This overview is meant to give you a
quick look at Khayr ad-Din, the specific setting of this MUX.
If you want additional details or more informaiton on the
world, check out the Setting section under the menu heading
"The Game".
Physical
AreasThe Core
The Core is probably one of the most civilized areas
in Khayr Ad Din. The only people who walk around openly armed
are Spider's enforcers, and even then that is rare. The Core
is meant to be kept as nice as possible in order to attract
vacationers from the Poles who wish to do business of one sort
or another, or gamble on the Duels. The Oasis Hotel caters to
such people in particular, having nice, expensive suites to
rent and so on. Thus the core is one of the safest parts of
the city – most gangs in general know better than to go cause
trouble there.
The Sand Stone is probably the most
prestigious bar in the city: It is three floors tall, with the
third floor dedicated exclusively to a bar for Duelists. Most
people are allowed into the lower levels, but weapons must be
checked at the entrance.
Other establishments are also
in the city, not necessarily in the core - there exist bars
along the trade routes for example, and close to other major
places of business, whatever they might be. Establishing a bar
close to where a KADA unit or mercenary unit is stationed is
always profitable also.
The
Pit Probably the worst part of the city – built
around the gallows pool, which is essentially a pool of
accumulated chemicals that have leaked from the trash, it is
built mostly of shanties and violence is fairly rampant there.
Those unlucky enough to be thrown into the pool (whether by
Lawgiver decree or by rivals and whatnot) will either dissolve
or drown, depending on the pool's chemical composition at the
time.
The Hammer is the local bar, one of the few
solid buildings there – crammed in with other buildings like
it, only the large metal hammer sign distinguishes it from
outside. Inside it is furnished with sturdy but uncomfortable
tables and chairs, most of those bolted to the ground. The
music inside is loud, and a fog of cigarette smoke lingers,
making the atmosphere even more depressing. A few booths are
available for private meetings. Deadly bar brawls are not
uncommon at this place and this is where one goes to meet
various mercenaries, drugs/arms merchants and other criminal
elements, or just tough people in general.
The Heaps This is where all the
trash that arrives on the Gamma Maglev is deposited: Huge
heaps of trash, featuring nearly every imaginable thing that
could be thrown away. A lot of component can be salvaged from
here, mechanical or electronic, sometimes entire vehicles or
circuit boards, or V-Engines. Anything is possible. The
Eastern Heaps are ruled by the vicious Ravens gang, lead by a
black haired woman known only as Kora. The Aerie, their HQ, is
located in a makeshift complex directly under the maglev line
where is it said that Kora collects the eyes of her enemies.
All members wear black cloaks and use a long sharpened hook,
known as a talon as their signature weapon.
The Chop
Shop is a large scale trasher operation headed by Hanna
Dominic – she employs trashers, and even has her own gang of
those. They scour the heaps – most likely on the western side
as the shop is built on the west side of the city proper,
returning with goods to be used for repairing vehicles and
other things. Many Duelists patronize this excellent shop.
Most successful trashers utilize various forms of sensors and
work gears or other heavy vehicles to allow them to go after
the most precious pieces of trash. Those can be sold to
individuals or business for refurbishment, or the trashers can
refurbish some things themselves and resell them.
The
Coven House is located near the Chop Shop - it is home to a
gang known at the Heretics, made up of Children who have
escaped from Mother Superior's grasp.
Political State of the
CityBeing an Unaffiliated Badlands City,
KAD is controlled by its people. It is perhaps an odd form of
criminal anarchy - the Spider retains most control of the
city, and of most enterprises. Indeed, save for the Polar
establishments and the railway station, most businesses in the
Core pay tribute to the Spider. The Arena is also Spider's
doing, and he reaps many profits from there. The rest of the
city is made up of small gangs, rackets and other criminal
enterprises. The Spider by no means controls all, but he does
keep a watchful eye. Mother Superior is also exerting some
power, and indeed many businesses in the Pit pay tribute to
both the Spider and Mother Superior.
The city employs
mercenary units to defend itself with. Jarlson's Freelance is
on a permanent retainer, while other units come and go.
However, The Spider has funded the KADA, the Khayr-Ad-Din army
at the urging of Katryne Sanz. A very unique Army, made up
almost entirely of Duelists, it is probably one of the most
elite outfits on the face of the planet, even if it does not
look like it. So long as the Duelists use team play well, they
can defeating any reasonable opposing force thrown at them
with minimum casualties. The KADA does its best to disable
Polar vehicles should they drive into their territory.
Although Polar forces shoot to kill, KADA's policy of
disabling vehicles and doing their best to return crews
unharmed has prevented the Polar forces from bothering with
diverting enough resources to overpower the small bands of
Duelists. Currently KADA's objective is to protect the
Westphalia-Azov Trade and rail routes.
Business Opportunities in
KADBusiness in KAD can be anything from
illegal drug trade to arms sales (legal or not) to smuggling
refugees. Just about everything can and is done here on some
scale. While sophisticated, edict-breaking crimes cannot be
easily accomplished here (the city is unsuitable due to lack
of facilities etc etc), just about anything else one can think
of can be. From a simple profession like a trasher or trader
on the caravan routes, up to Doctors practicing medicine and
gear design, people from all walks of life can be found here.
Duelists feature prominently, but they're not the sole bread
and butter of the city. Professional Hosts are popular, so are
Dueling Brokers. But this merely scratches the surface. Mother
Superior for example 'employs' children to do petty theft for
her and so on in exchange for food and shelter.
ScavengingIn
order to keep things simple, scavenging will use simple
thresholds for the Notice skill in order to find things.
Time spent looking at a particular spot would add a
bonus, as would any appropriate sensor equipment. Each fifteen
minutes spent looking in a particular spot will yield a +1
bonus, up to the level of the Notice skill. After the notice
skill is rolled, one must roll two dice against an
availability threshold appropriate to the rarity item one is
looking for. If both rolls succeed, the item is found. The
availability threshold is reduced by one for each day spent
looking for the item, up to a reduction by two points, though
during this time someone else may discover the part. Parts can
be looked for every (availability threshold *3) days, though
some can be found in greater quantities than others - this
will be judged on a case by case basis.
Consult
+threshold for the threshold table.
Simple electronics
chips would likely have a threshold of 4 to find (they are
small) but their availability would only be a 1 (you can find
them everywhere) ... a working circuit board for a fire
control system would likely be a threshold 7 to find and
availability 8.
The scratch building rules for
mechanical and electronics points from the tech manual will
most likely be used for mass scavenging (ie. Something other
than a specific part)
Notable
NPCsSaddik 'Spider'
Jahmoon More information soon...
Mother Superior More information soon...
No-Weapon
ZonesThere are few places that weapons
should not be worn openly, but the big one is a major one.
The Core is kept fairly civil by Spider's thugs -
mainly because a safe, weapon-free environment is good for
business (and The Spider
LIKES business.)
There are some places where weapons must be checked
in:
- TransRail Compound
- The Sandstone
- Polar Offices
- Spider's Place (note, this is not, generally, open to
the public)
Terra Novan Planetary
DetailsTerra Nova orbits its star,
Helios, once every 168.2 days (About 260.7 Earth days) ... the
168-day cycle is divided into 4 42-day long seasons, and those
are divided into 6 7-day weeks. There are three moons: Hope,
which is only slightly smaller than Earth's moon, and Faith
and Charity, which are just chunks of rock and ice probably
captured by the planet's gravity. The days are 36 hours long,
and the minutes are 62 seconds long (this way each hour still
has 60 minutes). Terra Novan winters are only 5 degrees
Celsius cooler than the summers, but the heat is bearable.
Only in the Badlands is the heat so high that it would pose a
threat to unprotected humans.
