Pyramid is the monthly GURPS supplement containing short articles with
a loose linking theme. This time it's about the end of the world,
linked to the upcoming publication of the After the End streamlined
rules set.
The Redeemers (Jason "PK" Levine) writes up a wasteland gang
with a religion focused on "purity" and the traditional contempt for
outsiders. But they're not quite the usual frothing fanatics, being
happy to feel superior to others without killing them as long as those
others don't challenge their worldview. There's also a useful map of
their base, a modified highway patrol station. This is clearly a few
generations after the end, and the organisation could be used as a
neighbour in a community-building game or a foe for wanderers.
Post-Apocalyptic Guns (S.A. Fisher and Hans-Christian Vortisch)
considers how firearms and ammunition survive when they're not being
replaced or serviced any more, as well as the likely composition of
arms caches and the lifetime of reloaded brass (though it's a shame to
see flat penalties to reliability rather than taking the skill of the
reloader into account). There are also notes on using black powder in
cartridge firearms, the perils of unjacketed lead bullets, the
difficulty of making primers, the best weapons to choose taking all
this stuff into account, and even how to manufacture entirely new
weapons. This is good solid stuff and is likely to see substantial use
in my games.
Eidetic Memory: Warlords of the Apocalypse (David L. Pulver) applies
Mass Combat rules in a post-collapse setting: variable tech levels,
increased costs to raise and maintain units, traits that are
particularly appropriate in the setting, and a couple of example
forces. Mass Combat hasn't been as useful to me as I expected, but
this is good solid support material.
Better Improvised Weapons (Peter V. Dell'Orto) is a set of cinematic
rules for making ad-hoc weapons more effective, applying the Rule of
Cool and adding various small benefits to make random acquisitions and
constructs more tempting but not overpowering. Designer's notes
here.
Nuclear Legacy (Roger Burton West) looks at nuclear power plants,
waste disposal sites, vehicular reactors and nuclear weapons once
maintenance stops. Designer's Notes
here.
Random Thought Table: Keeping the Fallen World Under Control (Steven
Marsh) looks at ways of keeping a post-apocalyptic world mysterious:
having player characters arriving from outside or somehow missing the
event, emerging from isolation, or coming from an isolated social
construct that denies or doesn't know about the outside world.
Short Bursts: Rapid Raj (Matt Riggsby) is more tie-in fiction for
Car Wars.
This is a solid issue for me, with one very crunchy article that I'll
get a lot of use from, and several others that may well show up in
passing in my games. Pyramid 88 is available from
Warehouse 23.
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