THE WORLD FORGOT ITSELF

After the Catastrophe, civilisation shattered into isolated communities built among ruins. The Sickness follows the survivors through the Wastes, harming bodies and memories alike, while no one can say with certainty what caused either disaster. People collect records, stories and observations about the past and the world around them because memory is fragile — and losing what they know can mean losing who they are.

We call it the Final Breakdown. The old world made everything depend on something distant: a factory, a specialist, a network, a part no one nearby could make. When supply and communication failed, repairs became chains of missing pieces until the whole system stopped. The lesson is simple: understand what you use, keep it repairable, and never trust a machine or institution that cannot survive without a thousand things beyond your reach. What survives now is what can still be maintained by the hands that are here.

How You Live Here

At a base, days do not advance and Food is not consumed. This is where you talk to people, trade, take assignments for experience and rewards, and recover knowledge that helps rebuild your understanding of the world. Your reputation with the community matters: hostility can close doors and services, while a good standing can improve trade, access and assistance. Prepare before you leave — the road starts spending time and resources again.

Survival

The most important objective is the same as in real life: stay alive for as long as you can. Death is permanent for the current character, so protecting Life comes before almost everything else. Hunger and the Sickness can both erode Life, while medicine and treatment can restore it. Food and medicine are especially valuable early in a run, when your character is inexperienced and the world around them is at its most dangerous.

Information

Some information you recover becomes real knowledge about places, enemies, equipment, people or the rules of survival. As your character reconstructs a coherent picture of the world, Awareness rises and additional possibilities can open. Not everything you hear is dependable: the same journey also brings news, gossip, myths, confident theories and idle talk. Learning to live with incomplete information is part of the game.

Skills

Your character is defined by three base parameters — Strength, Intelligence and Endurance — and eight skills. Strength affects physical power, melee combat and forcing obstacles; Intelligence helps with trade, social judgement, hacking and understanding; Endurance supports Life, travel and resistance to the Sickness. Experience lets you improve parameters or skills, while certain events and mutations can change the character in less predictable ways.

The Known World

The Shore Wastes are where every new journey begins: an arid former coast of sand, salt, stranded infrastructure and settlements linked by known routes. The whole first map is visible from the start, but knowing where a road leads does not tell you what will happen on it. This region is available immediately and teaches the core rules that carry into the wider world.