Wasteland Wondering - Roach Jones

Welcome back to another Wasteland Wondering. This post really is about Wasteland Wandering.

For some time I have been thinking about a prolonged campaign on mattblackgods world following a wanderer. Lets face it, it is a classic post apoc story line and what better way to explore a world than follow an wanderer? My next predicament was what the character's motivation to wander would be. I have plumbed through a lot of PA fiction for ideas to what and why the Wasteland wanderers wander.

I settled upon a character living in mattblackgods world's only surviving mega city, Utopia City. The character will be called Roach Jones. Roach is a nobody living in the a megablock. He is haunted by disturbing dreams which feature a lot of MBG symbols and a strange black rusty pyramid. Looking for answers he goes to the Church of Mattblackgod who see him as a heretic and pursue Roach through the mega city. In addition to this the Magistrates now want him for disturbing the peace and inciting a riot. Poor Roach never had much luck.

Fearing for his life Roach decides to flee into the undercity. The campaign will follow him on his adventures out into the wastelands. Roach's disturbing dreams drive him on to find answers. Answers he hopes to find in the world's founding members tomb - the Tomb of the Mattblackgod.

Map

Now MBG's world has a pretty fixed and defined map from using it as a gaming location for the last 10 years or so. I plan to change it as Roach explores. It also allows me to use other favourite figures and creations from my collection which live thousands of miles away from Roach. A new map of his adventures will be populated. It may become the new map of the world.

As the campaign goes on real life and what ever else inspires me at the time may also filter in. That's part of the fun isn't it?

Rules

Rules wise I am a bit mixed on what to use. Firstly I thought the my old 40k Rogue Trader would work. It covers everything I need. It can easily be added to by pinching rules from Gorkamorka or Necromunda. The down side is that the initiation and some other rules no longer sit well with me. So there would be quite a few house rules drawn up.

NeutronYork3000 is another consideration but the basic vehicle rules are a limitation. Some house rules may be in order to flesh them out.

Nuclear Renaissance seems to have everything I need to carry out this campaign with minial fuss. So at the minute I may go with them.

Wastelands 3 is another ruleset that may work. It features vehicles and has a campaign system.

 Fate

One problem with starting a character with a low stat line is that they will not last long in the harsh post apocalyptic world. Recalling the days that I played Warhammer Fantasy RPG  back in the dim mists of time, there was a Fate stat. The idea is that some god or overlooking power is keeping an eye on the character and performs the odd miracle to save them. The players use their fate points to keep various characters alive. It is a limited pool decided randomly and players have to take care not to waste them. I may introduce this to the rules I use to help keep Roach alive.

Another addition is an idea borrowed from the Max Payne computer games. The idea is Bullet Time. Time slows down allowing the character to dodge bullets and make aimed shots. If I use this then Roach can only use it once per game. How it is implemented and what bonuses it gives will depend on the ruleset I use.

As the campaign progresses so will Roach's skills. Hopefully he will pick up a few friends on the way too.

New blog?

Whilst I was mulling all this over I did think that it may be fun to give Angel his own blog documenting his journey through mattblackgods world. Or should I just keep it here in one place? I suppose I could add a tab for Roach Jones' adventures. I need to find a figure now to represent this poor soul.

That's the ideas so far. All thoughts and ideas about this greatfully received.

Thanks for looking.