This comes after playing the Fallout games quite a lot. I know I was a few years late to the party, but they really do offer a lot in terms of inspiration.
It has been decades since the Event. Most of humanity was destroyed, and the culture it spawned went with it. Those few who survived took a large backwards leap and resorted to other means of survival, moving away from cities and urban areas to try and start a new life in the blighted countryside. Those that stayed in the cities had their own reasons.
What remained of the buildings offered protection from the elements, and promised hidden caches of food and other things needed to survive. Gangs of heavies moved into claim these territories, and extort protection from those too weal to fight back. They became lawless places, but still attracted people looking to find a solution to the world’s problems, or enough tinned goods to see themselves through another winter.
It is the promise of the new world’s riches – supplies – that brought you all to the City. A sprawling mes of mangled metal and eroded concrete, hiding scavengers and worse, all looking for an easy fix to their lives. The Tower has never been fully explored. The top twenty levels were so badly damaged it was a wonder the whole thing didn’t come down, and no one who has attempted to gain access to them has lived to tell the tale. But as another winter draws in, a bounty is offered for anyone who manages to scale those heights and report what they find. Even if there’s not even a bar of chocolate left in vending machine, the pay off for information is worth the risk…
The Tower is massive, not just in and of itself, but also when seen as the only remaining spike of a once clustered sky line. The next tallest building to it, is a mere four floors, and the uppermost of that is open to the elements. Gaining access to even the ground floor of the Tower isn’t easy, as several gangs continually vie for control of it, each hoping to be the first to successfully ascend its heights and claim the bounty within.
The fact that there are several different criminal gangs each fighting the others almost constantly for control of the ground floor should allow for a few avenues for the players to explore to when they try to get inside. Each gang defends their stake to the death though, so it should be made clear to the players how unlikely it is that a full frontal assault will be successful unless they have some trick up their sleeves. Once they get inside though, they find the bottom five floors picked clean by scavengers who have been searching the tower for years. They may also come across some of the scavengers themselves who have set up bolt holes for themselves, and will be unhappy to either move from them, or grant anyone else the chance to get past them easily.
After the bottom five floors, the going gets considerably harder, with massive damage done to the infrastructure of the building. Highlight to your players just how unlikely it is that the building is even upright, and that going carefully is the for the best. As they move upwards, litter the jagged protrusions of masonry and steel work with the bird pecked remains of others who have not been so careful. For the more observant amongst them, feel free to drop in something a bit unusual: one of the corpses looks to have a fresh bullet wound…
As they ascend the next few floors, this happens more and more, with one very fresh body found with a bullet hole in the chest. A quick check of the body makes it clear that it died from this wound, and not from falling. Any ballistic experts could figure out that the entry point and exit points clearly indicate that the man was shot upon from above. By now the characters should be getting a bit nervous and suspicious, and paying just as much attention to staying in cover from above as they are keeping a firm grip on the few available hand holds. If they are paying very close attention to what sits above them, they might even spot a flash of light reflected off a moving surface; a gun maybe, or possibly a scope.
At opportune moments, they will be fired upon. How effective this is depends on how careful they have been, but it should be made clear that it is dangerous in the extreme. A perfect example of this happens as they find themselves half way up, tantalizingly close to the relatively unharmed upper floors. As another shot rings out and misses them by inches, it impacts on a ledge that they had previously used to climb on. With agonising slowness, the masonry below it starts to rumble, taking with it a large section of the building, causing the whole edifice to shiver and the crash from below raising clouds of dust and costing an unknown number their lives. This dust cloud is a blessing though, as it allows for cover through which the characters can move, and gain some manner of cover in the marginally more secure upper floors.
It is here that they get their first real look at whatever had been shooting at them. A man, in his late thirties, wearing stone dust coloured camouflage and carrying a large caliber sniper rifle that back in the City would be worth a substantial fortune. He raises it shoot before a crackling of a radioed communication stays his hand, and he beckons the characters over, strapping the weapon to his back.
By now it should be clear that the building is far from abandoned, and the players will find out just how many people there are inside, and how well they live. With hydroponic gardens and solar panels, it’s like stepping back to before the Event. True, the clothes look slightly worn out, and hair is being worn long this season, but these people are obviously affluent, and they want to talk.
Possible future plot threads.
- The person in charge of the Tower needs their help bringing in supplies from below that they cannot create and are running low on. He will pay handsomely and promise them a retirement within the Tower’s walls, but they must be sworn to secrecy.
- A power struggle is in play within the Tower, and various sides begin to court the support of the Outsiders in tipping the balance in their favour.
- Not everyone within the Tower is happy, and several prominent individuals seek aid from the Outsiders in freeing themselves from the Tower without the person in charge finding out.
shortymonster
Hello there, learned reader. My name is not shortymonster, but since we will soon become firm friends, feel free to call me Shorty. I am a well versed and well traveled gentleman gamer, with no particular favourites in regard to system or setting, playing or GMing. You can also find me at my personal RPG blog.