Nowadays the outside world is a dangerous and lethal place. A huge, deserted barren land dotted with remnants of the World of Before. There, diseases and contamination are still commonplace and fights for the few resources left have turn their inhabitants into tough people, willing to use force to get what they need.
The old world as we know it, and even the existence of the Megalopoli themselves, are now but a legend, old wives’ tales not believed by the majority of the population.
Due to the lack of electric power or people who know how to build and fix complex devices, technology has been reduced to the most basic items. Everything is made from recycled scraps found from better times or the waste disposed of by the elites behind the walls.
But getting theses scraps is no easy task. The ruins of the old abandoned cities are home to mutant monstrosities, walking dead and even worst things, so only the fools dare to enter them.
Even so, through all the Wasteland there can be found small settlements, usually fortified in the most bizarre ways, that strive to prosper. Some function as commercial posts, others are the sole meaning for weak individuals to survive as a group, there are those with small greenhouses which provide the others with food, and some act as a fortified stronghold for a gang. In these places the most common currency are bullets, an asset valuable like no other in this mean world.
Besides all this, the Wasteland is home to countless mobs of gangers that comb it in search of resources or take them by sheer force, mutated freaks that inhabit areas where no one else would like to be, eccentric individuals able to recycle old pieces of technology or odd religious cults of various natures. And the strife between theses factions is the basis for this game.
Scrapbridge and surroundings
Trying to cover all the Wasteland in this book would be impossible, for all the world is now Wasteland and there exist countless factions all over its extension. We will focus instead on the zone surrounding Scrapbridge, one of the biggest and more important settlements in hundreds of miles around, in the territory of the former United States of America. You have to keep in mind that this area is still a vast region, where only the most relevant places in the present will be described. There are plenty of smaller settlements not mentioned in these entries, as well as countless ruins of old small towns, villages and buildings.
Scrapbridge
No doubt the most important population center of all this area is Scrapbridge, the main place of commerce you can find in the Wasteland in weeks of hard travel. It is located over the bed of what was a quite sizeable river, under the remaining of a huge bridge that used to cross it. This rests were used to build a labyrinth of houses and other buildings that hang from it, linked to the bottom of the riverbed by walkways and manual lifts, so the place has several stories of dwellings and shops. This settlement is well protected with two walls, similar to dams, that cover the entrance from the riverbed, and a series of barbed wire entanglements that block the access from the road over the canyon. But it’s not the walls what gives Scrapbridge its capability to survive, but the status it has earned among all factions in this fraction of the Wasteland. The city is neutral ground, a place to trade, get information or just relax, without being ever vigilant to an attack. Here violence is forbidden and the factions themselves are in charge of keeping it that way, punishing without mercy all those who break the rules. Everybody knows that Scrapbridge is a necessary place to resupply and trade, so gangs with the fiercest rivalry try to keep things running smoothly, and even the despicable mutards are allowed to come here and deal with the rest of the factions.
Hundreds of souls consider Scrapbridge their home, where some greenhouses tend to their feeding needs and there are a couple of wells to get some fresh water from underground. You can find houses, drinking holes, brothels… the only Paradise-like place you will find amongst the desolated landscape that surrounds it. They have even built a sand hockey stadium, a bloody and brutal sport (although not as much as the pit fights in Nowater) that entertains the population and already has several teams competing in a regular league. There is also a basic division in five quarters, controlled by a City Council formed by the five most influent representatives among them (these are actually the ones who come from the quarters adjacent to the bridge pillars, plus the one from the upper road that used to cross the original river).
– The Gross Way includes the old road which crossed the original bridge, as well as all the structures that have been built on both sides to serve as living quarters, general stores and all kind of service areas. These are the more solid and better constructed buildings of all the Scrapbridge levels, so here live the most wealthy and influent of their neighbours. This is also de quarter with better communications, as both sides of the bridge end up in an access route to the old Interstate 70, so they are heavily guarded with watchtowers and barricades, to avoid anyone approaching the city by surprise in either direction. Its spokesperson in the Council is the trader Corey Banks.
– The Beam was the first founded quarter in Scrapbridge, protected under the south pillar of the bridge, from which it takes its name. It is one of the biggest and most successful quarters in town, and quite quiet as far as it can be expected thanks to La Trini Gang, a band of local gangers who take care that things don’t go much out of the ordinary. It is also one of the places were more wealth changes hands in all the settlement, and the one with the most visitors thanks to all the stores, kennels, greyhound tracks and drinking holes. Besides here you can find a pioneering project known as the Skool, a kind of primary school where Bridger kids are taught some measure of basic knowledge before releasing them to do their will on the Wasteland. Its spokesperson in the Council is the ganger Dyna Dynamite.
– Shithole is, as its own name suggests, Scrapbridge’s unofficial garbage dump. Taking advantage of the stream that winds down the cliff side, almost all the waste from the south quarters is disposed of here. Yet there are still those who end up living here, in a shanty town of shacks, garbage piles and almost wild animals. Many orphans, old gangers traumatized by their years of fighting, or broken merchants end their days here, as well as the oldest or most withered whores, dismissed from Titgrab, who end working in the cheapest, filthiest and least advisable joint in all Scrapbridge: the Reyxol.
– Shelter is a small quarter nestled between The Beam and Yellow, christened like that because it is right under the bridge’s main structure and it is safe from many of the fallings and accidents that happen in other quarters. It’s made up almost entirely of the living places of many Bridger workers, who only want to earn a living day by day without poking their noses in any weird shit.
– Footlicker is tucked between Shithole and Druggietown, so at first thought it wouldn’t be a really nice place to live or be in, but in spite of the foul smell carried by the wind from the pigsties to the west, the junkies going and coming to and from the Cleavage, or the human scum populating Shithole, there is honest people living here or trying to make a living out of some modest business. One of the most notorious individuals to set his residence here lately, in an attempt to give the place some measurement of respectability, is no other than Dr. Sarious, who has founded the first chapterhouse of the Scrapbridge Methane and Meat Electro-proteic Guild. The name of this quarter comes from “something” living in the river, with the habit of sucking or licking the feet of any unwary traveler wanting to take a shortcut.
– Yellow is right over the watercourse of the Cleavage, so all its levels are raised above the riverbed thanks to the solid central pillar of the bridge. Back in the day it was called Riversight, but the ugly habit of its inhabitants of peeing from its sidewalks and railings directly into the river forced a change of name. This bridge’s pillar also has a disgusting yellowish color to it, due to those brickheads who think that peeing against the wall and letting it slide down to the river is more polite than doing it from the outside platforms. This place is somewhat more chaotic than The Beam, more violent and insecure, but in general you can describe it as a working-class quarter with ordinary families. Its spokesperson in the Council is the retired junker Lucius the Spyglass.
– The Promenade is not really a living quarter, but simply an open stretch of land that goes alongside the Cleavage riverbed. When people started to take the habit of taking long walks through this area, or crossing it to get quickly to the Covenant Square, all kinds of stalls and sales carts popped up like mushrooms to offer their goods to any passerby at the top of their owners’ voices.
– Armpit is the smallest of all quarters, cornered on the riverbed and with few levels ascending up to the Gross Way. Here abound catering services such as fast food joints, drinking holes and gambling dens. Name comes, with no doubt, from the foul smell created by the mixture of all the frying parties, boiling stews, barbeques, throw ups and sweating men working among stoves and fryers all over the place, which is not really pleasant. Despite its small size, this is a popular place for travelers to eat something and have a (quick) drink before moving on.
– Titgrab is Scrapbridge’s red light district. With great concern to the Scrapbridgers Union for Moral, Decency and Family, this quarter (which also has a representative in the Council for being next to the north pillar) this place has became a haven for prostitutes, escorts and pleasure business. No need to explain the origin of its name, you only need to know that this is the best place to find company from both sexes whether you are just visiting the Bridge or you live on the other corner. Local pimps and madams have created a quite effective society to protect their clients from excessive robberies or scams, so this is a relatively safe and quiet place to drop by. Its spokesperson in the Council is the pimp Antoine le Magnifique.
– Facesmack is, apart from Druggietown and Shithole, the least advisable place to visit in Scrapbridge. Gangs make this place their home and here prevails the law of the strongest. If you come here you must be quite confident in your own abilities to defend yourself, because no one is going to do shit for you if you run into trouble. The Tunnel Wackos, a band specialized in getting all types of unusual treasures making scavenger raids down the sewers and underground tunnels of the area, have their headquarters here; the entrance to the almost-mythical Tunnel 666 is also in this quarter. Its spokesperson in the Council is the retired pit fighter Facemuncher.
Apart from all these places you have to bear also in mind some areas apart from the Bridge itself, but that are also part of the settlement. They would be the Covenant Square, a place of trade, stalls and market, where the Citizen Council also has its regular meetings, named like that to honor the pact that put an end to the beefs and grudges among factions and established the city as neutral zone for anyone coming in peace. Druggietown, a zone of rushes and reedbeds nestled between Shithole and the outer lands, where local junkies, tramps and drunkards meet to spend the day doing nothing except… well, except the only thing they do. The stadium, a walled area with several stands where sand hockey matches take place, right north of the Covenant Square. And the outer farming lands, where only the most brave or desperate dare to live in isolated farmhouses where they grow anything they can from this barren land, or breed livestock to feed the city.
Early sketch of a Scrapbridge map, as drawed by Dr. Sarious
