There is no shortage of things to do in the wastes; this chapter explains various activities you can take part in, experiences you may have, and special effects you may encounter during an Afterworlds event.
After taking a defeat, when you have finished taking your mandatory break from the game, you can return to the game. When you return to the game, you will take an injury. These cards are given to you by a GM or Plot member and are kept with your character until you are able to find a way to remove them. Each injury has a series of effects that changes the rules for your character. Take some time to familiarize yourself with your injury. It is possible that you may be playing with the effect for a while. Injuries come in different severities, major and minor and will be specified on the cards. Some species like androids and drones draw from a separate pool of injuries called malfunctions. These function in the same manner as injuries, but only apply to certain species. Injuries are separated into categories (head, left and right arm, left and right leg, body, internal and superficial). Getting injuries of the same category will cause them to get more serious as described below.
Minor injuries will last anywhere from 1 to 3 events if not resolved through in-game actions. This counts the event in which you received the injury. If you receive 2 minor injuries of the same category, the first minor injury you have in that category will become a major injury that is detailed on the injury card itself. The second minor injury is ignored in this case.
Major injuries last at least 3 events if not resolved through in game actions, or have special durations. If you receive 2 major injuries of the same category, your character permanently dies (see below).
Most injuries have a special method of being recovered from. This can be anything from a specific surgery performed by other players or NPCs to finding a special item that allows you to remove the injury. Some injuries can never be recovered from.
If your character accumulates either too many injuries or a specific set of injuries (stated on the cards), they will suffer Permanent Character Death. At that point, you will need to create a new character. The previous character is now permanently removed from play.
While these rules can be altered by abilities and perks chosen by your character, the following rules are the default rules for characters taking a Permanent Character Death:
If an injury card specifies a specific condition that leads to Permanent Character Death and you meet that condition, your character is permanently Dead.
You can contract diseases (for organic characters) in the wastes, which are represented by special plot cards. These cards contain details about the condition that they represent.
You can contract a disease when a plot card is found by looting or scavenging, transferred between characters using perks or items, or handed to players by NPCs or plot members. These cards do not count against your carrying capacity.
Diseases are uncommon plot elements that can potentially take one or more events to resolve depending on the disease and event storylines.
If you have questions about the effects of a card you have, you may inquire with plot staff.
Throughout the wastelands, you will come across herbs. Herbs are in-game items represented by colored large size popsicle sticks that can be used to craft items or activate certain perks.
If you have a perk or ability that allows you to collect herbs, you can simply pick the prop out of the ground and collect it. However, you can only carry a limited amount of herbs at a time.
If you end up carrying more than you are allowed, you must immediately burn excess herbs until you are at the amount you are allowed to carry.
HERB PROPS |
|
| Indigonia (Purple) | Bloodroot (Red) |
| Ambermoss (Yellow) | Pumpkap (Orange) |
| Azurecactus (Blue) | Jadegrass (Green) |
Radiation is a constant threat in the wasteland that you can get exposed to while adventuring. Entering irradiated areas, fighting radioactive creatures, or handling radioactive materials can all give your character a dose of potentially lethal radiation. When you have been exposed to a level of radiation, you will be given a specially-marked bracelet. The number of bracelets you are wearing represents the level of radiation poisoning your character is experiencing.
Junk tokens represent resources used to craft in-game items. Junk tokens can be obtained by scavenging or looting containers and fallen foes.
Scavenging has a simple flow to follow: Find an area that might have scavenge and attempt to overcome the available minigame challenge. If you succeed, draw a token from the scavenge supply, deal with any consequences of the draw, then flip to the next challenge. If you cannot overcome the challenge, do not draw a token from the scavenge supply and instead set the provided timer for the amount of time required to skip that challenge. Once the timer has finished, you may then flip to the next challenge.
While adventuring outside of the town, you will sometimes come across containers or elaborate decorations and props in the wasteland. If these containers or sites are labeled as scavenging nodes or zones, then they potentially have scavenge and you can attempt to complete their challenges.
A scavenging node is a designated area in the wastes that is set up for a specific minigame, such as a physical challenge or deck of event cards to draw from. The rules for the minigame will be posted on a stand in the scavenging node. This stand will also contain the scavenge supply that houses the lootable tokens.
Scavenging nodes are specific containers out in the wastes that are marked with a set of laminated challenge cards. The container will house the lootable tokens. Players can scavenge at a node by attempting to complete or skip the challenge listed on the card that is visible when they first approach the container.
Challenge cards will require the scavenger to possess certain abilities or a specific number of tagged perks. For example: If a player draws a challenge card that requires either “Medical 2” or “Smarts 2” to complete, they must possess either 2 total Medical perks or 2 total Smarts perks to succeed. Any distinctions or effects that lower your tags can negatively impact your ability to complete the challenge.
Each scavenging node and node has a scavenge supply that contains the lootable tokens. This supply is typically represented by a cloth bag or other container.
To loot from the scavenge supply: Open the bag, reach inside without looking, draw one token, then close the bag and any container housing the bag. Keeping a container open for any longer than is necessary to loot it is a violation of Rule #1. In game, any items contained inside the scavenge supply do not exist in the world until they have been drawn and the container has been closed again.
As you adventure, things will not always go your way; You might get caught off guard, pick a fight you can't win, or simply get very unlucky. Survival is paramount in the wastes, and sometimes you may need to rely on certain operations to ensure your continued existence. These operations can be conducted to heal injuries, install cyberware and more, and differ depending on the patient. surgery and maintenance must be performed at the appropriate locations and by qualified characters.
Surgery and maintenance may be performed on characters to remove injuries and malfunctions, so long as the character performing the surgery or maintenance meets all of the requirements:
Each injury or malfunction card will have a number listed on it that indicates the number of successful card draws required for the procedure to be a success. Read further for more information on card draws.
Surgery or maintenance may also be performed on characters to install or remove cyberware, so long as the character performing the procedure meets all of the requirements:
Each cyberware card will have a difficulty number listed on it that indicates the number of successful card draws required for the procedure to be a success. This applies to both installation and removal procedures. Read further for more information on card draws.
Surgery and maintenance is performed by drawing cards from either the surgery deck at a hospital or the maintenance deck at a garage. For the operation to be successful, you must draw a card and successfully complete its specific challenge within the indicated time limit, using the specially-marked timers. Each card you draw represents a step in the operation.
If you fail to complete the required actions on the card, or fail to draw the next card before the timer has finished, the patient is defeated without a dying count.
Once you have completed the required number of cards, the patient loses the injury or malfunction, or in the case of cyberware, the installation or removal was successful. The character who performed the procedure may then turn the card in for an XP reward based on the difficulty. The character who performed the procedure may share this reward among the characters who participated in the procedure.
The wasteland is filled with many threats and dangers. Different monsters and creatures stalk wastelanders and lay in wait in dark long forgotten ruins. Monster factions are the different overall categories of the various monsters and npc characters. Many perks and abilities can only be used on members of these factions, or work differently when used on such a character.
The bandit faction is denoted by brown bullet bandoliers. The bandit faction contains characters of the various player species that are always hostile and seek to do violent actions to and take things from everyone they encounter. Bandits are twisted by the wasteland and do not fit well into survivor society.
The bot faction is denoted by grey tabards with holographic circuitry patterns. The bot faction contains robots, drones, artificial intelligences and other non-organic technological creatures.
The invader faction is denoted by yellow/gold tabards. The invader faction contains the different off-world alien threats that are left behind from the war with the zunak invaders. Often strange alien creatures and bio-weapons, the invader faction can also contain humanoid characters of the different alien species such as the zunak, ko’vir and genomorph.
The turned faction is denoted by white bloodspattered tabards. The turned faction contains all of the various turned variants. Commonly known as zombies, the turned are characters that have fallen to the zombie infection and transformed into unliving weapons with the common goal of infecting or consuming every living creature on earth.
The wild faction is denoted by camouflage pattern tabards. The wild faction contains mutated animals, plants and other creatures of nature. Wild faction characters can sometimes include player species such as the stray. These stray characters have embraced the instinctual parts of their mutations and act more like beasts than their more human counterparts.
While adventuring in the wasteland, you are bound to come across one of the most prevalent dangers that the apocalypse has to offer: the turned. While players may use the term “zombie,” “zed,” “infected” or whatever they feel like, the canon term for these creatures in the game is “turned.”
These enemies will use bite attacks — in addition to any other attacks they have — to try and spread the turned infection to any living creatures they come across.
During encounters, players who are playing turned characters will pay attention to who gets hit with their bite attacks when they use them.
Once the encounter has ended, the now out-of-game turned character will approach any characters who were hit with those attacks and give each of them a bite card.
Characters can only receive one bite card per encounter, regardless of how many times they were bitten in the encounter. If you are offered more than one of these cards after an encounter, simply inform the turned character that you already received a bite card this encounter.
If at any point you have 5 bite cards at one time, you will transform into a copy of the turned that bit you.
Ask the turned player using the Out of Game Hand Sign for their props and monster card, and quickly review the creature. The turned player can help answer any questions you have about the monster.
You then must make a count of “TURNING(10)(Res)”. Once you finish the count, you immediately enter the game as the Monster Card you are holding, and must start acting appropriately.
When you turn, or if you use an ability to attempt to blend in with the turned, you will need to act the part. By default, the turned are nearly mindless zombies that desire nothing more than to hunt the living and spread the turned infection.
Unless your monster card gives you special instructions, you must follow these general guidelines when you turn:
If you have turned, you cannot break these guidelines unless your Monster Card allows you to perform other actions. Performing other actions or failing to follow these guidelines may lead to confusion and make you the target of other nearby turned characters.