Settlements in MCC
Food for post-apocalyptic thoughts
The following serves to give GMs something to think about when running MCC. The game has little in the way of details for what a typical village might be like. The adventure Seeking the Post-Humans is the only official module with any real attempt at describing a village (great adventure, btw!) While its not instantly gameable roll tables, I hope the following helps GMs start thinking about ways that the PCs can help their community and what community leaders might ask of them.
Settlements in Mutant Crawl Classics
For settlements to thrive on their own, they need a strong infrastructure. Judges should use the following section to inspire their games. These different means of improving infrastructure can create quests for seekers that allow them to see how their actions change the world for the better.
Water: After the Great Disaster, the ice melted and the Monster Ocean rose. Pollutants and aquatic beasts fill both inland and outland waters.
Purification: The inhabitants of Terra A.D. have evolved to more readily survive on the polluted waters, but clean drinking water would still be a great benefit. With clean water crops are quicker to thrive, children grow stronger, and sicknesses become more rare. Old water treatment facilities are filled with complex equipment, but all manner of smaller water filtration systems are littered through the ruins of Terra A.D.
Food: A settlement survives on its stomach. Though many tribes survive by hunting, those that rediscover agriculture are able to thrive.
Maggot Farm: An easily created, but unappealing source of protein. Trash goes in and maggots come out. The “low maintenance” quality makes it a common enough solution for hermits and outcasts.
Livestock: A good herd of any livestock can change a tribe’s future. Roxen are a favored beast of burden that also produce quality milk and meat. Hoppers are a favorite for migratory tribes, as their bounding jumps make for quick traversal. Occasionally, a tribe can capture a massive tardigrade for their use. These powerful beasts may be used as “war machines” or for clearing ancient ruins for new municipal purposes.
Storage: A secure grain silo is a hard thing to come by in the post-apocalypse! Too many creatures have razor sharp claws and burning breath. But if a community can source a solution for long-term food storage, they protect themself from the threat of famine. But with the use of a grav-clamp, communities can move ancient restaurant freezers and other vaults to their village.
Armory: Terra A.D. is a fearsome place. Without the means to defend itself from beasts and bandits, a community cannot remain its own.
Artifacts: There is nothing more treasured than an artifact that benefits the whole tribe. Medi-bots are highly valued, but any smart-metal is highly valued. An agro-bot can drastically improve a communities food supply and a security-bot can stave off most bandits. “Personal use” artifacts are often revered by village elders until they are bestowed upon worthy seekers, who may in fact be the first members of the village to ever actually understand its proper function.
Crafts: The majority of armaments are not advanced technology, but a more simple range of bows, clubs, and spears. Many enterprising individuals repurpose old world technology, such as turning traffic signs into shields, sports gear into armor, and ransacking museums for ancient weaponry.
Energy Sources: The most powerful of tribes are those that harness the power of the past. Those that are able to use advanced energy sources are able to free up their people for other work, for leisure, and for the luxury of being able to take more risks.
Manual Energy: Often a simple rotary mill, these may be used for pumping water, grinding grain, or operating elevator lifts. The work is usually performed by livestock or basic robots, if such servants are available. Other forms of manual energy machines might be a human treadmill or bicycle.
Dirty Energy: Whether it be coal, wood, oil, or steam, the peoples of Terra A.D. are rarely concerned with pollutants in their ruined world. These resources may power a wide number of machines that range from street-lamps to truly ancient cars.
Renewable Energy: A tribe is truly blessed if it can scavenge or move to a location with working solar panels or a hydro-electric generator. Most ancient hydro-electric dams have been destroyed by eons of environmental change, but some still survive. Similarly most solar panels have cracked and their batteries broken, but the remaining few can mean a near effortless way to recharge C-Cells and certain smart-metal servants.
Nuclear Energy: Most nuclear reactors melted down during or in the time since the Great Disaster, but a few still remain. In an unpowered state, the machinery is nearly impossible to reactivate by the citizens of Terra A.D. They often need a pre-programmed smart-metal servant or facility A.I. to put these great artifacts into operation. However, portable nuclear energy was a favored tool of the ancients, but only the luckiest of Seekers may hope to find miniature reactors. Both scales of nuclear energy are often found in only the deepest realms of the glow desert or the most ruined cities of the ancients.
Quantum Energy: It was said that not even the ancients understood what they harnessed. Quantum reactors can power anything, but no organic citizen of Terra A.D. could ever hope to understand how to control such energy unless it is contained within a Q-Cell.
Crews: These hirelings can be sent out to gather information and materials. They expect fair payment and fair treatment, but each crew gets a unique agreement. Some may ask that they receive a first pick of artifacts, while others may simply negotiate that everyone gets a fair share of recovered goods. Some crews may serve as both salvage and survey teams, while others may specialize.
Salvage: These crews can be sent out to previously explored locations. They are hesitant to ever explore a new location, as the dangers of the wasteland often mean death. While exploring locations, they’ll strip the location of anything and everything useful. The PC who negotiated the trip may also make a Luck check. On a success, the salvage crew finds an artifact that the PCs missed on their adventure (should such an artifact exist).
Survey: These crews scout out new nearby regions in order to find sites worthy of a seeker team or new communities with which to trade. They usually ask a “finder’s fee” of 10% of whatever is profited from such findings. Judges may wish to use these crews to point PCs towards specific adventures.
What supplements or methods have you used to make villages feel more alive in your game?
What Else’s Going On?
The Conquest of Chaos
Now available in softcover PoD
Academia Arcana
Enter the Wizard’s Vault! We’re packing zines along with the core book!
