PAW

Welcome to Post-Apocalyptic Wisconsin, an RPG Campaign set in the State of Wisconsin in the 22nd Century after a geomagnetic reversal caused explosions (including those needed to operate the internal combustion engine) and electricity to cease to function (kind of like the [1]). This in turn led to mass famine, disease and depopulation as the human supply chains, especially for food, was destroyed. We pick up "a few generations in" to the cataclysm as our protagonists are in a struggle for survival.

Characters

TBD - Please link to your Character page which should include the Character Sheet and Background. Email me if you need a sample Character Sheet on the Wiki, or with any help creating your Character.

Sites/Locations

• Family Homestead [2]
• Pipeline Station [3]
• Smokey's House[4]

Rules

We are using the Ringmail rules as written for the most part, although a lot of the weapons and armor will be nigh-impossible to find. Although perhaps someone can find them... Magic is excluded in its entirety. Email the Narrator if you need a rulebook or have any rules questions.

Meta-rules; Campaign Style

I expect 1 posting per day per Player once the campaign really started. Holidays and Holiday Weekends are allowable for non-participation. If you think you cannot post for more than 48 consecutive hours please post that before it happens and announce whom you would like to puppet your Characters while you are gone - whether the Narrator or another Player. Other than that I expect no puppeting of others' characters nor NPC. We will be doing a troupe style where each Player will be controlling multiple Characters. This will help with Ringmail's high-possibility of death, so if a Player loses a Character they aren't "out". You will have opportunities to invite NPCs to join your "collective" or whatever the Characters decide on calling themselves, to deal with attrition.

Morale Rules - Ringmail Add-on

As this is a Post-Apocalyptic setting, I’d like to provide a bit more emphasis on how life’s necessities such as food, water, warmth (in Wisconsin), shelter – and just as importantly morale are essential for survival. In my opinion in a survival setting one’s mental state is just as important if not more important than their physical state when under these extreme environments. So I’d like to add a little plug-in to the Ringmail rules to address this.

To address this, I’d like to provide morale penalties and bonuses for food, water (or other drinkables; tea, juice, milk, etc.), warmth, shelter, clothing, other consumables and entertainment. These bonuses will affect individuals on skill checks, in combat, and over the long-term affect whether individuals are willing to join your farmstead, work with you, and stay there or leave for better pastures. With sufficient long-term bonuses (and minimal penalties), your farmstead can grow to a true center of culture and mutual defense. With sufficient penalties, your name PCs will struggle for survival (because they are short on food and firewood – who wouldn’t struggle under those circumstances).

The bonuses and penalties will not rely simply upon the existence of, but also the quality and quantity of items. This means we need to both qualify and quantify these items. One ration is enough for one person for one day. It will require time to farm and harvest crops, and then to process A Rations into B or C Rations as desired. Since it’s nearly impossible for A Rations to last the entire winter (see below), it will be necessary to store some as B or C Rations throughout the year.

If merely to stave off starvation, eating other people will allow sustenance but causes a -2 morale penalty if known to the consumers.

Food

Quality

• A+ Rations – Quality non-perishable food from “before the cataclysm” such as Twinkies. Quality to eat,

but no one can make this stuff anymore. Requires no preparation. Lasts indefinitely. Rare.

• A Rations – Fresh, best quality of food. Requires on-site preparation, has minimal shelf-life (one month).
• B Rations – High quality preserved food. May be frozen, or dried. Requires preparation from A Ration

to make it a B Ration. Lasts 6 months.

• C Rations – Low quality preserved food. May be smoked or salted. Requires preparation from A Ration

to make it a C Ration. Lasts indefinitely.

Variety

Characters with less than 10 different types of food options get a -1 to morale. If they have 10 types they get no penalty and for every 10 different types of food someone has access to greater than 10, they get a +1 morale bonus. Types include pork v. beef v. fish v. pumpkin v. apples v. potatoes v. onions. Similar stuff like pumpkins with yams, onions with shallots, etc. will be in one category.

Morale Modifiers

Individuals on A Rations get +1, C Rations -1, B Rations no modifier to morale. Individuals on no rations are at -3 to Morale (they are starving).

Liquids

Water quality will be similarly graded as A, B and C. Usually we will be dealing with a water source. A Water is clean and fresh like from a mountain stream or a Coca Cola bottling plant (ie Aquafina) and grants a +1 to morale. B Water is potable but probably has some brownish tinge to it – no morale modifier. C Water is susceptible to disease and common in urban areas, runoff, etc. and causes a -1 morale penalty. For variety, a +1 will be provided if individuals have access to one non-alcoholic liquid (such as tea, juice, etc.) and a further +1 if they have access to alcoholic liquid (wine, beer, spirits, etc.)

Firewood

Firewood combined with shelter will be essential for survival. Warm clothing helps too. Clothing will generally be a +1 to +3 to resist cold, with +3 an unusually warm combo (+2 will be more attainable). These are not morale bonuses. Instead, there will simply be a penalty of -1 or -2 if characters are too cold. In the coldest weather people probably won’t even go out, or only can for short periods of time (this is already built into the Ringmail rules, but I just wanted to add a reminder here of the reality).

I’ll be rolling for weather, but generally you’ll need to burn from December through March. We’ll have to rate the firewood by quantity. We’ll say a typical building is about 1,000 square feet (it’s actually more than that of course, but you can block off storage rooms that don’t need to be heated). We’ll quantify firewood by building-days just as food is person-days, so if you have 1 unit of firewood, it will keep a typical 1,000 square foot home warm for 1 day in the cold season. Note you’ll need bodies to cut firewood and maintain the fire but the advantage here is that you can do that all year round. I’m also assuming here that characters are willing to wear cold-weather gear inside their home and keep the house at a “balmy” 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If you decide to burn 2 days worth of firewood to keep the house warmer – at around 60 degrees – there will be a +1 morale bonus. If the house isn’t staying warm enough, -1 to morale and we’re rolling for frostbite, hypothermia – just don’t go there, will yah?

Consumables & Entertainment

Consumables include any drug – illegality not an issue here – recreational books (which you’ll find to be few and far between – many having been burned by this point in time), trinkets and anything else of interest. Characters will get a +1 morale bonus per 5 different recreational items available to them and another +1 if they use any one drug. Note that they may become addicted to the drugs and suffer penalties over time for that…

Intrapersonal

Ringmail also assigns a bonus or penalty of up to -6/+6 to interpersonal reactions based on a Character’s appearance and personality, although usually -2/+2 is more common. This will apply as well.

Morale Rolls Summary and Execution

At this point I’ve collected a maximum morale penalty of -7 and a maximum bonus of infinity, but more likely numbers will not exceed +7. This does not include the influence of personality (immediately above). If morale modifiers at set at 0, assume a bit of attrition. This is post-apocalyptic Wisconsin, so on average we will be losing people, not adding to population. You will actually need a +1 to morale to maintain your farmsteads’ numbers (on average). Otherwise you’ll see people leave for better pastures.

Whenever you have a friendly interaction with an NPC you may invite them to join your farmstead – often for in-character reasons. You will roll a morale check and upon success they will be willing to join you. Every month I will also have checks to see if anyone working with you leaves. They will get the modifier for everything in the place they are at, plus the interpersonal modifier for whichever PC is leading them. This sort of encourages you to have one or two charismatic personalities leading your group(s) and then you can min/max anyone else. I’d ask you restrain your interpersonal modifiers to +3 for one character, +2 for another, and -2 for the third, with an average of +1-ish so we can have a realistic portrayal. Do you really want to portray the building of a religious-like utopia in the post-apocalyptic survivalist world you asked for?

I’ll make the DC 8, although conditional modifiers will apply. As per all Ringmail rolls, it’s 3D20:

“Stay with you” roll

• 3 Successes – Everyone stays and at least 1 person who might be a nameless becomes named (from an NPC-ally to a playable PC).
• 2 Successes – Anyone with active conflict leaves if they can (ie not in winter if they don’t have a shelter to go to). No one else goes.
• 1 Success – Attrition; you will lose 5% of bodies. This may mean not losing anyone. If it’s winter they won’t leave until the spring (when it’s warm enough to travel). I’ll keep track of who’s leaving during the winter and it’ll get announced when they leave.
• 0 Successes – You will lose a considerable number of bodies – 20% or more. Up to 5% will leave immediately even if it’s in winter.

“Join you” roll

• 3 Successes – Willing to join and move in with you.
• 2 Successes – Willing to join conditionally (if I can bring my family, if I can have a certain degree of independence, etc.) – specifics depend on the NPC.
• 1 Success – Willing to “consider it” or join you for a short while if travelling in the same direction, etc. But nor permanently. Allows a reroll if you meet with them at a later time.
• 0 Successes – Not willing to join, -2 to future attempts to convince them to join you.