Subject: MB: Wasteland Cosm - Ideas anyone From: jmorris@OPIE.BGSU.EDU Date: Aug 1995 Okay, here's a cosm that I've been thinking about for a while now, but finally sat down and put my thoughts in order. Now, I'm asking for advice. Basically, this is a Mad Max / Gamma World sort of cosm, so if anyone has any ideas about it please share, Thanks: THE WASTELAND THE COSM -------- History: To the people of the Wastelands, their world is an ancient one. Thousands of years ago, two civilizations of great power ruled over the world that is now known as Wastelands. The two civilizations were bitter enemies, and fought many wars over the centuries. It came to pass that the two foes found a weapon that was more powerful than any the world had seen before, and when the two nations next fought, the world was destroyed in a blast of fire and a flash of light - radiation filled the skies and ash filled the air. And the Long Winter began. Throughout the Long Winter, mankind stayed hidden below the surface of the world, in a series of natural caverns that ran under the lands. Some began to show deformities and strange abilities - the Legacy of the Last War. How long the Long Winter lasted, no one is certain, but when mankind finally emerged from their underground hiding places they came upon a strange and different world from the one they left. The green and vibrant healthy lands had been replaced by harsh deserts, animals that once were helpful had been transformed into monsters or worse, and pockets of radiation lay everywhere, transforming people and animals into mutants and monsters. For the last few centuries, mankind has been trying to eke out an existance on this barren world. Warlords have risen and have carved out their own little nations. The warlords rule due to their command of ancient artifacts, powerful technology left by the former rulers of the world. What is not known to any of the inhabitants of the Wastelands is that their world is not a true world at all, but rather a pocket dimension of the world known as Core Earth. Once the Wastelands was a world known as Futuria, a world created subconsciously by Core Earthers as their version of a future paradise. Futuria had a tech level beyond what most Core Earthers could fathom at the time, and represented a level of society that they could only dream of. When the nuclear bomb was created and dropped on Hiroshima, suddenly that view of a "perfect future" changed. Suddenly the future no longer looked so bright and perfect, and the threat of nuclear war seemed evident. Responding to these subconscious fears, the pocket cosm of Futuria found itself locked into a struggle that it couldn't win and was destroyed, replaced by the Wastelands. As more Core Earthers latched onto the nightmare of nuclear armageddon, the Wastelands took on a more distinct shape. Now, the pocket cosm has solidified into its current shape and its inhabitants no longer remember the Future wonderland they once belonged to, their history reduced to some war between two super-powers. The Wasteland Today Today the wasteland is a patchwork of civilization and desolation. Some portions of the world are civilized with small shanty towns run by petty dictators. Other portions are desolate, radioactive waste, populated by mutant horors, monstrous animals, or worse. Waste and cities often lie side by side, the rulers of the towns using the waste to protect themselves from their enemies. Physically, the Wastelands contains three mid-sized continents, each with a variety of small towns and city-states ruling within them. The entire world speaks one language, a legacy of the advanced civilization that once lived there, and each city-state is in a constant state of warfare with its neighbors. Some cities have set up trade, but most simply war with each other and take what they can. The Warlords that rule the cities generally hold their power through the use of ancient technological devices - guns, cannons, lasers, robots, almost anything can allow them to hold power over the people that they rule. Some Warlords are benevolent, some are tyrannical, but almost all are warriors, ready to take what they can grab -- either for themselves or for their people. One thing that all Warlords have in common is their desire to discover the lost technology of the ancients. Warlords often send out expeditions to ancient ruins, looking for lost devices and machines to maintain their power over their peoples. Axioms and World Laws: ---------------------- Magic: 7 The magic axiom of the Wasteland is the same as Core Earth, and is able to support ritual alteration and minor divinations. Social: 8 Wasteland's Social axiom allows for feudalism and primitive government. The Warlords generally demand tribute for their "protection" of their people. As the social axiom isn't high enough to allow for the concept of money, this tribute takes the form of food, metals, or slaves. Spiritual:5 Wasteland's Spiritual axiom is much lower than Core Earth's, reflecting the beliefs of its inhabitants that God has abandoned them completely (or that God never existed in the first place). Miracles are only possible through the interaction of priests and their laity. Tech:26 The tech axiom of Wasteland allows for slightly higher technology than Core Earth, but the Law of Technological Regression straps the technology that can be created/reproduced to a maximum tech axiom of 15. Inhabitants of the Wasteland see high tech devices as "magical" artifacts created by the ancients that only work through powerful magic, or through the power of the ancients. World Laws Law of Radiation ---------------- The Law of Radiation states that radiation causes mutations, both helpful and harmful, in those it affects. The LoR causes mutants to gain superior attributes and even powers, in exchange for deformities and debilitating attributes. These mutations take effect in one of three ways: 1. Non-possibility rated characters can gain a three point enhacement package as if they were purchasing a magical enhancement package from Aysle (i.e. take a limit of 7 on one of their other attributes). 2. Possibility rated characters can gain a three point enhancement package by taking a limit of 7 on one of their attributes OR by paying an adventure cost of 1 possibility for each enhancement package purchased. A maximum of 2 enhancement packages can be purchased this way. 3. Possibility rated characters can gain a mutant power (i.e. a Pulp power - use the Pulp Powers from the Land below) by paying the adventure cost in possibilities as given in the Land Below sourcebook. Law of Technological Regression: -------------------------------- The Law of Technological Regression states that no Technology above an axiom level of 15 can be created in the cosm, although technologies up to tech axiom 26 can be used by the inhabitants. Jeremy Morris (jmorris@opie.bgsu.edu) "Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground." - Pratchett "Small Gods"