deadEarth - the deadliest game to date for this blog
So, you’ve read the thread I started over on RPG.net, and you’ve gone through the three horrendous characters I rolled up this week (Rikki, Headless Fred and Last Chance Jones), and you are wondering what the fuck is going on here.
(Or you may be wondering if you already read this post – I accidentally scheduled it for Saturday instead of Sunday and it was up for two hours before I noticed the mistake)
Yes, deadEarth is possibly one of the worst RPGs ever. But don’t take my word for it. You should try it out yourself and see what I’m talking about.
“But Dyson” I hear the cries, “the game is long out of print and even the website is gone now, how will I try out the most realistic and flexible post-apocalyptic RPG of all time for myself?“
Before shutting down deadEarth, the publisher made the magnanimous gesture of making the game free and freely republishable on a non-commercial basis. So you can head on over to my Scribd page, and download the PHB, GMs Guide, and a bunch of supplements.
“But Dyson” the cries begin again, “you have regaled us with tales of the horror of this game, why would I want to actually check it out?“
Here’s my top 5 reasons to check out deadEarth – now!
Character Creation is it’s own Mini-Game
Sure this has been done before in games like Traveller, and even classic Gamma World, but like the original Traveller, you have no guarantee that your character will survive this mini-game. Unlike many random character creation systems, this is a mini-game where the object isn’t to “win” by coming out with the best character. The object of this mini-game is to survive and come out with any character at all! Even better? You can lose at this mini-game. You are only allowed three attempts to make a character, and if they all suck, you have to live with it. And if they are all dead? Hope you like role-playing the maggots eating your brains.
The Most Flexible Game Ever!
According to the blurb on the back cover of the book – this is the only role-playing game where you have unlimited flexibility in characters, equipment and setting depending only on the imagination of the players. Seriously! Other games require you to buy new books for every character you want to play, every piece of equipment you find or buy, and every setting you explore. You cannot use your imaginations in those games, you have to buy the books. deadEarth is unique!
Realism! Research! Brutality!
The game setting and mechanics are advertised as being as brutaly real as possible, involving hundreds of hours of scientific research to make the game completely plausible and real. That’s right – scientific research has shown that attacking someone’s heart or neck with a great big battleaxe is just as easy/ difficult as attacking their torso! Further research has shown that exposure to radiation leads to spontaneous sex changes, exploding heads, and the ability to eat people’s souls!
Simplicity
The incredible simplicity of the game is amazing. You plot out your entire round’s actions in advance using a huge table of how many “moves” each action takes, and then as you suffer damage or stun, you lose moves in the middle of the round changing your actions. There are only 17 hit locations to track, each with it’s own hit point tally, and a piecemeal armour system that has you armour each of these 17 hit locations seperately. Instead of tracking XP at the end of a game session and potentially “levelling up” you gain 1 skill point every time you make a skill roll, and can spend these points on the fly to increase skills or power abilities.
Mutations, Mutations, Mutations!
But when it all comes down to it, you need deadEarth because of the Radiation Manipulations tables. You thought there were lots of mutations in Mutant Future or Gamma World, didn’t you? Fool. There are over 1,200 official radiation manipulations in deadEarth, plus another 200 available from a fan supplement. Why limit yourself with those paltry tables in your current post-apocalyptic RPG when you could have amazing results like:
- Incompetent – double the skill point costs to advance a skill
- Verve Paladin – you have the ability to fight Moloch for the right to harvest the dead. If you defeat Moloch, the person he was harvesting is saved from death.
- Bloom – you and everyone within 20 feet of you have cross-mutated with a plant and gain one ability from a nearby plant type.
- Diarrhea – roll 1d6 every morning. On a 6 you must stop to crap d6 times that day. On a 1 you have already crapped yourself this morning – time to change your shorts.
- Pink Slip – trade character sheets with the next player you come in contact with.
Even better? That’s just 5 of over 1,400 mutations (sorry – Radiation Manipulations) in the game!
In case you needed a sixth reason, the deadEarth discussion spawned this “fan” remix of the front page of the rulebook by bottg with a quote from Frohawken on rpg.net:
deadEarth - We eat lightning and piss napalm.
So why aren’t you playing deadEarth yet?
WFRP had a d1000 Chaos mutation table, as I recall. Second place, definitely, but a far better game!
[[There are over 1,200 official radiation manipulations in deadEarth, plus another 200 available from a fan supplement.]]
Where might one find this fan supplement if we where interest in gleaning at it?
Best,
The Bane
The fan supplement is called ATTITUDES 1.1 and is available on the same scribd page as the rest of the deadEarth material.
Hey, that “eat lightning and piss napalm” line was mine, I think I deserve a passing mention.
Thanks for this blog, and for introducing me to the amazing world of deadEarth. My life will never be the same, no matter how devoutly I might wish it to be.
Fixed that. Sorry for overlooking your vital contribution to the awesomeness that is deadEarth.
Attitudes 1.1 hints at maybe Attitudes 1.2? It was the great project that never came to pass.
I think you should write it. It’d be like slamming your hand in the car door every day for a month. Fun!
I talked to the author of ATTITUDES – number 2 was going to be a whole new combat system. I’m not up for that.
But speaking of great projects that never came to pass, I was also emailed a scan from the deadEarth Media Kit which includes their “Future Releases”
Wilderness Survival Guide – 180 pages – due out at GenCon 2001
Atlas #1: North America – 180 pages – due out at GenCon 2001
Atlas #2: Europe & Asia – Q3 2002
Wasteland Survival Guide (deserts, arctic & tundra) – Q3 2002
Atlas #3: Australia & Pacific Islands – Q3 2002
Urban Survival Guide – Q3 2002
Atlas #4: Africa – Q3 2003
Jungle Survival Guide (tropical, sub-tropical and rainforests) – Q3 2003
Atlas #5: South America – Q3 2003
That list of Radiation Manipulations reads like Fluxx Post Apocalypse.
Good Site my friend!! Congratulations!!
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Thank you for preserving the deadEarth books on your Scribd account. Currently they’ve been moved to the Scribd archive. Could you move them back again so that they can be downloaded easily, please?
For instructions on how to do this, see:
http://support.scribd.com/entries/224907-my-document-is-in-the-scribd-archive-but-i-do-not-want-it-to-be-what-can-i-do
Thanks very much!
Haha i stumbled upon this and now you have thrown down the gauntlet. I was working on a post apocalyptic skirmish games including rules from mutants and death ray guns, rogue trader, barbarians of the aftermath, fallen earth, wastelands, darwins world and savage worlds…. all distilled to say a simple D6 or D10 games of maybe 12-18 pages…
Now I am going to concentrate on making this game simple fun and playable…. no hit points of hit locations, just stuns, hits, and say 1 hit a grunt is dead, 2 a veteran, 3 a hero, 4 a legendary hero or super nasty creature
mutations will be physical boon or bane, or
mental powers or instability,
special ability or talents, rad resistance, regeneration, enhanced senses
say maybe 1000 distelled to say 18
interresting the 2 factions are in my games, plus 3 more
1. loyal military, protectors of the earth using infinity figuures – think brotherhood of steel minus the religiious overtones, the good guys
2. The rebels, using Forge world chaos renegades, they raided supply depots and in the ideal of doing good became mutated drug addicted worse than the raiders they hated with acces to advanced military hardware
3. fascist military ala the enclave in fallout using DKoK from forge world, amerinazis, eu fascists and commie-nazi russians – they wped out the road warriors, mutant gangs, and other freaks, mostly except for
4. broms dark age games freeks and mutants led by anti technology tribal warriots, horribly mutated and horribly mutated, think super mutants of fallout
5. a new species also broms dark age outcasts and skaard and brood with some forge world nasty chaos elemnts, the new species out fro dominance
put it in a setting combining fallout, deadearth, fallen earth, with a mix of the s.t.a.l.k.e.r games and we should have some fun
Ill keep ya posted and send ya the finished rules for a free downlaod critique and all
Curious what happens, hope to have it done by the fist snowfall in a few months
wish me luck and pray for my sanity
Awesome. But as soon as you started thinking of using any deadEarth material in it, it became too late to do anything about your sanity.