What I have in mind here is both simple and complicated at once. Basically the group will take on the roles of a group of wanderers arriving in a new area of the Wastelands, looking to establish themselves and survive as long as they can. Starting with practically nothing over time the players will salvage, scavenge and otherwise acquire the materials they need to grow their settlement and fight off other groups.

There will be rough classes, including the Road Warriors (drivers skilled in vehicle combat), War Dogs (melee fighters) and Blackfingers (mechanics/engineers), along with a selection of vehicles. Players will start with either a motorcycle or light frame vehicle (a buggy or trike) and can obtain better vehicles by performing special missions to find heavier frames and body parts, over time building up their perfect deathroller while at the same time managing their resources to keep their wheels on the road.

At the same time the group will work together to build their encampment, starting with a small hidden hideaway and building up to a fully fortified stronghold. Upgrading the base can be done either by gathering materials and constructing new buildings and fortifications, or by scouting and invading Pre-Fall structures whose heavier construction or location gives them a defensive advantage.

Gear, weapons and equipment can either be looted or crafted, with the team working together to obtain parts to slowly upgrade their loadouts to improve themselves. Character development will be entirely based on what goodies they have, and making a character toughter or stronger will be down to obtaining better armour and weapons, and obtaining even a small boost will be the reward for performing missions.

The technology level of the world will be 'rustpunk', with most things being either recovered modern era tech or repurposed salvaged items used in a way not originally intended. No advanced technology or high-tech items, with things like mobile phones, computers and satellites having ceased functioning during The Fall.

To put all that into simple terms:

• Start with almost nothing.
• Find scrap.
• Build vehicles and gear.
• Gather resources.
• Build a home.
• Survive as long as you can.

The specifiuc details of the world will be open to discussion before the game begins, with the actual gameplay mechanics being developed by me as GM during that time to fit the specific scenario.

Hopefully this will work as a collaborative effort, with my role as GM to determine how difficult proposed things would be to do in the given setting rather than simply refusing them altogether. Having said that, anyone trying to build spaceship, energy weapons and fully aware AIs will find a lot of their time wasted.

Tagged as '18+' due to the adult nature of the ravaging warbands raping and murdering their way across the world. The players can choose to join in on this, or try to keep themselves safely away from such madness.

Possible starting points:

• A wandering band of survivors finally reach a new area after struggling their way across The Big Nothing, with the last of their supplies running low.
• Residents of a bunker break the seal on their generational home and head for the surface as their resources run dry and are faced with the horrors of the World Above.
• An invading warlord's War Rig and accompanying army have been wiped out, and now the remnants have to recover their strength before getting their revenge.
• After a vicious storm the crew of a naval vessel are shipwrecked in a strange land, with no knowledge of how to get back out to sea.

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We are awaited! Lets ride!

What preferences would people have for their character roles?

So far I was thinking of including Road Warriors (combat drivers, Nitro Boost ability), War Boys (melee fighters, Fury ability), Blackfingers (mechanics/engineers, Tinkerer ability), Longlookers (scouts and surveyors, Lookout ability), Speakers (diplomats and traders, Silvertongue ability) and Leadslingers (snipers and gunslingers, Scope ability.)

Each character would get to choose two roles, making their own combined class with separate bonuses for each.

For instance, the Road Warriors would have the Nitro Boost ability, which would allow them to outrun pursuers or ram targets, while Blackfingers would have the Tinkerer ability, which would let them customise equipment and gear. Having a combination of the two would allow a player to be able to maintain and customise their own vehicle without having to meet up with another Blackfinger to get work done, as well as having a significant bonus when in vehicular combat.

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How complicated would people prefer the gameplay to be?

I’m planning on having random events get in the way of the party’s attempts to survive the Wastelands, but would people want me to keep track of every resource they’ll be needing (food, water, fuel, ammunition, etc.) or would you prefer characters automatically have whatever they need so you can all just go raiding?

Would you prefer more narrative-based action without RNG-based combat and social interactions, or more stat and attribute heavy character sheets which would put limits on what your character can succeed in?

Interesting. I'll be following up on this.

I'll put a vote in for more survival-based mechanics (maybe more of a focus on fuel and ammo than food and water ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), but not too much of a reliance on RNG. I don't wanna miss a shot at point blank range just because I rolled a 1 or something. I guess it all depends on the application, but I don't have a particularly healthy relationship with RNJesus.

also yeah hi I'm interested

...but not too much of a reliance on RNG. I don't wanna miss a shot at point blank range just because I rolled a 1 or something.

The basic version of the game, if players wanted to be more narrative based, would only use RNG for things like locating new salvage locations, generating enemy encounters and determining loot drops, all things which would be done entirely on the GM side of things.

A more complicated system, if player wanted that, would include a ‘motivations’ system, which awarded points for characters acting in a consistent manner. These points could be spent to alter die rolls to prevent failures, or saved up and used to trigger ‘miraculous’ actions allowing them to pull off near impossible feats.

Under that system character sheets would be attribute and skill based, similar to a tabletop RPG, with dice rolls affecting attacks, driving, construction, scouting and other actions.

If your character was a careful sniper, and took their time lining up a shot after setting themselves up in a sniper nest and having equipped a well-crafted rifle with a high quality scope you’d pretty much be guaranteed a hit. On the other hand, if your character was mercurial switching moods, fighting styles and equipment every encounter you’d more likely fail, since you’d lack the experience to be able to pull off attacks skilfully.

The system would favour specialists over jacks-of-all-trades, with characters dedicated to developing a few skills well progressing better than ones who try to be masters of everything.

@Genni Thank you for the information! All of what you've described sounds awesome and I'd totally be down for it, provided other players are cool with it too. The motivations system is an intriguing concept, reminds me a little bit of the fact you're awarded points for performing "heroic" acts in MGS V. I'll admit the fact people can choose two roles worried me at first, but you've obviously got a plan to prevent people from abusing the system and making an all-around survivalist (if that makes sense, I should probably sleep because it's like 7am).

I'm excited to see where this goes.

The motivations system is an intriguing concept, reminds me a little bit of the fact you're awarded points for performing "heroic" acts in MGS V.

I'm planning to use a modified version of the Tides seen in the Numenera game, with different colours representing different personality traits, making it so the players consider why their character would be doing something, rather than just what they want their character to do. The five Tides are:

• Blue Tide
  Represents wisdom, enlightenment, and mysticism. It is the Tide of people whose goal is to expand the mind and the spirit, or gain knowledge. Opposed to Red and Silver Tides.
• Red Tide
  Represents passion, emotion, action, and zeal. It is the Tide of people whose goal is to live in the moment, to experience life to its fullest, or to follow their heart wherever it leads them. Opposed to Blue and Green Tides.
• Yellow Tide
  Represents justice, compromise, and the greater good. It is the Tide of people who view life's difficulties from a broad, communal perspective rather than an individual one. Opposed to Green and Silver Tides.
• Green Tide
  Represents charity, sacrifice, and empathy. It is the Tide of people whose primary goal is to help others, especially at a cost to themselves. Opposed to Red and Yellow Tides.
• Silver Tide
  Represents admiration of power and seekers of fame. It is the Tide of people who seek to influence the lives of others or who actively seek to be remembered. Opposed to Blue and Yellow Tides.

Players do not have to use the Tides, but each time they do they are rewarded with a point in the colour of the Tide they used for their action, while losing a point from each of the two Tides their colour choice is opposed to. Each point can be used to alter the result of an action, preventing catastrophioc failures or boosting the success when needed most. After collecting 5 points the players may declare a free action, which is guaranteed to succeed as long as the GM agrees and as long as the action is framed in correlation to the colour of the points they've collected.

As an example, a War Boy who enjoys being the first into combat has collected five Red Tide points by being passionately zealous all the time. While defending the convoy from a raider attack the player declares that the War Boy is going to leap onto an attacking vehicle and kill the driver with a spectacular display of skill, spending their five points in the process. Since this is a zealous, passionately active use of the points the GM agrees and the War Boy succeeds in their attack immediately, but now has to deal with the fact they're standing on the roof of a vehicle with no driver speeding along at an unsafe velocity.

Alternatively a Blackfinger who enjoys crafting finely detailed weapons bearing their name collects five Silver Tide points by being famed for their powerful creations. When the party decide to build a new vehicle using the parts they've managed to salvage from wrecks across the Wastelands the Blackfinger declares they're going to lock themselves away for the next couple of days, building a magnificent war chariot the likes of which none have seen before. Since this is a display of power, and will likely lead to the Blackfinger becoming even more well-known thanks to their skill the GM agrees, and the party immediately gains a new, powerful war machine to ride around on.

@Genni I feel a little silly responding to paragraphs' worth of information with a measly sentence, but:

Fuck. Yeah.

I'm an absolute slut for Mad Max so count me in

I didn't know I needed a Mad Max and Megamind crossover until now.

This sounds really cool.

I agree with a more narrative style of play, with the RNG being used to determine the shape of the map/plot rather than individual actions.

@Mara Hey buddy you want....

With plenty of people showing interest I've started up a Discord server to help set up the scenario and start developing characters. Anyone wanting to jump in to discuss how to best go forwards with this idea please follow THIS LINK.

Thanks.

Genni probably knows I'm not one to cross my tabletop mechanics with narrative RP but I've been watchin'. Might get to work on a CS.

@Sierra The general consensus is for a narrative RP for this, with RNG used only for event generation and map building. Basically I'll be creating random events for the party to deal with, but characters will be free to respond to them in a narrative manner.

The only limit I'm putting in place is the 'Motivations' system, where players will be rewarded for acting in a consistent manner with their characters with magical points which will allow them to pull off miraculous, logic defying actions within the game. Because this will be in place attempts to pull off miraculous, logic defying actions any other way will give me the opportunity for some very entertaining consequences to those actions.

@Genni Gotta say, I really like this system of rewarding you following your characters drives rather than your own. It makes the story better and the characters consistent and I've never seen a system like that in RP so good on you. I like it a lot.

@Jarl Coolgruuf I've used it a few times in tabletop RPs I've been involved with, and once people get a hang of it the system flows quite easily. The real trick to it is not to let the Motivations limit what actions you want to take with your character, but rather framing the actions to suit the Motivation you want to use.

For instance, if you want your chracter to attack first then you could say that they're eager to get into the fight and can't hold themselves back, in which case you'd be earning a Red point.

On the other hand, your character might want to prevent others from being harmed and is throwing themselves forward to protect the rest of the party, in which case they'd gain a Green point instead.

If they take a moment to assess the situation before realising that the best course of action is to take out the threat fast before they can counter the character could earn a Blue point, while wanting to be the one who gets the glory for the first kill would be a Silver point.

Finally deciding to act quickly to reduce the risk of collateral damage would be rewarded with a Yellow point.

In all these cases the player gets to perform the same action, attacking first, but by considering why their character would want to be the one to attack first, rather than just metagaming a reason, it makes the RP a lot more engaging.

Plus once you have earnt enough points you get to do something awesome as well.