Pick your skills and equipment:

Decide on which skills and equipment you want to start the game with. These choices should be a reflection of what your character has become competent in doing and what they've managed to find before turning up to their first event. A table of the skills available are below, whilst the equipment tables can be found in the "Equipment you will Need" chapter of the Survival Guide. You have 25 scav points to spend on a combination of skills and equipment... choose wisely!

Choose your perk:

Your character also starts with a perk, and for every event they survive gains another. Perks are added bonuses to skills, character attributes and additional abilities that help you survive in the Wastes. A few examples are below, whilst a full list can be found in the "Perks of the Apocalypse" chapter of the Survival Guide.

CHARISMA: You can CHARM people twice a day or negate someone else’s CHARMS. Folks like this will say, “Would you kindly…” to get their view across and make you act out in ways you wouldn’t usually. It doesn’t always work, but when it does and you’re also a charmer you can stop them by saying, “Would you kindly not try to influence me like that?” Your natural CHARMS need to be backed up by argument and ideas and is not some kind of magic spell that makes people act. If their core values are challenged by what you’re influencing them with then they might not be influenced.

FOR SCIENCE!:  (Skill required: Chemist) You may brew more potent, experimental chems that have twice the duration, but are much more addictive.

LEAD BELLY: You take half the RADs from food or water, rounded down.

MEDICINE CABINET: You are a proverbial medicine cabinet and always manage to find 5 med doses between scavengers’ gatherings.

... PASS THE AMMUNITION: Aptly named from the song, “praise the lord and pass the ammunition,” you’re never in short supply, always gaining a full magazine of 6 bullets before each scavengers’ gathering.

SNEAK: You can hide more effectively in the Wastes. To do so you must: be in cover, not move and indicate you are sneaking by raising a fist in the air.

SNIPER: (Skill required: Firearms Mk.1) Armed with a rifle, you may describe a target that is at long range to fire a sniper shot at them. The target must be out of your normal range. The level of detail you can describe will translate into the effectiveness of the shot. Bad descriptions will miss, while good descriptions will hit the target in the vital parts! Snipers also usually have scopes to aid them in their descriptions. While this isn’t mandatory, I’ve failed to put a scav point cost on a scope, simply because they’re so rare and so closely linked to those who are snipers it’s almost a given that a sniper will have one.

TIME FOR TEA: The most British of persuits: any water you use to brew tea is considered clean of Infection (INF)

TOUGH: You’re built like a brick outhouse! You have 3 Hit Points per location.

Submit your background:

Write a background for your character, giving us a little information on their life so far, where they're from, how they survive and who they have ties to. From this you will be given a trait for your character. A trait is similar to a perk, but it is unique to your character and has an PRO and a CON to it. Please note that Wasteland UK is set around 85 years after the nuclear apocalypse and so any character dating from before that era is considered a "Ghoul" character or 'Necrotic Mutant' with an extended lifespan. The trait for Ghouls serves as an example below:

- TRAIT -

“GHOUL”

You bare the mark of necrotic mutation and due to your exposure to radiation over a long period of time you have built up an immunity to radiation poisoning. Get too much, however, and the RADs begin to attack your brain sending you ‘feral’.

PRO

You will never receive ill effects from accrued RADs.

CON

No doctor will ever be able to diagnose how many RADs you have been exposed to. If you reach critical radiation poisoning, instead being incapacitated you will become feral and attack everyone around you. Once at this stage your RADs cannot be healed.

Survival is a key part of the Wasteland UK game and what sets us apart from other Live Roleplay games. We have our own system of tracking how malnourished, irradiated and infected you are with your game actions all having an impact on those statistics. Below you'll find a brief guide on each attribute of Wasteland survival, with more information to be found in the "How to Survive the British Wasteland" chapter of the Survival Guide.

MALNUTRITION (“MAL”)

There are 5 levels of Malnutrition that can affect you. You gain a level of ‘Mal’ every time you miss a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner). Missing one meal means you gain 1 Malnutrition (MAL). The first two levels of Malnutrition (MAL) do not have any detrimental effects, although you do feel hungry. Levels 3, 4 and 5 all affect you in different ways and are detailed below:

Level 1 and 2 MAL: Don’t affect your performance, you just feel hungry - the normal feeling for most folk.

Level 3: You can’t use brutal melee weapons or firearms requiring the Firearms 2 skill (as defined by me, later) at this level of MAL.

Level 4: Melee blows that hit you will knock you back and you cannot run. Infection (INF) points and Hit Points take twice as long to heal. Wastelanders with STRENGTH on their side are considerably weaker; will not be able to use their strength and will be knocked down just as easily as the rest of us.

Level 5: When you reach this level, you’ll pass out and begin the short slip into death. Only a doctor may treat you for Level 5 Malnutrition (MAL).

RADIATION EXPOSURE (“RADs”)

You need to always be aware of dangerous radiation around the Wastes. Far too many Wastelanders have wandered into a RAD zone and not lived to tell the tale! I’ve broken down radiation sickness into 3 levels and given each levels 3 RADs, which is how much you need to be exposed to before you get the symptoms:

Level 1 Radiation poisoning (3 RADs)

You’ll immediately gain 2 MAL from all the vomiting you’ll be doing. These 2 Malnutrition (MAL) levels can’t be healed until the Radiation Poisoning has been cured. You’ll probably have nausea, disorientation and some slight burns on the skin.

Level 2 Radiation poisoning (6 RADs)

You’ll be made weak enough so that every location is at -1 HP, that can’t be cured until the radiation sickness is reduced below 6 RADs. You’ll have skin lesions, burns, pustules and you will feel much weaker than normal.

Level 3 Radiation poisoning (9 RADs)

You’ll immediately be incapacitated and dying with acute radiation exposure!

INFECTION (“INF”)

Infection or INF indicates how sick you are. The Wasteland is rife with all sorts of diseases and without access to proper medical facilities lots of people go downhill very quickly. One particular problem to watch out for is the infection gained from cuts and other injuries going septic! I’ve given 3 INF points to each level of infection, just like RADs.

Level 1 Disease (3 INF): The disease displays its basic symptoms but doesn’t debilitate the Wastelander in any other way.

Level 2 Disease (6 INF): Full symptoms present themselves and there’ll be a serious effect on your overall health that cannot be cured until the INF is removed.

Level 3 Disease (9 INF): The disease is at such a dangerous level that you’ll be in imminent danger of death and be incapacitated with a critical injury.