infected

TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING IN THE ELDRITCH APOCALYPSE

AMAGI GAMES
Edition 1.0
 Credits
ART, WRITING, DESIGN
Levi Kornelsen

PLAYTEST CREW
Kimberly Lam, Holly Tetz, Owen Sleeps, Scott Cummings

RIFF CREW
Harrowed, Rafotron, Claire Redfield, Whitewings, Arbane
The Terrible, CLAVDIVS, Cerulean Lion, Thayan, Potted
Plant, Eled The WormTamer, Valtiel, Padraic Duggan,
Dragonlover, Djehuty3, E.T. Smith

KICKSTARTER BACKERS
Mischa Krilov, Paireon, lumberjack of Brimstone, Dana
Bayer, George Hutcheson, E.T. Smith. Jordan Bakker, Flavio
Mortarino. Owlglass, Adam Boisvert, Alex Fux, Aaron Moiler,
Dan Bidwa, David Jenks, Flying Mice, Michael Wight, Donald
Wheeler, Chuck Dee, Daniele Di Rubbo, Alex Dingle, Ian
Borchardt, John Bogart, Stras Acimovic, Brandon Metcalf,
Craig Hackl, Illotum, Dengarm, Randy Belanger, Fraydog,
Michael Leader, Marc Poirier, Jason Blalock (Dice Addict
Games), Ian O'Reilly, J.Hodg, Aaron Friesen, Dyle Cody
Korthuis, AsenRG, Eiphah, Chris Gunning, Capellan, Jye
Nicolson, Mic Per, Matthew Klein, J G Baxter, Adam Rajski,
Tommi Koivula, Sleet, forwardslash, Nicholas DeLateur, Andy
Kitkowski, John Harper, Ted Stewart, Donna Nutter, JBPlatt,
Pat Gamblin, Mikael Dahl, Mark Nau, Marc Majcher, Mark
DiPasquale, YongSeokPark, Netizen, Duncan MacDonald,
Benjamin Hinnum, Tom, Bob Hanks, Daniel Bayn, Daniel
Buhler, Justin Halliday
 Table Of Contents
TRANSMISSIONS PAGE 4
A bit of fiction to ground you in the setting.
FUNDAMENTALS PAGE 18
A look at tabletop roleplaying, how it operates.
ENGINE PAGE 30
The core dice-and-numbers rules at the heart of the game..
CHARACTER PAGE 38
Archetypes and advancement for playing.
ACTION PAGE 70
Stakes and modifiers for specific actions in the game.
GEAR PAGE 118
Equipment, defences, and weaponry for the apocalypse.
GUIDE PAGE 136
How to referee, manage, and administrate the game.
APOCALYPSE PAGE 146
A 'future history' of how the apocalypse progresses.
THREATS PAGE 160
The dead, the strange, the desperate, and how they fight.
ENCLAVE PAGE 186
Communities in the apocalypse, their resources, their troubles.
ENCOUNTERS PAGE 208
People, groups, and places to run across out in the apocalypse.
DELVES PAGE 218
Places occupied by the dead, raided by the living.
RESEARCH PAGE 228
The strange science spurred by observation of the apocalypse.
SORCERY PAGE 248
Control over the blight and the things born of it and to it.
OPTIONS PAGE 256
Rules tweaks to alter and complicate the basic game.
 Section ONE

TRANSMISSIONS
 It Hasn't Been That Long.
Still, it all seems different, now. Just last week, they were calling it the
Whisper Flu. Infected people hearing something like voices just below
the threshold of hearing, when things were quiet around them. It spread
quickly. On the pacific coast, where I am, and where it took a strong hold
first, surgical masks were everywhere within a matter of days. No really
intense panic, though. Hell, maybe you're still wearing your mask, still
thinking it'll do you some good. Maybe it will.

I remember how it didn’t seem that strange. Just a flu with a funny
symptom. Fluid in the ear, or something. Even before it got awful here in
Seattle, though, it was obvious that what the medical community had to
say was “this isn’t even remotely like anything we’ve seen". I remember
that there was talk about gaseous bodies, and weird theories were
coming from all sides.

It spread wide, and fast, but the fear was muted. The stories we got from
Japan, about the brain damage, those were calming. Calming enough to
make it a hot topic instead of a cause for panic, at least.

I remember hearing about how the doctors in Japan were learning a few
things before the lights went out. Bits of medical stuff fact about the
plague. Like, it’s a parasitic thing - not a bacterium or a virus. And it isn’t
composed of what we think of as cells; someone said it should by all
rights blow away as a gas. The general agreement was that it has a
structure, but it’s not one that we have a proper set of names for. It
affects the body, and the body can fight it to an extent. It lives best in
bodily fluids, and multiplies there, and has stronger and stronger effects
the more of it is living in the body. You know, that stuff. It was calming.
Science is on the job!

Later, when we found out that people infected with it can sometimes see
and hear things, that's where I started to panic. They all describe what
they see in the same kinds of ways - like warped and freakish spectres, all
around us. That was something the whole “hallucinations are a
symptom" explanation didn’t quite seem to cover, somehow. People don't
all hallucinate the same, do they?

The doctors might have been able to puzzle it out, if they’d had time, I
guess. It might have been as exciting as they all sounded. Maybe they're
still working on it, somewhere. But here, people just started dying. And
then they started getting back up. And that was Tuesday. I guess it's
Sunday, now. It just seems like months.
 The First I Heard...
...of anyone changing? I think it was about the whole outbreak in Japan.
People getting sick and falling comatose in some kind of physical crisis,
then waking back up brain damaged and ravenous. I wonder just how
many of the facts were pretended away in that news coverage.

Maybe you saw it, maybe not, but I figure that coverage did a lot of
damage in really coming to grips with what's going on all around us. But
last week, when the outbreaks in Vancouver, Honolulu, and Seattle hit,
the news wasn't so much scrubbed as slanted.

Of course, people attacked by the sick would say things like “monstrous"
and have wild stories. But the victims of the illness had brain damage,
you know? So nobody giving the news wanted to push the stuff they were
ranting about too hard.

“How dare you call them monsters? They’re victims of a disease."

Plenty of very serious people were taking the threat to heart, of course;
they're running around the city right now. When Seattle started to go
nasty on Wednesday, there were security cordons on Thursday. A full
scale quarantine inside a few hours of the first person coming screaming
back out of that heart attack.

Good intentions, very good.

But last night, my wife called me from the hospital; she's been sick. She
said that there were so many sick people there that they were putting
them out in the hallway. She hasn't been home. But I'm waiting.

We just had a couple of helicopters go over my neighbourhood. There

were soldiers down the street, handing out radios, masks, bottled water,
telling us the roads are going to be closed and we should expect
blackouts.

I've got a cough I can't shake. The soldier who gave me this radio had
one, too. My next-door neighbour died last night; at least I thought so.
He's in his back yard, now, and I'm watching him, while I talk to whoever
it is that's listening. If anyone is.

Because, you see, he's a monster.

 I've Got My Shotgun Here...
...and I'm going to end it all tonight. But before I do, I need to talk about
what happened. To tell my story.

I was in Japan on a trip when the outbreak happened there. Just after I
got home, I got sick. Really sick, hearing things, getting worse. And then,
the whispers stopped, and I started to feel better. Pale, eyes sunk in like I
hadn't ever slept in my life, but better. My husband, he was there. Stood
over me with my shotgun the whole time. Same shotgun I'm holding now.

A couple of days later I was still pale, but feeling well. Hubby and I, we
kept apart for a bit just in case, but after a week of being better? And
what with him having been in that room, shut up with me the whole time
through? It seemed like we'd weathered that storm.

I infected him. God help me, but I was still contagious. Kissing, touching...
It took him fast, and he was sweating it out hard. When the news came in
about all sorts of other people just maybe catching it in town, he was
already near dying, and I didn't dare take him to the hospital. I saw what
they did in Japan, at the end.

He died.

And he rose again. But he didn't come for me. I was ready for him to. I
would have welcomed it.

I could feel something just at the edge of my mind, like a faint sound, and
I thought maybe his spirit is here too. His body is around, why wouldn't
his spirit linger, and listen? Maybe he's saying goodbye.

So I called to him, there in my head, told him to come back to me.

And he came. Twitching, and slack-faced, with that faint smell on him.
The same smell the ones in Japan had floating around them.

It's been days since then, and I can't live like this. I can't bring myself to
put him down, and I can't bear to leave him behind. This is hell, and the
whole world is racing down to join me in it. Just the one way out, and I'm
taking it.

That's all.
 I Keep Thinking About It
A lot of you keep saying how the military has been trying so hard. After
all, martial law went into effect so suddenly, most places.

But have you been listening to each other?

I have. It's all I've done all day. Listen to broadcasts and rebroadcasts.
Some places, the practice was “Segmentation and checks" - splitting up
cities into zones, and then having examination checkpoints at each. Some
places they tried to evacuate into camps. Other places, they tried out
“voluntary quarantine" for anyone sick - solitary lockdown, which meant
you weren’t in danger, and you weren’t putting anyone else in danger.

Some places they sent in extermination teams - they weren’t called that
at first, but that’s what they were.

Most places they handed out bottled water; we knew really early that the
Blight was spread first through water. Some places they handed out
masks, too, which turned out to be a good plan when the fog started
turning up.

There were a few places where they had whole units do nothing but give
handgun training for a day to anyone that showed up. Basically, arming
everyone and turning neighbourhood watches into militia groups. Don’t
know who pushed that one, but that was a good one. They didn't hand
out nearly enough ammo, though.

Quite a few important people were whisked off to be sequestered.

Bunkered up, I mean.

The most important bit, at least here, was how they gave out radios like
candy, in case of power outage or an incident knocking out everything
else. Solar panel to charge a battery, tiny broadcast range but good
pickup. 999 channels, and everyone who could find a ham radio or CB
could hit one of the “core channels" easy. I guess that happened a lot of
places.

If all that action had been directed toward a single end, it might have
even worked.
 I Was Ill, But I Am Saved
In my fever dream, listening to the whispers, I learned of the world to
come - and the rise of the dead is only the beginning.

In the times ahead of us, there will be endless seas of sand where the
grass grows, and tall black trees, wreathed in silver smoke instead of
leaves. There will be wandering globules of clear and jellied flesh,
cleaning and clearing endlessly.

There will be those who live yet, who have made peace with the new
order, and reached balance with the harbinger that lives within them.
They shall be transformed, even as I am transformed.

They will drink clear water and eat of the fruits of the trees. And they will
not fear death, for they will see how their own dead are transformed. The
dead and living will dwell together.

There will be beings of mist and light, each sustaining a wise skull. They
will keep the lore and move as guides among the people there. And there
will be plainer elders, slender and leathered of flesh - without sex,
without race, stripped bare of all the petty bases of rivalry.

And when I woke from my fever, I knew - this rising, this violence and
pain and blood? This is merely the painful culling, the first step of a long
transformation that will take us to that blessed state. The old order of
things must be swept away, to make room for the new.
 “Mackerel-Snappers.”
That’s what my gramma used to call Catholics. Fish on Friday, it's a
tradition, you know?

It was in fish before it was in people, right? They talked about it on the
news here. The plague was, I mean. It didn't make the fish sick, not like
what it's doing here, anyway. So it came to us that way; that's why the
warning about things to do includes avoiding fish. If it had come to us
from some landlocked source, it wouldn't have gotten here from Japan,
right?

The end of the world was brought to you courtesy of sushi eaters and
Catholics. Almost sounds like something one of those guys on Fox would
have warned us about. But, like, think! Once you've got the plague, you've
got something like a week or two to beat it or... You know. Not. And you’re
catching in all the ways, coughing and stuff, while that happens. Right?

So, I think, if you were feeling terrible, you might stay home from work,
or maybe not. And you might go to church, or maybe not. But I bet you
plenty of people did both. Probably it wasn't the only way that people
passed it around, but I bet it was one of the big ones.

You can just see it, can't you? Deliver us, cough, oh Lord, cough, from this
terrible affliction, cough cough. Rows half full of people with jobs they
have to go to if they're going to make rent. Janitors and maids and taxi
drivers. Store clerks. That lady who sells stuff at the duty-free in the
airport and wears that godawful crucifix. All of them, going to work the
next day to keep everything running.

Because a lot of Catholics are poor, right? I don't mean like begging-poor,
I mean like those people who work-work-work, nobody-ever-pays-
attention poor. Lots of them are immigrants, and they, like, never miss
work. Gotta make it, gotta pay the shitty rent on some shitty place, gotta
go to work even if you're sick, because God loves Him some hard work.

Gotta spread that sickness.

Damned mackerel-snappers.
 I Saw My Sister Last Night.
She's dead, but I saw her. She said that she's been with me this whole
time, watching over my shoulder.

She said that everyone leaves echoes behind when they die, ghosts. That
she's one of those. And they're all around us, all the time, but they're just
wisps, fragile. We can't see them, and they can't touch us, but they can
see us; they can see each other. They can sort of touch each other, but
only sort of.

She said that they feed on each other, they degrade, they come apart.
That most all of them don't really know anything beyond that hunger;
they're not souls, just echoes, and they slowly break and turn awful. She
said that the plague was different; it's something they can touch.
Something they can use, ride, that they can channel themselves through,
and get into the living.

But they don't get better when they do, or recover, or any of that. They
don't turn back into people, just into those things we hear about.
Wanting to eat others, not even knowing why or needing to. She said that
some of them, the strongest, have made deals with something else;
something that wasn't ever human, that lives like they live. That the ones
who did aren't echoes anymore, they're something else. In the world we
can't see, they rule; they dominate the damaged, and are dominated in
turn.

And they're coming, to put on our flesh. She said they would bend and
twist the plague and make it stronger, make it so it could respin bodies
into new shapes.

She said their masters would be coming, too.

I know, I'm sick. I'm seeing things – I really am. Hearing things. I probably
just saw her because I wanted to see her. She probably gave me an
explanation things because I need one.

But I saw her, just the same.

To all of you others out there in the world, meeting the dead in one shape
or another, good luck. This is Katherine Wellsley, band 558, signing off for
the night.
 So I'm Hunkered Down;
I ain't saying where but I'm down and solid in southern Ontario near the
old 401. I've got a pretty good vantage point when I can get to it. The
dead, the whatever the fuck you want to call them, are up to something.'

[Cough]

'For the first while, they were just wandering the packed highways.
Makes kind of sense, they died in those suburban assault vehicles so they
ain't going to wander their dead asses far from their oh-so precious blu-
rays and Pottery Barn crap.

But they're changing up, they've started cleaning the cars from the
highway. Teams of them, pushing them with mobs off the side of the road.
The stretch of highway I can see is almost clear.

[Cough]

What the fuck are these things up to?

Has anyone else seen this?'

 This Is Jeanine Alcott
Answering your call on band 821.

I hear you; we've had a "work crew" or two up where I am, too. I got in
and watched 'em for a while, and it seemed like there were two, maybe
three kinds of dead in there - your basic slow and stupid ones, and a few
of those quicker and angry-looking ones. A couple of the ones that I
thought were quick, though? They didn't look permanently pissed, like
those usually do. They looked, like, thoughtful.

The way it was set up was like the quick ones were sort-of playing
guards, on picket. The slow ones were all kind of pushing things around
together. A dozen or so of them would ramble over to a car, and then
they'd all just kind of lean in and slide it along with the weight of them.

A day or so after that went by, there was this dense fog that rolled up the
street, slow as could be, like it was alive - and there were amorphous-
looking shapes in there, almost like huge slugs or something, though I
couldn't make them out. Anyway, after they'd gone by, the road was slick
and black, like glass that someone spread oil over.

I've seen a couple of those weird fog banks slipping down it since - and
they were going pretty fast. I think they're taking some of the roads over
for themselves.
 Good To Hear Your Voice!
There's not a lot of people broadcasting up where I am. The 401 corridor
of rural towns were pretty devastated by the suburban flight. I'm
bracketed by major cities on both sides. The average tank of SUV gas and
suddenly every city dweller is on my land demanding that I give them my
food and my toilet paper.

Locusts.

So those slugs were polishing the road, and then travelling faster? Christ,
I don't like the sounds of that. What the hell do the dead need a fucking
super-highway for?'

Hello.... hello?
Fuck, is this thing even on? Look, I don't know what they're doing to the
roads, and I don't much care. They can carve up the interstates and set
themselves up in every godforsaken Cracker Barrel they find, if they want
to.

I think...I think we may have bigger problems. Or more pressing ones.

Shut up.

I lost a few good folks when this first hit. And yeah, I wasn't brave enough
to go back for 'em when they fell, kickin' and squirmin'. Or I was smart
enough not to.

Whatever. Look, shut up. The point is.

I heard them scream when they went down. And I heard them talking
when they got up again. Heard them at the door, at the windows.
Whisperin'.

And jeez, god help me, I heard them scream when I put them down again.

But the thing is. The words, the screams, the whispering. I can still hear
them.

Shut up.

They're dead. Twice dead. So why can I still hear them?

 Shit, Pal, You've Got The Sick.
Here's what you've got to do. Tune over to band 212. Just punch it in; it's
basic advice you need right now. 212, seriously. Do it now.

[Band 212]
...that it can be gotten through. People have beaten the plague, but there
are important steps to doing it.

First, and most important - do NOT take antibiotics or any other drug as
medications against it.

Don't starve yourself, don't get dehydrated, don't take any kind of
“miracle cure.” The plague can't be treated with drugs, but your body
can fight it off, if you stay healthy and rested. Keep clean, and keep your
environment clean. Do not tire yourself out.

Avoid all seafood!

Be sure to quarantine yourself alone. Not just so that you don't get
anyone else ill, but because putting people who are sick in the same
space seems to make all of them sicker very quickly.

All wards are being closed, all patients sent home, to avoid just this issue.
And, hard truth time, if you're sick and people notice, they may very well
shoot you on sight.

Be aware that you may come out the other side of this a little messed up,
or even a lot. The plague changes the people who get it, and even if you
beat it back, some of the changes may stick.

Even as you start to feel better, remember that there doesn't seem to be
any "immunity" to the plague; you can always catch it again.

Message repeats.

If you're hearing this, chances are you've been told to listen to this band
because you're ill.

The plague is terrible, but remember that it can be gotten through.

People have...
 Hey, Jeanine; Hey, Route 401.
This is Scopes, Just north of Detroit, coming to you by repeater station in
Hunstville. Not sure how well you can hear me, since you're both a bit
crackly - but so long as you're comparing notes?

I've seen one of the quick ones that had that same fog-stuff all around it.
The fog was moving with it, keeping pace and kind of reaching around it.
Like they were parts of the same critter, you know? I never saw no
highway, but I saw that.

It was chasing down a wild cat, and when it got hold of it, that fog
whipped right around and wrapped around the kitty. They twisted
around a bit, and then the cat went down, twitching. Sick. Didn't get back
up, either, it just kind of slumped in on itself.

The dead thing with the fog stared at the cat for a second, and then
turned around and moved on – walked over to a bush, put its hands
down over it, and the fog wrapped itself around that too, just withered it
all up. Like it was roaming around, just making things dead.
 This Is The Hope Mission,
Broadcasting on the Radio Free Portland tower.

We have moved to SW Market and 10th, Science Building 1 on the

University campus, and joined in fellowship with the students there. We
have beds and several delivery trucks worth of clean water. The building
is well-fortified. We do not, repeat, do not have foodstock for hungry
mouths, but can help meet other basic needs.

Those seeking admission will be checked, and quarantined for a day and
a night. Those found to suffer from the plague of possession will be given
the choice of being held in hope of recovery, or to receive God's mercy.
Everyone works. Some work to build, or to repair, to teach. Some of the
work is in putting down those possessed by darkness in these latter days.
A good measure of the work is in going out into the world, to gather
supplies. Those we send out have safe quarters in the quarantine area,
with only a day and night to wait again before rejoining us.

Services are held daily, but attendance is not mandatory. You are
welcome to join us. God be with you in these hard times.

This Is CBC Radio

Broadcasting throughout Western Canada. It's doubtful we can call
ourselves that legally, but to be honest, we don't really care. We're
transmitting from CBC headquarters in Vancouver. The facilities here are
intact, and should continue to function as long as the power holds out.
We have a relatively secure path to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and
another to the main branch of the Vancouver Public, which turn out to be
connected via parking garages and access tunnels.
Section TWO

FUNDAMENTALS
 The Very Basics
While playing a tabletop roleplaying game, most people will describe,
move, and speak as someone else – a character. There may be several
players, each with their own character, and there will be a Guide (also
commonly called a GM), who takes on the role of the situation itself.

Before we try to explain this in detail, just imagine that we’re sitting at a
table, and I say to you “So, you’re an accountant sitting in your office, and
everyone has been getting sick so you've been staying in, but the door
bursts open and a zombie lurches in. What do you do?” - and you
respond “Well, I guess I'm going to grab something to fight it with and try
to get out. I think about it, and tell you a couple of possible things that
might be around to grab, and you pick one, and I respond with more stuff
about the fight; and we’re playing. I’m the Guide, and you’re the player.
We have a fictional role (you're a the accountant), and we’ve got a
situation that works, one where you have a goal, some obstacles, stuff
like that. So far, easy.

Now, we might not agree on just how tough your character – the
accountant - is, or how fast, and those matter, so I get you to describe him
a bit more, and we figure some way of resolving it so we don’t end up
bickering. We’ll bias things in your favour if your accountant is good at
running and fighting, or against them if they're bad at it. In the interests
of being fair, we’ll try to codify how we did it this time, and write it down,
so that we can keep it in mind for the next time that character has to bash
some stuff; it’s good to be consistent. And we’ll make up a few other rules
to make it feel more like being an accountant amidst the walking dead.

Those are the basics of a roleplaying game. In a published game system

like this one, the work of finding clear and consistent ways to create and
resolve situations, and describe characters in ways that everyone can
agree on, has been mostly done for you. Only mostly, because when you
play in any roleplaying game, the group may find things that they want to
add to, adjust, fine-tune, or change hugely - and that's fine! That is, to
many, part of the fun.

As you might expect, the situations tend to get a lot more complex - a
simple situation like the lone zombie won’t last us long unless there's
more to it, and building more involved ones is a bit of a trick, but one that
can be managed easily enough. There are rewards and methods for
keeping everyone interested and engaged in the game at hand that some
games use. But if you’ve read up to this point, you already understand
how the basics work.
 What's The Game Made Of?
This game is made up of people using a host of different rules – some of
which are rules of etiquette, some of which are tools at the table, and
others which only exist in the imaginations of those present. Here's the
stuff of the game itself:

Basic Practices: Who Says What: The pages you're reading right now
describe basic practices – back & forth description, setting and skipping
scenes, division between Guide and player authority, in-character
dialogue, and movement in and out of rules.

A Fictional Setting: Where You Are: Before players can have fictional
characters, those people need somewhere to exist. In this case, they're in
the modern world, amidst something that starts off as a zombie
apocalypse (and then proceeds into something stranger).

A Premise For Action: What You Do: Before creating characters, it's
also good to have a basic premise for action. This can be fairly
constrained, such as having the characters as elite military officers in a
special squad that will receive missions to carry out – or it can be almost
entirely open, such as saying “You're all survivors, just arrived at the
mall, and things are going to hell outside.” This game is primarily aimed
at the open form, but a Guide might choose a different set-up.
A Situation: What's Going On: If the premise is “you'll be sent out on
missions”, then a situation is a mission. If the premise is being lost in the
apocalypse, the situation starts with “survival right now”, but might
extend into getting entangled in all kinds of long-term concerns, with
survivor enclaves, and more, joining one situation to another. Where the
premise points the characters at the setting material, that's where
situation goes. Building situations is the province of the Guide.

A Rules Engine: Rolling Dice: Methods used to resolve “I shoot! Do I

hit? What next?” are the parts of the game most commonly called rules.
Often, these are arranged in a systematic way, with numbers, dice, and
on, creating an engine, the game part of a roleplaying game. Most of the
engine of this game can be found in the characters, actions, and gear
sections, but other pieces are integrated all throughout.

Characters: Who You Are: The point of all this is to provide a space,
motives, and support for people pretending to be characters – the
roleplaying part of a roleplaying game. Characters will have traits and
ratings that describe them in the rules, will be built in light of the setting,
situation, and premise, and brought to life by playing them.
 Getting Going
At least two people are required to play this game - one to take on the job
of being the Guide, and the others as players. The Guide should have
access to their rules engine at all times, and be pretty familiar with it.
Most often, a prospective Guide decides to "run a game", sorts out the
setting, premise, and the bare bones of a situation, and then invites
potential players to take part. Players will need enough familiarity with
the rules engine to build characters, but that can happen at a session or
beforehand, whichever works best.

Setting Up: Place And Props: A group will need somewhere to play that
is free of interruptions. They'll need all the various props that the game
engine uses, which means having pencils, paper (or character record
sheets), and dice (twelve-sided ones, in this case). Other useful bits can
include poker chips, maps, and tokens.

First Session: Group Check-Up: The opening of a first session will often
involve a quick run-down on the engine and setting being used, and the
parts of it that the Guide will be paying special attention to. If a session is
being used to introduce the players to the rules engine, setting, and so on,
this might be a whole lot more extensive; doing a run-through of the
engine and building characters can take up a whole session just by itself,
depending on the setting and engine.

First Session: Creating Characters: Each player will need a character.

Sometimes, this is done before the group sits down for play, and the
Guide will simply do a quick check that everyone has their character stuff
ready. Other times, the group will want to toss around ideas as a group,
looking to build characters that mesh and aren't likely to upstage each
other too much. Once characters are complete, the Guide may need to
adapt their situation so that their material fits.

Actual Play: Once the Guide has their material ready to go, the players
have characters, and everyone has their various dice and other bits set
up, the group can start playing, with the Guide setting up the starting
circumstances of each character. Play lasts until the group needs a break
or is done playing for the night (you can come back to it later), or the
current situation is resolved, in the opinion of the group. At first, play will
usually pause to reference the rules and get familiar with how things
work fairly regularly, but as the group gets more comfortable with the
rules, such delays will occur less and less often – it takes time to settle
into a groove, and that's okay.
 Starting Circumstances
One of the tropes of tabletop roleplaying games is “So, you all meet in a
bar” - but the most important part of that phrase is actually “So, you all
meet”. It's possible for the Guide to run scenes for each character
individually – and sometimes it's a very good thing to do that! But a
game where the characters don't meet up and work together is a game
where players are sitting around the table as audience a great deal of the
time, and most players are mainly at the game to play, not to watch.
In this game, the Guide will typically engineer the situation so that the
characters are stuck together in dangerous circumstances, giving them a
straightforward reason to bond. Players are generally expected to try
and 'go along with this', even if it's a little bit clumsy, and Guides are
expected to try and avoid having it be too clumsy.
Sometimes, the starting circumstances can be introduced with action
first, setting detail second – if the Guide starts in with “So, you're all
travelling on the Highway 54, going north, when a migration of the dead
comes into sight on it's way south.”, the characters don't have to know
each other to fall in together; there's plenty of reason to just get rolling.
 The Flow Of Play
Most of a roleplaying game is played out just by talking, but there are a
few different ways of talking and of between action that might take some
getting used to.

Descriptive Action: This is the basic way of playing. The Guide will set a
scene, the players will describe what their characters are doing. The
Guide will state how this affects the scene, telling them what happens
next, and back and forth it goes. If the Guide described some ruins, a
player might say "I explore the ruins, looking for anything interesting".
The Guide might check with the other players to see what they're doing
at the same time, and then jump to the first interesting thing in the
search, or the first thing that interrupts it. So, the Guide is adding new
details to the setting all the time. Here, players are in charge of, and
concentrate on, their characters; the Guide manages everything else.

In-Character Speech: Sessions will include portions where players take

on their characters, speaking as if they were those characters. These may
be lengthy discussions, or quick exchanges of a few words. Moving to this
kind of play is easy; if your character, James the Scrounger, does some
scouting and discovers that other survivors are around, you might
suddenly state “Hey! What are you doing here?” as if you were James.
When someone begins speaking this way, it’s normal to go with it,
speaking in response. This can end just as easily, returning to descriptive
action. Smooth changeovers to and from in-character speech, without
division, are standard. While doing so, everyone is in charge of the same
thing - the character they play.

Rules-Bound Action: In the middle of descriptive action, a player might

describe their character doing something, and the Guide might respond
with “Give me a roll for that”, or some other reference to “Let's use the
rules to resolve this”. This can be an rapid jump out of and back into
descriptive action; you make a roll, spend your hits, and get right back to
descriptive play. Or it can be very extensive; “Okay, you're going into the
mall. Let's lay out the map.” might be a call to move the action into rules
terms, where a lot of movement, combat, and many other features are
handled by the rules, making descriptive action and in-character speech
are things you do to flesh out and make sense of what you're doing with
the rules, rather than the reverse.
 From Scene To Scene
A scene is a chunk of time in which the overall location, characters, and
action remain generally the same. When any of those things changes in a
“jump”, that’s a new scene - though transitions in the midst of the action,
such as an argument turning into a fight, or a few bit part characters
entering or leaving, don’t make for a new scene.

Setting The Scene: The Guide sets a scene by describing it and how the
characters enter it. This description will start with a basic sketch - the
characters are in deep in the catacombs of a cathedral, soaring over an
island chain by night, whatever the case is. It will move on to the most
overall sensory impression; by describing the stench of the catacombs,
the darkness of the night. A few more details of setting, describing the
street below or the tables and crowds around them, finish that sketch.
After making that sketch, the Guide will almost always go on to add an
active element - something that is happening that is there for the
characters to interact with, whether that’s someone to talk with, enemies
to fight, or whatever the case may be.

What To Set: Not all scenes deserve attention. Characters sleep. They
eat. They move about the setting. Sometimes, there will be fascinating
stuff to deal with here. But most of the time, nobody at the table will care
how long the characters slept, or the details of how much they ate, or
other such trivia. Most of this will just be glossed over with “You sleep.
You wake. Anyone healing up overnight? Okay. The next day…”, or
something equally quick. Equally important to the skill of setting a scene
well is the skill of knowing when to set a scene at all. A good scene
always includes at least one of the following, and often has the potential
for more:
♦ An obstacle - from a fight to a calm bargaining situation.
♦ A significant choice to be made about what to do next.
♦ Something important to the situation the characters would know.
♦ A chance for the characters get closer to achieving a goal.

Scene Changes: While the Guide describes the changeovers from scene
to scene, players will often make it clear through action what the next
scene should be - “We go talk to the ancient one he told us about”. Players
will also occasionally ‘cue’ scenes with action; if the Guide is describing
the transition with a few details, and a player declares that they want to
do something about one of those details, that’s a player initiating a scene,
and may very well mean it’s time for the Guide to set it up. Both of these
are not only normal, but should be expected.
 Advice For Everyone
1. Come For A Good Time: If your primary goal at the table is something
other than having an experience you enjoy, and that others can enjoy
with you, you should be doing something else. Generally speaking, that
means having fun. Sometimes it might be more specific - crafting a
satisfying story together, or having the experience of seeing things from
the perspective of your character, either in addition to or instead of
classically fun stuff. But if what you want when you sit down at the table
on any given night isn’t enjoyable to you, or does not allow enjoyment for
others, do not sit down at that table. Not gaming is better than bad
gaming.

2. This Is Your Space, These Are Real People: Accept and understand
that the players around you are real people that are also here to have fun.
Nobody comes to the table to watch one player discuss their personal
character’s stuff with the Guide when it could wait, or to watch two
players crack inside jokes at each other and exclude everyone else.
Nobody comes to the table to be treated to the personal aroma of another
player, or to closely observe their food being chewed. Nobody hosts a
game hoping for a marathon cleanup session at the end. Nobody comes
to the table to be the ego-boosting kick-toy of anyone else. Never, ever,
forget that you are playing the game with real people.
3. Accept Responsibility: Taking the same point as #2, and bringing it
into the game - what you do at the gaming table is your responsibility,
and you should accept this. What others do is their responsibility, and
they should accept that, too. This absolutely includes what you decide
that your character does. This absolutely includes the actions of the
Guide as world. If playing your character as written could very well
interfere with the fun of others, you need to decide where to go with that
– it’s your call, though; excuses are lame. If you ruin the game by playing
your character or the world ‘correctly’, then you still ruined the game.

4. Give Feedback: Anything from telling the Guide “I had a good game
tonight” to “here’s ten specific moments of play I really liked, and ten
moments I really didn’t”, can help. For the Guide, telling the players what
they loved about their play, and what they found dull, works the same
way. The Guide can’t read the minds of the players here (or anywhere
else), and the players don’t know what’s going on internally for the Guide
either. Unless they tell each other. This doesn’t need to be formal – in fact,
it seems that it often works best if it isn’t. But the clearer it is, the better;
and it’s often good to get a quick idea of this stuff before you start.

5. Share Creativity: No one person at the table has full control over what
happens in the game. If someone does, you get some really boring times.
At the very least, a player generally controls most of one character in the
game. There are an infinite number of little variants on how the Guide
and the players share control over who gets to put stuff in, and things
work best once the group hits a level of input from each person at the
table that they’re comfortable with. Find that level. If you’re looking for
ways to muck about with that level of input, there are quite a few ways to
do that.

6. Seek Consensus: The people at your table have, if your game is

actually running at all, a consensus. The ideas in their heads of what the
game is and does match up well enough to produce good play. Sometimes
a group will hit on little moments when their ideas just don’t match up,
and they’ll need to talk about what this specific thing looks like in their
heads and agree on one way to go about it. Once in a while, one of the
people at the table will want to bring something in that they aren’t sure
will match up with what the others have in their heads, and it’s a good
idea for them to mention that before they do.
7. Negotiate Honestly: When problems come up in your group, the first
step is to make sure that everyone at the table is onboard with at least
the basic ideas of the first five things here – they don’t have to be “skilled”
at these things; being onboard is plenty. If they aren’t, I don’t really have
any good advice for you – for myself, I likely wouldn’t play with them for
much longer. If they are, and you still have a problem, then it’s time to
sort that out. It’s usually a very bad idea to try and solve out-of-character
problems with in-game events. That’s dishonest, and doesn’t generally
work. Also, using the rules to ‘punish’ your players or ‘get back’ at your
Guide? Same thing.

8. Consider Your Options: When someone makes an attempt to alter

'your part' of the fiction - the world if you're the Guide, your character if
you're a player, you have choices. You can simply agree, or disagree; you
can put it to the mechanics, you can modify what they’ve stated and give
it back to them. Limiting your options in this case is silly; most advice to
limit these options in a ‘positive’ way comes from a desire to keep the
energy of the game high, or allow for trust between players above and
beyond the basic average; those are good goals, but instead of using
limits on yourself and others to achieve them, simply remember that
your decisions will affect those things as well as the specific matter at
hand.

9. Watch The Spotlight: At any given instant of play, someone has the
spotlight. This doesn’t just mean ‘one person is talking’. It means that if
there are a whole string of scenes, one person is usually “centre stage”;
the scene revolves around their stuff, whether that’s world stuff or
character issues or whatever. If that person isn’t you, then you’re a
supporting character in that scene; try to play good support, whether
that means keeping quiet, offering support or advice, playing up the
effects the setting has on your character a bit, whatever. If that person is
you, then fill that scene; it’s there for you to step into. If nobody is sure
who should have the spotlight, then act as support for each other, until
the focus hits. But watch that spotlight, too. If you’re getting more than a
fair share, work to make more scenes about other characters. If you’re
getting less than your share, then when a scene doesn’t really have a
focus, step up and take it. Sometimes the players will think that different
people are getting too much, or not enough spotlight time – talk about it;
most of the time, whoever’s being a hog or hiding away just needs to
know about it.
10. Play The Game At The Game: This is a close partner to sharing
creativity. Sometimes, you’ll have an idea about the game before you sit
down at the table, about something you’d like to see happen there, or
even a whole string of them. That’s good stuff. But when those ideas start
to look like a storyline, you need to be careful with it. A storyline is great
raw material, but don’t get too attached; if you stuck on it, you’ll find
yourself pushing to make it happen, and ignoring or working against all
the other good ideas and creative input at your table. Don’t play the game
before it starts – play the game when you’re at the game.

11. Show Your Stuff As You Go: Almost everybody wants to feel like the
fictional world, and the characters in it, are real to them enough to
imagine. This is achieved by describing things, but nobody wants a
drawn-out description, or huge whopping chunks of detail. If someone
rattles off ten facts a scene or a character, only a few will be noted. The
key is to describe as you go. If a player wants us to know that her
character Jill is a graceful woman, she shouldn’t simply tell the group that
at creation; her character should ‘glide’ and ‘move nimbly’ in play – her
description at creation need only be a single, vivid image, that she can
build on by describing not only what the character does, but how. This
works for the GM, too; when the characters walk into a abandoned study,
it can simply be old, dusty, smelling of books; as the characters interact
with it, the thick books, the puffs of dust as things are moved, come out.
Good descriptions start small, and grow over time.

12. Learn To Speak The Same Language: This is an ongoing effort that
every group needs to make together. Every single person thinks that
different phrases and wordings imply slightly different things, and this is
one of the biggest things that can knock down even an honest attempt at
talking to other people. Your group, to communicate both well and
quickly, will sometimes need to hash out things related to this; accept
that it’s going to happen and try not to get too serious about a problem
until you’re sure this isn’t it.
Section THREE

ENGINE
 Track And Roll
This section is largely composed of notes on what resources and
numbers players have to draw on and manage within the game, as well as
on how dice rolls are made in the game. Each roll packs in a fair bit of
action; they aren't strictly succeed-and-fail, but rather “How much, and
of which things, did you get during this action?”. Rolls as described here
are made exclusively by the players; the Guide does not need to roll dice
at all in a session of (though randomizing various things is something
they may wish to do).

THE DICE
To use this engine, you will need at least four dice. These will preferably
be fudge dice (which have the faces A, B, C), but can be regular six-sided
dice if desired. If using regular six-sided dice, you'll treat each result of
1-2 as B, each result of 3-4 as A, and each result of 5-6 as C; these
equivalencies are also shown at the top of the general 'stakes sheet' to
keep that reference handy for you.

THE SHEETS
You'll need character sheets for this engine; the items on these are
described in this section, and notes on how to fill them out are described
given in the characters section.
In addition to these character sheets, the Guide may choose to use a
general “stakes sheet” showing the most common dangers and
augments, and place tokens on during rolls as a reminder of what's at
stake in a given die roll.

TOKENS, PENCILS, NOTEPAPER

A pile of pennies, colourful stones, glass beads, poker chips, or other
tokens makes handling and marking things at the table a good bit easier;
these rules assume you have something like that on hand. Likewise extra
pencils and notepaper, as is generally the case in tabletop RPGs, are
pretty generally handy items to have available should you need them.
When tracking resources like strain and infection, you're likely to do a
good bit of marking and erasing, so bringing a decent eraser to the table
is also a good idea.
 Table Layout
During play, each player will generally only need their own character
sheet, and access to a pencil and dice. The Guide will usually need notes
and rules sheets, and a stock of tokens. When rules are in use, the Guide
will also often lay out a sheet to track stakes on (either a general stakes
sheet or a printed copy of a full action), and use token to mark dangers,
moving them off if cancelled and marking augments if gained.

PLAYER

PLAYER

PLAYER CHARACTER
SHEET

CHARACTER
SHEET
CHARACTER
SHEET

TOKENS
STAKES OR
& DICE
ACTION
SHEET

GUIDE
NOTES
AND
SHEETS

GUIDE
 Things To Track
Each player character has a sheet filled with various things to use,
manage, and track. These are:

STATISTICS (GRIM, KEEN, QUICK, VITAL)

Every character will have a score for each of these four statistics, ranging
from 1-4. This score is given in the form of dots; each blacked-out dot is
one point in that score. The meanings of the four statistics are best
understood by looking over the actions attached – Grim is about fighting
and gritting your teeth, Keen is about brainpower, Quick is about
mobility, and Vital is about being healthy and charming (which are more
deeply connected in the apocalypse than one might guess at first).

TALENTS
Each character will have some number of talents – unique abilities that
let them alter the basic running of the system in a variety of ways, or do
unusual things that the system only allows those with the right talents to
do at all. These are covered in more detail in the character section, as the
best introduction to talents is to just read a few of them.

STRAIN AND INFECTION

Strain and infection track problems characters can have; they are
presented on the character sheet as lines of boxes that are referred to as
“bars”. The strain bar tracks 'normal' troubles like fatigue, wounds,
hunger, thirst and stress; when a character has one of these states, it gets
marked in a box on the strain bar with a letter (T for thirst, H for hunger,
etc). Infection is marked off when a character is touched by the undead
blight, and regulates how close they are to turning into one of the
walking dead. Some further details on these are given next page.

GEAR AND LOAD

Gear is also given as a string of boxes, in sections marked “light load”,
“heavy load”, and “extreme load”. Each significant item (like a shovel) or
bundle of items (like a toolkit) is recorded on one line, filling up light
load first, then heavy, then extreme. Carrying enough stuff to make a
heavy or extreme load can lead to fatigue and penalties. More details on
gear and the rules around it, where needed, are given in the gear section.
 The Strain Bar
You have eleven strain boxes; when you become hungry, thirsty,
wounded, fatigued, or stressed, you will mark these strain boxes.
When all eleven boxes are marked, your character is in crisis, is collapsed,
or is dead. Here's how that works:

Crisis When the whole strain bar is filled, but you are not
collapsed or dead as below, you are in crisis. While in
crisis, you roll one less die on all rolls, and each further
strain taken converts one non-wound strain into a wound.
Collapse When the whole strain bar is filled, and half or more of the
boxes (that aren't blackened) are wounds, you are
collapsed. You fall unconscious until you heal;
additionally, each further strain converts one non-wound
strain into a wound.
Death When the whole strain bar is filled, and all spots are black
or wounds, you die. You don't turn, just die.

The Infection Bar

When your infection bar is completely full, you turn. You become one of
the dead, and hostile to the living. The Guide takes over your character.
What you become depends on the number of changed and seeker talents
you have – if none, you become a shamble. If one to three, a gaunt. If
more, an alpha. Changes and abilities themselves will largely be shed in
the transformation, though some may remain.

Character Needs
Food You need to eat; every day without food, mark a hunger.
For each two days you eat well, heal a hunger.
Drink You need water; every day without water, mark two thirst.
For each two days you have enough to drink, you heal one
thirst.
Sleep You must rest; a night of heavily disturbed sleep costs one
fatigue and denies you the usually-available recuperation
roll. A night without sleep entirely means you must mark
two fatigue (and may not recuperate).
 Making A Roll
Dice rolling comes out of the usual back-and-forth of play, as follows:

1. THE GUIDE SETS THE SCENE

In the normal course of play, the Guide is consistently setting scenes up.
When anticipating rolls, the Guide may be a bit more precise about the
details of the scene, but otherwise as usual.

2. A PLAYER DECLARES AN ACTION

Again, as is generally happening, players declare and describe actions for
their characters. If the player is anticipating a roll, they may be more
specific in this description, or the Guide may prompt them for details.

3. THE GUIDE DECLARES A ROLL

Hearing what has been proposed, the Guide states that a mechanics-
governed action (usually one from the actions section, but possibly ad-
hoc or created by the Guide) is now going on, and a roll will be needed.

4. DICE AND STYLE ARE DECIDED

Each action is tied to a statistic (Grim, Keen, Quick, Vital); if the action is
Guide-created, they'll tie it to one. The player grabs dice equal to their
dot rating in that stat – or, if they have a talent that lets them swap it, in a
different stat. Based on the description of the action, the Guide will
decide if the character is being Bold or Cautious (the style); if it could be
either, the Guide will likely ask the player which they intend.

5. STAKES ARE LAID OUT

Based on the action, scene, and style, the Guide will lay out stakes for the
roll (as in “What's at stake?”). There are three kinds of stakes – dangers,
augments, and automatic results; more on those shortly.

6. DICE ARE ROLLED AND REROLLED

The player rolls dice equal to the number of dots their character has in
the approach used. If acting cautiously, all A and C dice are rerolled
once. If acting boldly, all A and B dice are rerolled once.

7. DICE ARE ASSIGNED

The player then spends B results to cancel dangers and C results to gain
augments, one for one, as they like.

8. RESULTS ARE DESCRIBED

Finally, the Guide describes what the final outcome looks like, setting the
scene for further action.
The Three Kinds Of Stakes

AUTOMATIC STAKES
An automatic stake is something that will happen as a
result of the action; it can't be removed. When stating
any automatic stakes for an action, the Guide will
generally state them aloud without marking them in
any specific way.
In the action listings, suggested automatic stakes are
marked out with an exclamation mark.

DANGERS
A danger is something bad that will happen on a roll
unless the player spends a B die to cancel it. There are
ten general forms for dangers given on the stakes sheet
(given shortly). When stating a danger, the Guide will
often put a token on the stakes sheet, on top of that
danger – which the player can then remove by spending
the die.
In the action listings, suggested dangers are marked out
with a B symbol.

AUGMENTS
An augment is something that won't happen as the result
of the action unless the player spends a C die to make it
(but which can). There are ten general forms of augment
on the stakes sheet. When giving a possible augment the
player might buy, the Guide will often just point to which
general form this fits into; some players prefer to put
tokens on these upon buying them.

In the action listings, suggested augments are marked

out with a C symbol.
 Bonuses And Skilful Rolls
Bonus dice can be given by talents or by the Guide, and are just what they
sound like – additional dice given to a player to add to their roll. Some
talents give one or two bonus dice in specific circumstances, and the
Guide may choose to do likewise.

A single bonus die given for pure preparation beyond the notes for
actions should be the result of significant planning or assistance to
improve on circumstances, and rule out unpredictable factors. Two
bonus dice should mean “near perfect preparations, carried out in detail”,
as appropriate to the context. In relatively mild-stakes cases, if
characters do the amount of work needed to have two bonus dice, the
roll can be skipped and a perfect result simply given to them. In cases
where the preparations are so extended because calamity or sudden
death is a danger, the roll really should be kept anyway.

TOO MANY RESULTS?

If you roll more of a given kind of result than you can reasonably use, the
excess results are discarded. For example, if your roll came up C, C, C,
C, but there were only three augments you could realistically add to the
roll, then the fourth C is wasted.

ROLLING SKILLFULLY
A very few talents allow you to “roll skilfully”. Rolling skilfully takes the
place of rolling either boldly or cautiously. Instead of rerolling dice that
aren't of a prenamed type, you make you starting roll, and then pick and
choose exactly which dice you would prefer to roll again. You could thus
keep a C and a B, and reroll the rest, or however you like.

THE ENEMY DIE

On occasion, where the player is facing an intelligent or unpredictable
adversary, the Guide may give the player a die of a different colour than
the others, and tell them “that's the enemy die”, or may roll such a die at
the same time as the player. This die is not rerolled with player dice, as
it's not part of their action. Rather, the enemy die alters the stakes in the
midst of the action. If the enemy die comes up C, the Guide adds a new
augment to the roll the player is making – the enemy has made some
crucial error, and the player can seize on this opportunity. If the enemy
die comes up B, the Guide adds a new danger to the roll – the enemy has
sprung some added surprise on the character in the midst of the action.
If the die comes up blank, no change to the stakes is made.
 An Example Roll
Holly is playing Sergeant Baines, a Badge; Levi is the Guide:

1. THE GUIDE SETS THE SCENE

Levi: Okay, so, the stairwell seems clear going up, but a couple floors
down, on the landing, is the bloat from before. Big dead thing, puffed-up
sacs of ucky, bit of fog around it, that you kicked away on your way in?

2. A PLAYER DECLARES AN ACTION

Holly: Right. Ick. Well, we need to get down, and I'm the one with the
best protection, so I'm going right in. Axe out! Chaaarge!

3. THE GUIDE DECLARES A ROLL

Levi: Okay, so, fight roll, obviously.

4. DICE AND STYLE ARE DECIDED

Levi: Fight uses grim, so four dice for you. And I'm going to take that
“Chaaarge!” as you jumping down the stairs and getting aggressive on the
attempted head-smashing, so you're rolling bold.

5. STAKES ARE LAID OUT

Levi: Okay, you get an automatic graze on it for one damage. Dangers
here are that it'll slam you into something for a wound, and that you'll
get sprayed with goop or breath in some infectious fog, for one infection.
For augments, beefing that graze up to a serious hit for three damage,
buying more grazes, bumping those up to serious hits, your pick of feats.

6. DICE ARE ROLLED AND REROLLED

Holly (Rolls four dice, her rating in Grim, get B, B, A, A): The dice think
I'm being cautious. (Rerolls everything, gets B, C, C, C): Okay, better.

7. DICE ARE ASSIGNED

Holly: I'm going to spend that one minus to avoid the infection, and...
three plusses. So, one to make my graze a hit. One to buy another graze.
One to make that graze into another hit. So I hack it twice for two
damage each; four in all. And I get hit.

8. RESULTS ARE DESCRIBED

Okay, so Sergeant Baines vaults down the stairs, hacks at the bloat's neck,
it reels around spewing nasty. Baines dodges that, but catches a fist for
one wound, bounces off the wall and comes back in to decapitate the
already-injured thing. Victory for you! Of course, now the stairwell is
slimy and fogging up quickly; that thing is deflating.
 Chance Rolls
A chance roll is a a minor mechanic used when a little randomness is
needed, but a full action roll isn't called for. A single die is rolled. If the
die comes up C, something good (if possible) happens. If it comes up B,
something bad (if possible) happens. If blank, something neutral
happens.

“Your Go”
When the action is coming hot and heavy, with a lot of characters on the
scene, then action can be split up so that characters take turns. Each
player has their go, and then all opposition have theirs. Guide characters
don't make rolls on their go, though; they force player characters to make
rolls, instead.

If the players were in a skirmish with a powerful monster and six of its
underlings, they might each pick one to fight – and after those rolls, the
rest of the enemies might pile on, forcing new rolls where some of the
characters are facing a lot of enemies at once.

Time here is flexible; a whole go-round of the table in a fight might be a

few seconds. A go-round of sweeping a building while enemies creep
around attempting to get in position for an ambush or to flee might be
several minutes. The Guide should decide about how long a round is
running based on the general feel of the action.
Section FOUR

CHARACTER
 Building Character
Character creation is generally a very quick process; just running
through the steps here is all you need to do.

CHOOSE AN ARCHETYPE AND MOTIVE; GIVE THEM AN IDENTITY

There are ten archetypes given. These archetypes are “blank faces”;
they're concepts for you to flesh out with details of your own. Talk about
them with the other players in your game, and choose one that suits.
Choosing your archetype should be followed up by getting a sense of
identity for this imaginary person. Giving them a name, decide what
their profession was before, and selecting one of the motives for them.
Going beyond the sheet, consider and decide on the ethnicity, gender, and
sexuality of your character. While there aren't any rules involved in these
choices, these decisions can help shape the identity of the character.
If you'd like to discuss some option for play that might reasonably have
an impact on the rules – a character who needs a wheelchair for full
mobility, for example, or with limited or differing senses – discuss what
rules seem sensible with the Guide (and see below for an example).
This will give you a very basic sense of identity for that character. More
details may be good, but aren't critical. If the Guide has a starting city
and set ready, they'll present them so you can answer “Why did you end
up here?”

NOTE YOUR RATINGS

Each archetype comes with a list of scores that you can simply copy onto
your character sheet – ratings for grim, keen, quick, and vital. These
ratings will always be 1, 2, 3, and 4.

PICK TALENTS AND GEAR

Each archetype has a list of talents; pick two of those and note them on
your character sheet. Each archetype also has several possible starting
packages of equipment; choose one of these.

DIFFERING ABILITY: AN EXAMPLE

A character that employs a wheelchair to get around would roll one or
two less dice when moving without it, wouldn't suffer from encumbrance
for loads on the chair (up to its limit), and would be faced with
difficulties and dangers of getting their chair in and out some places.
 Advancement
Characters advance primarily by gaining and spending experience points.
Most of the time, the Guide will give out about one experience point for
each hour actually spent playing (ignoring time just jawing and getting
ready or winding down).

SPECIAL AWARDS
The Guide may give out added experience the characters succeed at some
significant accomplishment, or manage to buy enough time that they can
spend a few weeks honing skills and studying. Generally, this shouldn't
be more that the amount that would have been given out for the session
anyway.

SPENDING EXPERIENCE
Experience points are used to improve character scores, gain new talents,
and re-buy lost infection boxes. Here are the costs:
Improve A Stat Experience points equal to the new
rating of all your stats combined.
Gain A Talent. Experience points equal to the new
total number of talents you'll have. If
talent is from another archetype, add
three to this cost.
Change Motives One experience point if from archetype,
two if not.
Restore One Blacked-Out Experience points equal to the number
Infection Box of unblacked boxes you currently have.

BUYING CHANGED AND SEEKER TALENTS: THE SHIVERS

There are no special limits on buying changed and seeker talents.
However, when a character buys a changed or seeker talent, doing so
means that their body is changing in response to plague exposure. Even
if they've never been severely infected, everyone has been exposed.
When this takes place outside of a withstand roll, the character will
spend at least one night sweating, tossing, and hearing whispers, before
waking up altered. They've had and fought a minor bout of infection,
albeit one small enough that it doesn't require rolls.
 Day Zero And Archetype Shifts
If the game is set on “day zero” (that is, characters have not encountered
the blight at all up until this point), then here's a general limit that should
be put into place:

You can't start play as a Changed, Seeker, or Slayer.

OPTION: ARCHETYPE SHIFTS

Allowing archetype shifts is an optional rule that's strongly
recommended if the archetypes are limited.

If this is allowed, characters gain the option to change archetypes as play

goes on, paying 6 experience points to do so. A character that has bought
two talents from another archetype at the out-of-archetype cost may
change to that archetype for free (they've already paid to do so).

When a character changes archetype, they can select a new motive from
those allowed by the new archetype – or keep their current motive, if
they prefer. Their stats do not change to those of the new archetype; they
keep whatever stats they have. The talents of the new archetype are now
cheaper, and those of their old archetype are now more costly. A
character may only change archetypes once.

The Guide might choose to allow repeated archetype shifts, if desired

(possibly at an increasing cost each time), or to leave the talent list of the
old archetype open at the original cost to a character that has switched
over – but doing both weakens the distinctiveness of archetypes, and so
isn't recommended unless that's what you want.

The Guide may also limit what archetypes can be changed to. For
example, the Guide might decide that over the course of the Apocalypse,
you can switch over to being a Tinker, Slayer, Seeker, or Changed, but
can't switch to being a Medic, Badge, or Academic, on the grounds that it
takes too long, formal training is needed and doesn't exist, or the like.

GUIDE CLARITY
If any of the rules above are employed, the Guide will want to note down
how they intend them to work, tell the players, and make sure the note is
available to reference later on. Being suddenly denied or confused about
how a character can advance is frustrating and avoidable by having clear
notes on this.
 The Academic
Lab Rat, Professor, Thinker of Theories

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

ACADEMIC MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Analyst You are baffled by the complex impossibility of the

blight, and are driven to learn how it functions.
Mark +1 Xp after a session if you learned more about
the workings of the blight.
 Professor You are driven to keep the fire of knowledge
burning and share what you know with others.
Mark +1 Xp after a session if you shared information
gained through hard study (recent or past).
 Nemesis The blight destroyed all that you care about, leaving
you determined to strike back against it. Mark +1
Xp after a session if you found new ways to attack the
dead or the blight, or built weapons against it.
 ACADEMIC TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Credible When someone advocates, and you back them up

with figures and data, they may roll skilfully; if
they already would have, they gain a bonus die.
 Detached When you roll to endure, you can roll with keen
instead of grim.
 In My Field Name a field of academic expertise (chemistry,
biology, architecture, sociology, etc). When you
observe an area, you can roll skilfully, stating that
you're “on guard” but also looking for hazards and
facts related to this field.
 Clarity When pooling research progress with others, you
do not need to sacrifice one point of progress from
each roll that adds to the group total.
 Theorist You can roll skilfully on all research rolls.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 The Army Was Crowbar (Blunt), flashlight, hand radio, solar

Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 Some Of My Old Hatchet (blade), GPS, binoculars, leather
Field Kit. jacket (armour), biological field sample kit
(some biological research supplies), water for
a day, food for a day.
 Stuff From Hammer (blunt), kettle, bedroll, rope, water
My Garage. for a day, food for two days.
 The Badge
Guardian of fallen authority – cop, veteran, fireman.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

BADGE MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Defender You've always worked to keep people safe; that

hasn't changed at all, even if everything else has.
Mark +1 Xp after a session if you work in it to keep
people safe from the predations of the dead..
 Dictator You're ready to take charge, and you're not afraid to
just assume authority. Mark +1 Xp after a session if
you worked to gain or use authority to get things
working the way you think they should.
 Enforcer You're the someone who likes and preserves order,
but you're not the one who makes it. Mark +1 Xp
after a session if you spent time carrying out a dirty
or dangerous job on behalf of a leader.
 BADGE TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Deadeye When you shoot, you can roll with grim instead of
quick.
 Suited Up You're used to protective gear, and can ignore the
weight of one piece of armour for purposes of
encumbrance. Note the item beside (rather than
in) your gear boxes, marking it to note its
exception.
 Authority If you roll to advocate a plan in which you take on
your old role, you can roll roll with grim instead
of vital, and do so skilfully.
 Hard When you ward off enemies while defending
Defence (including ones you ward away with pushback),
you can inflict a graze on one for free.
 Firing When you shoot, you can always “take cover” by
Stance taking the right stance, even if there's no physical
cover to move into, but must pay C for that cover
each go-around that shooting continues.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 From My Shovel (blunt), propane canister, flashlight,

Tool Shed tent, rope, water for a day, flare gun.
 Still In Uniform Handgun, some handgun ammo, water for two
days, hand radio, bulletproof vest or other
protective gear (armour), fire axe (blade).
 Raided An Two handguns, plenty of handgun ammo,
Armoury shotgun, some shotgun ammo, bulletproof
vest (armour).
 The Changed
You weren't much of anything before, but now you're something.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

CHANGED MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Champion You can't get back your humanity, but you can be
their defender and guardian. Mark +1 Xp after a
session if you stand between the living and the dead
in defence.
 Hunter Bitter and lost, you live now to slay the dead; the
more you put down, the better. Mark +1 Xp after a
session if you destroyed several dead creatures over
the course of play.
 Strangeling You like being transformed; they may not be the
gifts you would have asked for, but they'll do. Mark
+1 Xp after a session if you openly make use of your
changed talents to your benefit.
 CHANGED TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Whisper You can hear the dead all the time. Mark one stress to
use this talent; for about ten minutes, you can feel the
position and activity of all dead in twenty feet, and
sense what Alpha dead there 'say' to their underlings.
 Rotgut You can eat foulness and drink slime. You can
substitute any uninfected organic matter that you can
chew (including ground-up things you couldn't, like
wood pulp) for food. You can drink dirty water
without issues.
 Weapon You have grown natural weapons; claws, a splayed
arm, something else. Name a weapon. If unarmed,
you count as having it. You can take this talent
repeatedly.
 Armour You have natural armour in the form of chitin or fur.
You can convert one damage to fatigue per conflict,
marking this talent when you do (and erasing the
marks after the scene). You can instead mark this
after you convert damage to fatigue, to block the
fatigue as well.
 Carrion Carrion outside of alpha control react to you in a
Lord friendly fashion. If you take care of one (only one at a
time), it'll bond to you; it won't understand orders,
but will follow you and attack only those you fight
(fighting as if affected with a sorcery Binding). You
can start play with such a companion.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 The Army Was Hatchet (Blade), flashlight, hand radio, solar

Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 Grabbed It Machete (blade), rope, flashlight, leather coat
At The Mall (armour), water for a day, food for a day, some
brandy and lots of cigarettes (consumables).
 Stuff From Hammer (blunt), kettle, bedroll, rope, water
My Garage. for a day, food for two days.
 The Courier
Securities driver, bike messenger, drug runner...

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

COURIER MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Gopher You prefer being one part of a smooth-working

group, and don't mind being a follower. Mark +1
Xp after a session if you keep your group working
together (often by following someone's lead).
 Nomad While you might operate from a base, your real
home is on the move. Mark +1 Xp after a session if
you play out your need for new horizons; this
includes being agitated and bored if cooped up.
 Thrillseeker You like risks; ones with big dangers and big
payoffs both. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
gamble with your safety and life to get things you
want or need.
 COURIER TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Jitterbug Before you roll to juke, you can trade in a die, and
gain two progress as an added result of the roll
(though you must still make the roll).

 Velocity As per Jitterbug, but applies to driving instead;

you can trade one die directly for two progress.
 Gunfighter When using a handgun in a melee, you can roll
quick instead of grim.

 The Rush You can vent stress as part of taking wilds risks.
When there's a danger of serious harm to you,
and you choose to roll boldly, you can also spend
C results as if venting.

 Visualize If you Observe a scene for a few moments, choose

“I have intentions”, and describe physical
movement through the scene (as part of juking,
fighting, baiting or defending) as the intent, you
may roll skilfully when rolling to actually follow
through on that intention (on the rolls to juke,
fight, bait, etc).

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 Just... Don't Ask. Handgun, plenty of handgun ammo, biker

leathers (armour), plenty of China White
(cocaine - recreation?).
 The Army Was Shovel (Blunt), flashlight, hand radio, solar
Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 From My Trunk Crowbar, flare gun, bedroll, rope, mechanical
toolkit, day of water, GPS.
 The Face
Sales, politics, entertainment... People were your business, before.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

FACE MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Apostle You need to have, and spread, a cause that draws

people together. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
have embraced and attempted to spread such a
cause.
 Curator Born to manage rosters and schedules, you believe
that good organization makes thing easier. Mark +1
Xp after a session if you help manage people or
supplies in a helpful way.
 Envoy You're a practised representative and “best face” for
other people working together, and it comes easily.
Mark +1 Xp after a session if you worked to make
your close allies look good to others.
 FACE TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Politico The “memory” penalty to advocate lasts only a day

in your case, rather than a week; people don't mind
hearing you talk.
 Teamwork When you do something with someone else, and
both of you make the same roll at the same time,
you can give them up to two of your dice. In return,
they can give you up to two dice back after they are
rolled (whatever results are showing are yours to
spend).
 Musician When you and others are venting through a shared
activity, with you providing music, each C you get
on your roll also means someone else you choose
rolls a bonus die (even after their main roll). If you
get dice from someone else with this talent, those
don't “spin off” if they hit.
 True When you empathize, you can spend a hit to learn
Empath “How does the target really feel about a person they
just said something about?”
 Subtlety When you charm someone, you can spend a hit and
make an assertion or ask a question. Your subject
will end up reflecting on this statement or question
over the next day, even (especially) if it's something
they don't want to consider. There is no guarantee
you'll like their conclusions, but they will think on
it.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 Road Music Guitar, shotgun, some shotgun ammo, leathers

(armour), two days water, one day food.
 Living Rough Kettle, tent, bedroll, one day water, one day
food, handgun, some handgun ammo.
 The Army Was Shovel (Blunt), flashlight, hand radio, solar
Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 The Faithful
Clergy, Preacher, Rabbi, Guru, Imam, A believer, trained and known.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

FAITHFUL MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Apostle You need to have, and spread, a cause that draws

people together. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
have embraced and attempted to spread such a
cause.
 Mystic Old myths and religions have described all the
pieces of this fall. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
made sense of the apocalypse by naming and
describing things in terms of such references.
 Caregiver You're spent your life dedicated to caring for others;
it's just who you are. Mark +1 Xp after a session if
you gave emotional or medical assistance to another.
 FAITHFUL TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Confession You can counsel or take confession; this takes at

least an hour, and is treated as a vent roll for the
subject. They may make this roll skilfully. Their
'loss of control' condition is telling you something
they don't like sharing.
 Fire And You may make threaten rolls using Vital instead
Brimstone of Grim, and may roll skilfully when doing so.
 Martyr You may make endure rolls using Vital instead of
Grim, and roll skilfully when doing so.
 Burning You can effectively drive back evil with a symbol
Faith of your faith. This functions exactly as a single
copy of the Sorcery talent, and in fact, is the
Sorcery talent; you just don't know that. You can
only gain one copy of this in-archetype, and must
pay out-of-archetype costs for further copies of
Sorcery. Adding Arcana requires that you realize
and accept that you are doing something arcane.
 In The Name You must have Burning Faith or Sorcery to take
this talent. When you Abjure, you may ignore the
danger of infection. If there are multiple points of
infection as dangers for some reason (such as an
especially befouled environment that adds the
danger to all rolls), you ignore the first point of
infection as a danger on such rolls.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 The Army Was Hatchet (Blade), flashlight, hand radio, solar

Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 Soup Kitchen Plenty of dry rations (soup), flashlight, some
Supplies medical supplies, some hygienic supplies,
hammer (blunt).
 Stuff From Hammer (blunt), kettle, bedroll, rope, water
My Garage. for a day, food for two days.
 The Medic
Nurse, pharmacist, veterinarian – in the end, it's all medicine.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

MEDIC MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Caregiver You're spent your life dedicated to caring for others;

it's just who you are. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
gave emotional or medical assistance to another.
 Thanatist The risen dead fascinate you; how are they possible,
and how do they work? Mark +1 Xp after a session if
you learned more about the way the dead work.
 Earner Respect, money, a nice home... Your skills earned you
those things before. They will again. Mark +1 Xp
after a session if you traded your skills for social
position, personal or work space, or payment.
 MEDIC TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Bedside When you attempt to charm someone, suspicion

Manner is not a danger unless the target has reason to
suspect you.
 General Before you roll to physic someone, you can trade
Practice in a die from the roll to give them a die on their
next recuperation roll.
 Sanitary As General Practice, but the dice given only help
them withstand infection instead.
 Butchery When you fight the living using sharp
instruments or surgical equipment, you can roll
keen instead of grim.
 Diagnosis When you empathize with someone, you can
spend a hit to learn “How is this person doing,
physically and emotionally?”.
 Bio- You can roll skilfully for research when dealing
Research with the living or with humanoid undead (but not
with roil or energy fields, for example).

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 The Basics Bat (blunt), molotov cocktail, some hygenic

supplies, two days water, bedroll, flashlight.
 Grabbed It Plenty of medicines, plenty of hygenic
From Work. supplies, surgical kit, fire axe (blade), one day
of water.
 The Army Was Shovel (blunt), flashlight, solar charger, some
Handing It Out. purification tablets, some dry rations, some
hygenic supplies.
 The Scoundrel
Thug, Punk, Gangster.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Sweep

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

SCOUNDREL MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Leveler The plague knocked everyone down to the same

level, and it'd be best if they stayed there. Mark +1
Xp after a session if you actively resisted or argued
against formalizing authority.
 Reborn The old world has been washed away for a new one;
you're going to get it right, this time around. Mark
+1 Xp after a session if you made a start, or made
progress, on living right despite a bad history.
 Warlord The strong will inherit the new world; everyone can
see it. And you're the strongest. Mark +1 Xp after a
session if you seized leadership by virtue of strength,
even if only temporarily.
 SCOUNDREL TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Vicious When you attempt to threaten someone, the

target can never choose to get grazed; that option
is removed for free.
 Brawler Unless your enemies have tactical abilities, it
takes one additional enemy to “outnumber” you
(and reduce your fighting dice).
 Kick When you roll to juke, each C you spend is also a
Through graze dealt to a different foe in reach, up to the
number of foes in reach.
 Flurry When you fight, and have a weapon in either hand
(blades, blunts, or one of each), all your strikes
have the special abilities of both bladed and blunt
melee weapons.
 Well-Armed You're used to carrying weapons. You can ignore
the weight of one melee weapon, handgun, or
load of ammo. Note the item beside (rather than
in) your gear boxes, marking it to note its
exception.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 Crack A Beer Leather coat (armour), baseball bat (blunt),

And Watch It hatchet (blade), one day of water, lots of beer
All Burn. (recreation).
 Armed & Stab vest and leather jacket (two armour),
Armoured crowbar (blunt) and machete (blade), three
days of water.
 We Could Go Shovel (blunt), tent, rope, bedroll, flashlight,
Camping. two days water.
 The Scrounger
Junk-picker, Transient, Street-dweller. It's always been bad.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

SCROUNGER MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Kin For once, you're one of the skilled people of the

world. That's valuable to you; so are those that
accept you. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you worked
to fit in and help your group work together.
 'Monger Life is stuff, and there's loads of it now and a lot less
people needing it. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
worked to gather up things that will keep you alive,
comfortable, and happy.
 Squatter Finding shelter, improving on it, but staying ready
to move? That's just life. Mark +1 Xp after a session
if you work to balance, and help others balance, both
wanting good shelter and being ready to bail out.
 SCROUNGER TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Rifling When you roll to search, you can roll quick instead
of keen.
 Durable When you would normally take strain from hunger,
or fatigue specifically from sleep deprivation, you
can mark one point of that on this talent instead of
in the strain bar. This mark can then be recovered
as if it were on the strain bar.
 Eye Open When you recuperate, ignore the “crash” danger;
you will always wake easily if intruded on, and can
ignore a couple of 'false alarms' each night without
suffering sleep deprivation.
 Scramble You can make fight rolls using quick instead of grim,
so long as you are rolling cautiously. If you do this
and gain any C results, you must spend the first to
escape if possible.
 Hardened When you take this talent, immediately erase one
blacked-out box of strain or of infection. You can't
take this talent at creation; characters from other
archetypes may not take it at all. You can take it
repeatedly.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 Stealing The Lots of whiskey, lots of cigars (recreation), fur

Fine Life coat (armour), bedroll, crowbar (blunt).
 Squatting Kit Length of chain (lash), lock and key, bedroll,
lantern,some oil, one day food, one day water.
 Living Rough Kettle, tent, bedroll, one day water, two days
food, hatchet (blade).
 The Seeker
You heard the whispers even without the sickness, and learned a little.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

SEEKER MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Defiant You can feel a great power behind the rise of the
dead, and you intend to use its weapons against it.
Mark +1 Xp after a session if you use your talents to
strike a blow against the dead.
 Mystic Old myths and religions have described all the
pieces of this fall. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
made sense of the apocalypse by naming and
describing things in terms of such references.
 Pilgrim Something else owns the world, now. You're not
about to sign up slavishly, but you need to know
what. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you learn
something new about the ways and order of the dead.
 SEEKER TALENTS
Seekers gain a copy of each of these two talents at creation.

 Sorcery This talent can be taken repeatedly; each copy adds

to the previous, giving you Sorcery 2, 3, etc. You can't
have more copies of it than your dots in Vital. When
you attempt to command the roil to effect, you'll roll
dice equal to the number of copies of this talent you
have. You can always use this talent to abjure, to
assist other sorcerers, and to create effects through
pre-recorded rituals that have been laid down for you
(anyone can, though without this talent, they rely
solely on bonus dice). To gain access to more effects,
see the Arcana talent, below.
 Arcana This talent can be taken repeatedly; each copy gives
(Specify) you access to one additional sorcery effect (but
doesn't give you dice to roll; that's Sorcery, above).
Copies of this should be recorded as Arcana [effect
name] on your sheet. The effects you can gain access
to by taking this talent without special instruction
are: Bind, Conjure, Divine, and Transfigure.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 I Just Need Length of chain (lash), Lots of dry rations,

A Well kettle, two flare guns, bedroll.
 Is There Anyone Solar charger, hand radio, broadcaster,
Out There? binoculars, flashlight, two days water.
 Camping Goods Kettle, tent, bedroll, two days water, two days
food.
 The Slayer
Turns out, the apocalypse is what you were getting ready for all along.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

SLAYER MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Champion You're here to keep the living alive and the dead
back. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you stand
between the living and the dead in defence.

 Hunter You live now to slay the dead; the more you put
down, the better. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you
destroyed several dead creatures over the course of
play.
 Enforcer You're the someone who likes and preserves order,
but you're not the one who makes it. Mark +1 Xp
after a session if you spent time carrying out a dirty
or dangerous job on behalf of a leader.
 SLAYER TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Hard Look You can use Grim instead of Keen when rolling to
sweep or observe. If you are performing a sweep
while driving, you may use Quick.
 Sudden If you put down all enemies attacking you in a
Death fight or shoot roll, and have a C remaining, you
may spend it to cancel all their attacks.
 All-Out When engaged in close combat with the dead, you
Attack may mark a fatigue before rolling, and roll boldly.
If you do both of these things, take two bonus
dice, and use Quick instead of Grim if it's better.
 Pip The Ace When armed with a weapon that can make
headshots, you need one less C than usual to
make one.
 Deep The Xp cost you pay to recover blacked-out
Recovery infection boxes is reduced by one. This talent can
be taken up to three times, and can reduce the
cost to zero (but not beyond). However,
recovering a blacked-out box for free requires a
night of sleep per box; you can still be
overwhelmed by rapid infection even with
multiple copies.

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 Put This Spear (a cut-down shovel; piercing in melee

Together or one-shot ranged), bedroll, rope, some
hygenic supplies, day of water.
 Army Kit Rifle, some rifle ammunition, flashlight, hand
radio, solar charger, some purification tablets,
some dry rations.
 Loaded Stab vest and leather jacket (two armour),
For Death machete (blade), handgun, some handgun
ammunition.
 The Tinker
The mechanic, the engineer, the technician.

Grim 
Defend, Endure, Fight,
Threaten, Work

Keen 
Craft, Empathize, Observe,
Physic, Sweep

Quick 
Bait, Drive, Hike,
Juke, Shoot

Vital 
Advocate, Charm, Recuperate,
Vent, Withstand

TINKER MOTIVES
Choose one of these at creation, and mark it on your sheet.

 Builder Not everything falls apart; some things are built to

last. That's where you come in. Mark +1 Xp after a
session if you worked to salvage or build something of
lasting value.
 Call Me Q Everyone has skills, and every skill comes with
tools and backup to make it stronger. Mark +1 Xp
after a session if you improved on or kept up the gear
someone (even yourself) needs to excel.
 Strategist The dead don't think as well as people do; getting
down and dirty with them is only rarely the smart
way. Mark +1 Xp after a session if you use tactics
(traps, snipers, height, walls) to get an advantage as
part of fighting and guarding against the dead.
 TINKER TALENTS
Choose two of these at creation, and mark them on your sheet.

 Reserves When you would mark fatigue, you can treat this
talent as an extra box to hold strain. This fatigue
is still recovered as usual; you can just handle
more of it.
 Crafter Before you roll to craft, you can trade in a die to
gain one added progress on the task.
 Laborer As crafter, but used when you do work instead.

 Prototyper When you create a prototype (see the research

section), and the end result has one or more
flaws, you can choose one of them; that defect is
removed.
 Inventor You gain a bonus die for research, useable when
dealing with 'pure' mechanisms and chemistry
(this does include electromagnetic items, and
working directly with the roil; so long as a living
or unliving body isn't part of the design, you're
good).

GEAR PACKAGES
To get started quickly, choose any one of the gear packages below.

 From The Big wrench (Blunt), mechanical toolkit,some

Auto Shop. mechanical spare parts, food for a days, water
for two days, lots of cigarette (consumables).
 Electrics And Length of chain (Lash), electrical toolkit, some
Gas. electrical spare parts, propane canister, solar
charger, flashlight.

 The Army Was Crowbar (Blunt), flashlight, hand radio, solar

Handing It Out. charger, some purification tablets, some dry
rations.
 Creating Archetypes
The ten archetypes given cover a wide range of characters, but there are
plenty off strong character concepts that fall outside of that. If you'd like
to build a new archetype to play from, here's the method:

IDENTITY, MOTIVES, RATINGS, TALENTS

What is this archetype in a single word, and how will others think about
them at a glance? The character you have in mind may have a great deal
of depth, but they should also have a “type” others can hold in mind
easily. Find a name for that.
Each archetype has three listed motives – as should yours. Even if you
stick to a single motive while you play a character, it's important to know
what motives you might switch to in play, at what costs. You can borrow
motives from the existing archetypes, or invent new ones that describe
“this behaviour gives more experience”.
Each archetype has ratings for grim, keen, quick, and vital, and for each
of the actions rated above three. Set these; your final ratings must be 1, 2,
3, and 4 in the four statistics.
Each archetype has a list of talents; five or six in total. These should
largely be extensions of the actions the archetype is best at, or whole new
capabilities. See next page for some notes on making talents.

MIXING ARCHETYPES
A player may have a strong concept that combines two archetypes; they
might want to play a architectural engineer, combining academic and
tinker components. This is fine! Treat this as building a new archetype
entirely, borrowing almost the components from the archetypes to be
combined. Mixing archetypes in this way doesn't increase the total
number of available talents and motives such and archetype can have;
this mixed version should list three motives and five talents.

STRANGENESS IN THE MIX

If a mixed archetype includes seeker or changed talents, only the ones
included can be increased with experience. These included talents can
be raised above one dot with symbiosis; other changed and seeker
talents are limited to being gained at the first dot only.
 Adding New Talents
There are six “proto-talents”, listed below. When considering a new
talent, you can adapt one of them to suit, or compare the overall utility of
your idea against these benchmarks. Any new talent should be treated as
“tentative” until it has seen at least a few sessions of play.

 Tuned When you would mark a certain kind of strain

Strain [hunger/thirst/fatigue/stress/wounds], you can
instead tick mark this trait off as if it were an extra
box (and recover it as such as well).
 Expertise You can 'roll skilfully' on [a named action] under
specific circumstances. The more likely the action
is to save your life or dispatch enemies, the more
limiting the circumstances should be (for shoot and
fight rolls, this should be extremely limiting).
 Signature When you carry a named item, or several of it, the
Gear first doesn't count against your carrying capacity.
 Stat When you roll for [a named action], you use a
Switch different statistic than usual.
 Stake When you roll for [a specific action], the stakes are
Shift always altered or added to by [some specific
change].
 Activated Mark [hunger/thirst/fatigue/stress/wounds], or
Effect use time in some way, and this talent activates,
giving you [a benefit]. The order of cost-benefit can
be reversed, giving a benefit now at a cost paid later.
Section FIVE

ACTION
 The Action List
The actions are given here, grouped up into overall kinds of activity for
easy reference when you're moving from one to another quickly in play.

Bait (Quick) Try to lure and lead the dead.

Defend (Grim) Guard a person or point.
Endure (Grim) Hang on for grim life.
Fight (Grim) Mix it up hand-to... Er, hand?
Juke (Quick) Make a run through all kinds of hell.
Shoot (Quick) Snipe, shoot, and blast away.

Advocate (Vital) Work a group to get them on your side.

Charm (Vital) Build a rapport with someone.
Empathize (Keen) Learn what a person really thinks.
Threaten (Grim) Demand action with threats of force.

Physic (Keen) Give care to help someone heal.

Recuperate (Vital) Rest to heal fatigue and wounds.
Vent (Vital) Unwind and get rid of stress.
Withstand (Vital) Fight and symbiose with the plague.

Craft (Keen) Make or fix something.

Work (Grim) Do a job of (fairly simple) labour.

Drive (Quick) Travel by car.

Hike (Quick) Travel by foot for hours or more.

Observe (Keen) Size up an area by eye and by ear.

Sweep (Keen) Move through and clear hostile areas.
 Advocate
(Vital)
When you try to work a group or crowd and convince them of something
(which can be something like “we should all flee to the docks”), this is
your action.

You must be able to make at least some kind of case for what you want;
the Guide judges if you have done this well enough to resolve.
Additionally, what you want will be limited in time and scope – If not by
you, then by the Guide. If you try to convince people to agree to a specific
state of “How we should run things”, and roll well, they may well agree
today. But advocacy doesn't keep people convinced, unless it's to their
benefit.

The automatic and augment stakes of this action are:

MEMORY: The group remembers your attempt; you will risk

offending some of them on other advocate attempts with them
for a full week. This is cumulative, creating multiple copies of
that danger as appropriate.

PARTIAL EFFECT: A small portion of your listeners see some

merit in what you're saying. An easy way to frame this is to
think in these steps: Hostile, Agitated, Curious, Nodding Along,
Supportive; part of your audience has their views on your
proposal improved by one step from whatever it was before.

EFFICACY: You affect more listeners. Putting this in terms of

steps, each C spent here improves the affected audience one
step along this line: Very Few, Some, Half, Most, Almost All.

INCITEMENT: The listeners that you affect are more

impressed; for each C spent on this, their attitude to your
argument improves by another step.
 ADVOCATE: DANGERS
The Guide will apply dangers that they consider appropriate; here are a
few possibilities:

MENACE: Something you say, imply, or even where you look as

you speak, gives someone cause to be angry with you.

DISPLACEMENT: Your advocacy sways someone to action that

you didn't intend, but technically agrees with you.

INDISCRETION: In your speaking, you give listeners more

insight into you than you might like. This can result in their
being convinced of your cause, but rejecting you as leader of it,
or otherwise creating a troubling (and at least partly accurate)
rumour about or reputation for you.

STRAIN: You are left stressed or shaken as a result of your

attempts, taking a point of stress or fatigue.

SOCIAL SKILLS AND PLAYERS

Actions such as Advocate, Charm, and Threaten don't work on player
characters, unless the Guide believes that they should. In cases where
the Guide thinks such an action reasonably would have a significant
impact on a player character, the player of that character should be given
the option to either go along with the effect, or to mark one stress in
order to “shake it off”.

BONUS (AND PENALTY) DICE

If you're known by and trusted by your listeners, or have done something
recently to win their approval, you gain a bonus die. If you are an
effective unknown to the people you're speak to, or they have reason to
be suspicious of you, you roll one less die. The reputation stake is
especially appropriate here; if you have a reputation that applies (as
greedy when you'll benefit materially from your proposal, for example),
that reduces your dice by one. If you have betrayed or cheated a group
outright in the past, the Guide should reduce your dice by one and add
multiple copies of the “offence” danger to the roll.
 Bait
(Quick)
When you get the attention of and then try to lure and lead unintelligent
dead, you'll make this roll. You must have a comfortable lead on them
and free movement to attempt this. The Guide will set a total amount of
progress required in order to lead the the dead where you want them to
go. The basic stakes of this roll are:

TIRED: You mark one strain - this is fatigue if running in the

open, stress if moving in narrow quarters.

DISPLACEMENT: The dead you're luring get close enough that

you will need to Juke to get your lead back.

EFFICACY: You gain progress towards your destination (the

Guide sets how much is needed); one per C spent this way.

SCOPE: You also attract other dead along your path - ones
that otherwise wouldn't have joined in.

BONUS DICE
If the character taking this task wants to attract lots of dead, and is
bleeding (one or more wounds, no recent medical attention), they gain a
bonus die on the roll. Such a character cannot spend a hit to gain the
“limited” opportunity, however, even if it would normally be presented.
This bonus also applies if the character is heavily splattered with fresh
blood from a living (or recently-living) creature by some other means,
whether intentionally or not.
 BAIT: ALTERNATE STAKES
Some alternate stakes the Guide might use when calling for a bait roll:

MAYHEM: The dead you're luring don't follow your path; they
move but along all kinds of routes, and wont arrive at the
destination in a mob (this makes trapping them or blowing
them up less effective).

EFFICACY: You manage to keep the number of dead that you

attract down, pulling only one 'wing' off a larger horde, for
example.

SCOPE: You manage to convey your scorn to a single alpha or

other moderately intelligent dead creature among those
you're luring; it will chase after you as if it were not
intelligent – though you must continue to buy this
opportunity every time you bait these dead, or it will come to
it's senses.

BAIT: INTELLIGENT DEAD

It's possible to bait dead unintelligent dead while intelligent ones are
present, even without infuriating their leader. When this occurs, the
intelligent dead will realize it quickly, and begin seizing control of the
situation if they haven't been infuriated. This may take them some time –
they will be able to 'call off' three or four of their underlings each round
of baiting and reassign them.
Being reassigned doesn't mean that those creatures will stop giving
chase, however. Much of the time, the leader will join the pursuit, but
will do so far more cautiously, and assign pursuers to more cautious
roles; flanking, going around obstacles to cut you off, climbing nearby
heights and stalking the pursuit from there.
If the intelligent dead are guarding something, they might or might not
give chase, and might or might not communicate that they are “leaving
their post” to other intelligent dead. For those confident of their ability
to outrun pursuit in the long term and go to ground, even this can be
enough - A skilled runner can draw off some enemies so that their allies
can come in behind to attack the diminished force left behind.
 Charm
(Vital)
When you aim to charm a minor character, building up towards a
professional, romantic, or friendly relationship, and the Guide wants to
keep it quick, this is the roll you'll make. Let the Guide know what kind
of relationship you're trying to build in advance. The stakes are:

AWARENESS: The target of your efforts becomes more aware

of your existence as a person.

DISPLACEMENT: The target thinks you're looking to build a

different kind of relationship than you actually are. Buying this
danger off means you're clear about what you're aiming for
without being offputting about it – but is no guarantee they'll
want the same relationship.

DELAY: Your approach to the target is badly-timed; you try to

get close too quickly. They'll want some time and distance
before getting closer. This doesn't mean your interest,
whatever it is, isn't potentially returned; just that it'll take
time.

CLARITY: You gain a good sense of the degree to which a

relationship of the sort you want with the subject is actually
possible. This may or may not be what they project; it may or
may not be remotely close to what you would like.

APPEAL: You hit on some activity or interest that appeals to

the target and suits the kind of relationship you want, and
which they might want to share with you. To the degree that
you can make a good impression on that front, dice spent
here mean you do.
 CHARM: ALTERNATE STAKES
Some alternate stakes the Guide might use when calling for a charm roll:

ATTITUDE: If the Guide would prefer to use a charm roll to

replace the entire in-character conversation rather than
augmenting it (useful if it wouldn't be very engaging to play
through), they can simply use steps of attitude as in advocate
(Hostile, Agitated, Curious, Friendly, Supportive,) with each hit
put toward this stake improving the attitude of the other party
by one step.

SYMPATHY: Spend a C on this to indicate that you are honestly

explaining your motives (or two if you are dishonestly doing
so) in a way that can be related to. This can cure a bad
reputation you suffer from, or confusion cause by rumour. The
Guide will likely ask you to relate what you are explaining, if it
isn't part of the roleplay.

WITH ROLEPLAY OR INSTEAD?

The Guide can ask for a charm roll after the exchange of a few in-
character lines of roleplaying, at the end of a scene, or instead of one; this
should typically depend on whether playing out the scene will be
engaging and forward the action of the game, or just a chore.

CHARM AND ADVOCATE

Advocate is used to convince groups to do specific and concrete tasks,
while charm is used to found (potentially) ongoing relationships. With
individuals. For anyone hoping to make something large happen, and
keep it going, both are needed.
For example, if you wanted to convince an enclave to trade with your
group of scavengers, you could convince the group as a whole to engage
in a specific instance of trade by advocating it. If it works out, and keeps
working out, they might continue – or you might need to convince them
repeatedly, and possibly under mounting penalties for regular visits,
people offended, natural suspicion, and more.
To resolve this and keep it resolved, you need a few friends on the inside.
Leaders who feel like you've got a stable trade relationship developing,
friends who hope to see you back that you relax with... and you may
need to defuse a few offences and fight your reputation.
 Craft
(Keen)
When you repair or craft something complex, you'll make this roll. You
will need tools and materials. The Guide will set a total amount of
progress you must build up to in order to finish the work.

The basic stakes are:

EXPENSE: You use up some of the needed materials; if you

don't make progress, this means breaking or discarding some.
If you had “just enough” materials left, a roll without progress
means you can't finish, even if you're very close (you just need
that one last part).

AFFLICTION: Each C here removes a potential flaw from your

work, from those presented by the Guide.

EFFICACY: Each C here adds an improvement to your work,

from those made available by the Guide.

CRAFTS EVERYWHERE
This roll can be used to represent working on a car, researching a vaccine
for the plague, planning fortifications, anything that's required. If you're
purpose-building something for the situation (drafting plans to fortify a
building, for example), it can give bonus dice on later rolls (like the grunt
work needed to actually build those fortifications).
 CRAFT: FLAWS AND IMPROVEMENTS
The Guide chooses which flaws are likely, and which improvements
possible, for each roll. These have been paired here – a given
improvement can't be taken (if available) unless the paired flaw is
removed if present.

FLAWS IMPROVEMENTS

INEFFECTIVE: The craft does EFFECTIVE: The craft does

less damage, moves more more damage, moves more
slowly, or otherwise is weak at quickly, or otherwise is
its intended function. excellent at its intended
function.

INEFFICIENT: The craft uses EFFICIENT: The craft uses up

up fuel or ammunition rapidly, less fuel or ammunition, and
running out will be a common running out will be a danger
danger of using it. much less often.

OBVIOUS: The craft creates a SUBTLE: The craft is especially

lot of noise, light, or smoke, quiet, non-reflective, and
making the use of it distinctive otherwise less 'showy' than
and highly notable. usual.

HEAVY: The craft is unusually LIGHT: The craft is unusually

bulky and heavy, making it light, making it easier to carry
harder to carry or manoeuvre or manoeuvre.
in a pinch.

JURY-RIGGED: The craft has a DURABLE: The craft has

little integrity, and the danger plenty of integrity, and only
of losing it each time it is used. risks losing it if ill-used.
 Defend
(Grim)
When you spend your time trying to defend a person, place, or thing
other than yourself from attackers, you'll make this roll. You must be in a
position that allows you to do this fairly reasonably. If you are defending,
you can't also be defended by others – attackers can always force fight
rolls on you as you defend.

WARD OFF: You ward off one enemy that would otherwise
attack or move past the target of your defence.

DISPLACEMENT: One of the attackers hits you rather than

their target with their attacks, forcing you to mark whatever
strain applies. Cancelling this strain costs a B per attack.

EFFICACY: You graze one of the attacking foes, dealing one

wound. For C C, this becomes a solid hit, as applicable to the
weapon you're using.

SCOPE: You ward off further enemies. Spending C here means

you ward off up to three foes from attacking or moving to the
target of the defence. Spending C C here means that no
enemy can reach the target, regardless of the number of foes.

DEFEND: INTERRUPTING
A player can declare that they are defending a person, spot, or thing in
advance, to make rolls on their go, or at the moment an attack is made on
that subject. When they do the latter, they also give up their next chance
to go in the conflict at hand. To interrupt in this way, the obvious
restrictions apply – they must be in a reasonable position to do this. If
their position isn't all that reasonable, and they're rushing in, the Guide
may reduce their dice by one.
 DEFENDING ON THE MOVE: ALTERNATE STAKES
Some stakes (share with the Juke list) that can apply to someone who is
engaging in a running defence:

STRAIN: You mark one fatigue.

EXPENSE: Some piece of gear you're carrying gets grabbed by

the crowd or snagged on a hazard; the Guide picks which (but
coats and weapons are obvious). It gets grabbed away from
you, unless you stop juking and fight or deal. If you do, you'll
have a single go with the snag before more enemies pile on (or
whatever danger hits).

EFFICACY: You make one point of progress towards your

destination per C spent on doing so.

SHOVE OFF: ALTERNATE STAKES

If the character is in or on a vehicle, and trying to defend the vehicle,
driver, or passengers from attacks by hangers-on, the Guide might
replace some stakes with these:

DISPLACEMENT: You are knocked askew. In further defend or

fight rolls (or if there is a break in the action), you may spend a
hit to correct this. While unbalanced, you roll one less die to
defend and fight. If you are unbalanced again before
correcting this, you are knocked partly off the vehicle, and
must climb back aboard (see endure).

EFFICACY: You knock a single enemy off the vehicle. If the

enemy has an unusually good grip or position, the Guide may
decide that spending a hit unbalances it (it loses it's next go
rebalancing). If so, another C must be spent immediately or
by someone else before it rights itself to knock it off. Multiple
C dice can be spent on this stake, each shoving at a different
foe (or the same one repeatedly).
 Drive
(Quick)
When you get from one place to another across tricky territory (most of
it) by vehicle, you'll make this roll for every few hours of travel. To do so,
you must have a vehicle and fuel; the Guide will set a progress amount
needed to get where you're going. One roll should be made per driver in
the group (or convoy).

FUEL: You go through fuel on your way; reduce the abstract

amount on hand by a step (in order: Plenty, Lots, Some, A
Little, The Last Of The).

EXPENSE: You damage your vehicle on one of the many minor

hazards cluttering the world. The integrity of a vehicle is
treated as an abstract resource, like fuel; reduce yours by one
step.

EFFICACY: You make one point of progress towards your

destination per C spent on doing so.

DRIVE: CLOSE QUARTERS

Close-quarters driving, shoving through mobs of the dead, changes the
stakes radically – the Guide will likely choose to have a vehicle ignore
fuel use completely, and could add:

MENACE: In skirting around the various crowds of dead, some

of them manage to climb onto your vehicle. Each B spent to
cancel this stake knocks one away; any others must be fought.
If you are driving a motorcycle or other small vehicle, this
stops you.

CRASH: You smash into some obstacle, coming to a stop; your

vehicle loses two steps of integrity, and everyone onboard
takes a wound. One C reduces this to normal integrity loss;
spending C C cancels it.
 DRIVE: ACTION ON, IN, FROM VEHICLES
When a vehicle has hangers-on, or when shooting from or taking other
heated action in motion, the action of shooting or fighting should usually
be made more difficult – here's a danger to apply to the driver in those
circumstances:

MAYHEM: Your driving makes things action harder for those

onboard. Unless this danger is avoided, passengers deal one
less damage, or must spend B B to cancel each strike dealt to
them... Or may even need to spend B to avoid being thrown
from the vehicle entirely each time they have a go at fighting in
this fashion (depending on where they are on or in the
vehicle). Cancelling this danger removes that penalty.

MECHANIZING OTHER ACTIONS

Some drivers will find themselves in the position where they are
effectively performing the sweep or juke action (or possibly even others)
while also driving. In these instances, the Guide should call for a drive
roll, but base the stakes primarily on the other action.

If a scene involves action that has an inseparable blend of driving and

something else (like fighting with a melee weapon from the back of a
motorcycle), then the Guide should have the player roll whichever stat is
lower, and combine stakes from both rolls. This will often result in a roll
with a great many possible dangers – which is appropriate, as driving
while doing something else is a fast path to a severe accident.
 Empathize
(Keen)
When you attempt to read a person and figure them out as you talk to
them, you'll make this roll. The dangers are as below; opportunities vary
according to the situation.

INDISCRETION: The target realizes that you're trying to sort

them out like this, and will likely shut up quickly.

STRAIN: Mark one stress or fatigue; your choice. Ignore this

on your first empathize roll in a given scene.

EMPATHIZE: GETTING A READ

You can attempt to empathize with someone you watch for a few
minutes. You can only attempt this roll once per target. It can be used on
intelligent dead, but you roll one less die than usual (and can only buy
stakes that make sense).

VALUE: You learn what (or who) the target most values of the
things that both you and they can see.

PREDICTION: You gain a general sense of what the target is

most likely to do in the near future (if not interrupted).

APPROACH: You sense what approach seems most likely to

help in charming the target (gaining you a bonus die).
Bargaining, friendship, romance, etc.

WEAKNESS: You sense the best approach to use when

threatening the target (gaining you a bonus die). Direct force,
threatening what they value, etc.

CRAZE: You sense the best approach to use to enrage and bait
the target dead creature (for a bonus die). A feint at
something, moving upwind, loud noise...
 EMPATHIZE: WHAT YOU JUST SAID
You can attempt to empathize just after someone makes a statement to
you, or in your presence. The added stakes:

TRUTH?: You learn whether or not (just yes or no) what the
target has just said is the unvarnished truth, so far as they
know it – if they believe it.

MALICE: You learn if the target is speaking maliciously, with

ill intent to you (just yes-or-no).

VALUE: You learn how important the target considers what

they've just told you – trivial, meaningful, life-or-death.

WANT: You learn what reaction the target wants from you,
generally – agreement, argument, sympathy?

EMPATHIZE: LET ME TELL YOU MY THEORY

You can attempt to empathize just after you describe what you think
“really happened” or why a target “actually did it”. The added stakes:

HOT: You learn what parts of the theory are the ones that the
target thinks are closest to the truth.

COLD: You learn what parts of the theory are the ones that
the target thinks are farthest from the truth.

IMPORTANT: You learn which part of the theory, true or false,

is the one that the target thinks of as the most important –
and just how important – trivial, meaningful, life-or-death.
Added C dice spent here find the second most important,
then the third, and so on.
 Endure
(Grim)
When you need to slog through weather, stay in that cramped cupboard
for hours, hold that door shut, and simply hang on for a time, you'll make
this roll. The Guide will set an interval, saying “roll to endure every five
minutes minute, hour” The basic stakes are:

STRAIN: You mark one stress.

STRAIN: You mark one fatigue.

SPEED: You move in or around the scene more than is

assumed at base.

ADVANTAGE: You get settled into the moment, find some

cover, and so on; you can skip the roll for the next interval.
Multiple C dice spent this way can allow you to skip multiple
endure rolls.

BONUS DICE
A character who has made good preparations or has a tool that helps
gains an added die. This includes cold weather gear in winter, wet
weather gear in rain, a wedge for holding a door, hyperventilating before
holding their breath, and so on.
 ENDURE: ALTERNATE STAKES
Some alternate stakes that can be added to endure rolls:

INDISCRETION: You cry out, fumble something, sneeze, or

otherwise do something that may attract unwanted attention.
When a character is hiding and stationary, the roll is to endure,
with this stake added to the roll.

MUDDLED: You aren't especially aware, and don't notice any

new hazards beyond whatever you are enduring or entered
the hard-to-endure situation to avoid (others with you still
might, however).

ADVANTAGE: You remain ready to act quickly as you wait.

When a threat or target moves or acts near you, you can pre-
empt their action with one of your own (you must notice that
threat or target, of course).

ENDURE: CLIMBING AND SWIMMING

Physical exertions that occur over time can also be handled as endure
rolls, if desired. A progress requirement may be attached, usually about
one progress per three feet of climbing or three of swimming. Stakes:

STRAIN: You mark one fatigue.

STRAIN: You inhale a mouthful of water – mark an additional

fatigue. In rough water or other difficult conditions, the Guide
may apply this danger repeatedly.

DISPLACEMENT (Climbing): Your grip slips, and you fall. If

you are climbing a caged ladder or are harnessed, this may
only mean bashing into that cage or needing to regain your
grip. If you are climbing freely, it means falling. On a fall, you
take one wound for each full three feet fallen, though for falls
under six feet, you can convert that one damage to fatigue.
 Fight
(Grim)
When you fight in a melee, you'll make this roll. You must be able to get
to the target in relatively quickly if you're not already stuck in (if not, you
may need a Juke roll to get there).

The basic stakes of this roll are:

GRAZE: You graze your chosen foe, dealing one wound to them.

STRAIN: Your chosen foe strikes you, forcing you to mark

whatever strain applies. Cancelling this strain costs one die
per attack (of whatever type).

EFFICACY: You get in a solid hit; if your weapon has some

special feature or can do more than one wound, spending a
success for a strike means you get that instead of a graze.

FEAT: You perform some feat of skill, from the list next page.
You can perform only one such feat each roll, unless you have a
talent or weapon that allows otherwise.

BUILT-IN STAKE CHANGES

Quite a few changes to the fighting stakes are built-in: Differing enemies
will do radically different kinds of damage, many weapons bring new
features to the table in the form of different solid hits, and armour lets
you change some wounds from enemies into exhaustion.
 FIGHTING FEATS

DISARM: You knock away an item that your target is holding.

This makes it unready – they can't use it effectively for a
round. If you spend C C on this feat, you disarm them
entirely. Enemies with weapons grafted into their bodies
can't be entirely disarmed, but can generally be made
unready.

PIN/GRAB/TRIP: You block a single target from fleeing the

melee on their next go. In some circumstance, whether you do
this by positioning yourself, grabbing a target, or tripping
them may matter. On a catwalk, tripping might work as
shoving a target off a vehicle – but not all enemies can
reasonably be tripped (wallows can't). Many enemies are
dangerous to grab, and flying enemies or those with an open
field of movement may take added effort to pin.

ESCAPE: You cover the escape of one person from the melee;
this can be yourself.

SHOVE OFF: ALTERNATE STAKES

If the character is in or on a vehicle, and trying to defend the vehicle,
driver, or passengers from attacks by hangers-on, the Guide might add
Shove Off (and possibly Unbalanced as well) from the defend stakes.

OUTNUMBERED!
If you've got the drop on an enemy, or if you have them outnumbered,
you get a bonus die to roll. However, the reverse applies – if you're
mobbed or ambushed, you roll one less, and might be forced to roll
multiple times.

PLAYER VS. PLAYER

If players characters fight, they take turns making this roll. This requires
that the Guide invent “monster stats” for both sides, including the
standard attacks for each. Guides should be aware that PvP isn't really
something Infected is built to handle, though; facilitating such action will
always require some improvisation.
 Hike
(Quick)
When you travel across tricky territory or go a long way by foot, you'll
make this roll every few hours. Before you do, the Guide will set a total
amount of progress required in order for you to get where you're going.

PROGRESS: You make one progress towards your destination.

THIRST: You go through water on the way; reduce your water

supplies by one level, or mark a thirst.

FATIGUE: You are tired by the hike; mark a fatigue.

INDISCRETION: You make noise, are visible, shake brush,

leave a heavy trail, and can be noticed easily as you progress.

SPEED: You make one added point of progress towards your

destination per C spent on doing so.

ROLE: You You take on a travel role, from the list next page.
You can take on only one such role each hike roll.

CLARITY: You notice one hazard or encounter before it

happens per C here, up to the number that will occur.
 HIKE: TRAVEL ROLES
Core You help one others who are hiking with you. Offer the
dice you spend on this for open use; anyone can take
one or more of them and roll them again to try and
improve their results.
Trailblazer You move ahead of the group you're travelling with,
searching out the best routes. For each die you spend
on this stake, choose one person – that person can
cancel the fatigue or thirst stake (and re-spend that hit,
if they already spent it).
Sweeper You spend time cleaning up traces and tracks; for each
die you spend in this way, you clear off the evidence left
by one “blatant” person. This doesn't prevent them
from making noise or being visible in general, however.
Skirmisher You spread out from others you're travelling with, in a
position to detect trouble early. While this doesn't
make others less distracted, it does mean that you can
warn them early enough to not worry about it. Of
course, if you remain distracted yourself while doing
this, it's possible you'll “warn” them by falling prey to
something.
Tracker You attend to the traces and evidence left behind by
other travellers that you're following and who left a
trail.

LEFT BEHIND?
If a group that's travelling together puts different numbers of hits
towards progress, then those who put more hits into that stake are
leaving behind the characters who put less hits into it. If they're all right
with that, then that's how it goes.
If not, the Guide should be generous in letting players organize how they
are spending their hits, and let people “take back” hits they've declared
they're spending on progress to spend elsewhere, until the whole group
is satisfied. The characters, after all, have hours to coordinate their
actions, to see who looks lost when they consider breaking trail, who is
lagging a little, and so on.
 Juke
(Quick)
When you run a gauntlet – sprinting through a mob of the dead being the
classic case – this is the roll to make. You can't be stuck in a fight when
you start your run; you need to be free to move. The Guide will assign an
amount of progress needed to finish the run (usually 2-5). Basic stakes:

FATIGUE: You mark one fatigue.

STRAIN: One of the enemies or dangers grazes you on the way;

you mark one strain of the type dealt by the enemy (usually
wounds). If the enemies deal several kinds of strain, you pick
which kind.

EXPENSE: Some piece of gear you're carrying gets grabbed by

the crowd or snagged on a hazard; the Guide picks which (but
coats and weapons are obvious). It gets grabbed away from
you, unless you stop juking and fight or deal. If you do, you'll
have a single go with the snag before more enemies pile on
(or whatever danger hits).

EFFICACY: You make one point of progress towards your

destination per C spent on doing so.

ADVANTAGE: You help someone else; for each C you spend

here, one person you pick gains one hit to their roll.
 JUKE: MOVING EVASIVELY
When you're going fairly quickly between places that are relatively close
together but have plenty of cover, and trying to avoid notice, you can
make this roll to move across that area by going from cover to cover. If
you're moving slowly between such points, the Guide may wish to use
endure instead.

EFFICACY: You make one point of progress towards your

destination. You can choose to ignore this, if you want to
“hover” and wave others over.

STRAIN: You mark one fatigue. If you deliberately aren't

making progress, mark one stress instead.

MENACE: You draw attention from one or more dead things.

The Guide may apply this danger repeatedly, if you're likely to
be noticed, and the question is how many dead you attract.

EFFICACY: You make one added point of progress towards

your destination per C spent on doing so.

ADVANTAGE: You help those behind you with their timing,

waving them to move when it's good, and to stop when
dangerous. Each person with less progress than you gains
one bonus die per hit you spend this way. You can't wave in
others if you have “finished your run” - finishing means you're
fully out of it. To go ahead and lead others in, stop just before
the last point of progress.

JUKE: BONUS DICE

Firstly, before you roll, you may choose to mark a fatigue and take two
bonus dice. Alternately, if you've got a gun that can be used up close, and
ammo for it, you can generally reduce your ammo by one step before the
roll to get two bonus dice, blasting your way through. This applies only
to juking through enemies, not evading notice. Finally, if something is
diverting enemies, take a bonus die. If someone outside the juke is
baiting them, they can give hits as bonus dice to everyone juking.
 Observe
(Keen)
When you examine a place or scene by eye and ear for a time, without
active involvement in it, you'll make this roll. The basic stakes are:

BLATANT INFO: You become aware of all the obvious features

of the area, and a few details that can be spotted by anyone
looking and listening.

EFFICACY: If you take this, choose one of the options below,

and tell the Guide how many C you have to put towards it:

I Have Intentions: Describe to the Guide what you want to do on the

scene; for each die you spend, they'll tell you about one thing you notice
that might go wrong, or one added opportunity you might reach
(effectively, you can suss out the stakes of that roll in advance).
I'm On Guard: For each hit, you'll notice one hidey-hole, hazard, or other
danger that isn't obvious but that you can sense; if you have more dice
than visible and audible worries, you'll learn that. Multiple characters
taking this action will often get duplicate information, but not always.
I'm Tracking The Action: Tell the Guide which activity on the scene
you're attending to, if there is a lot. For each die, you'll learn one thing
that can be figured about that activity; where a group is going, what
they're doing, which one is the leader; things like that. If you have more
dice than there are things you can learn, you'll realize that. too.
 OBSERVE: DANGERS
Most observe rolls don't have any particular dangers; the tension is only
“do you get as much information as you need in the time you have”.
However, observation from hiding, over long periods, or of psychically
active enemies, can introduce a few dangers:

FATIGUE: You mark one fatigue. If a long stretch of

observation is being attempted, either as multiple rolls or in
one “you watch for an hour” roll, this may apply.

STRESS:You mark one stress. Spending time trying to sort out

the actions of dead things that use mental force to control
minions or as a way of warding off enemies can be stressful
simply to observe.

INDISCRETION: You are noticed by one or more dead things.

When observing from close up or from hiding, this can be a
danger – needing to stick your head up to get a good look can
be worrisome.

OBSERVE: DICE FOR QUESTIONS

When tracking the action, if the Guide isn't absolutely certain which bits
of information might be of interest to the characters, they can simply
allow the players to ask one simple question about what they can see for
each hit spent.
Such questions should be fairly observable things, but can also be fairly
vague. For example “Are there any signs that one of them is in charge?” is
open not just to giving orders, but to noticing that one of the dead is
stalking from group to group in a horde, setting off flurries of action
wherever it goes. Equally, “What kind of formation are moving they in?”
could prompt details about flankers, forward scouts, and supply trucks in
the setup of a convoy.
When improvising an encounter, taking questions for hits is a great way
for the Guide to prompt the group into sparking up ideas. Describing the
formation of the enemy group is likely to give the Guide more ideas about
details of other action – it lets the players in on the process of making up
the encounter, in a natural and easily-handled way.
 Physic
(Keen)
When you give care or medical aid to someone, you'll make this roll. To
make it, the care given must be appropriate to the problem – someone
suffering exhaustion needs you to put a meal in them and prep a bed;
someone suffering from wounds needs medicine, cleaning, bandages,
maybe a splint. Someone struggling with the plague needs food, water,
cleaning of any cuts they have, clear lungs...

ADVANTAGE: You give the subject of your care a bonus die to

recuperate and to withstand plague for the day.

EXPENSE: You reduce the levels you have of two different

supplies (food, water, medicine, hygienic goods). In the case of
food or water, this means using an extra day worth. In the case
of other supplies, this reduces the abstract amount on hand (in
order: Plenty, Lots, Some, A Little, The Last Of The). Each of
these supply losses can be made negligible for B apiece.

ADVANTAGE: You grant added bonus dice, one die for each C
spent to do so.
 PHYSIC: SURGERY
When someone attempts to deal with a scar by means of corrective
surgery, this is the roll. Performing surgery requires room, light, surgical
implements, medical and hygenic supplies – and deficiencies or shortcuts
in these should be reflected with less dice being rolled.

CUTTING: The subject of the surgery marks one wound; you

mark one stress. If the subject isn't fully anaesthetized, they
also mark two stress.

EXPENSE: You reduce the levels you have of medicine and

hygienic goods by one step (in order: Plenty, Lots, Some, A
Little, The Last Of The). Each of these supply losses can be
made negligible for a B apiece. If you are fully anaesthetizing
the patient, you cannot cancel the reduction to medicines.

INFECTION: The surgery exposes and allows injuries become

infected, and the infection is overtaken by the plague. The
subject marks one infection.

EFFFICACY: You aid your subject with a lingering ailment;

they remove one scar, and reverse the effect (unblacking a
wound box, raising the lowered score, etc). In general, a
brace, cast, or other aid will be placed, and must be left in
place for a month for this to “stick”.

PHYSIC: CONTAGION GUARDS

Passing around and helping others put on medical masks, gloves, and
other such can mitigate the spread of the blight. Preparing others with
sanitary precautions reduces your medical supplies by one step, but does
not require a roll. Instead, you can distribute one free B result 'banked'
to spend against spattering or airborne infection for each dot of Keen you
have, recorded in gear as “infection protections”. A given subject may
have only one such banked B result (as an item). Such precautions are
always restrictive and hot; the wearer will mark one fatigue after each
hour or scene wearing them. Once the banked results are used up, the
items must be discarded, as they are contaminated.
 Recuperate
(Vital)
When you have any number of fatigue or wounds marked and rest for a
full night or day, you'll make this roll. Recuperation rolls are always
made cautiously unless sleep is induced with heavy drugging, in which
case they are made boldly.

BASIC RECUPERATION: You can erase one fatigue that you

have marked.

SCARS: Your health becomes permanently impaired; choose

one of the scars from next page. If you have no wounds left
after healing (below), or are merely tired, you can ignore this
danger.

CRASH: You sleep deeply as you recuperate. You won't wake

without serious shaking or noise, and will roll one less die for
about an hour after waking.

EFFFICACY: You can erase one wound or one more fatigue for
each C you spend to do so.

CHANGING THE STAKES

If a character is extremely hungry or thirsty (more than three of either
marked), or sleeping somewhere crappy (like in a car), the Guide may
decide that they don't get the automatic rest benefit.

BONUS DICE
To get additional dice for recuperation, physic yourself or have someone
physic you; this can potentially yield several bonus dice.
 RECUPERATE: SCARS
Fragile Black out one marked wound. That strain box is now
useless. Note that you have this scar. This is the most
common scar to choose; others should typically be taken
only after several strain boxes have been lost.
Slowed Your speed and reflexes are harmed by some lasting
harm, from a bad leg that bothers you to a taut scar that
pulls as you move. Reduce your Quick by one, and note
that you have this scar; you cannot improve your Quick
so long as you do.
Drained You don't ever entirely recover from the sickly feeling
and appearance you took on while unwell. Reduce your
Vital by one, and note that you have this scar; you
cannot improve your Vital so long as you do.
Insensate Your senses are harmed, leaving you with some
difficulty focusing, a missing eye, ringing in your ears
regularly; your mental focus is likewise impinged upon.
Reduce your Keen by one, and note that you have this
scar; you cannot improve your Keen so long as you do.
Bent Your frame is damaged in a way that reduces your
strength and stamina, and your confidence in brute
hardship declines with them. Reduce your Grim by one,
and note that you have this scar; you cannot improve
your Grim so long as you do.

OPTION: SAVAGED
Scars are something players will typically avoid at all costs, accepting
them only when medical attention isn't available. If the situations the
players are commonly stuck in include brutal, dirty survival grinds
lasting entire days, such scars will be common enough that each
character might have a unique set.
If there's a medic about, or the play isn't quite so grim as to scar up the
players naturally, the Guide has the option to use it to make threats more
terrible – to declare that some attacks and threats “savage” their target.
A character who has been savaged must then spend two hits to avoid
being scarred on their first roll to recuperate afterwards, or three if
they've been savaged repeatedly.
 Shoot
(Quick)
When you fight at range, you'll make this roll. You must have a ranged
weapon and whatever ammunition it uses to do this. The basic stakes:

CUTTING: The subject of the surgery marks one wound; you

mark one stress. If the subject isn't fully anaesthetized, they
also mark two stress.

EXPENSE: You throw a lot of lead downrange, reducing your

abstract count of ammunition on hand (in order: Plenty, Lots,
Some, A Little, The Last Of The).

STRAIN: Any foes capable of ranged attacks and attending to

you fire at you, and hit, dealing their strain. Each B you spend
to cancel this stake blocks one strain from one attack, unless
you are in cover (see preparation, below).

EFFICACY: If your weapon has some special feature or can do

more than one wound, spending C for a strike means you get
that instead of a graze.

PREPARATION: You dive into cover; while in cover, C dice

spent to avoid getting shot up cancel entire strikes on you
rather than individual points of damage.

VEXATION: You block a single target from leaving their

position; if they do, you'll get a solid hit on them (this can
mean multiple hits in a go).

MOVE: You move around the area of the combat to a new

position. While moving into total cover (for you and your
opposition) requires no added dice, moving to a position of
advantageous cover does.
 SHOOT: CHECK YOUR WEAPON
Specific weapons can radically change the stakes here. You don't need to
worry about blasting away with a crossbow, but can't engage in pinning
either.

SHOOT: FACING THE STORM

Most of the dead don't shoot – enough do that getting shot up is a danger
worth having around, but not enough that it dominates. The dominating
fact in shooting at the dead is typically time. How many rounds of
shooting into the dead are available before they close in and the conflict
changes into a fight, or before they tip over and break into the vehicle
you're stuck in? Can you pour enough damage into the dead that are
making their way onto your vehicle to keep them down, or at least thin
them out enough to make a break for it?

SHOOT: END-OF-FIREFIGHT AMMO

If characters engage in more than one round of shooting, the Guide will
likely want automatically reduce their ammunition by one step at the end
of that conflict. Doing a “shell count” and realizing you're down to the
last of your ammunition, or actually ran dry right at the end, is in-genre
and keeps the tension and need for ammunition on, even for characters
who are conservative with their bullets.
 Sweep
(Keen)
When you work to explore or 'clear' a potentially hazardous
environment, alone or as group leader, this is your action. The dangers
here can be treated as unknowns; making a lot of noise may not matter,
but can still be marked out as a danger. The Guide may want to note
which dangers do matter in advance, and reveal this as appropriate. The
automatic stake and the common dangers that may apply are:

EXPENSE: You or the group incur some minor expense each

time this roll is made, which may be a measure of fatigue,
stress, or even torches.

AFFLICTION: You (or a group member) fall prey to a hazard on

the scene, if there are any, and are snared, take a fall, set off a
trap, or the like.

INDISCRETION or MENACE: You make a lot of noise, which

might attract unwelcome searches.

MAYHEM: You mess the place up, shoving things out of your
way, opening locks destructively, or the like so on. If others
are looking for you or pursuing you through the area, you
leave a clear trail.

DISPLACEMENT: You are confused by any blind twists or

turns or other layout tricks present; this may put you
somewhere odd, or divide your group.

DELAY: The sweep takes much longer than expected, which

may let other events move forward.
 SWEEP AUGMENTS
While sweeps are typically made cautiously, there are plenty of augments
that can be taken...

EFFICACY: You are aware of any enemies and their movements

around you, and can get the jump on them or avoid them (if
possible).

PREPARATION: You keep track of everywhere you've been,

and have a mental (or physical) map of the area covered.

VEXATION: You take time to jury-rig deadfalls, alarms, or

other improvised aggravations in your wake. Work out their
nature with the Guide.

INCITEMENT: You create some minor diversion off your main

path (if possible), which will attract attention shortly.

OBSERVATION: You discover any hidden passages, valuables,

supplies, or other useful goods that are hidden well enough to
require special scrutiny.

TEAMWORK
Assistance and teamwork can be handled in a small group by
1) The leader always rolls cautiously.
2) Each assistant names one augment and then rolls one die boldly; if
they score a C, they gain that augment.
 Threaten
(Grim)
When you threaten a target and actually have a chance at altering their
behaviour, you make this roll; it is always made cautiously. You must
always be in a position to easily harm the target seriously to take this
action. The Guide decides when this is so - with skilled foes, this means
having them flat-footed at gunpoint or the like, but regular people can
potentially threatened much more easily. The stakes here are kind of odd;
as you buy off “dangers”, what you're doing is reducing the options the
target has. After you've eliminated all the options you can, the target
chooses between the remaining ones.

ACQUIESCE: The target can do what you say.

GET HURT: The target can take a solid hit from your weapon.
When this option is chosen, you can decide to “fold”, dealing no
wounds. If you do, you were bluffing, and your bluff has been
called.

FLEE: The target can make a break for it, avoiding your waiting
attack, and scrambling away (you can initiate fighting,
shooting, etc). They take a stress if stress is tracked for them.

BARGAIN: The target can offer you a deal that they think
you'll like.

GET GRAZED: The target can refuse while twisting away, and
avoid most of your blow, taking only one wound; they may
then choose to escape or initiate fighting, shooting, etc.

FREAKOUT: The target can choose to hurt you for one wound,
and then choose again between getting grazed (if it's
available) and get hurt. If you're threatening at range and
they have no ranged weapon, this may not be an option.
 TAKING HOSTAGES
Characters may very well “take hostages” at some point in the game.
This doesn't necessarily playing the part of the villains. If an Alpha and
their dead assistance were building some strange and complex piece of
arcana, and the characters all point their weapons at it while backing
slowly away, that's a hostage. Even showing an intelligent enemy a belt of
grenades and grabbing the pins on them, apparently willing to blow
yourself and them to hell, can suit. When this occurs, the Guide can
adjust the stakes accordingly.

In these cases, the danger-elimination method is still used, but the

dangers may be modified to some or all of :

ACQUIESCE: The target of the threats can acquiesce (which

may mean “do nothing” as you back off).

IGNORE IT: The target of the threats can ignore your threat;
you make the shot, pull the pin, or reveal your bluff.

SACRIFICE: The target of the threats can throw their own body
between you and whatever you're aiming at (when applicable).

FLEE: The target of the threats can make a break for it, mostly
clearing out before you react.

COUNTER: The target can make a counter-offer, to the extent

that they're able. While Alphas and other intelligent dead
don't use language, they can do things like shift slowly away
from exits, while also having their followers slowly begin
surrounding what they value on a scene, as a sort of counter-
offer.

RUSH: The target can rush towards you, closing some of the
distance between you before you have the time to take the
threatened action (which you may then take immediately, if
you wish).
 Vent
(Vital)
When you act to blow off steam and heal stress, you'll make this roll. You
must describe your stress-relieving activities. When you do, choose an
activity that could “go too far” if you lose control, and do some other
(often minor) harm to yourself, take you into danger or mean that you
harm an ally. The Guide decides if the risk suits. Then, you spend your
time (an hour at least) and roll your dice.

LOSE IT: You go out of control, and do whatever your “go too
far “ condition was.

UNWIND: You erase one marked stress per C – or two per C,

if you do lose it.

WAYS TO LOSE IT
Each way of blowing off steam alters the outcome of the stakes; here are
some possibilities:

Booze If you lose control while drinking to relieve stress, you

could get a wicked hangover, and end up trading stress for
exhaustion.

Indulging Indulging in fine food or other rarities can easily use up

significant supplies, reducing what you have on hand.

Thrash It Smashing up a shop or beating the hell out of something

that can't fight back could attract the dead, wear you out,
or even render you unaware while enemies approach.

Novelty Going to the amusement park, taking a joyride, and such

might have a degree of novelty that can be used up (in
steps: Plenty, Lots, Some, A Little, The Last Of The).

Get it on Sex might come with the risk of being a selfish lover (and
denying your partner stress relief), of exhaustion, loss of
novelty, or something else, depending on the approach.
 VENTING SOCIABLY
Venting can be a sociable affair; drinking together, common indulgences,
and more (sex is certainly so, when handled with rules). As such, a
number of stakes from other social actions can be applied to the roll. A
few such stakes:

CHARM: You may make an immediate charm roll relating to

another person venting, and gain a bonus die on it.

SYMPATHY: You explain your motives, working to dispel a

poor reputation or other issue, as per charm.

OFFENCE: You annoy or offend others, as per advocate.

SHAME: Your actions result in a poor reputation that will trail

after you if you attempt to advocate; see that action.
 Withstand
(Vital)
An hour after receiving any amount of infection from a “clean” state, and
for each full day that you carry marked infection boxes, make this roll. To
roll boldly, you must meditate and attempt to visualize and guide the
changes the plague is making in your body; otherwise, roll cautiously.
The stakes are:

SYMPTOMS: You show symptoms of the plague, based on the

number of active infection boxes you have after the roll, and
may be contagious, until your next roll.

WIN THROUGH: You beat back the plague. For each B spent
here, you deal with two boxes marked as infection. The first
such box 'dealt with' on a roll must be blacked out; the rest
may be erased entirely. Once blacked out, a box is useless
unless bought back with experience.

SYMBIOSIS: You ride the transformation. For each die spent

this way, black out one the of boxes marked as infection. If
you black out any boxes this way on a roll, you may also take
a changed talent per hit spent this way – or your copy of the
seeker talent sorcery. You must pay the experience cost you
would usually pay for the talent. If you do not have enough
experience points, this puts you “into debt”.

You are not required to spend C dice you have to buy this; you
can hold them back.
 SYMPTOMS
Below, listed by “amount of active infection”, are a list of symptoms for
the plague. Dangers and automatic problems on rolls as a result of these
symptoms should be assigned by the Guide as needed.

1 Tickle You are not actively contagious at this stage, but you
can sense a little tickle in the back of your throat, and
can hear whispers that aren't there from time to time.

2 Sneezing You're contagious, and sniffle often. Anyone in your

presence in a closed and small space (such as a car)
must make an endure roll each full hour, replacing
the usual danger of fatigue with infection, and
ignoring noise and movement. This includes others
at this or worse levels of infection; the dangers
combine cumulatively. You hear odd whispers often.

3 Hacking As sneezing, but in small spaces, the endure check

must be made each ten minutes. Additionally, the
space doesn't need to be small; in most closed rooms,
an endure roll must be made each hour (a tightly
packed plague ward is almost certain to turn
anyone). You hear whispers often, and are constantly
coughing and hacking.

4 Visions As hacking, but you also begin to see things – spectral

entities that are vague and formless, but which
remind you of people who are dead or who you
haven't seen in a long time.

5 Fevered As visions, but head pain, phlegm, sounds, and

visions constantly bombard you.

6 Collapsed You fall effectively comatose, flopped out, twitching

and stirring slightly over time, but no more than that.

BONUS DICE
To get additional dice for withstanding the plague, physic yourself or
have someone physic you. In addition, when rolling boldly, you may
choose to accept the whispers in advance, listening to them closely. If
you do this, you gain one bonus die, and do not take stress from the
whispers. However, if you listen to the whispers, the Guide chooses any
changed or seeker trait gained.
 Work
(Grim)
When you do a long job of fairly simple, repetitive labour, you'll make this
roll every few hours. The Guide will assign an amount of total progress
(from all workers taking part) needed before the project is done. The
basic stakes are:

PROGRESS: You make one progress towards finishing the

overall project.

FATIGUE: You mark one or more fatigue, as determined by the

Guide; some projects will have several fatigue that can be
cancelled, and some will have automatic fatigue that can't be
cancelled at all.

FLAWS: The Guide will decide without telling anyone if there

are possible flaws in the project (drawn from Crafting or
invented wholesale). Spending one B here reveals any such
possible flaws – each additional B here stops one of those
flaws from actually occurring.

EFFFICACY: You make one additional progress towards

completing the work for each C spent here.

BONUS DICE
To get an additional die for work, develop a good plan for doing the job in
the most heavily-optimized fashion. Or, for a job that uses materials,
burn through loads of extra material to get it right.
 WORK: HAZARDOUS JOBS
As with most low and no-danger rolls, the main reason the Guide will
actually call for work rolls is time – at one roll per hour, is the ditch dug
before the enemies arrive? At one per day, when is the neighbourhood
cleared of corpses, and what kind of state does that leave you in?
However, sometimes there are other issues; here are some added
dangers for work rolls that may apply:

INFECTION: Mark one Infection. This stake might apply when

disposing of bodies, cleaning up the mess after the dead
breach the walls of an enclave, or any other situation where
plague waste must be handled.

MISHAP: Mark one (or more) wounds. If trying to shift heavy

loads quickly, working precariously, or when working with
industrial tools (especially if in ill repair, at speed, or if new to
you), this danger can be applicable. See the gear entry for PPE
for protection from this hazard.

EXPENSE: You waste a significant quantity of needed materials

– as much as you use up normally to gain a point of progress.
If materials are used and are at all tight, this danger may apply.

MENACE: You attract an attack, an encounter, or an outright

fight. When working out in the open, trying to improve or
repair fortifications, or working in a site where dead are
trapped or waiting, this danger can apply. Something similar
could also apply if heavy weather is occurring around the
site; especially if such weather makes it hard to get back from
the work site to safety.

WORK: FLAWS?
The meaning of 'a flaw' changes constantly between tasks. This roll can
be used as the roll to check a perimeter, with “a flaw” being an unchecked
area of possible importance. If used for fortifying a house, a flaw might
mean a weak point where it can be breached. If used for checking
through some complex the characters have taken, flaws would be areas
that you missed.
 Custom Stakes
When characters take actions that aren't represented by the rules, it's the
job of the Guide to make up some stakes for that roll. Here's a quick
synopsis of the things a Guide needs to do and keep in mind when
improvising stakes in the midst of play:

Consider How hard do you want it to be to do well at this

Difficulty action, and in what way?
Think Up What kinds of things might go right and wrong?
Possibilities What will absolutely happen?
Conflicts? Can all these things happen all at once?

Respect Which stat should be used, if any? Do these stakes

The Sheet ignore or invalidate some talent? Should a benefit
from elsewhere apply here, too?
 Considering Difficulty
Here are a few templates for “How hard do I want to make this, and what
kind of obstacles do I want?”

Flavour To get a flavour roll, make the automatic result positive, and
have a good opportunity to soak up hits. Keep the dangers
relatively weak in terms of numbers, but pick ones like giving
offence, doing damage to a scene, causing noise – ways for a
player to show what their character cares about by which
they cancel.
Tricky A tricky roll has a mild downside as an automatic stake, and
about two dangers and two opportunities. This divide
means that those with lots of dice will usually shine
compared to those without.
Grind A grinding roll is the means to push “using up resources”;
this is an opportunity to pile on minor dangers and expect
that many of them will be accepted; you're pushing resource
management.
Fierce A roll with extreme dangers. It's the kind of thing you
require players to make in serious trouble, with the
opportunities pointing at getting out. It's also the kind of roll
you throw down, with one really great opportunity amidst
the many pains, when they try something crazy.
 Thinking Up Possibilities
Taking a look at the general format for rolls, and asking yourself a few
quick question, is an easy way to prompt yourself to come up with
material for possible stakes.

Automatic When an action worth rolling for is taken, something

should almost always happen. This doesn't need to be
critical or impressive! Often, it's the cost to making the
attempt, or a minimal amount of progress towards a
goal. What is absolutely going to happen, here?
Danger How can the action go wrong? Anything that can go
wrong, and which the character can potentially prevent
through skill, or by choosing to approach the problem
in a certain way, is a possible danger. Discard any
danger that doesn't matter, if you realize you're
invented one. If the character isn't working under
any time pressure, then it's not a danger for the task
to take longer. Likewise, if the character has
effectively unlimited access to some needed
resources, it's not a danger if a lot of those specific
resources are used.
Opportunity How can the roll go right? If it's possible to get more
than “You get the automatic thing, and nothing goes
wrong”, how can that happen?
 Useful Dangers
(Some of these also work well as automatic stakes)

Delays “You use up more time than anticipated”. Exactly how

much time constitutes a danger varies depending on the
roll – in combat situation, it might be moments; in travel
situation, it might be a block of hours. It should always be
enough to be inconvenient.
Strain “You take wounds, stress, hunger, thirst...”. The cause here
can simply be due to natural effort or pressure that can be
managed with skill. Alternatively, some activities do have
common accidents – damage from a fall while rappelling is
quite possible.
Indiscreet You betray information you didn't mean to, which can
include your position and presence.
Menace The action motivates or creates a new threat or antagonist
that's positioned to act against you.
Displaced Something, whether you, your target, or your effect, ends
up somewhere other than intended.
Affliction Weary, tangled, sickened, on fire, impeded. You have a die
penalty, or are denied some actions.
Expense “You use up some of your food, water, fuel, research
materials, medicine, ammunition, etc”. Most places where
this is appropriate are obvious. Two that may not be: Use
of entertainment materials by others when in company,
and spoiled materials when transporting them in
dangerous, hot, wet, or infectious environments.
Mayhem “You smash up the catwalk, block the road, light the place
on fire.” Anything that stores up trouble for later, and
wrecks up the environment, is worth considering.
Offence “You annoy the whole crowd, and some of them will look
for ways to get back at you”. Useful for social rolls or
action around crowds – potentially including in enclaves.
Flawed “You introduce a quirk or problem into the project,
Work permanently” most often a serious issue in rolls to build
progress, but might find some use when repairing things
as well.
 Useful Augments
(Some of these also work well as automatic stakes)

Success! “You accomplish what you set out to.” Generally useful
for succeed-or-fail actions. This stake is often best
combined with some kind of 'boost', such as added
targets, strain, duration, that improves the nature of
that success.
Progress “Add hits spent on this stake to a running total.” This is
the standard method for tracking any running project
that could, or will be, interrupted and returned to.
Advantage “You or another person gains extra dice on this follow-
up action, or actions using this preparation.” This stake
is helpful especially when coordinating across differing
actions; when there's a driver and a gunner, a spotter
and a runner, or any other dissimilar teamwork.
Strain “You inflict added damage, fatigue, or other strain on
your target; one per hit spent on this stake.” This stake
can also be delayed – for example, in setting up a trap,
the trap can do more injury the better it's made.
Duration “The effect lasts [an hour, a minute, a day], longer for
each hit spent on this stake.” Works with any roll that
provides some kind of result that lasts.
Information “You learn one item of information.” The information
learned is usually fairly specific, but listing different
things that can be learned is also an easy way for
players to indicate what their character is attending to
as they go.
Scope “You hit more targets, affect a larger area, or otherwise
create a bigger effect.”
Style You give others the impression of poise and grace,
regardless of your success or lack of same.
Subtlety Your actions appear to be other than they are, whether
by being hidden or disguised in some way.
Vexation You inflict an appropriately described danger on
another or on the scene as a whole.
Incitement You provoke a response along specified lines from one
or more other characters.
 Conflicts?
Mutually impossible dangers are something that it's fairly easy to put
out by mistake. If you're about to make a jump, and the dangers get
named as “you might miss and fall” and “you might get tangled in
something on the other side of the jump”, but no hits are rolled... It's
impossible for both dangers to occur. So, stakes like this are no good;
if you catch this, go back and change them up.
This isn't the same as stakes where a danger must be overcome in
order to reasonably put hits into an opportunity. Such stakes are
entirely valid; the Guide should just be ready to note “Whoa, wait,
you have to avoid hitting the tree before you can stab the goon”.
Having dangers and opportunities run independently, so you can buy
the opportunity but still get hit with the danger can produce really
interesting choices, but not all rolls will do this (especially those
concocted on the fly).

Respect The Sheet

Characters have specialities and talents that their players are likely
invested in. When you create stakes for a roll that's not listed,
consider which action dice should be used, and if existing talents
should give some benefit to the roll. If some player has a lot tied up
in being good at things like the activity you're setting stakes for,
making it easy enough for all comers to diminish their speciality, or
having it ignore those traits entirely, takes some of the value out of
having taken those traits. Occasionally, this can and even should
happen – but be careful not to level the playing field around any
given speciality too often.
Section SIX

GEAR
 Your Gear
These pages are cover a pretty wide assortment of equipment for the
undead apocalypse. It won't be everything that ends up in the game, and
players should feel free to talk with the Guide about finding things that
aren't in here – but these are most of the things that are central to the
overall action and genre that the game is built to support.

ENCUMBRANCE
On the character sheet, you'll see a whole string of little boxes for you to
note your gear in. Each item worth noting goes in one of these boxes,
starting at the top and working down; if you're carrying enough stuff to
spill into the sections for heavy and extreme loads, you will have
penalties. This isn't realistic by any stretch, but it keeps the game from
getting bogged down in calculating too much detail.

THE “SCRATCH KIT”

Every survivor collects useful little items as they go along, which aren't
worth tracking most of the time. So, in addition to their listed gear, a
character can be assumed to have something like the following stuffed in
their pockets: A lighter, a penlight, a small battery, half a roll of duct tape,
a multitool, a permanent marker, a road map.

CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT COUNTS

Some items are counted individually; others are treated as an amount.
So, one line on your sheet might read “A day of bottled water”, while
another might be “Lots of handgun ammo”. In this case, lots is a game
term. When something is abstracted that way, the count looks like this:
Plenty – Lots – Some – A Little – The Last Of The
So, if you blast away with your handgun, you'll drop down to having
“Some hangun ammo” to “A little handgun ammo” to “the last of the
handgun ammo”, and finally run out. Likewise, when you find ammo, the
Guide could say “there's lots; if you had some, now you've got plenty.”

PICKING YOUR GEAR

At character creation, you'll usually just pick from one of the premade
kits for your archetype. If desired, however, you can pick any six item
spots worth of gear from throughout this section.
 Food And Drink
Basic Needs

Food A little bundle, containing a few cans or jars, some

For A Day instant anything, or a few sleeves of crackers or other
dry goods, and often some candy for energy. Each day
of food is a separate item.
Water A couple of small bottles of water, or a canteen for
For A Day those who have them; plenty of survivors make a
point of carrying at least a day of water with them at
all times. Each day of water is a separate item.
Dry Military rations, survivalist stuff; this is food that is
Rations figured with an abstract count (as a creation pick, you
have “some”) - so you can carry plenty of it as only one
item. Each day you live on it, you must reduce the
count by one step and use an extra day of water to
stave off hunger.
Purification Purification tablets can be dropped in nastier water,
Tablets and they kill everything in it. It might still be cloudy,
but it's not infectious. They're treated as an abstract
count (as a creation pick, you have “some”). For each
seven days worth of water you purify with these,
reduce the count by one step.
Kettle Boiling and straining water kills the plague (and most
other things). With a kettle, a decent natural water
source, and a source of sufficient heat, you can go a
long while. It's not perfect; there are plenty of
chemicals that boiling has no real effect on, but most
of them are a lot less pressing as concerns in
comparison to the plague.
 Armour
Safety First.
A survivor wearing a firefighting helmet, a BMX racing breastplate, and a
long leather coat over top may look a little odd next to someone that
scored a SWAT van, but protection is protection. All armour works the
same way – for each armour item you're wearing, you can convert one
wound to fatigue, once per combat encounter.

Melee Weapons
Stab, Swing, and Thrash

Blade Two wounds on a strike. If you strike, you can spend a

C to buy a second glancing hit on the same enemy or
another in reach, which can also be upgraded to a
strike in turn. Machetes, axes, scythes: all blades.
Blunt Two wounds on a strike; if you get a strike in melee,
you also cover an escape for free. Shovels, staffs, bats:
All blunt.
Lash Two wounds on a strike; the target is pinned in
combat (can't flee) until your next go, and deals one
less damage next go-round. Chains, whips, other
flexible weapons: All lashes.
Piercing Two wounds on a strike. You may spend an additional
C to headshot a target, if it's sluggish; this kills it
outright if it has only one brain (see descriptive text in
threats). If the target has typical speed, yet another C
is required (for a total of C C C) to headshot it. Swift
enemies can't be killed in this way.
Heavy Any weapon can heave a heavy version; they deal one
added wound on a strike, but add the danger of one
fatigue to every go-around a fight lasts after the first.
Shock Against the dead, an electrified weapon deals three
wounds on a graze, and three added wounds per C
used to boost damage; muscles actually split off and
twitch away from the point of contact as slithers.
However, contact with the dead siphons any battery
immediately, making all such weapons one-use per
battery (Crafting mult-battery custom shock weapons
is possible, but requires tools, materials, etc).
 Ranged Weapons
Point & Shoot

Handgun Two wounds on a strike, and you may spend C results

as if using a bladed or piercing weapon. Loud. Melee
and short range.

Rifle Three wounds on a strike; you may spend C results as

if using a melee piercing weapon. Can't blast away or
pin. Loud. Short, medium, and long range.
Shotgun Two wounds on a strike; three in melee. Can't blast
away or pin. Loud. Melee, short, and medium range.

Crossbow Two wounds on a strike; piercing as melee. Can't blast

away or pin. Isn't loud. Short and medium range.

RANGES
There are four quick “distances” - in melee, short range, medium range,
long range, and extreme range. These are also measures of time; it takes
an average creature one “go” to move one range closer or further.
Sluggish creatures take two go-arounds to move one of these steps, and
swift creatures move two of them each go. At medium and long range,
players roll one less die to shoot (unless they have a sight).

MELEE SHORT MEDIUM LONG

AMMUNITION
Ammo is a separate item, and differs from one weapon to the next. It is
handled as an abstract count – so, you might have “some handgun ammo”
and “lots of shotgun shells” at the same time. At creation, if you pick
ammunition as one of your items, you have some of that ammo.
 Military Weapons
This calls for more guns.

Automatic Can be set to work as a usual rifle. Alternatively, can

Rifle be fired on automatic; if so, it can pin and may blaze
away (but can only pin if you don't cancel blazing
away). On automatic: Short and medium range. Ammo
may be hard to replace, depending on locale.
Grenades Grenades are tracked as ammunition while being a
ranged weapon; your abstract count always drops by
one when you use one. A regular fragmentation
grenade does five wounds on a hit, four to everything
in melee range of the target, two to everything in short
range, and inflict a single wound at medium range.
People who have taken cover in solid places inside the
blast can convert these wounds to stress instead.
Grenades always cause massive noise and collateral
damage. If you fail to hit with a grenade, you will still
hit something in the general direction of your target,
chosen by Guide whimsy.
Scale-Ups Almost all other military weapons can be treated as
scaled-up variations on either automatic rifles or on
grenades, for rules purposes. For example:
● At double damage, the weapon must be carried in
a “heavy load” slot regardless of open 'light load
slots”, and must be set up to use. Gatling guns
and demolitions charges, are examples of this.
● At triple damage, a cart is needed to move the
weapon, a launcher to fire explosives, and several
minutes of set-up time or a vehicle mount.
● Beyond this, a structure or custom vehicle that's
designed to handle the weapon (such as a tank) is
generally required.

INDUSTRIAL WEAPONS?
Industrial equipment, used as if it were armament, is often best handled
by applying one or more of the scale-up problems. A heavy industrial
chainsaw (because someone's gonna) might be treated as a double-
damage heavy weapon – using a heavy load slot, risking fatigue to use,
and requiring that the user brace their self before setting to work with it
(or risk hitting their self, likely).
 Incendiaries + Explosives
BIG Badda Boom.

Flare As a ranged weapon, flare guns are single-shot, and

Gun ignore the danger of using up ammunition. On a
glance, they burn the target slightly and make a lot of
light. On a solid hit against one of the dead, the flare
penetrates their body; they count as being on fire,
while smoking from within.
Molotov Used as a projectile weapon, a molotov cocktail
Cocktail replaces the danger of using up ammunition with the
danger of starting a fire that could hurt the user. On a
glance, the enemy is only lightly burned; on a solid hit,
they are fully on fire.
Propane By crafting a detonator or shooting a small propane
Canister canister (making a strike on it with a gun), you can
cause an explosion that does five wounds to
everything on the scene; being in cover reduces this
by one or two, and also acts as armour against it.
Those within a few feet of the point of detonation will
be on fire.

ON FIRE!
Outside of a fight, if a character is on fire, they make an endure roll
(replacing the automatic stress with a wound) every few seconds,
needing one hit to put the fire out. In a fight, one wound is added as an
automatic stake each go, and one hit must be spent to put it out.
Enemies on fire take one damage each go – and can either do nothing but
put the fire out if intelligent, or just keep on acting like nothing was
wrong. Most of the above fire effects will burn out after about five
rounds; enough to drop most enemies, but not all.
 Weapon Accessories
This gun calls for more.

Sights A ranged weapon with a sight ignores the usual one-

die penalty for shooting at medium or long range.
Bayonet A ranged weapon with an attached bayonet can also
be used as a blade in melee. However, if hits are spent
to gain multiple melee strikes as with a blade, they
must all be directed at the same foe. Extended barrels,
bayonets, and suppressors use the same space; one
only.
Suppressor A ranged weapon with a suppressor has it's ranged
reduced by one step (long to medium to short), but is
no longer loud. Extended barrels, bayonets, and
suppressors use the same space; one only.
Extended A gun with an extended barrel has it's range increased
Barrel by one step (short to medium to long). If it could be
used in melee, it no longer can be. Extended barrels,
bayonets, and suppressors use the same space; one
only.
Underslung An underslung launcher allows the user of a weapon
Launcher to “throw” a grenade while shooting, spending one of
their hits to replace a shot with a grenade. Such
launchers are limited to medium range at most, and fit
only onto rifles and automatic rifles.
Other Rather than a launcher, a rifle or automatic rifle can be
Underslings fitted with some other underslung item. This is most
often a flashlight, but cans of marking paint and
underslung flare guns also have their uses.
 Kits
The Right Things For The Right Job

Mechanical A couple of wrenches, pliers, multi-head screwdriver,

clamps, a couple ways to cut things, a small hammer,
and a few other odds and ends round out this kit.
With these tools you can do most basic repairs on
engines and other mechanical items.
Electrical Wire and cutters, pliers, small screwdriver, a battery-
run sautering iron, and a little more allow you to deal
with most simple electrical issues.
Lockpicking Picks, a key extractor, a lockout tool (or “slim jim”),
and a few other devices make it possible to slip a few
bolts, pop open car doors without smashing things,
and other tasks.
Climbing Crampons, pitons, a collapsible hammer and mini-
pick, carabiners and short tethers, all help in setting
up a climbable surface, or getting up one. For this kit,
the “spare parts” are just rope.

PARTS + SUPPLIES
When you're crafting or repairing something, you'll want a bag of bits.
For each general kind of task, you'll need different parts. The Guide
might sort these just to match the kit, and have mechanical parts,
electrical parts, all generic. Of they might break it down into engine
parts, computer parts, and be specific. Whichever way, these are counted
in an abstract fashion, and you'll have “some” if you have such parts as
one of your picks at creation.

Resupplying spare parts can mean grabbing more parts at a shop or from
a store-room, but as the apocalypse goes on, it's more often a task unto
itself – tearing open walls and items for wiring, breaking down useless
vehicles for parts, getting a grinding wheel and shaping out picks,
hammering pitons out of whatever metal is available. Salvage of this sort
is usually simple hard work rather than crafts (except in the case of
picks). If their collection was especially rough-and-ready, the Guide may
want to have you list “salvaged parts” separately, and attach a danger of
low quality to any roll they're being used in.
 Survival Gear
Camping Out And Staying Alive

Binoculars These can grant bonus dice or cancel penalties to

observe rolls, as well as the obvious.
Flashlight / Light sources; a flashlight runs on batteries, while a
Lantern lantern can run on oil or electrical batteries.
Tent A bundled-up tent for two people (though more can
squeeze in). Takes a bit of setup.
Bedroll A mat and a few blankets, or a padded sleeping bag;
enough to get a decent night of rest even if you're
sleeping rough.
Rope Counts as 'spare parts' for a climbing kit, as well as
having all the usual uses. About 100 feet.
Winter Dressing for the cold in chillier climates does come
Clothes with some weight, but means you won't be taking a
penalty to endure the weather.
GPS The apocalypse hasn't had any effect on satellites, and
GPS devices are still working fine. Any GPS worth
hanging onto comes along with a few ways to charge
it.
Hand Radio Just as things were getting bad, most governments
distributed many thousands of hand radios; walkie-
talkies that can pick up and broadcast on a full
thousand channels (every 0.1 from 50 to 150 FM).
Broadcast range is short, though – a city block or so.
Uses batteries.
Broadcaster Hooked up to a hand radio, these battery-powered
rigs boots broadcast range to several miles, and can be
set to “repeat” other signals. Worn on the hip or slung
over one shoulder.
Solar Passed out right along with the hand radios, these are
Charger a solar panel about the size of a tablet computer, with
ports for several kinds of charger. The government-
issue radios and broadcasters can plug right into
these, and many other devices can be charged with
them as well.
 Medical Gear
Patching It Up.

Medical This is a bag of medical tools – required beyond the

Toolkit first aid level, but not needed for first aid. Scalpels,
tubing, a bonesaw, tweezers, clamps, and other tools
and bits are all part of this kit.
Medical A quantity of medical supplies usually includes some
Supplies common drugs, needles, stitching line, bandages. A
first aid kit is usually two items – some medical
supplies, and some hygenic ones.
Hygenic Alcohol, swabs, disposable gloves and face masks,
Supplies wipes, and other agents.

Infection Worn and prepped masks, gloves, etc, pulled from

Guards hygenic supplies; a one-use 'banked' B result to spend
against spattering or airborne infection; always hot
and tiring. See the physic action for more details.

Recreation Gear
To Take The Edge Off

Consumables Things to smoke and liquor to drink can help deal

with the stress of the world crashing in.
Sporting The novelty of it may wear off fairly quickly, but you
Gear don't need to wait for a tee time anymore; you can
just walk right onto the course.
Musical There's a danger of making noise that will draw in
Instrument the dead, but making music doesn't really stop being
engaging or use up much of anything; you can always
come back to it.
 Construction Gear
Going Industrial
Fortifying and demolishing don't typically happen right away for a group
in the apocalypse, but sooner or later, they put in an appearance. Here's
what you need:

Basic Tool Hammer, crowbar, wrench, saw, shovel, and so on.

When performing work, the Guide may name a
specific tool that is needed to do the job properly.
Without it, the Guide will generally add more
dangers to a roll (more fatigue, more chances of
flawed work), and remove the ability to get multiple
points of progress on a work or crafts roll. Many
double as weapons.
Heavy Jackhammers, chainsaws, and other heavy tools.
Power Tool These items multiply the progress gained in work,
often by three to five times as much, but can add
dangers of fatigue, minor wounds, and serious
accidents as the Guide finds useful. Many are heavy,
increasing encumbrance by a category if carried, and
can require setup. All require fuel or power. Used as
melee weapons, they often deal four or even five
wounds, but the dangers of also hitting yourself, and
of growing fatigued, are always added.
PPE Short for “personal protective equipment”; steel-toed
boots, goggles, hardhats, work gloves, fall harnesses,
and other items are all PPE. When performing (or
near to) any form of work involving heavy power
tools or hazards, having the correct PPE gives
specialized armour against accidents – allowing
conversion of all damage from such an accident to
fatigue.

MATERIALS
Construction materials often don't fit well into the usual abstract
measurements. When dealing with bags of concrete, pallets of beams,
barrels of nails, and other high-scale items, it's often best to tracks them
as “how many loads are used and held”, with a load being enough to
count as an encumbrance category. So, an enclave might have ten loads
of concrete. If taken and used in a small-scale way, a given load might
then be treated as “lots of” that material for such a purpose.
 Small Transport
Moving It Around
Bicycle Bicycles aren't as fast as full vehicles, but can allow
drive rolls. In such cases, rather than using up fuel, you
take fatigue or thirst. The total progress needed to
make a trip by bike will typically be less than is needed
when hiking, but more than if driving a motor vehicle.
Cart Or While moving a cart or dolly, you count as one or two
Dolly categories more encumbered than otherwise (a
shopping cart would be one; moving a fridge would be
two), and the Guide should feel comfortable adding
dangers of extra fatigue and of needing to leave the cart
behind to almost any physical roll. With a cart or dolly,
you can move things that you simply can't carry. In
some cases, a cart or dolly is also the 'required item' for
a work roll – getting a stove out of an apartment
building takes some work (it may not be worth
bothering with the roll, depending on the dangers
about).
Wheelchair This is effectively a specialized 'cart', in rules terms,
with the notable exception that the user can move it
while within it.
Infant Sling An infant sling allows the wearer to carry a child or
item in security. If the cargo carried in this sling is
snatched (as in a juke) or targeted, the wearer can turn
that snatch into a stop, or take the hit personally, as
appropriate.
 Basic Vehicles
A Frame To Build On
Vehicles are handled as fairly simple devices; in terms of rules, a vehicle
has integrity and fuel, each of which is abstracted (A Little, Some, Lots,
etc) and tracked individually.
Much of the time, these two abstractions are enough for the action in
general play. However, as the characters “ramp up” from early running
towards working from a strong enclave, vehicles and their uses often
become deserving of more significant attention.
When this begins to become the case, and if the group cares about the
differences significantly, the Guide can use the feature and flaw lists over
the next pages to flesh out the vehicles and their differences. These lists
don't comprise a rigid system, however; they're enough to hang a bit of
“road warrior” action on, but not detailed enough to make tank fights
engaging or tactical.

VEHICLE FAILURE
When a vehicle runs out of integrity and takes further damage, roll two
dice and check:

Blowout The vehicle blows out a tire; it won't be able to continue

( C, C ) until this is replaced. No roll is needed to do this, only a
spare and tools.
Engine Major engine failure takes place; a complete overhaul will
Failure be needed to get the vehicle back on the road.
( B, B )
Engine Some form of minor engine failure halts the vehicle; this
Seizure can be repaired with an hour and a craft roll yielding at
( A, A ) least one C to spend on doing so.

Hard The vehicle skids, bangs hard off something, or otherwise

Bump bangs around users. Driver and passengers must mark
one fatigue or stress.
 Vehicle Features
What It Has.

Common A common model vehicle is one that easy to find parts

Model for on an average city street – just find a similar one,
pop it open, and salvage.
Passenger The number of passengers a vehicle is built for varies;
Space taking on more passengers than the design expects will
mean (more) regular endure rolls.
Cargo Many vehicles have at least a small trunk, stowage
Space space, or other cargo capacity; a general idea of this is
useful.
Rugged A vehicle with rugged suspension ignores the regular
Suspension danger of losing integrity while driving, and turns an
automatic stake of integrity loss from terrain into a
danger instead.
Armour Armoured vehicles effectively have a “second track” of
Plating integrity that applies to damage from attacks (but may
or may not apply to driving).
Running A vehicle without running boards, an open top, or open
Boards cargo area is extremely precarious to fight on; more so
than usual.
Gun A vehicle with a gun mount allows weapons that need
Mount bracing to stay braced between shots while the vehicle
moves; without one, it doesn't.
Work Winch, crane, backhoe arm, dozer blade. When used as
Attachment powered tools in an appropriate way, they 'scale up' the
effects of those tools, multiplying progress by ten to
fifty times what would be accomplished with only basic
tools (though the dangers of accident, and the need for
those nearby to use PPE, are also enlarged). Digging a
ditch around a building might require hundreds of
points of progress; with a backhoe, that might only take
a day. When using a construction vehicle, however, use
dice equal to the drive or the work rating of the
operator, whichever is less.
 Vehicle Flaws
A Few Difficulties

Open-Top An open-top vehicle can be entered by hangers-on, and

the driver engaged directly. The driver can also be
attacked from range without barrier, and the vehicle
offers no special protection against roil. On the positive
side, adding weapon mounts is easier when dealing
with an open-topped vehicle. A pickup truck has an
open-topped cargo space, but a closed cab. Sport
vehicles (such as dune buggies) are usually open-top.
Fuel The vehicle uses up the fuel it has on hand rapidly. This
Hog can be handled by either attaching a further fuel use
danger to many drive rolls for it, or by reducing the
maximum capacity of the tank (to lots of fuel or even
some fuel).
Limited The vehicle is built for short hops, or driving on a site,
Range not across country. When engaging in long-range
driving, the driver will need to make more drive rolls
than others would be required to, and automatically
use fuel more often.
Light The vehicle is light and easily upended. If used to ram
enemies, or if it accumulates hangers-on, it will almost
certainly crash. Two and three wheeled vehicles are
almost always light.
 Sorcerous Gear
The Tools Of The Craft

This gear is likely to be first seen and found on cultists, and looked for in
trade by cult groups (whether overtly cultish or not). Once it is noted,
however, seekers and other player character sorcerers are likely to kit up
some similar items over time.

Chemistry Many rituals require circles and symbols to be drawn in

Set specific chemicals – sulphur, cobalt, and more.
Scientific stores and kids chemistry sets are all turned
to for such goods.
Salt & The basic abjuration gear is a bag of salt and a symbol
Symbol of the abjurer's beliefs; almost any sorcerer will
eventually start carrying these.
Grimoire Ritual circles tend to be fairly precise in layout; as such,
Notebook notepaper and a geometry set are bundled together by
most sorcerers who deal in ritual.
Rock Sorcerers who have not yet mastered conjuration often
Hammer have a fascination with nocturne, and collect samples to
examine.
Blood Kit Roil and the dead are both drawn to fresh blood. Many
sorcerers carry a few needles, a medical container of
one sort or another, and wipes. With these, they can
draw a vial as needed without injury, and leave blood
trails and lines which the dead and roil might be drawn
along.
Glue-Paint Using chemical powders to draw ritual circles comes
Kit with the likelihood that those symbols will be blown
away by air currents and wind. By first painting the
circle with coloured glue, and applying the chemicals to
the sticky surface, a sorcerer can make a circle that
lasts longer. A little glue, a little paint, a brush or two.
 Lots Of Lots
Abstraction Beyond The Carried

When characters are going back and forth between enclaves, or hit on a
delve where “there's plenty of stuff here” is an unworkable abstraction,
then some other measure may be called for.

One of the easy methods of dealing with this is to track this as containers.
An impressive haul from raiding a hospital or clinic might yield several
duffle bags or shipping cartons of medical supplies, each of which
contains “plenty of medical supplies”. If the enclave the characters live in
is built around some particular institution, then using a container
appropriate to it as the standard can flavour thing neatly – the
warehouse enclave tracking supplies by the shipping carton makes very
good sense.
Section SEVEN

GUIDE
 Being The Guide
As Guide, you'll have a significant variety of stuff to do for a game
session. Here are some things you'll do and coordinate as the Guide; each
has a page to itself in this section.

Create You'll detail the world, and do so in terms of places

Situations and events relevant to the characters.
Teach During character creation and play, you'll often be
The Rules the person that knows the rules best. As such, you'll
act a teacher as the group’s understanding of how to
play a game solidifies.
Present When the characters go somewhere, you'll describe
Scenes that location and the characters in it. As characters
interact with scenes, you'll invent and describe the
results.
Play Guide When players take on character roles and speak as
Characters their characters, you'll speak as other characters on
the scene.
Call For You don't roll dice during play. Instead, you tell the
Actions players to roll dice. You'll want to know those rules
fairly well, so that you can call for rolls and modify
them smoothly and naturally..
Keep While the whole group should always be invested in
The Pace keeping the action interesting, you will be in the best
position to manage this.
Start With Generally, game start is best done by isolating the
A Set characters and running them through a “bottle
episode” to bond them together.
Run Take cues from your players to determine if the
Or Build? game is going to be primarily one of moving from
place to place, or one of building and settling in an
enclave – and be ready for it to change from one
state to the other as needed.
 Create Situations
A situation is some set of related events happening in the fictional world,
which will affect the characters (and which they can affect in turn). The
enclaves section has a several ways to build situation included, and being
on the run or down in a delve are a situation unto themselves.
Sometimes you'll want to go “off-book”, though, and build something a
little different. Here's some notes on doing that:

USE WHAT CHARACTERS WANT (AND DON'T WANT)

No preparations you make matter unless they matter to the players and
the characters. Having a Guide character offer the characters a secure
place to live in order to fulfil some mission matters only if the characters
want one for more than a night or two. Threatening the characters, and
everything they have with scarcity and enemies is the standard case; this
is an apocalypse, after all. But it's hardly the only thing.

ROOT SITUATIONS IN EVENTS

A situation always comes from things happening in the world. Perhaps
the group has enemies that are trying to set up a base nearby, or a patron
of the group has come under attack. That’s a good start; once you have
some, decide on reactions from different groups you have in the setting
already, until you have a chain of interesting events that is going
somewhere - aim somewhere full of struggle and conflict.

FUTURES BUT NOT PLOTS

Decide where your situation will go if the characters don’t have an effect.
Make sure you’re all right with that result; when the characters get
involved, they might not want to stop those events. If you catch yourself
planning what the character must do, rather than preparing for things
they might do, you're writing a plot instead of a situation. Stop, and go
back to considering other things they might do instead.

KNOWNS AND UNKNOWNS

What are you going to have the characters find out right away, and how
are you going to present the problem? Generally, the presentation should
be biased and incomplete but not all wrong. This leaves you room to
reveal things that complicate affairs as the characters dig into the
situation. Be wary of complete reversals; making the bad guy really good
can be annoying instead of interesting – but making the bad guy have
strong justifications for why it's necessary is a whole different matter.
 Present The Rules
During character creation and play, the Guide is often the person that
knows the rules best. As such, Guides often act as teachers and
reminders in play as the group’s understanding of how to play a game
solidifies.

DO A PRINT RUN
You'll want to print out the character sheets, at a minimum. If your table
is heavily equipped with tablets and the like, you might not need to go
further, but you might. Each of the sections of the game is set up in
increments of four pages, plus a cover. Print the pages other than the
cover as a brochure for each section, and then print covers and slap those
on all of them. Fold, staple (rolling the back pages a bit if you don't have
a long stapler) and you're good. You might want a couple copies of the
Action and Gear sections; up to you.

PRESENT CHARACTER MATERIALS

Hand around the character sheets, make sure each players has access to
the Character and Gear sections, and have them pick out archetypes.
If you're using quickstart sheets, getting players familiar with their
characters is easy; it's all right there. If not, or later on, you'll want to
walk through the character section, with a few quick words on
advancement, talents, and so on. Either way, character creation is a
pretty simple process.
There may end up being a couple of moments where creation comes
across as counter-intuitive to someone. Be ready to lend a hand when
those come up, to assist and smooth the process out for everyone, and to
answer questions about how things work.
When it comes to establishing character identities, work with the players
to help them develop characters that have room for at least a little depth.
Try to help them avoid one-note characters, cliches, and “joke” concepts
(especially as relates to ethnicity, gender, and sexuality).

GO OVER THE ACTIONS

Even before play begins, run through how dice are used, what the actions
are, and how they hangs together generally. In many ways, the actions
tell the players what the stuff of the game is; it's good if they know that
before play gets rolling. Players who think that what their characters
ought to be doing is something wildly different from what the rules
manage won't be as easily supported as those who know what the game
does and handles.
 Present Scenes
When the characters go somewhere new, you'll describe that location
and the characters in it. As characters interact with scenes, you'll invent
and describe the results (though getting the rules to do some of the work
here, by calling for action rolls, is expected).
In play, you often won’t just tell the players about events and possible
objectives, straight out. You’ll present those by having them see things,
having Guide characters come to see them - by setting and unfolding
scenes. Some things to work into those scenes when it's possible:

SENSORY IMPRESSIONS
Start your description with an over sensory impression. If it's hot or
cold, loud or quiet, filled with movement, or white with fog, mention that
first. A second impression – the thing the characters notice after the big
one – can also be helpful.

COHERENT (AND INCOHERENT) UNKNOWNS

If there are people or dead things on the scene, they'll be doing things.
Presenting people engaging in tasks that the characters won't immediate
understand, but are obviously for something, draws them in – why are
there groups bringing water out of that low building over to that other
one? Why are the dead shoving cars off the road? With dead things,
having incoherent crowds is also useful; the milling crowd of dead is a
strong, standard trope.

BENEFIT, CONCERN, MYSTERY

A scene can easily contain something useful to the characters, something
to worry about, or a hint that there's more going on (or all of these). For
examples of this, take a look through the encounters section, which is
built entirely around this principle.

SIMPLICITY
With all that potential stuff to pack in, it can be tempting to go overlong
with a scene description. Hitting the points while staying concise is a
trick, but it's one to practise. A description of a scene that takes more
than two or three sentences is probably longer than is helpful. Consider:
The characters are hidden in the shadows under some trees and
undergrowth, looking at a sunlit encampment of shouting cultists with
axes, building large cages. That's plenty to set a stage. Sensory
information, unknown action, danger.
 Play Guide Characters
When players take on character roles and speak as their characters, the
Guide speaks as others. It’s possible to “hand off” additional roles to
players whose characters aren’t on the scene; some players enjoy this
challenge, while others don’t.

GUIDE CHARACTERS SHOULD WANT THINGS

Information presented as statements made by other characters is more
entertaining if those other characters are interesting. One big part of this
is having those Guide characters want things that the player characters
can help them get, or that the player characters are in the way of them
getting. It's sometimes good to be a little bit mysterious about what a
Guide character really wants, but don't overdo it; when you play a Guide
character, you want to be pushing the players to do stuff, and that's
easiest if that character is pushing, too, in a way the player characters
can understand. Take the time to have recurring characters develop
changing attitudes relating to the player characters – good and bad.

GUIDE CHARACTERS SHOULD HAVE PERSONALITY

Different Guide characters should sound and act differently, have quirks,
character traits, and so on. In general, it's better to overdo this a little
than it is to have your Guide characters come off “flat”; the funny
eccentric or wild extremist is a good story, while the dull mouthpiece is
quickly forgotten. Many Guides slowly become adept at accents and
other minutia of portrayal as they work to build these; others keep tables
of interesting personality bits or lists of movie characters on hand, and
drop them in (with the names filed off, in the latter case).
 Call For Actions
All of the dice-rolling happens on the player end of the game. As the
Guide, one of your main tools is deciding when the dice should get
thrown, and when they shouldn't.

IS THERE SOMETHING TO GAIN OR AVOID?

Something trying to eat you face is nearly universally worth rolling for,
but it isn't the only thing the system can cover. If the characters have
more than enough days to do a job, and getting tired on those days isn't a
big issue, there's no real need to have everyone make work rolls. Just let
them know that it's tiring each day, and take a shortcut - apply their dots
directly as progress, or something a little more or less than that. Not
every jump in a car will always need a drive roll, not every walk needs a
hike roll. Many, though, should. If the situation is such that a lot of rolls
like this can be shrugged off, it may be time to add some more pressure
to the current state of affairs.

THE MATTER OF SPOTLIGHT

Look at the action list every so often and ask “have we done this
recently”? If the situations you're presenting tend towards big brawls, or
lots of politics, but exclude other action, you might be excluding things
characters are good at. This can leave the players of those characters
feeling left a bit aside. Even when escaping from a city thronged with the
dead, a quick encounter that's got some rest, and some social element to
deal with can change the pace and let you call up those actions and let
those characters show off their stuff.

ACTIVELY CONTROL THE STAKES

Adding, removing, and replacing stakes should slowly become second
nature to you. At first, you will usually want to play with most of the
actions “as written”, to get an intuitive feel for where talents apply, how
much harder another danger would make a roll, and other factors. As
you get that practice (or when the situation simply demands it), try
replacing one pre-written danger or augment with one you've created on
the spot. Once you're comfortable with that as well, rewiring actions
gets easier and easier, and the written stakes slowly transition into being
a baseline to modify from for different situations.
 Keep The Pace
The attention of the Guide focuses the attention of the group. When
scenes drag, it’s often the Guide that moves the group along. While the
whole group should always be invested in keeping the action interesting,
the Guide is in the best position to manage this.

THE CLOCK IS ALWAYS RUNNING

Starting right from the moment play begins, there should always be some
pressure on. Scarcities, threats, internal tensions in camps and enclaves.
Even if they find a solid place to hole up, the characters should always be
maintaining their bug-out bags, and this should be totally reasonable of
them. Make sure it is.

THERE IS ALWAYS A NEXT THING

If things are going slowly, don’t shy away from having events in the world
carry on entirely without the characters. And never be shy about
presenting obstacles - if there are enemies about, don’t wait for the
characters to go looking for them; have them see someone not far back
on their trail, or just throw them straight into a fight. When all else fails,
push ahead.

KEEP ENGAGING
Many Guides present a few ‘adventure hooks’ to the players, and when
just one of those gains their interest, stop attempting to grab the players
and move on to the rest of the material. This isn’t a bad thing, but there’s
no reason not to engage the players more, give them more ways to
approach a situation, and present them with more conflicting
opportunities. You don't want players to be asking “What do we do
now?” with a feeling of having nothing on the agenda; you want them
asking that question because there's so much.

TALK, VENTING, AND HEALING ARE ACTION

Tense political drama to solve an enclave problem before it explodes is
good, high-paced action. Even trying to get earthworks planned and dug
before the next wave of enemies shows their heads, with an hour or two
a night spent gambling and drinking, can move along at a good pace; it
doesn't have to be running and fighting all the way. If this means the
bruiser of the party is left languishing, that doesn't mean there's a
problem of with the pacing; it means there's a problem with spotlight.
 Start With A Set
First sessions are usually run as set pieces; this keeps the focus on the
characters, keeps forward planning to a minimum, and leaves the field
open for doing different things. Here's some easy ways to do that:

Build Game start is generally best run by sticking the characters

A Box “in a box”, isolating them on a single set. That set can be
pretty large – even a small town that just went under
quarantine, with the majority sick. Ensure the characters
have nobody else to rely on (though a few people to meet),
and can't leave easily.
Present What's scarce here? There should be something useful
Scarcity here, but not enough. What critical needs does the set fail
to meet?
Present How are you going to hit the set with the dead? How will
Threats you escalate? Where are some good places inside to have
pockets of the dead, and some places they can get in?
Ultimately, you're going to want to put pressure on the
group to get out of the box... But not until they've done
some looting, at least. They might choose to defy that
pressure and start building. That's fine! They'll still need
to go on foraging runs...
Present There's a gun shop just across the street. There's a water
Asides delivery truck right in the middle of the lot, the dead
driver beside it with keys in hand. What's just out of
reach, but worth reaching for around here?
Have Think of at least three ways out, and be ready to make
Exits them obvious. You may end up working with their plans,
but have options in mind.
Roll Early, When introducing the game, if something can be made
Roll Often into a good action roll, make it one. Ideally, look to set
stakes that load up the group with some stress they need
to vent – stress is easily removed, and players can express
and bond characters by venting in various ways, together
or separately
 Run Or Build?
After fleeing the set, characters are almost certainly going to be on the
run or building an enclave in the set they've beaten. For a while, they
should have plenty of this, but not enough of that, all the time. When
Guiding them through this kind of action, don't be afraid to let the
players get thing, but they shouldn't ever find everything that they need
in one place – or if they do, they should have to fight like hell to keep hold
of it.

ON THE RUN
A group on the run can be prepped for by creating small delves,
encounters, and the occasional enclave to run into. Enclaves will most
often be ones that can't or won't take new people, or have some kind of
seriously troubled situation. Character may gather others into some kind
of convoy, and look for a place to settle into an enclave... And may well
be forced to move on again, back into being on the run.

BUILDING UP
A group of characters based out of an enclave will most often move back
and forth between internal situations built using the enclave guidelines,
and significant delves built from that section. Enclave-based delves are
often slower affairs than the fast raids of those on the run – a group on
the run might hit a pharmacy for medicine, while an established enclave
might decide to slowly secure and clear out a nearby hospital for its
supplies, its equipment, even its emergency generators.
Section EIGHT

APOCALYPSE
 This Is How The World Ends
The world of Infected before the plague was the real world, more or less.
Guides will invent and alter details, and “realism” isn't a primary feature
of the game itself, but it was the same basic place with the same overall
things going on. From that start, the plague began to arrive, and
everything was thrown over and made strange; just how strange
depends on what part of the apocalypse the game is.

WHEN IS NOW?
This section assumes that game begins during the collapse, just as the
Guide section does. This isn't necessarily the case, as play can be placed
anywhere in the timeline, but it is the point that's easiest for starting
characters to stay alive in...

THIS SECTION IS OPTIONAL

This particular map of the future might not suit what you intend to do
with the game. If not, but you do wish to make use of the stranger
threats and features of the apocalypse, you might want to set up an
alternate future history, or change a few things around to bring out the
stranger creatures right from the very beginning. Or just not explain it.

If your players are familiar with the setting, and you want to change
things, it's probably polite to let them know. Just saying “Hey, I'm going
to be messing with some of the whole future of the apocalypse thing; so
you know”, just to keep thing clear, is plenty. You may want to do this
even if you expect to keep most of it, just to “take possession” of the
setting, if you have any concern this section may get treated like a cheat
sheet or an authority over whether you're “Doing it right”. (Blech.)
 Core To The Setting
The basic framework of the game is easy enough; characters are on the
run in the middle of the apocalypse, finding some safety, forming
enclaves, and pushing back. But some parts of the action may not be
expected, and deserve special attention:

RADIO IS COMMON
Handing out emergency radios wasn't a rare or local phenomenon; many
government and crisis group passed them out with a will. The resulting
communities of broadcasters and operators share tips for survival, and
discuss what they've seen. As time goes on, this network is instrumental
in keeping the fire of civilization lit in the dark of the apocalypse.

THE PLAGUE IS AN INVASION FROM BEYOND

There are malign intelligences that created the blight and set it loose into
the world – and they did so in order to get here. The sickness and
transformations are early forms of much greater reconstructions of the
flesh. Eventually, the servants of the blight-makers, and the makers
themselves, will distill down the stuff of the world thoroughly enough to
join with it and take on bodies.

THERE'S MODERATELY MAD SCIENCE

The blight obeys normal physical laws the vast majority of the time.
There are occasions where it does things that aren't, or shouldn't be,
possible under a modern understanding of science – but even those
follow patterns that can be learned, and can be exploited by people, given
time and work. The process of learning to deal with, beat, and
manipulate the blight can be undertaken scientifically, and yield strong
results. In the fiction, it does.

THERE'S A SORT OF SORCERY

The blight itself is a thing that is made and controlled... And human
beings can work those controls. Symbolic language, mental commands,
and symbiosis with the blight itself can be built into something that
easily passes as magic. Most of the early study of this material is arrived
at and undertaken almost accidentally by cults springing up to worship
the makers of the blight. It's only deep, deep into the apocalypse that
methodical people start to consider, catalogue, and discover the means of
manipulating the blight and build a more rational understanding of these
practices... Unless your players change that.
 The Contagion
(Pre-Apocalypse)
The contagion which causes the apocalypse, known as the blight, plague,
harbinger, and by other names, arrives and moves quickly. Even so, it's
not instantaneous; it does take time to spread. Much of the spread occurs
before the beginning of play (unless the Guide plans a different game),
but many characters will know at least a little about how it came to pass.
This stage is the one illustrated by the Transmissions section.

IT CAME FROM THE SEA

The blight infected people who ate and came in contact with sealife first;
cooking the fish provided some protection, but not as much as might be
hoped. The earliest instances were in coastal areas and places where
sealife is part of the normal diet; Japan, Seattle, and Newfoundland were
among the worst and largest of the first outbreaks.

IT SPREADS LIKE THE FLU

The blight is highly contagious – not merely by biting, but through saliva,
mucus, and sexual contact. It gives the sick a cough and runny nose,
sniffling and sneezing, and has a strong rate of transmission from one
infected person to another. The rising of the dead, spattering their
putrefying flesh around them, and the later mists and fogs is produced,
are enough to push it from being a danger into being a global pandemic.

IT BROUGHT WHISPERS AND VISIONS

Those infected often hear what they describe as voices just past the
threshold of being understood. Some reports visions of the dead or of
shapeless figures. Later, it will become clear that the sounds heard are
purely mental – the infected are sensing communication among the
plague-makers. The visions will be theorized to be weak sightings of
pnuema, though these early sighting are independent of the roil-fog.

FALSE DIAGNOSIS
The last stages of transformation are diagnosed, early on, as mental
damage. The heart doesn't always stop beating in the dead, or all other
functions cease, but cognition as we know it does stop, replaced by
something else, and while many cells only change, those that fail to make
the change do die and rot. The shift was often considered “brain damage
by fever” and other similar conditions; by the time it was at all clear what
was happening, it was already too late; the blight was everywhere.
 The Black Sun
(Throughout)
Though the player characters usually won't be aware of it, the contagion
has human help in spreading, in the form of a cult. This cult refers to
itself as the Temple of the Black Sun, and worked in the service of
eldritch and unearthly intelligences to develop and spread the contagion.

THE QUEST FOR SORCERY

From the perspective of the Black Sun, the blight is an agent by which
their gods can enter the world and become manifest. It can be given
orders in symbolic language and with mental power. This, in turn, means
that where it has spread and manifested fully, it allows those who know
how to command it to seize power and perform sorcery. Up until the rise
of the blight, the members of the Black Sun can't so much as levitate a
pencil. As it comes to dominate the world, they can command legions of
the dead, at the behest of their unworldly masters.

CULT ENCLAVES
With their awareness of the oncoming blight, the Black Sun are prepared
for it to some degree. They have ready-made boltholes, caches, and
secure sites waiting to be turned into enclaves. Where people are
panicked and fearful, these enclaves will be waiting to take them in and
teach them the truth of the world to come. Running into or even being
targeted for induction into these enclaves is one way the player
characters might encounter the Black Sun early on.

THE GREAT DIVISION

While all the members of the Black Sun want power, not all of them
actually want to share it with the terrible masters they sold themselves
to. Equally, those masters are not a unified front. As the plague rises,
unseen by normal people, the temple divides and goes to war against
itself in many places. From the perspective of regular people on the
ground, this means that not only are there suddenly a lot of strangely in-
the-know people with a lot of resources in the middle of the apocalypse,
but they all know each other, and many of them seem deeply intent on
killing each other.
 The Collapse
(Onset Of The Apocalypse)
For a few sessions at least, characters will be moving through a wildly
unstable world. Here are a few things you may want to show off:

REFUGEE FLOCKS
Often half-sick, moving in larger groups and mostly uncertain and
terrified, refugees are the obviously “easy meat” that's still around in the
world. Decent people, for the most part, but simply unequipped to deal
with what's happening around them. The existence and needs of such
people often pose any number of moral questions for able survivors.

THE LIGHTS GO OUT

With many people attempting to flee the blight, and others dying and
turning against those near them, power, water, and other utilities will
begin to fail quickly. As even the last and bravest members of civil
services fail, any fires that start spread until they burn out, and the idea
of “crime” loses currency. Civilization, in terms of institutions and
structures, sustains a mortal blow – a few holdouts will later come into
resurgence as enclaves, but chaos is the order of the day.

THE DEAD, IN GROWING DROVES

The dead will be everywhere in the early days – and rambling aimlessly,
for the most part. The characters may witness an Alpha gathering up a
few of them, but the vast majority of the dead will just be roaming free.

THE EDGE OF THE ROIL

In the very early early apocalypse, characters should see only a few
instances of plague fog; eventually, this fog will spread much further, but
in the beginning it will be a rarity rather than an omnipresent threat.
The black glass that will later begin to appear should be a complete
unknown until the roil itself is spreading visibly.
 Appearance Of The Alphas
(The Early Apocalypse)
The greater the degree of symbiosis one achieves with the blight, the
stronger and smarter the dead thing that results upon finally succumbing
and turning. This takes some time, which means that the first waves of
dead are uncoordinated – but only a few days after things come apart,
leaders will slowly begin to appear among the dead, becoming more and
more common as time goes on.

SILENT LEADERSHIP
Alphas don't speak to the unintelligent dead. Instead, in the presence of
an alpha, such creatures begin to coordinate apparently on their own. If
a complex task or long-term is being given, the alpha will approach close
to the other dead, seemingly focusing on it for a time.

Killing an alpha doesn't wipe away long-term tasks, but dead who are
under direct moment-to-moment control revert immediately to their
uncoordinated state. If enraged or attacking, they continue, just more
clumsily than they were.

Even the plague-fog of the roil seems to obey alphas, shrinking back,
moving, and depositing black glass at their command.

ALPHAS MEAN PROJECTS

The moment alphas appear, they begin to organize the dead, and use
them to build things – road conversions and delves, primarily, but any
other projects the Guide has in mind could be thrown into the mix. As
alphas come into play, signalling their arrival with strange architecture
brings their full presence “onstage”.
 The Coming Of The Roil
(The Early Apocalypse)
During the apocalypse, an infectious fog that will come to be called the
roil is spawned by many of the dead. Over time, this fog covers a
significant part of the land mass of the world, moving as weather. This
fog is the medium in which the dead move and work.

ROILING ROADS
As it spreads from cities, the roil first covers over many major roads;
“work crews” of alphas and shambles push vehicle traffic to the side,
followed up by wallows laying down a thick glassy black surface. These
roads come to be the main means of transit as the dead expand their grip
on the world.

WASTELANDS AND NEW JUNGLES

Roil consumes and invades organic matter. This includes much plant
matter, although plants are consumed and attacked much more slowly
than flesh. While grains and grasses are stripped away to create more
roil under days of fog, fruiting plants are more often changed into strange
versions – some poisonous, some extremely nutritious, and some wildly
infectious. These new plants spread rapidly.

THE OCEANS ARE DIFFERENT

Roil doesn't spread in the oceans in the same way; it doesn't work as well
submerged, and was designed not to spread in ocean water as part of
keeping it secret and contained while it was being made. Most ocean life
carries the blight, but is not changed by it; you can get infected by eating
fish, but the fish themselves don't grow sick.
Instead, there are waterspout features – like tornadoes of slow-moving
roil – that move along the shorelines. These complexes scatter debris
and dust across the shallows near pockets of an algae that blooms
rapidly, using the scattered waste as fertilizer. This algae, in turn, is then
partly harvested by the roil; slowly, the oceans are greening with the
stuff.
The bloom is not infectious, and is moderately nutritious; vessels at sea
can (and do) harvest it, though there is some danger. Fish pulped in the
gathering process carry the blight, and small patches of free-floating roil,
managed by vapours, are sometimes posted as watches. These will
attempt to infect ships engaging in such operations.
 Enclave, Cult, Delve
(Early To Middle Apocalypse)
Human society and the world itself are forced into a small number of
basic patterns as the roil spreads. While much of the world will fall to
become wasteland or warped growth, filled with drifting banks of
infectious fog, and primarily populated by the dead, there will be some
places of significant note...

ENCLAVES
Over time, as the living gather, they will find and fortify significant
holdings. Small towns and solid buildings with rooftop and balcony
gardens, their own wells, and more. Despite efforts towards self-
sufficiency, though, there will always be a need for specialists to defend
them, to forage, and to trade. Player character will sooner or later end up
working for, with, or in one of these refuges. A good deal of material for
describing enclaves and building situations as part of life within them is
given in the enclaves section.

CULTS
The odd impulses, visions, and abilities that drive Seekers and lead to the
creation of smaller cults will continue to grow. As enclaves grow, many
cults are transfigured, fixating on specific areas where the dead gather.
Near to those places, these cults make pacts with the blight, inhuman
beings whose arrival they will learn to anticipate. As they do, they will
infiltrate and convert among enclaves near them, develop ever-stronger
powers and undergo more extreme changes. The most potent and
dangerous of these cults are led by former members of the Black Sun.

DELVES
The dead will be active as well as these things occur, establishing
temporary bases form which they can operate. These are delves; the
section of the same name covers creation of such places as locations to
raid and plunder – something many enclaves will need to do eventually.
From and in their delves, the dead will convert roads, hunt the living
creatures of the world, stage attacks on enclaves, purify their own flesh,
and begin the work of building hives that will act as incubators first and
later as temples for their awful masters.
 Communion
(Opening The Middle Apocalypse)
Starting with the members of the Black Sun, and spreading quickly to
other cults, contact will be established between cult groups and the
eldritch powers that conceived of the blight.

SORCEROUS PILGRIMAGES
The unearthly powers will call their followers and creatures to the
various places where they intend to come into the world. Great
migrations of the dead and entire cults will suddenly pack up and leave
one place to arrive at another.

BLIGHT TERRITORIES
Where cults and undead gather together, called to serve some common
master, they become a single organization. Sorcerers, Alphas, cultists,
and dead begin working together, and begin securing territories around
the area where they feel that their masters will rise.

THE RESPITE TIMES

While the dead and cults are on the move, most normal enclaves will
have at least a short period of relative peace from those groups. While
some grow slack in this period, others will regroup, entrench, and even
start to go on the offensive. The founding and securing of the blight
territories will meet these re-secured and expanding enclaves head-on.
 The Rise Of The Hives
(Middle To Late Apocalypse)
Scattered over the world, mainly in the heart of major cities, the dead will
congregate beneath the roil in the blight territories, and set to work on
the creation of hives. These are immense domes with arched entryways
large enough that buildings could be constructed in them, and are central
to the agenda of the makers.

THE GROWTH OF A HIVE

1 Crossroads The clearing and repaving of roadways with the

black, glassy stone called nocturne always
connects roads from one hive site to another. Any
nexus of crossing roads that have been rebuilt in
this way is a potential hive.

2 Plateau A nocturne crossroads begins to become a hive

when it attracts wallows and dead in large
numbers, which meld together to form titans.
These massive beasts work to clear the
surrounding area of buildings and other obstacles,
as the crossroads itself swells into a plateau.

3 Crown As a clear field is created around the hive site,

huge metallic spikes appear (their origins aren't
known); these spikes ground out EMP, and seem to
protect the hive site from many attacks. Around
this time, the plateau bulges into on a domelike
shape, and begins to open entryways.

4 Cradle The roadways reaching out from the hive begin to

absorb and move roil, acting as pipelines to carry
it to the hive. Inside the hive, roil accumulates in
the central cavity until it becomes a semi-solid gel.
This is the material from which a maker will be
born. As this occurs, the field around the hive
expands, and the mental presence of the maker
comes to bear on and manipulate the local dead to
take on the shapes and types it prefers.

5 Temple Eventually, the central cavity drains, leaving a

newly born maker. The space transforms into a
throne room or worship chamber, and the maker
takes control over their flock as god-king.
 Bringing The Thunder
(Middle To Late Apocalypse)
The strongest enclaves are not idle as the hives grow – and no few of
them begin as or move into military installations during this period.
While the early apocalypse fails to have central authorities, structures, or
leaders to form the focus for an assault, this becomes less true as hives
form up and the dead are organized.

The most brutally ravaged cities are, in a few cases, actually subjected to
nuclear cleansing – and while the “crown” of spikes around a hive
provides a massive kinetic shield against even this, it shatters roads,
burns away roil, annihilates swarms of dead, boils the bodies of most of
the dead within, and isolates the hive.

In cities where this last measure is not taken, areas around the hive are
firebombed, locked into sieges where buildings are collapsed all around
the area to wall them in and heavily armed patrols set – which in turn are
challenged by enormous swarms of the dead.

In short, a significant part of what's left of humanity goes to war.

THE GODSLAYERS
While hives are shielded against blasts and pulses, they can be freely
entered by troops, delved, fought in, and demolished from the inside.
Efforts to do this often fail, and tend to have extreme casualty rates even
when they succeed.

If a maker is fully-formed and active within a hive, destroying its body

elicits a psychic “death scream” that will (unless blocked in some pretty
outstanding way) destroy the nervous system of all living things within
about a mile. This does not stop many enclaves from making the
attempt; death is not too high a price to pay to kill one of the makers,
from the viewpoint of most.

THE PRAXES
The ongoing radio chatter through middle and late apocalypse includes a
great deal of information exchange on technology and research. By the
late apocalypse, most of the praxes in the research section are well-
developed somewhere, and prototype plans are shared around over the
open airwaves.
 The Night Incarnate
(Late Apocalypse)
The apocalypse is nothing less than an attempt by ancient powers from
beyond the world to transform it, convert the populace into servant-
creatures, and occupy it. As their plans progress and they come into the
world in the flesh, their own holdings begin to take shape – darkly
fantastical realms, populated by bizarre life, in which human tribes of
cult worshippers live side-by-side with monstrosities.

THE PULP SHIFT

From the point of view of genre, the very late apocalypse resembles
something much more akin to a pulp space opera than a hard-bitten
zombie survival story. Enclaves are walled towns defended by small
cadres of sorcerers, soldiers with lightning-flinging weapons, anti-psi
cages, gargoyle-like Changed, and custom vehicles. Many feed
themselves with tanks of altered plant material. Some even test the
bounds of understood reality as they grapple with the extra-dimensional
movement by which the makers transmit their consciousness and
through which 'greys' translate themselves to and from the world.
 Local Revelations
(Throughout)
In order to fight the plans of the makers, the characters will need to learn
those plans. The broad strokes outlined here do not need to be kept
deeply secret. Many cultists understand that they have a master, that
many of the dead also serve it, and that they will be called to some
promised land where it will come to exist and reign. From a practical
viewpoint, what will matter most to player characters on the ground
level is much more specific information.

YOUR LOCAL MAKER

If the game focuses largely on one enclave, or a region encompassing a
few, that means that one maker will be aiming to draw followers there
and build. Each maker has a distinctive personality. Some see war as
sport; some believe in order, others in some kind of Darwinian selection.
Some delight in inflicting suffering and will want prey around to inflict it
on, while others wish to sterilize anything they can't control. A few are
even (from their inhuman viewpoint) friendly to humanity as a species.
In a game that progresses to the point of war with the servants of a
specific maker, the personality of that maker should matter.

THE HIDDEN WAR

Conflict between local cults and between seekers and sorcerers that
refuse the call of a maker afford plenty of opportunities for player
leverage. There's every reason for cult defectors to hide in enclaves, for
some of these forces to play at “Enemy of my enemy”, for Black Sun
groups to try and convert or unwittingly use strong survivors... And on
the turnabout, there's plenty to to be taken by raiding and breaking cults.
The local players in these conflicts matter much more, in the moment,
than the great sweep of the apocalypse.
Section NINE

THREATS
 A Taxonomy Of Enemies.
This section is a listing of things that character may need to deal with in
action and combat. Each creature entry includes a basic description
given loosely from the stance of an experienced survivor, followed by
general text or a number of rules elements.

The Rules Elements

Traits Traits are the special abilities and problems that the
creature has; each creature is unique.
Combat This part of the creature entry names the attacks that
the creature makes, and the kinds of strain that those
attacks inflict.
Health This part of the creature entry describes the state of
the creature based on the number of wounds it has
taken (see below).

About The Different States Of Health

Enraged An enraged creature will focus on finding and
destroying enemies. Once a creature is wounded,
generally, there's no 'easy out' from conflict.
Crippled A crippled creature drops one level in terms of speed
(from swift to normal, normal to sluggish, and sluggish
to almost-immobile). In addition, anyone who wishes
can leave close combat with it if they wish to do so; it
can't “pin you in”. The special traits for swift and
sluggish are given in many creature descriptions
through this section.
Downed A downed creature is effectively immobile and cannot
attack.
Destroyed A destroyed creature is finished; it won't later bloat up,
turn into a wallow, or 'come back'.

Flesh Made Protean

The entries given for monstrous creatures are only templates; traits can
be recombined, altered and added fairly trivially. See the end of this
section for some suggestions on how to engage in this.
 Survivor
Among the most dangerous possible opponents that survivors can face
are other survivors. While most encounters with other humans – from
lost remnants to soldiers – can be handled socially, sometimes you end
up fighting. The template below covers most humans, though some
Changed and mid-to-late apocalypse cultists will require some fine-
tuning, unique additions, or borrowed bits from other creatures in this
section.

Survivor Traits
Equipped Survivors use equipment; they will typically attack
once with whatever weapon they are equipped with
(doing strike damage and effect). They may have
armour (blocking the first 1-3 wounds of the
confrontation).
Aimed Survivors are smart enough to aim attacks; though
Attacks they make only one attack each go-round, each point of
damage from a hit must be blocked individually with a
hit when in melee.
Team When a combatant is outnumbered by Survivors,
Tactics rather than having a one-die reduction, that target is
subject to up to two added attacks.

Weapon Strike
Combat Deals Wounds As Armament

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Dead

1-3 Wounds 4-5 Wounds 6-7 Wounds 8+ Wounds
 Shamble
The basic model. Walking dead, risen, zombies, groaners, all the different
names you hear. Slow, groaning, stupid. Smart enough to make a loose
herd. No tools; intent on biting and clawing, They don't run, they don't
climb, they just ramble around.

The only tricky thing they do is the moan. They're usually making a little
noise, that half-moaning breathing they do. It does pick up a bit when
they see someone to chew on; not so much louder as pitched to carry.
When they do, all the others around get just a little more alert, to try and
see it too. A single Shamble can be fairly easily handled alone if you're a
brawler; in herds, though, such fights kill.

Shamble Traits
Sluggish When baiting or juking (if all the creatures baited are
sluggish), becoming tired/fatigued is a danger rather
than being automatic. In a shooting situation, sluggish
creatures take twice as long to close in.

Slam Spatter
Combat Deals 1 Wound Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1 Wound 2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4+ Wounds
 Gaunt
It was two weeks in before I saw a Gaunt for the first time. Slimmed
down, compared to the usual shambler; like they've shed a lot of water.
Quick, and unlike the shamblers they seemed angry. Still stupid and still
no tools. But where shamblers moan and stumble, gaunts howl and
sprint. And they can jump and climb like nothing you've seen – they can't
clear a good wall, but getting up on a second-floor balcony? Yeah. One
did that. My first one. I was up there with a rifle and a big box of shells,
just ticking them off, when it came through the mob.

Gaunt Traits
Wrathful Gaunts are easily enraged; if someone baits the dead in an
area, they will always take the bait, even if outside the
usual scope of the action. Gaunts will “break ranks” from
Alpha control to seek out the source of odd noises and
sights.
Swift When baiting a group with swift creatures, there are two
dangers of being caught instead of one - “caught by the
Swift” and “caught by everything”. In shooting situations,
swift creatures close in twice as fast.

Claw Claw Spatter

Combat Deals 2 Wounds Deals 2 Wounds Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Carrion
Most animals can fight off the blight if they get infected, and those that
fail rarely “get themselves together” - they collapse and end up as
wallows. It's larger animals like big dogs that are most likely to actually
turn into carrion, ones that resist infection for long periods until their
bodies are almost completely transformed by the blight. Carrion are
generally more like gaunts than shambles; they get thin and mean, but
stay just as fast as they were in life. They're no smarter or dumber than
gaunts are and can jump just as freakishly, but they can't usually climb
things and they aren't as easily angered. Because their flesh is heavily
converted, they don't spatter their enemies with infected matter.

Carrion Traits
Swift When baiting a group with swift creatures, there are two
“Caught!” dangers instead of one - “caught by the Swift”
and “caught by everything”. In shooting situations, swift
creatures close in twice as fast.

Claw Claw Bite

Combat Deals 1 Wounds Deals 1 Wounds Deals 2 Wounds

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Alpha
When all the dead get real quiet, keep an eye on them. If they stop
moving like a herd, and start moving in packs, there's an Alpha around.
Look for a gaunt that doesn't look quite as raging mad, that seems more
interested in finding good vantage points than closing in. I don't know
how they give orders in the stillness, or just how smart they really are.
They're smart enough that packs under their control will sweep
efficiently, block exits well, move to flank you. The way they give orders
has some kind of range, half a city block maybe. Take out the Alpha, and
all the order they bring to things falls apart.

Alpha Traits
Leader Leaders coordinate their underlings. In combat, this
means such groups which outnumber foes both reduce
fighting dice by one and inflict a bonus attack. Leaders
can choose to ignore baiting attempts, and groups they
lead will use tactics.
Swift When baiting a group with swift creatures, there are two
“Caught!” dangers instead of one - “caught by the Swift”
and “caught by everything”. In shooting situations, swift
creatures close in twice as fast.

Claw Claw Spatter

Combat Deals 2 Wound Deals 2 Wound Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3-4 Wounds 5-6 Wounds 9+ Wounds
 Bloat
If you cripple a shamble or a ghoul, it'll slowly start bloating up. We used
to think this was rot, finally setting in. No such luck. The swelling will
often seal up whatever you hacked to put them down, letting them get
mobile again – not very, but enough. Bloats ramble around, and are easy
enough to run from. If you hurt them, be ready to jump back; they bleed
miasmic soup into the air from wherever you rip them up. Tear them up
enough, and they'll often burst in a cloud. Either one is a quick road to
infection. Bullets and distance, that's the way.

Bloat Traits
Sluggish When baiting or juking, if all the creatures baited are
sluggish, becoming tired/fatigued is a danger rather
than being automatic. In a shooting situation, sluggish
creatures take twice as long to close in.

Partially A bloat can merge with another dead, making a Joined.

Amorphous
Venting An injured bloat vents the miasmic fog of the Roil; all
actions taken in its immediate vicinity while this is the
case come with risk of infection.

Slam Spatter
Combat Deals 2 Wounds Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Joined
I still laugh a little every time I see one of these. Even knowing what they
are, what they become. Two shamblers half-fused together, still slow, but
grabby. As often as not, it looks like one giving the other a piggyback
ride. You get a joined when a bloat or wallow that's been souping up and
some other dead get close and are calm. They latch onto each other, and
the bloated one kind of unravels, letting off in a cloud of that soupy fog.
When the fog rolls back, the bloat has been reduced to being a passenger
on the other one. The process keeps on over time, the bloat-flesh sliding
slowly into the one they're riding, beefing it up. The process of joining
does rid the body of most rotting flesh; Joined don't spatter infection.

Joined Traits
Sluggish When baiting or juking, if all the creatures baited are
sluggish, becoming tired/fatigued is a danger rather
than being automatic. In a shooting situation, sluggish
creatures take twice as long to close in.
Grabby Any subject hit with one of the two “clutch” attacks
that a joined makes cannot escape the combat on their
next go.

Clutch Clutch Slam

Combat Deals 1 Fatigue Deals 1 Fatigue Deals 1 Wound

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Slither
There's a lot of gross crap that you'll see if you actually pay attention to a
dead thing after you've put it down definitively with brain destruction.
It'll twitch for hours, and then start to break apart. Most of it will just
turn black, smoke off a bit of fog, and wither up. But some of it will stay
juicy. Some of the time, those juicy bits will change enough to actually try
and make their way to the nearest dead; imagine a bicep detached from a
body and moving along the ground like some kind of slug-snake thing.

Slithers aren't dangerous in and of themselves, just disgusting. However,

they will move to any intact dead brain, and glom onto whatever housing
it has. A decapitated shamble whose skull hasn't been cracked will
attract bits of its own muscles as slithers for a good while. A crippled
dead thing can rebuild itself to some extent by having slithers graft
themselves to it.

Slithers are simple to dispatch, needing only a good hack or a shot

through them. They'll twitch, and then go the way the rest of the flesh
did, withering up and smoking a little.

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

- - - 1+ Wounds
 Wallow
Wallows are what happens when one of the dead is crippled too badly to
even bloat up and keep going, or when most animals get infected too
badly to fight it off, or when a lot of slithers get together around a
brainpan. They're reeking piles of flesh, sliding around amoeba-like,
killing grass and decaying whatever they touch. There's a braincase or
six in there somewhere; none of the dead function without one. But it
could be a seven-foot pile of lashing muscle fibres running off a rabbit
skull. Wallows develop long tendrils, and give off the reeking miasma of
the roil if pierced. They also use their freakish liquidity to heal, absorb,
and merge with other dead.

Wallow Traits
Amorphous Wallows are not unified creatures; their flesh can split
and merge. A wallow can give flesh directly to other
dead (taking their wounds on itself, and making them
Splayed if desired) and absorb them (healing itself or
becoming massive, as per Brutes). It can merge with
another dead, making Joined.
Venting An injured wallow vents the miasmic fog of the Roil; all
actions taken in its immediate vicinity while this is the
case come with risk of infection.

Lash
Combat Deals 2 Wounds

Health Enraged Downed Destroyed

1-3 Wounds 4-8 Wounds 9+ Wounds
 Splayed
When the dead absorb a great deal of slither or wallow-flesh, they are
not always reconstructed into human patterns. Often, they receive
strange new limbs or other reconstructions. Among the most notable
effects of such reworking is the introduction of physical weaponry
capable of (typically grotesque) ranged attacks.

Splayed Traits
Amorphous A splayed can transfer flesh to another dead near it
Portions from its recreated portions, moving up to two wounds
from that creature to itself.
Splinter Splayed “spit” bony needles, constricting lengths of
flesh, or other projectiles from their reconfigured
anatomies. Their splinter attack applies both in melee
and at range.

Claw Splinter
Combat Deals 1 Wound Deals 1 Wound & 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Brute
Leave the joined alone long enough, they'll pick up a couple more bloats
and wallows over time. Eventually, it stops, and the meld progresses all
the way along. The result is a giant, freakish thing. Dim – but not
shambler dim. And strong. If a brute gets hold of you, you'll get battered,
then smashed. Worst thing about them, though, is that they've got more
than one brain in there. While there's usually at least one head, not all
the brains are always in it. Brutes tend to have thin wisps of roil coming
off them, but not great clouds.

Brute Traits
Massive All physical attacks made by massive creatures deal +1
wound each; this is included below.

Slam Slam Roiling

Combat Deals 3 Wounds Deals 3 Wounds Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-5 Wounds 6-8 Wounds 9-12 Wounds 13+ Wounds
 Roil
Fog, mist, smoke, call it whatever you want, but it's not any of those
things. It's the plague itself, man; steams itself right off the dead and
collects itself. Sometimes it lies down low, sometimes it forms up into
big banks to hide stuff. Sometimes it goes with the wind and sometimes
it moves along where alphas send it. One thing always – don't breathe it,
don't even touch it.

A SHROUD FOR THE WORLD

Characters will likely first encounter roil as a vapour that surrounds or is
vented from certain dead things, as in their entries. Over time, however,
they will begin to come across it in much larger quantities – occupying
delves, moving in banks, and so on. When the dead are working in large
groups, their actions are often covered by a cloud of the stuff.

Roil is infectious; when operating around or in heavy banks of it, endure

rolls to resist multiple dangers of infection are likely, and infection may
be added as a danger to almost any roll. This, however, is not it's primary
purpose.

Roil, examined closely, is a cloud of protean micro-organisms (or nano-

machines; it has qualities associated with both). This stuff is utilitarian;
it provides cover, conducts the signalling of the dead smoothly, can
deposit materials to create the dark glassy material called 'nocturne', can
consume organic materials to duplicate itself. In vast quantities and the
right conditions, it can construct new bodies for the plague-makers to
inhabit. Most of this will be academic to most characters in the
apocalypse, of course – to most, it's just the fog in which monsters do
their creepy work.

FIRE, BLEACH AND LIGHTNING

For those seeking to disperse roil, it is most susceptible to open fire,high
voltage electricity, and sprayed bleach. While most such uses don't
destroy large quantities of roil, use of them to destroy some roil will
often cause the cloud to recoil away from the damage. Keeping a roil
bank “on” someone with a flamethrower or arc light requires attention
from an alpha; left to itself, it will pull away and leave at least a little clear
space to operate in. How and when characters will discover these things
depend on what they observe and whether they keep in contact with
others who might notice it.
 Pneuma
Pneuma are masses of non-infectious fog that travel within the roil; if you
look at one for a bit, you start to think that it's like the vapour is taking
on the shape of a person. You'll only ever see them in the dark; they
recoil from sunlight, like it hurts them.

Pneuma Traits
Vapour A pneuma can always be escaped in combat, and will
normal flee from confrontation. It can only be harmed
by electricity, fire, and dispersed attacks (a shotgun
load deals a single damage on a strike).
Mentalic If it must fight, a Pneuma attacks with psychic force;
this attack is below, and requires two hits to block with
sheer will.
Reflective Pneuma reflect the memories of those they meet; most
who encounter them see someone they are willing to
believe to be dead in the vapour. People can even
converse with these memories, though a free pneuma
has no agenda in this; it only reflects. A pnuema
obeying orders from a cultist or alpha may use these
visions to mislead or deliver messages, though
confusedly and cryptically.

Cognitive Wrack
Combat Deals 1 Stress & I Fatigue.

Health Enraged Destroyed

1-4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Miasmic
If all you get is a really quick look at a miasmic, you think it must be
gaunts that's caught fire. They've got wisps of that oily-looking smoke
that you get in bad outbreak areas around them. The smoke follows
them, though. It curls and moves like tendrils, like it's accompanying and
assisting the thing. If you ever get a chance to watch them, and they don't
know you're there, then do. They'll find a place where there's trees or
grass or something. The wisps will dip down and caress the ground,
leaving dry, dead vegetation all around. Like they've grazing, almost.

Miasmic Traits
Roiling Miasmics are surrounded by animate roil that obeys
them. They will often use this roil to “feel” their
surroundings, and deploy it in vaporous “strands” to
attack as a weapon – their roil attack given below
works at short range.
Swift When baiting a group with swift creatures, there are
two “Caught!” dangers; “caught by the Swift creatures”
and “caught by everything”. In shooting situations,
swift creatures close in twice as fast.

Claw Wisp Wisp

Combat Deals 2 Wounds Deals 1 Infection Deals 1 Infection

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1-2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4 Wounds 5+ Wounds
 Balesong
Oh, god. Now they're singing.

A DISTRESSING CHORUS
Some survivors will encounter “singing” from the dead - sounds as if a
chorus were trying to perform some inhuman aria.

Careful observation, if it's made, will make it clear that the singing is not
physical. The dead utter no noises, and blocking the ears doesn't help.
The singing is psychic, on the same “wavelength” as the whispers brought
on by infection. The singing can be blocked out with metal caging (chain
link fence, chicken wire, catwalks, grates, etc).

There doesn't seem to be anything unique about the 'singers’ themselves;

they seem to be retransmitting a psychic signal from elsewhere. The
purpose of the song has been theorized to be disseminating information,
coordinating roil, instructing alphas, or as a psychological terror tactic of
some sort – or all of the above. Characters hoping to research the dead
can make a significant number of starting observations by interaction
with the song.

However, the song is grating and nerve-wracking over any period longer
than an hour or so. If it is ongoing in an area characters are doing any
extended task, stress may be added to any stakes as a danger. If it goes
on for long stretches, endure rolls to deal with the mental strain may be
needed.

CHANGED WHISPERS
Changed characters with the Whisper talent aren't resistant to the
balesong, and can't understand it any more than anyone else. However,
after significant exposure to it, they will discover that they know things
about the positions and activities of the dead in the overall region. They
won't remember having been 'told' this information; it's just there, in
their minds, as if they'd momentarily forgotten and are now recalling it.
The Guide can have a little fun turning to the player and laying out some
stuff they just happen to know now, though it's usually fragmentary
knowledge like “Oh, yeah, there are four Alphas over in that area,
gathering up Wallows. No idea what for.”
 Chained
As survivors begin to employ tasers and EMP weapons over the course of
the apocalypse, the dead react. The first chained are shambles with bare
wires thrown over them and sunk into their flesh, which occasionally
allow them to ground out larger pulses. Nearer to the actual hives, the
process is more intense; actual armour plates are hammered out, chains
spiked into place, and spike-tips fashioned, by alpha-controlled gaunts
and brutes. As this goes on, the eventual results are more powerful
“palace guard” chained for the hives.

Chained Traits
Heavily Chained ignore grazes entirely, and take only a single
Armoured damage from strikes. They take full damage from fire
damage. This does not affect electrical damage, but see
below.
Grounded Chained ignore half of the wounds dealt to them by any
electrical attack (round down).

Chain Chain
Combat Deals 2 Wounds Deals 2 Wounds

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1 Wound 2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4+ Wounds
 Slender
As it grows later in the apocalypse, shambles slowly “sweat out” all of the
rotted flesh they carried, becoming thin and strange. The pale flesh
remaining grows over and seals their mouth, eyes, and ears (though they
continue to operate ably). Slenders are less fierce but somewhat more
intelligent than shambles; they are capable of using simple equipment.

Slender Traits
Equipped Slenders use equipment; they will typically attack once
with whatever weapon they are equipped with (doing
strike damage and effect). They can be Heavily
Armoured, (as per Chained), but when this is the case,
they also become Sluggish.
Team When a combatant is outnumbered by Slenders, rather
Tactics than having a one-die reduction, that target is subject
to up to two added attacks.

Weapon Strike
Combat Deals Wounds As Armament

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1 Wound 2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4+ Wounds
 Skitter
Deep into the apocalypse, wallows begin to spawn these creatures,
disgorging the skulls and spines of animals and coating them in flesh,
which is in turn shelled in the shimmering black material the roil lays
down – and with wings constructed of that same stuff.

Skitter Traits
Flier Skitters are aerial creatures; they ignore walls and
other height restrictions. They are not especially
quick, however, and can be outrun.
Team When a combatant is outnumbered by Skitters, rather
Tactics than having a one-die reduction, that target is subject
to up to two added attacks.

Sting
Combat Deals 1 Wound.

Health Downed Destroyed

1 Wound 2+ Wounds
 Chitin
Chitins are crab-like creatures up to twelve feet tall. They are mounts for
the dead and for cultists, as well as being shock troops of a sort. Much
like skitters, chitins are born from wallows late into the apocalypse,
presumably at the direction of the makers. A chitin can carry up to three
human-sized burdens.

Chitin Traits
Heavily Chitin ignore grazes entirely, and take only a single
Armoured damage from strikes. They take full damage from fire
and electrical effects, however.
Swift When baiting a group with swift creatures, there are two
“Caught!” dangers instead of one - “caught by the Swift”
and “caught by everything”. In shooting situations, swift
creatures close in twice as fast.

Claw Lash
Combat Deals 3 Wounds Deals 1 Wound.

Health Enraged Crippled Downed Destroyed

1 Wound 2 Wounds 3 Wounds 4+ Wounds
 Titan
Birthed in the roil-covered hearts of cities from the linked flesh of
hundreds of wallows and dead, titans are built to tear down buildings
and act as troop transports for the dead. Their intelligence or lack
thereof is uncertain; titans always travel with significant numbers of the
dead, which almost certainly include some number of alphas.
Titans seem ponderous unless they are roused; when this occurs, they
tear up handfuls of buildings to fling at whatever has annoyed them.
Vehicles and masonry are favoured, but anything ready to hand will be
used to smash enemies. Titans do not generally attack unarmed – their
flesh is still flesh, and at their scale, relatively frail in contrast to the force
they can exert. A titan punching a wall would knock it apart, but splinter
many of the hundreds of bones in the punching arm.

Titans In Play
A titan can withstand several hundred wounds before it falls, and has
many braincases melded inside it, but it is still flesh. Anti-vehicle
weapons, massed fire, and equally oversized and overpowered traps can
kill titans.
Conflicts which include a titan will more likely treat any titan-killing
strategies as unique features that characters roll to set up, rather than as
usual rolls to execute. “Plant these demolition charges without getting
seen, juking from building to building” followed by “bait the dead with
the titan to lure them, and it, into the killing zone” - that's the kind of
action that will generally best suit a titan battle.
 Maker
Massive creatures, sometimes humanoid and sometimes very much
otherwise, the makers are the creators of the blight. Each hive is a
central hub by which a maker aims to create a body and enter the world.
Fully-formed, a maker is entirely immune to normal weaponry. It's
possible that a nuclear device would be capable of killing one... But
maybe not.
Makers enjoy the worshipful attentions of cults, both living and dead.
Whether they feed on this worship or employ it to effect can't be
determined, but their goal of transforming the world includes bringing
the population over to maker-worship.

Makers In Play
Makers are powerful central points for situations. Knowing that a maker
is nearing emergence is a good reason for a powerful enclave to take a
shot at the hive it is growing in. For less potent groups, knowing that an
active maker is expanding the territory it holds to include some area, or
is moving in a region, is a good reason to pack bags and get gone.
Various plans to kill makers are also possible, through use of immense
ritual sorcery, nuclear weapons, and other such overwhelming devices.
Even when such a plan comes off, success should never be guaranteed.
Should some group of player characters end up facing a maker, the Guide
should lay on rolls to endure the mental presence of the thing. Being near
a maker is stressful in and of itself, on top of the action of executing a
plan or running for it.
 Grey
Greys are leathery-skinned, grey-toned humanoids. There's some
supposition that they are a kind of dead, but they seem to hunt the dead
for sport – often taking body parts as trophies – and have never been
seen to work with them. Good descriptions of greys are rare, in part
because they move quickly enough to almost blur the air, in part because
they seem to be hostile to humanity... But much, much more interested
in hunting the dead. Their colouration is nearly absolute; grey skin and
hair, in all cases. Greys wear simple harnesses to hold weapons and
trophies, and nothing else; just what a harness covers varies, but
“modesty” doesn't seem to be part of the intent.

Greys In Play
Should characters actually engage a grey in hostilities, treat it as a Gaunt
which deals four two-damage attacks each round spread out over
enemies (including if one is attempting to juke past it), which can't be
blocked from escaping, and which can't be baited.
Luckily for characters, only actual attacks will initiate hostilities with a
Grey. They aren't around to fight people; they're around to fight the dead.
They don't speak as far as anyone can tell, and won't accept any
invitation to conversation or communication. It might be possible to
“mark” the locations of alphas and other interesting prey for them with
smoke or other signals, and hope for their interest, but nobody has made
a practice of this in-fiction to date.
 Adding New Threats
The various makers each have their own distinctive visions of the
servitors they want, which are communicated to some degree to their
alphas even before the maker itself crafts a body and occupies it.
Wallows and roil are then put to work attempting to realize these visions
in flesh. Especially powerful cults can also bend roil and wallows to their
will, attempting to craft new things to aid them.

To create a new threat with the right “feel”, take one of the basic physical
frames below, and then add however many traits you like from the list
next page. Stat the result out as seems right to you, being ready to alter
stats as needed if it play reveals it to be too strong, weak, plain, or
whatever the case may be.

The Basic Frames

Corpse Most of the standard dead might be built on– Shambles,
Carrion, Alphas, Gaunts, Miasmics, Splayed, Brutes.
Bloats and Joined are 'transitional' forms, however, and
thus unlikely bases to add to.
Wallow The most common basis for truly alien things; if you
want to get really weird, this is a good base to use.
Cyst The isolated head of a dead thing becomes a cyst; a
brain in a leathery casing. Cysts themselves aren't
threats... Until you start adding in traits.
 Blighted Traits
This list doesn't include the existing modifications of other types, such as
qualities taken from Alphas, Miasmics, and so on If any such seem
applicable, grab those as well.

Chitinous The threat has a hard shell of a nocturne-like

substance, which may or may not be as strong as that of
a chitin. This shell may be of any shape – oversized
wallows may bear shells that are effectively platforms,
making vehicles of them.
Tentacled The threat has one or more added ropy tentacles of
muscle tissue, granting them added attacks, mobility,
and dexterity.
Winged The threat has wings; these may be wide and leathery,
or may be thin and chitinous. Leathery wings allow
gliding; insectile ones allow hovering.
Oversized The threat is notably larger; this invariably involves
some wild distortion in shape (unless a wallow) and
often comes with vulnerabilities as with titans.
Eldritch The threat has sorcerous abilities, typically quite weak
but highly reliable.
Roilborne The threat can levitate within a bank of roil, and move
swiftly while doing so.
Spewing The threat brews infectious fog or slime internally,
which it can spew forth as a spray.
Infested The threat is infested with much smaller threats, often
chitin-tipped and tiny, sometimes winged. These can be
flung out as an attack (or several), or may attach to
those subject to other attacks.
Omega The threat acts only under control by an alpha; it is
effectively a tool or vehicle, not a creature.
Melded The threat is fused to some piece of technology. If
electronic, the threat can often power it with
bioelectritiy.
Emplaced The threat is physically attached to a structure, making
it immobile; it often serves some function while thus
fused in place.
Section TEN

ENCLAVE
 The Enclave
The long-run situation for characters facing the apocalypse is to find and
occupy a secure position with others, aim to make it more or less self-
sufficient, even work from that base to fight back against the eldritch.
Such secure bases are enclaves. This section is dedicated to describing
enclaves and showing how an enclave adds new situations for play.

THE ENCLAVE SHEET

Enclaves have enough going on to deserve sheets of their own, which are
found in a file right alongside the character sheet files. You'll want one of
these in front of you as you set to work building an enclave; set the
problem sheets aside (we'll get to those).

IT'S JUST US!

Characters may operate from bases which don't have any other
inhabitants, and it might be worth tracking their resources and
stockpiles using the material from this section to manage that. When
this happens, though, large parts of the sheet will stay blank – and that's
okay! The Guide will likely want to keep a steady pressure on such
groups, though; a play group isn't large enough to handle many of the
things the apocalypse has to dish out, and the characters may eventually
learn this. Staying small lets a group avoid an awful lot of problems, but
such groups are easily shouldered aside and may be driven from their
boltholes once the action starts to include Alpha-controlled warbands
filled with Gaunts, Chained, and worse.

NEW-FOUNDED ENCLAVES
Enclaves that have just been founded will often have enormous scarcity,
no strong stances, and many other “gaps” on their record sheet. This is a
good thing! It means that there's loads to do – decisions to make,
resources to obtain and features to build, people to recruit and refugees
to take in... and adjustments to be made to the sheet all along the way. In
cases like this, the creation process will mostly be skimming through this
section to find the bits that do apply, with the sheet acting to highlight
the absences and shortages that the brand-new enclave now faces. As
the resource concerns start to see action and get solved, stances and
other potential problems can come up naturally through play.
 Basics
This first part of the enclave sheet is one you'll make notes on and come
back to several times as you go on. Get an idea of what you'll need to fill
out in this section, but don't get too hung up on filling these parts out
right off. The one thing in this section you'll likely want to decide on
right at the start is the kind of site.

Name This doesn't need to be a fancy name - “Home base” is a

easy one, as is “The Warehouse”. Some enclaves will
choose actual names, but not all.
Site What kind of defensible structure is the enclave built in
and around? Schools, large box stores, warehouses,
shipyards, and prisons are solid picks (shopping malls
are an obvious classic, but aren't actually at all secure).

Location where the enclave is located; this can be a map

reference, street address, “Downtown Calgary”, “Just
South Of Vegas”, or anything clear enough for you.

Occupants If there are more people than the characters, who are
they (say, 5 soldiers, 1 mechanic, 10 others)? You'll
want to make some of those others into interesting
people; good personalities drive action! But here, just
record basics.
Problems Food and water shortages, internal disputes... All kinds
of things will end up here. Note them down as you run
into them during creation.

Enclave Name

Is Housed In A Kind O f Site

Located At Where On A Map?

Occupied By Numbers; Professions?

And Facing Problems

 Leadership
While enclaves don't tend to formalize leadership early on, that doesn't
mean it isn't there. Once an enclave grows past about ten people, it's
time to look at this part of the sheet (and if the enclave is being ready-
made as a notable place, this needs doing). Things to decide:

Leadership Who is ultimately in charge? Give this person (or small

group of people) a name or names; you will want to
flesh them out as a character at some point, but a name
is a start.
Officials Put down a few more names, but leave responsibilities
alone until you know the features of your enclave. If
there ends up being a muscle-powered dynamo for
electricity, you'll want to put someone in charge of it.
When you go through resources, ask “Does this need
management?” If yes, come back here, and assign that.
Specialists People with great skills who aren't in charge of anything
in particular; think up a few fun ones.

Leadership: Leadership
Officials: Responsibilities:

{
Specialists:
{
{
{
 Group Stances
This section can be blank at first, if the Enclave is newly-founded, but it
will fill up pretty quickly is the Guide wants it to. When the Enclave
makes and internally justifies some decision, they're taking a stance. So,
if sick people are allowed to remain active, that's a stance – if sent into
quarantine, it's a different one. If exiled entirely, it's a very strong stance.
The stances the Guide will want to note down are ones that are likely to
be challenged later on. “We quarantine the sick” can easily become an
issue if vehicle repairs are needed and the mechanic is contagious.
Beyond sickness itself, some other issues that the group might end up
having a stance on (and seeing it challenged) are:

Shirking How has the enclave reacted when someone skips “their
turn” at something, starts hoarding something shared,
or is otherwise a shirker?
Changed The changed have useful, and often freakish, abilities
and adaptations. How have the people in the enclave
treated their changed, if they have any?
Cults The altered and novel belief systems that some embrace
as the apocalypse goes on may come up as major issues
around and in the enclave. What has happened in that
regard, and how did the enclave react to that? How far
does this reaction go, and what's the borderline case?
Bigotry Racism, sexism, and all the other -isms of the world
before the crash don't necessarily go out the window
with it. If an enclave of soldiers has the stance “women
need to be protected, so we can have a next generation”,
that's a stance that deserves to be challenged. When
considering stances like this, though, ask: Will this
actually be entertaining for my group to deal with
during play?

Group Stances
Sickness
 Features
The features of an enclave will mainly exist as supporting background to
the action, but they are often important background. For each of the core
features (built right into the sheet), you'll want to note down a
description of “what the enclave has for this purpose” and a reference for
“how well that serves”. Some samples of what an enclave might have are
given on the next couple of pages; some words to rate these include:

Absent The enclave doesn't have any of this.

Poor The enclave doesn't have enough of this.
Rationed There's only “enough” of this if managed carefully.
Good There's enough of this, even without rationing.
Abundant There's more than enough to go around.

Fortifications

Water Sources

Food Sources

Shelter Space

Sanitation

Heating

Electric Sources
 Core Features
(Details + Effects)
The core features on an enclave are listed below. For each, some
potential bits of description for “what this might represent” are given in
italics, followed by a quick note on what a scarcity of this resource means
in mechanical terms. To improve the values on these features, an enclave
should loot to building up or acquiring the kinds of things given in the
descriptive portion of that entry.

Fortifications Solid walls, yard area with perimeter fence, sight lines,
shooting or striking positions, reinforced entrances.
Most enclaves should have rationed fortifications
(guard duty is needed) at minimum; that's why they
exist where they do.
Water Rain-catching, water purifiers, independent well. If
Sources rain-catching is used, the Guide may adjust the output
up and down based on seasons & weather. Water
shortages mean a lot of thirst, and can make medical
sanitation much more difficult.
Food Gardens and fruiting trees, fish tanks, small livestock
Sources (includes lab rats and former pet species). Food
shortages can mean carrying around a lot of hunger;
some sources will mean growing and harvesting times
which might be worth the Guide caring about).

Shelter Beds, cots, hammocks, rooms or dividers, food

Space preparation space. Poor shelter space makes resting
harder, and may inflict stress or require enduring for
the occupants.
Sanitation Basins, buckets & paper, working toilets, baths, showers.
Poor sanitation can make withstanding infection and
healing harder.
Heating Electric heaters, boiler heating, wood furnaces, firepits
and fireplaces. In areas with cold weather, lack of
heating at the right time means enduring the cold and
not resting well... or more.
Electric Muscle-powered dynamo, diesel generator, solar panels,
Sources wind turbine, water dam. Electricity isn't absolutely
essential, but a fair bit of equipment uses electricity.
 Additional Features
(Details + Effects)
These features aren't strict necessities in most places, so if they're
absent, it's not worth noting, and they can't be scarce. Outputs from and
access to them can easily be limited enough to need rationing, and give
rise to political action to do that, hoarding, and other issues, right
alongside the significant benefits which they provide to an Enclave that
has such features.

Fuel Alcohol still, wood gasifier, methane plant. Enclave-

Source produced fuels are often dirty, take quite a bit of effort
to make, and require converting engines. They can be
made on-site with the right materials and inputs,
though, which can make the long-run difference
between “converted vehicles” and “no working
vehicles”.

Workshop Automotive shop, woodworking equipment,

construction yard, electric shop. For some projects, the
right kind of workshop is needed for work to occur at
all. For others, it magnifies progress (doubling or
tripling the number of hits spent to make progress on
craft rolls).

Medical Quarantine areas, surgical spaces, recovery rooms,

Station sanitary areas. A medical station can give added dice
to any attempt to heal someone or help them
withstand infection, and medical equipment is needed
to undertake activities like major surgery,
transfusions, and the like.

Unused Open floor space. This feature might or might not be

Space worth tracking, depending on circumstances; open
space can be used for leisure activities, meetings, and
as room to build up other features that are needed.

Rumpus Fiction, music, games, movies, small sporting gear. A

rumpus can be rated in terms of “how novel is it” for
venting purposes, rather than otherwise. This applies
to each person individually, but gives a sense of
whether or not the enclave has a built-in form of
stress relief, and just how good it is.
 Stockpiles
Stockpiles are the shared goods of the enclave – while individuals may
also have private caches (and hoards), that's not what gets noted here. In
this space, note down the reserves of things that are likely to actually
matter. This includes anything that's likely to be up for trade, as well as
anything that the Enclave will use up and doesn't have a source for.
Notes can be kept as “this many person-days” or “this many weeks for
the whole enclave”, or whatever you think you'll find most useful in
actually running the place during play.

Stockpiles

Resources In Motion
Anything that the Enclave has at scarce levels which can be stockpiled
and is a necessity to life (or just to how they normally operate) should
slowly get used up from the stockpiles; anything that's absent should get
used up much more quickly. If you're measuring stocks in terms of “how
long for how many people”, this is a lot easier than if you're measuring in
barrels (unless you also note “a barrel lasts a week” or similar). In effect,
these resources are all timers counting down. When the stocks run out,
the consequences get will worse and worse as time goes on.

On the opposite note, anything that's listed as good and provides

stockpiles should slowly tick up; anything abundant should be
accumulated much more quickly. This will mean that the Enclave can
trade those things for whatever they're short of, or find new and creative
uses for those items, as matches their situation and ingenuity.
 Communication And Relations
Besides their internal state, most enclaves also have links or potential
links to other survivors. Here are some to consider:

Beacons Does the enclave advertise its presence with lights,

And Signs radio calls, signs left out in the world, or the like? Big
sign on the roof for passing planes?
Contacted Is the enclave in contact with any other nearby enclaves,
Enclaves such that it might trade with them or give mutual aid?
Might scavengers from one enclave meet ones from the
other?
Bandits Are there any known ne'er-do-wells in the area, in the
And Cults form of cults, antisocial bandit types, or would-be
warlords?
Radio Is the enclave able to receive long-distance
Network transmissions, and is it following and/or contributing to
the overall conversation on survival, news, the progress
of the apocalypse, and anti-blight measures and
technologies?
 Strife
The many needs of enclaves make them vulnerable to the demands of
anyone able to provide a necessity that there's no other visible way to
get. Even the “legitimate” leadership group of many enclaves is
composed of those that found the site itself, trading sanctuary for an
agreement to follow their decisions. When other major needs are
provided, those providing them sometimes join that leadership group.
Other times, they form the core of a new leadership group, and a power
struggle begins. That's strife.
To set up a situation where strife is occurring, you'll tell a story by filling
in blanks, and then lay out the internal structure of the “challenger”
group (you'll want also need your enclave sheet filled out).

TELLING A STORY
The story of strife always runs the same way. The enclave had some
shortage, and the person of people that took care of it kept control over
the means of fixing it. If a water purifier was brought in to solve a water
shortage, the owner didn't turn it over, but instead used it for the benefit
of everyone.... But demanded special treatment, and used that purifier to
benefit some more than others, building up an inner circle. Those
people, often ones with important skills themselves, then made a play.
They issued a demand, went “on strike”, or outright seized some other
important asset by force and declared leadership in a coup.
The most blatant form of strife is where the new group offers security by
bringing weapons, keeps them and takes control of the defences, and
soon overtly declares leadership. It isn't the only way it goes, though;
sometimes, core people act out on a real complaint – that's strife, too.
When telling the story, pause just before the last two. Has the situation
gone critical when the characters get involved? Is the outcome obvious?
Don't fill these in if the situation would be better without them.

THE POWER BLOC

Once you've filled in the blanks to tell your story (or as you do so), it'll be
time to fill out the membership of the power bloc. This mirrors the
enclave power structure, but the core difference is that each follower (or
group of followers) that the power bloc has should be doing something
specific; this one is standing guard, that one gives speeches, another one
is refusing their job. Some of them will be doing several things. A few
may just be standing watchful in case they're needed; those are reserves.
 Strife
The Enclave Had A Problem, What Was It?

Which Was Solved By Name Of Leadership

Who Took Care Of It By What They Did

But There Was A Catch What They Demanded

And It Got Bigger How They Got More Control

Some People Joined Them Who And Why?

And Now It's Gone Critical What They're Doing.

If Nothing Is Done What Will Happen?

Leadership: Bloc
Followers: Activities:

{
Reserves:
{
{
{
 Transgression
Transgressions are incidents where the group stance on some issue is
challenged within an enclave. Prepping a transgression situation
requires that the enclave have at least one stance – and the stronger that
stance is, the better.
This can mean that before setting up a transgression, the Guide will need
to put forward one or two instances of an issue. For example, showing
one or two predatory cults with spies might create a stance on unusual
beliefs in the enclave, which can then be challenged by a sympathetic
character having visions. Drawing the characters in so that they have
opinions of their own is good, but don't force them to either side laying
the groundwork (that's just a trap).
In the first part, you'll lay out the situation – what's the issue, what's the
current stance, and who is challenging it? Everyone benefits from
keeping the sick quarantined, but if quarantine conditions are poor, the
sick lose – who wins and loses in this case? Who sympathizes with the
challenge? If the leader of an enclave with aspirations to pure humanity
survives the plague and comes out changed, that's significantly different
from having refugees with changes show up at the door.

ESCALATION
Transgression situations get worse. There will be soft words as the
challenger finds sympathy, but tension when the sympathizers run into
someone with hardline views. From that point on, there will be two
sides, each gaining followers and ramping up the action, until some kind
of critical explosion resolves the issue – often with a significant group
leaving the enclave, with actual violence, or with other difficulties. The
characters may be able to head this off, or they may end up participating
on one side or the other of the conflict. In the end, a new stance will
emerge within the enclave, which can be challenged in turn.

REVELATION
Not all transgressions, and not all stances, are what they seem. If you
like, you can hold a little extra in reserve – is there an agitator working to
push the situation out of control? Are there some extreme thinkers on
one side that will try to make the other side look worse by framing them?
Are the sick people being exiled actually killed out of sight? The space
given for these options is minimal, but if you pick one, put a little thought
into ways that fact might be revealed to the enclave (or just to the player
characters).
 Transgression
The Issue At Hand Is Cults, Changed, The Sick...?

The Enclave Stance Is What?

This Is Advantageous To Who Gains?

But Is A Problem For Who Loses?

One Of The “Losers” Is Name Someone

Others Have Taken Their Side Who & Why?

This Is Going To Escalate.

There Will Be Talk By Who?

And Raised Voices How And Where?

People Will Take Sides Who Sides Where?

And Have A Confrontation Where; How?

Someone Will Cross The Line Who And How?

And It'll Happen Again More And Worse

Until Eventually If Nothing Is Done

And It Might Be Worse Than That

(Pick One Of These If Desired)

Someone WANTS It Worse Who? Why?

One Side Will Frame The Other Who? How?

The Stance Covers A Secret What Is It?

 Cargo
As enclaves look to improve on their resources, they'll send out short
expeditions to gather, scavenge, delve complexes, and trade. Sometimes,
especially as radio traffic rises, major trades are negotiated over longer
distances, and enclaves reach out to seize major assets from further
away. Cargo situations are all about enacting those perilous trips to
bring back what the enclave needs.
Cargo “stories” are quick briefings on some important thing, where it can
likely be acquired, what's needed to get it, and the road between the
enclave and that thing. Perils and problem areas on the way include
predatory cults and raider groups, paranoid enclaves that are touchy
about their territory, hive sites, roiling mist banks, large 'migrations' of
the dead, greedy listeners who may have heard the trade negotiated on
the radio, and anything else you can think up.

REVEALS
Not everything will be known going out on a cargo haul. The other side
may have negotiated in bad faith (or the negotiator might actually be a
cheat or thief on the other end), the enclave might send out the
characters with something incorrect (why?), there may be ambushes on
the way, the path from point to point may be degenerating, the vehicles
doing the hauling may be flawed. Upon arrival, the characters might
discover that the guns they brought to help their new allies with defence
will actually be used on another, peaceful enclave. Pick a couple of things
to reveal on the way, check them off, and add a few details.

ENCOUNTERS
A cargo haul is fundamentally a road trip. Like any good road trip,
there's interesting scenery and events along the way there (and on the
way back) that can be engaged. Take a look through the encounters
section and pick out three of these to hold and throw into play when they
seem appropriate. If you're mapping out the route in some way, you
might want to mark them more concretely, or you might not. When you
pick these encounters, consider whether the characters are actually
likely to stop for them; unlike encounters occurring on foot, characters
on a cargo haul have both means and motive to ignore the call to check
on side events.
 Cargo
The Enclave Needs What Does It Need?

You Can Get It From A Place Or Group

You'll Need To Take Tools, Trade Goods

So That You Can Use Or Trade Them

You'll Pass Through A Tricky Area

And You Can Expect A Serious Problem

It Won't Actually Be That Simple, Though.

(Pick A Couple Of These)

The Promise Is Bogus; Shoddy, Trap, Unauthorized Trade

This Is The Wrong Stuff Not As Promised, Wrong Tools

The Trip Is Expected By Bad People

The Area Is Worse It's Not Just “Tricky”, Now.

The Transport Is Junk Here's How:

This Is Really Wrong They're Going to Use This Badly

Something Else To Reveal

A Few Encounters For The Road.

Name Type Benefit Concern Reveal

 Factions
In especially large enclaves, or when multiple groups (enclaves, cults,
raider and delver groups, and more) are interacting, some really huge
messes can occur. This is a method for tracking those messes. The get
started, you'll fill out the little blocks to give simple information on up to
four different groups. Here's what you'll need to decide for each:

› Name What is this faction called?

› Has What do they have a lot of, that they trade or use? If
they offer a rare service others don't, put that here.

› Wants What do they need, and not have? If one of the things
they want is something another group has, note that.

› Believes Do they have a strong, simple stance on any issue? If

one of their stances on an issue differs from that of
another group, be sure to record that one.

› And Uses What's their method for getting what they want from
outside? Trading, raiding, scavenging, threatening?

THE STORY
This situation generation method has a “fill in the blanks” story just as
most others do, but you may elect to stop partway through, when you hit
“that's enough” if you feel that you can draw the characters in and keep
them engaged with what you've got.

› Dispute Groups in the apocalypse have disputes, even while

they're surrounded by the dead. Common things to
fight over include: Territory disputes over delves and
hardpoint borders, cargo shipments gone wrong,
acceptance of refugees fleeing the fallout of strife and
transgressions, and strong stances that target some
people central to one group.

› Third The moment a dispute kicks up, attention in the

Faction disputing groups focuses on it. This means that
another nearby can easily sneak a little “on the side”,
or sell to both sides, or try to provoke things getting
worse to scavenge the aftermath.

› Fourth The last group detailed might jump in on any side,

Faction including that of “seizing opportunity”.

› Outcome If the characters do nothing, what will happen?

 Factions
Group Group

Has What? Has What?

Wants What? Wants What?

Believes A Stance Believes A Stance

And Uses Methods And Uses Methods

Group Group

Has What? Has What?

Wants What? Wants What?

Believes A Stance Believes A Stance

And Uses Methods And Uses Methods

A Dispute Over What Set This Up?

Made Tension Between Two Groups

Capitalized On By A Third Group

As An Opportunity To What They Did

Now The Last Group Name Them

Has Jumped In To Do What?

And This Will Cause What Effect?

 Infiltrated
The enclave has been entered by some kind of enemy – one that converts
others, and will grow both increasingly dangerous and visible as time
goes on. Things to decide:

› Nature What broad category does the infiltrator fall into?

Opportunist, agent of a warlord, dead thing in the
vents, cult proselytizer?

› Identity Who or what is the infiltrator specifically? If it's a

cultist, are they changed or a seeker? If a dead
thing, is it a crawling horror, an normal alpha, a
unique near-human thing that passes for such?

› Need The infiltrator has a need that can be noticed. Does

it feed on flesh, scribe ritual circles on floors, radio
out on a nightly basis?

› Methods How does the infiltrator convert others? Quiet

discussion of spiritual matters, bribes that get spent
again, infection to the point of turning?

› Movement How does the infiltrator get in and out, or around

the enclave (especially as concerns its need)?

THE PROGRESSION
The visible events for an infiltration start simply, and build from there.
This progression reflects things characters will see without investigating;
there's always more behind each one.

› Oddities As the infiltrator begins work, there will be traces of

the need being met – odd broadcasts that are very
clearly received, scrubbed floors, people not coming
back from jobs. What are these?

› Convert After people are converted, one of the converts will

tip their hand, or be discovered. Who and how?

› Incidents A serious incident will take place between converts

and non-converts; what will this be?

› Outcome If the characters do nothing, what will happen?

THE COMPLICATION
It can never be as simple as tracking down the infiltrator and putting a
stop to it, of course. Pick complications.
 Infiltrated
Nature: What kind of infiltrator?

Identity: The specifics

Need: What it has to do

Methods: How it converts

Movement: How it gets around.

THE PROGRESSION

Oddities: Evidence of the need

Convert: The discovered one.

Incident: A serious confrontation

Outcome: Where is this going?

THE COMPLICATION

There Are Two. And the other one is...

Subtle Converts Who will keep quiet?

There Are Hostages And they are...

We NEED Them Infiltrator is good for....

Retribution Follows From who?

 Beseiged
The enclave is surrounded by hostile forces that seek to breach and
overrun it, and which will succeed if nothing is done – it may even be
better to escape than to fight. Things to decide:

› Forces What force is at the gates? Huge swarms of the dead,

a smaller number of terrible predators hiding in the
roil, a would-be warlord, sick refugees?

› Leaders Are there leaders to these forces, and who or what are
they? If the enclave wants to negotiate or assassinate
their way out, where should they be aiming their
efforts?

› Supply What do the hostile forces need to keep up the siege,

if anything, that they could potentially be denied with
a sortie?

› Exits If the enclave wants to send out sorties, get in

supplies, or even escape, what exits are left to them
(including “through the siege”)?

› Pressure The besiegers aren't just waiting out there – what

kind of pressures or breach attempts are they up to?

BREACHES
As supplies are used, threats are used, roil encroaches, and things get
worse, there will be “breach incidents” leading up to the overrun.

› 1st Breach This should be an incident to signal that defences

are failing, or that the pressure on those inside is
getting to people. Something gets in, or someone
turns on the enclave in some way. What happens?

› 2nd Breach As with the first breach, but make it larger, and
causing lasting damage of some kind.

› Overrun If the siege isn't broken, and it all comes crashing in,
what will that look like?

CO-MORBIDITY
During a siege, there should almost always be another problem – one
complex enough to be a situation unto itself.
 Beseiged
Forces: What forces are outside?

Leaders: What's the enemy leadership?

Supply: What do they need, that can be hit?

Exits: How can we get out?

Pressure: What are they doing besides waiting?

BREACHES

1st Breach: A sign of pressure working.

2nd Breach: Worse, and damaging.

Overrun: The end that's coming.

CO-MORBIDITY
Choose what OTHER Situation feeds off this one, inside the walls.

A Transgression What rule breaks?

Factioning What's the wedge issue?

Infiltration What gets in... Or who turns traitor?

Section ELEVEN

ENCOUNTERS
 Out In The Apocalypse
Encounters are small events, which might or might not be linked to the
“bigger picture” of what the local enclaves, monstrosities, and other
heavy hitters of the apocalypse are doing.

THESE ARE UNFINISHED ENCOUNTERS

The encounters presented here are “unfinished” types; each listing
includes a general description, some resources that are likely present or
held in that encounter, some concerns that anyone engaging it might
have, and some potential secrets the encounter might hold for the Guide
to reveal. These three entries are present because they're the most basic
ways to engage players – rewards, dangers, and mysteries.

FINISHING ENCOUNTERS MEANS PEOPLE

When setting up an encounter, the Guide will want to consider the three
components, given, but will also want to think about putting a human
face on what they're going to be presenting. Desperate people reacting to
the apocalypse in eccentric or fearful ways, measures of danger against
danger, and poignant stories are all things that can be set up to meet. In
may well-arranged encounters, the reward / danger / mystery set often
won't be the focus of the action that's actually taking place during play;
it'll be the supporting background for the human reaction and the people
you portray. In the case of an abandoned hardpoint, for example, there's
the question of what was left behind – not just in terms of resources, but
in terms of things people valued for other reasons.

SOMETIMES, DO THE OBVIOUS THING.

The shut-ins have invited everyone into their house, but told them not to
go down into the basement. What's down there? A dead relative,
shambling around? A cache of goods (legitimately taken, or from the last
travellers to stop by and meet a nasty fate)? Their kids, who they fear for
terribly in the presence of strangers? Something interesting and novel?
Don't immediately jump to doing something novel. Even if you've seen
every zombie movie ever made, and want to be fresh, there's plenty of
value to be had in heading for the well-travelled ground, and seeing how
these characters will respond to it given their situation. There's plenty of
strange, novel stuff in this apocalypse, but there's no need to rush it onto
the stage.
 Shut-Ins
There are plenty of people whose reaction to the apocalypse was to grab
what they could and bunker down in the nearest place they felt they
were secure. Some of these people exist in small groups; others are
entirely alone. Shut-ins quickly grow mistrustful of anything and anyone
outside, and some of them get pretty strange. Some raid the nearest
homes or other shops for whatever they can grab before returning to
their shelters. Depending on the group, shut-ins might be potential
waystations, people to recruit to a larger enclave, equals to trade with, or
even just “the only living people we've seen in a while”. Shut-ins are most
often encountered by spotting a small sliver of light in the dark, by being
called to when trespassing, or by seeing them on a rare outing.

Resources Shut-Ins have a degree of security to rest and vent

stresses, and may have supplies and radio contact. Shut-
Ins are often camped in small shops and other supply
points; gun stores that survived early looting are often
holdout locations for some shut-in that probably could
use food and water.
Concerns Shut-Ins are fearful and often easy on the trigger if
armed. Negotiating with one or more shut-ins is likely to
take some effort.
Reveal Shut-Ins might be sick, have kids present, and might be
sitting on a notable hoard. They also might be much
friendlier than usual, either out of desperation, or for
some more predatory reason. Classically, a small family
might have one or more undead relatives that they're
keeping in the basement.
 Travellers
There are always those who believe that things are better somewhere
else - and sometimes they're right. Whether to escape a wretched place,
to seek somewhere safe, or because it was just their impulse, there are
still people on the move during the apocalypse. Some are with friends or
family, some with whoever they've found to work with. Some go it alone,
because it's their way, because they've lost who they were with, or
because nobody else will have them. Survivors in the apocalypse might
meet travellers by any number of means – the obvious being crossing
paths, as arrivals seeking sanctuary where the characters are holed up,
or by seeing (or hearing) them in action not too far away.

Resources Travellers often have working transportation, knowledge

about places that are best avoided, and at some minimal
supplies. If they've been on the move for a while, they
may know quite a bit about the lay of the land, have spare
goods for trading, and may even have modified their
vehicles to get around well in the apocalypse.

Concerns While travellers do tend to have some supplies, there's

often at least one thing they're desperately short on...
Which might or might not be something the characters
can spare. Many travellers are, and many traveller
groups include, the contagious.
Reveal A few travellers are predatory, some habour secrets, and
many are being pursued, or on the road as refugees.
Some have stolen from enclaves (or escaped from awful
ones), some were under the thumb of would-be warlords
or have angered cults.
 Encampments
During the early weeks of the apocalypse, outside and on the edges of the
cities, minor settlements spring up. Some will become lasting enclaves,
some will break up, some will be destroyed. These early encampments
rely on having a little distance between themselves and major
populations, posting guards and raising alarms for security. These
measures won't keep an encampment safe for long, but such groupings
were never planned – and in many cases, they are the places where the
real planning for the apocalypse occurs.

Resources People in encampments often individually have decent

resources, though they may hesitate to name them. They
also often have transport. The largest resource in an
encampment, though, is people; encampments are superb
recruiting grounds for existing enclaves, decent-sounding
plans, and other advocacy for action.

Concerns Encampments aren't actually secure against the eldritch

forces loose in the world. Panic where sickness exists,
predation by other survivors, conscription by raiders,
cult activity and more all affect encampments.

Reveal Almost every encampment has at least a few secrets

lurking – anything and everything listed for the other
encounters can easily be given a place in one of these
clusters of humanity.
 Remnants
As early enclaves, caravans, and encampments break up, move on, or are
wiped out, there are a few, anywhere from one lone person to a small
group, who refuse to move on – or refuse to die. They may be found
signalling for help, and hoping for a rescue of some sort. These holdouts
differ from early shut-ins in that they often have some degree of
experience with the apocalypse and often were (or still are) in place for a
reason; some have effectively inherited the whole stockpiles of a failed
enclave... And are now boxed in by its dead.

Resources Many remnants have substantial resources of some sort

close by, even in the same structure where they're holed
up. This doesn't mean those resources are accessible
right now or easy to move. That said, remnants typically
don't have much in the way of ammunition, for obvious
reasons.
Concerns The truly antisocial or unscrupulous may pretend to be
remnants to attract other to prey on, or may have killed
the others they were previously grouped with. Those
who are perfectly decent may still be paranoid and
jumpy.
Reveal Some remnants are a front for a much larger group of
beleaguered survivors than they let on – only pretending
to be smaller for a variety of reasons. Others are victim to
human attacks, not dead ones, and those attackers may
still be about.
 Soldiers
The military doesn't vanish during the apocalypse – but neither is there a
single, cogent plan in place to deal with what occurs as a result. Instead,
multiple different plans are attempted, ranging from neighbourhood
quarantine to evacuation to extermination teams. While survival radios
and some supplies are handed out commonly in the pre-apocalypse from
established points, these supplies dwindle as time goes on. By the time
the dead are rising in herds and the roil begins to spread, most soldiers
come to the realization that the chain of command has broken very badly.
Even so, they tend to continue operating in groups – groups that often
become core to the operation of enclaves as those come into dominance.

Resources Soldiers often have excellent kit; guns, munitions, body

armour, survival rations, communications gear, and
more. This kit doesn't usually extend out to the kind of
equipment needed for long-term survival, but it's
everything someone needs on the spot. Most often, what
soldiers need is that long-term gear.

Concerns Soldiers are very well equipped and trained to simply

take what they want; some of these groups turn
predatory almost immediately. Others become very
quick on the trigger, firing easily and without restraint on
anyone sick or changed.

Reveal A few groups of soldiers still seem to have extermination

orders from someone; some are actually patrols from
some larger group, especially quick-forming enclaves and
remaining bases.
 Delvers
Within days of the first outbreak in a city, most accessible locations for
supplies, from grocery stores to gas stations, have been bought out,
mobbed, and looted. Larger locales, such as shopping malls and
hospitals, are often only partly looted before they become infested by
shambles and other dead. That's where delvers come in. Delvers realize
very early that there are good tactics available. Going from roof to roof,
cutting holes in ceilings, wiping out most of the denizens from safety, and
looting upwards, is a strong one. This practice quickly comes to be
known as delving; it's dangerous as hell, but it's do-able. Character will
most often encounter delvers on their way to a “job”, on the site, or on
their way out.

Resources Delvers will almost always have vehicles, climbing and

winch kit, tools, and weapons. Depending on their
success rate, they may also have wounded, big stocks of
some kinds of supplies, or both. Delvers are often quite
interested in trading whatever they have a lot of for
whatever they don't; many wouldn't mind a better base
of operations, if they feel they can trust the provider.

Concerns Delvers are almost universally rough and suspicious

types. They don't take well at all to people they think
might be trying to get things off them for nothing – they
risk their lives for what they have; nothing is cheap.

Reveal Quite a few delvers are Changed or otherwise feel they'd

be unwelcome elsewhere, which in turn can make them
very interested in what cults have to say.
 Hardpoints
Hardpoints are defensible structures. These include warehouses, fenced-
in construction sites, military bases, and places fortified before the
apocalypse fully hit as distribution sites and evacuation sites. Most
hardpoints, even early on, are occupied by defenders or under heavy
siege by the dead (or both). Hardpoints that are occupied and acquire a
solid load of long-term survival equipment are good candidates for
becoming lasting enclaves, though those that have done so should be set
up as enclaves rather than as encounters. Hardpoints are something
characters will notice as interesting sites as they move through the
apocalypse.

Resources The main resources hardpoints have are security and

space; some have plenty of both. Some have other
features; a well-built dockside warehouse that originally
shipped rice is almost ideal for the early apocalypse,
while a water tower has little space but the obvious
perks of visibility and water. Industrial sites on the edge
of cities, including refinery oil tanks, aren't quite as ideal
in the beginning, but have massive trade advantages that
can pay off later. Military-built hardpoints may have
serious equipment on site, but those that do are often
heavily under siege by the dead.

Concerns Any easily-accessed and visible hardpoint is a likely

location to have been swarmed by the living, and may be
overcrowded by survivors. Some such are filled with
sickness, or the dead following such a wave of illness.

Reveal Hardpoints are often claimed by groups – which may or

may not be present when the site is encountered. They
may also be claimed by enclaves forming nearby as
“outposts”, whether obviously or not.
 Cults
Some people come back from the plague, and some of those are very
different indeed. Some have new senses or improved bodies; some can
feel and “push” the fog of the roil mentally. Some claim that they can
comprehend the whispers that the ill hear, or have had fevered visions
they interpret as omens. Many of these people find that their beliefs are
profoundly altered by these revelations, and wish to share what they've
learned; these are the founding members of cults that spread rapidly
among the survivor population. Cults can be found anywhere, including
as part of other encounters, teaching what they have discerned and
seeking to bring others to whatever truth they have come to believe.

Resources Resources held and wanted by cults vary; some are

extremely well-heeled very quickly, while others are
destitute and desperate.

Concerns Cults often believe there is virtue in some exposure to the

plague; members are often sick, often changed, and often
believe that exposing others to the plague is an overall
positive.

Reveal Several cults will claim from the very beginning that they
expected the plague. Some of those that make this claim
have especially advanced changes, are well-set, and have
reference books that seem to support this; manuals and
“grimoires” of practices that the roil seems to respond to.
Others claim a connection to some coming intelligence
that controls the dead; of these, many are false, but some
actually are experiencing some bond to a Maker.
Section TWELVE

DELVES
 Building Delves
Roleplaying games have long had a special, even central, place for
dungeon-delving. Dangerous complexes containing monsters, hazards,
and treasures have shaped much of what gaming is. This section presents
some notes on bringing that kind of material into Infected.

THE SITE COMES FIRST

The core concept of a delve has three major parts, all of which revolve
around the location itself in some way.
1 Gains What do the characters (or their enclave) need and
want? Medical needs suggest hospitals, mixed
needs suggest malls, and so on. If the characters
have a base or enclave, the need for security means
that you can prompt delving by putting a delve
right next door – the threat must be dealt with, and
you might as well loot it while you're there.

2 Structure Once you know what the characters need, or what

kind of area to threaten, it's time to pick a structure
you'll work on. Some suggestions: Mall, School,
Hospital, Police or Fire Station, Construction Site,
Apartment Building, Prison.

3 Conversion Site in-hand, you'll go over what existed before, and

decide what's there now, “weirding up” your site.

GET FLOOR PLANS AND ADAPT THEM!

With a quick internet search, you can turn up hundreds of floor plans for
all sorts of buildings. Very few are open for commercial use (and so
aren't included here), but they're easy to find for your own personal use.
Printing one off for your building is invaluable.
Moving through the list of area functions over the rest of the section,
think over the principles and examples and see what you can adapt or
are spurred to that can fit that concept of “what it was and what it is”.

FROM EARLY TO LATE APOCALYPSE

As you look at transformations, consider how long the apocalypse has
been going on. Are these changes well-established or new? In the early
weeks of the apocalypse, transformations will be light and under
construction; after a month, they will be well-established and extensive.
 Objective Spaces
Objective spaces are the areas that the characters will enter the Delve to
get to. At the very beginning of the apocalypse, some of these might be
right near the entryways. After a little time has passed, those easy-to-
access objectives will already have been looted (unless they're very
difficult to remove in the first place), and the remaining valuables will be
further in.
For the most part, figuring out which areas are objective spaces is as easy
as looking at a floor plan of the area and marking down where the good
stuff is likely to be, and what it'd be. If this is what you're doing, just
sweep your plan quickly; you will likely want to spoil some of the
potential objectives by transforming those areas.
Some common objective spaces:

Storage For loose objects in quantity, ranging from antiseptics to

Rooms bulk cafeteria foodstuffs.
Machine For heavy equipment – furnaces, boilers, pumps, elevator
Rooms winches, and such.
Work Classrooms, factory floors, cubicle farms, curtain-divided
Spaces emergency wards, shop sales floors.

TRANSFORMING THE OBJECTIVES

If an objective space is going to stay valid (that is, if whatever the
characters are coming to get is still available) it can't be too heavily
transformed. In some cases, this should happen! Supposed objective
spaces can actually be hazards or heavy conflicts, with the desired stuff
scattered or ruined. At least a few objectives should be good, though,
which means only light changes should be applied. Some examples:

Door The room is fine, but the outside of the door is grown
Overgrown over with wallow-stuff or black glass, as part of the
change you'll apply to the room outside.
Trapped A single shamble, wallow, or other creature got in here
Thing or turned in here, but hasn't converted anything and
can't get out.
Shut In Someone barricaded this objective from the inside.
They could be alive and present (or a plain corpse).
They might have left long ago through the ceiling - or be
roaming crawlspaces only they know.
 In And Out
With a few good target areas figured, it's time to switch to the other end
of the equation. How will the characters get in and out of the delve?
Most delves became heavily infested because they had very open access,
but some entrances will be made problematic as time goes on. Some
starting points of access:

Doors Side access doors, glass-fronted main doors, patio doors,

and those leading on to fire escapes are all potential
access points.
The Roof Almost all large buildings have a means to get onto the
roof, and the roof itself is most often clear of the dead,
making it a good staging ground for a delve (if the
characters can get up there).
Windows Many buildings are loaded with windows, many of which
might end up broken during the very early days of the
apocalypse.
Loading Besides being places to pull up a truck for getting out
Docks heavy loot, loading docks can be objectives in themselves;
the harder they are to get into directly from outside, the
more likely that there will be something still just inside
worth taking.

TRANSFORMING THE DOORS

Here are a few ways that the entries and exits might be altered:
Roiling The entry has a 'stream' of infectious fog flowing in and
out of it, connecting some roiling area within to the roil
in the area.
Skitter A window on a room filled with wallow-flesh may be a
Launch “bay” for skitters.
Decayed The entry has been aged and wooden portions eaten
away by heavy contact with the fog.
Slabbing As roiling, but rather than streaming deep into the
delve, the fog is ground-lying and slowly deposits layers
of glassy black material, forming wardrobe-sized
standing slabs (if work crews are around, they will take
some of these away from time to time for road and hive
work).
 Passages + Asides
Characters need to get around inside the delve, and if there are floors,
need to be able to get between them.

Halls Most passages are simple hallways.

Stairs Stairs may be exposed (as in open escalators in malls) or

sealed in confining, choke-point stairwells.
Foyers Open foyer areas often exist for each floor in buildings
with multiple stories.
Side Often crucial to the original function of a delve complex,
Rooms most side rooms are “filler” or “potential minor caches”
from the viewpoint of delvers.

TRANSFORMING PASSAGES
Asides, where altered, become hazards and conflict spaces, described
shortly (though there won't necessarily be any pressure to enter them
all; only a few will matter). Changes to passages are more specific:

Blockade Often created by the living during the first stages of the
apocalypse, blockades can be as basic as chained and
closed double doors. Piled furniture, shopping carts,
and other items are also common.
Conduit Leading from roiling entrances to areas where wallows
exist, conduits are passages where fog travels – usually
along floor or ceiling, but sometimes throughout.
Littered If conflict took place or items were abandoned in an
area, it might be littered with the items (and possibly
bodies) from the encounter – possibly even with some
valuables present, if the characters take the time to
search.
Breached The opposite of being blockaded, a breached passage
has large holes in it leading into other areas. These
breaches may only be large enough for fog, for sight, to
reach through, or they may be large enough to move
though. Breaches can occur vertically as well as from
side to side, which can present hazards (and
opportunities).
 The Yard
The area around a delve deserves a little attention; arrival at and
departure from the delve will matter. Some things to make notes on:

Parking Parking lots and external parking structures can end up

being the site of action at the beginning or end of a
delve. They can also be used as killing fields in
preparation, luring out the dead inside and killing as
many as possible at range, then backing off and letting
this settle before going in.
Adjacent If other buildings are close enough, characters might get
Buildings into the delve by dropping ladders or other temporary
bridges across the gap, or escape by leaping away. If
not, those options won't be available.
Drives Driveways, roundabouts, street parking, and other such
external features are often important if the characters
are driving themselves. Not always, of course;
characters in especially tough vehicles may just drive or
back right into the lobby.
Emergency Many complexes (especially hospitals) have emergency
Generators generators; these may be located in machine rooms or
inside the building. Where they are outside, topping
them up and turning them on will light the place up,
turn on powered security measures, and make it
possible to check if plug-in devices are working on the
spot. On the other hand, even the idiot dead are smart
enough to realize something is happening if the lights go
on.

TRANSFORMING THE YARD

Some of the contents of the delve will alter the outside; note these down
as applicable (you might need to come back to this).

Decay If the building is being decayed notably, this will often

be visible to some extent on the outside; spaces
roiling inside may show decay outside.
Roil Clouds If roil is entering or existing the building, clouds or
long streamers of the fog will exist around those
entrances and exits.
 Key Spaces
It's possible to break locks and hack through walls, jackhammer floors
and take parts of equipment to rebuild the rest at home. But it's not
ideal; navigating many complexes and looting the contents is sometimes
much easier if you can get control of certain places. Some examples:

Actual Found in head offices, maintenance offices, and security

Keys offices – as well as on the bodies of the dead.
Choke Security gates, checkpoints, and other intentional
Points controls over entry and exit (even desks at head offices)
are meant to restrict access to some areas; these are
choke points where things can happen.
Split If what you want is a motor and the controls, and both
Controls are part of a loading crane, those two parts won't be in
the same place. The motor will likely be in a workspace,
and the controls in a little booth.
Dismount If heavy equipment needs to be moved, are the tools,
Tools dollies, jacks, or other tools to move it on the site? Are
they in storage, in a maintenance area?
Repair If some item the characters are coming to get is broken,
Parts did the site have a repair room of some kind for
equipment, and are there part for it there?

TRANSFORMING KEY SPACES

Key spaces are small; they're offices, security checks, and back rooms. As
such, they're good places for a few things to happen:

Something A single shamble, bloat, or wallow stuck up in a

Stuck control booth or other tight space might remain there
for a very long time. In a choke point, having way too
many threats jammed in together is also interesting.
Either means limiting how many characters can fight,
or make it good for one to defend while others shoot
past them.
Chase To It's possible for the area outside and around a key
Here space to be the threat, with the key space being the
quick sanctuary, or the place that a door can be shut
in the face of oncoming foes.
 Hazard Spaces
In general, hazard spaces are areas that were open work areas or wide
passages before they were transformed. If there are a few of these
characters are moderately likely to pass through or into, consider
changing them up into hazards.

CREATING HAZARDS
A few of the ways that different areas can become truly hazardous as a
result of eldritch meddling....

Decayed The roil corrupts anything it interacts with, and “digests”

And High wood and other dead organic material slowly. In some
delves, the denizens will speed this process, ripping
holes in walls to allow roil access to any wooden
understructures; such places are structurally very weak.
If any of those places have open air (or worse)
underneath them, characters may need to take a lot of
time to set up a passage, or roll to juke through them at
speed.
Wallow As wallows collect up flesh and grow large, they will
Garden sometimes go to a delve and divide, with the new wallow
splaying itself across surfaces like climbing vines and
gardens of tissues and organs. These wallow-rooms
produce and vent roil slowly, as the tissues they contain
are purified. Other dead will visit if nearby and exchange
parts of their tissue with that of the wallow-garden
(converting shambles to slenders over time and other
such effects). This provides an infection hazard to
endure or manage with medical precautions... Or fire.

Arcane A glassy black material excreted by the mists spreads

Glyphs across surfaces in some rooms in complex geometries,
drawing lines, circles, and odd symbols across whole
areas. Alpha creatures visit these locations often with
their underlings, take up positions, and stand silently,
apparently in meditation. Even when they aren't
present, the areas themselves are often painful to enter,
filled with a terrible mental force that must be endured
unless the lines can be broken (and if they are, there's
often a strong discharge of electricity).
 Conflict Spaces
As with hazards, most conflict spaces are areas that were open work
areas or wide passages before they were transformed. These are now
areas where significant fights are likely to occur unless the characters
can dodge away, seal them up, or otherise avoid the fight that's waiting
for them.

CREATING CONFLICT SPACES

Some ways an area can become a conflict space:

Wild In the early apocalypse, dead are often encountered in

Mobs this form – as larger or smaller groups of shambles,
roaming an area. As time goes on, there are less of
these “wild” groups, but there are always a few, where
alphas have not organized them or they haven't shifted
to barracks on their own.
Patrol & In any delve where an alpha visits or lives, there will be
Response stationed “patrols” - dead standing in lines across areas.
If any of them are injured or moved, or they sense the
living, they will attack and summon a response group.
Such response groups often include two or more brutes
(and later in the apocalypse, may include chained and
chitins).
Barracks Less-intelligent dead left to themselves will slowly
collect together and “store” themselves in small groups,
awaiting instruction from alphas. When alphas begin to
appear, they continue this practice of storing their
troops when those troops are not assigned to some use.

Work If road conversion or hive construction is underway

Crews anywhere nearby, “crews” of shambles and other dead
will be entering and exiting the local delves on a regular
basis. These dead will often return somewhat battered
and slower than usual after exertions, and will need to
stand inert in roil to “recharge” as well as possibly
visiting the delve wallows to be healed (or consumed in
order to provide flesh with which to heal other dead).
Such crews can be encountered almost anywhere, but
internal 'crossroads' in delves are especially likely.
 Atmosphere And Presentation
With the structure and challenges of the delve on hand, it's time to turn
to the aesthetics and presentation. A few things you may wish to work
in…

Gross Out There's often at least one threat or area where the
grossness of the dead can be pressed forward. Corpses
with pieces missing, or even pieces moving and
wrenching free as slithers. Rot and stench, hidey-holes
littered with bandages.
Jump Scare A horror setup isn't complete without at least one
problem coming out of nowhere. If there's a hazard or
threat that can be sprung on the characters, set it up to
be so!
Wrack The violence of even the early apocalypse is sufficient to
And Ruin rip up parts of buildings. Holes punched in walls - or
vehicles driven into them. Panels torn off the side of
escalators, open elevator shafts, ceiling panels torn
down, and so on.
Melancholy The trope version of this is a baby's shoe laying in the
Sights rubble. This might be a bit much, but juxtaposing what
was good with the current wreckage is overall good
practice here and there.
Research If the characters are potentially able to do research, or
Observation connected to others who are, tracking and setting up
some possible observations for them might be useful.
Section THIRTEEN

RESEARCH
 The Corpse Electric
The blight, especially in the form of the roil, coordinates actions, obeys
commands, and communicates. When it rules a body, as in the case of
the dead, it uses the brain of the host to do whatever thinking it can do.
Outside of the bodies of the dead, it also acts as a terraforming agent,
consuming other organic matter, generating the quasi-crystalline
Nocturne, and seeking out “local commands” in the form of sigils. All
these operations are at least partly electrochemical, though much of the
chemistry involved is very odd indeed. What this means:

ELECTRIC WEAPONS WORK

A hand taser would deal two damage on a strike, and a cattle prod three.
Rigging up EMP-based weapons and bombs is also possible, though the
kind of power required will knock out electronics in the area of effect.
Airburst nuclear attacks can clear most of a city, with the exception of
hives, which have protections against just such an assault.

“BLIGHT TELEPATHY” HAPPENS

While the blight is designed to hook up to nervous systems and hijack
them, the connection can do far more – this is the source of the whispers,
as well as of fevered visions drawn from the dreams of the makers. It's
also the basis of any number of minor “psychic” phenomena that are
hard to pin down. It's the reason that Changed can learn to control their
symbiosis to a limited extent.

SORCERY ISN'T UN-SCIENCE

The blight was engineered by the Elders as a tool that could be
controlled. Those controls can be accessed by humanity through mental
commands, symbolic references, and other ritualistic action. However,
these forms of control are always unreliable and difficult “kludges”
allowing human beings to get into a system that wasn't actually built for
their use. It's not magic, ultimately; it's giving mental instructions to an
alien nanotech swarm.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY:

IT CAN ALL BE PUT TO HARNESS
No matter how weird the stuff of the apocalypse is, it can be figured out,
subverted, handled, guarded against, and weaponised. Sorting out how
to do this, and making it happen, is the domain of the tinker, the
researcher, the academic.
 The Research Process
The action of research runs as follows (though usually not all at once or
in a straightforward fashion).

1 Observe As character go about their lives in the midst of the

apocalypse, the Guide presents interesting little
things that they notice. These are observations; the
Guide may wish to prompt players to note them
down as they go, or not, as they like.

2 Test Wanting to sort out what's going on and make use of

these oddities, the characters consider research
options. The Guide may let them know what kind of
testing seems likely to give a result (or give multiple
options), or the characters may conceive of and
attempt some haphazard field trials. The characters
get materials, and make attempts, and will often
make research rolls.
Characters without a research talent can't effectively
do lab research or make rolls – even if they have a lab,
their efforts are treated as field trials.

3 Praxis As they try things out in the lab or field, progress

accumulates. Once enough progress is made, the
characters will possess a fairly reliable “Praxis” - a
methodology for handling the thing they've been
researching - based on which they can make things.

4 Prototype Praxis in-hand, the characters design and build one

or more prototype devices, working towards stable
and useful tools. The first prototype will have a
number of flaws above and beyond those implicit in
the praxis itself – but each iteration of prototyping
after the first reduces the number of flaws by one,
until the level of the praxis is reached.
If working from a fully-described praxis researched by
others, the process may skip directly to prototyping.

5 Produce Anytime after a first prototype is built, the things the

praxis entails can be produced in quantity, if a
production line is established. In games that have
advanced to the point of enclave relations,
production of some new item comes with a whole
host of possible challenges and benefits.
 Observations
Below are some potential observations a character might make; some are
things a character might be told, while others are things the Guide might
present to them as “minor oddities” they've spotted, which seem to bear
further investigation.
This isn't meant to be a definitive list; there are almost limitless possible
oddities that can be given as odd bits of atmosphere on the sets where
the action is happening, for later investigation.

› There's a [radio interference/computer static/odd engine timing]

whenever alphas are nearby and giving commands.

› The roil doesn't like interacting with ocean water.

› Cult sorcerers advise each other to avoid salt/are afraid of it.

The dead can't seem to sense me up on this catwalk, and I can't

› hear the whispers standing here.
The oceans have huge amounts of this bright green algae growing
› in them.

› This dead creature was fried when water hit the outlet, but the
other one just got angrier and came at us faster.

› The roil touches down on and explores the outside of metal rings
set into the surface of the floor here.

› There are tiny globules of black glass on the wires here, and on
other items of the same make and model.

› The roil doesn't like touching our gas generator.

› My claws shift their shapes slightly when I focus on them really

intently.

› After I dreamed about my sister in the fog, I saw her there again,
pointing out dead things hiding in it.

› The little rechargeable batteries in my flashlight sparked when I

pointed it at that symbol the alpha left; now they're fully charged.

› I left a horseshoe magnet on my workbench – and now it's stuck to

it with this black stuff.
 Lab Research
Lab testing an observation means recreating the original observation
under controlled circumstances, with variations until the cause is
identified. This helps determine the nature of the work from there on.
Given the initial conditions of the observation, the Guide should suggest a
list of potential factors that may have contributed – or suggest the
obvious and note that further investigation of the scene may be fruitful.
In general, characters will need to gather together more factors than
actually matter as materials for the first research roll, and the first sign of
progress will be eliminating some of the extraneous elements, making
later rolls somewhat easier to prepare for.
Additionally, the Guide will want to decide on the kind of tools and kit
required – what kind of tool can measure the effects or the lack of effects?
What needs to be contained during the experiments, if anything, and
what is needed to contain it?

AN EXAMPLE
The observation made was “The dead can't seem to sense me up on this
catwalk, and I can't hear the whispers standing here.”
The Guide has decided that researching this observation will build up the
praxis for working with Faraday Effects.
As elements, the Guide notes that the characters will need to catch a
shamble, and test elevation (Is it about being directly above them?),
metal plating, and grills of differing gauges. Elevation will be ruled out
after the first point of progress, and after that point, it's all about
learning how metal grids and meshes seem to mess up whatever kind of
senses and projection the dead and the whispers are using.
 The Research Roll
(Special)
When you attempt to learn more about the blight by means of lab
research, and have the materials and tools needed, you'll make this roll.
You'll get one basic die for each relevant observation you've made, but
never more basic dice than your Keen; bonus dice from research-related
talents add to this (and can exceed your Keen).
To perform research, you must have made at least one significant
observation (check with the Guide), and must have appropriate tests in
mind, using research materials and the right laboratory tools – although
many “laboratories” are jury-rigged workshops with tools the user
crafted.

PROGRESS: All research will at minimum show that something

doesn't work, eliminating a dead end. This is one progress
towards the praxis in question.

EXPENSE: Most research will use up some material or will

require a new subject for each attempt; exactly what depends
on the tests.

EXPENSE: Overuse of materials is often a danger in research,

and one that survivors are often concerned by. Again, the
type of materials that might be wasted depends on the tests.

MAYHEM: Errors in research can lead to catastrophic failure,

with infection, damaged equipment, and even injury resulting.
If this danger isn't bought off, such an event will occur, as
concocted by the Guide. The Guide will also give a bonus to
progress or note a new observation you've made whenever
this occurs, however.

FLAWED PRAXIS: An error is introduced into the praxis.

Choose an item that can normally be made with a praxis like
this that can't be made with this one, or a 'prototype flaw' that
will always occur when building items based on it.

PROGRESS: You gain one added progress per C spent on this

stake.
 Field Tests
The alternative to 'proper research', field testing an observation means
making wild guesses about what's behind an observation, and trying to
apply them in uncontrolled circumstances.
Field tests happen more or less naturally as a result of general play; if
characters notice that roil pauses and “snoops around” at the edge of a
metal ring, they might well attempt to use a metal hoop to delay
advancing roil, or some other application.
When such an action is attempted, the guide should think over the
activity, the possible result, and the potential side effects. Wild field
trials can just as easily result in new observations, or in giving a single
point of progress as they can in the trial having some singular and
specific effect. They may also be intensely dangerous, of course, but such
are the risks of uncontrolled experimentation on dangerous subjects.

AN EXAMPLE
The observation made was “There are tiny globules of black glass on the
wires here, and on other items of the same make and model.”
The Guide has decided that researching this observation will build up a
praxis for Nocturne.
To test it out, the tinker in the group has wired up a whole host of
electronics to various car batteries, thrown them in the back of a truck,
and parked the truck at the edge of a roil bank. The Guide decides that
the contents of the truck bed will burst into flames and short out, fusing
to the truck and burning out the engine with the discharge (a new
observation... and a ruined truck). Also, if the characters retrieve the
wreck and tear apart the remnants, a research roll will be allowed as if
lab research was being done.
 Guiding Research
Even with the rolls and subjects for research laid out as they are here, the
Guide will need to invent specifics on a regular basis, and have a strong
grip on just what they want the difficulty and speed of advancement to
look like. A few additional tools for that:

WORK BACKWARDS
The easy way to run research from a Guide perspective is to come at this
process in reverse. Start by picking out the things you think characters
ought to have a good chance to discover – what should be easy, what
should be hard. Then, consider which observations and tests might
uncover those things, and present those observations and have that
equipment around.

MATERIALS, MATERIALS, MATERIALS

This can't be stressed enough: Pick some research materials you can use
to motivate action. Captured undead. Large quantities of battery acid.
Spools of heavy copper wire. Small chambers flooded with roil. Running
research will exercise your inventiveness; don't hesitate for a moment to
make it a significant challenge to the resourcefulness of your players, and
a reason for them to go out into harm's way, while you're at it.

PROGRESS REQUIREMENTS
You'll need to decide just how much research each project requires.
Assigning number like ten to twenty progress for a discovery is cinematic
realism; with assistants, good gear, and communication, discoveries can
be made rapidly. In constrained circumstances, though, or if you'll be
making materials difficult to get but work fruitful, that might be right. If
those large networks do exist, and research is common and central,
doubling those number (or more!) gives a better sense of verisimilitude.

NETWORKS?
Multiple researchers investigating the same thing and running similar
tests can pool their progress – even across laboratories, if
communication is good enough. A good laboratory yields a bonus die, as
does a skilled assistant (with a dot in the talent). However, when
research is being pooled, one point of progress is subtracted from those
generated by each roll.
 Prototyping
Once enough research has accumulated, the Guide states “You've made
enough progress to try making prototypes from this praxis now”.

THIS IS A CRAFTS ROLL

The prototyping must be done by someone who has a very basic
understanding of, and access to the physical notes and other results that
are part of, the praxis being prototyped. This takes at least an few hours
of discussion if the crafter wasn't part of the research, or a researcher
can act as assistant throughout the crafting, explaining “as they go”.
The first time a prototype of a given item is made from a given praxis by a
crafter, each roll will include two additional dangers for “the item has
flaws”, as in crafts, but with the flaws below also possible.

The second time a protoype is built, if the first prototype was fully tested
(the Guide determines this, but should be clear about it), only one further
danger of flaws is added. Once that second prototype is also fully tested,
the crafter can create a production model (no added danger of flaws),
and can make and distribute plans for such a production model.

PROTOTYPE FLAWS
Straining Use of the prototype inflicts some form of Guide-
selected strain on the user (not as a danger, but directly,
as a cost) – or comes with risk of infection. This might
be fatigue caused by vibration or breathing fumes,
wounds caused by unsafe energy, stress brought on by
some unnatural or threatening feature. Risks of
infection usually apply only to items using blighted
components, and where leaking can't be fully controlled.
Hazardous The prototype poses a (usually mild) danger to everyone
in the environment, including the user. These dangers
are often much the same as those above, but spread
across the area and added to other rolls (or acting as the
cause for endure rolls as appropriate).
 PRAXIS:
Faraday Measures
Certain gauges and styles of wire mesh can interfere with the mental
communications and senses of the majority of the dead – hedging out
control commands and making someone contained within difficult for
unintelligent dead to sense. Such 'shielding' is noticed as a sensory
blockade by Alphas, however, and enrages them.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Catch Cage traps build with this praxis render unintelligent

Cages dead inside completely inert as long as the cage remains
sealed.
Stealth Grilles, widow coverings, and vehicle cages built with
Shields this praxis are totally opaque to the dead, despite being
open mesh. A full vehicle cage is completely
impenetrable to their senses. This doesn't mean the
dead won't know where you went if you flee behind
them, or notice a vehicle caged in this way as being
something odd to smash up, but the unintelligent dead
don't stay curious for long if things go quiet and still to
their senses.
Symbiosis Heavily mesh-layered chambers built with this praxis
Tanks are places in which an infected character can achieve
symbiosis (buying that stake when withstanding) at the
cost of only one hit rather than two.
 PRAXIS:
Pulse Frequencies
A pulse weapon uses an EMP burst (directed or not) that has been
“tuned” to damage the dead, but not the living.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Pulse A pulse pistol deals three wounds to dead creatures; it has
Pistol the features of a standard pistol, as well as magnetic effects,
and uses pulse ammunition.
Pulse A pulse rifle deals three wounds to dead creatures; it has
Rifle the features of a standard rifle, as well as magnetic effects,
and uses pulse ammunition.
Pulse A pulse bomb is a grenade that does not affect the living
Bomb directly. Such bombs are heavier than usual grenades (each
counts as an item unto itself), and have magnetic effects.

PULSE AMMUNITION
Pulse pistols and rifles require a hip-slung battery, which contains some
of power used as ammunition when fully charged. If capacitance fluid is
available, this changes (see that praxis).

MAGNETIC EFFECTS
When pulse weapons are used, 'unshielded' circuitry nearby fries. Fancy
car starters and alarm systems, cellular phones, and other civilian
electronics sizzle where they are. In addition, if there are loose scraps of
metal in the area, there may be collateral damage or danger of full
damage as those cut loose and are pulled sharply toward the bomb blast
or the shooter.
 PRAXIS:
Capacitance
The cerebro-spinal fluid of the dead is replaced by something else as part
of their transformation, a liquid that can take and hold immense
electrical charges. A character making this discovery has learned not
only how to use this fluid to build supremely high-capacity batteries, but
how to suspend the nervous tissue of the dead in solution and use it to
make more of this fluid by feeding it flecks of organic matter.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Micro- When built to work with any normal electronic device, a

Battery capacitance battery provides much more energy and is
much lighter. For pulse pistols and rifles, this means
that an “energy clip” can be made which provides lots of
power and need not be treated as a separate item (and a
bandolier of such clips can be worn as another item,
holding five more clips). For other items, similar effects
apply. They do require charging to match, however;
some power generation is essential.
Heavy Scaled-up capacitance batteries can easily act as the fuel
Battery source for electrical vehicles (including planes); again,
though, intensive charging is needed.
Nerve The source of capacitance fluid, a nerve tank built from a
Tank dead creature can generate about a cup of capacitance
fluid each day if “fed” a mix of crumbled organic ash
(wood ash is fine) and water.
 PRAXIS:
Laced Transmissions
The “lacing” of otherworldly energies and forces into basic
electromagnetism, a common fact in the apocalypse, can also apply
elsewhere. Given the reliance many survivors have on radio, those
survivors have ample chances to witness incidents where this happens to
transmissions, and to try and reproduce them.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Denial A denial field is a radio-magnetic transmitter on the same

Field “frequencies” that alphas (and binders) use to issue
commands through the roil; it blocks all commands to
unintelligent dead in a radius. A denial generator that can be
carried as an item lasts only a moment (a burst) on a regular
battery. After a burst, an alpha or binder must re-establish
control over each creature it controlled. Hooked up to a
battery capable of managing a pulse weapon, it reduces the
amount of energy in that battery by one step each minute.
Such generators can be scaled up, but their power needs
scale along with them.
Null A null generator is effectively the opposite of a denial field –
Field in the radius a null field affects, denial fields are cancelled
out, EMP weapons deal one less damage to the dead, and
radio transmissions are scrambled – but bindings and alpha
commands work perfectly. The size and power needs are as
for denial fields, though the “burst” version isn't a
particularly useful thing to build. When unequal null and
denial fields interact, the Guide should favour the null field
up to the point where denial is far greater in scope and
power.
 PRAXIS:
Bloom Handling
A blight-warped bloom of a microscopic plant takes place in the oceans
and across many other bodies of water during the apocalypse. This plant
life (show below at vast magnification) thrives under certain growth
conditions that can be replicated safely, and has a number of odd effects,
though they take a some work to figure out in the first place.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Food Bloom isn't toxic or infectious, though it interacts with

Tank roil. With a properly-engineered tank of the stuff in
water, it can be grown in quantity. A tank capable of
converting a day of water into three days food, over a
single day of growth, is large enough that carrying it
encumbers the character. Maintaining it requires
regular addition of chemical fertilizer (or, oddly, ground-
up brick). Larger tanks, built on vehicles or as
emplacements, are possible.
Roil By taking 'three days food' worth of bloom and treating
Barrier it heavily with specific fertilizers, it can be made into a
muck that can be painted onto a surface. Roil passing
over or in a few paces of this surface will pause, circle,
and move back away. An enclave can seal itself against
roil by painting lines of barrier around itself and along
the edges of rooftops, windows, and vents (roil isn't
always ground-level, after all).
Kudzu If bloom is condensed down, treated, and then dried, it
Blades can be shaped into arrowheads and blades. When such
weapons impact dead creatures that contain roil
(“venting” ones – bloats and wallows, primarily), the roil
inside their bodies attempts to shift and move. Such hits
deal an added wound, and the creature does not vent
from the wound as a result (though roil may escape the
joints, eyes, and orifices of such a creature as it storms
inside).
 PRAXIS:
Nocturne Manipulation
Roil can encyst or crystallize (neither is correct; both terms see use) into
a glossy black stonelike material resembling polished obsidian; this is a
core material the intelligent dead and their masters employ. The
material, once created, can be transmuted into variant forms through
sorcery... Or through more mundane applications of energy, bathing
them in radio and magnetic fields, if one knows how to go about it.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Ashen Creating ashen nocturne requires that a piece of nocturne

Nocturne be isolated, attached to a battery at two points, (positive
and negative), and then bathed in proper 'signals' to
trigger a change. Once the change completes, the result is
an ashy gray object with silver points where the
attachments went. Electricity can then be run through the
item from one point to the other – and the nocturne seems
to be a perfect superconductor along that stretch.
Shaded Shaded nocturne is created much as the ashen form, but
Nocturne one 'terminal' is heated and the other cooled. The
nocturne at the 'hot terminal' turns white, while that at
the 'cold' end dulls, but remains black, shading between.
The resulting piece conducts heat perfectly between ends,
but the other portions are strong insulators. A rod made
in this way could be placed with one end-terminal in a
fire, and the other terminal would grow as hot as that fire
almost instantly... but the rest of the rod would heat up
only after a lengthy period.
Silvered Silvered nocturne requires only a 'bath' of energy to
Nocturne create from usual nocturne, though that's tricky enough.
Such nocturne has a strange relationship with gravity and
inertia – it doesn't fall down if lifted and released. It can
be pulled and pushed, and feels heavy; it has mass. It just
doesn't have weight.

To the Guide: Be prepared for completely outlandish player-invented

uses to be found for these materials. That's what they're for.
 PRAXIS:
Principle Engines
Using tissue from the nervous systems of the intelligent dead, sigils and
other components, it's possible to build a installation that creates the
effect of a sorcery ritual. A permanent circle is laid down, with a
mechanical 'armature' built in the centre of it – which, in turn, is marked
out with ritual symbols. Such engines generally require a great deal of
power (a dedicated generator is common), but can constantly 'work'
ritual magic. Developing and using this praxis requires working with one
or more sorcerers, access to rituals, and a significant number of captured
and intelligent dead; it's a project for a powerful enclave.

Two Examples:

Perpetual Mounted on the walls of Solitude fortress in Alaska in

Charger the late apocalypse, the perpetual charger is linked to
sheaves of half-spent capacitance batteries. Whenever
roil draws near the enclave, it is activated, draining
those batteries – and then, in turn, enacting a evocation
ritual which causes the roil cloud to give up energy
directly into those batteries and recharge them fully.
Cyst Mounted on the deck of an abandoned ship once used as
Weaver a mobile enclave by the Black Sun, the cyst weaver looks
like a cannon tipped with a massive emerald shard,
standing in a circle of ashen nocturne. Powering it up
causes the shard to radiate a pulsing green light. When
it is fired, a beam of terrible radiance lashes out.
Whatever the beam strikes is quickly covered in
translucent green crystal. The original ritual which the
weaver employs is not recorded aboard.
 PRAXIS:
Reverie
The connection between a human mind and the roil, as in symbiosis and
sorcery, is tenuous and tricky. It can be improved, but this requires that
the mind involves is fully 'integrated' – conscious, unconscious, and even
instinctual and automatic responses all in unity. Meditation and
biofeedback, with full-scale monitoring by medical technology, is
required to attain such a peak state of integration; someone who has
mastered this connection can control their heart rate, adrenalin release
and reflexes, and much else besides.

ON REACHING REVERIE
This praxis doesn't give items; it allows characters to gain a special
talent. The praxis must be “researched” twice – once to develop general
methods, and again with each person to grant them the talent. Here's the
talent:

Reverie When any roll comes with the danger of infection, you
also roll a number of special (differently-coloured) dice
equal to the number of copies of this talent you have.
These dice are always rerolled as if cautious, even if the
other dice are rerolled bold. B results on these dice
cancel infection dangers; they can't be spent any other
way.

Gaining reverie requires research with the subject; this requires five
progress, plus another five per copy of the talent they already possess, at
which point the talent is gained for free. The 'researcher' attempting to
develop this talent rolls their Vital. A full week of daily meditation (at
least two hours daily, while hooked to monitoring machines) is required
for each research roll towards gaining this talent.
 PRAXIS:
Schism Shards
Whenever one of the dead comes under control of a sorcerer, alpha, or
maker, small shards of crystal form amidst their nerves. Where such a
creature has been taken control of repeatedly or at great length, one or
more of these shards can grow to several inches in length as a result.
They are likely an extreme variant on nocturne, but no way to create
them directly from roil, or from other nocturne, is available.
Harvesting these shards and working with them shows that they react to
the thoughts of someone touching them – and can be tuned to do so in
fairly impressive ways. With treatments somewhat similar to those used
to transmute nocturne, their properties can be made very useful.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Memory A memory record is a shard that, while in physical contact

Record with a living person or dead thing, stores a full sensory
record of everything experienced by the one touching it.
About ten minutes can be recorded in this way; thereafter,
anyone who touches the shard will feel the stored
experience lightly, and can relive it at will – it can be
replayed any number of times. A memory record can't be
emptied or overwritten.
Linking A linking stone takes on a psychic impression from the first
Stone person to touch it after it is created, lasting for as long as
they held it. So, if you hold a linking stone for an hour, it
will hold your impression for an hour afterwards (after
which it is free to take on a new impression). Anyone
holding a linking stone that carries such an impression can
“speak” telepathically with the person whose impression is
embedded.
Flying A flying dagger is a pinkie-sized shard. It can be 'claimed'
Dagger for a period in the same way as a linking stone. While
claimed, it can levitate and fly under the mental control of
that owner, at almost bullet speed (dealing three wounds).
This isn't naturally accurate; used as a weapon or tool, the
user rolls a single die to 'shoot' (plus one per copy of
sorcery and/or reverie, if any), and will need to retrieve the
crystal – they tend to stick in what they hit.
 PRAXIS:
The Second Symbiote
It's possible to come to symbiosis with the blight, though doing so comes
with dangers aplenty. Both Makers and the beings known as Greys have
differing and capable symbiotic micro-organisms, and it's possible to
culture a version of either which meld with humanity far more easily.
Even becoming aware of this praxis requires analysis of Grey or Maker
tissues. Applying it requires that you culture a mass of such
microorganisms from that tissue, and develop and understanding of
understand how it might affect a human being.

Only one item can be created with this praxis.

THE SYMBIOTIC INJECTION

A symbiotic injection is a crafted item, and the above cultured mass as
well as other supplies. The other supplies can be obtained in a hospital,
but are a unique assortment of stuff, rather than the materials found in
medical kits.
A character given a symbiotic injection immediately clears all their
blacked-out infection boxes and marks them freshly as new infection, as
well as marking four further infection boxes. If they do not have at least
four open boxes, the injection kills them outright. They must then
withstand this infection; in this case, blacking a box IS symbiosis, and the
normal symbiosis option is not available. Should they succeed in
blacking out all marked boxes, they become permanently immune to the
blight. If they would “turn”, they die instead.

If the character possesses Changed talents, they lose one of these each
time they black out a box of this new infection – but also add one point to
any one attribute of their choice, up to the maximum. This can
potentially leave an advanced Changed character with some Changed
talents at the end of the process; that's perfectly fine.
 PRAXIS:
Translation
There are other worlds. The makers hail from somewhere else, and can
painstakingly communicate and manifest across the barriers between.
The Greys are capable of “jumping” the boundaries. Deep investigation
into the mechanisms involved in these actions requires assistance from
the Greys, or the corpse of a maker(!), but can yield astounding results.

Items that can be created once this is fully understood:

Skip-Pack A skip-pack is a partial suit with a heavy backpack,

which half-transforms the wearer into an immaterial
form and “bounces” them off the barrier between
worlds. In effect, the wearer teleports. A skip-pack is
accurate at short range only; the larger the skip, the
worse the aim it has – but that said, there's no actual
limit on range. A suitcase capacitance battery is drained
with each skip, though a wearer can connect to local
power, severing the cables as they vanish.
Bastion A bastion gate looks much like a complex ritual circle
Gate drawn in exotic materials. This circle must be powered,
and the power needs are monstrous. When activated, it
shunts everything in a half-globe above it to a place
beyond the world – an endless open space of a
breathable but semi-liquid atmosphere, in which
ancient fortresses hang and swarms of chitinous things
swim and fly. Those who pass through a bastion gate
can't be “recalled”; they will need to find some other
way back.
Section FOURTEEN

SORCERY
 Doing Sorcery
(Sorcery Talent)
You must be in physical contact with the cloud of roil you wish to
command to attempt sorcery. The basic stakes:

STRESS: Attempting to mentally force the roil to obey you is

taxing; you will mark one stress any time you attempt sorcery.

INFECTION: Contact with the roil to issue instructions always

comes with the risk of infection; mark one infection unless you
cancel this stake.

EFFICACY: Dice put towards this stake create an effect;

choose one of the sorcery effects you are capable of evoking
or which you have a pre-set ritual for.
 Sorcery Bonuses & Shifts
SYMBOLS
If you are using symbols or which clearly represent an intended effect to
you, prepared in advance specifically for this purpose, you gain one
bonus die. If using the same symbolic language the makers use to
command the roil – which means you must have had a tutor versed in it
or a high-quality grimoire of rituals showing the use of it (not just
someone's scratch notes) – this is two dice.

SACRIFICE
If you destroy organic matter inside of the roil cloud you wish to
command, in a way that provides 'food' to the roil, you gain bonus dice,
but cannot use the hits to Abjure the blight. Burning things to make
airborne ash it is the most common means of doing this. This normally
gives one die; a bonfire might give two. It's very possible to go above two
dice this way - The Alcott trap, which burned several hundred tons of
infected creatures, would give a good dozen.

TEMPORAL ABJURATION
If you have the Badge talent Authority, wield a symbol of your beliefs or
office, and are specifically intending to Abjure the blight, you gain a
bonus die. This absolutely does include someone whose authority is
religious, with a religious icon, but can include a cop with a badge just as
easily.

ALPHA / MAKER OPPOSITION

In the presence of an alpha that is opposed to your use of sorcery, there is
danger of additional stress – one if the alpha is generally disposed
against you, two if it is actively opposing your working mentally.
In the presence of a maker, the same occurs, but the danger is of actual
wounds – bleeding from the ears and eyes as blood vessels burst
internally.
An alpha cannot oppose devices which give sorcerous effects, but a
maker can counter them entirely, burning them out where they stand, if it
is aware of what they do.
 The Basic Effects
Every sorcerer (actually, everyone) is capable of three very basic effects:
abjuring the roil, assisting others, and enacting rituals. All of these use
the basic stakes for sorcery (which means that non-sorcerers use bonus
dice only).

ABJURE
You drive back the roil, and strike at the blight within the dead,
commanding the blight to die where it is. With a roll, you turn all roil
within [10 feet per hit spent on effect] to ash, and deal wounds equal to
[the dice spent on effect] to any dead in that area of effect.

ASSIST
You aid another sorcerer in their workings; dice spent on this effect are
given to them as bonus dice to roll and add to their effect.

RITUAL
A ritual is a specific set of actions, symbols, phrases, and other
components that generates one of the other effects. Rituals are the
“study guide” versions of effects. Some rituals are given in detail later on
in this section.

NATURAL ABJURATION
The full (two-die-bonus) ritual used for abjuration is to draw a rough
circle around one's self with salt, display a symbol of whatever the
abjurer considers sacred, and command the roil away; that's it. This fact
becomes fairly common knowledge not far into the apocalypse; those
who have faith but no actual sorcerous talent make use of this to drive
back the fog.
 Discovered Effects
The four effects below can be selected by any sorcerer as arcana any time
they take that talent.

BIND
You reach through the roil to seize mental control of an unintelligent dead
creature, or destroy the hold another dead has on it; this requires as
many hits as the creature can take wounds when fresh. You can build
these over several attempts, as progress, but binding attempts
immediately make you the target of all dead in the vicinity, including
your subject. Controlled dead act as you wish so long as you maintain
concentration; they can be set on other dead to deal their damage
(wounds only), but the other will fight back – no rolls are needed; this is
a straight everything-hits slugfest.

CONJURE
You instruct the roil to fashion simple objects for you out of a glassy
black substance (nocturne). At one die of effect, this can yield a talisman
or brooch; at two a dagger or goblet, at three a machete, four a heavy
staff, and so on. Items made will never have moving parts, but can
absorb, store, and release roil for you (this takes no roll). Treat the
“capacity” of such an item as equal to the dice spent. If you are in an area
that has no roil, and release some of that roil, it's enough to give a thin,
wispy radius of roil up to five feet in radius from you for each point of
capacity you release into the air.

DIVINE
You sense what the roil senses. This is treated as if you had (and
activated) the changed talent Whispers, but only works in the affected
roil cloud, and only while you concentrate to the exclusion of all other
action.

TRANSFIGURE
You call on the plague-stuff inside your body to shift your own flesh. You
can exchange one changed talent for another changed talent, or to turn it
into a dot of sorcery. This change is permanent until you alter it again.
You can't turn sorcery back into changed talents, however. Added
dangers on this are three hunger and two thirst. Obviously, this effect is
only useful if you have changed talents. The actual transformation takes
a full twenty-four hours, during which the character is bedridden and
twitching, and inflicts two each of hunger, thirst and stress on the user.
 Learned Effects
The effects below can only be selected by a sorcerer as arcana talents if
they have performed or aided in a ritual that mimics them, or through
direct communion with one of the Makers, the eldritch beings the cults
worship and the dead obey.

TRANSMUTE
You transform an item made of nocturne into one of the variant forms of
that substance (see the research section). This requires dice to be spent
on effect equal to the number that would be used to conjure it; if you do
not have enough, a section of the item crumbles to dust (as big as you
could have conjured with the hits you did obtain). You can deliberately
“dust” nocturne in this way, tearing holes in structures made of it.

EVOKE
You demand that the roil give up energy. With a single die, you can create
a soft glow in the roil within ten feet of you. For two, you can cause the
same area to give up energy into dead you control (healing them by one
wound) or into a capacitance battery (generally raising the charge by one
level, or two for a clip or smaller battery).

INVOKE
You demand that the roil cloud take in and channel presences that it is in
contact with – or that it attempt to express an intelligence of its own with
your aid (exactly which is actually going on is debatable). When this
occurs, a mental presence is temporarily created in the roil, which you
can attempt to draw information from. For each die, the Guide will
answer one question; answers will be true, but “I don't know that” is the
most common answer – the presence called up (or created) draws
memory from the local stuff of the roil itself, which only “knows” about
things it has touched or felt in its own way.

TRANSCEND
Transcendence is suicide; a one way-trip, burning your body and
throwing your consciousness into the roil, to engage an enemy mind-to-
mind. Your effect dice are used to give you a new “spirit” stat, rated at
one point per two dice, and to give you “presence boxes” equal to the
effect dice. In this state, you black one presence box each hour (utter
death occurs when they're gone). You can then engage enemies – even
makers – in conflict as a mental presence, using spirit as a stat to fight
them, and taking damage to your presence. The Guide will set all stakes,
but only Makers should have significant spirit combat values at all.
 Rituals
Rituals originate with the makers; while they can be recorded and passed
around, they can't be created by humanity. Each ritual is a limited and
specific form of one effect.
All rituals require that the user draw a circle around the area of effect,
which they must be within, and many require the circle to be filled with
symbols. As such, very few rituals are useful during action scenes, unless
the circle is almost completely drawn in advance, and finished (or
“closed”) during the action.
Here are a couple of example rituals:

ANGUTA'S ARMOUR
This is a ritual of transfiguration (it mimic the transfigure effect), and
changes one changed talent possessed by the ritualist into hideous
natural armour. It can grant the ritualist a second copy of the talent
armour if they have one already, but can't extend beyond that level. The
ritual circle must be drawn in some cobalt-heavy material, and at least
one active but unintelligent dead creature must be inside the circle with
the ritualist. Upon the closing of the ritual circle and uttering the opening
phrases of the ritual, the dead creature becomes dormant; the ritualist
splits that creature open, and drives one arm inside. As they do so, the
dead creature breaks down and pieces of it slither over the body of the
ritualist, melding with their skin. If no dice at all are put into gaining the
effect, the ritualist is disfigured but keeps their original changed talent
and gains no benefits.

VASKYAL'S CLEANSING
This is a ritual of evocation (it mimic the evoke effect). The circle for this
ritual must be drawn in nocturne, with a a solid line across the circle
dividing it into halves, and a single drop of blood dripped on the very
centre. The ritualist stands on one side of this circle, and a dead thing
bound to them is directed to the other side. The evoked power of the roil
heals the dead thing, and also winnows away useless flesh. If a given
dead thing has been healed over it's existence of more total wounds than
it's maximum total, it becomes a slender version of itself (see the threats
section).
Many followers of Vaskyal create permanent circles for this ritual in the
places they work and live, which allows them to begin the ritual simply
by shedding a drop of blood in the centre of the circle and framing the
right symbols in their mind.
 Grimoires
A grimoire is an exacting record of how to perform one or more rituals –
not only how to draw the circle and what to do next, but the symbols and
utterances that should be employed during casting. There are two broad
types of grimoires that player characters might encounter:

BLACK SUN TOMES

For long decades before the collapse, the members of the cult of the
Black Sun dreamed of the makers, and of rituals and powers that they
might have if they brought the makers to earth. These dreamed-of rituals
are described in great detail in massive record books. During the
apocalypse, each member of the Black Sun was entrusted with (or stole,
or otherwise acquired) a copy of one or more of these tomes.
Each Black Sun tome contains thirteen rituals, described in intensive
detail. However, most of these rituals don't work as promised, giving
painful and even potentially lethal results, or work only in the territory of
the maker that promised the powers given. Two or three rituals per
tome do function, in general, which spurs the vile owners of the tomes to
train up 'disposable apprentices' specifically to have them test with do
and which don't.

ROUGH NOTES
More often, a grimoire takes the form of one or more rituals written out
in whatever way is available to someone who knows them, bound up
roughly, and copied by hand. Such rituals are almost always functional,
but the mental symbols and instructions tend to be vague or error-laden,
introducing added dangers to the sorcery roll. Such notes also tend to
give only one bonus die to using the ritual; they don't express all the right
symbols perfectly. Some are better-quality than others, however.
Section FIFTEEN

OPTIONS
 The Optional Rules
In this section, you'll find seven ways to add to or alter the rules. These
add detail to existing mechanics (such as Contagion), add entire new
mechanics, or replace one mechanism with another. When thinking
about adding optional rules, ask:

DOES THIS FIT A CAMPAIGN NEED?

An optional rule that suits your campaign and brings out the things you
want to focus on is a good one. An optional rule that you've added on
only because it seemed neat may very well end up feeling silly or
gimmicky. Does it fit?

IS IT WORTH THE HANDLING TIME?

Each additional thing to manage at the table uses up time that could be
spent describing action and results. A well-placed option brings enough
useful content to talk about in that running conversation to be worth the
time it takes to manage it. Will you get more out of it than you put into it,
at your table?
 The Countdown Stack
A countdown stack is a pile of tokens, typically glass beads, candy, or
poker chips, plunked down in the middle of the playing space. They drain
away at a measured rate, people can spend them (or add to them) for
various purposes, and when they’re all gone, something happens. When
the Guide wants to make it clear that one concern is looming, and the
clock is running, a visible device focuses group attention.

BUILDING THE STACK

Before dropping the tokens on the table, the Guide should put together a
solid idea of how the stack will be used. The important factors:

What Do Tokens can represent some tangible resource, such as

Tokens food or water. They can represent time until an event.
Represent? They can also represent an abstraction in the world –
how good the stealth of the group is, with the count
going down as they arouse suspicion.
How Do Most often, this will be a measure of time – hours,
They days, weeks. Sometimes, there will be an ongoing
Run Out? danger such as “they are alerted to you” added to many
rolls that will deplete the stack.
What Will This should usually be clear from the nature of the
Happen At tokens, but added clarity is good. If the enclave water
Zero? runs out, and someone dies each time increment that
would call for a token after, that's worth saying.
How Many A token stack larger than about twenty or so doesn't
Tokens Are usually seem all that urgent; less than five hardly
There? seems like a resource.
How Can A countdown can often be delayed, even if there's a
They Get limit to how much. What would add more to the stack,
More? if anything?
How Can The Guide should be ready to offer ways to trade in
They Spend tokens from the stack for benefits. If the stack is water
Them? barrels, can they be traded? If it's days, how many
days will it take to do different things the characters
might try to resolve this? If it's stealth, how many
tokens will a dash across the courtyard cost?
 Temptation Dice
When you make an action roll - any roll - you get two extra dice! These
dice are in a different colour (black is good), and hits made on them don't
count unless you accept an extra little cost. Sure, you can get an extra hit
to juke; just trip that Guide character that's with you as a distraction.
Absolutely, you can figure out how that strangeness with the roil works;
just listen, the whispers will tell you.
These extra costs are chosen by the Guide; after making a roll, you can
ask the Guide what the cost would be to get the hits on your temptation
dice – or the Guide might just lean over and tell you. Here are some
broad categories of costs for the Guide to pick from:

Strain You take a point of strain. Stress or fatigue are the

most common, representing “extra effort” taken
mentally or physically, but other kinds of strain are
possible.
Breakage You break your tools, or use up added resources that
could be applied.
Hazard Your actions create a local hazard. Something is now
on fire; the area is now covered in tainted matter, you
break the bridge you were racing over.
Whispers As a holder or survivor of infection, you reach out in
desperation with your mind, and draw up inspiration
from the whispers you have heard (or are hearing).
When you next withstand infection, you must buy
symbiosis if you are able to, and the Guide decides
what you get.
Betrayal You can see a way to gain the advantage by shooting
through your ally, by shoving someone in front of the
dead, or by otherwise betraying those around you.

THE CHARACTER DECIDES (OR DOESN'T THINK)

When proposing temptations as the Guide, make sure that every offer is
something that the character does. A temptation should always be an
extra effort they make, an accident caused by their haste and intensity of
focus, a decision to disregard others. The question you're always asking
should be: Is this important enough to your character that they'll go
further than they probably should?
 Legacy
A character is overwhelmed by a swarm of shambles. By the rules,
they’re about to die, and it’s a total anticlimax. It is, as it sits, a lame way
to go out. But instead of finding a way to help that character live live -
which might be cheap and unsatisfying unto itself - the Guide tells the
player that this is where they note their legacy; the stuff of the character
that will carry on for a time. The character is still going to die - and their
death itself is going to remain ugly. But the end of their life will not be the
end of their effect.

LEGACY POINTS AND EFFECTS

To build a legacy, the player makes a note on the back or across the top of
their sheet noting a “legacy pool” of points; the starting value of this pool
is two points, plus one per session of play the character appeared in.
Legacy points are not recovered naturally. Legacy can be spent by any
player whose character was familiar with the dead one, with group
permission, and some can be regained. Here's how:

A Trick By spending a legacy point, a character may roll for

They Knew any action using the number of dice the dead character
would have, if greater than their own. When or after
using a legacy point in this way, the character should
explain (inventing details as required) how the dead
character ‘showed them this trick’. After doing so, the
character can improve their rating in that action for
one less experience point.

A Story A character might spend a legacy point to ‘recall’

They Told information that was known by the dead character (or
reasonably could have been), in the form of something
the dead character once said to them while alive. They
should relate or describe the information in this
fashion - as ‘something that so-and-so told them once’.
The Guide must approve of the information conveyed.

Things A dying character might well have ‘things not done’

Unfinished that the characters might choose to take up as their
own cause. If they do so, the Guide may add a point (or
a few) to the pool as they undertake and complete the
task.
 Aggression Counts
An aggression count is a set of tokens or a big red die placed in front of
each player, as a note of "how much are they drawing the ire of the
enemies". Aggression helps sort out targeting and allows tracking of
tactics for ‘drawing fire’ and the like. Here's how it works:
Counts At the start of a conflict, each character starts with four
aggression. This will rise and fall, but two is the minimum,
and nine is the maximum.
Basics A character gains an aggression each time they deal a hit to
an enemy. They lose one each time they take a hit. If they
take and deal the same number of hits in a go, no
adjustment is made.
Targets When an enemy has to choose a target, any character with
more aggression than attackers is a valid target, and the one
with the biggest gap between aggression and attackers is
the most valid. If your count is "4", and there's two enemies
on you, you attract foes at an effective "2". Another
character with with a count at "3" and no enemies on them
is the preferred target.

GETTING TACTICAL
With those basics established, characters will often look for ways to get
the counts where they like. Some ways to do that:

Baiting A character can use their 'go' to make a baiting roll, with no
automatic stake or dangers. All C results increase their
aggression, one-for-one.
Dodging A character that's not pinned in by foes can make a Juke
roll, with no automatic stake or dangers. All hits reduce
their aggression, one-for-one.
Shoving On a fight roll, the stake “escape” can be bought as “Shove
back a foe; they pick their target fresh.” A blunt weapon
strike has this effect and raises your count by one; good for
'stealing' foes off nearby allies.

ALPHA COMMANDS
If an Alpha is present, it can use its 'go' to change the aggression count of
any character to any value it likes.
 Breakdowns
If this option is in effect, a player whose character is currently holding
three or more stress has the option of putting that character into crisis
immediately (collapse and death override this, though) and make some
changes to their sheet. The details:

Roleplaying A breakdown is a character reaching their breaking

point and changing significant parts of how they act. It
should be played as such – you're having a breakdown,
here; show that.
Duration The crisis penalty lasts at least four hours in the
setting; much of the time involved can be “offstage”,
but at least a short part of a scene should be played to
show that this is happening.
Cashing In When you break down, you can choose two of your
stats, and move one dot from one of them to another.
This represents a change of focus towards the one, and
some hesitation or aversion in using the approach the
other indicates. You can't increase a stat above four
dots or down to zero in this way.
Motives When you break down, you can change your motive to
another in your archetype for free, or to one from
another archetype for one experience point.
The Limit A character can gain the benefits of breaking down
once, with the option potentially reappearing after four
or five more sessions if the Guide wishes.
 Training And Convalescence
Characters can heal and grow through time and practice as well as
through insights gained under tension (that is, experience points). Here
are some mechanisms for that:

TRAINING
By training under someone who has a talent, or the desired rating in a
stat, the experience cost of purchasing it later can be reduced. If the
reduction reaches the point where the purchase would be free, it is
gained without cost at that point. The trainer need not have any
experience as a teacher. Training may require some kind of facilities or
supplies; these will be determined by the Guide. A given instructor can
lead multiple people in training, so long as there are enough facilities or
supplies for everyone.

A full day (about seven hours) of instruction gives a one-point reduction

in the cost. The second point of cost reduction takes an additional two
days of training; the third takes a further three, and so on. Gaining a
talent from another archetype (usually 6 xp) without spending any xp
would thus require 1+2+3+4+5+6 days of training; 21 in all.

Training can be broken up – for example, shooting practice for an hour a

day over a week is effectively a full day towards gaining a shooting-
related talent the instructor has.

You cannot train towards gaining Changed talents.

CONVALESCENCE
If characters have a long stretch of 'downtime' – at least a week where
not much happens, things are secure, and there's very little exposure to
the blight – then characters may recover one blacked-out infection box
for free. The Guide should state when this occurs.
 [Afterword]
It's December 21st, 2018, and I'm looking at this monstrosity I've
constructed. It's a compilation of a great deal of my other game work. It's
a 'finished' game that expects you to start altering it the moment you sit
down. It's where I learned to do my own art. It's a source of design
frustration large enough that I walked away from it to create and release
another system just because the first one didn't spark the way I wanted it
to. It's a kickstarter slowly being delivered, late as hell. It's standing
proof that projects are never really completed, only released.

It's a game I love; it's an angry, patchwork beast of protean flesh,

demanding that you bring your own creative chops to the table, too, and I
think that nothing could be more perfect than that as a vehicle for the
eldritch apocalypse.

Good luck out there, in the dark and the fog.