Atomic Highway Place Notes

This was created for Atomic Highway, which was free, but whose system wasn't quite versatile enough for me to really get into - we played a single session, and then had a problem when we ran into the chase/pursuit/combat rules for cars; you had to deal with a lot of numbers instead of range bands, or something similar.

I've lost the map that went with the below, but it basically mapped on North Carolina - Rally is Raleigh, for instance, although I will go on record as saying that about 95% of the below is pure invention and has nothing to do with the actual geography of the area. I'll add notes as we go. I think that one problem that I had is that there's not enough conflict in the setting to make the players necessary. Everybody has fixed most of the major local problems and are trying to spread outwards, which would in turn lead to conflicts between the city-states, but you don't start with the problems solved - you give it to the players and let them do the work. All of the places mentioned below are far too safe for the players to really make a difference.

WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR WORLD
 
Yours is the fourth generation after the destruction of civilization. After forty years of pitiless struggle, some semblance of civilization has slowly returned to the wasteland. Rally threw off the Slaughter Dynasty, ending years of pointless bloodshed. Fall City's factions, finally united under a single charismatic leader, made peace with the Tragic Kingdom in order to exploit the fertile fields of The Grow together. Murt Beach's continued exploitation of its oil resources have given it the resources to defend itself against the raider attacks. Even the anarchic tribes of Carpark have managed to secure their own defense.
 
This grip on civilization is fragile. The raider tribes are in retreat, but caravans are regularly attacked from the Rough Tracks, where dozens of minor raider tribes have made their home. Mutated creatures from The Wild have made Route 20 a dangerous journey for anything but heavily armed convoys, and there's been sightings of beastmen in The Grow as well. Spartanburg's deathgrip on access to the Northwest has prevented trade from the stronger tribes, since the cost of the toll roads is so high, while Jawnsan teeters on becoming either a failed state or a puppet of Spartanburg. Meanwhile, the scavenging communities of Lossleader and Rockill continue to rake the ruins of Char and the Big Sixty, threatening to bring destabilizing technology from the ruins of the old world, despite the death toll. The Hell Miles make any sort of trip through the Big Sixty a nightmare, threatening to strangle Rally. 
 
Your group has been chosen, by your mentors and your leaders, to be given one of the most valuable commodities any community can offer: A vehicle, and gas enough to drive it. Like the knights of old, you're elevated above your fellow man by steel and steed. But like the knights of old, your community looks to you for leadership and inspiration. 
 

FALL CITY
 
Fall City is a state based around tall buildings, connected by dozens of reinforced steel catwalks and fed by vertical and horizontal gardens. Each building used to comprise its own individual city state, protecting itself from beastmen and raiders by staying off the ground, but clan politics and a scarcity of resources contributed to constant wars between the buildings. Eventually, three clans - Mutual Insurance, the Mirrors and Pittfield Technologies - created a seemingly unsolvable stalemate. Five years ago, Datane Mirror united all three clans to utterly decimate a raider attack, then opened diplomatic relations with the Tragic Kingdom to lay mutual claim to the Grow. 
 
The Current State of Fall City: 
 
Under Datane Mirror, Fall City is slowly moving from a loose cluster of tribes into one of the region's first city states. Its next ambition is to merge with the Tragic Kingdom and its resources, but Datane Mirror's time and resources are already consumed with soothing inter-clan rivalries, and the Tragic Kingdom's xenophobia presents a stiff obstacle to that goal.
 
TRAGIC KINGDOM
 
The Tragic Kingdom was once a fancy amusement park, staffed by animatronic robots and home to dozens of fancy rides and attractions. When the apocalypse came, it shut itself off from the outside world, using its technical expertise to convert the park's security systems to a potent internal defense, and converting its robots into lethal killing machines. While the Kingdom has ample access to technological resources - many of them useless in a wasteland - its lack of arable land kept its population artificially low. It wasn't until Datane Mirror struck a temporary alliance with them to reclaim the Grow that the Tragic Kingdom began to blossom. 
 
The Current State of the Tragic Kingdom
 
The Tragic Kingdom is xenophobic, but its access to the Grow is allowing its population to expand for the first time in years. Nominally led by the mysterious Forest King, the Tragic Kingdom is currently breaking into two rough factions, one isolationist and the other expansionist. So far, the expansionist faction is in the ascendant, but if the Tragic Kingdom gets its fingers burned by raiders or by politics, that may change.
 
THE GROW
 
The Grow is a giant farmland; formerly a loose conglomeration of farmsteads who suffered under constant beastman and raider attacks, they're now under the mutual protection of Fall City and the Tragic Kingdom, who engaged in full-scale war to drive both out. The farmsteads now have a symbiotic relationship with their patrons; in exchange for protection and some limited technology, they provide food. 
 
The Current State of the Grow
 
For some unknown reason, the Grow has seen a rapid rise in beastman activity, to the point where Fall City has sent its militia out to fight them. So far the flow of food is uninterrupted, but why the beastmen have shown such interest in an area that provides nothing to them is a mystery.
 
BIG SIXTY
 
The Big Sixty wasteland is the remnants of one of the larger cities in the region; nobody quite knows how it got the name, but the speculation is that it took a sixty-megaton hit during the Apocalypse. Whatever happened, the city is an utter wasteland of broken, caved-in buildings, debris-choked streets, tunnels, dead ends and ancient bones crunching underfoot. It's a scavenger's paradise; it's also heavily populated by a variety of threats, ranging from feral beastmen to raiders to stranger creatures that supposedly inhabit the ruins. 
 
The highway that runs through the Big Sixty is kept clear of major obstructions, but only so that anything passing through can run the gauntlet of attacks from a wide range of threats - caravans passing through Big Sixty usually have as many people designated for protection as they do for actual transport, and even then, it's risky. This has given the highway running through the Big Sixty the nickname of the Hell Miles.
 
LOSSLEADER
 
Positioned between the Char and The Big Sixty, Lossleader is a goldrush town fueled entirely by scavenging in the Big Sixty and Char. If you find something in the ruins that you can't sell - or don't know the worth of - then Lossleader is the place to take it, sell it, or trade it for something else. Lossleader is also one of the few places where you can buy, repair or upgrade a working automobile, but it'll cost you a lot. Cars are cheap, but know-how isn't. Lossleader has always been a wild card due to the amount of disruptive technology that comes out of it - functioning guns, working reactors, gasoline stores and points related. Its government runs entirely through commerce, with different commercial interests funding community defense, justice, cleanup and so forth. At the moment, Otto's Wreckers - a caravan escort service with a dozen vehicles - is the strongest and richest faction. 
 
The Current State of Lossleader
 
There's been an uptick in strange technology found in Lossleader's ruins, some of which is bouncing around for remarkably cheap prices because nobody knows what to do with it. One item, initially sold for scrap, turned out to be a high-end plasma torch, which then made a lucky buyer wealthy enough to buy his own bar (Squat's Brewery). Scavenging teams are now tearing apart both Char and the Big Sixty, but casualties are high and getting higher all the time thanks to claimjumping and the normal dangers of both areas.
 
RALLY
 
Rally is the largest community in the wasteland, and one of the most powerful. It suffered through thirty years of misrule under the Slaughter Dynasty, a group of raiders turned despots, before a rebellion shattered their power and executed any Slaughter that they could lay their hands on. In the ten years intervening, the families of Rally have built a stable, almost thriving community - but one that's beginning to push at the seams of its limitations, thanks to food shortages, raider attacks and pressure on the amount of oil that it can draw and refine from its pumps.
 
Rally is the home of the Circuit, which is a race car track, justice system, gladiatorial arena and political system all in one. Seats on Rally's ruling council aren't determined by victory in a Circuit race, but consistent and spectacular victory on the track gives its backers a lot of influence. It's entirely possible to win a judicial gladiatorial fight, be hired onto a car crew, excel in the bloodfights and advance into politics - in fact, it's happened several times. 
 
Rally's convoys are the primary mover of goods through the wasteland; its caravans, seasoned by decades of fights with raiders and beastmen, make a circuit every three months or so, travelling down Route 95 until hitting Fall City, and then returning to Rally again. There's been a few convoys pushed through to Spartanburg - it's easy for Rally to pay the toll, but the caravans do not fare well on the Hell Miles and the long way takes too long and stretches supply and reinforcement lines too thin.
 
The Current State of Rally
 
Rally is a city obsessed by racing, to the point where elections and races are almost synonymous. There's eight major factions, each supporting its own gladiatorial/racing team, and two dozen minor factions that focus on a particular area, like the Just Fist judicial fight team. At present, no faction has been able to win enough victories to really be able to lead Rally in any meaningful way, which in turn has left it vulnerable to a variety of threats. The lack of a concerted effort in keeping the raiders of the Rough Tracks under control, for instance, may make the next caravan that Rally sends out a lost cause...
 
COMB CITY
 
Comb City was struck hard by the Apocalypse, and what was left of its population made its way to Fall City and the Tragic Kingdom, leaving behind a radioactive ruin. When the radiation slacked off, small groups of scavengers began to move back into the ruins; when they brought their finds to Fall City, Fall City decided that it would be a good idea to start mining the ruins in earnest. Using resources provided by Fall City, including excavators, a mall that had been partially crushed by a falling building was unearthed and looted thoroughly.
 
The influx of wealth into Fall City came with a price. Raider attacks on the ruins stretched Fall City's resources thin and eventually caused its political breakup, stranding the excavation teams in Comb City. Left on their own, the excavation teams began their own primitive civilization, only to see it immediately come under heavy attack by both raiders and beastmen coming down from the Wild. Unable to gain reinforcements, the excavation teams split into two tribes: the stealthy, nearly feral Excavs, who retreated to the suburbs, and the Mallrats, who turned the mall into a maze of traps and deadfalls and retreated into it.
 
The Current State of Comb City
 
A warzone. Comb City is close enough to the Wild that beastmen regularly make incursions into Comb City to hunt down humans; raiders pass through looking for slaves or to allow their own scavenging teams a shot at what's left of Comb City's treasures.
 
THE WILD
 
Nobody knows much about the Wild save that it's a big, thick forest and that it's crawling with beastmen. It's possible to pass the Wild if you drive as fast as you can, but the various branch effigies and obstacles left on the road by beastmen make it difficult to floor it down that stretch of highway. 
 
CARPARK
 
Carpark is a community under siege. Originally a raider community, it slowly coalesced into a tribe, and then from there into an actual community, turning from raiding to metalwork and agriculture instead of pillaging their neighboring communities. (A stinging defeat at the hands of Rally also helped.) However, sitting right next to the Rough Tracks means that Carpark is a community under constant siege from raiders and beastmen. In order to keep them out, Carpark has essentially built a series of metal shells around itsef, using ruined automobiles as raw material. The walls aren't high, but there's a lot of them, and they're tough to knock over, which has made Carpark one of the safer areas in the wasteland.
 
Carpark is also home to the only movie theater within five hundred miles, and regularly rotates movies out for new ones. This makes Carpark a popular spot for entertainment - and, on occasion, education, since there's a few movies that detail certain steps in automobile repairs. It also pays extremely well for new reels, if they can be found...
 
The Current State of Carpark
 
Carpark is a city in stasis, kept from developing by raider attacks and by a relative dearth of natural resources. Its tribal government also doesn't do much favors, as there's been a lot of criticism - none of it spoken aloud - of the current chief, Chief Shade. Carpark is surviving, but not much more.
 
MURT BEACH
 
Murt Beach is where the gasoline comes from; thanks to an offshore platform some two miles away from the city itself, it's able to provide a steady flow of petroleum products to the rest of the region. With that prosperity comes a fair amount of paranoia, because Murt Beach is under constant attack from a wide variety of sources - raiders, beastmen, even the occasional attack from Carpark. In order to prevent any one faction from ganging up and taking it over, Murt Beach sells to everybody - even raiders, if they have the barter - but that doesn't stop people from trying to grab all of the marbles.
 
Thanks to its oil wealth, however, Murt Beach is in pretty good shape. Becoming a citizen involves buying your way into the quasi-corporation that runs Murt Beach, either through barter or by service - there's entire families that have spent generations on various construction projects, working towards acceptance into Murt Beach's gentry. Murt Beach's oil runs are protected by a heavily-modified yacht that's essentially a giant gunboat / boarding platform, which gives Murt Beach a lot of military might - it's even done night raids on raider communities that got too close to the coast, with devastating results.
 
The Current state of Murt Beach
 
Murt Beach is rapidly becoming a major power in the region thanks to its control on oil resources and its military might. It's limited by an insular viewpoint and its proximity to the Rough Tracks, which keeps it regularly attacked by gas-hungry raiders. Without the Rough Tracks to keep it back, it's entirely possible that Murt Beach might become the capital city of the region, replacing the relatively resource-poor Rally.
 
THE ROUGH TRACKS
 
Information about the area around the Rough Tracks is comparatively scarce thanks to the region's habit of ending the life of any attempt to map or scout the area - the raiders may not all get along, but they don't like outsiders and will team up to make sure that they don't escape. The heavy woods and twisting roads make it easy to trap and ambush anybody who comes in.
 
The few brave scouts who did make it out - usually with no small amount of casualties - report that the Rough Tracks are essentially a raider homeland, using the resources of the various small towns and factories of the region to support their forays into more civilized areas. Most of their economy is based around slavery, using captured scavengers and residents of various cities to grow food and other menial tasks. Weirdly, thick smoke has been seen rising into the sky, which suggests some kind of heavy industry - but what?
 
THE BIG BURN
 
The Big Burn is one of the region's mysteries, a giant canyon carved into the earth by an unknown force; at its deepest point, the canyon goes some five hundred feet into the earth. A small mining community has formed around the Big Burn, under the protection of Rally but becoming more independent by the day. So far, all that's been pulled out of the earth is iron, but the deeper mine shafts have brought up rarer metals and even the occasional chunk of silver. The sides of the canyon are decorated with dozens of catwalks and small homes drilled into the side of the rock, which makes for an easy defense in the event of raider or beastman attack. (The Big Burn was created by a gigantic Akira-style orbital laser that went off and carved a big hole in the ground; the original plot for Fallout 3 was that the player would go into orbit to destroy a menacing space station, so I figured I'd do the same here.)