The Zone

FAQs

Do I really need the First Aid skill?

No.
That said, if you cannot treat your own wounds you are reliant on others to do so, at their expense. There's nothing stopping you buying some of the supplies needed along with the painkillers and passing them along. Healing is very cheap, but sooner or later people are going to resent paying your bills for you…

Can I bring (insert various items here) with me?

When you were searched, anything of practical use out in the wilds was confiscated because these people are trying to make you buy that stuff from them. If it is listed under equipment you can only carry it if you've paid for it in character. If it isn't listed and has any conceivable beneficial use in the game, you can't carry it.

Carrying small personal effects, pouches, spare clothes, and small items for personal entertainment is fine. I have a usb charger with a solar panel to take to larp events, so if I was going into the Zone I'd certainly be taking that and a well-stocked Kindle for example. Internet access within the Zone is blocked so anything with net access cannot be used. There is an intranet within the Zone that hosts a wiki for freelancers and allows certain organised groups to communicate within the Zone. Currently, players should have no access to that kind of technology. Please do not use any kind of messaging app to communicate ic with each other. That may well be an option later…

Short version, anything that adds a personal touch to your character, keeps you entertained while not on a mission and has no net access is fine. Everything else must be paid for.

Can we use pyros?

Smoke grenades are fine, everything else is a no for now. At future events, I may look into allowing other types of grenade, but I need a better sense of potential damage to the site and check with Ann as to what Giants Seat allows. I know smoke is fine…

If you want to use smoke grenades please use white or yellow. Blue is used for knockout gas grenades. Other colours will be used to phys-rep REDACTED and REDACTED so please avoid those. Smoke grenades have also been added to the equipment list, knockout gas grenades must be acquired in game by other means.

5k isn't enough, I couldn't afford XXXXX

Bring the phys-rep for whatever it was anyway. You won't be paid a single lump sum when a big bad dies around 3pm on Sunday. You will be paid immediately after each mission you complete, and you can spend that money immediately as well, so if you complete mission A and realise a GPS tracker would have made it much, much easier, you can potentially buy a tracker before mission B goes out. However, once play has started the price list will change significantly.

Be careful when spending at an event. You will need to service your debts to the smugglers in downtime and you will need to pay upkeep fees for a variety of things (your weapon, your armour, and you). As a very rough guide I am expecting each mission to pay between 1200 and 2000 credits, and for each player to do about 6 missions. My aim is to pay enough over the course of the event for the average player to be able to pay all their bills and maybe buy a couple of skills between events. Players who manage to spirit away the better loot might get more, players who fail some of their missions might have a few financial woes ahead…

So I can just steal the best loot?

Yup, you can. People who suspect you of such can also just shoot you in the head and steal your medical supplies though.

We are tracking reputation. Theft, mission failure, suspected murder and general douchebaggery can make you unpopular and thus affect your mission pay. There is nothing whatsoever to stop you playing a shonky character but there can be consequences, and there's no flawed legal system gatekeeping those consequences…

Food & Drink

I am providing noodles and other dried foods for all players. Those and water are free. Other food and drink may go out as loot, or be available for credits at the bar. Anything else you eat you will need to provide for yourself and must be eaten in the ooc area. Anything other than water must be concealed in a suitable bottle, travel mug with lid, etc etc Tea and coffee will be available in the kitchen, but again, in a travel mug with a lid please.

Do I need to write a backstory?

Need, no.
However a few players have provided odds and ends of plot and indeed entire factions of protagonists based on character backgrounds, so if you have ideas you want refs to run with that's a good way to make it happen.

Do I need to monster?

Nope, but if you fancy an extra gun battle or two, feel free. You don't need any extra gear for monstering, I have a couple of spare tactical vests and the like so you can alter your appearance a bit. Equally if you want to chill in the bar feel free to do so. Any monstering is 100% optional. NPC roles for actual talking and plot purposes will be kept to dedicated crew to prevent spoilers, but if you want to grab a gun and have a scrap, feel free. From experience at Humanity Ascendant, I can tell you that a bit of monstering can be very useful to test out what the other gun phys-reps are like to use.