52 North World Guide v1.1

8/8/2019 52 North World Guide v1.1

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/52-north-world-guide-v11 1/16

52 North

LRP in a Post Collapse UK



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52 North

The young boy stared out at the dark outline of the forest, the tops of the pine trees jutting upagainst the moonlight like a distant range of mountains. He started out into the darkness, the silencesurrounding him as the adults all froze and waited, nervous hands sliding to weapons on belts orchecking the precious few rounds in the chamber of a gun. After a few moments people began to

move again, if they don’t come when the frenzied screaming stops then they don’t usually come at all.The young boy looked up into the face of the oldest man in the village who was standing beside him,a hand resting on his shoulder. “What makes them crazy?” he asked.The old man smiled and knelt down, his joints creaking with the effort. He looked into the boy’seyes and grunted a laugh, “Something from the old world, long forgotten that was caused by theactions of a few.”“What do you mean?”“They are afflicted with an illness from the world before the collapse, an illness that we can nolonger treat. There is no hope for them. It’s ironic really, we used to be the country that had thefewest cases of it and now we’re overrun.” The old man laughed bitterly and shook his head. Hegently tapped the side of the young boy’s face, “Don’t worry, you’re safe in here.”

The young boy looked around at the fence, the men guarding it, the spears and wooden staves theycarried and the bits of scrap armour that adorned them. He turned back to the old man and asked;“What was the world like when you were young? You were alive before the collapse, weren’t you?”The old man nodded. “It was different but it wasn’t the paradise you youngsters seem to think itwas. There was war, famine, violence, all of these things, just as there is now. We had money andthe internet, a place where you could talk to people on the other side of the world and even buythings on the other side of the world.”The young boy snorted in derision, “You couldn’t talk to people on the other side of the world, that’ssilly.”The old man smiled, “You could, believe me.”“What’s buying?”“Buying is like barter only we used paper with words on it and the person selling it to you told you

how much of the paper he wanted and you either agreed or you didn’t get what he was selling most ofthe time.”“Why paper? It’s not very useful.”“It was then. It was more than useful, it was powerful. The world revolved around it and that iswhy the world devoured itself when the collapse happened. A man, called Keith James, released aself perpetuating virus onto the internet. That’s like a sickness for these machines we had calledcomputers that did all of our hard thinking for us and told us how much our paper was worth.Anyway, it infected a computer and then produced more copies of itself and they went off andinfected other computers. Within an hour the internet was overloaded and all the computersconnected to it turned off, even the special ones that governments had. The computers didn’t justtell us how much our paper was worth but also they helped us speak to people far away, to control

things that we had grown too lazy to control and to help look after the sick. With them turned offnone of this could happen and since our society needed computers to tell us these things we werelost, like a small child alone in the woods without a grown up to show them how to get home.”“Sounds like it was scary.”“It was, I wasn’t much older than you are now. The society we lived in collapsed under its ownweight and chaos reigned. It looked like the government would rally and bring order to chaos butthey were simply overwhelmed with the demand on their time and services. ”“Wow!” The child’s eyes were wide with awe, “That’s a lot of people. How did the Lawkeepersmanage to keep them all safe?”



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“Well”, said the old man, “They had a lot of them. They were called the Police and they wereallowed to arrest you and put you in a holding cell for ever if you’d been really bad, like if you killedsomeone.”“But they must have put a lot of people in holding cells forever then.”“No, back then, people didn’t kill as often, there wasn’t the need to. There was plenty of cleanwater and food. Anyway, as I was saying, the government collapsed and the world went to hell veryquickly. The paper was useless and so people started to swap things for other things that theywanted which is what led to the bartering we use now to get things. People were scared and aloneand so if someone who was stronger or who knew how to talk to people came along they ralliedround them, hoping they could save them or keep them alive, maybe even lead them to a better life.Some people held onto crackpot ideas andformed cults and sects, others flocked to safelooking, fortified towns and hamlets, like ours.”“Yeah but if someone wanted to take our townfrom us, could they? Why would they do it?”“We’re a good community kid, water and foodare available and we’re mostly safe from the Lost

and bandits around here. There’s Lawkeepers inthe town and the surrounding area so it wouldbe hard for someone to take it but you can seewhy they’d want to.”“Because it’s safe?”“Yes, not much is these days.”“Are things going to get better? Will it be like itwas when you were young?”The old man stared out into the night and shookhis head, “I’ve heard that a group of people aretrying to form a government and are spreading the word but they’ve got a massive fight on theirhands. They’ll need to get rid of the bandits, the Lost, makes sure everyone toes the line and....”

The man stopped and shook his head again. “Sorry kid, I think it’s like this for some time to come.”The child seemed to mull this over for a moment before speaking again. “Couldn’t the Mechanistsrun things? They know how to make machines work and they keep us safe with the Chimera, surelythey’d be good at running things?”The old man laughed, “Remnants of the military with delusions of grandeur running the country!No thank you, we’d be reopening the tunnel and marching to France before you knew it!”“What’s France?”“You know the old man with the strange accent that comes here from time to time? The one thatsays he has a boat?”“Henry? Yes, he’s nice. He gave me toys and they worked and everything.”“Henri, not Henry. He’s from France. He sails his boat from there and he comes here with thingsto trade.”“What, across the sea? That’s impossible, it’s too far away!”“Not as far as you’d think and anyway, yes, that’s exactly what he does.”The young boy looked doubtful for a moment but then, accepting what the old man had said, he

began to get excited as he thought about a whole new country somewhere that can only be reachedby boat.“You see, us old folk are very resourceful.” The old man patted the young boy on the shoulder. “Offto your parents with you, it’s late. ““What time do you have?” asked the boy



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“Nine thirty by my watch by the clock of crows in Raymond’s Rest.”“Oh, that is late. Thanks for the stories Mister Roberts.” With that the young boy ran off towardshis home, always keeping to the light of the watch fires in the town square.

Introduction

Welcome to 52 North, a game about post-collapse society in the UK. This guide is intended to give you a

feel for the game world and explain the system. This document is an ongoing project and as such will be

revised over time. The document version is listed at the front. A list of changes can be found in the

appendix at the back for ease of reference along with the dates of revision. A new version can be obtain

by e-mail from Gee at any time. If you would like a printed and spiral bound version this can also bearranged.

A (very) brief history of the world.

Some time in the early 21st

Century a hacker called Keith James released a virus called Una Bomba onto

the internet. It was supposed to infect machines, replicate and spread. Once it had spread from the

host machine it caused it to enter an infinite loop of circular logic which made it crash and not reboot.

The idea was that the hacker was exposing the dangers of having everything connected throughout the

world and the ensuring that companies became better prepared, perhaps even employing him to

upgrade their security to avoid such threats.

Unfortunately it worked like a dream. Every single computer connected to the internet was infectedwithin hours and shut down. Stock markets, military communications, mobile phone networks, air

traffic guidance, banking systems, anything that used a computer ground to a halt. Within 24 hours

money wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Rioting, looting, all the horrible things that human

beings do in these situations rose to the fore and society teetered on the knife edge.

Governments tried to restore order but with police forces and the military having to operate without up

to date orders and information they were stretched, too stretched. Within a few weeks things had gone

from bad to worse and slowly society began to topple.

It didn’t take all that long for things to fall, dragged down by hubris and reliance on machines and

technology.

People in the UK found themselves cut off from the rest of the world barring sea travel across the

channel to France or risking walking the Channel Tunnel but the continent didn’t really fare any better it

seemed. The remnants of the police around Dover secured the Tunnel against incursions from the

continent and the Gendarmerie Nationale secured it on the French side, nobody was getting through in

either direction.

Some pressure groups took this as the opportunity to perform acts of sabotage against a weak system.

One such group broke into vivisection labs and released all of the animals into the wild. This included

animals that were diseased and sick, infected with Aids, Rabies and far worse. This caused a massive

surge in disease across the surviving population and wiped out swathes of people. Those that didn’t die



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but became infected were culled quickly and their bodies burned by quick thinking groups but some of

them fled, fearful for their lives, making the situation even worse.

Within 2 years, half of the population was dead, 5% of it appeared to have gone feral and native and the

rest was clinging on in groups ranging in size from a handful to a small town full of people. People that

had experience distilling were able to make small amounts of fuel for vehicles if they could scavenge the

parts to convert them. The larger and bolder groups of bandits in the country seized these quickly to

make sure they had the edge over everyone but some of the remaining government groups did the

same, the odd police force managing to maintain a couple of working vans or cars. The military bases

became insular, relatively safe behind their fences and walls and armed to the teeth. When it became

clear that the government wasn’t going to be able to re-establish itself in any useful fashion the military

groups became independent. Some became no better than bandits, praying on the surrounding

countryside, others became like a police force, maintaining a semblance of order in the area around

their base and some retreated behind their barricades and rarely emerged.

Time has moved on and things have stabilised

in the country, insofar as they can following the

collapse of meaningful society. It has been

somewhere between 60 and 70 years since the

day that the virus destroyed the old world andgave rise to the new one. There are some

areas of the Island that are no go areas. The

old nuclear power stations have not been taken

care of and the area surrounding them is toxic,

nothing lives for miles around them but some

young gang members use the areas as initiation grounds for coming of age ceremonies where they send

teenagers in to retrieve something and prove their manhood (and getting horrific radiation poisoning in

the process). It’s a wonder any of them actually survive.

Some of the woods and forests, especially near old zoo sites tend to be a bit risky to venture into as

you’re never quite sure what lives in them and a few of the big cities are derelict wastelands, run by

vicious gangs and psychopaths or prime hunting ground for the inevitable slave drivers that appearedafter the society toppled.

People get by, most hamlets and villages are fenced or walled and most folks are suspicious of strangers

until they’ve proved their not out to kill/thieve from or enslave them. The barter system is the only

recognised form or exchange and trade for goods or services and as a result the worth of things varies

from place to place but some things, sealed wet wipes, ammunition for firearms, clean water and food,

working batteries and fuel for vehicles or generators usually fetch a high price in most places.

The current state of affairs.

Think Fallout 3 without most of the mutants, Mad Max 1 or 2 (not 3, dear God NO, not 3), The Book of

Eli, The Postman (apart from the terrible, terrible ending) a future where technology is largely broken

but there are still working examples of most things though some are rarer than others, people survive

by bartering and there’s a decent excuse to wear spiky shoulder pads, hubcap chestplates and walk

around with a gun or a big, rusty knife.



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Survival is a daily chore for a lot of people.

Medicine isn’t what it used to be, most folks

have to use herbs and poultices to stave off

infection. Clean water can be hard to find as

the nuclear power stations have bled toxic

waste into the water table and decent food

can be scarce.

Some people have taken to cannibalism as a

way to always make sure they can eat. This is

still viewed as a taboo practice at best and as a

total, utter vulgar loss of the right to call

yourself human to most. This doesn’t stop

people that are desperate of course. Since

most cannibals suffer from the shakes due to

the almost exclusive protein diet most of them

are easy enough to spot.

The year is roughly 2082 by the reckoning of

most. England has been without centralgovernment for longer than a lot of people

have been alive. There are rumours that a

group of folks near the south of the country

have buried their differences and are

attempting to re-establish a central, governing body for the country. As there has been no mass recall

of the Lawkeepers to Central this seems to be just that, rumour.

Different parts of the country are run in different ways depending on how big the group is that controls

it currently. Some areas are off limits due to massive bandit attacks or toxic seepage. Others are

controlled tightly by large groups of ex-military groups for whatever reasons they have and since most

folks don’t bother stopping to ask them the mysteries remain.

The area that the game is centred around is a small town called 52 North which resides on the edge of a

forest somewhere is central England. It is a stable community and on a safe-ish and widely travelled

trade route along the centre of the country, being not far from one of the major old big roads that goes

from North to South. It is blessed by a natural spring that gives clean water straight from the local water

table and it appears to be uncontaminated by any of the ecological disasters that have gone on before.

Some of the nearby settlements of people trade regularly with 52 and they form a small group of co-

dependent settlements that seems to deter large bandit groups from trying to take the land and the

water. It has been tried in the past but the local Lawkeepers and a company of The Mechanists Sect

repelled the bandits with such merciless force that no-one has ever fancied trying again.

Several Zonewalkers make their trade in the area, often fulfilling requests of the locals for certain things

and they bring with them stories of the wider world, stories of hope, of restoration but also stories of

despair and increasing banditry and marauding gangs of the Lost.

The town is faring reasonably well and everyone that lives in it is mostly disease free and has enough to

eat and drink on a daily basis. As it is the larger of the townships in the immediate area it is usually the

one that annual celebrations are arranged at. Harvest, Xmas, Midsummer and Deepwinter are all

celebrated at the town and each nearby community sends at least a couple of people to represent them.

A good time is usually had by all and the local tavern/inn helps to put up somewhat drunken revellers

from the nearby towns.



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Organisations

The Guild of Fair Trade

The guild operates across the country, mostly in caravans and packs, bartering in settlements and towns

as they roam around. They usually have the nicest stuff to trade and frequently offer recharging and

rearming services for batteries and ammunition. All guild members are identified to the public by a red

armband with the guild symbol on it. Guild Masters, members that have proven their worth to the guild

and now run their own caravans, can confirm the authenticity of someone wearing a guild armband just

by talking to them. It is rumoured that there is a secret handshake that is only known to guild members

that identify them and help prevent fraudsters.

The guild is generally given sanctuary wherever it goes as it is a lifeline between isolated communities

and also in possession of useful goods. The presence of a guild caravan also affords some protection tothe community that shelters it as most folks won’t attack the guild for fear of ending up on their blacklist

of people or places not to trade with.

The guild can also be hired to take messages, missives or mail between communities.

The Mechanists

These somewhat militant folk are the ones responsible for creating the Chimera system that fits in most

current firearms. With the collapse came the inability to create complex machinery and a small military

outpost realised that they had plenty of ammo but the weapons to use it were failing. The soldiers and

techs designed and created the Chimera system, a series of gaskets, cams and self adjusting clockwork

that fits inside the barrel and chamber of most firearms. When the weapon is cocked the system latches

onto the round that enters the chamber and creates a serviceable but poor gas seal that means the

round will fire providing the barrel is big enough to throw it out of the other end. Of course accuracy is

horrible, range not much better and the thing keeps needing adjustment and tightening but it’s better

than not having a weapon when you need one.

The creators of the system evolved into an autonomous military group that travels the land servicing

their invention and trading and bartering for the things that they need. Though anyone with decent

mechanical knowledge could probably make a Chimera the Mechanists will only service ones they make

themselves so few people bother trying.

As well as the Chimera the Mechanists fix broken machinery and barter heavily for written texts relating

to anything mechanical or discusses skirmish tactics. They are more or less welcomed everywhere but

some see them as slightly aloof and arrogant while others may perceive them as helping perpetuate a

cycle of violence. Whatever their outlook, most folks run into a group of them at some point and

inevitably have need for their services.The Mechanists all bear a patch or banner with the Mechanist logo so are easily recognised. They

apparently have secret rituals and rites that ensure they can test if someone is genuinely a member of

their sect or not though whether this is true has never really been tested openly.

The Lawkeepers

People that choose to enforce the local laws are called Lawkeepers. They are a universal group of noble

folk that try and keep murder and rape at bay throughout the land. They have a headquarters in a



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fortified stockade in what remains of London according to rumour and their orders are dispatched by

plain clothes runners who carry them up and down the country, relaying intelligence and wanted

posters as well as new order or laws from the Lawgiver, their revered master. Each Lawkeeper has a

badge of office that is bestowed upon them by the Lawgiver and they use this to both instil fear and

command respect as well as a means of identity between their own brotherhood.

Lawkeepers are a welcome sight in the land as they help protect

the weak, at least in theory, and will often exchange food and a

roof over their head for patrolling a town or village for a period

of time. There are stories of groups of corrupt, marauding

Lawkeepers in the Wild Places like in the hearts of dark forests

and the hills and mountains in what used to be Wales but these

stories are always told by the friend of a friend who knew

someone who survived and so are often taken with a pinch of

salt.

Some towns and villages use Lawkeepers much like a town

watch or guard that help maintain order permanently. These

folks tend to be locals that have sworn an oath to a roaming

group of Lawkeepers that has had a Sergeant among them foronly a man of rank can swear in new ones. Though they will

likely spend most of their time in that town there is always the

concern that they could be summoned away if a call is put out

for all Lawkeepers to gather to face some huge threat.

The Church

The religious and devout weathered the collapse through faith and hiding in Churches and other places.

Those that made it through believed that they were chosen by God to lead the flock that remained

through the dark days that lay ahead and into the light of the Kingdom of Heaven when the Rapture

came. The Church believe that the collapse was merely the beginning of the end of days and that the

Rapture is literally upon us. They are prophets of doom and heralds of sermons and depressing dogma.The priests of the Church are Chosen and there are those

devout souls that devote themselves to ensuring that

they are able to go about their mission of preaching and

saving unhindered by guarding them, protecting them

and aiding them in whatever way they can as service to

one of the chosen Priests of the Church is a sure way into

the Kingdom of Heaven. The Priests are often seen with

their entourage of repentant sinners in the countryside,

bringing religion and salvation to those that need it. Of

course, anyone who says they don’t need the salvation

of the Church obviously has an even greater need of

salvation.

The Aspirants, as the repentant are known, often see themselves as unworthy of the Church and the

Lord and self-flagellate to cleanse their spirit through pain. Some are delirious with the Word of the

Church, so much so that they recite their litany almost without knowing they are doing it, some that

have learnt to write scribble the litany onto paper and pin it to their clothes and bodies as a walking

prayer. For a good barter there are some who will scribe a prayer for you and wear it, reciting it for you

constantly, for a year and a day.



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A lot of people try and give the roaming members of the Church a wide berth for they are a disturbing

people to most. Some of them are borderline insane from the perspective of a non-believer but they

are righteous and the work of the Church must be done, especially in the face of adversity.

Zonewalkers

This nickname is thrust upon anyone who makes a living by venturing out

into the wilds and the contaminated places of the country and trades

whatever they manage to scavenge. They are usually treated with some

mild suspicion as some people think them little more than armed thugs

and thieves. However, they often manage to get hold of little pieces of

working technology, reliable ammunition or decent, disease free game.

They tend to travel alone and trade between a regular group of

settlements, sometimes filling bespoke requests for certain items that

the trade caravans don’t have but the settlement needs. That said, it is

not unheard of for a Zonewalker to travel the length of the Country,

trading all over it and coming back with stories of what lies beyond the

borders of England.

The Lost

Not an organisation so much as an affliction. The Lost are people that have succumbed to madness and

disease. Some of them travel in packs, some travel alone but all of them inspire fear. They are the souls

that have been infected with whatever horrific, mutated diseases that have come to exist in the current

time. Most of them simply become sick and die but a small minority exhibit irrational and often violent

and murderous behaviour. Though it is a minority it is deemed safer to completely avoid or kill the Lost

when they are encountered on their own. When they are present in a pack however they are a very real

threat to life and limb. The howling madness that is a pack of Lost tends to go silent when it has found

something to prey upon for some reason. The silence lasts a moment or two before they begin the

howling and screaming again as they rush their target. This seems to be a universal pattern of behaviour

and at least lets a village or travelling group know that they are about to be attacked.The Lost have no saving graces, they are wild, savage and disease ridden. They tear through people and

settlements, eating the fallen and violating the living until they are broken and dead and then

consuming them out of frustration.

Vocabulary

Language has mostly remained the same other than a few colloquial sayings and phrases that are

explained here.

As there is no centralised time from atomic clocks anymore everyone has a slightly different idea of

what the current time is. It is customary for people to synch their working timepiece with a local one in

the area they mostly reside in, be this a clock in the town square or the watch of the town mayor. As a

result when asked for the time people respond with not just the time but they clarify that it is the time



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according to them which in turn is synched with something else. So, a resident of 52 North would

usually say 9pm by saying “9 o’clock by my watch, by the clock in the North 52 Tavern.”

This helps people to set their timepiece to the local time. Most places are within an hour or so of each

other but you can get places that have a few hours difference.

System (v1.1)

Firstly, a word on combat. LRP safe melee weapons are to used for melee combat, that’s a

given, as is slow, non-contact, telegraphed blows for hand to hand fist fighting.

Ranged combat, such as bows must be phys repped using LRP safe arrows. Gun combat will be

phys repped by Nerf guns. Nerf guns? WTF?

Nerf guns eliminate the need for damage calls, they also remove the doubt as to whether youwere shot or not and since this is a post collapse society you are using either well out of date

ammo or hand reloads so the range will be compromised and some of them might not work.

This will be represented by the fact that the ref will load ALL Nerf guns at the start of the event

and some rounds may be

sabotaged to not fire. The ref

will supply all Nerf ammo.

Since it is unlikely that every

member of the player base will

have a firearm it shouldn’t be

an issue. If you don’t like theidea of using a Nerf gun then

don’t have a firearm in game.

Firearms are rare enough

anyway so don’t expect the

event to be a gun fight as

you’ll probably be rather

disappointed.

Nerf ammo

All ammo for in game guns will be supplied by the ref. This is because some ammo may or may

not work. The ref will load your gun at the start of the event so you can’t see if you’re gettinggood ammo or a few duds. Please honour the secrecy of what is loaded. You will know how

many rounds you have, just not if they’re all live or not. If you buy ammo then the person

selling it will give you a chit to take to the ref who will supply the actual physical darts. Again, if

possible, these will then be loaded into your gun secretly. If not then you will see what you are

getting, or you could stuff them in a pocket and take one out when you need it and pray.



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Once a nerf dart is fired it is used up. Please do not collect darts from the ground and keep

them, please return them to the ref.

Arrows

All arrows and crossbow bolts are to be LRP safe phys reps.

Damage and healing

Depending on what you elected to do with your points at character creation you will have

between 1 and 5 hits. Once you have taken your hits +1 you will fall over. You will then take a

bead out of your hit bag and it will denote what has happened to you in terms of wounds.

Everyone will have a “hit bag”. This will be a small pouch that contains 15 different coloured

beads. The beads denote different levels of wounds

The beads are coloured clear, green and dark red and they mean the following:

Clear – Winded. You are hurt and a bit winded but nothing is broken and the bleeding can be

staunched easily by a couple of minutes of fussing by someone with the first aid or other

medical skill. If you have first aid you can stabilise yourself easily enough. There are no lasting

effects from the wound.

Green – Injured. You have had the sense knocked out of you by the wound. You are dazed and

something may well be broken or you are bleeding heavily and cannot treat the wound yourself.

You need medical attention to stabilise you or your condition will worsen, begin counting slowly

back from 300. If you reach 300 before someone with the first aid skill or a medical skill gets to

you and starts to stabilise you then you progress to the wound status below and spend at least

10 minutes achy and in pain. If someone is stabilising you but is interrupted before they have

finished you must begin counting

again from where you left off.

Red – Mortal. You have received a

mortal wound and are in serious

trouble. You are unconscious and

dying. Begin counting slowly back

from 300. You can be stabilised by

someone with first aid but you need

surgical medical attention as well. If you reach 300 before anyone arrives

with either first aid or a medical skill

you are dead. If someone with first

aid reaches you they can stabilise you

and you can stop counting providing

they continually work on you. If they stop, you carry on counting from where you left off until



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they start again.. If someone is stabilising you but is interrupted before they have finished you

must begin counting again from where you left off. Once you are stable begin counting back

from 500. If you are not being treated by someone with a medical skill by the time you reach

zero then your wounds reopen and you have a count of 300 before you die. At this point you

must be treated by someone with the medical or surgical skill, first aid will do nothing. The start

of treatment stops your count providing the person doing the treatment continues to treat youwithout interruption.

The length of time it takes to stabilise an injured person is explained in the skill descriptions.

Once you have become stable you drop to the wound above so if you are mortally wounded

and you are treated by someone with the medical or surgical skill you move to injured and so

regain consciousness but are quite woozy and in pain. Once this has happened it is up to you to

roleplay recovering until you can move around and carry on as normal. If you want to get better

quickly that’s fine, if you want to ham up being injured for hours, that’s also fine.

The injury system is designed to allow for dramatic and angsty injury as you, the player, see fit,

whilst also having the very real threat of death hanging over you so you don’t just steam into

combat every 5 minutes while things bounce off you with no repercussions.

As mentioned earlier, everyone has 15 beads in the “hit bag”. If you have a body of 1 then you

are a pathetic weakling who snaps in a strong wind. This will be represented by the fact that

your 15 beads will likely be 2 or 3 clear ones, 3 or 4 green ones and the rest will be red. On the

other hand, burly types with a body of 5 will have 6 or 7 clear ones, 5 or 6 green ones and the

rest will be red so you are less likely to succumb to mortal wounds.

Once you have taken a bead out to see what has happened to you please put it back in the “hitbag” for later.

The use of beads should make most combat self reffing should the ref be elsewhere.

All phys repped weapons, be they nerf guns, arrows, swords, sticks etc do LETHAL damage. You

can use a melee weapon to call SUBDUE should you so wish.

Hand to hand fighting does subdual damage. You can take as many subdual hits as you have

body regardless of whether you have taken any lethal damage or not. If you fall over because of

subdual damage exceeding your hits you do not take a wound bead out, you are considered tobe temporarily knocked senseless or briefly unconscious. If the person continues to hit you

once you fall over due to hits you do then start to take lethal damage for each blow. Once you

have reached your hits again it’s bead time.

If you are struck 20 times after getting a bead out then you automatically become mortally

wounded and start counting. Any damage received after this is irrelevant. 20 hits may seem

excessive but if you want to beat someone to death with your bear hands you have to work at it.



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Character Creation.

Everyone will get a small, laminated character sheet at the start of the game. This will be

roughly the size of a playing card and will contain all of your skills and stats data in a handy,

wipe clean form.

Everybody has 2 sets of stats, attributes and skills. Attributes are your natural abilities such as

your strength etc. Skills are things you have learned.

Everybody also gets a perk. This is a small tweak that gives you an ability or quirk in game.

Stats are rated from 1 to 5

At character creation your stats are all 1 and you have no skills and no perks. You have a pool of

5 points to spend on your three attributes.

You then have 10 skill points to spend.

You may then choose 1 perk.

Attributes.

Strength – Your physical strength, this dictates how capable you are of lifting heavy items and

can be used in direct contests with other people.

Body – This translates directly into how well you can handle pain and physical trauma. Each

point translates directly into 1 hit.

Aptitude – This is an abstract way of lumping intelligence, learning, manual dexterity and such

like into a catch all number for system effects like lock picking and such like.

Skills.

This list is by no means exhaustive. If you would like a certain skill that isn’t listed, e-mail me

and I’ll get back to you with a yes or no and if it’s a yes I’ll tell you how it works in-game. If it’s a

no then it’s a no, sorry. I will also assign a points cost to it.

First a note on combat skills. Everyone is able to pick up a basic, single handed melee weapon

and hit someone with it. This requires no in game skill. Skills that are listed here for specific

weapons mean that you must have that skill on your character sheet in order to use that

weapon. Without the skill you do NO damage. This is so people that wish to play combat

orientated characters have skills to set them apart from the regular folk of the game world.

2 Handed Weapons – (requires a Strength score of at least 2) allows you wield a 2 handed

weapon and cause damage. Staffs, halberds etc. – Costs 1 point

Bows – (requires an aptitude of at least 2) allows you to use bows and crossbows and cause

damage with them. – Costs 1 point



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Firearms – (requires an aptitude of at least 2) allows you to use any firearm and cause damage

with it. Due to the added complexity of the Chimera system and the jury rigged and unreliable

nature of firearms in the game world you cannot use one without this skill. – Costs 3 points

First Aid – (requires an aptitude of at least 2) allows you to stabilise wounded people. In orderto do so you must phys rep the fact that you are giving them first aid and you must apply some

form of bandage, poultice or tourniquet for the skill to affect anyone who is injured or worse.

Stabilising someone takes at least 2 minutes of uninterrupted attention. If you are interrupted,

i.e. you stop treating the patient, then they restart their injury count. If you return to stabilising

them it still takes at least 2 minutes. You cannot stabilise a mortally wounded character but you

can work on them continuously to stall their countdown. As long as you continue to work on

them they get no worse. If you stop then they resume their count from where it last stopped.

You can hand over treatment to someone with the medicine skill so that they can stabilise them.

Costs 2 points

Medicine – (requires an aptitude of at least 3) allows you to create herbal poultices and

remedies and mix poisons. You can make basic herbal poultices at level 1 that can be used by

someone with first aid which reduces the time to stabilise someone by 60 seconds. Level 2

allows you to make poultices that can aid a medic or surgeon that reduces the time by 120

seconds. Level 3 allows you to make poisons. This skill also means that you have some limited

experience or skill with trauma, more so than someone trained in first aid. As such, you can treat

and stabilise a mortally wounded character. It takes at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted

attention to stabilise a mortally wounded character at level 1. The time reduces by 3 minutes

per level so at level 3 you it takes you 6 minutes to stabilise a mortally wounded character. If you

are interrupted, i.e. you stop treating the patient, then they restart their injury count. If you

return to stabilising them it still takes at least 15/12/9 minutes. You must phys rep thetreatment in some way. – Costs 3 points per level

Surgery – (requires an aptitude of at least 4 and Medicine of at least 2)allows you to treat

mortally wounded characters as per Medicine above but it only takes you 5 minutes. Again, this

must be phys repped and all other rules described under medicine apply (i.e. uninterrupted work

etc). – Costs 4 points

Lock picking – (requires an aptitude of at least 2) allows you to attempt to pick locks. You need

this skill to attempt to open any mechanical lock without the correct key. Can be purchased at

levels 1, 2 or 3. Lockable containers in the game will be phys repped with combination padlocks.If you have lock picking you will get a sheet of possible combinations for the event. The higher

the skill level, the smaller number of combinations you will have and therefore the easier it will

be to find the correct one. – Costs 2 points per level

Tracking – means you are a skilled tracker. You can recognise animal tracks and are able to

track animals or people through the undergrowth and woods. – Costs 1 point



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Forager – you know where to forage for food in the wilderness and know what is edible and

what isn’t. – Costs 1 point

Literate – (requires an aptitude of at least 3) you can read and write. Without this skill you have

the reading and writing ability of a 4 year old so you can probably read simple 1 or 2 syllable

words if you concentrate and read aloud very slowly and scrawl big, scruffy letters but have nocomprehension of spelling or grammar. – Costs 2 points

Mechanic – (requires an aptitude of at least 3) you have been trained to fix mechanical devices.

You can repair broken mechanical items with access to the correct tools. You are also able to

jury rig temporary solutions together for mechanical problems. Any mechanical devices in game

will have sticker on them denoting the minimum level of mechanic needed to fix/repair or

tamper with the device. – Costs 3 points per level to a max of 3

Ancient Technology – (requires an aptitude of at least 3, literacy and Mechanic of at least 1) you

have experience with ancient technology (computers and such things). You have a very basicknowledge of how pre-collapse technology works and could probably use a computer terminal

after a lot of fudging about with it. – Costs 4 points

Perks

Perks are a small addition to your character that makes you a little different to most other

players in game system terms.

Hardy – You gain 1 additional hit but not an additional point of body.

Escape artist – You are able to slip out of bonds or cuffs after 2 minutes of squirming around.

Lucky - You gain 2 additional clear beads in your hit bag.

High pain threshold – you can choose to remain conscious regardless of the severity of your

wounds (unless you are dead of course).

It winged me– When you draw a bead for a wound you can choose to draw an extra one and

choose the lesser effect. If they are the same, hard luck. You may do this TWICE per day only.

Extra rounds – If you have a firearm you start each event with 2 extra rounds of ammo that are

both live.

Cast iron gut – you don’t get poisoned by dirty or irradiated water and food and can in fact

survive off them if needs be.



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Starting kit.

Ask and ye shall possibly receive. Send me a list of your possessions when you create your

character. I don’t want everything you own but things that are pertinent to the game world, i.e.

weapons, surgical tools etc. If you have a bow then you have whatever arrows you can phys rep

that are LRP safe. If you have a firearm I will determine how many rounds of ammo you have

prior to each event. This will be done using some dice and adding them to a certain number so

it’s fairly random and without bias.

That’s about it for the world and system guide. Obviously there is a lot that is vague or not

spelled out as the people that play help shape the world and help the background evolve.

Please feel free to send ideas/backgrounds to me for characters and I will either say yes, fine or

tweak something or outright say no if it doesn’t fit.

The game will be centred around the town and the inhabitants of it and any events after the

playtest will also be set around the town so playing someone who lives in 52 North is fine. If

you want to hold a specific position in the town please let me know and I’ll let you know. Feel

free to be the town mayor if you want to be in charge. You don’t have to play a towns person at

all but I thought it best to mention that you can if you want to.

The actual event flyer will be done in a few months after I’ve written a plot but for now this

should be enough for you to decide if it sounds like something you want to play/crew on and to

give you flavour of what I see the game world as.

Gee

Documents

52 North World Guide v1.1