

Here he is, folks; Samuel D. Megatron. I hope you enjoy what you see...
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 136lbs. Probably.
Age: 43 years

Moves: +6
Resiliency: +6
Strength [U]+3
Skill Points: 0

Biology - 4d6
Computer Operations - 4d6
Cybernetic Engineering - 4d6
- Drive Sailcar - 0d6
+ Drive Tracked - 4d6
+ Electronics - 4d6
Electronic Engineering - 4d6
First Aid - 4d6
Math -4d6
Mechanics - 4d6
Medic - 4d6
+ Medical Doctor - 4d6
Physics - 4d6
- Resolve - 0d6
Robotics - 4d6
Robotics Engineering - 4d6
Sensors - 4d6
Vehicle Gunner - 4d6
WS: Handgun - 2d6

....Because it's the last time you're going to see him intact. Bring on the Radiations!

3d6 minus d6 nets me a grand total of.... 16 minus 6. Ouchee.....

[01] 964 Adjunct - Record the name of the next player you come into contact with. Each time that player raises a skill, you gain skill points equal to the level of the new skill (4 skill points for 4D6). (Cumulative)

HOLY CRAP THAT'S AWESOME! Free XP while some other sucker does all the work! This is especially handy right at the beginning of the game, because some Radiations allow you and your friends to steal skills off each other when you first meet, so potentially a big ol' boost from the get go!

[02] 116 Catlike Prowess - Falling great distances will no longer harm you. You may fall up to a hundred feet without taking damage.

I can also lick certain things that you wouldn't expect, but that's digressing away from the game at hand....

[03] 593 Sympathy: Your expression of pain is so acute that even your enemies are sorry. If you take damage, everyone near you must beat above an average resolve roll or subtract a D6 from all rolls while you are near and injured.

'Average' is considered DC15, for the record, and an 'advanced' skill is taken on 4d6, so it's not an easy check by any means.
And it's cumulative! Shoot me twice and EVERYONE within 20ft gets gimped but me and my Robot Minions! Bwahahaha!

[04] 973 Carcinogenic: You can cause cancer in all living things you physically touch. It will fester in 2D6 days and persist until death. (Cost: 10 hit points) (Range: touch)

So I can cause myself 10hp, inflict freaking cancer on the poor schmuck stood nearby, and THEN everyone else is hobbled because I sting a little? You won't believe how long I've been waiting to link this to something appropriate. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWlKvYNoEg)

[05] 581 Baffle - Bemuse is now a natural ability.

[06] 107 Stink - You have the worst body odor that anyone has ever produced.

Pfeh! Whatever! My robo-babies still love me!

[07] 550 Hump: Never go thirsty again. You can store up to one gallon of water in your body for later use.

*Snrk!*

.....

....Fine, I admit it; My first robo-baby shall be named 'Esmerelda'. And then the next two shall both be 'Belle'. You don't get any cookies for the reference.

[08] 649 Contagion: Add (111) Insane to your radiation list. Any person you come into contact with has a 25% chance of also gaining the radiation: (111) Insane.

[08a] 111 Insane: The normal rules of society and morality simply do not apply to you. Good versus evil, courtesy versus impolite, it is all the same to you.

Well, damn. Now I'm actually a little sorry that I used my link too soon! I might have to use my back-up instead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8oL_e2BmaD4#t=95s)....

[09] 348 Pestilence: You have the ability to project a sort of short term plague. Everyone within 15 feet of you (including you) will take D6 damage per round to a random part of their body for 2D6 rounds. Resiliency will not protect against this attack. (Cost: 15 skill points)

WHAT. THE. HELL. Starting characters have, like, 10 hit points per location. MAXIMUM. Not including Critical Locations like the Head (4hp) Neck (3hp) and Heart/Groin (2hp).
And I gain free Skill Points for watching everyone else work.
And because I'm taking damage, I basically gimp everyone who survives by 2d6 d6's to boot.
FEAR ME, FOR I AM BECOME DEATH, etc, etc.

Okay, last one; you can do it, D-my-man! Don't screw it up now!

[10] 353 Bald: All the hair on your body falls out due to radiation.

F*** YEAH! I'LL TAKE THAT! I'LL TAKE THAT!

I just won deadEarth, baby!

Character Sheet: Samuel D. Megatron, PhD.
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 136lbs. Probably.
Age: 43 years

Moves: +6
Resiliency: +6
Strength: +3
Skill Points: 0

+ Baffle - 0d6
Biology - 4d6
Computer Operations - 4d6
Cybernetic Engineering - 4d6
- Drive Sailcar - 0d6
+ Drive Tracked - 4d6
+ Electronics - 4d6
Electronic Engineering - 4d6
First Aid - 4d6
Math -4d6
Mechanics - 4d6
Medic - 4d6
+ Medical Doctor - 4d6
Physics - 4d6
- Resolve - 0d6
Robotics - 4d6
Robotics Engineering - 4d6
Sensors - 4d6
Vehicle Gunner - 4d6
WS: Handgun - 2d6

Radiations:
+ 964 Adjunct
+ 116 Catlike Prowess
+ 593 Sympathy
+ 973 Carcinogenic
+ 581 Baffle
+ 107 Stink
+ 550 Hump
+ 649 Contagion
++ 111 Insane
+ 348 Pestilence
+ 353 Bald

WRAITH WINS.
FLAWLESS.
VICTORY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0vhGEGJC8g).

Mewtarthio, hat's off to you sir; you were exactly right in how I should approach this game. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're a crazy with weird dress sense! :smallbiggrin:

Jacob.Tyr
2013-04-01, 01:55 PM
If every character turned out half that badass I would play this game so much... unfortunately I think your first character is more typical.

Deffers
2013-04-01, 02:40 PM
...I don't know, man. If you re-weighted the tables to make THAT happen often? I don't think I'd play anything else.

It's like Gamma World decided to go to Las Vegas with Raoul Duke.

Wraith
2013-04-01, 02:51 PM
It's not so much a matter of weighting the tables as it is pure luck. I uniquely seem to have rolled good or otherwise unimportant Radiations, but no matter how much you tinker and play, I had just as much chance of rolling:


020 Decapitation – Radiation blows your head off. Take 10d6 damage to the head.

Total Hit Points in the head (which is a Critical Hit area, and as such there's no grace period - lose these hits and you're just outright dead): 4. :smalltongue:

Deffers
2013-04-01, 02:54 PM
Hrm. Then maybe take off all the insta-kill effects and put them on a different table, then?

SowZ
2013-04-01, 03:58 PM
So I was rolling up a character and one of my mutations said I could remove all my mutations at a 50% chance of death. I figured I wouldn't do it until I hit one that said re-roll your entire character... So I tried to get rid of all my mutations and died. What a dumb mutation. Chargen taking too long? Why not sttttaaaaart over. Hehehe this game is ridiculous.

EDIT: Ooooh, character number two is looking niiiiice.

MOVES: 13
Resilience: 7
Strength: -1 (Because of Str. Training)
Money: 1,300

Special:
-Wolverine claws, (take one damage per hand to get +1d6 to melee attacks.)
-Spirit Guide, (he tells me when anything bad is about to happen to me and floats next to my shoulder. CRAZY good.)
-once per day, add 3d6 to a roll,
+1d6 to resolve and jury rig rolls
-Life Bond: I pick a person. If they die, I die in their place. OUCH! I guess I'll pick someone in the party with the best character...
-Humiliation: I can spend 40 SP one time to steal reknown from someone I beat in a fight. Handy. I'll save up my first 40SP for this for sure.

Skills at 3d6: Acrobat, Demolitions, First Aid, Search, Hide, Stealth, Mechanics, Armor Penetration, Drive Recreational
4d6: Math, Chemistry, Construction, Electronics, Physics, Armor Repair, Senses, Smithing, Metallurgy
5d6: Weapon Skill Rifle

With my advanced knowledge of construction and reasonable stealth skills, I bet I could blow up a building with one or two well placed bombs. Not to mention good climbing and the ability to maintain my own motorcycle and gear? As well as my eagle eyes and ears? Top it off with a great shot with a rifle and ability to ignore armor and I think I am a very competent assassin at the age of 30.

I'd like to grab a point of brawl next to take better advantage of my claws.

EDIT the second: Wait wait wait. I thought skills started at 2d6? That is what the book made it sound like.

Doorhandle
2013-04-01, 06:55 PM
It's not so much a matter of weighting the tables as it is pure luck. I uniquely seem to have rolled good or otherwise unimportant Radiations, but no matter how much you tinker and play, I had just as much chance of rolling:



Total Hit Points in the head (which is a Critical Hit area, and as such there's no grace period - lose these hits and you're just outright dead): 4. :smalltongue:

Honestly, I think what little of the game their is could be vastly improved by allowing you to play as a radiation zombie/ghoul if you die in character creation.

...Or perhaps gain a spontaneous cybernetic replacement...

Arbane
2013-04-01, 07:15 PM
Honestly, I think what little of the game their is could be vastly improved by allowing you to play as a radiation zombie/ghoul if you die in character creation.

...Or perhaps gain a spontaneous cybernetic replacement...

A prosthetic _head_? :smallamused:

Wraith
2013-04-01, 07:16 PM
EDIT the second: Wait wait wait. I thought skills started at 2d6? That is what the book made it sound like.

You know, I honestly don't know - I don't think that there's anywhere in the book that just straight up says, "all your skills start at 2d6". The example given in the buying up skills section is from 2d6 to 3d6, sure, but it's still not very clear whether this is deliberate or just an off-hand example.

As such, I've been using the Advancing Skills section and hoping for the best. It doesn't make much of a difference - 20 points per skill will ultimately get me one or two more decent skills at most - but at least it's there, in black and white, on how to buy up from 0d6. :smallconfused:

SowZ
2013-04-01, 07:34 PM
You know, I honestly don't know - I don't think that there's anywhere in the book that just straight up says, "all your skills start at 2d6". The example given in the buying up skills section is from 2d6 to 3d6, sure, but it's still not very clear whether this is deliberate or just an off-hand example.

As such, I've been using the Advancing Skills section and hoping for the best. It doesn't make much of a difference - 20 points per skill will ultimately get me one or two more decent skills at most - but at least it's there, in black and white, on how to buy up from 0d6. :smallconfused:

But that would mean that until you buy a skill, you get an automatic 0 on it? So if you don't have Weapon Skill, pistol, you literally cannot pick up and fire a pistol as if it is some kind of MMO. Plus, it says the cost doubles each time. Does it progress linearly until 2d6 and THEN start doubling?

I'm not saying I disagree with you, just that it is confusing. Personally, I think starting at 2d6 makes a lot more sense anyway since then you have at least a decent chance of succeeding an easy roll for standard actions. As a GM, I might rule that you can't make rolls, even at the standard of 2d6 if that is in fact the standard which is unclear, that require pre-reqs. (Unless you have the pre-req already.) Kind of like skills that can't be used untrained in D&D.

Also, I didn't see where it says the free D6 can apply to Strength. It can apply to Moves and Weight and such, certainly. I didn't see Strength, though it might say it somewhere I don't know.

Rhynn
2013-04-01, 09:54 PM
...I don't know, man. If you re-weighted the tables to make THAT happen often? I don't think I'd play anything else.

The game is a hideous, unplayable mess of stupidity completely apart from the chargen, and the editing is so bad it's less readable than the hypercube website.

There's no table for the weight multipliers. For some reason, 175 lbs. is underweight for 70" tall (that's 178 cm and 79 kg, BMI 25.1) and gets a strength penalty. The weapon table does not have damages for weapons. And so on.

Just play Gamma World, that's what this is imitating anyway.

This is the worst-written RPG there is. Not counting RPGs that are just offensive (F.A.T.A.L., Racial Holy War), I think this is the worst RPG overall.

Deffers
2013-04-01, 10:03 PM
I wouldn't say so. There WAS that one crappy RPG that had you roll randomly for all the crap, and then it was also boring, but some races got, like anti-matter rocket launchers as a racial class feature while others got strength penalties? At least this one's consistently funny.

This is terrible, yeah, but the chargen is a single glittering diamond. I'd like to build a whole system AROUND the chargen.

MBI
2013-04-01, 10:45 PM
When I run this game, I shall run it the only sane way in terms of skills.
All skills start at 2D6, even those which require prerequisites. I believe this is the way that was intended, since every other way makes no sense at all.



Snip!

Nononononono! You're doing it all wrong! Raising a skill to 4D6 costs 30 skill points and strength isn't on the list of freebies! Besides, you need to take a -1 penalty to either Strength, Resilience or Moves for every year past the age of 40!

Unfortunately, I have already made three characters in the past, so I will not be able to show you the correct way to make a character. Well, that is unless I use the POWER OF HOMEBREW to remove the three character limit!

Lets do this!

To begin with, I roll 2d6 (5) moves and 1d6+3 (5) resiliency. I have a strength of 1 and not 0, due to every character starting with 2d6 in Weight Training. I also gain +1 Moves due to having 2d6 Running.

I roll a d100 for my age and get a 94, which gives me... Holy moly! Plus 1D6 (4) to an attribute to my choice and roll again!

Hmm... a 66. Add 1d6 (2) radiations and roll again. Well, it's only two. I can work with this.

I roll once more, which gives me 51. Ouch. -11 from my attributes. I also get 1130+d6*10 (1190) skill points, -3 strength, -5 resiliency, -7 moves and 4d6 (15 (+2)) radiations. Suddenly, I'm feeling less confident.

For my height, I roll 48+6d6 which gets me 72.
As for weight, I happen to know that the correct formula to for weight use is (5d6*height)/5. This gets me 144 pounds. (Plus 1 moves and resilency.)

At this point, I have -1 Moves, -2 strength and 0 resilency. I think I will use my freebie to subtract 1d6 (1) from age, increasing all my attributes by 2. This also forces me to reroll my number of radiations, and my skill points.
I now have 7 (+2) radiations and 1020 skill points. Huzzah! I'll toss my extra +4 into strength, because that's bloody impossible to raise.

Now for the 100 2d6's! Oh boy...

I've got natural talent in Influence and Drive Plane, and Natural Inabilities in Drive Heavy Machinery, Drive Tracked and WS Balista. I'm thinking that this character will be an old pilot type of guy.

The rules state that I may spend skill points at any time. I shall reserve spending my skill points until after I roll my 9 radiations.
Speaking of radiations...

447 Cruel demise.
Add (322) Imminent Death to your radiation list. Subtract 10 from each roll you make for this radiation.

322 Imminent death.
Count the number of radiations on your list and roll percentiles. If you do not roll above the number of radiations in your list, you die. From now on, every time you add a radiation to your list, you must roll percentiles above the number of radiations on your list or you will die.

Well. Crap. So far, this is two radiations, so it's DC 13...
UNLESS... "Subtract 10 from each roll you make for this radiation."
By the wording of that, I would be subtracting 10 from each roll I make for Cruel Demise, and not for each roll I make for Imminent Death. Since I don't roll anything for Cruel Demise, it has no effect other than to add 322 to my list!

So, DC 3: (66)

Next!

872 Buoyant.
+2D6 to swimming.
(DC4: 69)
Sweet!

306 Narcoleptic.
Everyone deals with intense situations differently, you happen to deal with them by falling asleep. Roll a D6 every time you enter an intense situation. If you roll a one or a six, you will fall asleep.
(DC5:87)

Not so sweet. :smallfrown:

742 Rite of precedence.
You may choose which radiation(s) on your list takes precedence. Changing precedence may be done at any time for 10 skill points. Having more than one radiation precedent at the same time doubles the cost. For example, to make two radiations precedent costs 20 skill points, and three costs 40 skill points; then to change any one of the three costs 40 skill points. At the time you get rite of precedence, no radiations are precedent. Rite of precedence is always active, even if not precedent.
(DC6:25)

Well, this almost makes sense. Almost. I'll just ignore this one, since it's amazingly situational.

516 Halfhearted attempt.
Subtract one renown.
(DC7:37)
Meh. I've mutated into a less famous person.

302 Attention deficit.
You can't concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds. There is a 30% chance that you will fail at any attempt to advance skills. If you fail you must still spend the skill points.
(DC8:49)

Bloody hell! I wish I spent my skill points when I had the chance...

797 Misdiagnosis.
Choose a random radiation from your list and reroll it on the table. If a permanent is chosen, choose another.
(DC9:56)

Oh, sweet! This could be my chance! Aaaand I roll... Cruel Demise. The Radiation which I ruled did nothing at all. I've essentially just added another radiation.

It became:
700 Gluttony.
You eat, sleep, masturbate, etc. all too much. Add D6 x 10 (40) to your weight, subtract 2 moves and 2 strength, and add (675) degradation, (461) resurgence, and (298) disgust to your list of radiations.
(DC9:35)

298 Disgust.
The next time you see yourself in any kind of reflection, you will be disgusted with the way you look and kill yourself.
(DC10:15)

461 Resurgence.
For each cumulative radiation on your list, add another to your list of the same type.
(DC11:58)

675 Degradation.
Every D6 weeks your highest level skill will be reduced by D6, permanently.
(DC12:28)

And Resurgence gets me another Halfhearted Attempt, and a Second Imminent Death. Perfect.
(DC13: 63
DC14: 40,51)

It is at this point I realise I've had my height and weight bonus wrong this entire time. Gluttony has correctly this mistake, however, by making my character useless.

642 Aria of the banshee.
You may call upon the voice of a banshee to destroy your enemies. The evil scream will cause an aneurysm in the head of anyone who can hear it. All victims will suffer 4 points of damage to the head.
Cost: 40 skill points.
(DC15:82,93)
Well, this is slightly awesome.

And finally:

177 Life tap.
Steal a hit point from someone else.
Cost: 12 skillpoints. Range: Touch.
(DC16:96,82)

Whew.

Now, I shall spend my skill points.
I put 30 skill points in Senses to raise it to 4, 100 skill points to repeatedly fail at raising Intuition to 4, 30 to raise Reason to 4, then 680 skill points to repeatedly fail on the way to raising Bemuse to 6. I have 180 skill points left.

Perfect.

Now, I'll take my age attribute loss of 10 to strength, so that my character lacks the strength to kill himself.

Meet Oliver McGraw. All he does is lie around, killing people with his Banshee voice and saying things so dumb that people are actually physically stunned by him.

Ooh, almost forgot! He has 3d6*100 (700) $tandards.

And I'm done! (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AobiVI0rAMahdGl1MUhFczc3TjJRTEE4dERPbGs0V 3c#gid=11)

That is how you make a great character. *cries*

Wraith
2013-04-02, 02:10 PM
Also, I didn't see where it says the free D6 can apply to Strength.

The rest is just really badly RaW, but this is an oversight on my part. It seems so obvious that you should be able to put a dice into Strength, since there's about a 50-50 chance that you're starting the game at 0 or even worse, that I suppose I just skipped over it. My bad.


Nononononono! You're doing it all wrong!

Finally! Someone who knows what they're talking about! Have at it, sir!


Well, that is unless I use the POWER OF HOMEBREW to remove the three character limit!

Witchcraft! Burn the witch! :smallwink:


That is how you make a great character. *cries*

Thank you, oh benevolent sage, for showing us the true way.... :smallamused: :smallwink:

Still, I haven't gone too far wrong; Samuel D. Megatron, PhD can be salvaged pretty easily - he'll probably only get better, now that I think about it.

So, he's 43 years old - that's a -3 penalty to his stats, which I can put into Moves with little loss. But, since I can't put my freebie into Strength, I can put +4 BACK into moves. Boom; instant improvement.

Also, I have 16 skills for which I've mistakenly bought rank 1 and 2, so 20x16 = 320 spare skill points. By the time I've spent those on a couple of ranks each of Weight-training, Boxing and/or Running I'm easily back up to +2 or even +3 Strength with an additional +2 or +3 Moves to boot. I probably even have some spare points left after that, but at this point I needn't bother work it out; My 'toon is not only a genius supervillain with his own legion of loyal robotic underlings, he's ripped too! :smalltongue:

Deffers
2013-04-02, 02:38 PM
Now, if you could only deal with his unfortunate odor problem...

"FOOL! THIS IS TRUE POWER! I HAVE ACQUIRED... CYBERNETIC ARMPIT IMPLANTS! Who's laughing now, Jenny McClusky? You may have turned down my prom invite because I smell, but now... NOW I AM THE PERFECT HUMAN!"

Wraith
2013-04-02, 03:14 PM
It doesn't specify from where the stench emanates. As such, I choose to believe that my character has the world's most odiously repugnant earlobes.

EDIT:


When I run this game, I shall run it the only sane way in terms of skills.
All skills start at 2D6, even those which require prerequisites. I believe this is the way that was intended, since every other way makes no sense at all.

I've been thinking about this, and having read and reread the rules again I seem to be coming to the conclusion that you should have 2d6 in every skill UNLESS that skill has a pre-req, which instead starts at 0d6.

This makes sense when you consider what these skills are, and what a basic 2d6 ability represents.

For example, the Advanced Skills (that is, anything that has a pre-req) are usually skills that either need a grounding in another basic knowledge to understand.
With that in mind, consider Weight-training; 2d6 is pretty much "I know how to lift something", and Maths is "I can count without using my fingers". Basic, fundamental skills that most people grow up knowing.

You need more than just basic math in order to have anything more than the more crude understanding of it's successive skill, Physics. So, it stands to reason that you can't learn Physics until you have Maths at a level beyond "I don't need to take my socks off in order to work out change from a dollar" :smallbiggrin:

This applies even more so to skills further down the line, like Robot Engineering and Computer Programming - especially in a post-apocalyptic world where computers are unimaginably rare and expensive. Similarly, I can't imagine anyone growing up and having the same intrinsic/instinctive education in Forensics as they would in, say, Brawling.

Some of this is even supported by the logic of the pre-req table; you can't learn how to fly an aeroplane (Drive Plane) without knowing how to read the instruments before you set out, represented in-game by the pre-req skills Sensors, for example.

It also explains why the game has a section telling you how to buy Advanced skills from 0d6 to 1d6. Why bother, if you have them at 2d6 already?

Undoubtably, your way is more fun, monkeyboyinc. If someone were to play a straight, serious game with the system, however, I think this is likely to be the 'sensible' way to do it. :smallsmile:

SowZ
2013-04-02, 04:09 PM
If someone wanted to run a PbP with these three characters, I would so totally be in it isn't even funny.