Leg of the day: Elevated Highway

Elevated highways are striking, weird piece of architecture. Brutally utilitarian, they carve their way through cities; doing strange things to the neighbourhoods they pass through. The Takers find themselves on a section of road that passes under one. Roll a D4 to find out why this one is interesting.

1. As the Takers pass under the Highway, a group of Casualties start throwing themselves of the bridge to get at the Takers. It is unlikely that any will land on the Takers. Close to is a different issue. Will the Takers be covered with infected biological material?

2. Up on the highway, a bandit lays in wait with a rifle, ready to use the cover and position to his advantage.

3. Someone has strung up a bunch of Casualties on cable, their toes just scraping the ground. They are closely packed together, but it should be possible to slip between them without too much danger. Unfortunately, an Aberrant lurks in amongst the forest of clacking teeth

4. The road here has been partially blocked by a large and nasty pile up beneath the elevated highway. Trapped in one of the cars by the steering column, a Casualty angrily snaps its teeth as anyone gets to close. Their driver’s license is clearly visible in the busted open glove compartment.
 

Weak Spots Wednesday: Some people are to well adjusted to the loss

So, i am still trying to get to grips with the distinctions between the three spot. While I figure that out, here are some example spots which  I want to work into my home game.

I kinda love this job

Everyone knows the being a taker is not something a person should want to be. It is dangerous, dirty, and morally ambiguous.

This is why people look at you with suspicion, because while intellectually you know you should want to be doing anything else, you still kinda love being a Taker. Maybe it is the first thing you have ever been really good at, maybe your neuroatypical and unconcerned by the moral or ethical dimensions of the job. Whatever the case, people can see it in you, and it scares them.

I will willingly die for two Takers or eight enclave members:

For members of Black Math psudo-rational methods for determining what it is worth dying for, are damn near an essential part of life. You have adapted Hamilton's rule from kin selection, to cover how and when you should take risks for other survivors. After all other survivors will, over time, kill casualties, so even if you die, you may end up killing more casualties than you would if you had survived. 

Leg of the Day: Don't you open that storm drain.

Drains are weird. Large cities cause a lot of run off, as concrete, stone and brick does little to absorb water. That means drainage. Those big slots leading down into relatively large tunnels can play on the mind, making use ask our self...what lives down there?

Where pavement and road meet, set into the curb, there is a Storm drain. As the takers pass by the slot, something happens. Roll 1D4 to find out what is going on with the drain.

1. There is a huge swarm of rats moving down there. Left unchecked, they could pose a serious disease threat to nearby enclaves.

2. A casualty is stuck down there. Who knows how it got down there? Whatever the case, it trying to grab the Takers legs now.

3. A child is hiding here. She is hungry, cold, and terrified. She lost her families’ caravan during while hiding from a raider attack.  

4. There is a rope tied to the storm drains grate. The other end disappears down into the dark. It has a bag containing an emergence stash attached to the other end.

Welcome to Market Fiat

Market Fiat is a place for me to talk about Red Markets.

What is Red Markets, you ask?



It is an Economic Horror RPG by +Caleb Stokes, in which the world has crumbled under the onset of a Zombie Apocalypse. When the Zombies came, humanity withdrew behind significant geographical boundaries, cutting of huge sections of nations, like amputated limbs. In the states, everything west of the Mississippi has been abandoned to the casualties, quarantined in an effort to stem the tide of infection.

But not everyone got out. Large numbers of people, survived, behind the barricades of survivor enclaves. Now, five years on, you play a taker, one of the rage tag survivors, desperately trying to get rich in the abandoned sections of the world, so they can escape to civilisation.

Red Markets is pretty much the coolest thing happening in RPGs right now, with interesting elements from all across the gaming spectrum. There are tools such as large random events tables, that would feel totally at home in an OSR Hexcrawl there to support emergent narrative,  coupled with a difficulty level which from what has been said would make most 1e WFRP fans blush. But it also contains character focused mechanics which would be very at home in a modern Storygame.


You can check it out here.

So, what can you expect from Market Fiat?

Well, the initial aim is to have one post a day, until the end of the Kickstarter. That way, I can start to build up some material for running my first game of Red Markets.