JAGS Have-Not: by Marco Chacon

Copyright Marco Chacon, Permission to copy for personal use is granted.
JAGS Have-Not
By Marco Chacon
1
Sierra Club
National Headquarters
85 Second Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA
Phone: 415-977-5500
Fax: 415-977-5799
The Nature Conservancy

4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203-1606
National Audubon Society

700 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 979-3000
Fax: (212) 979-3188
World Wildlife Fund-United States

1250 24th Street NW
Washington
DC 20037-1175
United States of America
+1 202 293 4800
Species Survival Commission

IUCN - The World Conservation Union
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Have-Not: Its a nice place to visitbut I wouldnt want to live there.
Featuring amazing artwork by:

Mike Docher
Santiago Iborra
Clash Bowley
Howard David Johnson
Clayton Bunce
Jeff Ward
Simon Roth
2
JAGS: Have-Not..................................... 4 Water Towns......................................................... 24

Long Story Short......................................... 5 Oil Towns ............................................................... 24
Long Story Long ......................................... 5 Coal Towns............................................................ 25
The End of the Information Age ........................5 The Garbage Mines ............................................ 25
The Dawn of the Age of Understanding..........6 Power Farms......................................................... 26
The Age of Understanding: Dismantling Good Land ............................................................. 26
the World...................................................................6 Dinosaur Ranches............................................... 26
The Dawn of the Age of Wonder: The What's In Your Average Town? ................ 26
Habitats .....................................................................7 Rules in the Middle Ring........................... 28
New Species............................................................8 Life in the Inner Wasteland .................29
The Exchange .........................................................8 Welcome to the Wasteland. It................... 30
The Plunder of the Eco-Sphere.........................8 The Ecology of the Inner Wasteland......... 31
The Collapse ...........................................................8 Chemosynthesis .................................................. 31
The Distro-Points Fail: The Age of War ..........9 Ergovorics .............................................................. 31
The NOW: The BoneYard. Have-Not............10 Carnivorous ........................................................... 31
The State of the World.............................. 11 Making The Run: Getting Through the
Looking Down........................................................11 Wasteland ................................................. 32
Getting Closer .......................................................12 Making the Run One on One........................... 32
Stories in the Ring ...............................................12 Random Threats .................................................. 32
Welcome to Have-Not: Approach Section What Random Threats Look Like................... 33
........................................................... 14 Wandering Monsters .......................................... 33
Heroic Science Fantasy Adventure .......... 14 Wandering Robots .............................................. 34
Dispensing With All This: Alternate Takes...14 Bandits .................................................................... 34
The Three Ethos' of Have-Not .................. 15 Ambush................................................................... 34
Post-Apocalypse ..................................................15 Theory and Practice ........................................... 35
Cyberpunk ................................................ 15 Surviving the Ambush ........................................ 35
The Western ............................................. 15 Counter Intelligence: The first line of defense
The Basic Game Structure ....................... 16 ................................................................................... 35
But It Doesn't Have To Be That Way.............16 Intelligence: The second line of defense ..... 36
How Do I Figure This Out? ....................... 16 Scouts: The Last Line of Prevention ............. 36
Choosing Game Focus ............................. 17 A Scout's Life ........................................................ 36
The Vehicles Game.............................................17 Scout's Honor ....................................................... 37
The Ammo, Fuel, Credits, and Water Scout's Pride ......................................................... 37
Game .......................................................................17 Sensor Rules ............................................ 37
The Exploration Game (vs. the Mysteries) ..17 Flora and Fauna........................................ 38
The Exploration Game (vs. the Mysteries) ..18 The BoneYard: Life in the Big City........40
Hazards .................................................... 18 Life in the BoneYard is ......................... 41
Hazards as Color .................................................18 Society in The Yard .................................. 42
Hazards as Barriers.............................................18 Getting In .................................................. 42
Hazards as Focus ................................................19 Getting Around.......................................... 42
Encounter Tables...................................... 19 Going Out.................................................. 43
Treasure ................................................... 19 Etiquette in The BoneYard........................ 43
The McGuffin .........................................................19 Rules in the Yard ...................................... 44
Life In the Middle Ring ........................ 20 Medical Care............................................. 44
What's it Like?........................................... 20 Paying the Toll .......................................... 44
Weather in the Middle Ring ...................... 23 Moving On Up ........................................... 44
Dust Storms ...........................................................23 Survive the Yard on 12 Credits Per Day!45
Toxic Dust Storms................................................23 Welcome To The Yard ............................. 46
The Thunderheads ..............................................23 A Citizen's Guide To Common Scams ..... 47
Aurora Season ......................................................24 Life in the Outer Wasteland .................56
What Goes On in the Middle Ring? .......... 24 Welcome to the Outer Wasteland. It is 56
Fortress Towns ......................................... 24 The Ecology of the Outer Wasteland........ 57
Factory Towns.......................................................24
3
Copyright Marco Chacon, Permission to copy for personal
use is granted.
JAGS: Have-Not JAGS HAVE-NOT

A wind whistles across a desert-dry plain. A river, crystal clear, but Welcome to Have-Not, a post apocalypse far
its banks choked with dead grass from the poisons it carries, future mutants-and-machineguns world book.
gurgles west towards a hundred yard cliff down to vast expanses Have-Not is all about rolling into a small dusty
of sand where the Pacific Ocean used to be. An eerie song of a town in armed vehicles and laying the .30-cal
mutant bird echoes for a momentand then things are still again. smack-down on an evil sheriff. It's about getting
Were you in an aircraft rushing over the land at the speed of your friends together and heading into the
sound, you would see a light in the distancea glow as though Denver Ruins to brave the death machines and
from a smoke-stifled fire. Closer you would see a citya nightmare the bio-horrors left over from the Age of War to
megapolis of blackened skeletal buildings with the grim shapes of bring back bounty from another era. It's about
heavy bore guns pointing out at the land and sky. The city has being an intelligent, telepathic Bengal Tiger with
lights thoughfrenetic lightsfire-fights on the freeways, arson in a cybernetic rocket launcher or Cyborg with a
the warrens, massive moving billboards with flickers of gladiatorial built in rocket launcheror a mobile telepathic
combat and industrial zones belching plasma and smog. plantor maybe just a human, gun slinging bad-
ass.
Then you'd be past it, arcing out at an impossible rate of travel
over the land around the citya poisoned swampa vicious Have-Not is about exploring a world that's been
hyperactive carnivorous ecology that devours and devours and touched by a miraculous technology (controlled
it's gone tooa green ringtowns, villagesroads and farms by the Haves, who are now gone) and then
below. And then, all too fast, that is gone as wellanother abandoned. It's about setting things right or
wasteland speckled with a few strange dying empires. You'll be seeing what's broken or just getting rich and
past those in a second, heading east across a magnificent powerfulor any of those things. It's about a
expanse of continentbut there is nothing else: there is nothing world that's complex, that's got a lot going on,
more to see. You've already passed over the last dying embers of and has secrets to discover. We hope you enjoy
civilization. This is all that remains. Welcome to Have-Not. it!
4
Copyright Marco Chacon, Permission to copy for personal use is
granted.
THE AGES OF MAN

Long Story Short
The Stone Age ended at about
It's over, but it ain't got the decency to lay 3000 BC when mankind
AUTHORS down and die. It knows it's finished but it discovered metalsbefore then,
Marco Chacon, Eric Chacon keeps on fighting. It don't make no sense the most valuable commodity
but it's given up tryin'. The world caught fire was, as the name implied, stone.
PLAYTEST a few hundred years ago and it's still
Marco Chacon, Melanie burning. You can see the flamesyou can From 3000 to 1300 BC man
Rutman, David Tumarkin, Todd still smell the smoke. Some people are fool learned to use fires to forge
Yankee, Kenton Hillis, Craig enough to think they can make a difference Bronzea soft metal by some
Walker, Irene, DJ, and others. goin around, maybe they don't even standardsbut a vast
know itbut they're thinkin'they're improvement over sharp rocks
Vehicular Help from dreamin'they're goin "maybe just and wooden sticks. Bronze was
Wintermute. maybe I could put it out." the "coin" of the daythe
standard by which societies lived
Creatures by Mike Have-Not is what happens when winner or perished.
Lovdal takes all. It's what happens when all the
good and comfortable and happy belongs to At 1300 BC the forges learned to
someone else and they leave. It's bitter and it's unfair and it reeks of industrial tame Ironand after 300 BC,
waste. But there you are. So here ya go. steel. The age of metals had
come to a close. When next the
In Have-Not you might drive an armored car with co-ax .30-cal machine guns on paradigm shift happened, it was
top. We built thoseafter the collapse. You might carry a plastic handgun that the creation of Industry.
fires a condensed plasma beam: They built thoseand there are still a bunch
left. Radiation can riddle your body with cancer, blind you, and make you bleed The Industrial Age gave way to
out through yourwell, never mind that. That's our reality. But They left us with the modern area: is it the Space
"alternate-stability-zones" in our bio-genetic structure and the mutations might Age? The Atomic Age? The Age
just as easily be tentacles or a third eye or telepathy. That's their little game. of Flight? At this point we have
accepted that we live in the
They are what we call (called) the Haves. A long time ago they ran the world and Information Agebut what lies
it was an Age of Wonders. Self-repairing super-highways crisscrossed the beyond that? What indeed . . .
continents. Supersonic transports arced through space. Medicine was instant
and TV was hypnotic and addictive and just made you feel wonderful.
And then. They. Left.
And Then. It. All. Stopped. And there was war that you couldn't imagineand
after that there's this. One city, one real city left. Two far-flung empires so warped
as to barely be sane at all, both dying. A narrow ring of civilization under assault
from mutation, monster, and machine, and that's about it.
Animals talk, some of us can move things with our minds, and everything can kill
you. It's that kind of world and it ain't getting better all by itself. Welcome to Have-
Not.
Long Story Long
The End of the Information Age

The Information Age came to a close with what has become colloquially known
as The Breakthrough. The Breakthrough was a discovery of such magnitude, a
realization of such importance that it changed everything. Science in every
discipline went from an exploration of a difficult yet map-able terrain to a wild
ocean where reason and the scientific method were lost causes. Not only did we
5
granted.
have informationbut we had information in over-abundance. Mankind had Distro-Points
reached the limits of its biological capacity to comprehend. Have-Not life in the Age of Wonders
was based on Distro-Points. Every bit
The Dawn of the Age of Understanding as inscrutable as the Domes, the
Distro-points were the arrival location
The end of the Information Age left a gulf in man's ever-onward quest for for all goods, chemicals, clothes, fuel,
knowledge. Fragments of greatness were within our grasp but the deeper and everything else the society
mysteries could be hinted at but not understood. We knew what we were consumed. The city planers could
destined to lack. Most of us did, anyway. The dawn of the new age came program in what was needed and
with in-Utero manipulation of the human genome. A technique of great next cycle (a few days, hours, or
expense was developed to grow children with additional lobes of the human even minutes later) it would arrive.
brain. The significance of this was poorly understood at the timeand even
less so the ennui and arrogance that would cause the mega-wealthy to In the Age of Wonders, Distro-Points
experiment on their children sobut it was done. These people were what were differentiated only by capacity.
would later became known as the Haves. It was not possible to truly enter the
pointsbut there were several
The Age of Understanding: Dismantling the control nexi on the outside. It is
believed the goods and power arrived
World via tubes running under the mantle to
The Haves tested higher on IQ testsbut that wasn't the significant factor the Have-Dome Network. But nothing
the "singularity"the thing that changed the world. The big deal was that the is really known for certain. Perhaps
Haves could understand the Breakthrough. The Haves at first dabbled in the nano-technology constructors were
new sciences and then began a perfectly ordinary rise through the ranks of used to assemble soups of raw
powernever in charge, always as advisors. It was not, as some thought, a materials. Perhaps massive conveyor
coup: it was a natural occurrencea natural separation that came on so belts ran from underground factories
slowly that it was almost invisible. Corporations re-aligned. Nations borders buried beneath the crust of the
became more porous and then mere formalities. Over time, the Have think- planet.
tanks regulated the global economy, nation-building, and emergent
technologies. Wars became scalpels of necessity against the intransigent.
Education, language, and media became standardized. In time, even
national identities began to fade. Finally, the world was the consumer the
Haves were the
corporation.
6
granted.
The Dawn of the Age of Wonder: The

Habitats The Have Domes
The Have Domes are wonders of engineering:
And then it happened. The Haves organized their retreats. No totally sealed and impregnable they appear egg-
longer were more children being born to the population with the shell white and, during the Age of Wonders,
modifications. The world was ordered and civil. The Haves seemed to glow with a soft inner luminance.
brought unbelievable advances: miracle drugs, beamed power, Although several miles across above the surface
complete genetic manipulation, quantum computing, cybernetic of the earth (and there were habitats in space, on
neural interfaces, self-repairing systems, nano-enhanced the ocean floor, and the continent of Antarctica
technologies, and stable energy-field creation. In addition to as well as in normally inhabited human climes)
bestowing the wonders on the rest of man through a complicated they extended far deeper beneath it.
network of "Distro-Points" (looking, mostly, like giant white
mushrooms from which a constant stream of consumer durables, The exact nature of the technology is unknown:
medicine, and high-technology spare parts flowed). The Haves the white material they are made from is
burrowed deep into the earth, running conduits through the unbreakableimmune even to point-blank
mantle. They built habitats in spaceand they built the Domes nuclear detonation. Extensive underground
the Retreats. chambers extend "root" structures that burrow
and grow through the earth extracting resources
through micro-pores.
The citizens of the world never entered the Have

domesand for their part, the Haves rarely
exitedtheir pronouncements came through the
media or intermediaries. The (few and ultimately
unreliable) reports of those who did enter are
often nonsensical: waterfalls running uphill, great
secrets of the universe revealed but seemingly
mundane when communicated, and in one case,
a journalist who had been granted entryand left
with nonsensical tapes of incomprehensible
sounds (and memories that evaporated as though
from a dream):
"And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil
seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean"
--Kubla Kahn, Coleridge (of course)
7
granted.
New Species
The Haves were adequate caretakers for the race of manbut they
experimented. Humans could be warped into other formsother phenotypes THE BREAKTHROUGH?
and they did, with wild abandon. Populations were created in the image of A NEW KIND OF
animalsfully talking or telepathically gifted ones. Gene therapy could reshape
the human form and open new possibilities and new capabilities (humans who
SCIENCE
could live under water, men born with armored shells or with resistance to Stephen Wolfram is a real guy
radiation or toxins). Where this was going or why they experimented thus was, as (you may know who he is and
with everything else, unexplained. In the end, perhaps, they just wanted to see if where we're going with all this
they could do it. but if notkeep reading): He's a
genius who got his Ph.D. from Cal
Tech when he was 20, created the
The Exchange definitive scientific computer
The Exchange is the term for a nuclear spat between the Haves. At some point program Mathematica, and
more than a century into the era known as the Age of Wonders, two of the became fascinated with something
Domes (or two committeesor perhaps two individualsno one is certain how called cellular-automata.
Have society was organized) had a nuclear disagreement. It took the form of
massive robotic nuclear bombers unleashed from a far north habitat against a After garnering acclaim, he
dome on the European continent. The civilian casualties were in the hundreds of retreated from the publishing field
millionsthe target dome itself, although the ground was literally melted out for several years and returned, on
around it, suffered not a scratch. What the argument was aboutnor if it was May 2002, with a 1200 page book:
ever resolved was never established. At this point mankind had become too A New Kind of Science. To quote
dependant on the steady flow of anti-depressants, hypnotic Telecast, and from his website:
arcade-entertainment to muster enough outrage to make a difference. In
fairness, it is not known if humankind could have made a differencethe "Almost all the science that's been
opportunity was probably already too far gone. done for the past three hundred or
so years has been based in the
end on the idea that things in our
The Plunder of the Eco-Sphere universe somehow follow rules
The Haves wielded unimaginable powerbut the wonders they bestowed upon that can be represented by
man were only partially in the form of completed consumer goods. Also supplied traditional mathematical
were raw materials (neonium wonder-metal, spools of room temperature super- equations. The basic idea that
conductor, nano-morphic super-polymers, etc.). These were then processed by underlies A New Kind of Science
massive refineries to supply man with his never sated-desire for wealth and is that that's much too restrictive,
comfort. This did damage of almost unimaginable proportionsand while the and that in fact one should
domes glowed the Haves were always there to clean up the mess. But they too consider the vastly more general
changed the face of the planet on an almost inconceivable scale: What used to kinds of rules that can be
be the Pacific Ocean became a seemingly infinite desert. Were cyclopean dams embodied, for example, in
built to contain an ocean? Rivers were diverted. Volcanoes made activeand computer programs."
harvested for powerall of this experiment and hubris for the Cool Fusion power
cores which the Haves buried in the heart of Earth herself still run today with no If Wolfram is right, and nothing is
sign of stopping. The cities of the timethe Have-Not citiesboasted massive saying he isyet, this could be
air-purification towers and vast water-and-waste automated scrubbing facilities. one of the cornerstones of the end
of the Information Age.
The Collapse It would have to be something like
About five decades later, the unthinkable happened: at once across the world this: a revelation sparking a
and into space, the domes 'went dark.' Fifty percent of the major distribution multidisciplinary paradigm shift of
points ceased functioning. Those that did became unreliable. The Age of massive proportions.
Wonders had come to an end. The Age of War had begun.
It is the kind of thing for which we
Almost immediately there were police actions and security force response across as a technological species and an
the globe. The forces, having access to Have technology weaponry, had an intellectual organism are
unimaginable edge against the citizenryagainst each other was another matter. completely unprepared.
For weeks chaos reigned. Massive populations were cut off from their addictive
drugs and suffered traumatic withdrawal. Riots raged. Collective suicides and
8
granted.
Armed Vehicles
Travel is dangerous: scorpions the
size of SUV's roam the deserts,
plague-bearing wolves prowl the
hills. If the monsters don't get you
the radiation willand if that fails
your fellow man (or intelligent
beast) is always ready to hunt you
down.
Where in the past there was war,

now there is a sort of slow-boil
chaos. The solution the need for
control is armed transport.
The warlords of The Age of War

took civilian vehicle models and
requested them with armor and
weapons (something many of the
distro-points could provideeven
collapse of food and health networks resulted in megadeath. Disease spread if they couldn't provide the force-
and worsethe reigning security forces became aware that as the days passed field shielded hover-tanks that a
the Haves were possiblyand still unthinkablynot coming back. fully armed Have- technology force
would have had).
Where possible, still-working Distro-Points were programmed to produce
component parts for 20th century industrial technologies. Refineries were built. These are the steeds of the new
Mines were dug with robot digging machine. Munitions factories were created age: horse drawn carriages still
and the survivors held their breathwaiting for the other shoe to drop. exist, yesbut the real travel
travel for miles over hostile
terrainis done by militarized
vehicles. Hook yourself up.
The Distro-Points Fail: The Age of War
Drop it did. Reports came via telecom that around the world, one by one, the
remaining Distribution Points "went dark." Almost at the same time, those that did
still run, changed: they would no longer produce anything you asked forthey
produced a limited, random, number of itemsand variations on those themes.
This last straw broke the back of society entirely. Where some of the
survivors could only produce kitchen wares, others could produce Shrike I was dreamin' when I wrote this
Missiles and powered assault armor. In what may have been definitive of Forgive me if it goes astray
the ugliness of human nature, the forces that had access to the most But when I woke up this mornin'
devastating weapons made war to seize the remaining working points. Coulda sworn it was judgment day
Humanity was plunged into two hundred and fifty years of constant, total, The sky was all purple
surreal war. There were people runnin' everywhere
Tryin' 2 run from the destruction
The war was not nearly symmetric. Forces that couldn't produce energy
weapons relied on assault rifles. Those that couldn't do that used over-
U know I didn't even care
loaded medical lasers or poison gas or even stranger things. All you can 'Cuz they say two thousand zero zero
get are robotic clothes store mannequins? They can "see" but can't target party over
a gun or rocket? Fineoutfit each of them with twin curved katana like Oops out of time
blades and send them on foot: silent, lethal in close combat, and utterly, So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999
utterly patient. Need more soldiers? Use psycho-tech to build helmets that
overwrite the personalities of your "peasants" with combat-modes and --1999, Prince
solider skills. It's horriblebut hey, it's survival. Cities became at first fine-
gems to be taken and then corridors of death as military robots, plague
bombs, and radiological weapons were used to war over them. The
destruction, in human terms was almost totalalmost.
9
granted.
Almost. The genocidal/suicidal global war destroyed almost everything. In its

wake were sterilized continents, genetic malfunctions, poisoned skies, scorched
forests, and landscapes crawling with tiny death machines. The end of war came
not from peacebut from annihilation.
The NOW: Welcome To The BoneYard. Have-Not.
What is left is a world confined to a few hundred miles of radius. Beyond that is
poison and chaos and nothing but noise on the ham-radios. What is left is a
world that has fallen almost completely apart. How exactly a group calling itself
The Hierarchy pulled itself out of the mireto take, and hold, the last city with
working power is just not known. But the city, known as The BoneYard has more
than powerit has the last working Distro-Pointand a high capacity one at that.
Now the 'Yard dominates the landscape. They have rivals: The Pharms to the
south (with massive Age of Wonder-tech chemical refineries and societies based
on drugs). There is the Kingdom of IZ to the east (with its miles and miles of
industrial complexes still running as its people die off). Just below the 'Yard is the
Church of the Congregationthe last remaining religion with its own storehouse
of secrets and small elite army.
But the BoneYard is pretty much ita smoking, burning, vomiting industrial
powerhouse that sits in hundreds of miles of mud and jungle and swamp so
toxicso aggressiveso deadly that were it not for the self-repairing
superhighways left by the Haves none would be able to reach it. The jury is still
out on whether the 'Yard will manage to rise above the decayor is simply
prolonging the lingering death of mankind. The bookies are still taking bets. The
ghosts in the Vegas Ruins are paying attention. What do you think?
10
granted.
The State of the World MThe Sagittarian

During the Age of War there
were multitudes of warriors and
Looking Down warlords, would-be messiahs
To the satellites, hung in the sky like ice-crystals waiting to drop, the worldthe and end-times prophets.
last habitable bit, anywaylooks like this: out in a desert on the western half of Amongst these, almost three
the North American land mass is a city. Its inhabitants, out of an irony so deep centuries later, one stands out.
that they dont even recognize it as such, call it the BoneYard. It is a vast, dark One is remembered.
metropolis with ruined skyscrapers and industrial engines running day and night.
Around that city is a two hundred and fifty mile toxic zone so poisoned that it He came from the east, traveling
churns with the ultra-violence of a mutant eco-system rabidly devouring itself westward towards the power-
and anything else it can catch. This zone of bubbling smoking pools and wrecked center that would become The
machines and poisoned predators is called the Inner Wasteland. There are BoneYard. He crossed the
superhighways that run through this madhouse of radioactive mudflats and alien deserts which, then, were
plague-ridden heavy-metal poisoned junglesuperhighways built by the Haves populated by death machines,
that repair themselves constantly so that even at the end of the world they look warring dying societies, and
clean and brand new. psychotic generals of the
apocalypse. He called himself
But the Inner Wasteland doesnt expand foreverwhen the poisons more or less the Sagittarian, although no one
run out, there is still desertthe land and sky were still scorched by the Age of knows what, exactly, his
War and the wastes of manbut beyond the Inner Wastelandfor another scant affiliation for that sign of the
250 miles in all directions, things can grow. And here heres life. Small towns, Zodiac implied.
ranches, dirt roads and conventional highways old craters, scattered ruins,
and people. All kinds of people. People given the forms of animals. People fused He never claimed to be a
with machines. People born with alterations of the brain and bodyand, of prophet. There is no record of
course, people who look just as they did a thousand years agobut people all him claiming to be a messiah but
the same. he was taken for one anyway
(and today, his believers can be
For another two hundred and fifty milesthis ring around the Inner Wastes executed for heresy by the
expandsand then the civilization that clings there begins to thinand then die Congregation in some places).
out altogether often violently. For this zone of habitability is called the Middle As he traveled, as he came from
Ringand beyond itfurther up the expanse of North America, past the ruin one war-zone to the next, he met
known as Denver in the north, down past the ruin of Tijuana in the south, is what with the leaderswith the insane
the survivors call the Outer Wasteland. Cyborgs, with the diseased
psychopaths, with the fighters of
This vast stretch of landthis lonely expanse goes on forever and ever (as far as a world war with no point save a
anyone knows). It isnt as utterly toxic as the Inner Waste, no, but there are other few more days of survival. He
reasons why human life has not taken hold there. That far from the BoneYard spoke with their leaders in
supplies are too thin, but also, that far into the unknown the world itself is too private and with the men in
dominant, too dangerous, and too strange. publichis vast personal
magnetism is a matter of historic
There are some people out therein the Outer Wasteand, if you make it far record. He cut a swath of peace
enough, there are two mysterious empires (each in decline, none matching the through the world.
magnificence of the Yardor even its feeble level of hope). In the Outer Waste
to the South are the Pharmsgreat ancient engines of chemical plantsdrug He convinced the men he spoke
creation complexes ruled by Overlords whose people are nearly living with, it is said, that he (and they
automatons, driven by the chemical desires they are fed. as they joined him) were part of a
grander plana plan that had
To the West, across the ruddy stretch of sand called the Red Desert, are the come about whenand because
Onion Empires (enclaves who live in the weird ruins of the desert and use the Haves had left. He told them
hydroponics to grow food) and further west, the kingdom of IZ, a huge network of that he did what he had to do
industrial machines all of which seem to be slowly running down. and they believed him.
And finally, theres the Church of the Congregation, the most politically powerful
entity save for the rulers of the Yard itself. Theyre sitting on the only open Have
artifacta space elevatora structure so impossibly tall it vanishes up into the
11
granted.
sky, reaching stable orbit. The Congregation believes (or says they believe) that
the Haves left because we were wicked. Their tracts, their influence, and their
power stretch throughout the Middle Ring, and even reach into the Yard where
MThe Sagittarian M
their Grand Cathedral, with psycho-active hypnotic two-story high moving The exact nature of his meetings
plasma-screen-stained-glass-windows, draws throngs of supplicants to its have never been disclosed.
evening services. Perhaps he had some mutation
that compelled men to believe
In a world where hope is on life support, people seem ever hungry to be told him and follow him (although
theyre badand how to atone for it. With each season, as life seems to get psionic jammers and telepathic
harder and harder and more and more dangerous the influence of the blockers were common at that
Congregation grows and spreads and feeds off the desolation and dread of time). Perhaps the men who
nightfall and death. formed his convoy and gave him
safe passage across the desert
were engaged in some deeper
Getting Closer (The Ring) game against each other with the
If youre alive and healthy this is probably where you start: life is rough, often Sagittarian as the fulcrum of their
cheap, and never taken for granted, but at least its usually sane here in the plots. Whatever the case, he
towns well, in some of them. The dry desolate landscape is buffeted by correctly assessed that the then
sandstorms and shaken once a season under the roar of the thunderheads when powerfulbut not definitively
they sweep through bringing rain, but the daily rhythms (most of them) are those dominant BoneYard would be the
of farm life or town life or the regular metallic beat of the mines. sole survivor of the Age of War.
When he arrived at their gates,
Here, in the Ring, people hide within their towns, waiting for the next convoy from he brought a message: "I hold
the Yard to come rumbling through with its escort of armored vehicles and the key to the eventualthe
compliment of guns. They guard their water (because its rare), they conserve finalsalvation of mankind. Meet
ammo, (because the world is dangerous), they buy fuel, (because the distances with me. Hear me speakand I
between towns can be far and the terrain is too dangerous for common people am satisfied." He had come with
on horseback), they stockpile medicine and rad-pills and anti-toxin (because the an armya personal cadre of
world is diseased and polluted and bombed). They have superstitions (but also hundreds of menwho at the
many have seen things you wouldnt believe). time could have threatened the
nascent Hierarchy of the Yard
And when the town ends? Even here, in the Ring, no ones quite sure what might itself. At the gates he disbanded
lie or lurk outside it. They live in the shadow of the shattered towers of the them, and entered, and
ruinsstill too dangerous to enter or to reclaim (too dangerous to pass by, if you vanished.
ask most folk). After the severe rain of the thunderheads, they are careful as to
what may have been uncovered. Many things better left untouched were buried History does not tell what
in the past age to be found in this one. happened thereafter. Many
believe he was executed for
making threats against the
Stories in the Ring Hierarchy. Some believe that he
Most of the stories of the people of the Middle Ring are the stories of those who left the city in private, in disguise
are born, lived, and died there. Usually all within 20 miles. They are stories of on some personal mission. Still
hard work and hard times. Sometimes they're stories about farming or mining, others believe that he was
the inexorable passage of the seasons, the rhythm of the ongoing excavation. preserved and exists today in
Sometimes they end in violence. These are simple stories about men and some vault or tomb. Whatever
women clinging to existence in a desolate world. the case, the Hierarchy is silent
(and when they are not silent,
But there are other stories in the Middle Ring about other kinds of people. they point out that while the
meeting happened, their records
If you have ambition, a sense of adventure, or curiosity, your path will eventually of it themselves are inaccurate
leave the townsand may take you back through the Inner Wasteland to the and incomplete).
BoneYard. This is the narrative that plays out again and again for the young, the
romantic, and the restless. It is, the old townsfolk say, the same story as that of But his legendand the legend
the moth that incinerates itself in the campfire: the Ring is a dangerous place to of his secret message remains
travel, but The Run, the pedal-down, guns-ready race through the Inner an enigma.
Wasteland is madness (some say differently, but thats not the conventional
wisdom), and if you do survive the Inner Waste, then you reach the Yard.
12
granted.
And then the Yard consumes you: its urban-nightmare predator-prey fire-lit/soot-
black maw devouring all those who come to it from such a humble place as the
towns. The Yard is 24-7 always-on high-speed cybernetic sink-or-swim
convoluted dog-eat-dog all-kinds-of-hungry. It might be humanitys last hope to
hang on to the world, the old folks say, but its just waiting to take a bite out of
you.
And theyre right. Mostly.
You see theres another narrative that gets told sometimes, usually by the young,
but also by some of the stranger folk, some of the travelers whove been a lot of
places and seen a lot of things. In that story things work out a little differently.
The Ruins, those people say, arent an object lesson in the folly of leaving the set
path. The Yard isnt a final, terminal destination that eats you whole. The Run
isnt madness. In that story, the quiet story that gets you laughed at if youre
young, or shunned and ostracized if youre old, the worlds just waiting, waiting
with its treasures and its glory and, yes, its wonders, for anyone with the brains
and skill and talent and toughness and, yes, even luck, to come and take it.
In that story, its a stranger world that you can imagine, and more dangerous than
you think, but its out thereand its glorious.
And maybe, just maybe, youve got what it takes to see it.
Welcome to Have-Not. Proceed With Caution.
13
Welcome to Have-Not: Approach Section

Hi there, thanks for downloading, and welcome to JAGS Have-Not. It's our third world book (or fourth if you count
the Fast Company adventure book) and we've been trying to do it better each time. Here we've got a world full of
mysteries, monsters, and loads of cool stuff. We've played around in it and we've had a great time visiting. We
hope you do too.
This what we're calling the Approach chapter. At first it didn't exist then we were gonna call it "How To Play
Have-Not" but that wasn't right either. So we've settled on "Approach." This chapter describes what we were
thinking and how you might want to approach a Have-Not game as a GM and as a player. Or you can skip it and
get straight to the juicy stuff. Whatever you do: Welcome to Have-Not. Please Drive Safely.
Heroic Science Fantasy Adventure

Have-Not evolved over a long time (over a yearand it draws on games we ran as far back as high school) so
even for us there's no "one" way to do it. However, we've bounced around some ideas for what we think might
make for a good gameand we're going to share them with you. These are things we've considered during the
creation of the rules, the world, and the playtest games we ran. Our current thinking is that JAGS Have-Not is a
world of heroic science fantasy adventure. Here's what we think that means:
Heroic Science Fantasy
Have-Not is heroic. In this context it There's a background for science for Have-Not is absurd. It's got a sort of a
means that the default assumption is some of this but, erm, here what we're sense of humor infused into the text
that the characters will grow in power really talking about is the props: it's not and we hope, into the world itself. Yes,
from relative nobodies to earth-shaking "magic" it's "mutation." Those "wands" there are some reasons for the
heroes who may very possibly crack are some sort of technical device. You absurditybut really, when you boil it
the secrets of the world and then, might ride horsesbut you might, just down, it's a romp (the whole Pacific
maybe, "save it." This is in opposition as easily ride a hover-bike. ocean is missing, for cryin' out loud).
to the assumption that the PC's are Maybe a black comedybut if you take
"normal Joes" in the world. it too seriously: it's at your own risk.
Dispensing With All This: Alternate Takes

The world we've presented "is what it is." You don't need to use all of it as we've presented it, but even if you did,
how you interpreted it could be way different than how we did. Here are some takes on Have-Not that we think
are not only valid but some of them go right along with the "standard" one, just be aware of some potentially
different focuses:
It's a Tragedy Mankind already lost: the universe is proven incomprehensible to anything recognizably human. The
eco-system has been destroyed and all that's left is a bleak future with no "ascension" save to reject
the central core of humanity. The Haves may have gone to the starsMan never will.
The Triumph of Humankind is down, but not out, and we have not yet begun to fight. Are they Haves coming back?
Humanity They better be ready for us. The world's going down? Not on my watch. Evil men have done bad
things, but most of us (through most of the Age of Wonders) were simply, and merely weak. Well, we
aren't weak any more. The world had better be ready for us. Bet its not.
A Question of The collapse of the Age of Wonders was The Fall in more than just an allegory. Now, in the bloody
Human Nature aftermath, it's time to choose sides: are you on the side of the angels? Or not. If this is the focus then
the true leanings of the power-brokers will be important as the PC's get strong enough to choose a
side and make their decisions count. And maybe there aren't any truly easy answers.
14
The Three Ethos' of Have-Not

Have-Not is part of the post-apocalypse genre: there was a world
it ended, you're in the rubble. But after refining it and playing This is Angry Bob The Man with the
around in it a bunch, we've come to the conclusion that it's not quite Industrial Dick! Coming to you loud and
that simpleor at least it doesn't have to be. There are three clear on W-A-R Radio. Rise and shine,
modes of Have-Not that in some places intersect and in some
places diverge. It's helpful, when reading about the game, to keep folks! Its a beautiful day. Just look at
these in mind. that skyits a work of art! Hunh! Nature
never knew colors like that! And a
Post-Apocalypse friendly reminder: If you look at itbe
In (what we think of) as the Post-Apocalypse genre you are in the
sure to wear your shades! The radiation
ruins. Society has fallen apart. There is no law, there is no counts waaay up and the heat wave aint
civilization (maybe tribesperhaps small townsbut pretty much expected to let up either. Weather Control
each area has to be self-sufficient to survive). While there are tells us itll probably hit one hundred and
outposts in the desert that are little machine-gun guarded enclaves, ten downtown before nightfall.
that's not the case for much of Have-Not as a whole. Sure, places
are lawlesssure, society did suffer a hell of a fallbut over all it's
not a complete collapse. Of course a trip across the countryside will As for the good news there is no
show burnt out husks of buildings near the roadsmassive broken fucking good news! So lets rock with
towers of ruins further back. Often the law is what you make it and one of our golden oldies!
trials are basically witch-hunts. There are nomads that move across --Future DJ Angry Bob giving the
the desert and lawmen who cruise the highways handing out what
justice they can. But alsothere is civilization and while it might be
morning report, Hardware
a weak flameit's one that needs to be tended. If you really want
to play this up, re-set the game in the late Age of War and play where there is no BoneYard and there are masses
of disease ridden hopeless refugees moving desperately across a blasted landscape that's being fought over by
the lasts of the warlords.
Cyberpunk
The Cyberpunk genre is often defined by themes of alienation in the face of technology, of a hopeless future, and
by the loss of essential humanity in the fusion of man and machine. While Have-Not certainly fits, the BoneYard
itself is the definitive Cyberpunk element in the world. There is civilization (at least after a fashion) in the 'Yard.
There are corporations, there's a computer-net, there are cyber-salons and hover-cars (at least in some places).
There's plenty of alienation and a whole lot of humanity got chucked in the name of survivalthese themes bleed
out of the 'Yard too: traveling executives with portable data-terminals might sweep through a town. A sick child
might be "cured" through the use of cybernetic infection and that might result in a different personality when the
kid wakes up.
If you want to focus on the Cyberpunk aspects, start the game in the BoneYardand try to survive in the seething
death-culture that exists there.
The Western
Finally, our experience and examination suggests that Have-Not carries a good deal of the tropes (and perhaps
the themes) of the Western. There's frontier all around you. There may well be men who fight for a cause without
wearing the colors of an army. There's rough (and necessary) justice. There's reciprocal violence of man-vs.-man
and often the people in power are the worst sortthe sort that can be counted on to abuse that power. Finally,
there's plenty of dust, lots of revolvers, and more than enough saloons to give it a western feel. Surea lot of the
traditional danger comes from the world itselfbut if you want to play the Western game, there's plenty of bad
men up at the 'Dry Gulch Power Farm' to keep the plot moving. And we think that also feels right at home in
Have-Not.
15
The Basic Game Structure

The basic game, as we see it, starts with the characters in a township
somewhere in the Middle Ring. They're (probably) talented, ambitious, New Combat Rules
and filled with a lust for adventure. They're not ready to take on the JAGS Have-Not comes out at the
BoneYard yet, and might not have any real interests there anyway, same time as the new combat
there're ruins to be explored, buried installations to be excavated, and rules (check the 1.5 file under
plenty of good old fashion man-vs.-man, man-vs.-nature, and man-vs- Basic Game). The reason we did
what-the-hell-is-that? battles to contend with. this was simple:
But eventually, all roads do lead to the BoneYard and once the PC's have We've been playing JAGS for a
made a name for themselves in the Ring, they can try their fates where while and we knew, even when we
the big decisions get made. It's a whole 'nother climb to the top (sure, put it up, that it wasn't perfect or
when the PC's roll into town, they've probably got a lot of armor and finished. Hell, the day we
weapons, but in the Yard no one can fight city hall and just winat least it published it we were making
hasn't happened yet.) changes to the Archetype rules
so we're committed to doing things
Finally, some end-game conditions come into play: can you manage to we see as improvements.
reverse the massive ecological damage? What really did happen to the
Haves and is it relevant? Will there be a war with the Pharms or the Have-Not uses a lot of autofire. A
Kingdom of IZ? Can the Hierarchy be challenged? The Banks? The Bitch lot of explosives. A lot of ultra-
Queen? Should they? sharp weapons and other stuff like
that. Armor and weapon balance is
And it's a wrap. The game doesn't have to endbut if some of the major very importantand very touchy in
questions that started driving the interest of the participants get resolved Have-Not. So we wanted to get it
then maybe it's time to try it all over again from a different perspective. all as close to "right" as we could.
But It Doesn't Have To Be That Way That meant using some new rules.
We found these rules either
But that's just a default assumption. It doesn't have to go that way. Maybe simpler (the autofire rules) or just
the characters all start out as students in the University. They attend plain "making more sense" (the
classes and are horrified at what goes on beyond the wallsuntil it Armor Save re-work). We hope
becomes relevant to them. Maybe they're interested in smaller challenges you'll agree.
than the heroic "saving the world" stuff. Maybe they want to get rich and
successful running a trucking outfitor making sure the medicine gets If you wanna use the old rules,
through to a stricken town is heroic enough. though, go right ahead. Drop us a
line and give us some feedback
How Do I Figure This Out? we'd love to hear it.
Optimally everyone playing says "hey, I like these factors" or "I'd like to
see the game kinda go like this." But even if everyone looks at the GM JAGS2 and Have-Not
and says "you figure it out," there are some things to keep in mind that'll
At the same time we've been
make this easier.
working on Have-Not we've been
1. The PC's can start small but still be important. In one playtest the
testing JAGS2a rules-liter version
characters were fulfilling a prophecy from long ago. In another, they
of JAGS. We've even done some
were all a bunch of young guys working for a wise, aging gunslinger
of the playtest of Have-Not with
with a good idea of what needed to be "set right" in the world. Both
JAGS2 and we like the results. If
were open for a lot of eventualities.
you find JAGS is a bit cumbersome
2. Start all the PC's with some relationship to each other and have the
for youor otherwise not suited to
players discuss what it isit could be anything: blood relations,
your preference, you might find
shared goals, a shared past neither knows they share with the
JAGS2 more to your liking. If you
otherany of these are good for cohesion that works well for team
like Have-Not and want to try
play and especially for the kind of heroic adventure of Have-Not.
something faster to pick up and
3. If we've done our job right there's a lot of exciting stuff to see and do
less picky about special cases, wait
around Have-Not. If the players are interested in checking this out, go
for JAGS2!
wild.
16
Choosing Game Focus

Have-Not is in the post-apocalypse genre and that means that the characters are tearing around a blasted fallen
landscape with (in this case) loud engines, wild mutations, and energy weapons. But getting a closer look what
does that mean?
Well, it means this: if you're going to run Have-Not or play in it, we suggest all the participants get together and
talk about elements of Game Focus. This means, in a general sense, what you'll all be expecting to be doing in
Have-Not. There are elements below that the players and GM alike should discuss and agree on before making
characters: if everyone else is playing a road-warrior on an armed bike and you bring in a 2-ton intelligent
elephant you're gonna get left in the dust. That's just one of the problems that might crop upso iron this out
before you start.
The Vehicles Game

We've got rules for vehicles and vehicle combat. It's honestly a bit complex (as we're writing it, we're trying to
simplify things) and it's not necessary. We think armed cars are super cool (and we have some cool pictures) but
other than a way to get around, the game doesn't have to focus on them.
More Vehicle Focus: The group has vehicles or Less Vehicle Focus: The PC's don't especially
there's one "team vehicle" and characters can have revolve around vehicular roles and if someone does
roles such as Mechanic, Driver, Gunner, etc. The have a vehicle it isn't how the whole group gets
group expects to be highly mobile and move around a around. Maybe you're at an outpost with a lot of stuff
lot. going onor prospecting in the mountains but you
all tend to ride horses or link up with convoys.
The Ammo, Fuel, Credits, and Water Game

In Have-Not everything is scarce (and life can be cheap). Water is a measured commodity. You conserve ammo.
You prize fuel when you can get it and steal it when you can't. Credits are jealously guarded. It's all about that big
scoreit's about staying alive but also managing your stuff right. Maybe you're all a private enterprise trying to
turn a profit. Maybe your base of operations is pretty safebut your range for exploration is limited by material.
Whatever the case, you count credits, measure water, and watch the fuel gauge carefully. Or maybe you don't.
Maybe the game is all about adventure and action and while you probably measure something (how many
grenades you havehow far out into the real Wasteland you can go on a full tank) you aren't that concerned
about getting it right.
More Resource Focus: Make sure the players all Less Resource Focus: Just track really rare things
know this is going on. The GM has to do work to make (grenades, Stim-sub-derms, SHOK ammunition, etc.).
sure the economy is kept at a proper keel (a big score Money's still probably importantbut day-by-day burn-
too early will take a lot of the fun of "making it" out of rate isn't such a big deal. Assume you have enough
the game). Travel time and distance is important. This water unless you decide to walk across the desert.
is hard to do but can be very rewarding if everyone's Stuff like that. You might get hit with a cash shortage
into it. We've done some work to help ensure the rules to cover major repairs, but for the most part the focus
will support at least some form of this. How exact you is elsewhere. This was, for the most part, how we
get, though, will depend on how much work everyone's played for fun (vs. testing the economy stuff).
up to.
Dizzy: Nuke Yorks only 3 days away.

Stretch and Zip: Gonna take us six days. We only got half a car left.
--Rock and Rule (1983)
17
The Exploration Game (vs. the Mysteries)

There are mysteries in Have-Not. There's a planet in the intensive-care ward that might not make it. There are
ruins and ancient installations and buried warlord's citadels and all kinds of great stuff like that to go poking
around in. What are you waiting for? Well, we think it's a good idea if before starting you all find out how
interested everyone is in discovering what happened to the Haves, where the Pacific Ocean went, etc. A game
could revolve around raiding ruins and singing drinking songs in the town tavern. It could involve political climbing
in the BoneYard. It could end with a Dome openingor it might never get to one. What do you want as a long
term goal? Or is it up to the GM and you want to be surprised? Everyone should have some input.
More Meta-Plot Focus: The PC's expect answers Less Meta-Plot Focus: You might find out what
eventually and want to move in that direction. This happened to the Haves but who cares if you don't. It's
doesnt mean it all gets figured out in the first three about exploration. It's about riding around in the
sessions (or maybe well, you decide)but it does badlands and bringing justice to the lawless or maybe
mean that's where it's going. A Meta-Plot Focused lawlessness to the civilized areaswhatever.
game will quite possibly start in the Ring, lead to the
Yard, and then up through the ranks until the You aren't trying to save the human racesomeone
characters are major players. We have some notes for else is doing that. You're just trying to save yourself.
that in the Revelations book. Check 'em out if you're
GMing.
Hazards
The world of Have-Not is poisoned. There's
radiation in the air and poison in the water and Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
plague in the forests. If the monsters don't get
humanitythe ecological damage just might. How Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
this is represented in the game can be important Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
and should be discussed prior to play so that Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
everyone knows what to expect. Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no
Hazards as Color fear cavalier.
Yes, the world is trashed. We know. Now let's have Renegade steer clear!
some fun. In this mode there are places you don't A tournament, tournament, a tournament of lies.
wanna go, and you're always gonna be popping Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.
some Rad pills, but for the most part the disease
and decay and facial cancers are just part of the
scenery. As color you still don't wanna go hang out It's the end of the world as we know it.
in Vegas (it was Neutron bombed so bad it's still It's the end of the world as we know it.
toxic) and you should carry your toxin-meter It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
because, well, you never know. But it isn't a
constant and persistent problem for the characters.
We played in this mode most of the time we play-
--It's The End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel
tested. It's mostly trouble free and even "dialed Fine), REM
down all the way" there's still plenty of danger from
hazards that are emplaced specifically to be
problems.
Hazards as Barriers
Don't go down Main Street in the LA ruinsyou'll die of the viral hyper-encephalitis that they hosed the place
down with a hundred years ago. Don't try to hike across the Inner Wasteland and if you wanna go road-tripping
look out for those craters. In this mode, the GM is carefully circumscribing where you can go. There are a lotta
ruins that look good from a distance or even real close. But once you get there ack, gasp! rttle In this
mode Hazards are a "don't go here" symbol. We're not sure what the value of this is specifically, but we wanted to
bring it up because it was batted around a lot during playtest.
18
Hazards as Focus
If you're playing a "save the ecology" game or just want a really harsh reality the GM will play Hazards to the hilt.
Everything is poison and if you've got a room in the 'Yard you might get cancer from the local night club next door.
In this mode the PC's will be decked out with bio-suits and medicines and they'll need 'em. Clean water is hard to
find on the roadso make sure your stocks are checked and track your usage. We don't recommend you do
this lightly: trying to survive in a world that's fallen apart is bad enough without the air trying to kill you too.
Encounter Tables
We've given you some "roll the dice" and figure out what you run into encounter tables. These have a very
specific use in the game:
If the participants are okay with the use of random-encounters to either "simulate" the world or "because it's
cool," or for whatever other reason, then go ahead and use them. They are provided for that purpose only. If the
participants wish to play in a more thematic game where those rules are not in effect, then you needn't use them
at all. Stated again: these are purely optional to the group as a whole.
In some modes of play every encounter is up to the GM to arrange. In other modes of play the players might
take turns rolling, enjoying the sense of gambling. In some cases the GM might roll the dice behind a screen and
maybe omit rolls he doesn't like. These are decisions for your group to make amongst yourselveswe included
them because we found them fun.
In our mode of the play it's probably, commonly, up to the GM as to what's specifically out in a given areaif the
decision wasn't already made prior to the start of play, I'd very likely roll out in the open. Your Mileage May
Vary. Welcome to Have-Not.
Treasure
Roleplaying is probably the only chance most of us will ever get to find treasure. A lotta people find it an
undeniably cool part of play and we've got tons of it here. From stuff you can pretty much buy (but you gotta have
serious money!) to things you gotta dig up and unearth all kinds of cool post-app and hyper-tech goodies. How
that gets managed bears some discussion. Let's talk about Gear.
The McGuffin
When I looked at the Artifacts file I got from Eric I went "I can't introduce this stuff into a game as normal geara
heart that beats like a nuclear weapon!?" I called up our chief editor and asked him about it. "It's a serious
McGuffin," he told me. And I think he was right. There's a buncha stuff in the Artifacts book that represents the
outer-edge of PC-power in the game-world. If a person has all off it (the Goliath Battle Suit, the Californium Rifle,
the Abnegated Heart, etc. they're beyond the scale of most things in the world period). And that's okay. Some
of that stuff is there because it's cool. Some of it's there as an adventure seed. Some of it anyway. Okay,
because the guy who did it has a weird sense of what should go into a book like this, but we decided to leave it.
Anyway. If you're deciding what's in the game (traditionally this means youre the GM, but we're not gonna stand
on tradition) be aware that some of that stuff just plain isn't meant to introduced into a game without seriously
warping the campaign around it.
I know what love is: a boy loves his dog.
--Solo Vic, A Boy and His Dog (1975)
[Said after feeding his girlfriend to his telepathic dog
Blood, to save Bloods life.]
19
Copyright Marco Chacon, Permission to copy for
personal use is granted.
Things are going to slide,

Life In the Middle Ring Slide in all directions
The Middle Ring is, more or less, "what's left." It's a zone about Wont be nothing
250 miles across that extends outward from the Inner Nothing you can measure
Wasteland. To the west that puts a lot of it in the Pacific Desert Anymore
(which isn't habitable) but the rest of it is a place where people The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
can live sort of. Out beyond it are a couple of near-
legendary distant empires, some desert enclaves, and
Has crossed the threshold
nothing. Nothing civilized at least. There are toxins in the And it has overturned
Middle Ring and radioactive craters too, and monsters and The order of the soul
bandits and armed militias and all sorts of things like that. But When they said, they said REPENT
when you get far enough out from the BoneYard's supply of REPENT
ammo, weapons, and medicine, you start getting into truly wild
territoryterritory that civilization can't survive in. That's called
I wonder what they meant
the Outer Wastelandand it's another topic. -- The Future, Leonard Cohen
What's it Like?
The Middle Ring is highly varied. From the desert outposts
with their sandbags and minefields and anti-vehicle wire to
the aristocratic villas of the Garbage Mines, it couldn't be
more diverse or more different from place to place. Most
people have never left their village much less gone half way
"around the clock"and the whole place hasn't even been
explored. There are ruins smack in the middle that people
don't enter. There are ridges and valleys that are far enough
off the major roads that people don't venture there. Once you
leave your town, you're in an area that isn't as relentlessly
and environmentally hostile as the Inner Wasteland, or as
untamed as the Outer Wasteland, but is still very mysterious
and dangerous. If we were to make some generalizations, we
would say The Middle Ring is:
Dry. Some of it's for-real desert. A lot of it is just dry. There

are areas of forest (up north, especially) but water (and more
importantly, clean water) is hard to come by for a lot of
people. There are dust storms and sagebrush and cacti (both
of the really dangerous mutant variety and the more usually
type).
Hard. Living in the Middle Ring means, for most people,

having to do without. Outdoor plumbing is a givenbut
medicine isn't so easy to get hold of (the traveling medicine
show still works because of this) and manual laborhard
manual laboris part of the equation whether you're digging
for artifacts in an ancient land-fill or planting crops or moving
the fuel cells around a power farm.
Poor. Chances are, if you're in the Middle Ring, you're a

nobody. You're a migrant dirt farmer or a garbage miner or you work with the Hammerhead herds. In town there
are a few clerical jobs to be had (behind the counter at the bank, the general store, or the saloon), but mostly it's
manual labor or nothing. The best jobs are the ones that'll put a gun in your hand.
20
Violent. Not all the time, but when it

comes it really comes and the threat
hangs over the place like a dull heat.
A lot of people get by in this hard,
poor land by robbing (the common
terms are 'Raiders' or 'Bandits'). And
a lot more get into debt or a bad
argument in a bar, or just lose it one
day, and then take it on the road,
running until justice (or what passes
for it in the Middle Ring) catches up
with them. A lot of regular people are
usually caught in between. They're
just trying to get by, hoping to find
cover when the storms come.
Indebted. A lota lotof what's out

in the Ring holds a very real
monetary debt to one of the banks in
the 'Yard. Township's incorporation
papers (which means a convoy of
goods, ammo, fuel, and medicine will
come your way) are granted by the
bank. The bank gets to assign posts
of city government, and the town has
to pay on its loan or else. Often
"or else" means a dispatch from the
bank shows up and the town council
pays up. Sometimes it means the
guy who was in charge gets taken
back to the Yard for some
"discussion" and someone else
winds up running the place. A few,
very, very rare times it means
making an example of a township
and black smoke and scorched earth
is all that's left. Trouble is: you can
never really tell which category your
town will fall into. Very few towns are
free holds (meaning they've paid off
their papers) and if they are, they're usually very picky about who they let in.
Suspicious. Travelers are fairly few in the Ring. Some people get around a little but most people don't get
around a lot. That means if you come rolling into town you might get some traditional hospitality, but also a good
healthy dose of getting-to-know-you suspicion and if bad things are afoot you might be executed by some of
that ingrained superstition.
Hot. The Middle Ring is desert. That means rainfall of less then 1" (1.5 cm) per year and temperatures average
between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, getting as hot as 50 degrees and as cold as 18. With the disappearance of
the Pacific Ocean, this land would be completely arid without violent storms that come through in the summer
months and dump most of the rainfall that does occur. These storms come from the north and are terrifying, if
necessary.
Living in a vast desert means you're always thirsty (not enough to drink), always grimy (not enough water to
wash with) always covered with a thin coating of fine road dust (because it gets everywhere) and always in a bad
mood (because you live in a desert where you're always thirsty, dirty, and covered with dust...)
21
Dusty and Rocky. As far as they eye can see, as they say. The terrain is vast and hilly. It can look deceptively
flat all the way out to the horizon, and then as you approach you notice that the ground is shattered, opened up
and broken into deep fissures that weren't visible before you go there. And those little ridges you saw from miles
away turn out to be labyrinthine foothills with sheer cliff faces 20 meters high and small, dark cave networks. The
desert can play tricks on you. On one hand, you can see for miles and miles and miles... and on the other, it's
frighteningly easy to go out into the deep wasteland, get lost, and never be heard from again.
Smells like Ash and Death. The wasteland has a scent to it. You won't notice it most of the time. For people
who have grown up there, they never notice it. But the entire terrain smells a little like burnt rubber. A little like
tiny raindrops of mercury. A little like ash and smoke. The wide-open spaces of the Middle Ring are faintly and
indelibly tainted by what happened here centuries ago, and they say that the Earth has stopped renewing
herself. Whether that's true or not is hard to tell; it's unquestionably true that the scent of death remains.
Traditional. For the people who've grown up there, coming out of two-and-a-half centuries of war, still having to
put up with refugees (who can often come bearing the gift of plague), and living in a world where so much isnt
understood by the scientists The Ring breeds a certain tendency to follow one's traditions. Many places are
sexist (women are expected to tend shop, maybe teach kids, and keep out of civil government)but many are
not (some places need every pair of hands firing a gun and the more accurate those hands are, the better). But
most places that have any history guard it jealously.
Superstitious. Of course while tradition may mean remembering and honoring where you've come from (even if
that means having bad ideas about how much someone can contribute to society), superstition is the dark side.
Mass hysteria, illogical beliefs, and dangerous memes make places in the Middle Ring unusually, and
sometimes, incomprehensibly dangerous. There's a town out in the desert with a big dish-antenna array. They
think their broadcasts keep the sun rising each day. There are also dark reports of burnings, lynching, and other
such executions for reasons that often have no basis whatsoever in provable fact.
Desolate. A lot of the Middle Ring is just empty. You can hear the wind whistle across the plains. And engines
sound lonely and far away. There's distance out there. Distance between towns. Distance between outposts.
Distance to from the Yard. When you're in town, it feels comfortable and close. But walk to the end of Main
Street and look out in any direction, and you can see nothing all the way to the horizon. That makes you feel
small.
People don't like to look out into the badlands. Instead, they huddle together around the things that give life: the
wells, the fires, the strong men who promise to protect them. They come together for company because if you
face the nothing, you see how very far away you are.
And you can see that loneliness in some folk's eyes. Look into the face of a prospector or a merchantsomeone
who spends a lot of time Out There and you'll see a certain reserve. A reticence. These are people who spend a
lot of time in the empty. A lot of time face to face with the fact that, very likely, they will die out there, alone.
In the day, it's bad enough, but at night it gets even worse.
Dark at Night. They say there used to be more stars. They say the moon used to light up the whole desert with
clear, crystal, brilliant light. They say that the world has gone dim, and that today, the world is darker than it used
to be. Maybe that's because there's a haze in the upper atmosphere that keeps the dim, distant glow of the
universe from getting in. Maybe that's because the stories about the past always make it sound grander and
more illustrious than it really was. It can't be that the universe is already dying can it? It can't be that the lights
really are going out...
Night, in the desert, is cold, lonely, and very, very dark.
22
Weather in the Middle Ring

There's two kinds of weather in the Middle Ring: No Weather and Bad Weather. No Weather means hot and
clear, with a slight breeze, maybe. Bad Weather means trouble.
Dust Storms
Your basic dust storm is blinding and irritating, but not overly dangerous. High winds and clouds of dust make
targeting at a base -2, and quarter all ranges (so a rifle with a 100 yard range drops to -1 / 25 yards). Dust
storms can also damage equipment that's not prepared for it, cause weapons to jam, and generally degrade the
performance of all machines involved.
Traveling in a dust storm is particularly hazardous. Going short distances causes a tactical hazard (add an
additional -2 to any driving rolls you have to make) and going long distances greatly increases your chances of
getting lost.
Dust storms usually last about 1 hour, but can be much shorter or longer (double the duration for every point of
roll above 13; half duration for every point of roll below 7).
Toxic Dust Storms

Near the Inner Wasteland, storms that come from the interior can be a bit more of a problem. When the winds
carry the toxins of the Inner Wasteland with them the storms become poisonous. People who live on the border
(and telling exactly where the border is can be far more of an art than a science) carry protective gear with them
(at least a scarf to cover one's face with). Visitors can be caught unawares.
A typical Toxic Dust Storm acts as a Power 12 toxic hazard that does 6 Base Damage. Effects may be felt
immediately or after a few hours. Some are far more dangerous, however (and the average one could decimate
a whole town without too much difficulty).
Staying indoors or in a mostly covered vehicle gives +2 to CON rolls.
A sealed vehicle is immunemost vehicles give a +3.
A gas mask will usually prevent any damage. A filter mask gives +4 to CON rolls.
A common anti-toxin will give +3 to CON rolls (inoculate the animals)you usually have to have a
couple hours notice.
The Thunderheads
Dust storms are wind. The thunderheads come in the High Summer. The world gets hot, and the ground bakes
and the last bits of green shrivel and die, and then the air gets quiet and still as it waits for the Thunderheads.
When they come, they come fast. They roll out of the North and the West. They come down like the wrath of
God. They turn like great hurricanes, howling over the landscape, sending down vast funnel clouds that can, if
you're very unlucky, make you disappear from the face of the earth.
The Thunderheads are rain storms. They dump 12 to 30 inches of rain on small areas, and lash the plains of the
shelf and the Inner Ring with brutally powerful winds. They pass in days (or weeks), and then they're gone.
In their wake, the land is reconfigured. Things that were visible have been buried (or blown away, or drawn up
into the sky). Things that were long buried have been uncoveredthe desert gives up her bounty. For weeks
after the storms come through, the ground is wet in places that have been blessed with water. Reservoirs are
filled. Dry streambeds flow. For a clock-tick, the desert blooms, and then the calm eternity of the Middle Ring
settles back again.
23
Aurora Season
Whatever they did during the Age of War, they damaged not only the earthbut the sky as well. Aurora Season
comes sometimes in the hottest months of summer and sometimes in the dark of mid-winter. It's unpredictable
and considered a time of bad omens. During this time the night sky is alight with aurora borealis and radios and
telecommunication is choppy and of limited range. The communications network that holds the Middle Ring
together goes in and out and sometimes for a few days a town can "disappear off the network entirely.
What Goes On in the Middle Ring?

What happens in the Middle Ring is what has always
happened on the frontier: people try to survive, to build
themselves up, and to provide a better standard of existence
to the next generation. In this case, in a lot of places, that
ain't saying much. Here are some of the types of places you
might find in the Middle Ring.
Fortress Towns
At most of the major exits from the Inner Wasteland, and
several of the places where a caravan of travelers from one
of the outer empires might come in, you get a Fortress.
They're usually crewed with some heavy weapons teams
courtesy of the BoneYard and they often have perimeters
with mine fields (smart mines they can turn off), towers with
rocket launchers, and they run patrols within a certain
perimeter. Make the wrong kind of trouble within striking
distance of a Fortress and they will come out after you.
Frontier justice is usually served at hyper-velocities and the
"trial" consists of hauling your body back.
Factory Towns
Every town needs a mechanic and every mechanic needs
spare parts. The Middle Ring buys a lot from the Yard, and
when sprockets and 12-gague pipe just shows up at the distro-point, the price is hard to beat. Still, when you add
shipping costs and uncertainty, there's a narrow profit to be made making and selling manufactured goods. And
so there are factories. A lot of what gets made are parts for vehicles and weapons. Gas engines, radios, and
rubber goods are also common. Factories tend to be ancient, gothic places with huge assembly lines and great,
cathedral-like roofs with catwalks and moving platforms. These things eat up raw materials (coal to drive the
great engines, metal ore to be smelted down and re-formed). They operate on volume, and so it's always faster!
Work harder! It's never enough!
Water Towns
All towns have enough good water to drink, usually from wells (the 'big guys' have their own private wells, and
then everyone else has communal wells they draw their daily water from before sunrise). Some towns have a
surplus of water and they export, usually to outposts, encampments, and other places that don't have adequate
sources of ground water. A few even have particularly famous springs and can export valuable, crystal clear
water to the Bone Yard.
Oil Towns
The American Southwest didn't use to be a primary source of fossil fuels, but maybe there were a lot more...
fossils after the Age of War. Or maybe standards have just gone way down. Either way, gas is a nice big
export. Even a single oil well is enough to keep a few thousand people happily employed (this includes the
24
refinery and bottlers and so-on... it's not just about getting crude out of the ground). Gas and gas generators are
valuable commodities in the Middle Ring.
The gas pump, itself, is usually a frighteningly Victorian piece of machinery with gears and pipes and tubes. They
aren't mass-produced (there's not enough of them), so there's always an engineer who designed and built the
damned thing (or maybe his father built it, or his master, whom he apprenticed under...) The engineer keeps the
well working and pumping sort of a court magician, who guards his secrets from his employer...
Gas Towns are "rich" by Middle Ring standards. Once the pump and the refinery and everything are set up and
paid for (and a lot of this happened decades ago, in the Age of War), the profit margin is high. This means
there's money for decent roads, mercenary barracks, and so forth. The big banks and other Hierarchy interests
tend to have their branch offices in Gas Towns.
Coal Towns
Another fossil fuel. Gas is pumped; coal is mined. Mining could be done by robots (theoretically), but it never is.
It's done by people who go down into the earth, and plunder its riches until the mine runs out. Coal mining and
processing is labor intensive work, and the profit margins are low. This means a lot of poor people working.
These towns tend to be rowdy and dismal with lots of guards and guns to keep everyone in line. And coal mining
is dirty business. Metal ore (used in manufacturing) is also valuable (although less so than coal). In most cases,
it's not profitable to mine metal ore unless you're also mining coal...
The Garbage Mines

Coal, oil, and water, aren't the only things you can pull out of the
ground. In the Age of Wonders, consumer goods were
produced, sold, used, and discarded by the billions. All that
garbage had to go somewhere, and instead of smokelessly
incinerating it or creating microorganisms that could break it
down into carbon dioxide and sodium chloride, the Haves just
buried it.
There are massive veins of garbage deep under the surface.

There are great, covered chasms full of gigatons of empty cases
and gum wrappers, and all kinds of other things that just haven't
degraded. In its day, it was trash. Today, it's mostly still trash.
But every once in awhile... and so they mine.
Garbage Mines send their steel columns deep into the earth and
churn up great mountains of trash that flow like a waterfall into
deep trenches. The 'miners' pan the flow search through it,
looking for nuggets of value (something that was thrown away
unused... something that was re-usable).
The most common thing to find are spent batteries little ones
(about the size of a dime) that powered the tiny electronics that
were woven into everyone's clothes, or sat behind the labels on
the stuff in the store. These batteries are re-chargeable, so if it's
worth your while and you have enough of them (volume! Volume! Volume!), you can make money at a garbage
mine. And of course, everyone dreams of finding a working smart gun and retiring.
Most garbage mines work on a profit sharing model the miners pay the owner a fee to mine (closer to the
source, you pay more), and the owner buys the finds from the miners at a steep discount (called 'Right of First
Bid' in Middle Ring legal terms). For batteries and micro-antenna, and all the other 'common things' this is just a
simple transaction held at the end of each day or week (called "cashing out"), but for more exotic goods the
assessor is brought in. Assessors are men in tweed suits with utterly un-charming accountant-like features. They
are "experts" in history and science (uh-huh) and can recognize and tell the value of unusual goods. Since their
salaries are paid for by the mine owner, the most common words out of their mouths tend to be, "It's broken. It's
25
worthless. I'll give you a quarter credit for it." Assessors are hated by the garbage miners, who always imagine
that their 'worthless' find is really a shining artifact of the past.
Power Farms
A lot of towns farm vegetables. A few farm enough to export to other places that aren't so fertile, or even the
BoneYard. But the Age of Wonders left us with a Tesla-Grid: a world-wide network of invisible beamed power
that, mostly, stopped. But mostly is the key. In some places people, built PowerMills that can suck energy out of
the ghost of the old grid and fill batteries. These places have a whole field of things that look like a cross
between giant light bulbs, fifteen-foot tall vacuum tubes, and metallic spindly windmills. Even the BoneYard,
which has quite a lot of working power, still exports drained power cells to some of these places: if they sit on a
good grid-line, they can charge them up "for free."
Good Land
Most of the land is waste land: not good for anything. Land that can be used is good land and it breaks down into
farming land and grazing land; (usually both). Good Land is land that has decent ground water, actual soil, and
isn't toxic. In rare, beautiful places like that, grass grows. You can plant tubers (potatoes), wheat, maybe even
corn. You can also raise animals, herds of Hammerhead cattle for instance, or more interesting delicacies like
Rock Lobster. Farming is cyclical and tends to be migrant work. Herding is more of a full-time job, but there are
fewer jobs for cowboys than there are for farmers.
Subsistence farming is a little different. Here and there are patches of good land large enough to support a single
family or small group. In this case, there won't be a town as such (not enough produce for export), but if you've
gotta live in the desert, having a little postage stamp of greenery is a blessing...
Dinosaur Ranches
Okay, we're cheating: there are a lot of places that ranch things less sexy than dinosaurs, but if you've ever seen
one, with Brontosauruses grazing in the artificial wet-lands (they're killed with specially engineered viruses),
you'll never wonder why they get their own heading. Most ranches have nothing more exotic than Hammerhead
Cattle, which, when you think about it, is pretty exotic.
Ranch towns are characterized by Range Riders, probably the strongest archetype in the Ring. Out on horses
(or other, more exotic, riding beasts) the Range Rider is part cowboy, part gunslinger, part survivalist, and part
monster-hunter. They're also the posse for whatever master they serve.
What's In Your Average Town?

All a town really needs is its natural resources, apartments or dormitories for the workers, barracks for the
security forces, and a great house, up on the hill, where the landlord can look down on his domain... ah, but it's
never that simple is it? There need to be trucks and caravans to bring raw materials in and ship product out.
There need to be roads for those trucks and mechanics to fix them when they break. And an inn for travelers to
spend the night in. And a saloon for visitors (and the locals) to enjoy themselves. And then there's a general
store because people need to buy food and clothes...
And suddenly you've got a real town, clinging to the earth the way a plant in some hostile terrain might: its
shallow roots holding it in place against the strong winds. Here are some things you'll find there:
Auto Shop The town mechanic, his apprentice, and maybe a couple of helpers. A big town might have
two or even more mechanics, but usually only one shop (competition would hurt everyone).
General Store You can buy clothes, tools, necessities, and even common weapons here (hunting
rifles, hand guns). The general store is usually where the married women meet as they go about their
errands.
The Well The well is near the center of town, and drawing water from it is a chore for young women
and teenage children. Before dawn, it's the center of cultural life. During the day, it's deserted. Anyone
unknown hanging out by the well is treated as very suspicious. In some cases its guarded. Be careful of
26
these places: they usually fear conspirators that will poison it. In some cases that's justified. In others
check out the section on superstition.
The Saloon, the Tavern, and the Cat House -The first two of these are in the center of town and cater to
visitors truck drivers, merchants, traveling salesmen, and the like. The ones near the edge of town
(down by the factory) cater to the locals and are much cheaper, much dirtier, and way more wild.
The Undertaker It's the whole circle of life thing. Sad, but necessary.
The Pharmacist Most towns aren't lucky enough to have their own doctor. They probably do have a
pharmacist (some only have a bartender). If you need medicine, that's where you go. Pharmacists are
also good at splinting broken limbs and stopping the bleeding. Most charge a nominal fee to locals.
These are the local businesses. There are usually a few branch offices in big towns as well.
The Bank A small town will have its own bank. A big town will have a branch office of one of the real
banks. These places are walled up (like little fortresses), have their own security, and usually drive
commerce. They also broker bounties and rewards (so if you're looking for work, you might visit the
branch office and see who's wanted this week).
The Union That's the Teamster's Union. The Trucker's Guild. The supply chain is held together by
people willing to drive big, valuable targets through god-forsaken wilderness from one little town
to another. They're expensive, bad-tempered, no-nonsense, and absolutely necessary. The
Teamsters, their shotgun security details, and executives are considered cool. They're all about
business and all about danger. The Union is also usually the only place in town to buy gas.
The Chapel Been bad lately? Need to atone? The Chapel oversees the spiritual life of the town. For
people who buy into it, it's a source of community and a drain on money. For those who don't, it's a
source of annoyance. Either way, the Congregation is there.
Finally, there are a few local services most towns have as well.
The Tower The Radio Tower, in this case. The dusty wasteland of the Middle Ring, does not have an
Internet. Instead it has a wireless network of radio stationstransmitters and receiversthat connect
the tiny dots of civilization together. Most towns have a tower that broadcasts on a couple of frequencies
and serves a few purposes
o Checking in: It's considered good manners to call ahead and let them know you're coming. Most
towns' radio office is manned 24/7 and calling ahead will avoid a chilly reception (or worse).
o Checking out: Towns don't generally care when you leave but if you call out, they'll dutifully
make a record of it. This can be useful when you're broken down in the wasteland and you're
hoping for a rescue.
o Registration: You can sign up for a callsign at any place on the network. Call sign information is
one of the few data transmissions that the towers deal with. Once you've registered the radio
operator can look you up on a dim green screen that'll tell things like when you registered, what
kind of car you drive, and if you're wanted or not. Note that your car probably has an automatic-
VIN transmitter that registration can associate with you, your bank account, etc.
o Warning Notice: When things get bad, the Tower transmits a warning notice. This can be a bio-
quarantine, a warning about raiders in the area, or any other hazard that folks in town might
need to know about.
o Log/Lat: The Towers serve as navigation beacons that endlessly broadcast their location and
identity at low power. This can be helpful if you're lost.
The Sheriff's Office Towns have sheriffs and deputies and jails. Big towns have courthouses and small
towns send their criminals there for sentencing. Most places do not have prisons. Sentences tend to be
things they do to you and then let you go. Or things they do to you and then bury you.
Watch Tower Stereotypically an old water-tower. In some cases they just build a hut on stilts. Either
way, the watch looks out on the main roads and maybe even a few back-roads. They've got an alarm
and a .30-caliber machine gun up there. If you don't call in when they contact you, the town militia
(whatever it consists of) will be waiting.
A Road Sign It's not a service per-se, but townships take it very seriously. Usually a sign, and often
one of those metallic green and white reflective highway signs on a metal joist, will be a sign that there's
a town a few miles up the road.
27
Rules in the Middle Ring

Travel isn't usually all that dangerous if you have an armed vehicle (unlike the Inner Wasteland). While there are
things that'll attack an armored convoy, they're considered horrifying aberrations rather than 'yeah, we expected
that.' That still doesn't mean a traveler in the Ring can let their guard down.
Mostly, if youre driving, you're the only car on the road (until you get to some place where something big is
happening then there's a traffic jam of armed vehicles!). If you're going from town to town, here's an encounter
table. Roll once for any tripbut roll again for each 3 hours of travel.
The positive modifiers are location based.

Driving near either edge is +2 usually. However make another roll: on a 15+, it's a bad time to be near
that edge and roll 1 dice and add 1 for the positive modifier.
Driving near a ruin is +1 to +5.
Driving in the Freq Corridor is +5. Near the outer edge of the Freq Corridor is +7: but the highest you get
is a bunch of Freqs (21 is the max).
Bandit activity will give a +1 to +4 but the usually maximum is 19 (although more sophisticated bandit
outfits do exist).
Encounter Roll
Roll Danger
0-16 Not dangerous to mounted characters
17 Harass a car
18 Something that could take on a car ("serious")
19 Something that could harass a light convoy
20 Something that could take on a light convoy
21 Something that could harass a heavy convoy
22-26 Something that could take on a heavy convoy
27 Something that could harass the Bone Yard
28
granted.
Why? The ecology of

Life in the Inner Wasteland Wonders
Was the Age of Wonders called
Rudy's on the midway that because the predominant
and Jacob's in the hole emotion was awe? No. The
predominant emotion might have
the monkey's on the ladder been greed or It might have been
the devil shovels coal envy but it wasn't awe. The Age of
with crows as big as airplanes Wonders was so full of miracles
nobody cared anymore. It's called
the lion has three heads the Age of Wonders because that's
and someone will eat the skin that he sheds what it was an Age of Wonders.
and the earth died screaming
The Wonders where what the
the earth died screaming Haves gave to us. They,
while I lay dreaming of you themselves, used technologies as
-- Earth Died Screaming, Tom Waits far beyond the Wonders as the
Wonders were beyond our
understanding of conventional
technology.
Each dome, it is said, held a stable

fusion reaction. Not for power, for
they simply sucked power out of
void itselfbut because the idea of
a captive star pleased them in an
artistic sense.
It is said that their very

communication itself risked havoc
with the laws of time and causality,
and that that they didn't care. But
whatever the case was for them
what they gave us was toys to play
with.
Raw materials came out of the

Distro-Points (as well as complete
goods and foodstuffs). The great
bulk of material that came out had
to be processed. The processing
took place in vast above ground
and underground robotic factories,
assembly plants, and refineries.
The wonder metal Neonium was

milled. Spools of Superconductor
were pressed into sub-micron
circuitry boards. Kinetic inducers
were fitted with nuclear-bonding
processes to the devices they
would act as hover pods for. This
was done by robot, but it was
managed by man. Perhaps the
Haves simply gave us something to
do.
29
granted.
Between the BoneYard and the Middle Ring lies the Inner Wasteland. It's a
roughly (very roughly) circular area about five hundred miles in diameter. Why? The ecology of
The Inner Wasteland isn't just a poisoned desert (it is that, too) it's the stain
on the world that's the price the Bone Yard makes everyone else pay to
Wonders ConT'D
And we didwe did in excess of
keep the tiny, dull flame of the Age of Wonders from going out entirely.
what the initial plans had called for.
Did the Distro Points fail? No.
Welcome to the Wasteland. It... They did worse: They were a

never-empty cornucopia of
Stinks. The air smells like heavy oil, burnt rubber, and strange material, consumer goods, and
indescribable chemicals. It smells bad, and your body knows it's no place food. In the Age of Wonders,
for a living creature. Some people vomit when they first smell it up close. humanity pushed as hard as it
No one ever forgets it. could and the Distro-Points (and
their Have creators) simply gave.
Seethes. Empty? Devoid of life? No. Devoid of natural life, but the Inner But there was a consequence: The
Wasteland is full of alternative ecologies. The things that grow in this God- working of the material was
forsaken place leave no doubt that something horrible has happened here. industrial. Refineries bled smoke
The plants are ugly. The animals (if you can call them that; most folks and poison and heavy metals.
would say monsters) are vicious. Life is cheap and violent. In the nightmare Perhaps when the Haves
ecology of the Inner Wasteland, death is a mercy. The evolutionary envisioned this they considered
strategy that most Inner Wasteland life forms take is breed fast and that mankind might simply restrain
consume frantically. Things in the Inner Wasteland swarm; they hunt itself. Perhaps they thought they
would be around to clean it up (it is
hysterically, as though they're born ravenous and they know time is limited.
believed they could, in the event of
eco-catastrophe simply "reboot" the
Hisses. Literally. The ground is unstable. Sinkholes open unexpectedly biosphere). Maybe they knew what
and swallow whole convoys (off road ones). The mudflats shatter and would happen but did not care.
steam (not water steam, but bilious, white, chemical fumes) rise up through
them in the sweltering summer months. The ground sounds mean and it is. In any event, the industrial machine
ran day and night and in the end at
Consumes. Much of the air, the gravel, the sand and the rocks are acidic. the time of collapse, the seas were
In some places, there are even lakes of acid, rivers of corrosion. Metals, slate gray with pollution, the air was
purified for the cities, but columns
even advanced metals, tarnish and rust. Stop moving for a few weeks, and
of ash curled in the upper
vines grow over you. By the next season, there's nothing left. Corpses atmosphere and the land gave birth
found after a few days appear burnt. The Inner Wasteland devours. to straggling mutations. Had the
domes not gone dark, humanity
But it consumes in another way as well. It grows, slowly, as the stain of its might have pressed on.
existence spreads through the world. Each year, the twisted weeds are
found a little further in the Middle Ring. Each year the poison clouds that The last refineries of Wonders in
roll out of it on hot, harsh winds come a little closer. The folks in The Ring the world exists in and under the
who live next door to it will tell youit's hungry and it's getting bigger. BoneYard. The wastes that are
produced, vomited out of the
subterranean tubes and belched
Burns. A lot of the chemicals that flow into the Wasteland are flammable. into the sky, are the last poisoned
Many more become flammable when they're processed by the bizarre, gasps of the Age of Wonders.
chemosyntheic life forms that thrive there. In some places a spark can
ignite a raging ground fire or even a fire storm that rolls over the landscape, And they are the toxic "life's blood"
taking everything in its path. On almost any night, if you look out at the that flows through the hellscape of
horizon, you'll see smoldering flames belching heavy black smoke into the the Inner Wasteland. The
night sky. Hierarchy, sitting on the vast
resources of dominance and
power, runs the systems day and
It burns invisibly, too. The Inner Wasteland is radioactive. The ambient
night and their domain struggles on
energy is about 10,000 mrem/year (10,000 mili-rems per year). This is a under a smog-darkened sky and
chronic dose, meaning it comes at you constantly, but at a low level. Your around them the earth itself writhes
body has a chance to recover and repair. Radiation in the Inner Wasteland in the flow of poison.
isn't a Zap! You're dead! kind of deal. Rather, it's a slow process that burns
your body from the inside out.
30
granted.
'Cause it's the new Mother

The Ecology of the Inner Wasteland Nature taking over
In terms of climate (temperature, annual rainfall, latitude) the Inner It's the new Splendid Lady
Wasteland is a desert. But in terms of biomass (the amount of "living" come to call
material in a region), it is a jungle. Within the known world, there is no It's the new Mother Nature
other place with so much life.
taking over
But the life forms of the Inner Wasteland are perverse. They are She's gettin' us all
unnatural, hostile, even sadistic in their own idiot way. And alien. The She's gettin' us all...
Inner Wasteland is a squirming cauldron of monsters hostile to each -- No Sugar Tonight, Burton
other, but even more hostile to "natural" life that might wander in. Cummmings
This is not to say that they have no purpose. It would be wrong to say that
the life forms of the Inner Wasteland were engineered (they were not) but
they do provide a necessary and important service.
They are dependent on the flow of toxic chemicals. Their biologies

consume heavy metals, plastics, and radiation the same way that ours
process protein and water. As hostile as their ecosphere is to us, our
ecosphere is to them.
Chemosynthesis
Most of the animals of the Inner Wasteland are capable of processing the
poisons in their environment to produce energy and other, far less
reactive (and less toxic) byproducts. Chlorides are broken down into
carbon dioxide and salt. Methane compounds are decomposed into
nitrogen gas. These biological processes are dependant on large
amounts of complex, artificial chemicals. These creatures need the poison
geysers and sludge-filled rivers to survive.
Ergovorics
There's a lot of energy floating around the Inner Wasteland, most of it in
the form of ionizing radiation. While ionizing radiation is harmful to natural
organisms, the life forms of the Inner Wasteland absorb it and consume it
the way plants use sunlight. Acute dosages of ionizing radiation are still
deadly to any biological organism; the radiation energy tears apart the
chemical structures that create and sustain life. But for the beasts of the
Inner Wasteland, chronic dosages that would kill a human sustain them.
Carnivorous
Of course it isn't all clean-up duty and powerconsumption. If you're meat
out there, you're dead meat. The food chain has several peaks out there
and even the things that don't metabolize proteins will still kill you for fun.
It's that kind of place.
31
granted.
Sample Encounters
Making The Run: Getting Through the Wasteland
In the Inner
The Run is 250 mile stretch of screaming terror between the Yard and the
Middle Ring. The Run is what the convoys and their scouts make to bring Wasteland
life-giving supplies from the Distro-Point to the towns and outposts that Not everything you could meet
still cling to life in the desert. The Run is how the Yard maintains real, in the IW is a fight, but a lot of it
physical contact with the outside world. Maybe the Yard could exist is, and it's never too easy to tell
without the Ring or anything else, but a lot of people think that the day the when that broken down motorist
Yard stops looking outward is the day it starts dying. is for real or is just someone
trying to get you to stop.
The Run has a reputation. If you've made it, people respect that. If you've
made it a lot, people look at you a little differently. Most people wouldn't Things and people you might
even attempt it. People who do, and don't do it right, tend to die. Even meet:
experts don't always come out the other side.
Executive Transport: Two
The Run means different things to different people. If you're a small group vehiclesone heavily armored
no one's ever heard of, it's still dangerous (and making it through is still "luxury model" and one
respected), but statistically, it's not suicide most of the people who try it Humvee with a rocket pod and
get through. Hell, most of the people who try it don't even run into trouble. a laser gun spells executive
But in the Inner Wasteland, when trouble comes, it comes on hard and it's transport. Don't expect them to
ruthless and merciless and hungry. When you're making the run, you're stop if you're broken down (they
taking a risk and if you're even a little unlucky, goodbye. might radio back for help).
Chances are any attempt to flag
If you're somebody, though, The Run is a little different. There are a down a BoneYard executive
limited number of approaches to the Yard the major highways and a who has the displeasure of
vast amount of wealth flows along them. Everything from the Distro-Point doing business outside the city
that makes it to the Middle Ring runs along those highways. It's the limits will give the order to fire.
Convoys and the Bandits that give The Run its near-mythical status.
MINA: Motorist In Need of
Assistance (also pronounced
Making the Run One-on-One Minor). Sometimes it's a trap,
Technically, any time you drive through the Inner Wasteland in either sometimes is a person in
direction, you're "making the Run." They call it "the run" rather than "the desperate need of a pickup.
drive" or "the trip" because people who want to live through it tend to Sometimes if you're the
maintain an average speed of around 120mph the whole way. As you motorist, the guy who stops and
approach the edge of the "safe zone" you put the pedal down and make tells you to approach his vehicle
time. empty handed plans to kill you
and sell your ride for salvage.
There are other defenses, of course, other than speed. You can count on Hard to say, y'know?
being tough enough to absorb whatever's thrown at you. You can count
on shooting first and hitting decisively. These are good approaches, but Refugees: People make the
they're almost always secondary. If you make the run regularly, you want journey to the Yard for a
speed and intelligence. number of reasons. Sometimes
you see an unarmed, barely
Random Threats running mini-bus loaded with
gear doing the best it can
If no one's gunning for you (more on that later), what you've got to worry (65mph) down the center of the
about are "random threats." They're not really random, of course, but they road. Those people are
seem that way. The Insurance Conglomerates in the Yard figure it this refugees who've split the Middle
way: a nobody has about a 1% chance of running into trouble per hour Ring probably because they've
spent cruising on the major highways in the Inner Wasteland. been told they can get work in
the 'Yard. It's almost always a
scam, but if you escort them in,
you'll stop them from dying on
the road.
32
granted.
If you're off road, the odds go up. If you're poking around in the ruins
(especially Falstaff), the odds go way up. If you're on foot, or whatever, Sample Encounters In
forget about it. Different odds, different kinds of trouble. the Inner Wasteland
But if you're moving fairly quickly and you look like an armored car, you
Cont'd
have a pretty good chance of going right through.
Pilgrims: The Church of the
Congregation doesn't exactly
What Random Threats Look Like want people to come to its Holy
Your basic threats are Monsters, Robots, and Bandits. Since these things City. For one thing, a lot of them
don't make their lairs in the middle of the road and we're assuming they're die en-route. For another, when
not laying in wait for you (see below), if you see them during the run, it you get there, it's a massive,
means they're out wandering about. massive garbage dump and
disease ridden outdoor camping
Here's a table that suggests the odds of running into random threats of grounds. There are too many of
varying degrees of danger. The danger rating assumes you're a couple of the faithful there already. But folks
"technicals" civilian vehicles outfitted with light weapons (machine guns, just want to make the journey
lasers) and small amounts of armor. anyway.
If you're tooling around in a main battle tank with a fully operational force The kinds of outfits that take
field, an "ultra lethal" encounter might not even be an inconvenience. people there are iffy to begin with.
There's a lot of pilgrim dumping
Two Rolls that happens down south, and
0-4 5-10 11-15 16-20 you sometimes run into the
0-4 Ultra Lethal Dangerous Dangerous Ultra Lethal survivors. There's also some good
5-10 Deadly Average Average Deadly old-fashioned breakdowns and
11-15 Deadly Average Average Deadly predator-prey stuff (the pilgrim
busses are usually poorly armed)
16-20 Ultra Lethal Dangerous Dangerous Strange
going on.
Wandering Monsters Freelance: You'll see a moderate

Every so often, the local flora and fauna will take an interest in the number of vehicles making the
highways. Mostly, they respect them; even animals can sense that the run solo (or just about) with
Haves built those roads, and are smart enough to stay away. But not professional radio call-sign and
always. Most of the animals in the Inner Wasteland are smart enough not pretty good arms. These are
to attack a big metal thing moving at 60+ miles per hour. They'll wait in the usually freelancers of some sort
bushes by the roadside and hope you have a flat-tire. and it's good to give them a
check-in before you pass 'em.
So if you do run into a monster it means: Mainly people on their own
business don't want trouble, but
1) It thinks it can take you, or do want to know who's coming at
2) It's the sort of thing that thinks a car might make a good meal them at 120mph.
As dangerous as the Inner Wasteland is, most of the animals in it don't fall Ano: That means anomaly. You'll
into both of those categories. hear about it on the radio.
Sometimes there's a never-before
One Roll seen machine in the middle of the
super-highwaynon-aggressive,
Examples Dangerous Deadly Ultra Lethal
just sitting there calling for
0-4 Omnivores Rad Serpent Greater Terror
maintenance on ancient channels.
5-10 10 Mass Sludge Lesser Terror 300 Mass Sludge
Sometimes you get a damaged
11-15 HCL Swarm Lesser Terror Cyber Terror entertainment robot that's
16-20 Lesser Terror C-Rex Greater Terror wandered out of the ruins up onto
the road. Anomalies can happen
anywhere. Just don't trust them.
33
granted.
Wandering Robots
Robots are like monsters, but a little less random. The robots in the Inner Bandits
Wasteland tend to be relics from the Age of War. There were a number of There are a few trends in the
significant battles fought in and around the Yard (especially toward the Bandit business. It's hard to make
end, when it became clear that the Yard was going to be the Last Distro- any real generalizations, but here
Point standing), and many of the armies out there are still fighting it. are some rules of thumb.
Robots tend to see everything as a valid target, and at their worst, they Scavengers: Scavengers won't
launch coordinated attacks from the wilderness. attack you to stop you, but they
will move in and brutally
One Roll massacre you if you already are
Examples Average Dangerous Ultra Lethal stopped. Sometimes these guys
0-4 Mech Turtle 5 Mech Turtles Crawler Robot will kill you for your tires.
5-10 2 Mech Turtles Combine Slaughter Pod
11-15 Rocket Turtle 5 Rust Soldiers Cyber Terror Highwaymen: The term for small
16-20 1 Rust Soldier 2 Combines Mech-abomination time bandits with a lightly armed
vehicle that make a living
relieving refugees with unarmed
Bandits vehicles of their rides and goods.
Almost no one lives in the Inner Wasteland. Almost no one operates in They usually don't need to
there on a regular basis. It's just too damn dangerous. When bandits go slaughter their prey. They just
in, they usually go in for a reasonto lay an ambush for a specific convoy leave them by the roadside and
(see below). the Inner Wasteland does the
rest.
If you run into bandits "randomly" it could mean they're there for another
reason and you're a target of opportunity, or you might just have gotten Vehicular Ambush: One step up
unlucky. Bandits are usually reasonable fellows with a rock-solid profit is an armed vehicle with a decent
motive. If you look dangerous, they might just send you on your way or driver and gunner that tries to
engage in a little friendly extortion. Even if they're pretty sure they can either extort a toll or just take
take you, they might just let you roll on through to avoid giving themselves incoming vehicles. If you're
away. damaged from a previous fight
you're even tastier prey. Usually
One Roll the vehicle is in the 4000c range.
Examples Average Dangerous Ultra Lethal
0-4 Scavengers Vehicular Ambush Convoy Ambush Vehicular Trap: Lay some wire
5-10 Scavengers Vehicular Trap Psychotics down on the road or some mines.
11-15 Highwaymen Vehicular Trap Psychotics Maybe "snipe" with a rocket
16-20 Highwaymen Vehicular Ambush Convoy Ambush launcher. Whatever the case,
these guys are laying in wait just
down an off-ramp (not too far
Ambush down) and they plan to get you
What really gives The Run its name is the fear of ambush. When the 18- out of your ride. If you see a
wheelers roll out, heading for the Water Baronies or Congregation City, rusted wreck of a bus blocking 3
they're loaded with stuff. Valuable stuff. Necessary stuff. If you're a bandit, lanes, ask to yourself how it got
"the big score, the score of a lifetime is a convoy. It's something every there since it's obviously an old
bandit dreams about and its something a lot of them feel is worth dying hulk. It was towed.
for.
Convoy Ambush: Run into one
To really understand what The Run means to a convoy, you need to look of these and you come under
at it from a Bandit's point of view. combined arms fire, multiple
vehicular guns, and section
Convoys come in different shapes and sizes, but your basic convoy holds commanders who want you dead
about 100,000 credits worth of goods and materials, and some convoys before you can squeal.
carry as much as one million credits. You can't sell it for that much, of
34
granted.
course, if youre a Bandit, but even a fraction of a million credits is the last
payday you'll ever need. Bandits Cont'd
Convoys are dangerous. All that loot is protected by big guns and Psychotics: There's actually a
experienced guards. But where there's a will, there's a way. term for people of a certain bent
who live to fight on the roadways.
The "basic strategy" is not to try to take down the whole convoy, but, Most of these people are cult-
rather to plan on crippling one or two of the big rigs. The convoy's insured, leaders and have a great deal of
and once the rig's stopped, they'll probably evacuate the survivors (the money at their disposal. They
driver, the gunners) and leave it to the wolves. often style themselves after the
ancient warlords of old, and they
Less modest bandits go for the "big play" and try to take down the whole have the rides to make that stick.
thing in an apocalyptic firefight to the death. If you run into a Psychotic, you
are in a telecast battle against a
The Basic Strategy requires about 30 very well armed people to have wealthy expert driver with a
even a reasonable chance. For a big play, you want a battalion. deadly machine. His disciples are
back in the 'Yard cheering him
These numbers assume your basic ambush. Your firepower is spread out on. But you, you usually gotta
along the highway, back about 20 yards, laying low until the rigs thunder high-tail it out of there since the
into view. They assume you fire at the right time and at the right target, war-machines the Psychotics
and they assume you're going to take some casualties. drive are often more than a match
for a standard battle vehicle.
Theory and Practice Talking Your Way Out of an
The jury's still out on the best way to lay an ambush. Some folks say you Ambush
set up a roadblock on the blind side of an overpass. Of course, if The good news about running
someone does see it coming, it's a dead giveaway, and the ambush might into a Psychotic or a Convoy
turn around before they're in position. Ambush is that if, say, you're a
Refugee, you stand more of a
Other folks say that you concentrate all your fire on the rigs and ignore the chance than a moderately
entourage cars. This has the advantage of quickly crippling a truck. It has powerful vehicle with a lot of
the disadvantage of letting the security forces fire back at you sensors. Psychotics and Convoy-
unmolested. style ambushes don't waste time
gunning down refugees, and
Some folks say it's best to fire at the wheels and engines. Take out the even if you spot the convoy-
machines, let the people go. Others aim for a high kill ratio; if they don't ambush, they'll rarely just kill you
surrender the goodies, make them pay. out of spite.
On the other hand, if the

Surviving the Ambush Vehicular Ambush goes down
The Bandits argue about "how to do it" in their seedy bars and saloons and 'Dark Star' has just pulled out
and hideouts. The Teamsters have no difference of opinion: If you're in an behind you and raised the
ambush, being shot at, you've done something wrong. For them, it's all electronic Jolly Roger, and you
about prevention. Sure, they can shoot their way out, and often do, but respond by asking him what he'd
once the bullets start flying, anything can happen. like on his tombstoneand you're
convincinghe might choose
easier prey. Persuade and
Counter Intelligence: The First Line of Intimidate rolls can be very
Defense helpful for talking one's way out of
an ambush. And really, more than
If you don't want to be ambushed, don't let anyone know when you're one scavenger has discovered
leaving, what route you're taking, or what you're carrying. Loose lips and that even a bunch of skilled
all that. What's a ship? Of course, keeping secrets is hard and there's a lot experienced killers from the
of people paying for data. So for the really big shipments, expect that Middle Ring can have their truck
someone's going to leak. break down, that doesn't mean
they've forgotten how to shoot.
35
granted.
Intelligence: The Second Line of Defense

Knowing what's coming is usually all it takes to avoid trouble. Putting
together an ambush is a lot of work. Very few clubs (what Bandits call
their outfits) can put together a major one by themselves. Spies, bribes,
and signal intelligence goes a long way toward keeping things safe. If you
know what they're planning, you simply go around, And the Yard might
dispatch a security team to teach them a lesson.
But even keeping your mouth shut and your ear to the ground isn't
enough to ensure safe passage. So when you run, you need real-time
look-ahead intel, and the way to get that is with a scout.
Scouts: The Last Line of Prevention

Up ahead, maybe a mile, maybe less, of the Convoy, there's a small,
sleek car running quiet and running fast. It's a scout, and it's looking and
listening. It's loaded with sensors, some passive (listening) and some
active (scanning) into the jungle and up the road ahead. Laser arrays and
radars probe the foliage for hard, reflective surfaces (armor, metal).
Scanners probe the radio spectrum looking for encrypted broadcasts.
Infrared cameras search the sky for heat rising from idling engine blocks
or exposed power sources.
The Scout's job is to see trouble before it's too late. If it does, if the Scout
makes out the Ambush, then the convoy captain can decide what action
to take. Fight? Run? Hold back? With a scout up ahead, the game
changes considerably.
A Scout's Life
Scouts play an integral role the life of the Yard and the Middle Ring. They
reduce the risk of running convoys through the Wasteland to the point
where it's profitable to do so. In return for this, they're envied and
worshiped. Scouts live fast, get paid well, and (often) die young.
When your job involves driving into an ambush designed to put a dent in,
or take out, a major convoy, you're really playing with your life. Scout cars
are loaded with defensive and offensive options as well as state of the art
sensor gear. But if you've spoiled their ambush, they're going to try hard
to kill you. To survive, scouts rely on a few factors:
Speed. Scouts drive fast normally, but once they've spotted

trouble, they blaze. You're harder to hit at 200 mph, and the less
time spent in the "kill zone," the better
Sensors. Life is good if you see the ambush before you get there.
Sensor output analysis is about 80% automated (computers
observe the radar and IR readings, looking for trace evidence of
something out there), but the 20% 'human element' can be a real
life saver
Backup. Big Rigs carry big guns and (often) artillery and over-the-
horizon rockets. Scout sensor arrays can hook into the rig's firing
systems and transmit coordinates back to the convoy. There's
nothing like dropping heavy cannon fire on an ambush as you fly
past at top speed to make you smile.
36
granted.
Scout's Honor
The dark side of the scouts is the convoy's trust and reliance on them. A
compromised scout could lead a convoy into an ambush blind. If someone
even thinks you've taken a payoff, your career is over and maybe your life
is too. Playing hard, being proud, even being a big-headed jerk are all
forgivable (and even expected), but if your reputation for honor is
compromised, you'll never work again.
Scout's Pride
Being a scout costs a lot of money (it's all about the car, baby), and the
really high-paying gigs are rare. Most scouts get by leading VIPs in and
out of the Wasteland or shepherding independent merchants. That pays
the bills, but doesn't leave much for the high life that most scouts feel
they're entitled to.
Getting a job running point for a super-convoy means being one of the
best. At any given time, there are, maybe, 10 top-talents in the Yard.
Those "top ten" get the best jobs, the best treatment, and the best money.
How do you get into the Top Ten?
Mainly, you take small jobs and prove your way up, but you also race.
Being a Top-Ten scout is a lot about skilldriving skill, skill with sensors,
and so on. Scouts regularly run against each other in the dense urban
traffic of the Yard. That, by itself, is crazy (a lot of Scouts die that way),
but being crazy and taking huge risks, and making them pay is what being
a Scout is all about.
If you're not Top Ten, you live to run against one. You issue challenges.
You boast. You talk shit. Anything to get his attention. And when you've
got it, you've gotta beat him.
If you are Top Ten, you hang on to it. That means taking challenges that
matter. The ones that people might wonder about if you didn't.
Sensor Rules
To see a bunch of Bandits standing in plain view at the side of the road,
you don't even need to make a perception roll you just see them. It's
rarely that simple though.
Hiding and Camouflage

Setting up an ambush means hiding. Here are some common modifiers
Time. One hour +1, 8 hours + 2, 24 or more hours +3

Size. Hiding cars gives a -3
Basic cover (hiding in the bushes) no bonus or negative. Your basic roll
assumes you're hiding in the bushes. This usually means being 10 yards
or more from the road.
Deep cover (hiding way back in the bushes) if you're more than 30
yards from the road, you get +2 to your camouflage roll
Netting. If you have camouflage netting you can get a quick +2 to your
roll. This does not stack with time bonuses; in 8 hours, you can cover
yourselves with mud and get the same bonus.
Numbers. If any members of your ambush are in cars, you get -3 (this is
the size modifier listed above, not an additional -3)
37
granted.
Flora and Fauna

Guide to bio-Hazards
In the category of things you really don't want to meet, the Inner
Wasteland is pretty much the grand champion. It's not that everything is
so vicious (assault robots are vicious). It's not that everything is so deadly
(a C-Rex is pretty damn deadly), Its that everything that lives there is
I " _
Toxic Bio- Radiation
either poisonous or infectious or radioactive. There's no way to cover all of Hazard
it. Here's some of it.
Ozone Grass Possibly the least offensive of the things you'll find
out in the Wasteland is the Ozone Grass. They're
I really more like purple ferns and weeds. They
don't use the sun for most of their energyand
where it gets dense, the Ozone Grass can grow
like twisted multi-canopy trees. Don't eat it: it'll kill
you.
Sulfur Dioxide These ubiquitous twisty vines more like little spiny
Vines tentacles of razor-wire. And yes, they sweat a blood
toxin. Their flowers, if you take a good whiff, will do
I you in too.
Lead Trees The Lead Trees grow up like purple clusters with
"leaf-like" nodes at the top. They get 40' tall and
"I they can be almost indestructible. They're loaded
with heavy metals so don't touch them. But even
worse, the microbes in the pods are extremely
hazardous. They're also pressurized, so if you
puncture one of them (and they're easy to puncture,
so watch where youre going) the whole area is
covered in an explosion of toxic microbes.
Hydrogen Now we're getting somewherecloser to the top of the

Chloride foodchain, anyway. The HCl crawlers are about 1-3 yards
Crawlers long, not including tentacles, and a swarm can have a
few hundred. They'll eat through your hull if they can
I! reach you and then then you're lunch.
38
granted.
Nitrogen The NO Worms are sometimes harvested for their use

Oxide in making racing machines, but they're volatile,
Worms flammable, and hostile so it's not recommended. They
can burrow through the mudflats and sometimes sun-
I! themselves on the lower roadways and exit ramps.
Don't puncture one: They vent a flammable gas in an
explosive fashion. And they bite, hard.
Cadmium Cadmium eels are about 9 inches long and live and
Eels swarm in the streams of toxic waste that flow above and
under ground. They do not bite, but contain powerful
I_ radioactive cores. When they detect movement above
the liquid they swim in, they "pulse," generating a flash
of deadly radiation. A large school can cook a person.
39
granted.
The BoneYard: Life in the Big City

Its the worlds last megapolis, the city to end all citiesblack and gray,
towering into its own soot-blackened, fire-scarred sky and dominating the
toxic mega-wasteland of the Inner Waste around it. Its the seat of a
dubiously moral superpower and home to a violent, predatorily capitalist
ecosystem. Its everything you were ever afraid of in a cityto the nth
degree. Its also, probably, humanitys last hope for survival.
The Emmerson Grid-Way Overpass. One of the many entrances to the driving zone known as the corkscrew, a
mathematical zone of hyper-lethality. See SA-Spike analysis. Psy-Op Factors: Fear, Confusion, Distraction, Sensory
Overload, Single-Eye Targeting Optical Illusion, Cell-Com Units, Narcotic/Depressants.
Major Statistical Hazards: Vehicular Weapons Fire, Running an Armed Toll, Duel with Traffic Authority Gunship, Driving
Too Slow in the Fast Lanes.
40
I went walking in the wasted city

Life in the BoneYard is Started thinking about entropy
Confusing. From the notorious corkscrew highway nexus where you Smelled the wind from the ruined river
can fall to your death (and right into somebodys junkyard) just for Went home to watch TV
driving too slow in the fast lane to the Byzantine toll plazas where And it's worse when I try to remember
inexperienced drivers get killed by machine gun fire for winding up in
the wrong toll-road, its hard to find your way around. Its a 3-D When I think about then and now
Escher style maze of catwalks and crosswalks and intersecting I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
roads and rat-warren apartments and condemned buildings. Even Sit back, and watch it run straight down
seasoned citizens can get turned around in the underground bazaars Run straight down
or get lost in the twisted industrial corridors that run through the city. ...
Dangerous. Oh yeah. Its dangerous. When you step out of the First the water and the wildlife go
Inner Wasteland, people start sizing you up. You might be a disease Pretty soon there's not a creature stirring
ridden, smaller-than-bite-sized, not-even-a-snack to a megavore in 'Cept the robots at the dynamo
the Inner Wastebut youre a refugee with a medi-card once you get And it's worse when I try to remember
out of processing and that means someone wants to be your friend. When I think about then and now
Fast. Life in the Fast Lane? Everyday, overtime? Thats the Yard. Its I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
sink or swim and the undertow is strong and the bottoms full of Sit back, and watch it run straight down
razorblades. The Yard doesnt sleep because everyones running -- Run Straight Down, Warren Zevon
too fast trying to stay awake, trying to stay alive. They say getting
downsized is as statistically dangerous as getting shot. Thats
because a lot of the time getting downsized means getting shot. Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky
Pragmatic. They say theres no superstition in the Yard. Theyd He walks unhindered through the picket
sacrifice virgins if they thought itd help, but mostly they stick to tried
and true methods of screw or be screwed. You look like a footstool
lines today
with one tentacle, an eyestalk, and you smell strongly of rotten fish? He doesn't think to wonder why
Get out of here! What good are you? Oh, you can read crypto as -- Synchronicity II , The Police
though it were plaintext? Youre hired. Executive Suite. Just be
careful. Our competition will now try to kill you.
Toxic. Yeah, right. Everythings toxic, but the Yard has soup for air. Welcome to the jungle
Smog warnings start at Level 3 and go up to 8 (full pro-suit, evacuate We've got fun 'n' games
lower stories of buildings). Wear a visor for the acid rain (the hydro- We got everything you want
pumps have enough condensate that it does rain in the Yard).
Honey, we know the names
Steam coming out of a sewer? Careful, it might be nerve gas.
Everyone in the Yard is on antibiotics, anti-toxins, anti-rad, and anti- We are the people that can find
depressants. Whatever you may need
If you got the money, honey
Stratified. There are heights to climb and a long way to fall. Some We got your disease
say its the difference between Street and Corp (and if youre Corp
-- Welcome to the Jungle, Guns N Roses
there are places down there you dont want to be caught and vice
versa), but really its more than that. Even among criminals theres
an order. Amongst the corpers theres a hierarchy. Everyone has a
bigger predator looking for them, and theyre on the lookout for easy
prey. If you come in tough, peoplell check you out to see if youre for
real. Better to come in on a corporate ticket where youve got hired
protection. They know how tough that is.
High-Tech. The Yard is a wonderland of technology compared to

everywhere else. Holograms shimmer in store windows, hover cars
fly in the Lightning District, guards carry laser guns and everyone
uses cell-coms. You dont dress in overalls in the Yard. You wear
41
Corper Punks: Sharp dressed young
shades and slick black trenchcoats, accessorize with atomic clocks
professionals out for a bit of the ol ultra-
on your wrist, and joke about carrying guns smarter than you are.
violence. The last thing they want is a fair
fight, but with the kind of techno-backup
Violent. Blood and Circuses. Oh, and bread. Yeah. You can see
they can have, they're often not in too much
moving billboards with gladiatorial combat piped in from the 8-Track
danger of that from the kind of prey they
Arena. There are Saturday night-firefights on the Tn Overpass. You
usually seek.
can get TV, but a V-chip would shut the thing down entirely. If you
dont pay your bill at Sez Who? the local bar, expect to get your leg
Loners: Loners are solo-psychopaths who
broken. The Yard isnt kind.
wander the streets. They're not a group,
per-se, but they are a trend. Loners tend to
Under Contract. Despite the violent churning chaos that is the Yard,
be cybernetically enhanced or have
it isn't lawless. Quite to the contrary. There are all sorts of laws, and
mutations that aren't obvious. They're a fact
depending on who you are, they get enforced. Contracts are
of life in the lower levels of the Yard and
electronic. Barristers are artificial intelligences. The Justice Drome
people give thickly clothed funny-smelling
broadcasts trials and their punishments live on television. The
types a wide berth.
Justice machine of the Yard comes armed with chainguns. Make
sure you read the fine print.
Zoners: Zoners are small gangs that have
no franchise exactly, but defend and extort
Happening. The Yard consumes people wholeand yet, its also
money from people in a given zone. Usually
the place where things might just come back from. The movers and
a really nasty one (an industrial corridor
shakers (the Hierarchy, mostly and some of the Corps) know they
between two residential blocks). They're
need to keep the Middle Ring alive. Make it grow even. The process
usually hungry, desperate, and mean. They
is slowbut its not stopped. There are historians there who are
keep their cachet by tackling just about
trying to solve the mysteries of the past. There are scientists who
*anyone* not driving an APC or wearing
know the Haves had ways to address ecological damage. There are
Arm insignia that enters their zone. There's
doctors who want to reclaim the super-anti-plague serums to wipe
usually a 'Flag' (a graffiti insignia) that they'll
out disease. All of this in the frothing, seething, snake-biting-its-own-
point out meaning you shoulda known you'd
tail, industrial-disease hell hole that is the BoneYard.
be asked to pay.
Ramp-Trolls: In the worse areas of the city,

Society in The Yard off-ramps are feeding tubes of money and
gear. When a car gets off on the wrong
place they wind up facing an abandoned
Getting In building re-worked with armor and some
If you come in your own vehicle, you go through a checkpoint and kind of heavy vehicular weapon, or a band
you get an ID card. If youre going to stay long, you get a medi-card of concertina wire, or a land-mine zone
(youll need it) and youre on the streets. Come in as a refugee and anything to stop a vehicle long enough for
you get scanned for disease. If youve got it, you go to a medi-ward. them to try to pry the occupants out of it.
They either fix you up, or things dont look good. If you come with a
truck of stuff, youll pay an import tax or theyll confiscate it. (This Fear-Sniffers: Technological advances in
doesnt apply to personal gear, even a lot of it, but to bulk goods for psychology and telepathic resonances have
sale) the roadways in have great big cannons poking out of the created the Phobometer, or Fear Sniffer.
retaining wall,so dont mess with them. Also called a Victim Wand. They're
expensive black-market devices (even the
apathetic city defense forces look dimly
Getting Around upon a device used to sort out who's a
Well, even with a map, youll get lost. You can get directions at data- victim and who isn't) that use AI body
kiosks, but getting out of a vehicle is risky if people tag you as a language evaluation and a passive
newbie. Obeying the traffic signs is even harder. If its got an arrow telepathic scanning array to find who in a
flashing it means that roads one-way right now. Listen to it. If its got crowd is most afraid. You can sometimes
a frowny-face, that means theres a toxin warning of some sort in see a group of Ferrals laughing raucously,
effect. Watch out for it. If the road itself has arrows or words, read chasing a solo-fem with beeping
them. And remember, most people drive whatever speed they feel Phobometer clicking away as they close in.
like. Going too slow is a sign youre prey. Satisfyingly, however, the technology is
rather unreliable and they're known to get
false positives against some very
dangerous types that might, for example,
happen to be a bit shy but heavily armed.
42
For people who have lived most of their life in the Yard, navigation
is a MEM roll at +2. For anyone else, finding your way around is a Ferrals: Ferrals are stereotyped as
MEM or RES roll at -5. If the roll is blown by 5 or more, roll on the animalistic mutants (or actual mutant
Wrong-Turn encounter table adding the amount you missed by animalslike Hyena gangs), but it's really a
above 5 (so a miss by 6 adds 1 to the table). state of mind more than a look. Fetishes,
tattoos, body mutilation, and cyber-
Improving this roll is done by buying a Normal Skill. (Knowing a enhancements (like Saber-Teeth) are all
District of the Yard is a Trivial Skill) At the higher levels, rolls can be part of the Ferral gig. The Ferrals know how
made to add +2 (Lvl3) or +4 (Lvl4) to Streetwise and Surveillance to party, but they take the foodchain
rolls, to find really good dining or parking, etc. seriously. They might not hate you, but if
you're in their territory they could very well
Going Out eat you.
They say that to survive in the 'Yard you gotta have style. That's Razor Girls: Black and chrome isn't just a
being glib, but in a place where they've got devices that smell fear, look for this clique, it's a lifestyle. They mod
and predation is all but sanctioned, having aplomb and carriage is their bodies like the Scouts mod their cars
good. That means you hang with your group, you show the colors, (they're not alone in this, but it's a visible
you "keep it real." Sure, there are plenty of people who hole-up in the trend). Razor Girls are mid-strata--
mega-towers and pray that the gangs that roam the halls won't stop successful enough to afford cyber-mods,
at their door next, but if you want to do well, you need ta hit the but too Street to work an office job. They're
scene. often debt collectors, evictors, service-
In the Yard, people will have a rep that tends to follow them. Back personnel bodyguards, or "equalizers"
down or hole-up and you get tagged as prey. If that happens, a lot brought along as hired muscle to just about
of the security forces might stop you from getting killed (if they're any event. Their defining trait is the metallic
even around), but they won't stop you from getting mugged. (Call it cyber-skin and a nearly impenetrable slang
trickle down). On the other hand, if you're selling tough and backing that's really hard to follow. They've got a rep
it up, you'll get respect. (But then you become a target for people for being tough (and they are) but while a
who want to boost their rep). pack of Razor Girls might looks scary, so
long as you're not looking for trouble, they're
Etiquette in The BoneYard probably less dangerous than the drunk
young execs.
There's massive wealth built atop massive poverty. In some buildings
there's no power, bio-warfare monsters grow in the ventilation Phages: Phages are scary. Ferrals have, at
system, and door locks come with plastic-explosive charges that times, been known to eat people or at least
detonate if they think someone's trying to pick them. In other places drink their blood (which is a major health
there's still just a little working Tesla power and air-cars hover risk in the Yard). Phages are worse.
overhead and you can look down from a massive translucent plastic They're infected with one of several breeds
window at the city while breathing designer air (scented like used to of engineered parasites and their intent is to
be) and being serviced by a pleasure-bot. Depending on where you infect others. The science of parasitology
fit into this will depend on what you can expect. suggests that such organisms can exert a
frightening amount of control over their
hosts and that seems to be the case here.
Phages are usually spread through a
transfer of blood, but in the case of a phage
gang, it's one that's not consensual. They'll
injure you, hold you down ... and transfuse
you. And then, when you're healed, you'll
start to get this craving--this lust--to spread
the disease.
43
Evangelists: It's your fault the Haves left

Rules in the Yard and condemned us to this hellhole of a
world, and you haven't been repenting
enough. They use tools that hurt (and
Medical Care sometimes a lot, they'll leave you brain-
The Yard has acid rain and poisoned smog. It's got carcinogens in damaged from pain if they have the gear or
the air vents and heavy metals in the water. It's got radioactive the time). Areas where they're active tend to
clouds and plagues. All of this requires constant, up-to-date medical be low crime-rate zones (they're fanatic, at
care. When you come to town, if you check in, you get a medi-card. least moderately well-armed, and have no
This is good for free health care at the local clinics. Beyond that tolerance for other thugs), but while that
though, you need to pay. seems like a blessing at first, think again.
Cost Care They'll show up at your apartment and want
to search it, check your computer, whatever.
0c / Mo Spend 4-24hrs per week waiting in lines at the
Run a Story-Disk Rental? Not in their
Medi-centers or make a CON roll. If you fail it,
neighborhood (it's all perverse). Like to sing
your CON drops 1pt until you can get 30c
or listen to music? Bad idea. And they'll
worth of care (1 day check-in) and you've
make one example after another after
contracted some disease (decide on gruesome
another.
symptom).
60c / Mo Spend 2-12hrs per week at the medi-Center.
Security Forces: Legitimate security forces
Make a CON roll or evidence some symptom of
are given a franchise by the city. This
bio/chem/or rad poisoning.
means they can call on help and keep
191c / Mo Spend 2hrs per week at a private clinic. No
calling all the way up. When a gang or
symptoms.
company gets a franchise, they're pretty
2500c/Mo You're not even really aging. You get +4 to any entrenched. How they deal with problems
CON rolls against specific threats. varies widely. Some units have negotiators
on staff. Some just fire mustard gas
Paying the Toll canisters into a building until the unrest
"quiets down." Whichever, they can call on
Wherever you are, you gotta pay for protection in the Yard (you can
big hover-tanks or flying fortresses if they
"provide it yourself, but this has other issues). About the minimum
need to. You don't want to be in a block
fee that'll keep you out of trouble is 30c/month. If you can't make
they've decided to pacify with heavy
that, the gangs that patrol the area youre in will make you someone
pulsars.
else's problem. (They certainly don't gun down every dead-beat, but
if you aren't paying you're in danger).
Wage Slaves: It's miserable, unstable, and
often degrading, but a certain number of
Moving On Up people from the street need to go to work in
You're not the only person out there looking for a big break, but you the Corp buildings to answer com-calls,
might have some things going for you. The 8-Track Arena holds serve food, clean floors (the robots are
Fight Night: Gladiatorial combat in armed, unarmed, unarmed vs. always on the blink), and other such things.
armed, and vehicular categories. That might get you noticed. If Human analysis is valuable too (the big
you're good, you can command cred on the street. If you're really guys talk about Total Artilect Analysis), but
good or smart you can get an audience further up the food chain and most corps have a boiler room full of young
maybe go Corp. guys at terminals using their relatively
cheap brain to spot trends and analyze data
instead of fancy electronics. Wage Slaves
get treated bad by the Street sceneand
get no respect from the Corp scene (but at
least they aren't targets for Corper Punks).
Street Merchants: You can see them

clustered down there in the smog, guys with
a table with something to sell (sometimes
dubious foodstuffs, "wonder tech,"
narcotics, and stolen gadgets).
44
Survive the Yard on 12 Credits Per Day!

Welcome to the BoneYard.
You are officially screwed. Its
a charming city with more AA
batteries than traffic lights. Of
course, come to think of it; the
AA guns get a lot more
respect than the lights do
anyway. (You thought I meant
power cells? Man, you're
gonna get eaten alive). There
are microbes in the water and
poison in the air and the
garbage trucks have 170mm
smooth bore turrets forward
and mounted .30 calibers to
the rear.
The BoneYard, the whole city,

is a monument to what weve
got left after the Haves left us.
Its hundred-story, fire-charred,
half-skeletal high-rises soar
into a smoke smudged sky
and the refineries run day and
night venting plumes of flame.
Its nice and homey.
Of course it isnt all bad. If you

ever get a Helo ride, you can
look down on the executive
enclaves and palatial plazas
with their sparkling blue
fountains and lush green
gardens. (And those big guns
tracking you? Thats the
welcoming committee.)
Theres business done here
big business, small business,
black, white, and gray market.
Some say the BoneYard is all
about business, and many
would agree. But it isnt,
really. Ultimately its about
power and survival.
Were listening to the

satellites, were monitoring the airwaves and we havent heard anything but us. Sure, the radius is big. Thousands of square
miles, uncharted, mutated, strange but theres no other global broadcast source. Theres nothing coming out of Europe
(which presumably still glows a lovely cobalt blue). Theres nothing out of China or Russia. South America and Africa are silent.
Australia has a few point sources that we can pick up with relays. There are outposts down there getting eaten by dinosaurs
when the wind is wrong and by predatory amphibians the size of blue whales when the wind is rightbut there arent any cities.
There isnt anything big, and as much as there is here. (the Inner Wasteland, the Outer Wasteland, the Pharms, the Kingdom of
IZ, the Pac-Rimits all riding on the BoneYard.) The patient has cancer and it aint clear that hes getting any better.
So come on in. The beast needs to get fed and we can always use some more fuel in the fire. Welcome to the Bone Yard. Hey,
you might get killed. You might get rich. Which do you think is more likely?
45
A Citizens Handy Guide to Env-Warnings

Welcome To The Yard
Warning Meaning
Welcome to the BoneYard. Your first view is very likely to be that Contamination! Microbes in
of a smudge-black mountain, crackling with fire, at the end of a x Water!
stretch of highway that looks like it was built yesterday. As you
approach the mountain, it becomes clearer: A mass of darkened R-Smog Warning: high-roentgen
sky-rise buildings, crumbing monorail lines, smokestacks, raised y dust cloud
viaducts, the giant vase shape of old-fashioned nuclear reactor Arial Blister-Agent: Cover
tanks, and, hurtling into this industrial nightmare, the highways. z exposed skin.
Raised above the simmering jungle, the highways are
magnificent wide-open, 12-lane interstates with asphalt thats Chemical Spill: Looking for
unfaded by centuries of sun and wind, bright yellow and white
t warning lights.
lines that shine like they were painted yesterday, and green and Class 5 Air Alert: avoid street
white road signs marking exits to nowhere that stand out above n level activity.
the roads like nothing ever went wrong with the world.
Toxic Mutant Insects: apply
The BoneYard is very much a walled city. Approaching on foot h Category 12 Pesticide to skin
from most directions would involve hacking through toxic mutant and home.
jungle and then scaling a forty-foot concrete wall. Atop the wall Outbreak: infectious disease. See
one would find a maze of rusted metal pipes and vents dumping g block medical team immediately.
caustic waste into the surrounding land. It isnt a wall meant to
keep out invaders: the BoneYards presence within a 500-mile
radius wasteland does that. Its where the city that once existed
was meant to hook into the rest of the industrial complex that
once existed. Centuries of weather, war, decay, and change ! Warning: Unstable Mutations are
have turned that surrounding area into the ultra-hostile biome Everyones Problem. If you are or are
that now exists. The only ways in to the city are to fly (which aware of an unstable energy-active
almost never happens) or along one of the eternal highways (so- mutation, please report to the Public
called because they were built by the Haves and self repair Security Division of Mutant Control.
they always look new).
Inside the Yard is divided up into districts. These range in size ENTRY PROCESSING
from a block to over 5 square miles. A district is defined by some INPROCESSING
common trend in its architecture, contents, or atmosphere. The
Rain District, for example, exists under the massive condenser
Genetic Stamp, ID card issued
towers and is constantly wet with a drizzle of artificial Bio-Toxin/Disease Screen
precipitation. The Gold District boasts towering skyscrapers and ! Search of vehicle/Person
each of the three major banks has a building there. Random Contraband Screen
Transportation between districts can be tricky. Although streets
connect the entire city, leaving one section and entering another CITIZENSHIP APPLICATION
is often like crossing over from one gangs territory to the next. Check against wanted database
Checkpoints where the local authorities are asking for @ from middle ring
donations (especially from people from other districts) are Declaration of skills
hardly uncommon. Going from a poorer district to a richer one
can meet with armed searches and barricades.
ISSUE
There are two tramsystems in the city (consisting of electric Medi-Card
buses, monorails, and subways). These, the Orange and White Food Card
Lines service most of the industrial places people work. There # Block Assignment
are also several highways and fly-over roadways that criss-cross
the city. Although patrolled by the Traffic Authority (with hover- Work Permit
gunboats boasting heavy energy weapons), these are far from
safe. Exits into more lawless areas are great places to launch
46
armed-vehicular ambushes from and roadway duels are a fact of
life for purposes of ego or defense of right-of-way. Shopping in the 'Yard
Here are some shops you might pass on the
So most districts are self-sufficient. They have a few street in the BoneYard.
neighborhood clinics (there are always lines), a food and
sundries depot (where armed trucks take supplies in once a Arti-Pets: Guaranteed Real Looking Electric
weekalso long lines), and blocks of private or subsidized Animals! An Arti-Pet is the ONLY friend you
housing. Garbage pickup, power, and water are often spotty. can trust!
Life in the Yard can be short and brutal if you look like prey to Sleep Bar: Safe, Secure, and Relaxing.
the myriad groups of predators in it. Even if you have nothing, Nocturna's slumber pods are the only way to
your medical access card is worth 60 cred on the black market, guarantee an 8-hour uninterrupted rest.
your food card is worth 15, and your Work Permit is worth 5. Tuesday Night Special: Free dose of Dream-
Lock to ensure nightmare-free repose.
Simul-Sex Booth: Exotic, Dirty, and Clean.

A Citizen's Guide To Common Scams (Yes, the last is a lie. No, they're not trying to
be contradictory).
Many citizens of the 'Yard are working angles. Keep these wallet
sized cards handy to check against common con jobs, scams, Osirus Cyber-Acoustics: brain-jack
and setups. You can also find more of them in specially marked interfaces, neural-stim speakers, opti-nerve
QuikSnak Packs of sweets from the local neighborhood distro- light-shows.
point. Collect them all!
Auto-Mat: The place working stiffs go to eat.
Robot-cooked meals served in the friendly
style of a vending machine. Yes, there's
The Insurance Job probably a guy back there somewhere. No he
You are approached and asked for your Medi-Card number. When
it is processed, you are told that while you are covered for weekly doesn't want to talk to you.
visits to the Medical Salons, you are not covered for invasive
surgical procedures (if you have children, the seller will tell you Drive-Thru Confessional: Because the
they are at risk). You are offered "gap" coverage. This "Gap"
agreement is a binding agreement with the local authorities. But it
Church of the Congregation says "You're never
doesnt cover the local hospitals but rather applies to facilities sorry enough!" Penance Valu-Pak .30c
outside the 'Yard with questionable facilities. Be careful what you Discount.
sign.
Segmentation Fault Arcade: System-Shock
gambling games (audience pays to see you
The Triple Rent Scam get shocked when you lose).
Unscrupulous landlords may rent apartments to more than one
family, especially if you list employment as shift work, which
many do (so long as the persons are not on the same shift). These
agreements are binding so be careful to look for Solo clauses in
the agreement. Also: ask if the previous and current occupants of
the building are listed as missing in action, present location
The "Word" Approach
A scraggly man holding a Congregational Holy Book approaches
unknown, temporarily incarcerated, potentially incinerated, or
you asking you to repent. Within the book is a space for a .75 cal
"not responding to phone calls."
auto-pistol. Beware of approaching fanatics. Either cross the
street, seek assistance of the nearest peace officer, or give a
standard "three yard warning" before opening fire.
The Work Agency Shuffle

Employment is often difficult to find and employment agencies
will offer to help. Never leave your work permit with an agency
(although they will cite regulations that make copying them
illegal). Once an unscrupulous agency has collected enough
permits it will vanish and sell them to altered-identity criminals on
the black-market.
47
What's What?
"Incoming Refugee Transport, this is Yard Traffic
Authority. Please move to the intake station and stand
down all weaponry. Searches and Health exam will
commence directly. If randomized health checks detect
Quarantine Grade 1 infectious organisms, entire transport
will be sterilized. You are considered warned. Have a nice
day."
--Standard greeting for refugee intake
Welcome to the BoneYard. We like to say its the most

beautiful city in the world. Thats because its the last.
Most of The BoneYard looks like the back-lot of a train
station: rusted metal with sharp edges, stained and
cracked concrete covered with graffiti, and hulks of
vehicles and abandoned buildings with the window glass
knocked out. Mutant weeds grow through some of the
cracks, but the downtown areas are still in the ever-
present shadow of the skyscrapers. These are some of
the places you might go and the sights you might see.
Cyborg Corper and his Escort Bots.
A Visitors Guide to the BoneYard
8 Radioactive Hazard. Seek anti-rad

treatment after visiting.
O Mutants welcome!
" Bio/Chem Hazard present. Wear

environmental gear.
K Historical Site: take pictures!
Q Medical
by/available.
Facilities close
i Telepathic assistance available (mind your
thoughts)
F Electrical Power is reliable.

| Computer Virus Zone. Sensitive systems
and cybernetics should exercise safe data-
sharing.
Vehicular
common.
transit/combat is
p Danger-Zone: keep your weapons handy.
u
Fees charged: have currency Fine Dining available: bring a date!
handy. Failure to pay is h
dangerous.
Court TV
The 8-Track
h Q
When justice doesnt come swiftly, it comes with
lights, applause, and valuable prizes. Visit the
h u
Central Magistrates Pavilion and purchase tickets
Those giant moving-picture billboards all over the
to the Judgment Drome where plea-bargaining
city are called MoveBoards and 80% of them
citizens get to try their hands at solving the
are hooked directly into the BoneYards
Labyrinth of Justice, their fate at Spinning the
automotive combat arena. In the upper deck
Penalty Wheel (from electro-flogging to execution
enjoy fine dining, private bullet-proof skybox
for an unlucky player), or matching wits with The
seating, and a perfect view of the figure-8 shaped
GrandMaster: an unbeaten chess AI.
mile-long track. In the lower decks you can get
ring-side seating at the two inside Coliseums
where gladiatorial combat, games and sports,
48
and the once-a-year Circus takes place. Be awesome Gun Metal Moonan Art Deco
aware that lower price seating is sometimes display piece of the guidance system of one of
subject to errant fire from the track. the robotic nuclear bombers used to destroy
The Queens Tower Europe during the Exchange. Mind your manners
though. The Hard Luck is un-forgiving when it
| F comes to trouble.
A sixty story cylindrical tower with three story The Burning Gates
metal security walls around it, the Queens Tower
is hard to miss from anywhere in the western arc. " F
Daily tours show the metal gates and still-armed About half the first-time visitors to the BoneYard
cyclic machine gun nests that defended the come in through the Burning Gates and its worth
Queen at the beginning of her rise to economic their while! Quite a sight to see. The road runes
power in The BoneYard. Also visible are the between two hundred-story smoke-stacks from
surgical-steel pneumatic spikes on which she the Primary Industrial Refinery and as it runs 24/7
used to impale her enemies. Its a charming so do the flame vents from the top. Bring
history tour of one of the BoneYards most unique breathing gear as the heavy fall out from the
citizens. stacks resembles gray snow so you dont want
The Lightning District to breath it.
K i p Utopia Farms
At night theres nothing more spectacular than a p
walk down Electric Avenue. The crescent shape All through the city youll see big, bright, cheery
road runs within the broad-cast power zone of the advertisements for Utopia Farmsusually in the
Lightning Tower, the largest remaining broad- form of a giant billboard showing a gray-jumpsuit
cast power station in existence. Here youll find wearing man and woman with big smiles on their
no light unlit, power-weapons fire without having faces. Behind them, in the background are rolling
to re-cycle their charge, and air-cars use the green hills and a rising sun under blue skies. The
plentiful invisible beams of energy to soar legend says Utopia FarmsFood, Medical Care,
through the sky. Its a great place to buy and sell Shelter. Free Room Board Overnight. Exit 121.
either electronics, information, or just take a good Under no conditions should you stop there. No
look at the revitalized old-style two-story tall matter what.
Security Walkers! NetShoppes
Low Quad
" 8 p F |
Unlike the rest of the world, the BoneYard has a
Its not a place for the kids but if youre looking for working prevalent network. Even in some of the
the right kind of merchandise and dont mind a darkest corners of the Yard you can find Data-
fire-fight, the Low Quad is a place to go where no Terms for Net-Access. Some of the more stable
one cares who you are. Thats usually because if areas have NetShoppes with gear that allows
you live there eventually you become Mr. interactive games, virtual-realities, and searching
Cancer-Face no matter who you were when you the various libraries that are available. Note:
came in. There are many dives in the city but the although there is a great deal of linkage, there
Low Quad is unmistakable in the shadow of the are over 100 individual networks across the
200 yard high Industrial Wall and bathed in the BoneYardeach with different systems and
wash from the Waste Pipes that run through it. protocols. It can take a Byzantine knowledge of
This charming collection of shanty-towns, these different systems to access them correctly.
cardboard and plastic-bag housing, and junk- The Rain District
choked gutters hosts authentic knife fights,
colorful crazy street minstrels, and some of the
most heavily mutated organisms in the remaining u
world.
The Hard Luck Caf Off the South-Access Highway is the Rain
District, the collection of shantytowns and low-
h rise buildings that exists under the Condenser
A one-of-a-kind dining establishment, the Hard Farm. The Condenser Farm is a collection of
Luck hosts pictures showing all of humanities sixty-story buildings that act as some sort of heat-
falls and foibles (exploding blimps, undersea exchange and vent for the underground systems.
pictures of mammoth ancient ocean liners, It is also a major source of water for the
massive dual-skyscrapers consumed in smoke, BoneYard Reservoir. The city beneath it is in
and nuclear fireballs over Europe are just some constant shadow (from the massive, rusted-metal
of the fine dcor pieces). Dont miss the colored fins from the condenser towers) and
49
constant rain. Even in the driest climates of the one another can be seen in the smooth-bore
BoneYards summer the Rain District is awash in artillery that protrudes from the sides of the
foul tasting water. It is also a major high-way buildings that face their rivals.
nexus and site for unlicensed no-arena The Congregational Cathedral
automotive combat: drive carefully.
The Art District Q h
F K i The Congregation is the largest remaining
religion. Based in the holy city of the Needle,
Even in the decay of the BoneYard, artists can several hundred miles south of the Yard, the
find their patrons. The Art District is a 1.5 block Congregation maintains its Grand Cathedral near
stretch of plaza with buildings well over 100 years the heart of the Bone Yard. The liquid-crystal ten-
old. It is one of the few places in the Yard thats story stained-glass windows crawl with animated
considered attractive, with gabled roofs, two- stories of the Congregations parables. Inside
story town houses and tiny clumps of bungalows each pew has a view of a wide-screen high-
(surrounded by security walls and Severe Tire definition TV and thundering 3D sound system.
Damage entry-prevention systems)and, During one of the six daily services throngs of
indeed, if the landlords charged rent the prices beggars, degenerate mutants, and onlookers
would be astronomical. But the cost to live here crowd around the massive building to listen to the
is the production of art that appeals to the sermon of our abandonment by the Haves for our
patrons: The Corpus Cognito. The Corpus are a unworthy, bestial nature. Expensive Box Seating
group of Telepaths who are some of the richest (seasonal passes available in the lobby past the
denizens of the Yard. Each month new artists gift shops) gives a great view of the Mortification
are reviewed and challenge the latest works of of the Penitents in the great central arena (electro
the older ones. The losers are moved out to scourges are a real crowd pleaser)! Please be
outlying housing of a far inferior nature and if sure to bring sufficient credits to cover admission
the lose a few more times, out all together. Thus and a few extra in case of any accidental
the cut-throat world of the Art District produces, transgressions that result in fines.
by Darwinian pressure works of great and
enduring beauty that can often be seen by The Academy
invitation only in private collections. But its a
great place to see a performance of one of the i K
last remaining live bands! The group of Telepaths that hold power in the
Dry Docks BoneYard, The Corpus, have no public meeting
F
placebut if there is a center of power for them it
is the Academy (usually called The Academy). It
The city imports things from the ring of civilization appears as a building from another age: stone
outside the Inner Wasteland: crops from the facades in the front, towering columns, and
straggling farms (although the Distro-Point automated machine guns hidden behind snap-
supplies a great deal of food itself), recharged open firing ports in the bas relief. It is the training
batteries from the energy mills, and raw materials place for nascent telepathswhen a young
from the mines. From further out, it imports exotic telepath of notable power is found, he or she is
drugs from the Pharms and machineparts the brought here and trained: most never find a place
Distro-Point will not provide from the Kingdom of in the Corpus, but do find positions of wealth and
IZ. The Dry Docks are a collection of truck-stops power with the Banks, the Hierarchy, or other
and loading zones. Robotic arms sweep power-brokers. Although you can't go inside
overhead, pallets of goods and tanks of fluid are unless you have legitimate business (and believe
moved across the vast, cracked, concrete floors. me, they'll know) it's a great place to take
Its a good place to look for low-wage work and pictures of!
the first time many of the trucking crews get to
see when they disembark.
Gold District
F Q h
The center of banking for the world. Three towers
(the tallest is Great Whites, the most lavish is
Hammerheads) stand amid glittering shops and
ultra high security. The trust the banks have for
50
The Food Chain: Whos Who in the Yard

Welcome to the BoneYard. Let me tell you a
Somehow you made it in the big wide world story about predation. Once upon a time, in the
And you're absolutely home and dry seas (before the ozone layer burned away and
You got away from a one horse town the UV radiation killed off the top twenty feet of
And the only way out was to fly eco-system and the waves became a sort of
frothy slate-gray they called a Strangelove
Ocean) there were fish. Right? And the little
You sign a deal that's been etched in stone fish were eaten by the big fish and the bigger
It's absolutely cut and dry fish ate the big fish and the sharks came and
That's when they got you in the danger zone ate the bigger fish and so on. I dunno where I
And the only way out is to die was going with all of this except that it seems
to correlate somehow with the statistics that
-- Alan Parsons Project Vulture Culture say that within 72 seconds of leaving the
orientation station, 12% of all incoming
refugees get robbed and that within 96 hours over 80% are under the control of an organization
that will, erm, extract payment for protection. Somewhere upwards of 50% cant pay and those
that can often get the Vig by robbing the rest. So without further analogies, apologies, or ado,
heres the list: the Whos Who of the BoneYard.
patrol the city or the wastelandsthey train
constantly for warfor attack, defense, or
The Hierarchy retribution. Like the Hierarchy that commands
Who: The rulers of the Bone Yard. them, they are almost never seen by the rank
Style: You never see them directly. Everything is and file.
an intermediaryif you do reach them, they are a Style: Matt-Black weapons. Sleek uniforms with
broad royal family as eccentric as they are high-tech web-gear. Armored visors with night
ruthless and pragmatic when it comes to vision and cybernetic targeting. A razor-crisp
defending what is theirs. It is said they wear How High? attitude. Real professionals that
ornate, ornamental robes and head-dresses and scare the hell out of everyone elses barbaric ad
often use telepathic rigs to speak through their hoc militia.
retinue of servants. It is said each is wired to an Where: Six walled armories within the city and
ancient assault robot which is never far away, six hidden bolt-holes just outside.
ready to rain death on an attacker. Claim To Fame: Ancient armed hover-vehicles
Where: The western road-nexus called the with energy siege cannons. Robotic drones.
Spiral. Their stronghold is a former corporate Tactical Neutron Bombs. Cybernetic soldiers.
complex that still has the lush gardens and broad If They Were a Fish They Would Be: A
sparkling avenues that it used to. Its defended Swordfish. It doesnt eat all the fish in the sea,
with nuclear-fueled smart-lasers, Have- but if you mess with it, its got a chainsaw.
technology force fields, and killer robots.
Claim To Fame: An army. The last remaining The Traffic Authority
Distribution Point. Lots and lots of ancient Who: The large-scale police force that enforces
artifacts. Power-Weapons. Arcane things youve order, especially against armed vehicles. There
never heard of. A penchant for thinking long-term are Eye in the Sky helicopters and video-robots.
that means they almost always fight when they The Traffic Authority guards the entrance gates
want to. Paranoia. to the city and deals with any large scale
If They Were A Fish The Would Be: A vehicular mayhem (usually by destroying
Megladon (prehistoric shark that can swallow a everything in the area). They also handle revolts
family of 5 and their Volkswagen) or massive riots (the same way).
Style: Unidentified Vehicle, you are in violation
The Arm: The Military of the Yard of Code 187.1.2-C. Power down engines and
Who: Over a Thousand men, women, and weapons and exit the vehicle. You have 12-
mutantsall conditioned to be suicidally loyal seconds to comply. The Authority is almost
and all trained constantly for war. They do not never seen in person. Their voice is a
51
computer-simulated female sounding signal The Bitch Queen

broadcast from their central control tower (a 70- Who: A long lived extreme mutant who was there
story windowless cement tower with a glass-lined when the BoneYard became the worlds
command complex at the top that glows a preeminent power and created the monetary
hellish red. system the world uses today. She is a massive
Where: The tower is central. There are two semi-human being, bloated with constant
Armories (North and South) with the flying pregnancy and giving birth to monsters she
hover-craft and ground vehicles. controls.
Claim To Fame: They use short range anti- Style: A Queen. An Empress. She has retinue of
gravity hover-gunboats lined with Heavy-Pulsar her men and her children (each different and
Energy guns that can pulverize a block (these are manufactured for a specific set of attributes).
perhaps the last flying assault force left in When she has an audience, she speaks in the
existence). On the ground there are armed royal We and her voice has an eerie reverb.
Humvees with .50 caliber machine guns. She wears multicolored silk robes over her
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A Killer massive bulk.
Whale. What? Thats not? Well, its big and it Claim To Fame: She created the concept of the
eats lots of fish right? Right? There you go. Credita triangular piece of metal with a
crypto-chip in it that prevents counterfeit. She
The Corpus Cognito runs her own Order of Knights whose purpose is
Who: The Body of Thought, a private (some to collect debts owed and to ensure that her
would say secret) council of Telepaths of currency is taken. She is infamous for having her
immense power. They were instrumental in the enemies (deadbeats, enemy bankers, mayors of
early rise of the BoneYard and have maintained towns who didnt pay up) impaled on
their place. They advise the Hierarchy (using pneumatically activated steel spikes outside her
precognition, telepathic espionage, and a few tower. In addition to her own order knights, and
brilliant strategic minds). They regulate power her small force of monsters, she has a seventy-
amongst the banks. They keep a close eye on five-man personal security force with armored
any powerful telepaths in the city. vehicles.
Style: Hello. You cant see me. Im in your head. If They Were A Fish The Would Be: A
Stop looking around like that. It looks silly. A Barracuda.
council of mindspowerful mindswants to talk Bank: Great White
to you. No, umm, no. You cant say no. They are Who: The largest of the three major banks, Great
a would-be praetorian guard. They fight amongst White is known for its ruthless enforcement of
each other, play chess with the less powerful contracts and predatory lending techniques. On
members of the BoneYard society, and further the street level, Great White operators always
their own ends. Each member takes the name of have a loan plan theyll accept and will chop you
an ancient city (Tokyo, Manhattan, HongKong, up for spare parts if you dont pay.
etc.) Style: That of a drug pusher. Great White has
Where: Some members are public meaning humans who carry out the decisions but the
that other powerful people know where they can policy is run by a machinea massive computer
be found. Most are very hard to get to. There is a that calculates risks and odds and orders those
building called The Drome where the mental whose risks get too high terminated.
avatars meet and where they bring people to talk Where: The Gold Block (where all three main
to them officially. bank offices face off with assault cannons
Claim To Fame: Lots of Telepathy and pointed at each others high-rises). Regional
Precognition. A scary network of informants, guys offices and operators are everywhere.
with deeply implanted directives, etc. Scheming Claim To Fame: A 200-man private army and a
that would make Machiavelli queasy. Pacts that core of elite cybernetically modified shock troops
ensure that if you kill one of them, the rest will at (the sharks).
least make a real attempt to get rid of you. If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A man-
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A deep eater, plowing through schools of smaller fish and
water, super-toxic lion fish with barbed spikes. consuming them.
That is if the Lion Fish would sometimes come up
to the surface and eat a skindiver for reasons no Bank: Black Tip
one could understand. Who: The second bank (and equal rival with
Hammerhead). Unlike Great White, at the top is a
single personality: a gunslinger named Colin
52
Wayatt. Hes said to have killed over 30 people in

duels with his twin Lews .45 over-loaded six-
guns. Black Tip takes risk and has a history of
taking those who cant pay and making them The Congregation
work-off their debt (for the rest of their lives). Who: The Congregation is the largest religion in
Black Tip specializes in putting up loan money for the world and has a 24/7 broadcast to all
bounties. available video receiving units. With a large
Style: Cowboys. Wheeler-dealers. Black Tip number of adherents in the BoneYard, they are a
does a lot of work outside the Yard. Many force to be contended with. The Hierarchy
townships out in the ring of civilization past the despises them (more for their power than their
Inner Wasteland got started and still owe rapacious hypocrisy) but maintains agreements
interests on Black Tip loans. The sight of a small and treaties.
convoy of custom armed vehicles bearing the Style: The Spanish Inquisition. If you run a foul of
Black Tip logo and arriving in a plume of dust them (which can easily happen by finding out too
clouds bodes very ill for a mayor who has not much about the Haves or by plying into their
been meeting his payments. secrets, or by making statements about the past
Where: The Gold Block with the other banks. that their history disagrees with) they can come
Claim To Fame: The Range Ridersa group of for you. Their clerics wear high, shiny, curved
highly trained mercenaries (many whom owe head-dresses that taper to points giving them a
debts to Black Tip they will never pay off) that look of a semi-medieval cleric.
enforce Black Tips law. These are ruthless Where: The Grand Cathedral is the seat of
gunfighters who take pleasure in riding out in power. There are smaller missions everywhere.
heavily armed convoys to enforce their patrons Claim To Fame: They control a massive
contracts. broadcast network, the Space-needle (which the
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A big one, Hierarchy would dearly love to take command of
just a little smaller than Great White and eyeing it someday), and adherents both on the street and
closely. (more secretly) in high levels of government.
They have a military and it is said, trained
Bank: Hammerhead assassins as well.
Who: A second-tier bank tied with Black Tip in If They Were A Fish They Would Be: One of
size and reach. Hammerhead specializes in those ones with the light in front that draws you to
business loans and is also known for funding it (pretty)and then it has GIANT FREAKING
exploratory missions for a cut of the findings. FANGS. That fish.
Style: Hammerhead maintains a private data-
library with thousands and thousands of cross- City Grid: The Power Brokers
indexed facts. The central board tries to know Who: Power flows from the Spiral where the
whats going on in the city before the Hierarchy Hierarchy is (in the lightning district there is a
doesor even the Corpus Precogs. They small zone of Broadcast Power, but there are no
specialize in selling and trading corporate stocks, working relays and most of the city cant take
Yard bonds and other financial instruments. Their advantage of that). Through the Yard,
agents reek of mathematical genius misapplied in connections are maintained by the City Gridan
the pursuit of power. incorporated entity that sells power to everyone.
Where: The Gold District. The Hammerhead Style: If youre big, theyre a utilityimpersonal
building is lush with gold designs built into the and pretty efficient. If you do something like blow
black-marble floors and hanging gardens fed by up a major relay theyll send the Public Security
hydroponics systems. Force or maybe even the Traffic Authority after
Claim To Fame: A small collection of assault you (and if it, say, serviced the Bitch Queen or
robots that can be used to back up their agents. the Gold Districts others may want you too). If
A no-nonsense security force that includes and you are small though, or in an area with spotty
expert team of mutant snipers. power, you deal with a Wireman. A guy with a
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A moray limited number of outlets or a daily delivery of
eel. Look, Im doing this okay? I know an eels charged batteries and wires to run. If you run a
not a FISH! They lay in wait and then dart out, street-side Sex-Stim-Booth, you have to pay your
consuming their prey with multiple rows of razor wireman off each day. That gets dirty fast.
sharp what? Ok. With single rows a Usually the Wire-Men have small gangs of
SINGLE row of sharp teeth. Anyway, theyre protectors and will try to control business within a
sneaky and calculating. The fish thing doesnt given block
53
Where: Everywhere. The office is in the east of Style: Laconic and jadedif you are poor.
the city. It has two three-story forks outside that Snappy and responsive if youre rich. They arent
crackle with bands of lighting. incompetent thoughthe attack en-mass and
Claim To Fame: A writ for the Hierarchy to dont like being humiliated. Usually if you get
distribute power. A personal interior security force caught purse-snatching on an average block
(but backed up by the Authority). theyll haul you down town, beat you, write you
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A bunch up, break your arm, and throw you back out on
of small fighting fish (the wire-men) looking for a the street.
kickback from those they can squeeze.
If you have a successful business, they expect a
Central Water bonus but really do protect you more if you pay
Who: The Hierarchy may not care about any it.
individual, but they do care about the health of Where: Upper middle and high-class districts
their empire as a whole. Central Water maintains (also seen in transit). In the lower class areas
the pipes that get water through the BoneYard there are a fewbut deputized gangs are more
from the main reservoir. common.
Style: Theyre a utility. If you mess with them, Claim To Fame: Armed with .9mm handguns
you answer to the Traffic Authority and the Public and full-auto SMGs they are fairly well armed for
Security Forces. most of the populace. Their cars tend to have a
Where: Everywhere. The Reservoir is in the Rain .30 cal on top and light armor. They make good
District. use of radios and tend to look after their own
Claim To Fame: Theyre quick to call for backup, more than their citizens.
and they get it. No questions asked. If They Were A Fish? Corrupt Cop Fishthats
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: A big lazy what theyd be.
fish that doesnt eat much but no one messes
with. The Orders
Who: The Orders are groups of Road Knights
The Octopus who have taken vows to help try and keep the
Who: Organized Crime. The Hierarchy does not world from falling apart. Although 90% of their
like competition and although crime is a constant, work is done outside the BoneYard, there are
organized crime is usually institutionalized (the chapters within and individual knights conducting
Power Brokers, the Public Security Force). Still, their business.
the Octopus remains occulted in the shadows. It Style: Varies but think of the armored bad-ass in
is sort of a thieves gild, sort of a network of a tank-like vehicle, who has trained from a wee-
fences. lad or lass to kick your ass. You just broke their
Style: I know someone who knows someone. personal code
The Octopus is subtle and secretive. If youve Where: Chapters tend to have offices in poorer
stolen something from the Corpus, the Octopus blocks (the Orders are respected by their friends
could help you fence it. If you have secrets to sell and feared by their enemiesbut they dont
about Hammerheads security, the Octopus is spend their precious money on nice digs).
buying, but its very low key. Knights can be found anywhere.
Where: Everywhere and nowhere. Claim To Fame: Armed vehicles, power
Claim To Fame: Some very high level people weapons, elite training.
and a variety of organizations are hedging their If They Were A Fish They Would Be: I dont
bets and backing up their power-plays by joining. know? Warrior Knight Fish? Is that a fish? I think
If They Were A Fish They Would Be A: fast Ive seen it on the menu.
black one that is rarely seenbut has sharp
teeth when it attacks from surprise. Deputized Gangs
Who: In the middle and low class districts order
Public Security Forces is maintained by gangs that have been given a
Who: The police. Theyre corrupt as cops go writ by Public Security. They tend to be brutal
but not so corrupt as to be worthless. They cruise and violentbut they do keep out other gangs
the streets in lightly armored fuel burning vehicles and they dont want to get their writs revoked so
and squash anyone who they think they can take they have to keep things kinda quiet.
whos making trouble. Thats what they want: no Style: That of the fox guarding the henhouse.
trouble. You gotta pay your vig to the deputiesand if
you dont you will get the big shakedown. They
54
have badges but behind the badge, its nothing

but mutant thug. Loners, Zoners, and Grifters
Where: In the middle and low-class districts. If Who: The predatory underclass is alive and
you travel through one you may run into a toll- healthy in the Yard. From the Taxi Driver who
collecting check-point. takes you on a one-way trip to robbed-and-dead-
Claim To Fame: A badge, some weapons, and a ville to the psychopathic drugged up knife-
bunch of tough guys. fighters that wander the streets looking for
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: Piranha! action to get the next fix, the street is full of
predators looking for prey.
Criminal Gangs Style: Even in the nice parts of town you travel
Who: Gangs that arent deemed socially with security or look over your shoulder. Women
conscious enough (i.e. profit motivated and semi- on the trams travel in packs with concealed
organized and smart enough to know where their weapons incase the wrong person comes up to
interest lies) are just criminal gangs. Its usually them. If you look like a scary mutant you may be
live and let live unless the gang crosses a shot before you even get a chance to prove
customer whos paying for good protection or youre not psychotic.
decides to move up the food-chain. Where: Everywhere BEHIND YOU! Really,
Style: Knives, chains, cheap guns, mutant anywhere on the street.
abilities, leather jackets, wild haircuts, and loud Claim To Fame: anything from a switchblade to
music. a mutant optical blast. Mostly a desperate need
Where: all overbut mostly the bad parts of for money or food or both.
town. If They Were A Fish They Would Be: Rabid fish
Claim To Fame: A Zip gun. frothing at the mouth. Dont bother me any
If They Were A Fish They Would Be: An Oscar. moreIm done with the fish thing.
Eats guppies. Gets eaten by larger Oscars.
55
Life in the Outer Wasteland

Starting at the toxic outer edge of the Middle Ring, drive 250
miles in any direction where there's still land and you'll reach Can you picture what will be, So
the nominal end of civilization. The Middle Ring is no paradise: limitless and free
towns fall, diseases and toxins take their toll, Freqs raid and the
ruins that speckle the landscape remain mysterious and Desperately in need...of
dangerous. But when you get about 500 miles from the some...stranger's hand
BoneYard, the world takes overand humanity runs out of In a...desperate land
steam (well, almostthere are some distant points of Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
civilization, but getting there's a gamble). And all the children are insane, All
the children are insane
Welcome to the Outer Wasteland. It is Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
Deserted. In a way even the Middle Ring doesn't manage to There's danger on the edge of town
be. Out there are more monsters than manand more empty Ride the King's highway, baby
space than both. You can drive for the rest of your life and
never see another human being if you head north.
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Weird. The Outer Wasteland is bizarre in ways that don't Ride the snake, ride the snake
immediately or obviously relate to its status as ground simply To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
too dangerous to inhabit. There are forces at work out there that The snake is long, seven miles
don't venture closer (for whatever reason). There are things out
there with perspectives we may never understand. The laws of
--The End, The Doors
physics themselves aren't necessarily all that intact. People
who venture out there report pre-cognitive dreams and terribly The Ruins
possibly-lethal nightmares.
People dont live in the Ruinsto the
west are the Grand Ruinsthe remains
Dangerous. The Outer Wasteland contains things that could,
of the great city that stretched along the
frankly, just devour a convoy. We're not sure what they are
North American Pacific coastand they
but they're out there. Massive nuclear powered war machines?
still standgray, dustysilentbut not
Mobile masses of hostile psychic energy? Holes in the ground
quite empty. Not quite. And very, very
with no known bottom? Sureall that an more. The basic
deadly. To the North East is the ruin of
monsters (9-foot tall invisible hopping fungi) are bad enough
Denver. And theres Vegas with the
but the Outer Wasteland isn't just a numbers game: people who
lights still on and the slot machines still
live on the edge know, in a very real sense, when they've gone
workingsterilized by still deadly
too far out and its time to come back.
radiation.
Unexplored. At one time there were complete down-to-the-foot
The Ruins arent discussed here
satellite maps of the planet (they say)and certainly a few
theyre not exactly part of the Outer
hundred years ago society spread across everything (and up
Wasteland (many are right at home
into the sky and down into the earth)but now it's a different
smack in the middle of everything)but.
story. Be it the vast forests of the north to the deserts of the
But. But
east or the toxic jungles of the south there are places no one
and that includes the distant empires has been. Traveling out
The Ruins may not be far-flung from
there means seeing stuff that hasn't been seen before by any
where people livebut theyre as distant
living member of any generation. Sometimes even 100 miles
from civilization as the Outer Wasteland.
from home (if you live right on the edge) down a pretty decent
They share the same ethicthe same
stretch of remaining road-way gets you places you'll know
sense of deserted strangenessthe
you're the first one to look at.
same sense of wrongness. So if youre
thinking about a never-to-return journey
Recovering. Maybe. People who have ventured out say that
to the Outer Wasteland: take a look at
the eco-systems are, maybe, coming back sort of. There are
Ruins. Its the Outer Wasteland closer
reports of massive nuclear craters filled with tangled green
to home.
forests. There are reports of mountain tops covered with snow
56
and housing glimmering flying things that swoop and rise on the
air-currents. There are reports of massive herds of animals (of
Now it's been 10,000 years
never-before seen typesbut all of roughly the same type). Man has cried a billion tears
Some people say the earth is coming backand the earth is For what he never knew
coming back angry. Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The Ecology of the Outer Wasteland The twinkling of starlight
The Outer Wasteland is, geographically, like the Middle Ring. So very far away
The differences are more subtle than a simple change in terrain. Maybe it's only yesterday...
That, however, doesn't mean there aren't differences. -- "In The Year 2525 (Exordium
& Terminus)," Zager and Evans
Nightmare Storms
Where there are thunderheads in the Middle Ring and toxic
sand-storms in the Inner Wasteland, periodically something
something badwill sweep down from the north. This thing
this phenomenais called a Nightmare Storm. Clinically, it is
said to be a massive discharge of semi-stable negative psychic
energy whose source is unknown. Physically it looks a bit like a
blizzard (and is accompanied by unseasonably cold
temperatures). In nightmare storms waves of fear and panic
gust like the high winds. People vanishtowns disappear, and
hollow pleas are heard on the radio in the call signs of the gone
decades later. Nightmare Storms are thankfully rareand seem
to avoid populace areas as a one storm-front may curve around
anotherbut out in the wasteland they can comeand you'd
better avoid them when they do.
The Behemoths
There are some big animals in the Middle Ring. Down Death
Alley are the Gila Monsters. There are nuclear powered Crawler
robots in the ruins. There are toxic abominations in the Inner
Ring (some cybernetic). These are all big. Out in the Outer
Wasteland are reports of things on a scale with mountain
ranges. The Iron Warlord (fact or myth, you decide?) is reputed
to be over 300 yards of black metal armor. The Machine Herds
have members over 100 yards longhow big do they get?
Down in the Pacific Basin there are rumors of things even
bigger: land dwelling tentacled things the size of cities. Who
knowsbut you don't want to be the first to find out if they're
hostile.
Lost Areas
Another reputed phenomena of the Outer Wasteland are
reports of lost areasspots (which may movethere certainly
are no maps to any) that are blind spots on the planetplaces
where your radio doesn't workwhere your natural sense of
direction just leads you further in. Lost Areas are said to be
places where you can go one step in and turn around and it's
100-steps to get out (meaning back to where you were) or
worse. People who've traveled the Outer Wastelandeven
hard-bitten ones, treat this as something perhaps more
dangerous than superstition. All kinds of weapons were used in
the Age of War. What if one of them simply took porous chunks
out of reality altogether?
57

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What are Nightmare Storms and what dangers do they pose?

What are Nightmare Storms and what dangers do they pose?

What are some of the massive creatures reported to live in the Outer Wasteland?

What are some of the massive creatures reported to live in the Outer Wasteland?

Copyright Marco Chacon, Permission to copy for personal use is granted.

The Nature Conservancy

National Audubon Society

World Wildlife Fund-United States

Species Survival Commission

Have-Not: Its a nice place to visitbut I wouldnt want to live there.

Featuring amazing artwork by:

JAGS: Have-Not..................................... 4 Water Towns......................................................... 24

JAGS: Have-Not JAGS HAVE-NOT

THE AGES OF MAN

And then. They. Left.

Long Story Long

The End of the Information Age

The Dawn of the Age of Wonder: The

The citizens of the world never entered the Have

"And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills

Where in the past there was war,

The warlords of The Age of War

Almost. The genocidal/suicidal global war destroyed almost everything. In its

The NOW: Welcome To The BoneYard. Have-Not.

The State of the World MThe Sagittarian

And theyre right. Mostly.

Welcome to Have-Not. Proceed With Caution.

Welcome to Have-Not: Approach Section

Heroic Science Fantasy Adventure

Dispensing With All This: Alternate Takes

The Three Ethos' of Have-Not

The Basic Game Structure

Choosing Game Focus

The Vehicles Game

The Ammo, Fuel, Credits, and Water Game

Dizzy: Nuke Yorks only 3 days away.

The Exploration Game (vs. the Mysteries)

Things are going to slide,

Dry. Some of it's for-real desert. A lot of it is just dry. There

Hard. Living in the Middle Ring means, for most people,

Poor. Chances are, if you're in the Middle Ring, you're a

Violent. Not all the time, but when it

Indebted. A lota lotof what's out

Night, in the desert, is cold, lonely, and very, very dark.

Weather in the Middle Ring

Toxic Dust Storms

What Goes On in the Middle Ring?

The Garbage Mines

There are massive veins of garbage deep under the surface.

What's In Your Average Town?

Rules in the Middle Ring

The positive modifiers are location based.

Why? The ecology of

Each dome, it is said, held a stable

It is said that their very

Raw materials came out of the

The wonder metal Neonium was

Welcome to the Wasteland. It... They did worse: They were a

'Cause it's the new Mother