Rosa Garcea walked through the graveyard of old abandoned vehicles. At her side was her dog Ruin, someplace behind her was her human companion, Snipe, who really wished he was not here, truth be known Rosa wished he was not here as well.
The elders at the settlement told her there was evidence some old radio equipment, (transmitters, receivers, microphones, headphones, that sort of stuff), were to be found either in the old car graveyard or the long abandoned town, both about four miles away along the old highway. Radios are useful items to help the settlement keep in contact with survivors beyond the immediate surrounds. As a scrapper with old tech knowledge she was tasked to locate the equipment, Snipe was there for muscle.
Rosa and Ruin had been to the car graveyard many times before. Rosa knew if there was anything of value it would have long been taken by the Raiders, Marauders or the occasional Scrap Golem that once wandered the area. These days all you were likely to encounter were Crazies or Breds. Now even the Militia from Old Town no longer patrolled this way. Thankfully Ruin could smell Breds and Crazies a mile away, Snipe though, as useful as he was, seemed on edge and a little trigger happy.
Just then Ruin began to growl…
Tookbox
The Ruin d100 by Feral Gamers Inc.
my simple d100 Oracle
game-icons.net (for hints to answers for those pesky open questions)
8 steps to game prep by Sly Flourish
Session Prep
(Using Sly flourish 8 steps to game prep.)
Review Characters
Rosa Garcea – Class: Scrapper
Rosa’s parents were ‘preppers’, when the end came they had everything ready. Rosa spent her early years in an underground shelter. She was one of the lucky few who left those shelters and risked the outside world, many did not.
Travelling from place to place Rosa sold what she had found for food and water but the next day moved on. Eventually Rosa arrived at a place known by those that lived there as ‘Settlement’ and finally decided to stay giving up her nomadic lifestyle.
Rosa is a Scrapper, a loner and her only true friend is her dog Ruin. The settlement allowed Rosa to stay because she is useful to them. Her ability to find and recognise old tech items as well as useful items others would see only as junk has made her a key member of this commune. When the hustle and bustle of the commune get too much for her, Rosa is only to happy to head out in to the wilderness with Ruin to look for items of use to the settlement.
Link to Rosa Garcea Character Sheet (Google doc)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FDvK0uOkGF3WDXwbnGSeVWZO2kIDtcys/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102067436792775450932&rtpof=true&sd=true
Ruin (Dog) Rosa loyal and trusted hound.
Wounds 12, Grit 1, Damage (Fighting)+1, Initiative d10 +4, Fear -10
Skills : Fighting 60%, Survival 65%, Stealth 70%, Awareness 70% (+20% heightened awareness)
Abilities : Heightened Senses, Natural Weapons
Weapons : Bites 1d6
Andy ‘Snipe’ Montano – Class Merc
Snipe is a Settler, born and raised in Settlement and feels part of a family. Although he has never been good with people, give him a gun and he can shoot a cigar from the mouth of a squirrel.
Snipe feels lucky not only to have been brought up in Settlement but to be in a place where his skills with weapons are actually something that people need, yeah maybe just protecting the farm or patrolling the wall but when there is danger about or someone needs protection its Snipe they come to.
Link to Snipe’s Character Sheet (Goole doc)
Strong Start
Characters walking through a car and truck graveyard. Once it was a highway but now nature has begun to reclaim the road. There the characters will encounter someone or something with the possibility of conflict.
Outline Potential Scenes
Search the abandoned vehicles
Enter the deserted town
Enter various building’s
Return to settlement
Define secrets and clues
Clues could be found as to the possible location of the radio equipment.
Develop fantastic locations
Vehicle graveyard. Numerous rusty old cars, vans and trucks abandoned at the time of the apocalypse line a long disused road which is now being reclaimed by nature.
A town with a church was also abandoned some time ago. Houses are assumed to be empty and have long since fallen into disrepair. The town is not known to be currently inhabited.
Important NPC’s
At this early stage of the game I will just list 6 male and 6 female names. Should I require a new NPC I can quickly pick a name at random from the lists. It is surprising how much time this can save during the game.
Female Names.
- Suki
- Old Mrs Tibbs
- Gabriella Blanco
- Carla Costa
- Nurse Rash
- Dazzline Moses
Male Names.
- Da’Vion Page (Elder and oldest resident of the small settlement called simply Settlement by its residents)
- Judgment Reaver
- Mad Spikes
- Alam Al-Mazzud
- David Prats
- Juan Martin Figuroa
Relevant Monsters
Any from the rule book
Selecting Magic item rewards
Old radio equipment.
Possibly books and magazines scattered around inside the abandoned village buildings.
Scene 1 – the first encounter.
Rosa crouches down beside Ruin and signals to Snipe to move forward, indicating possible danger.
Snipe quietly moves forward and takes up a position just behind an old scrap car to the right of Rosa.
Rosa makes and awareness skill roll to see if she spots what Ruin is growling at.
Skill roll = 31, Success
Open Question – What is Ruin growling at?
Get a random game icon. Knee cap.
Rosa spots what looks like a human leg dangling from the side of an old abandoned car some (roll d100) 77 odd meters ahead of them and to the right.
Rosa whispers to Snipe that there appears to be someone sitting in the front of a rusty car some way ahead, she can just make out a leg dangling from the side of the car but that’s all she can see, she cannot say if the leg is attached to anyone or if there is more than one person at the car. Snipe draws his gun and indicates he will circle to the right in an attempt to sneak up on who ever is there.
Snipe rolls a 5 for his Stealth check, an amazing roll, he is able to move right up to the car without being spotted.
Rosa and Ruin move around to the left. She tries to get as near as possible without being seen yet remain far enough away to use her bow if the target is hostile.
She makes a Stealth skill roll. Rolling 24 she also gets close to the leg without being noticed.
Open Question – what does the leg belong to?
Get a random game icon, Golem Head.
As Snipe closes in on the leg he notices it is encased in metal, then the whole front of the car seems to stand up and to his horror Snipe realises he is staring at a Scrap Golem.
Snipe makes a Guts Check, he needs to roll 55 or less, (75% -20% for being face to face with a scrap golem) on d100 else he panics. Roll = 11.
Both Rosa and Snipe have surprise on the Scrap Golem. Snipe has a Scrap long gun (1d8 damage) but with the Golem’s armour of 7 his bullet will likely just to bounce off the creature. Rosa has a crossbow (1d12 damage), which will have some effect against the metal encased Golem but she would likely waste all her bolts trying to defeat the creature.
Rosa indicates to Snipe that they should move on past the Scrap Golem, which he is only too pleased to do.
Snipe is very close to the Scrap Golem so l have him make another Stealth roll to see if he gets away without being seen. As Snipe had surprise l give him +20 (easy) to his Stealth skill.
He rolls 23 so easily managed to slip away unnoticed. Rosa and Ruin are far enough away from the Scrap Golem that they can move away unnoticed without a stealth roll.
Rosa, Ruin and Snipe quickly leave the old car graveyard and the Scrap Golem behind. They continue walking along the old road leading to the abandoned town. Snipe is even more on edge, the encounter with the Golem has really spooked him. As they approach the outskirts of the town Snipe halts.
“Rosa, how are we going to find that radio equipment in this place, how do we know it exists even?”
Rosa sits down and pulls out a chunk of bread from her bag, “you want some?” She hands a chunk to Snipe then a piece to her dog. “if its here I will find it.”
“But what if its not here? Elder Riva said it could be in one of the old vehicles back there.”
Rosa takes a swig from her water flask to wash down the bread then passes it to Snipe, she cups her hands together, “pour a little into my hands so I can give Ruin a drink,” she kneels down and Ruin gratefully laps the water, “I’ve been over those cars twenty times or more, anything worth taking has been taken, what’s left is scrap, speaking of scrap, you think I’m going to risk my neck searching rusty cars with that Golem there, no way Snipe.”
Snipe takes a swig from Rosas flask then hands it back, “maybe we should just abandon the search, the Elders need to be warned about that Scrap Golem, if it gets to Settlement it could cause real problems and possibly kill. What if there are more in this god awful spooky place?”
“We were sent to look for some old radio equipment, that’s what I am going to do. I doubt we will be troubled but if there are any Breds or Crazies here, Ruin will give us plenty warning. You want to go back to settlement, fine, I can’t stop you.”
Snipe takes hold of his long gun, “so where do you suggest we start searching first?”
Rosa points to a two story building with a flat roof to their left, “lets see if we can get to the top of that building, we can get a better view and decided.”
Scene 2 – the building with the flat roof.
Rosa, Ruin her dog and Snipe have been standing in clear view of the building they plan to enter. I decide that its likely if there is a hostile party within the building they will have spotted my PC’s already. As yet I have no knowledge if there is anyone or anything inside the building.
Rosa sends her dog Ruin over to the doors of the building first, if there is anyone in there Ruin will pick up their sent, he has saved her from Breds and Crazies on a more than a few occasions.
I make a stealth check for Ruin, the dog needs a roll of 70 or less to avoid anyone or any creature in there becoming aware of his movement. I roll 90, a fumble.
As Ruin quickly crosses the ground to the flat roofed building he gets spooked by something. The dog makes a sudden leap to his right and nocks over a load of old debris which in the stillness of the day makes a sound loud enough to alert any living creature in the district that my adventuring trio are there.
I ask the oracle if anyone or thing is alerted by the noise? I get ‘yes, and…’
I get a random icon to see who or what the noise has brought unwanted attention from. I get a Minotaur which I decide is a charging bull.
Out of seemingly nowhere they spot a large bull, its head down charging straight towards them. All three decided to head for the entrance of the flat roofed building and hope to outrun the bull.
I decide to make and awareness roll for Ruin the dog, if he passes he knows the bull is charging towards him and he can easily evade the charging bovine. He has already been spooked by something so I assume the dog will be on heightened alert, so I give him +20% meaning he needs only roll 90 or less to get out of the bulls way. Rolling 64 Ruin avoids the charging bull.
Rosa and Snipe check against their Athletics skill to either dodge or outrun the charging bull. Again I give them a +20 bonus as I am sure they would both run in different directions which would confuse the charging animal. Snipe needs a roll of 60 or less, his first roll is 86 but he has ‘Lucky’ trait and can re-roll a fail twice per session. On his re-roll he gets 18 and avoids the bull.
Rosa needs a roll of 67 or less, she rolls 65 so just avoids the charging bull.
Ruin the dog begins to run towards the bull barking and growling but Rosa calls him off and points towards the entrance of the old building which she and Snipe are running towards. Ruin understands Rosa well, he changes direction and gets to the door before any of them.
The bull then heads directly towards Snipe who stumbles and trips. The bull is just about upon him when it stops and decided to turn its attention to the fleeing Rosa. Snipe quickly regains his footing and makes it to safety. With the bull bearing down on Rosa, Ruin runs out barking and snapping at the bull, it is enough to put the bull of its stride and Rosa makes it into the building just before the bull knocks her over,
I ask the oracle if the bull gets into the old building as well. No, And…
There is a lot of rubble and other debris on the ground by the entrance which is enough to stop the bull which stamps its feet and snorts a few times before it wanders off.
I make an Awareness roll for Ruin, he needs 90 or less and rolls 21 If there is anything bigger than a fly in there Ruin will smell it. Rosa and Snipe also make Awareness rolls, both make there rolls as well.
I also get Rosa and Snipe to make Knowledge skill checks to see if they know what the building they are in once was, Rosa needs 28 or less and rolls 15, Snipe 11 or less and rolls 58, only Rosa passes her skill roll.
I ask the oracle if there is anyone or anything inside the building? The roll is 99. Yes and… (positive intervention)
Rosa looks around “I think this must have been a store before the cataclysm, though I doubt there is anything of value here now”, just then Ruin starts to growl and both Rosa and Snipe find their attention drawn to their right.
“It was but there is nothing left of value here now”. Standing behind what was once the shop counter is a man that they both recognise, “I saw you all standing outside in full view. What y’all doing here?”
I roll on my name table to find out who the person is and roll a 3.
Rosa and Snipe both speak at the same time, “Mad Spikes, what are you doing here?”
End of scene 2.
I will end this post at this point as I now need to roll up some stats from Mad Spikes. In the next post we will find out who Spikes is, how he can be of help and if they get any closer to finding any old tech radio equipment.
Until then, adventure on.
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