Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror

151 helicopters. They regularly erect traps along trade routes, rigging doors with tripwires to open and release floods of trapped casualties. The Meek have barred the gates of Immune harvesting settlements and burned them down with everyone inside. They’ve kidnapped classes of school children and infected them, one-by-one, using Latents strapped to chairs. Then they send the little Vectors back to their enclave. No one knows how people become Meek. They don’t have meetings. They don’t write books. They don’t recruit through anything save murder. But somehow, the Meek always find each other. Most burn out after their first suicidal act of worship, but some have been mass murdering with the Blight for years, refusing to taste the black sinew themselves until the last clean is infected. The Meek are a mockery of faith. They aren’t even human, they’re a memetic virus: a suicidal impulse that demands company. Of all the believers, they are the only group that is completely, hopelessly insane. Killing one does it a favor. Shepherds Takers consider becoming a casualty interchangeable with death. To consider anything worse weighs down the job with fear. To think of infection as another form of life is to invite more guilt than most can stand. Yet the truth and what Takers need to rationalize rarely intersects. We know that a Vector’s apologies echo thoughts from their life. The entire business of tragedy tracking depends on a casualty’s tendency to gravitate towards places of significance to the host. It pains one to think about, but something of the soul remains in every casualty. Shepherds do not turn away from this truth. They refuse to slay casualties or Vectors. The source of the pacifism varies greatly. Some sects believe the Blight will one day be cured, and they’ve a responsibility to protect its sufferers. Some refuse violence out of a sense of naturalism, the same way a hunter would refrain from shooting a lion. Christianity explanations. History was caught off-guard. The “absent” heavens seemed to answer atheist dismissal by raining down hell. Democracy sold out its citizens and retreated into dystopian fascism. Afterwards, what was left upon which to build a self? Maybe the cowardly enclaves or sheltered Recession still harbor the old beliefs, but anyone that has spent time in deep Loss either invested in a new delusion or killed themselves. Criminals and rebels may have fled to the comforting realities of capitalism and politics, the only gods old enough to weather the Blight’s birth. Others, like myself, found deeper faiths. I recognize my faith in the Chosen may be madness. Religion, like madness, is never diminished by introspection. It’s difficult to define believer sects — even internally, no dogma unifies a faith — but understanding the general trends is important for any Taker. New delusions can be manipulated for profit, but believers will not hesitate to kill blasphemers. The Meek Obviously, it’s important to keep believers in perspective. To dismiss them as crazy is wrong, dangerous, and selfish. But I must begin with the group that invented every negative stereotype, as hatred never seems more justified than when considering the Meek. The “theology” of the Meek, if you could call it that, is that the Blight is holy. It came to Earth to save mankind and grant eternal life. The great sin of mankind is that they fought this enlightenment. The Meek themselves resisted the change, but they regret it. In a sick quest for redemption, they seek to “save” as many people as they can before becoming Vectors themselves. They do this by spreading infection to as many as possible. We are only guessing their beliefs based on their actions. Meek cultists have smuggled themselves into enclaves only to jam syringes of hot Blight into their necks, suicide bombings via Vector outbreak. They’ve dropped casualties into the Recession with

152 These details are paltry in comparison to our single truth. Latency is a divine calling. TrIage Being Chosen is about Latents learning to accept the role forced upon them. A portion of the weak, jealous cleans cannot tolerate this truth. They’ve invented cosmology around this hate. Members of Triage won’t admit to being believers, insisting instead they are a movement of concerned citizens. But once they start talking, it’s only a matter of time before they start spewing fantasies more absurd than any religious text. A favorite starting point is the “new studies” that prove the Blight can covertly infect the brains of Latents, turning them into brainwashed sleeper agents. If trying to infiltrate a traditional faith community, they’ll hand out pamphlets about how God warned mankind about Latents with “the mark of Cain.” Eventually, the message becomes action. Triage takes to the streets to protect the citizenry from gangs of Latents playing the “infection game” as ritual initiation into the “Chosen death cult.” They burn down clinics that produce side-effect treatments so that the Latents can’t “boost their infection airborne.” Given enough time, they’ll find a Latent in hiding, don hazmat suits, and lynch the poor fool. As the innocent dies, they’ll film propaganda ads about the danger of latency. They make certain to catch footage of the body turning Vector before slowly chopping off the restrained creature’s limbs, saving the head for last like children torturing butterflies. The old prejudices are as strong as always, but the Crash reduced many who thought themselves progressive to the pure line of hatred that runs through all humanity. These broken things believe they’re “protecting the children,” making the “hard choices,” or whatever other rationalizations speeds them toward the next fix of rage. Triage tends to operate primarily in the Recession, but their poisonous gospel has been known to convert entire enclaves. On at least one occasion, a or other old religions stay hands, as do a sheer inability to put down infected family members. Whatever the source, Shepherds will not fight with the Blight, even when refusal means their certain death. Many believe Shepherds to be in the early stages of turning Meek. Takers have a pragmatic hatred for them, as congregations tend to horde “flocks” of casualties in unexpected places. But I’ve never met a Shepherd with an ounce of malice. They merely do not fool themselves. Decapitating a casualty is murder. Perhaps it is a merciful one, but it is murder all the same. Chosen The Chosen are criticized as Blight worshipers, but how exactly is that worship carried out? What has a Latent done except be bitten or injected? How would the Blight even receive our praise? Every day, Latents live with an alien creature in their veins. It protects them from its wrath even as it murders millions, defying all earthly science in the process. What should they call this thing? An infection? Bad luck? “God” is the only name that fits, but the cleans feel as if that name is synonymous with love. We don’t live in your children’s tales with pantheons of imaginary friends! Our god forces itself inside us. It announces its arrival with agony and black veins. A god does not need to love you, precisely because it is a god. You don’t need to love it back to be in its thrall. Acknowledge the fact that the Latent are better equipped to survive in this world than any other. Recognize that the Blight is greater than humanity by far, and the bodies it spares from its endless hunger are part of a larger plan. Accept the plan is beyond understanding and control. Take comfort in the certainty that Latents shall play a role. See the sinews in your flesh as what they are: badges of terrible purpose. This is all it means to be Chosen. There are denominational squabbles: immune-tolerant, naturals-only, Supressin-evangelical, etc.

153 Theology varies. Some Black Math groups shoot Latents as infection risks. Others recruit them as super soldiers. One sect might be suicidally short-lived, but others practice extreme caution in pursuit of a long life spent purging the Blight. The dogma differs, but a mathematician can always be identified by the tattoos. For every casualty slain, a tic mark is inked into flesh. Their leaders wear what’s called “the face full of fives.” They are some of the most feared warriors in all the Loss. ArchIvIsts Like Black Math, the Archivists are an eschatology cult. Where they differ is on whether the end can be prevented. Archivists believe extinction is inevitable and the present a brief reprieve between Crashes. Their duty is to preserve as much human culture as possible, as quickly as possible, for whatever comes next. group freed the entire population of a Many Hands productive quarantine camp only to execute hundreds of the workers. I wish more Triage ventured into my corner of the Loss. I would happily play the part of that nightmare Latent they’ve concocted to justify their fear. Black Math When a Vector kills, it reduces the human population, creating a new Vector in minutes. When a casualty kills, it snuffs out another human life and might create another Vector in days. When a human kills, it might kill one of its own. Even if it slays a casualty, it doesn’t reproduce in the process. Making a new human takes nine months, and it’s more than a decade before it can fight. The math is not on our side. The Black Math realizes this. They recruit from the most hardened and desperate veterans of the Loss: rebels burnt-out after five years of hopeless war, Takers that have lost entire crews, raiders gone vacant-eyed with slaughter. They propose a simple argument. “You are broken,” the Math says. If humanity survives, it will not be with one so thoroughly used and spent. But humanity will not survive. Every person on earth could kill a casualty tomorrow, and we would still be wiped out. The only hope is for some among us — the truly strong — to carry the bulk of the duty themselves. There may be nothing good left inside a broken survivor of the Loss, but holiness is defined solely by the number of monsters you slay. Salvation is in the slaughter and slaughter alone. The Black Math are ascetics that worship a kill/death ratio. Piety is measured in casualties slain. Most mathematicians form Taker crews that exclusively accept extermination contracts. They spend bounty only on the bare essentials; all else goes towards weapons and ammunition. Some go on for years like this, but retirement isn’t an option and the goal isn’t survival. The goal is to die in what the members refer to as “A Significant Subtraction.”

154 practice is equally diffuse. The least intimidating denominations merely regard the Immune as God’s chosen people. This privilege can be as innocuous as electing the Immune to deliver Sunday sermon, but things get darker from there. Some Immune manipulate the faithful into serving them as cults of personality. Fundamentalists are worse by far. They regard the Immune as holy, but in the same way man’s dominion over the animals is holy. These backwoods tribes believe that ingesting the flesh of the Immune will save them from the Blight, which is surely the instrument of God’s wrath. Hardline churches snatch travelers from the road. Latents they execute immediately. Everyone else they administer blood testing kits. Any regular cleans are allowed to leave, if they take communion. Those who refuse are executed as apostates. Anyone who tests as Immune is turned into communion. Ritual consumption varies. Some only slit the throat and drain the blood. A few groups practice full-blown cannibalism. Suffice it say that if a shifty-eyed hillbilly comes wandering in from the deep Loss looking to buy advanced bloodtesting kits and flensing knives, it might be best to navigate around the region he calls home. Detox Neo-Primitives were a movement before the Crash. Its expression ranged from harmless vegans lording their morality over dinner parties to delusional anti-vaxxers causing outbreaks of extinct diseases. Intentions were equally varied, starting at the necessary work of environmentalists and corrupting until reaching the psychosis of dark enlightenment eco-terrorists, seeking to forcibly drag humanity back into the 16th century so that their prophets might rule. The one thing all these attempts at “authenticity” shared was a platform of privilege. The starving don’t care about GMO crops. Months of non-violent protest is a hobby laborers couldn’t afford. One would think that, as the Crash The exact shape of this “next” begins denominational rifts. Roughly half of archivists believe that extinction won’t be total, but humanity will be reduced unto a new dark age. They seek to protect the knowledge of today so that it might be rediscovered hundreds of years hence, when the Blight has passed and only primitives remain. This faction is typically referred to as “investors,” contrasting with the “monumentalists,” who believe all mankind is doomed. They construct archives for evolved Blight creatures or aliens, using our knowledge as humanity’s tombstone. Each half is further fractured by what, exactly, deserves preservation. Many investors are content to horde books, but some insist on inscribing knowledge in stone in case the Dark Age lasts longer than hoped. For the monumentalists, stone is the low end of acceptable preservation. Longevity alone determines the quality of their archives, so many cults busy themselves constructing vaults or experimenting with digital file formats that can last for centuries. The Loss generally regards the Archivists well. Their faith may seem a bit precious when survival is on the line, but the limited storage capacity of the Ubiq network means they often possess manuals and lore vital to enclave survival. But in rare instances, the bookish normalcy of an archivist can shatter and destroy the unprepared. The primary tenet of their belief is the doom of mankind. This means that, if given the choice between a human life and a rare comic book, some will not hesitate to kill for the text. They regard themselves and all they meet as already dead; watch out for archivists that act on such belief. Holy CommunIon We don’t understand immunity. Of course people worship it. The Church of Holy Communion derives primarily from Christian faiths and their textual obsessions with blood. Considering the origin, it is no surprise that religious

155 without doubt, but the solution seems simple: don’t look. No cure can be found this way, but no cure was ever possible. Besides, I would no more want to cure the Blight than wish to erase myself. It is part of me and part of humanity as a whole, even for cleans. Like cancer and death, its sorrow gives shape to the mortal condition. And if we could cure it? What would we say to those desiccated corpses, resurrected after five years of wandering cannibalism? What I do understand is an oath, and that is what drives the Crusaders to defy the limits of the human mind. Doctors that authentically lived their Hippocratic Oaths could not be swayed by a lack of funding. They did not listen when the Recession tried to reallocate their focus to other things. They did not abandon their posts during the amputation, and the true healers could not stand to see the people in the Loss suffer without aid. eviscerated the privilege supporting it, those of the “more natural than thou” set might adjust their beliefs. But some merely doubledowned on their ideology, sublimating a vague sense of eco-consciousness into a religion. Thus the Detox believers were born, and they were first among the Loss to practice evangelical recruitment. Like most missionary work, enlightenment came along with a threat. The early Detoxins tended to have bountiful home gardens and the preindustrial skills required to run them. Those that converted and joined their enclaves lived. The rest starved. The numbers grew steadily thereafter. Detoxins vary in intensity and focus. Some merely point out the fact (correctly) that the cull in population caused by the Crash might be the only thing that allows humanity to stop the rampant climate change already destroying the earth. These groundfloor believers run rational, sustainable communities and sell good weed. Some more extreme sects believe the Blight was caused by preservatives and will murder members that breech their dietary laws. Entire enclaves have starved after Detoxins burned their GMO crops, dooming themselves in the process. Only super-seeds can provide in the harsh weather changes of the Loss, yet some in Detox would rather humanity perish than ingest anything that isn’t organic. Extremists have executed people for riding horses or owning dogs. The worst of the Detoxins take a return to agrarian economies to mean a return to Dark Age society. These hardliners use the ideology of naturalism to cow their women into illiterate breeding sows, ruling their enclaves like fiefdoms. The majority of Detoxins are harmless hippies, but the average Taker’s clothes and diet are blasphemous enough to a zealot to justify murder. Crusaders I cannot relate to study sickness. The mismatch between the reality science teaches and the rebuke of the Blight is distressing

156 origins came to see dispassionate selfishness as what their lives had always been missing. A lack of empathy became more than a survival mechanism. For those it rescued, cold selfishness wasn’t what saved their lives... it was the only way to live. Randians do not identify as “believers.” They are atheists one-and-all, regarding the tenets of both God and man as slave moralities. However, the dogmatic pursuit of total self-interest practiced since the Crash puts the sub-cultures of the preCrash US business community and political establishment to shame. Today’s Randians won’t even speak to another person unless their time is compensated with bounty. They would not douse a fire if it did not threaten them personally, even as a child burned alive. Expecting anything from them resembling “common courtesy,” “good manners,” or “human decency” they regard as theft, fraud, and attempted slavery. Paradoxically, Randians rarely operate alone. They form “mutual cooperatives” out of “rational self-interest” by first binding each other with contracts. Though there is no body of law to enforce these documents, the believers consider a contract intrinsically sacred. The slightest deviation from one can provoke gunfire. As such, Randians make for terrific businessmen and awful neighbors. Their every interaction is priced and demands compensation. No act of civic engagement is too small for their ire, and they’ve been known to conquer entire enclaves rather than pay a tax on sewage removal. These purists, despite their constant lip-service to fair exchange, fully adhere to the laws of might makes right. Many believe the ability to steal from someone represents a flaw in the character of the victim. The theft is, as Randians, their duty to perform. No hypocrisy is too great for the Randians. They’ll condemn Takers as parasitic liberals even as they hire them. They’ll launch attacks against crews because their work takes them near salvage they “contracted” as their own. Some co-ops even keep slaves, justifying it by These medical professionals have dedicated themselves to fighting the Blight’s extinction by patrolling, researching, and caring for the Lost. The mission assures their madness and death, yet they still collect samples, gather research, and try cures. It is folly to fight a god like the Blight, but it is a brave folly. Noble or not, it would be a mistake to regard all Crusaders as philanthropists. Though they provide most of the healthcare in the Loss, they are rarely on the side of their patients. Practitioners consider themselves in a daily battle against the very extinction of mankind. With those stakes at hand, the life of a single person seems paltry. Even the ones that still respect their patients have been made cynical by witnessing thousands die since the first days in the emergency room. As the slippery contradictions of the Blight weigh on a Crusader’s mind, it is only a matter of time before ethics slip. Crusaders usually pay for samples from Latents and immunes, but they’ve been known to take them by force. There are rumors of secret labs, hidden in the deep Loss, where Crusaders practice human experimentation. Most come to regard the Surpressin trials as the height of medical discovery, and the person bandaging your wounds may not hesitate to throw your life away chasing another such result. RandIans Raiders are often confused as Randians. Both can leave enclaves impoverished and bleeding, but conflating the two is to mistake a reflex for a dance. Raiders steal out of animal instinct, reduced by tragedy to a tribal imperative. Randians have confused a tendency toward greed for cosmic philosophy, as if a fool learned how his stomach works and proceeded to dissolve the world in acid. In fairness, the early days of the Crash punished altruism with death. By the time enclaves re-established order, too many had been rewarded too long by their psychopathy. Continued survival confirmed the worldview of disgraced pre-Crash elites even as they lost their wealth. Others from more humble

157 knows about these creatures, but there are other things besides. Things that cannot be seen, avoided, or escaped. Extreme Weather Seasons no longer exist. The earth still rotates around the sun. The hours of daylight stay consistent. Temperature and precipitation still follow loose trends. But the season, as humans conceive of it, no longer exists. It has been wiped out by climate change we brazenly ignored and continue to accelerate. One may think it is summer, but radioactive fallout from a nuke or dust storms from a drought can easily blot out the sun in a day, leaving the ground blanketed in ash and snow. It can be over 100 degrees in January. Late spring can bring ice storms so cruel they snap tree trunks in half. Seasons existed as our primary tool of agricultural survival, and they are something upon which we can no longer rely. Thankfully, humanity has so tampered with crops that they can survive the hellish moonscape we’re building for them. Alosine has strains of corn that grow even after bleach has been injected into the roots. Potatoes that can survive sixty-degree temperature swings. Okra plants that can grow from cracks in the sidewalk. But scientific breakthroughs that help the enclave farmer do nothing to save Takers in the Loss. I’ve seen men frozen to death in June. Women choked to death on dust. Entire crews wiped away by flash floods. Enclaves poisoned by contaminated reservoirs or starved by hordes of locusts. There is a reason we call the migrations of roaming casualties “weather.” Both are equally capricious and deadly. Rest assured, if the Loss does not feel its minions are killing you fast enough, it will handle matters personally. Trust not the seasons, the forecast, or your own eyes. The very sky can conspire to end you. having the oppressed sign themselves into indentured servitude. As I said, people confuse Randians for raiders. I raided because it was the life the Loss demanded of me. Only a Randian would call that virtue. They also tend to dress in business casual, even now. I do not know why. LALAs Takers call them LALAs: Last Asshole Left Alive. The Loss is not forgiving to isolation, so they become scarcer every year. However, lone survivors can still be found dotting the deep wasteland. To call LALAs believers is a stretch. They are defined by their isolation, and even I admit that the term “crazy” fits well on many that I have met. But rest assured, LALAs are driven by their beliefs, even if those beliefs are only held by a single person gone insane with years of solitude and grief. I met a man that thought the dolls he collected talked to him. One woman had been teaching a kindergarten class of skeletons the same lesson for years. Another thought he could cure the Blight with aromatherapy. He kept basements full of fragrant casualties. Do not pity or dismiss a LALA. Though they may have broken with reality, they did so in such a way that enabled survival. Alone. In harsh conditions. For years. The chance of even the most dedicated hermit avoiding all contact that long is very slim. The chance the LALA killed anyone who came close is disturbingly high. Loneliness is an unnatural condition. Even raiders form tribes. The suffering a LALA endures can sharpen the mind into a razor point, and they aim it at anyone who dares come too close. Lost ThIngs Places can be predicted and skirted. People? Reasoned with. Manipulated. But the Loss is a home for things. Humanity only squats here. It is for the casualties and the Vectors: the monsters with which it cut itself onto the earth. Everyone

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159 malingering pup sets an ambush, waiting for someone to come to its aid, before barking to alert dozens of ravenous hounds lying in wait nearby. Packs will harrow and pursue targets for days, herding them towards hostile encampments in the hopes of eating the clean corpses killed by gunfire. The craftiest packs have learned to bite and then throw up to purge themselves of the Blight in order to hamstring casualties in the high grass of their hunting grounds, essentially trapping escape routes out of the kill zone. Dogs are just the most prevalent ferals. Bears have grown bolder with dwindling resources. At least one crew of Moths once got contracted to hunt a man-eating grizzly. As we’ve not heard back from them since, I assume things did not go well. Zoos further complicated matters. LifeLines contains reports of rampaging rhinos, man-eating baboon troops, and stampeding bulls harassing enclaves. The Lions of Chicago have become legendary, and though their existence is in doubt, the death toll cannot be denied, nor the prize on their heads. The Loss is a jungle. Takers are not king. Ferals An animal that ingests casualty flesh dies, poisoned. An animal that ingests human flesh eats for that week. The creatures of the Loss have learned this. The worst and most common ferals are dogs. Most pets starved, got eaten, or swallowed black juice while fighting off casualties during the Crash. The few that survived either have dedicated owners or rejected their domestication entirely. At this point, the survivors have inter-bred so much that mongrels are almost all that remain. Some former pet packs have even joined with wolves, coyotes, and coywolfs. The hybrid packs are formidable hunters, but the Blight’s poisoning of insects and other carrion eaters put them at constant risk of starvation. The knockdown effects of the scavenger die-off, combined with climate change and Crash fallout, makes game scarce. By far, the most prevalent and easy prey in the Loss is man. Feral dogs have only survived this long through cunning, and most have intimate experience with mankind. I’ve seen packs use cute pure-breeds to lure in travelers. The

160 believe otherwise. No doubt some of the stories on LifeLines are lies, legends passed around to scare the Bait. But dare we make the same mistake again, refusing to believe monsters exist? Has the Crash taught us nothing? The Blight has already destroyed reality once. The Aberrants are the weapons with which it will do it again. Aerosol I know a Taker named Lady. She’s natural Latent, but as yet doesn’t acknowledge being Chosen. I try to enlighten her; she tries to get me to buy her more drinks. It’s frustrating, but she uses a large pipe in the field, similar enough to a sledge. We trade tips and stories. Lady’s first crew was successful. They had run contracts since the beginning and caught a rhythm. The time came to scavenge a vehicle and increase their range. They found a candidate in an oil change place, banged on the back door to kite the dead, and picked the Aberrants Any child knows to aim for the head. Taking casualties is simplicity itself. Be smart, stay lucky, and survive. As for Vectors... throw everything at them: empty magazines, use grenades, break blades off. If they get close, keep mouths shut and eyes covered. You’re probably still dead unless Chosen or Immune, but they can be slain if met with the same suicidal intensity with which they attack. But Aberrants? There is no planning for an Aberrant. There is only the sensation of being hunted, and the wisdom of running away. Killing one grants no reward, save maybe the false confidence of having conquered the Blight’s champion. Such quests are madness. Aberrants are the very maws of the Loss, the jaws that swallow entire enclaves in the night. To continue on when one is near is stupidity. To chase one is suicide. They are real. Fire any in a crew that

161 lock on the front. Inside, they found a single casualty. It was desiccated, long-gone. One of the first to change. According to Lady, they played it safe. Melee weapons out they surrounded the creature. It had a broken ankle and could barely shamble. The pipe was drawn back, ready to end it, when one of Lady’s crew sneezed. It seemed funny, echoing in the silence, such a silly noise for such a grave deed. Her crew laughed. She laughed too. Then they began to cough. Choke. Collapse. You never forget what a Vector transformation looks like. The bloody tears, the red spilling out the ears…Lady said they all began to turn, right on the spot. By the time she walked towards one to help, the seizures and apologies were starting. She ran and slammed the door behind her. She was barely down the block before they were bashing at the walls, trying to get at her. I believe Lady’s stories. All Latents eventually get roped into cleanup duty, patting down the dead for loose bounty. Many of us have seen the mystery casualties, myself included. The ones with no wounds save rot. The ones that have no site of infection. Most of us assume they were originals, leftovers from the emergence event, or victims of a Meek’s poisoning. But it’s also possible that, for some reason, the rare casualty turns the Blight airborne. They emit a cloud of the hot strain around themselves, infecting any cleans that come close. How could we tell, if they look like the rest? What if all those sudden outbreaks, the ones that destroy entire settlements in hours, were caused by one of these Aerosols wandering too near the gate? What if they’re out there even now, emitting clouds of the poison? What if all casualties are destined to spore invisibly into the air, and the one’s we’ve encountered so far are merely the first of millions? Ever-Vecs It is the purpose of hot Blight to bring death. It must kill victims to ready them as hosts for the cold strain. Without Supressin or the

162 Even I would dismiss claims of the EverVecs were it not for the Cursed Settlement. Located in the Ozark mountains, the Cursed Settlement started as a DHQS forward operating base before succumbing to a hot outbreak. Eventually, it was cleared out and turned into an archivist compound... before succumbing to a hot outbreak. Then an enclave. Then a settlement again. Then a Crusader site. All fell, flooding the region with new casualties each time. On Lifelines, there are accounts from multiple survivors across the site’s many revivals. Whether corporate, military, or Lost, all claim to have seen the same Vector leading the infectious charge: huge, fast, wielding a parking meter like a club. At least two crews have gone out hunting him, seeking to reclaim the haunted compound for themselves. None have returned. EmptIes Empties are also called blanks, dreamers, pacifists, and downers. There’s hardly a Taker that hasn’t seen one. Few register them. grace of being Chosen, the clock starts ticking immediately upon exposure. Most die during the chaos of outbreak, quickly transitioning into torpor without a headshot. For the survivors, death comes from hemorrhagic fever, neural damage, accelerated heartbeat, or wracking convulsions. If the body’s strong enough to withstand that, muscle strain and exhaustion is often enough. Hydrophobia causes dehydration. Unless new victims are plentiful, starvation also comes into play. Then there are secondary infections…. Most Vectors have three days. A week, at most. But some Vectors, according to legend, never die. They never bleed out, starve, or lose the basic motor skills. They can climb, turn door handles, and wield simple weapons like a just-turned freshy. In fact, an Ever-Vec seems to get stronger the longer it runs. Experts guess they metabolize energy from protein better than a healthy human body. Every ragged chunk of flesh gets turned into muscle, creating linebacker physiques and inhuman speed.

163 on them. But most get left where they were found. Takers won’t admit it in front of Bait, but most can’t stand to end it. When you pull cards all day, the casualties become the enemy. It hurts enough to admit you need them, to hang salvation on such terror. But watching them have memories, acting them out forever… it sets the mind back to every headshot and decapitation, remembering the face beneath. You wonder if you have family out there, repeating the loop, waiting for someone to break the spell. You wonder what you’ll do when your time comes. You wonder if you’re even good enough to resist the hunger, if you even deserve purgatory after all you’ve done. On the job, such thoughts kill faster than gunfire. An empty is an albatross around a crew’s neck. An omen of the fatal mistake sure to come soon. Mutants Ferals are a constant problem in the Loss. Many enclaves plan for their nuisance, and Many try to explain them away as a quirk of infection. The ones that admit they’re Aberrants lie and tell themselves empties are the only ones. They tell themselves they aren’t bothered. The psychic geography that collects some casualties at places they knew in life goes haywire in an empty. They don’t attack. They don’t bite. They just repeat some action they knew in life. Over and over again. Blindly. I’ve seen an empty behind the wheel of a wrecked car, shifting between drive and park endlessly. I’ve killed entire mobs only to find one sitting in the living room, watching a cold fireplace. They’ll stand at train stations, waiting for rides that never come, reading phones long dead, scrolling with phantom fingers lost to rot. There’s no real danger in an empty. Most get slain in the heat of battle, shot in a panic to kill the rest of an attacking mob. If they survive that, it only makes sense to put them down. They’ve been stationary for years, after all. Chances are good they still have a bounty

164 do not fall, reek of rot, and hunt more for sport than hunger. Maybe too many for simple myth.... GanglIa Blight sinews break the skin. We see it in the black cankers and “blossoms” poking from a casualty’s rot. The Latent suffer this too. It’s not unlike acne if it had root around your nervous system. Trimming these burrs is an everyday, painful annoyance for the Chosen. For those that believe in the Ganglia, the errant sinews explain the abomination’s origins. The idea is that sinews penetrating cadavers can’t hope to understand the human musculature. The twitchy stumbling of the casualty must result from alien nerve cluster struggling with a foreign body. But the Ganglia there are crews that specialize in their removal. Even against experts, though, the odd feral seem too resistant to damage. Hunters land direct hits that do not fell the beast. The exterminators track the oddly dark blood trails of these predators. Sometimes, they fail to return. There is no shortage of other explanations. Perhaps the too-proud hunters lied about their shots. When they come back as Vectors, why believe the culprit is anything but a wandering casualty? If they never return at all, why ascribe the tragedy to something fantastic when the Loss boasts so many common dooms? But, still, LifeLines has tales of horses that eat men. Apes that hang the bones of victims from the trees. Reported sightings abound of carnivorous beasts that

165 themselves forward on all fours, hauling the mass behind them with the cords of tissue prolapsing out of their backsides. Others ram their dead fingernails into the walls and ceilings, supporting the nexus of poisoned dead flesh and inching forward like a swarm of roaches. Ceiling crawlers shatter the lights as it comes, providing only strobe glances at the indiscernible whole. The whole ballet takes place in fractions of seconds, faster and more agile than any Vector. It’s a rolling, swinging, animal sprint that looks wholly wrong. No one in GILF takes credit for the tape, but I’m not sure how anyone there at the filming could be alive to corroborate. Armchair-Takers claim the impossible physics of the ganglia’s movement mean the footage is doctored. I hope they are right. It would be comforting. theory holds that, if sinews connect enough of the limited processing centers housed in a C’s brain, the Blights manipulation of dead flesh becomes exponentially more effective and graceful compared to the twitchy stumbling of a casualty. House enough Cs going through torpor in a tight space, their growing sinews break the skin and join up with neighbors in the pile. The Blight doesn’t distinguish between the bodies in the network. It just keeps producing more and more sinew, leaking more and more juice, until a monstrous, rat-king of casualties is formed. We only know about ganglia from the GILF tape showing one of the things rushing down a hospital corridor. Tied together with black, fibrous sinews, the mass seems like it should be immobile, but many heads, hands, and feet apparently make light work. The movement is... disturbing. The group body casts members in front of the nucleus like grappling hooks. They land and drag The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. -H.P. Lovecraft

166 others looked up, began shambling towards the crater, and then stopped. They seemed to spy something on the ground in unison. They resumed digging. It was strange, certainly, but I thought it funny. I moved on before more arrived. Days later, I scouted the enclave. They’d set off alarms on the far side of the compound that night. It was to draw fence-clingers away from the gates: sure sign a party was leaving. I waited to signal my tribe’s ambush. As the sun rose, the cleared gate pulled open to reveal a sizable convoy. Gas vehicles, armored — the enclavists were rich. I prepared the signal when I heard the explosion. In the night, right outside the gate, something had placed a landmine. From the sound of it, the same type of landmine from the field. The truck passing over it was blown apart. Its engine block dropped and snapped the front axle. The car and its dead passengers were an immovable, burning obstacle... jammed right in the middle of the gate. Converts My tribe and I once scouted an enclave inside a prison. They had reinforced the chain-link with layers of vinyl siding, further buttressed with strong pillars cemented into the ground as support. Rather than attack the hard target, we made camp in the woods a few miles away, hoping to make easier prey of their traders. I alleviated the boredom of the wait by hunting. I came upon a field, pockmarked with fresh craters, dozens of casualties clawed at the earth. A dead man digging his own grave is not uncommon in the Loss. The casualty will see a gopher or fox, then claw after it dumbly. If not provided other stimulus, they can dig themselves up to the neck. But there were plenty of other things to entice them: birds, deer crashing through branches, distracting rustles of wind through leaves. I’d also never seen so many of them dig at once. But as I pondered this, there was an explosion that sent corpses flying. They were digging in a minefield, one set by misguided soldiers during the retreat. The

167 con artists seeking handouts. They question why snipers don’t just shoot it in the head, or dig up the roots for burning. As if those who have seen hadn’t tried and seen their Takers pulled down, drained of blood by the thirsty soil. I’ve never encountered a scarecrow, but there are many photos on LifeLines. The same accusations of tampering are thrown at them all, but why concoct such a hoax? To what end? I think people just don’t want to believe the Blight can have such alien, plant-like behavior. They want to think of it as a parasite, infection, animal, or whatever inadequate corollary is that year’s fashion. They want to take comfort in imagined limits to its required conditions and speed of growth. Such fools build their reality on quicksand. That’s when they came. Thousands of them. The largest casualty stampede I’d ever seen. They rose from where they’d been lying under the leaves. They rose from parts of the forest I had walked through the previous day, stirring not a single creature. They descended at their stumbling leisure, in no great rush, confident the panicked enclavists would never clear the gate in time. For the rest of the afternoon, I watched in shock as the enclave fell. I listened to their screams echo through the valley. Near the end, the horde seemed to lose its focus. The casualties again mingled aimlessly with their new, frantic Vector-kin, dumbly trapped by the walls they’d just invaded. Just as night fell, I watched one wander away. It was a little boy, in pajamas soaked with fresh blood, walking in a straight line though it pursued no prey. On its head rested a SWAT helmet, dented with bullet impacts. Eventually, it turned. It looked at me. It saw me. The rolling cataracts of its eyes locked on mine. I was recognized, found unworthy, and abandoned as it moved on. There are other stories on the lines like this. Some of them, for some reason, retain consciousness. They hold a human mind, intelligent but converted entirely to the hunger. No one knows why, but they are always children. Scarecrows Scarecrows are another instance of sinews over-reaching the bounds of their victim. People tell stories of entire fields covered with desiccated corpses, each strapped to the ground, drained by thorny black vines that radiate out from an immobile casualty crucified by its own Blight. The root-like growths turn the soil into a minefield, ready to burst forth and ensnare any creature fool enough to pass close. Drone combines have been choked to a stop by the fibrous tendrils. Entire enclaves have had to evacuate as the taint of a scarecrow wormed under their crops and walls. Most deny the existence of scarecrows. They regard refugees fleeing its influence as

168 She’s there even now, watching my camp from just out of range. I know this without looking. When I wander alone, she gets closer. Once, as I slept in a destroyed copy shop, she passed by the storefront windows. She shuffled by as if on an errand, somewhere to go. But her black eyes locked with mine, never losing sight until she passed the grimy glass. I screamed challenge. I grabbed my sledge and charged. But when I ran outside, she was already gone. Before I could look, I was distracted by a mob of regular casualties, all too eager to eat what Mother refused to finish. She may merely be playing with her food. She may wish torture me, endlessly. Revenge for the man’s many sins. I wish I could get close enough to end both our pain. I wish I could tell her that the man she seeks is as dead as she. I wish I could tell her many things. Stalkers The mother still watches over me. I do not know why. She is not Banhammer’s mother; she bore the man from before. She is his stalker, but bound to my new flesh. In his endless stupidity, the man stuck her in an economy apartment so he could get on with his “life.” He forgot about her. For that and many reasons, I’m glad he is dead. I’m grateful that his body houses me and to the Blight that has Chosen me to see its purpose. But I wish the man’s ghosts died with him. She always stays on the horizon. I recognize the pink nightgown through binoculars. Her rotting face bears a resemblance too, recalled in my bones. I’ve doubted this recognition, but I’ve hired erosion artists to decay her visage from old photos. Her casualty is unmistakable. From long study, I suspect it was the bite on her arm. I can just imagine it. One of the Vectors tried to break in through that window herb garden she fussed over for lack of a worthy son. She’d not have gone to the cops or fled upon hearing the breaking glass. A lone fighter — always had been. It was her home. She would have pushed the intruder out herself. Judged by the condition of her corpse, she was successful and remained unravaged. But it got one bite out of her before moving on to easier prey. That was enough. I do not know how she tracks me. I once thought it was our shared Blight, or our shared blood, but there are other stalkers out there. I’ve heard tell of lovers, friends, and former crewmembers that come back, driving Takers to madness. The method doesn’t really matter, for it is unshakable. When I flew to the coast, I thought I was free of her. I went months without her haunting. Then we met halfway upon my return, states away from where I last saw her. I’d caught her in the midst of a cross-country trek to join me. Or rather, she caught me. I’ve hired the best snipers in the Loss to end it. They always miss. She’s wily, ducking corners the moment a shot lines up. When I send them in for closer kills, they don’t return.

169 mistaken for night overpowering my flashlight. As I moved forward, it turned to hands, eyes, teeth in barely twitching jaws. The moisture from the tunnel turned into chunky NHPD fluid dripping onto my hair and back. Had I not been on point, the crew would have certainly been infected. It didn’t move or attack. Our way was just blocked, choked by corpse kudzu. Yet seeing it was enough to feel assaulted. How did that many casualties get into the sewer? What spread the cancerous overgrowth of Blight sinew between them? Could it spread to me, consuming other Latents? I do not know. I know that we left those tunnels and ate the cost of that contract. I know that’s why I’m alive to tell the tale. MalIgnant Blight tissue doesn’t come from thin air. It might as well, for all we understand it, but it doesn’t. As the Blight slows decomposition, it metabolizes tissue from the victim to make its sinew. Medical studies have measured casualties in torpor and after, finding a nearly one-to-one maintenance of weight. What if the Blight kept rewriting tissues? What if it didn’t stop after the sinews had wormed through the body? What if it just kept going until the whole body was black ichor? Then it would be malignant. We were headed through the sewers on the outskirts of a city, trying to bypass the urban hordes. Deep in the lightless tunnels, I walked onto a carpet of spongy pitch darkness I’d

170 Shuffled Absolutes in the Loss don’t come often. One of them is shoot for the head. But every so often, a panicked Taker will hit the lines claiming that headshots don’t work. They report massacres where the mobs couldn’t be stopped, nightmares where the ritual is observed but the beasts keep coming. Eyelessly tracking, trying to stuff the flesh of dead crewmembers down a neck stump. There are also reports by Fencemen claiming they’ve seen entire headless mobs wander past the gates. Casualties with skulls hollowed out by buckshot or with hatchets still buried in their spines. All of them claimed that the groups stayed together and kept tracking their prey, despite have no sense organs left which to do so. There are a million explanations for a failed kill besides Aberrants: dud ammunition, light gunpowder reload in the cartridge, bullet bounces off the skull, melee weapon misses the Blight nexus in the brainstem. Common mistakes like these get Takers killed. If someone survives to tell the tale, they’re usually carrying the ghosts of a dead crew on their backs. Making up a new Aberrant might be how some cope. But, if the Shuffled do exist, we’ve already lost our only weapon against the Blight and don’t even know it yet.

171 PLAYING THE MARKET

172 ProfIt System The Profit System uses two dice – Black and Red – to determine a wide range of effects. Players use the dice to determine the success or failure of their characters’ actions. Similarly, the Market uses the same dice to generate much of the game world randomly, simulating the capricious and unpredictable forces at work in the setting. When there’s a chance a character might fail an important task, the player makes a dice check to determine what happens next. The Profit System follows the same rule as all business; success means being “in the Black.” A dice check is in the Black if the Black die is higher than the Red, either naturally or after adding modifiers. If the Red is higher or equal to the Black, the combination of uncontrollable, moment-to-moment variables, and the character’s inexperience leads to failure. MaterIals Needed Every player needs the following: • One black and one red ten-sided dice (they don’t have to be black and red so long as the two can be told apart) • Pencil and Eraser • Character Sheet (included) As a group, you need… • A table or surface to play on • Crew Sheet (included) • A copy of the Red Markets rules The DIce: Black and Red To play Red Markets, each player needs a set of two, ten-sided dice. It’s preferable to have one black and one red because that is how the dice are named in the rules, but any pair of d10s will do, so long as the player can keep them separate from each other. The Black represents the best attempt of the player to succeed at that moment. This number is modified by a combination of skills and charges. The number the Black lands on is abbreviated as B# in the text. A result of 10 on the Black die would be written B10. Since the Black can be modified by choices the player makes, it can go above ten. For instance, that B10 would actually be B10+2 if the player had a skill of +2 that applied to that check. The Red represents the obstacles threatening success. It accounts for all the variables affecting the check at any given moment – windage, lighting, fatigue, mood, etc. – and can vary wildly. The number a Red die lands on is abbreviated as R# in the text. For instance, a roll of 5 on the Red die would be written R5. Boom and Bust The terms Boom and Bust are used to describe two extremes on a spectrum of rules variants.

173 Boom rules are variants that make the game easier and more action-packed. Characters are tougher, more capable, and generally bigger badasses than might be seen in bleaker horror stories. Boom games are about taking big gambles for big rewards; if the characters die, they’ll look good doing it. Procedure The Profit System is all about representing the cost of character’s actions. Dice checks are rarely free and, if a charge doesn’t need to be spent, the check is “one-and-done” (can only be attempted once). Every other check of the dice must be purchased using game resources. Characters that invest in the development of their skills and the care of their gear can add more to the Black, increasing their probability of success. If the Black is higher, success is achieved. If Red is equal or higher, the character fails. What follows is the procedure for making dice checks in the Profit System. Indentations mark where special rules and equipment can affect the process. Always remember: no matter what modifiers are in play, the question of a dice check is always “Is Black higher than Red?” • The Market calls for a skill check • Determine if the skill requires the player to “buy-a-roll.” o Purely mental actions are free (such as Foresight, Sensitivity, or SelfControl), but they are one-and-done rolls. If failed, Will must be spent or a Reference must provide a favor if the check is to succeed. Takers can’t just try again, even if there is time. o Purely social actions are free, but they are one-and-done. If failed, Will must be spent, a Reference must be tapped, or a different approach must be used. o Spend a charge to buy-a-roll if using gear (something requiring ammunition, batteries, or other disposable parts). ▪ For charged tools, determine any extra charges the player wants to spend on success. Spend those charges before the dice are rolled. The most commoninstance of this is increasing the chance of a hit by firing more ammo. Every extra charge adds a +1 to the check, unless otherwise stated (see p. 235) Bust rules are variants that make the game more difficult and grim. Characters have more responsibilities, flaws, and weaknesses than the protagonists of more escapist zombie fiction. Bust games are about the weight of the supernatural and the mundane conspiring to crush and grind souls into dust. If a character makes it out of a Bust game whole, it’ll be as ugly as it is impressive. The principles of Boom and Bust aren’t absolutes; groups can use different variants for different aspects of the game. The labels are merely included for reference so readers can find variants that cater to their tastes.

174 this perfectly capable person would suddenly forget how the steering wheel works and drive into a tree. The Market would not call for a skill check in such an instance. However, if it’s raining, night, and the character is racing to warn the enclave about an impending attack, a dice check is needed because the nasty conditions make failure understandable. 2. Failure has consequences. A character is curious how many breeds of dog exist. They spend a charge on the laptop to buy-a-roll, make a Research check, and fail. What’s to stop them from trying again? They are at their home base; they have access to solar panels to refresh charges. Why can’t they just keep searching? There’s no reason, so the Market shouldn’t call for a skill check in the first place. If, on the other hand, the character is out on a job and trying to figure out why the client needs so many salvaged bicycles, the crew doesn’t have all day to wait around. A failed check would mean the information couldn’t be found fast enough to have a use in negotiations. The consequence is a loss of precious time in a sensitive situation. Even if a Reference is tapped to provide the information as a favor, favors cost. The failure of the Research check would, in this instance, have consequences, so the Market would be right to call for a check. 3. Stories can continue if there is a failure. The only available contract is posted on a bulletin board in the enclave where the characters currently reside. The Market calls for everyone to make an Awareness check. Everyone fails. The characters don’t know about the job and the game grinds to a halt. The Market should have never called for a check because failure means stopping play. If, on the other hand, that contract is one of many available, an Awareness check would make sense; anything can be reasonably overlooked, and the consequence of failure would be less profit. To up the stakes even o Spend a charge of rations for intense physical actions, such as using a melee weapon or running. Spend additional charges for +1 to the check, representing overexertion supported by a high-calorie diet. • Roll the Black and Red together. o If Black is a natural match to the Red, it’s a critical success on even numbers, a critical failure on odds (see p. 175). Criticals negate the effects of any spent charges, but those charges are still spent and gone. o If results don’t naturally match, add the character’s skill rating and any bonuses from charges to the Black. ▪ If the modified Black is higher, the character succeeds. ▪ If Red is higher or equal, the character fails. Ties always go to the Market. • After the roll… o If the dice check is mental or social and can’t be rerolled, the player can choose to tap References for an automatic success if they have time and resources. o If the character has a Will point, it can be spent to flip Red and Black numbers, negate a critical failure, or upgrade a success to a critical success. o Certain gear allows players to spend charges after a success to gain additional benefits. Both player and Market work to describe the result of the dice check in the game’s narrative and move on. When to Roll The Market only calls for a dice check when three conditions are met. 1. There is a reasonable chance for failure. For example, let’s say an adult character wants to drive a well-maintained car down an empty, straight highway. It’s the middle of the day and the character maintains safe speeds. It’s not reasonable to assume that

175 selflessly uses their body as a conductor and takes damage from electrical shock. Succeeding at cost is still a consequence of failure; it just allows players some choice in which consequence they want to suffer. If there’s no reason the dice check couldn’t just be performed again normally, the Market shouldn’t have called for the dice check in the first place. FaIlure Sometimes there is no reasonable way for resources to compensate for a lack of skill, or the Taker doesn’t have any References or Will to call upon. In these instances, a higher or equal Red means the check failed and the character suffers the consequences. The fallout varies depending on the context of the skill checked, but death is a possibility. No amount of preparedness, luck, or training can hold out forever against the crushing tide of history. Failure should always be a possibility when a check is called for, either due to sudden misfortune or a slow draining of resources. CRITICALS A “natural” double means that the Black and Red land on the same number before any modifiers from skills or spent charges are added. Natural doubles are called “criticals” – these indicate that the check was exceptional in some way. Critical successes are impressive displays of skill; critical failures are disastrous mistakes. more, failing a Mechanics check to hotwire a car and flee the zombie hordes would be another justified check. The character in the car might die, but the story has “gone on” to a tragic conclusion rather than an abrupt anticlimax. SImple Success Leaving aside criticals (see below), when the Black exceeds the Red – either naturally or after skills and charges are added – a simple success has occurred. The player gets to see the character achieve the goal. Success at Cost If a skill check is failed but the player really wants to make it, they can petition to succeed at a cost. This means it’s up to the Market to set a price on what it would take to overcome the Taker’s failure. This is why a lot of rolls in Red Markets are one-and-done rolls; success isn’t a matter of trying again so much as it is about wearing the problem down with extra resources. The most common method of succeeding at a cost is the use of References. A failed Medicine check doesn’t have to mean the patient instantly dies on the surgery table; it could just mean the character has to call in a favor from a fellow doctor and pay it back later. Will is another option: it’s the only Potential that doubles as a resource and can be extremely powerful as a result. Other options are available at the Market’s discretion. Players can ask to succeed at cost even on some more intense, action-oriented rolls. Say, for instance, a Taker really needs to hack a security door so everyone can escape being eaten. If the character fails the check, it’s up to the player to request to succeed at cost, especially if the character is out of Will. So long as Markets can think of a reasonable way for additional resources to solve the problem, they should always try to offer players a choice to succeed in this instance. In this case, it might mean the Taker had to rush the job and leave behind the valuable electronics kit, or maybe the character The experience we have of our lives from within, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in order to account for what we are doing, is thus a lie - the truth lies rather outside, in what we do. -Slavoj Zizek

176 • Select a random encounter to occur on a Leg of the journey • Set the mood for an Interlude • Set the supply/demand equilibrium for a certain good or service • Combine a number of elements into a randomly generated contract • Find the damage and hit location of an unpreventable attack (a failed dodge uses the same numbers of the failed skill check to determine damage) • Roll for all damage if using Bust: Random Damage (p. 281) Bust: +1 or It Can't Be Done At base, there is already a 45% chance of any check succeeding, without the use of a skill or any charged equipment. That’s awfully high for a horror game about costs and consequences. If there is a way for a character with no skill whatsoever in the task to succeed, then the Market should just allow them to succeed and move on without the dice. Conversely, if someone with a lifetime of experience could reasonably fail the task, then it is certain someone without experience will fail. For example, no amount of extra gauze and disinfectant is going to help someone perform First Aid if they haven’t the slightest notion of where to even start, but a person with the basics (+1) might be able to put those medical resources to good use, albeit sloppily. Characters should be rewarded consistently for their skills and preparation; a player’s blind luck in dice rolling should be rewarded rarely. It’s much more interesting to force a character without a certain skill to find another tactic than to foist the responsibility of narrative choice onto a player’s ability to flip a coin. But, as it makes planning a character and keeping him/her alive more difficult, +1 or It Can’t Be Done is a Bust rule. Boom: Default Checks Groups that really want a default method can allow checks of untrained skills, but the “Modified” doubles occur when, for instance, a B2/R4 becomes a B2+2/R4 due to modifiers being added after the dice land. Modified doubles are always failures; ties always go to the Market. CRITICAL Success Critical successes occur on natural, even doubles: 2’s, 4’s, 6’s, 8’s, and 10’s. Critical successes have varying effects depending upon the context of the skill check. Players can pick which effect they want, but the Market gets final say. • Double damage or effectiveness • Switch damage to a hit location of the player’s choice • Bypass armor • Dictate a status effect or other narrative benefit of the test (such as knockback) CRITICAL FAILURE Critical failures occur on natural, odd doubles: 1’s, 3’s, 5’s, 7’s, and 9’s. Critical failures have varying effects depending upon the context of the check. The Market always chooses which occurs. • Double damage or effectiveness against the PC • Bypass armor • Breaks a tool with a malfunction • Brings about an unfortunate status effect or other narrative obstacle • Eliminates the rest of a tool’s charges until it can be refreshed Market DIce Checks In the Profit System, dice checks are the sole responsibility of the players. The only time the Market makes a check is to determine aspects of the setting and narrative that are randomized to represent the capricious nature of economic forces. Markets roll to: • Generate new mobs of casualties • See if a PC is infected by the Blight

177 started as a 2 STR character. The player spent a lot of bounty (30, to be exact) to grow a character strong enough to pull this off. That much lost capital was undoubtedly to the detriment of the character’s other abilities, retirement plan, and family. Had the investment been put in some other Potential, the character would have a paltry 20% chance of success – much lower than rolling the base Black and Red with a +1. What Malleus may not do is spend extra rations for a bonus chance of success. Correctly applying such force would require discipline beyond the wild haymaker he’s going to throw. No extra charges can be spent on a default: once the check is purchased, the Black must be equal or less than the Potential to be a success. As defaulting gives Takers more (suboptimal) options for dealing with situations, it is a Boom rule. Market always has veto power to deem the request too ridiculous. For instance, if players insist their characters can bioengineer a curative retrovirus based off nothing but cando attitude, the Market always has the right to say, “+1 or it can’t be done.” Default rolls work off the nonexistent skill’s associated Potential. The Red isn’t rolled in a default check. In order to succeed, the Black result must be equal or under the Potential. Let’s say Malleus really wants to punch an attacker to death but Malleus’s player hasn’t put anything in his Unarmed skill. The player asks to default. The Market allows it so long as Malleus spends one charge on rations to buy-a-roll. Spending more does nothing to improve the chance of success. Malleus’s has 5 STR (he works out... a lot). That means Malleus has a 50% chance of success: Black 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 sees him succeed. While this is high probability for someone completely unskilled, Malleus only

178 Opposed Checks When two or more players at the table are competing against each other in a fight, race, or other contest, they might wish to resort to the dice to see who wins. This rare instance is called an opposed check. Players and the Market determine the skills being used. Both parties make a skill check normally and add their modifiers. If both players fail (higher Red), a stalemate ensues. If one succeeds and the other fails, the successful character wins the contest. If both players are successful, the player with the higher modified Black gains an advantage, though the other’s player action still has some effect. Market Forces Players are never competing against the Market. It is not the Market’s job to “fight” the players. It’s the Market’s task to narrate the story, provide interesting choices, and simulate the uncaring, relentless economic forces affecting the characters’ lives to overcome according to their fitness. In fact, the Market cannot be opposed. Nonplayer characters and events determined by the person running the game are called “Market forces.” Market forces always succeed if the players let them. What does that mean? If making a skill check to see if a character is struck by an attack, the Market does not roll any dice. The player under attack makes an Athletics check to dodge. On a success, the attack misses. If the dodge fails, the attack, by definition, hits and the numbers on the failed Athletics check determine the damage (see Combat p. 272). If the character doesn’t even try to get out of the way, the Market rolls to determine the damage done, but there’s no chance of the attack missing. In the Profit System, the outcomes of character actions are determined entirely by their players. Every check is player facing. The Market only rolls to generate large-scale events beyond the characters’ control, such as the number of zombies at a certain location PRECISION The Profit System is designed with a materialist focus. Objects are very powerful and can often assure success by spending charges before a check. However, sometimes no amount of spray-n-pray or excessive spending can fix a situation. Sometimes, a trained professional is the only option. If the Market calls for a precision check, charged tools that could normally increase the chance of success can’t spend extra charges. A sniper making a headshot a kilometer away can’t spray more rounds downrange for a greater chance for success; one shot has to strike true or none will. The charge is spent for the Shoot check, but no more spends are allowed. DIFFICULT Another name for this check might be “illadvised.” Save this difficulty modifier for tasks so risky that to attempt them is lunacy, even for trained professionals. In order to succeed a difficult check, a character must succeed a precision skill check with a critical success. Will can be spent to upgrade regular successes to criticals, but the precision requirement remains the same. For instance, if Sticky the freerunner wants to jump off the roof, through the hovering military helicopter’s gun-doors, drop the explosives, crash through the window of the office building on the other side of the street, and roll to safety as the aircraft explodes, that’s going to be difficult. Sticky is one of the most Athletic people in the Loss (+4 Athletics), so success is feasible, if unlikely. I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries, ”Give, give !” -Abigail Adams

179 represent fuel, ammunition, batteries, general maintenance, or any other conceivable measure of utility. It doesn’t matter what the narrative specifics the group decides are; charges remain mechanical representations of usefulness. The specifics of charges and how they are used in play are described in more detail later (see “Materialism: Bounty, Gear, and Vehicles” p. 234). For now, here’s a basic rundown of the mechanical impact of charges. The Use of Charges Charges have three uses: 1. Tracking a character’s inventory 2. Buying skill checks that require equipment 3. Providing bonuses to certain checks in addition to the skill rating or the supply/demand equilibrium of goods. If the Market declares an action for one of its forces, it always succeeds unless the character makes a check to stop it. There are no opposed checks against the Market in the Profit System. The players either hold it at bay for that turn, or they don’t. WIll Will is explained in more depth on p. 197. In general, Will is the meta-game mechanic in the Profit System. The Will rating is the number of Will points that refresh once per game session. Players spend Will to make the story go a character’s way and negate the capriciousness of the dice. The uses of Will are as follows: • Switch Black and Red numbers (B4/R9 becomes B9/R4) • Upgrade a success to a Critical Success • Buy another narrative benefit to add onto an existing Critical Success • Negate an opponent’s Critical Success • Turn a Critical Failure into a regular failure • In combat, shift the damage onto a piece of gear or different hit location • Jump to the front of initiative order (see p. 275) Will points gain be gained and refreshed in the following ways: • Buy a point of Will in character advancement • Follow a weak spot into trouble • Fulfill a personal obligation to a soft spot • Suffer because of a tough spot • Rest in-between jobs/game sessions Charges Nearly all equipment in the Profit System is described in terms of charges: abstract units (typically ten per piece of gear) that measure the equipment’s remaining usefulness. Depending on the gear, charges might

180 more rations adds +1 per charge, just like charged gear. But calories are costly in a food scarce environment like the Loss and energy wasted eventually translates into bounty lost. Static Static gear doesn’t require a charge to use. Binoculars are largely unaffected by eyes looking through them. As long as the binoculars aren’t broken, they continue to work as designed. That’s the definition of static gear. Since the Profit System is meant to emphasize the very serious consequences economic costs have on people, static gear is rare. Most equipment in the game is meant to bleed utility until fed again by some form of capital. The player must budget between maintaining the health of a character and the material goods that protect that character’s existence. Using most equipment requires spending at least one charge to make a skill check. For instance, no one can make a Drive check without a vehicle and, to make the check, at least one charge off of the vehicle must be spent. The use of the resource buys a dice check. The combination of certain resources and certain skills can benefit from overspending resources; spending above the minimum charge required to buy-a-roll adds a +1 to the Black for each additional spend. Finally, charges on equipment can be “refreshed” by repairing or reinforcing the gear. The number of refreshes a character has access to depends on their ADP Potential: their aptitude for sourcing, purchasing, and hustling for supplies in-between jobs. Types of Gear UtIlIzIng Charges Capped Capped gear requires a charge to use in a skill check, but no extra charges may be spent to add to the check. For instance, using a laptop would require a charge as the battery drains, but spending extra charges is not going to make an attempt to hack someone’s email more successful. Capped charges enable use, but excessive use does nothing to increase effectiveness. Charged Charged gear requires a charge to use in a skill check, and additional charges can be spent to add a bonus to the skill check. For example, if each bullet represents a chance to score a hit, shooting more at the target increases the chance of success. For each charge spent after buying a check, add +1 to the Black. Manpower (Rations) Gear utilizing manpower requires the human operator to fuel the gear’s effect. You never have to reload a machete, for instance, but your arm can get tired. Manpower gear is charged but spends the Taker’s rations rather than any charges on the item itself. Spending During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war, as is of every man, against every man. To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justices and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues. No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; And of the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. - Thomas Hobbes

181 b. Bait +Citizen: One less milestone required for retirement -Migrant: Dependents cost upkeep x2, and communication with them must be electronic c. Latent +Once Bitten: Can’t be infected -Twice Hated: Becomes a Vector upon death; remains infectious and persecuted in life d. Immune +Genetic Lottery: Can’t be infected -Meal Ticket: Living body is worth 5 bounty per permanently “harvested” hit box e. Believer +Faith: +2 to all Self-Control checks that confirm faith Character CreatIon Takers are interesting people. They’re bold enough to fight monsters, but careful enough to live through it. They’re strong enough to survive, but too weak to abandon memories of a better time and resign themselves to the Loss. Heroic opportunists. Brutal saviors. Disillusioned dreamers. At-A-Glance 1. Pick your Taker’s name 2. Write a soft and weak spot 3. Pick a tough spot or roll for it a. Lost +Adapt: +2 skill points at Char. Gen -And Die: Legally dead and must stay in the Loss or forge a new identity (+1 retirement milestone)

182 b. The first Profession X skill trades at one-to-one, but a second trades at 2-to1, a third at 3-to-1, etc. c. Specializations are limited by the Potential AND skill they are under, and each point of specialization costs skill points. Melee: Sword 2 costs four skill points – two for Melee and two for Melee: Sword 6.Ensure no skills exceed their associated Potential. Reallocate excess skill points. 7.List as many Dependents as the Taker’s CHA 8. Buy and upgrade gear with starting 10 bounty. Cost is upkeep only at Char. Gen – cost to purchase gear in game is upkeep x2 9. Campaign only: Come up with your Taker’s retirement plan and milestones 10. Campaign only: As a group, design your enclave and name your crew -Doubt: start off cracked in a Humanity threat; Self-Control checks required for violations of faith f. Steward +Undercover: Once per game, may ask organization for help. Market says yes or no. -In Too Deep: May only have other Takers as Dependents; Whole crew must make Self-Control checks if cover is blown; Sponsoring organization may give orders to the Taker g. Hustler +I Know a Guy: Automatically succeeds Networking checks, even without skill points -I Owe a Guy: Once per game, Market can call in a marker of 1d10 bounty h. Fenceman +Headshots: +1 on any attack check against casualties -In My Sleep: Starts cracked on a Humanity threat from nightmarish memories i. Scavenger +Salvage, Salvage Everywhere…: Start the game with 20 bounty -…Not a Screw That Fits: Permanently at -1 Refresh j. Roach +Survivor: Damage Humanity to assist any skill check: +1 per point -Sole: Start cracked in all three Humanity threats 4.Assign 1 free Potential to every category: STR, SPD, ADP, INT, CHA, WILL a. Assign 5 more Potential as you see fit b. Potential is capped at 3 during Character Creation 5.Assign 20 skill points a. Skill points trade at a one-to-one ratio at character generation. This trade-off captures perfectly economists’ notion of opportunity cost. The real cost of something, the opportunity cost, is the value of the next best opportunity, what you have to give up to do what you want to do. During the apocalypse, the cost of taking something with you is the value of what you have to leave behind. - James Dow

183

184 didn’t like her name much, and she disliked her job before the Crash even more. She figures that her character is happier now that she can work with her hands without convincing some asshole garage owner she knows her way around an engine. But Patricia was never much with words, so Morgan figured her character tried to call herself Malfunction but her crew shortened it down to Mal. Spots Spots are descriptive tags that define a Taker’s personality and past. They draw characters into conflict and drama while rewarding their players mechanically. The true personality of a Taker is going to be as nuanced and detailed as the player in control, but spots are contact points by which they interact with the setting. Weak Spots A weak spot is a character flaw that tenaciously defines the character’s personality, despite any awareness they might have of the shortcoming. When others complain about it, people that know the Taker best can only say “That’s just X” or “You know how X is.” It’s a central fault that can only be overcome temporarily. Following a weak spot into trouble means gaining a point of Will, even if it temporarily puts the character over their Potential. Weak spots should therefore be vague in order to remain applicable to a wide variety of situations, including contract negotiations. Some example weak spots might be... • Vengeful • Arrogant • Pedantic • Pollyanna • Cowardly • Easily Angered • Dismissive • Napoleon Complex • Head in the Clouds • Obsessed with ________________ Taker's Name Takers rarely use real names. They adopt “handles” more suited to their new lifestyle. Ever since DHQS instituted the bounty system, names have real power. It’s a lot easier to retire from the life if you’ve got an old identity to fall into. Getting forged documents sufficient to fool the ration system is really expensive, not to mention all the lost property that could have been claimed by an old identity. Couple this with the fact that, just by being accused of breaking quarantine, a person can be legally declared dead by the DHQS and have all their salvage entitlement seized, it makes sense to operate under a pseudonym It’d be a lie to say that’s the only purpose new names serve, though. The handle is psychological survival mechanism. Steve might have seen everyone he loves murdered before his eyes, but “Ven” is just a guy that does what’s necessary. That’s why they’re called handles; it’s what Takers use to carry the baggage. Example: Morgan and Mal Morgan thinks about the kind of character she wants to play. She recently finished a novel with a no-nonsense mechanic that solved mysteries using the same diagnostic methods used to troubleshoot technology. Morgan decides to model her protagonist after that. She envisions a squat woman in coveralls, decorated with patches for a dozen bands stitched into the fabric. She’s wearing a toolbelt, pistol, and too much make-up; she likes the way it makes folks out in the Loss gawk. Morgan thinks her character’s name is Patricia, but she doesn’t tell any of the other players that. It’s a secret. She figures Patricia A belief is not true because it is useful. -Henri Frederic Amiel

185 But tough spots are never only benefits; they can easily cause a Taker as much harm as good. Tough spots double as handles the Market can use to jerk the characters around. Everyone has a drawback that triggers as frequently as the benefit. Characters earn a point of Will when the Market uses the drawback of their tough spot to put them in trouble. Weak and soft spots have no bright side. They exist only to be resisted until the player chooses to give in, making the story more interesting and banking some Will for the effort. Tough spots are different because the Taker receives a persistant bonus from the tough spot. Since tough spots engage directly with the lore of Red Markets, there’s an established list to choose from, whereas players are encouraged to write their own weak and soft spots. Lost The Lost make up the majority of people that survived the Crash. They either missed the orders to evacuate, decided such orders were bullshit, or managed to get to shelter after a military convoy abandoned them. The Lost, as a class, were the first people to realize no help was coming. They were the first to discover LifeLines and organize. Everybody either helped establish an enclave or migrated to the closest one available. + Adapt: The Taker gets +2 skill points at Character Creation In the early days, those that failed to contribute didn’t make it. There were too many things to do, too many casualties to fight, and too many mouths to feed. Anyone surviving the past five years had to learn a whole lot of new skills in a hurry. Some gravitated towards areas of natural aptitude, but for most, their new career depended on whatever the enclave happened to need that day. The rut of poverty resulting from most enclave work is all most Lost have to look forward to, but an unlucky few were conscripted into Taker work. Soft Spots A soft spot is a deep passion, belief, or sentiment that the character holds in spite of the dangers it presents in the Loss. It’s a virtue, or it would be if the character lived in a place where selfishness wasn’t a necessity to survival. In the sociopathic logic of postapocolyptic capitalism, situations and people can manipulate character behavior by appealing to old sentiments. A soft spot should be vague to remain applicable to a wide variety of situations. Fulfilling a character’s obligation to a soft spot financially, spiritually, or physically means gaining a point of Will, even if it temporarily puts the character over their Potential. Soft spots can also be used by NPCs during contract negotiations. Some examples of soft spots might be... • Protecting the weak • From each according to ability, to each according to need • Social justice • Freedom • Karma is its own reward • Waste not, want not • Providing solace • Can’t we all be friends? • Women and children first • Puppies deserve protection too! Tough spots A tough spot is an association with a group of people or background with a sordid reputation (your relationship with the label puts you in a “tough spot”). This should have something to do with the Taker’s past and how they came to survive this long. Mechanically, tough spots break the rules of Red Markets in the favor of the player. Limits can be raised, vulnerabilities removed, bonuses accrued. No Taker survives long without a special edge – the tough spot is that edge. When tough spots are used for the character’s benefit, the Market shapes the narrative and mechanics to fit if the case is clear.

186 BAIT Bait is the name for someone lucky enough to escape but dumb enough to come back. For most Takers, that’s all the ungrateful bastards are good for: Casualty Bait. The nickname stems solely from resentment. In reality, risking a return to the Blight is an act of total desperation. Life in the Recession can be even worse than the risk posed by the undead. Free Parking ghettos burning tires for heat and stacking humanity in scrapyard favelas. Disease and rats swarming around open latrines gouged into parking lots. Ration riots and DHQS suppression squads beating the desperate masses into submission. StopLoss Immune hunters and Latent chain gangs disappearing people in the middle of the night. Valets pimping out the desperate and dealing poison to the mad. Life on the wrong side of the Recession’s class system is as deadly as any zombie. A few desperate souls see the self-reliance of the Loss as an improvement. Still fewer see Taker - And Die: The Taker is considered legally dead and must stay in the Loss or forge a new identity Those that find a way to live in the Loss must find a way to die there. The government’s homo sacer policy declares anyone caught or assumed left behind is legally dead. Millions of names crowd the DHQS rolls, each one denied the right the vote, the right to fair trial, the right to own property, etc. The sin of survival can never be forgiven least the government admit what it had to do to establish the Recession. Five years after the Crash, most Lost have already cashed-in their own bounty out of desperation, or found the job done for them by some distant relative of the citizen. For original Takers, there’s no escaping to the old world. They either have to make some corner of hell safe enough to retire, or they have to bribe their way into a whole new identity. In the case of the latter, that requires one more retirement milestone than any member of the crew not declared Lost.

187 never occurs and the body doesn’t die from the resulting strain. However, Blight sinews wind their way through the subject’s nervous system, just as if the victim were a cadaver in torpor. The process is agonizing, killing many with the pain alone. Those that survive retain their humanity, albeit covered head-to-toe in the black veins typical of latency. They’re infectious, but the retention of living brain tissue short-circuits the parasitic connection of Blight sinews with the brain stem, leaving Latents in control of their mental faculties. +Once Bitten: The Taker can’t be infected Or, rather, can’t be infected again. The damage is done. Any “hot” cells entering the blood stream revert to their undead state in the presence of sinew, and the “cold” bites of casualties merely add to Blight structures already in the body. Aside from the trauma, Latents are unaffected by bites and scratches from the undead. The ability to go hands-on with casualties without special equipment makes Latents sought after employees for Taker crews. -Twice Hated: The Taker remains infectious while alive, becomes a Vector upon death, and suffers from persecution The Blight sinews that puppet the dead flesh of casualties wait, poised to strike the second brain death occurs in a Latent. Once the living brain ceases its interference with the Blight’s signals, the disease takes over in mere moments. For most casualties, the danger is mitigated by the decay and rigor of the body. But with the wiring “preinstalled,” Latents become sprinting Vectors immediately upon death. As if that weren’t enough, all Latents’ bodily fluids carry the Blight. The potential to become an extreme danger upon death, combined with a general sanitation risk, means most enclaves either segregate or outright imprison Latents. Some won’t accept anyone infected within their walls and a few execute the “veiners” on sight. The vital service Latents provide a crew is balanced work as an opportunity to gamble their lives on an escape from poverty. +Citizen: One less milestone is required for the Taker to retire. Though the wealth gap in the Recession is far more extreme than the Loss, the remainders of civilization still offer more upwards mobility. Clean clothes, an address, a shower – that’s all it takes to get into a job interview and limping towards middle class (or what’s left of it). Bait find this process easier for having registered in the post-Crash census – they can still use their given names and old records. For most fence-jumpers, the infusion of bounty needed to lift them out of Taker work is smaller than usual. -Migrant: Dependents cost upkeep x2 and communication must be electronic Only family motivates inviting the risk promised by jumping quarantine. Bait have loved ones in need of support like everyone else, but the family remains in the Recession. Getting bounty to them requires converting it into crypt currency and back into the ration dollars accepted in the car camps. All these middlemen and fees double the cost of upkeep for Dependents. To make matters worse, the psychological benefits of keeping a family healthy are reduced by distance. Humanity heals require an Ubiq call to even have a chance, which further eats into resources. Bait can assign other Taker’s as Dependents, but not at character creation. Latent Latents are people infected by the undead strain of the Blight without ever suffering from its living state. This typically is the result of injecting Supressin K-7864 shortly after infection, but it has been known to occur naturally, owing either to some fault in the Blight’s genetic code or the victim’s partial immunity. Whatever the cause, the victim’s brain remains unaffected by the Blight: the hemoragic rage typical of Vectors

188 sustainability and debone the Immune like cattle. Whether into slavery or slaughter, the value of Supressin is so high that each Immune is a walking retirement plan. Thus, the Immune remain desperate to hide their diagnosis from everyone, in the Loss and the Recession, lest they be “medically conscripted” and tortured for the remainder of their lives. It’s possible to add the Immune tough spot in addition to another tough spot, but only during play (see “Infection” p. 305). At character creation, only one tough spot is allowed. BelIever The Crash wasn’t just any apocalypse: it was the apocalypse we saw coming. When the end came, it came as a monster we’d been imagining for half a century. It was a disaster that everyone secretly thought they could handle until it very publicly slaughtered them. And when the pop-culture iconography failed, it did so alongside the government, science, religion, and every other narrative humanity had ever relied upon. Many escaped the undead only to find themselves wrestling with the death of reality. All in all, the Crash probably broke as many people as it killed. Or, rather, it opened their eyes. It depends on who you ask. Whether people retreated into delusion or revelation, many couldn’t survive with the old ways of seeing. Groups of like-minded seekers coalesced into cults, creeds, schools, and movements of every imaginable stripe. Ravings transformed into ideologies and vice versa. Differences in dogmas grew ever finer and split survivors into more and more fractured worldviews, theologies shifting like lines drawn in a sandstorm. Soon, amidst the few zealot holdouts of pre-Crash belief and the nihilistic majority, the Loss was populated by hundreds of apocalyptic sects, each offering a different answer to the end. The general term for those that use a new faith to survive the post-Crash world is Believers. A list of the major groups can against the constant threat they pose and the prejudice that follows them everywhere they go. It’s possible to add the Latent tough spot in addition to another tough spot, but only during play (see “Infection” p. 305). At character creation, only one tough spot is allowed. Immune Something in certain people’s bone marrow is capable of shutting down the Blight’s reproductive capabilities and expelling it from the bloodstream. In the five years since the Crash, medical science has yet to figure out how this works, or what factor in the bone marrow is responsible for the effect. Cases of immunity are dotted across all ages, genders, blood types, and races. To this day, the only way to test for immunity is exposing the patient’s blood to the Blight and observing the effect. All that’s understood is that some people can’t be infected, and injecting bone marrow from those people into the recently infected, while not a cure, can revert live Blight into the undead state prematurely, resulting in latency. Immune, or “moony,” is used to refer to those too lucky to become zombies. +Genetic Lottery: The Taker can’t be infected Blight, in all its forms, dies in the bloodstream. Beyond the wounds that would normally cause infection, an Immune has nothing to fear from casualties. This qualifies them for the same up-close tactics typically reserved for the Latent. -Meal Ticket: The Taker’s living body is worth 5 bounty per permanently destroyed hit box. Supressin K-7864 is the single most valuable commodity in the world, and it’s derived solely from the bone marrow of the Immune. Though some production lines farm Immunes for years – subjecting them to endless cycles of harvest and regrowth – many choose short-term profit over

189 The treasure is out there, gathering dust and ripe for the picking... were it not for all the desperate squatters calling it home. Rescuing the Loss from the Lost requires subtlety until the true reclamation can begin. Staking claim to opportunities requires agents, capable and skilled enough to secure an enclave’s cooperation, but loyal to their true masters. The DHQS calls these operators Stewards: undercover agents dedicated to manipulating the homo sacer into behaving (or dying) according to the Recession’s whims. But corporations field just as many Stewards of their own as the DHQS, each with their own competing agenda. The tangle of private/public partnerships that resulted from the Crash blurred the last line between democracy and oligarchy, and every faction has its own pawns on the board. A player that picks the Steward tough spot owes allegiance to a major Recession power: typically either the DHQS or a major corporation. Like other Takers, the character risks death over the fence to survive, but their desperation is ultimately no more than method acting. Stewards have loved ones living comfortably in the Recession and, as long as the spy maintains cover and follows orders, the family stays safe. Or the Steward could be a complete loner, recruited for a dangerous mission in infected territory precisely because they don’t have attachments. Either way, a Steward’s duty is to observe, report, and wait for activation. Once the mission is complete, Stewards get to go home to a fat bonus check. Stewards are sleeper agents, meaning they’re mostly left to their own devices. But no matter how many times fellow Takers may save their lives or help them out, Stewards can never be wholly loyal to a crew or enclave. be found in “Believers” (p. 150). Players are encouraged to pick one of the beliefs described in the setting, or they can design their own with the Market. Either way, selecting this tough spot means the character’s world is defined by the new faith, for good or ill. +Faith: The Taker receives +2 to all SelfControl checks that confirm faith This benefit depends on the defining characteristics of the Taker’s new faith. For instance, since Archivists believe mankind is already doomed and that they must record its final days, the death of a friend would be easier to handle so long as the believer recorded it. A member of the zealous Black Math cult could very well revel at the sight of a casualty horde. Self-Control checks that confirm the Taker’s worldview are easier to succeed. -Doubt: The Taker starts off cracked in a Humanity threat, and Self-Control checks are required for violations of faith One doesn’t invent new gods and commandments without some mental strain. The same madness that provides revelation permanently unbalances the mind. Thus, believers might be asked to make Self-Control checks only a member of the faith would suffer from. An Archivist might have a panic attack as the enclave burns books for heat or overwrites old hard drives. A medical Crusader, driven mad in the quest for cure, might weep as others cheer the burning of a Vector, mourning the loss of a fresh sample. Steward Some in the Recession – staring across the border on a drone feed or from the high-rise window of a quarintechture office complex – see the Loss as an opportunity. There is much profit to be gained from the partial extinction of humanity. Blueprints and prototypes lay rotting within the bowels of extinct corporations. Infrastructure and territory begs to be reclaimed and ransomed off to the highest bidder. Held to be a crime when committed by individuals, homicide is called a virtue when committed by the state. -St. Cyprian

190 organization will call in its marker one day – the Steward eventually must complete their mission, as determined by the Market. At that point, it’s up to the player whether the character executes the mission or comes clean, dealing with the subsequent fallout of refusing orders. Hustler No one survived the Crash alone. Cooperation and coordination were all that separated the living from the dead. It took the long scarcity of the carrion economy to turn the survivors against each other, each enclave preying on its neighbor’s bounty like casualties on flesh. That is to say, it took most people awhile to get back in the exploitative swing of things. Some never stopped. Characters with the Hustler tough spot had to fight for every scrap even before the Crash, and they were smart enough to know that just because the dead rose, it didn’t stop the almighty dollar. Those with a surplus of charisma and a deficit of shame hustled their way through the dark days, begging and borrowing what others risked death to obtain. Five years on, the ability to survive through charm alone is a useful skill set for any crew. But a lifetime of loans and scams racks up debt – a debt more tireless in its pursuit than any zombie. +I Know a Guy: The Taker automatically succeeds Networking checks, even without skill points Hustlers know everyone because everyone has something they want. This means that all Networking checks automatically succeed. A Hustler has no need to “find” new References; there’s always somebody else the Taker knows. There’s no problem sourcing gear or finding out about jobs; the hustler always has the connection. Players should note that this ability doesn’t forgive a Hustler of any responsibilities except rolling the dice. Finding a new Reference may carry no risk of failure, but favors already used still need to be paid back. The Hustler can automatically know the price, contract type, or The continued safety of their real loved ones depends upon a willingness to betray people to the Recession’s financial interests. When picking this tough spot, the Steward player announces the spot normally, but all characters regard that PC as just another member of the Lost until something in game reveals the truth. +Undercover: Once per game, the character may ask their organization for help. The Market says yes or no. If a Steward is in a “mission critical” situation – one that threatens the character’s life or cover – headquarters can be contacted once per job and asked to assist. The Market roleplays the Steward’s handler and ultimately decides what qualifies as mission critical; the Market can say “no” to almost any request. Perhaps the character is too deep in the Loss to receive help, or maybe the death of an entire enclave is deemed an “acceptable loss.” But, ultimately, the Steward wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a job to do. If the character can make it seem in the organization’s best interests, superior resources can directed to the Steward’s aid: everything ranging from job recommendations to air strikes. Of course, the bigger the favor, the harder it will be to explain such fortuitous gifts. -In Too Deep: The character may only have other Takers in the crew as Dependents, and the whole crew must make SelfControl checks if the cover is blown. The sponsoring organization may also make orders from time-to-time, according to the Market’s wishes. Humans are social animals. No matter how detached a steward tries to be, risking death with fellow Takers forms bonds. In the short term, this is a good thing. The horrors of the Loss affect spies same as everyone else, and having a friend or lover in the crew makes things more bearable. But seeing a friend eaten alive is bad for mental health, as is having a lover discover your sole purpose in existence is betrayal. Lastly, the sponsoring

191 scene), but the price must be paid by the end of the session... or else. What’s “...or else”? That’s for the Market to decide. Failure to pay could saddle the crew with a -Rep spot, or it could send a hit squad after the Hustler’s family. It depends on what the Hustler did to weasel out of payment in the first place and where the Market wants to take the story. Regardless, the full debt can never be completely repaid. There’s always somebody else the character screwed over. Fenceman Vectors can climb. Fast. Letting a fresh one over the gate spelled the end of many an enclave. Even the relative stiffness of casualties can’t be trusted to keep them out. They can shamble up slowly accumulated ramps of their decapitated brethren and the sheer weight of their numbers can collapse defenses. the competition before starting negotiations, but they don’t know all three (see “One-anddone” p. 173). Once the right NPC is found, all roleplaying requirements and bounty costs remain the same. -I Owe a Guy: The Market can call in a marker of 1d10 bounty (the Taker gains one Will point). The Taker must pay up to the NPC debtor... or else Hustlers craft enormous social circles in order to escape from old enemies and into new acquaintances. Like capitalism, the character’s network must constantly expand to survive because all bridges into the past get burned. Occasionally, outstanding debts and bad faith deals catch up with the Hustler. Once per game, the Market can call in one a marker of 1d10 bounty. The exact reason for the debt is role-played collaboratively by the player or the Market (like any Reference

192 reflexes as unwelcome reminders of the hell waiting outside; Takers see a recruitment opportunity. -In my Sleep: The Taker starts cracked on one threat from nightmarish memories Underneath the battlement, or on the other side of some chainlink, it’s hard not to feel bad for casualties. They come to the gates in whatever clothes they died in, like refugees seeking shelter. They gnaw their teeth off on the metal, hungry eyes blindly spinning in their sockets, too dumb for pain or solace. Fencemen see the undead, and the elderly undead, and the infant undead. They see former neighbors, friends, spouses shamble past the fence, an endless parade of ghosts. And Fencemen are expected to execute and burn every one of them. All day. Every day. In 12-hour shifts. Eventually, desensitization sets in, but no one working the fence comes away whole. The same twitchy personality that makes Fencemen good Takers makes them equally unreliable. Scavenger Any idiot can play keep away with the dead for a few minutes. It takes a specialist to do the same for days on end, in strange territory. In the earliest days, there was no need for Takers. Fencemen would distract the casualties while scavengers raided the surrounding ruins. They had few weapons and no promise of payment. The only currency was speed and a keen eye. They found what they needed or starved. And if they got bit? That was one less mouth to feed. As the carrion economy established itself and pickings grew slimmer, Takers came to prominence. Most of the early scavengers found safer work within the fence or specialized, forming businesses around copper wiring or canned goods or whatever else they were best at finding. But a few never lost a taste for the hunt. They kept raiding the Loss, delving deeper, recycling greater value from the wastes than was thought possible. As the rest of their ilk succumbed to wage slavery No, a wall is not enough. Successful enclaves established brigades of Fencemen on the very first night. It could be called the carrion economy’s first occupation. Fencemen can be Fencewomen, of course. Since the name was coined as the cannibal hordes descended, no one can be blamed too harshly if gender equality wasn’t the foremost concern. It’s a simple name for a simple task: guard the fence. Initially, this meant firing and stabbing down into an endless tide of screaming death, relearning siege warfare in what veterans have come to call “the Crash course.” After the torpor, it meant meticulously cleaning the fence of casualties and the occasional excursion outside the wall to remove the Blight-infested remains. Now, most enclaves have thinned the casualties around their borders to negligible levels, and maintaining the border has become a sleepy profession. Most Fencemen now supplement their income with whatever amounts for police work in their enclave; a job inherited due more in part to armament than ability. Experienced Fencemen are uniquely qualified for warfare in the Loss, but as demand wanes, many of the enclave’s best warriors have migrated to Taker work. For some, joining a crew means a return to the intoxicating terror of the early days. For others, it’s a deadly lesson in how much difference a fortification can make. +Headshots: The Taker receives +1 on any attack check against casualties or Vectors Punching tickets, popping pimples, whack a C – Fencemen come up with cutesy names to use around polite company, but the job ultimately amounts to shooting or stabbing people in the head. All day. Every day. In 12-hour shifts. Anyone that’s worked the fence has a hard time hiding it. Their gaze tracks the head of everyone they see, affixed right between the eyes as their hands twitch, involuntarily guiding invisible weapons to a kill shot. After a few years, the muscle memory doesn’t leave. Most people view these

193 the perseverance of survivors with a repeat viewing of the apocalypse. Even among those lucky enough to emerge from two holocausts unscathed, very few can continue on. Watching the death of two worlds is enough to shatter the minds of most. Most. Sometimes, after a tragedy so horrific even the jaded people of the Loss refuse to speak of it, someone will emerge from the wreckage ready to start over yet again. They journey to the next enclave over, knocking at the gates like any other dead man. Most enclaves let in these poor souls out of pity. Nearly as many come to regret it. The Lost call these super-survivors “Roaches:” creature destined to inherit the earth. The name is far from a compliment. No one can guess the shameful, sickening things the Roach had to do to survive and the survivor’s wild, haunted eyes discourage anyone from asking. About the only people willing to associate with such cursed souls are Takers. As messed up as a Roach may be, they don’t die easy, and that’s all the average crew can afford to care about. It’s up to the player and Market to decide what exactly happened before the character joined the current crew. It can be part of the setting’s past that comes to play a big role in the future of the campaign, or it could be a personal tragedy that the PC never speaks of. +Survivor: The Taker may damage Humanity to assist any skill check at +1 per point lost. Some ancient, animal instinct won’t let the Roach go down. Past the point where life seems anything but a torturous burden, some ancient reflex keeps a Roach fighting when others would succumb. Roaches literally fuel their survival with Humanity. In a firefight, points in Detachment can be spent like charges from a gun to add to a check. If injured, a Roach burns through sanity to keep going. The fearsome, primordial refusal to die kept the character going through the Crash, helped them survive the fall of an enclave, and keeps the PC moving on even now, living a life that long ago lost hope of recovery. or went out of business, true Scavengers became tinkerer-gods, constantly hacking, dismantling, or repairing the next piece of life-saving equipment. But the treasure troves get further away every day. Most Scavengers eventually find themselves joining a crew, if only to watch their backs as they continue picking through the entrails of the old world. +Salvage, salvage everywhere: The Taker starts the game with 20 bounty A Taker with the Scavenger tough spot is better off than most. Either they got lucky with a big find shortly after the Crash, or a keen eye keeps them in better-than-average scrap. Whatever the reason, the Scavenger has 10 more bounty to use at character creation. The additional ten can be spent however the player wishes. It can be banked for retirement, spent on a fancy gadget, or saved for an emergency. But once the surplus is gone, it’s gone for good. Pickings are getting slim in the Loss, and Taker work is the only way to get ahead as the game progresses. -Not a screw that fits: The Taker is permanently at -1 Refresh The same mindset that finds the best stuff damages the ability to prioritize it. Scavengers’ homes still look like a collection of pre-Crash trash and stray cats. One may have recovered a spool of HDMI cables larger than a bull, but he forgot to buy ammo for his gun. Another may have sourced new batteries for her specs, but she didn’t spend that time restocking her rations. The fetishization of objects that saved the character permanently damages the ability to tell the difference between useful and might-eventually-be useful. Thus, a scavenger’s Refresh rate is ADP - 1. Roach The renewal of economic activity in no way implies stability. Enclaves regularly fall to raiders, sabotage, believer death cults, Blight outbreak, civil war, and common disease. These disasters peculiar to the Loss reward

194 PotentIals Mechanically, Potentials determine the maximum skill points a character can have in the associated skills. Narratively, Potentials represent the peak of a person’s abilities. For instance, lifting weights a couple times of week would increase the Resistance skill, but not the Strength Potential. Lifting practices muscle memory, endurance, and efficiency in a specific type of exertion. Lifting weights, doing pylometrics, stretching properly, eating a strict diet, and studying the anatomy of bodybuilding would gain a point of Strength Potential. Potential measures the degree to which the character’s lifestyle supports certain expertise, which is why nobody with a pack-a-day smoking habit (Speed 1) holds a marathon record (Athletics 5). Before the Crash, there were people with 0’s in their Potentials that got along just fine. Hell, there might still be a few alive in the Recession. But out in the Loss, those people are dead or worse. The Blight has a selective effect on human survival, Takers especially. Only the peak performers live long enough to enter the game, so put one point in every Potential and assign the other five points from there. At character creation, no Potential can be above a three. Buying Potential after character creation costs bounty (see p. 214) Strength (STR) Strength (STR) measures general physical prowess: muscle mass, memory, weight, and distribution. Strength is used to drive melee weapons through bone and barricade doors against the undead. It’s used to punch competition in bar brawls and wrestle casualties to the ground. STR also determines Haul rating. Takers can carry Haul equal to their STR and still perform the intense physical exercise demanded of the job. The concept is explained more in depth on p. 264, but for now, understand that, rather than an exact measurement of weight, Haul abstracts to -Lone: The Taker’s past experience leaves them cracked in all three threats at the start of the game. A Roach no doubt possessed exceptional mental fortitude at one point, but the Loss’s merciless string of cruelties has filed the person’s mind into a jagged, brittle point aimed only at survival. Yet survival is not the same as living. Though retirement and recovery remains possible, the character perpetually teeters on the edge of a slippery slope. The price of being able to burn through rational thought to survive is having less of it to work with later. PICKING Spots Example Morgan imagines Mal had a lot of resentment at the pre-Crash world. But demure, silent anger isn’t her style; Mal would have externalized that frustration. Morgan picks the weak spot: “Shock and Awe.” Mal earns a point of Will any time she pisses on the sensibilities of a possible ally, especially if she doesn’t like them. NPCs that read her weak spot might antagonize Mal until she embarrasses herself with crass behavior. Mal was told all her life that her obsession with mechanics was too manly. It caused her a lot of pain as she was growing up. The character has a lot of sympathy for people still trapped in oppressive systems, so Morgan gives her the soft spot: “Round Pegs in Square Holes.” Any time Mal can help someone that doesn’t quite fit in, she does so. But her sympathy for the oddballs can also be used in negotiations to lead her by the nose. Morgan figures that a hands-on learner like Mal probably found her niche quick after the Crash. She picks the Scavenger tough spot and decides to bank the extra bounty it provides. The permanent reduction of her Refresh is going to hurt, but Morgan figures it will be strong motivation to keep Mal frugal in the field. The nest egg will come in handy if the crew falls into debt, and the spot best explains the skills Mal has to offer her crew.

195 an additional three turns (turns equalling her SPD) to headshot the monsters before they get close enough to attack. Were the character’s SPD 1, there would be only one more turn of breathing room before the mob struck again. More details on how SPD relates to casualties can be found on p. 296. In combat against living foes, players roll just the Black to determine initiative order, but they can add their SPD to the result. More information on determining initiative can be found in the Combat chapter (p. 275). When Takers become gassed (see p. 280), rations can be refreshed by metabolizing the character’s inner reserves. The maximum number of charges that can be refreshed this way equals the SPD rating. So, if a Taker with a SPD of 2 runs out of rations, two charges can be earned after taking a turn to rest, but never more than two charges worth. bounty per unit. Whatever the Market price for a unit of supply is, Haul represents how many units the Taker can carry. The Market never tells how much treasure is located at a job site, but the Market does have a responsibility to tell the crew how much each unit of treasure is worth. Haul informs the player how many units their Taker can carry. STR also determines the modifier for when the Market calls for a Health or Infection check. Health checks occur when the character is trying to resist common disease, exposure, or some other more traditional threat. Infection checks occur when the character are exposed to Blight. Either way, STR is added to the Black when the Market calls for these checks. Finally, if the Market is running a Boom game that allows default rolls to STR, the Taker must roll a Black result equal to or under the STR to succeed. Remember that the STR Potential represents raw power: not the ability to apply it effectively. If a Market allows defaulting to STR, it should be reserved to checks where panicked, adrenaline-fueled thrashing has a chance of success. Speed (SPD) Speed (SPD) measures a Taker’s overall quickness over a sustained period of time, abstracting a combination of cardiovascular fitness, reflexes, and grace. SPD is required of skills like Shooting, Athletics, and anything else involving precision movement under time constraints. How far characters can retreat in combat on a successful Athletics check depends on their SPD rating. The distance casualties have to travel before they can attack is measured in Shambles. If the mob of dead Amuu is fighting closes within 1 Shamble, she’s going to want to get away. The player buys-a-roll with a charge of rations, checks Athletics, and succeeds. Now, if Amuu’s SPD is 3, the character is now 4 Shambles away, or, to put it another way, Amuu now has RatIon Use Rations are the charges players use to buy rolls in most STR and SPD skills. Rations are spent in the moment; combat does not need to stop while the characters eat protein bars. Spending rations represents eating a sufficient amount of calories before physical exertion and enough to recover afterwards. If your group wants to roleplay every time the team sits down to eat some beans, go for it. Just know that rations don’t have a mechanical benefit until people start buying physical rolls, so for simplicity’s sake, that’s when rations are used.

196 Refresh forgot to bring ammo into a zombie wasteland. Of course they need ammo. They need everything. Everyone in the Loss needs everything and there’s not enough to go around. ADP and Refresh represent the ability to source goods in an environment of constant scarcity. Running out of Refresh doesn’t indicate absentmindedness; the character knows what they have and don’t have in their backpack, but staying at home is never an option when enclave rent is due. Refresh... well, refreshes... at the end of every job, no matter how much was or wasn’t spent. The game always starts with Refresh equal to ADP, and it can be spent recharging items from there. INTELLIGENCE (INT) Intelligence (INT) should probably be called “Intelligences.” It measures the total mental capacity of a Taker. It differs from the cognitive functions attached to Adaptability in AdaptablIty (ADP) Adaptability (ADP) represents an overall aptitude for situational awareness, quick thinking, and self-discipline. If using a skill to perform an intellectual action on the fly or cope under extreme pressure, that skill is probably attached to Adaptability. ADP determines Refresh. Refresh represents the Taker’s ability to plan ahead, source, and efficiently pack extra supplies inbetween jobs. Refresh is spent in the moment to refill charges on gear. If a gun goes empty, spend a Refresh and slap in a new clip. If the first aid kit runs empty, spend a Refresh and pull a new roll of gauze out of the backpack. If the flashlight dies, Refresh is new batteries. If food runs out, Refresh is a new MRE. Refresh is explained more in-depth in the Materialism chapter (see p. 240) but for now, suffice it to say that ADP determines Refresh as an abstract measure of the character’s preparedness. It’s not that a character out of

197 Reference available. Dependents should be integral to the character concept; it’s a loved one for whom the Taker risks life and sanity. References can be assigned midgame and hold any kind of relationship the player wishes. As the relationship is financial, a wide variety of emotional relationships are encouraged (i.e. you do not have to like everyone you work with). A high CHA means that the character can recover quickly from emotional trauma and utilize many favors from their References. However, healthy relationships are based off mutual exchange, and even time spent chatting costs money. The same CHA that heals Humanity damage and fixes failed dice rolls adds more financial burdens to the Taker. WIll (WILL) Will is the only Potential not attached to any skills because it is, by nature, difficult to quantify. It’s the stuff survivor’s guilt is made of, the X factor that lets one person live and the next person die. The impact of Will is as often ascribed to divine providence as it is to stoic determination. It’s a bastardized confluence of unbelievable luck, unbreakable resolve, absurd optimism, and grim realism. Will is the only Potential that can be spent. At the start of a new game session, characters have as many points of Will to spend as their Will score. Spending a point of Will is very powerful and can achieve any of the following effects: • Switch Black and Red numbers (B4/R9 becomes B9/R4) • Upgrade a success to a Critical Success • Buy another narrative benefit to add onto an existing Critical Success • Negate an opponent’s Critical Success • Turn a Critical Failure into a regular failure • In combat, shift the damage onto a piece of gear or different hit location • Jump to the front of initiative order (see p. 275) that INT-based skills take time. For instance, it’s difficult to Research the price of grain while zombies are trying to break down the door. This doesn’t mean that INT skills can’t be used in high-pressure situations (shit happens), but INT skills take time, even in combat. The guidelines for when to make dice checks (p. 174) are never so important as when considering whether to default on an INT check. If the player wants to know something about the setting, the Market should tell them whenever possible. After all, the characters live there: they are the real experts. If the player wants to know something about the setting the Market doesn’t know either, let the player dictate the truth of the matter. Build the world collaboratively, not against each other. If the player wants to know some bit of financial information for negotiations – something normally revealed by a Networking, Research, or Foresight – this is the only situation where defaulting to INT might be acceptable (and even then only in a Boom game). Failure must have consequences (ignorance is usually cured painfully), but if the information can possibly be known as a piece of random Loss gossip or trivia, allow a default INT check. Failure falls under the one-and-done rule, but players desperate to know everything can succeed-atcost by tapping a Reference. Charm (CHA) Charm (CHA) is the blanket term for social acumen and empathy. Related CHA skills have simple uses in game – such as using Deception to lie to a guard – and more complex uses in the negotiation mechanics (see p. 320). While CHA might not be very useful when surrounded by hungry casualties, it’s essential for making trips out into the Loss financially worthwhile. CHA also determines the number of Dependents and the number of References a Taker can have. For instance, a character with CHA 1 has one Dependent and one

198 but skills never stack with Potentials. Skills may not exceed their associated Potential. Additional skill points are purchased with bounty after character creation (see p. 214) "Full PotentIaL" A skill rating that is equal to its associated Potential is at “full potential.” This means that though a character might possess some of the abilities required to increase a skill, some other aspects of their physiology or education is holding them back from further advancement. For example, a character might want to take their Mechanics to the next level (Mechanics 3) but they need a better understanding of physics before that’s possible (INT 2). They might know enough about archery to improve their accuracy Will points gain be gained and refreshed in the following ways: • Buy a point of Will in character advancement • Follow a weak spot into trouble • Fulfill a personal obligation to a soft spot • Suffer because of a tough spot • Rest in-between jobs/game sessions AssIgnIng PotentIals Example Mal gets one point in every Potential for free. Morgan wants a smart, practical character. Mal has gotten strong handling engine parts and building fortifications over the last five years, so she goes up to STR 2. She’s always been practical and known for her common sense, so she gets ADP 2. Morgan wants Mal to be very useful to her crew and gives her INT 3. Finally, nobody gets through the Crash without determination and luck, so Mal buys another point of WILL. Her final Potentials are STR 2, SPD 1, ADP 2, INT 3, CHA 1, WILL 2. SkIlls Characters start with 20 skill points. Potentials are good for describing a character, but they’re minimally active in gameplay. They describe maximum performance, not actual performance. Nearly every dice check players make in Red Markets is modified by skills and it is these specific abilities that define a Taker’s success. In character creation, skill points trade at a one-to-one ratio. The number of points in a skill is the modifier that gets added to Black when rolling for that skill. So, if someone were trying to lift a grate off a manhole cover, they would make a Resistance check. They would NOT make an STR check, because without skill in Resistance, they don’t know how to use that Strength well (lifting with the back, for instance). If a piece of gear would modify the check, charges are spent and the bonus is added to skill. Basically, the benefits of using tools can stack with associated skills, “But a +1 Is useless!” Since criticals are always triggered on natural doubles and ties go to the Market, playtesters have argued that having a +1 in a skill is essentially useless. This isn’t entirely true. For example, if the dice for a Shoot check roll B2/ R3 and the Taker spent an extra charge of ammunition beforehand, the check is a success (B2+2/R3) where it would have failed with only the +1 skill or the extra charge separately. More importantly, the Taker had the ability to aim that gun at all. Defaulting to Potentials isn’t allowed in a Bust game. In most situations, characters that don’t have at least a +1 in a skill don’t have enough expertise to even hope for success. If the check is such that even a total layman might pull it off, the Market shouldn’t have the player make skill checks in such low stakes situations. If using Boom defaults, a +1 skill, as opposed to a +1 Potential, increases the probability of success by 35%, allows extra spending on charged gear, and permits the use of Will. Even default checks to a Potential of 4 have worse odds than that.

199 LIst of SkIlls The following list of skills can also be found on the character sheet. Players and Markets are encouraged to collaborate when constructing additional skills and specialization they desire to see in their particular campaign. STR SkIlls All dice rolls for STR skills must be bought with a charge of rations. Unless the Market calls for a precision check, all STR skills (Shoot: Bow 2), but they need a deeper familiarity with the way windage affects ballistics in general (Shoot 1) and better hand-eye coordination (SPD 1) in order to apply that knowledge. The narrative description of how Potential caps a skill’s development is up to the player. Just remember that, in real life, you probably haven’t rated your skill set according to any consistent system, and even if you did, performance would still vary widely from day-to-day. The Taker is going to think of their development in terms of specific talents and frustrations. In Red Markets, Potential stops skill development and costs a lot of bounty to improve so as to emphasize a single economic truth: education is as much a commodity as anything else. Increasing human capital requires actual capital. No one learns computer programming by decapitating zombies. SpecIALIZATIONS It’s possible to be a great driver and have no idea how to even start an airplane. Many world-class snipers would be stymied when asked to operate a catapult. Certain situations and tools require expert knowledge. If a player wants to be skilled in one of these areas, it requires a specialization. Specializations are built on the foundation of a skill, just as skills are built off a Potential. Specializations are required for some pieces of unique gear (see p. 239) and cost additional skill points. Let’s say the player wants to use an archaic weapon like a sword. The skill they would buy first would be “Melee.” And because wielding a katana is nothing like batting practice, the player would then have to spend another point in “Melee: Sword.” A pilot would need to spend points in both Drive and Drive: Plane. Specializations can exceed neither the skill rating nor the associated Potential. The only mechanical benefit of specializations is the ability to succeed with equipment and in situations that would otherwise be impossible. What do I really need? If a skill weren’t useful, it wouldn’t be on the character sheet, but not all skills are created equal. Red Markets has a few skills that are safe bets for maximizing a Taker’s chance for survival. These skills aren’t essential (and I’d argue a story of the asthmatic, neurotic IT professional that survives the zombie hordes is damned interesting) but going over the fence without them is more dangerous and challenging. Athletics is used to dodge attacks and run from danger. Cardio is rule number one. Shoot is important if you aren’t Latent or Immune. Melee combat with casualties when your character is susceptible to infection is extremely dangerous. One bad check and the whole party becomes Vectors. Melee and Unarmed skills aren’t bad to have as well, but keeping distance is a priority in combat. Self-Control is vital for keeping a character effective. Lose your mind and it won’t matter how healthy and well equipped you are. Someone needs Research or the group is going to be at a disadvantage in negotiations. Similarly, a lot of players think of scams that involve Criminality. Someone with a high Scavenging skill can be surprisingly profitable. A group without a CHA skill specialist is going to be hurting for bounty all the time. Alternately, groups that don’t want to specialize too much and/or want to take turns negotiating can utilize the Fixer Rules (see p. 349)

200 Melee The same considerations of Unarmed combat are complicated by wielding a blade or bludgeon. The weapon used determines the damage type of a melee attack. Specializations in the Melee skill focus around unusual or archaic weapons: swords, spears, nunchaku, etc. The Melee skill is still used for weapons which can be thrown due to buying the weighted upgrade. Resistance The ability to move heavy weight and resist enormous pressure. Resistance is not used in combat because it emphasizes raw strength rather than strength and speed. Grappling a casualty would be an Unarmed check, but holding on to the thrashing corpse would be Resistance. Use this when barricading doors against a mob or blocking a hallway by tipping a vending machine. There are no specializations in this skill. can spend extra rations before the check to “overexert” and increase chances of success. Takers that are gassed cannot use any STR skills until refreshed. Unarmed Hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, and any other knowledge that factors into a brawl – Unarmed is great for knocking out other humans, but it won’t do much against the undead beside push them away. All Unarmed attacks do Stun damage, save for two exceptions. On a critical success, the player can choose to double Stun damage or convert to Kill damage. Certain gear, such as spiked gloves, can also turn Unarmed attacks into Kill damage. Specializations may be useful if the player wants to focus on specific contexts where a generalist might otherwise receive a penalty: grappling, blind-fighting, “peeling” (knocking casualties out of a mob), fighting with a prosthetic limb, etc.