Inspired by STALKER, Metro, Waterworld, that one BehindTheScreen post, some discussions on #glog-spillway, and a handful of other post-apocalyptic media. The phrase "the Big Wet" comes from the Wasteland graphic novel, which I know almost nothing about otherwise. The official soundtrack is anything by Protomartyr.
Also, I'm writing this on my old laptop, which likes to skip H's and add extra S's. So forgive that, please.
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| "Strange Places" by Artem Chebokha |
THE BIG WET
About ten years ago, maybe fifteen or twenty, the world went to shit. Temperatures climbed higher, the ice caps melted, the sea levels, and the weather lost its head. Crops failed, coastlines flooded, cities were abandoned. At some point, the US of A invaded some country less than half its size, a missile or two got fired, and well, you know how that goes.
The important takeaways are this: most governments and nations are fragmented and gone. Lots and lots of valuable stuff is half-submerged in the ruins of the coastal cities. It never stops raining, and everything is always very wet.
WET WORLD
I'm working off of the rough assumption that the global average temperature rose about 4° C (which, relatively speaking, is a shitton), and essentially all of the ice caps have melted. Water levels rose about 30 meters, give or take. Plug that into floodmap.net, and choose a favorite coastal city: that's the main setting of your game. Use google maps to fill in the details.
There are still people around. Lots of them died, from dehydration or filthy water or being killed, but lots of them are still alive. They live in inland communes, overcrowded and more than a little lawless, but still very much kicking. Most towns and villages have kept their names; lots of infrastructure has failed (power grid, internet, most indoor plumbing), but the buildings are still there. Most cities are ruled by a combination of their pre-apocalyptic administrators, newly-risen leaders, and good old-fashioned warlords.
(Way, way inland, up in the mountains, there are whole cities, fueled with coal and dams. They're where new manufactured goods come from, and it's where lucky people end up. You aren't one of those lucky ones, though, so those distant mountain cities are mere backdrop to the main game.)
Most crops do not very grow when it's raining all the time; all bodies of water have grown, reducing available arable land significantly. Fungi, insects, fruit that grow in wetlands, weird trash-fish—all staples of the modern diet. Water is harder to come by; most reservoirs are contaminated, and most rainfall is toxic. Communes either keep purifiers running around the clock, hoard well-water carefully and ration it, or risk disease and drink from the poisoned seas.
GETTIN' WET
(I'm hacking Mothership here; it's my go-to for more modern/non-fantasy systems, it's free, and I like the d100 for some of the stuff here. Most of these rules should translate relatively cleanly over to other OSR stuff, though.)
You have the same stats as normal. Roll-under.
When you get wet, you add to your Wet score. When you roll the dice, you want to roll under your stat, but over your Wet score. If, say, your Strength is 35 and your Wet is (currently) 7, you would need to roll between an 8 and a 34 to succeed. Roll a 35 or higher and you fail, or roll a 7 lower and you fail.
There are three basic states of "wetness:" damp, dripping, and drenched, from least-wet to most-wet.
Being damp is just a little wet: standing in a drizzle with no overcoat, brushing across some waterlogged plants, getting sprayed with mist.
Being dripping is rather wet: falling into a puddle, standing in the rain in just your shirt and pants, getting water poured on you, catching some spray from a hose.
Being drenched is quite wet: swimming underwater, getting caught naked in a downpour, having a bucket of water dumped onto you, lying facedown in a deep puddle.
(You can also use these as a rough percentage: if your boots are full of water but the rest of you is dry, call that damp. If you wade waist-deep but your arms, head, and shoulders are totally dry, called that dripping. These are flexible categories.)
You don't need to track your gear to the same level of detail, but consider: if you spend several hours handling wet bags, rope, guns, and gear, you're going to get at least a bit damp yourself. Keeping your gear as dry as possible is important.
To add to your Wet score:
- For every hour spent damp, add +1 Wet
- For every hour spent dripping, add +2 Wet
- For every hour spent drenched, add +3 Wet
For every hour you spend completely, entirely dry, subtract 3 Wet.
Generally speaking, clothes take about an hour per level of Wet to dry: damp takes an hour to dry, dripping takes two hours, drenched takes three. The exceptions to this are shoes, boots, and socks, which take two or three times that long (unless you take them off and let them hang, when socks go a bit quicker). If you strip down, you'll dry off in about half an hour. If you have a heat source, it takes ten minutes or less.
(If you're on a d20 system, gain Wet every 4-hour watch or maybe every day, rather than every hour. Everything else should carry over fine.)
WET GUNS, WET BULLETS
Bullets are currency. Paper money has long since rotted away, and you can't eat or drink with gold or jewels. The old world left behind lots of guns and plenty of bullets, though, so they have become the new de facto currency.
All bullets, regardless of caliber or make, are worth the same. The deadlier bullets might seem more valuable, but A) their guns are rarer and harder to use, and B) deadlier isn't always more useful.
Exactly how into-detail you want to get with tracking and comparing calibers is up to you. If you want total realism you can use the big list; I personally will probably track 5-8 of the most common calibers and call it a day. You honestly don't even have to track caliber, if you don't want, and just hand-wave it to say that bullets are universal. This system will work fine regardless.
Point is, every shot counts. If you get in a gunfight, you're burning cash—both your own and your enemies'. Bullets are currency.
As for actual, like, gun stats, I'd just steal them from Mothership. Add in some more, if you need them, but they provide a good enough framework to be going on. (If you're on a d20, use Vayra's, or whatever else you want.)
Do guns work underwater? No, not really. It's not that the guns themselves don't work, just that the water resistance is too high. You can stick a gun in water and pull it out again and it will shoot fine, but literally shooting underwater is basically impossible.
BIG WET FUTURE
For the time being, that's everything I've got. In later installments (which are hopefully forthcoming), I'll dig into wet gear, wet vehicles, swimming wet, skills for wetness, and maybe some wet classes or strange wet artifacts.
If you were part of the discussions when I first was talking about this—or if it's caught your attention—feel free to come up with your own stuff.
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