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Setting Questions
Question:
Why did your writer or designer set the
game setting so far in the future? It seems to take
place in the year 2364AD, right? Other Post Apocalyptic
games and movies are much more modern or near future in
their time period. The Mad Max ((Road Warrior) movies
with Mel Gibson, as well as other movies which TME
refers to in various places, (The Postman, Water World,
Terminator, etc.) are only a few decades after some sort
of cataclysm or nuclear war.
Answer: The Mutant Epoch certainly
draws inspiration from Mad Max, Doomsday, Water World,
The Postman, Terminator, and dozens of other PA films,
all of which depict a much more recent holocaust. The
time line of the apocalypse that is suggested in The
Mutant Epoch differs from the commonly held depictions
of the end of our civilization because the collapse e
was slower, more regional, and in some places is still
going on. Furthermore, the war wasn’t so much with
fellow humans as it was with the Mecha or robotic
factions, mutant barbarians, rebel synthetic humans, as
well as the devastation caused by plagues, famine,
geological and weather anomalies, floods, droughts and
rogue mutant creatures. TME is only partially based on
a post apocalyptic reality, and is instead focused on a
science fiction elements such as mutants, robots,
advanced technologies, genetic manipulations, and eve
space travel. The length of time it takes for evolution
to do its work, even accelerated thousand times by
radiation, bio-genetic agents, grafting, cloning and
whatnot, requires a few centuries at least. Also, the
current 21st century technology isn’t
sufficient to allow the setting to include the advanced
robotics, androids weaponry, armor and vehicles depicted
in the game.
On the other hand, a GM
wanting to create a near future campaign using the TME
Hub Rules need only place the setting in his or her home
town, remove all advanced technology ( robots, laser
weapons, advanced armors, cyborgs, synthetic humans,
etc) limit mutations and then create encounter and loot
tables appropriately. A suggestion would be to populate
the encounter tables with marauders on motorcycles, or
the streets with starving masses, some plague victims
who seem more like zombies, and the highly lethal
survivalist squads which control whole neighborhoods or
stretches of highway.
Question: What is the difference
between an Excavator (Digger) and the NPC's called
Scavengers or Scavs? They seem to do the same thing and
go into the same ruined areas.
Answer: Excavators are group
orientated, more focused explorers, and the term is
often used interchangeably with the title of adventurer,
mercenary, archeologist, grave robber, digger, and
whatnot. They are often based out of a town or roam from
community to community taking on work or quests for
either profit, glory or to improve the lives of common
people. Excavators know that working alone or in very
small groups, as Scavs do, is dangerous, especially when
entering the ruined skyscrapers or subterranean depths
of the old cities and installations, all very deadly
places where only a well equipped, well organized and
elite team can enter and survive.
Scavengers on the other hand
are loners, think of them as solitary survivalists, who
are often not much more than mad hermits living off in
the hills and shunning the towns and trade routes,
unless they need to buy some essentials such as salt,
water, seeds, a new crossbow, and such. They are usually
males, often times wanted criminals or deserters from
some factional army. They tend to avoid travelers, even
excavators who they both admire and distrust, and often
rely on. It is not uncommon for a scavengers to follow a
dig team a considerable distance into the intact
portions of a ruined metropolis, observing their braver
associates for any causalities to loot, new openings to
explore and opportunities to get a hold of a relic
weapon or suit of armor. While a lone scavenger can pose
a threat to a single excavator, these 'dust devils'
don't normally participate in robbery nor murder,
especially against excavators whom occasionally come to
the aid of scavs, or camp with them to share news and
their rations of beer and wine. Of all new era people,
scavs really only trust excavators, and many of this
caste secretly wish they had the guts to go deeper into
the ruins the way the diggers do. In short, scavs are
lone hermits, who collect scrap metal, plastic, bits of
glass, old toys, wirings, the parts of wrecked robots an
vehicles, and then sell these items to wandering traders
or in the relic markets of towns and cities. They are
secretive, cunning and stealthy, surviving among the
many dangerous creatures of the wastelands by keeping
out of their way, relying on their dirty cloaks to
remain hidden, and by being very aware of where all the
major predators keep their lairs, at what times they
hunt, and where the safest 'hidey holes' can be found in
which to spend the night. They can occasionally be hired
by excavators to serve as guides, but will usually go no
further once the edge of the more-or less intact ancient
structures begin, and will almost never go underground
in search of the junk they so covet.
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