Note: You cannot be from Kentucky or Merchant Island unless your character was in chapter 1/1.5 or 2 respectively; or if your character is related to someone who was. Shelter is also off-limits.
📜 The Story So Far...
The scoured remnants of America's heartland, stretching from the Appalachians to the Rockies, make up what are now known as the Deadlands: a vast expanse devastated by nuclear fire and incendiary bombardment. Deployed in 1997 as a desperate attempt to destroy the advancing hordes of the original SiB-6 outbreak in Louisville, the bombings ultimately failed to eradicate the parasite, leaving the nation scorched and vulnerable to the coming threat. In the aftermath, old states fell and new coalitions formed in their place. Like many times before, America found itself born anew.
In 2017, an independent sanctuary known as Merchant Island opened its borders for the first time in many years, only to fall to a hostile religious cult known as the Runics. Survivors initially drawn to the island by the promise of safety and opportunity made it their home, waging a years-long struggle against its occupiers. In 2022, with the assistance of the paramilitary force MILI, they finally expelled the Runics, killing their true leader, Harbinger. With the island liberated, some stayed while others moved on and forged new paths.
Over the next decade, Merchant Island's legacy reshaped the mainland. Through the actions of a rogue researcher named Dr. Blunder, islanders unwittingly contributed to the development of new strains of the parasite which soon spread to plague the continent. Faced with a strengthened infected threat, many of the new American states fell: the Steel Syndicate in 2026, followed by the Pan-Atlantic Union (PAU) in 2028, and finally the Independent West (IWA) in 2029. The IWA shattered into independent city-states threaded by a loose cooperation known as the Inter-City Contract (ICC), a pact that allows them to survive the purge by the skin of their teeth.
Others weren't so lucky. Those who couldn't gain access to the newly formed ICC or evacuate in time were left to their own devices. They banded together in pockets of humanity and settled the unforgiving terrain of the expanded Deadlands. Life became different in this new era. People survived by scavenging, adapting, and returning to civilization's roots. With gasoline quickly becoming scarce, the settlements that endured abandoned rusted-out cars for actual horsepower and makeshift vehicles. Industrially manufactured arms and ammunition became rare, leading settlers to develop improvised firearms and munitions. America was reshaped by this new reality.
Today
The year is 2042, and humanity is on the precipice of collapse with the American continent facing its own destruction. In an effort to contain the pathogen, the rest of the world has amputated the infected Americas like a gangrenous limb, imposing naval blockades, restricted airspace, and tight border patrols to ensure nobody could ever leave, nor enter. Offenders of this quarantine face capital punishment, leaving the survivors of the outbreak to contend with it on their own.
Sparse settlements ranging from feudal societies to simple frontier villages occupy the land; the ICC cities standing as the only "developed" areas left remaining. The American continent is now completely subsumed by the encroaching Deadlands which have been known to swallow up whole communities. Zombies, ruthless bandits, and seemingly strange disappearances are the main culprits. Seasonal dust storms carrying radiation bring hordes of mutated zombies looking for fresh bodies, while survivors hide or outright abandon children for fear of their strange tendency to attract the infected.
Amidst the crackling radio chatter and whispers of travelers, word has spread about a long-lost ghost town called Shelter, nestled in the Texas Panhandle north of Amarillo.
Once known for its prosperity but forgotten to the unforgiving dunes and storms, the former trading post was recently rediscovered by a group of hopefuls calling themselves Sentinels. They seek to revive it and restore it to its former glory. They sent out letters, gave speeches, and the invitation spread through word of mouth. They also used Messengers and their own people to spread the message, requesting aid from any survivors willing to help and rid the town of its undead residents.
You are one of these individuals. Drawn by safety, opportunity, or foolishness, you have heeded the call and decided to travel to Shelter. In eight months, the seasonal dust storms will arrive. In the intervening time, you must help build, prepare, and defend Shelter from the zombies arriving at its heels. Your choices will make the difference between survival and catastrophe.
A unified town may withstand the coming tide, but can it survive the chaos from within?
🏜️ Chapter 3: The Deadlands
Chapter 3 is a short chapter, lasting approximately 2 IRL months, designed to bring fear, difficulty, and urgency back to Deadline. During that time, you will have to bring order to chaos and withstand the growing zombie threat. Each week will bring an increase in either numbers or difficulty, so do not expect it to be easy. Those who survive will help write the epilogue of Deadline's first season.
This chapter is aimed to be more relaxed in OOC ways, both for players and staff:
- This chapter is an ST-and-moderator-lite chapter. But we're doing a lot of systems testing for future such as character creation, lore page and some staff-side improvements.
- Groups are allowed but Discord support will be limited to group channels and roles.
- Large build tickets won't be accepted.
- Expect smaller-scale events leading up to an event weekend defending bases, gathering allies and having a last hurrah before the curtain falls on the first season of Deadline.
This is to give folks time to play (staff included) in the future timeline rather than have an extended downtime while we build Season 2 for B42.
🔎 The Details
What map is being used?
The Deadlands is represented by the Dead Sun Expanse map.What happened to...?
All American countries have been affected by zombies in the years after Chapter 2. Nowhere is safe or civilized in North America. Any government claiming more than one city has fallen. Large concentrations of people draw large concentrations of zombies.
We're not going to be paying close attention to what you say happened in your area of the Americas at character creation, but avoid making sweeping statements for an entire area. Keep it to what your character experienced.Who is organizing the trip to reclaim Shelter?
Kaiman Curtis, leader of the Sentinels, is the one organizing folks to return to Shelter and settle. Your character can be a part of the action. Or you can strike out on your own or with others to build your own settlements.When is character creation opening and what's different?
We will open character creation to Supporters early on August 13th. This enables us to work out any improvements to the new character creation website before Character creation for everyone else opens August 20th. It'll be the usual character description (age, name, personality, languages, brief backstory...) and a few questions (like your reason to go to Shelter). We'll also be introducing an experimental hooks and ties system.Why is there Mechanical Death now?
The Deadlands are not gentle. With the chapters length, we want people to feel the harshness of the new world. It will still be difficult to die to this new system if you are smart with how you play and if you don't travel on your own. You can read more at Death Mechanics.Why are we leaving Merchant Island?
It's tradition that we leave the area of the prior chapter so we can get a fresh start in a new one. Aging areas with player-built constructions is a challenge PZ hasn't tackled yet. We opened the way to Deadlands in Chapter 2 and would like folks to be able to play more in that gritty, post-apocalyptic setting.Can I be from the Outside World?
Yes, but we will closely monitor this and how it happened. If you arrived before the fall of the Americas and the blockade in 2028, we will be more lenient. However, if you arrived after the blockade, you must have a very well-explained reason as to how you got to the Americas. This is likely to be denied, you have been warned.What about Hawaii, island nations?
Any island-based country or state is unaffected by the zombies. Hawaii and US island territories like Puerto Rico have declared their independence.Can I play a younger character?
All characters must be 18 or above as always. But, if the character was born outside of civilization or wasn't 18 before the fall of their country (IWA, PAU, etc.), then they'll be put under more scrutiny as to how they survived up to their current age.
That's all you need to know to get started, but you can read more story details in our timeline.
Known Factions
⚜️ The Sentinels: The Americas are a messy and dirty place. More towns fall than they get built. Seeing the devastation, a group of survivors took it upon themselves to rebuild a fallen town. A place without entrance restrictions, for all to live in: that town was Shelter. You're invited to come to their town... and, perhaps, to join them. They aren't afraid to get dirty to rebuild Shelter and, if everyone works together, perhaps it'll happen.
📨 The Messengers: Mail carriers of the apocalypse, risking life and limb to deliver letters, warnings, packages, and critical news between distant settlements. They support themselves through donations from the places they visit, but may also carry job requests and bounties. They have no central leadership, formal membership records, or strict hierarchy. They are less of a unified faction and more of a loose identity adopted by people willing to carry messages across the wasteland.
For Returning Players: what happened?
Chapter 1-1.5
On January 1st, 1995, Louisville was destroyed by a U.S. military nuclear strike. Knox County was fully sealed off, but a few survivors managed to escape.
Outside the Quarantine Zone, a powerful Task Force was formed: a joint operation between the CIA, FBI, military intelligence, and other agencies, led by a high-ranking Army general. Their mission was to preserve the status quo and eliminate all perceived threats, including the Kentucky Liberation Front, which was designated a terrorist group. It did not take long for the Task Force to seize control of the U.S. government. After arresting the sitting President on charges of treason, they consolidated power nationwide. To maintain control inside the Zone, they deployed hired freelancers known as HOUNDS.
The KLF infiltrated the Zone and began recruiting from within, setting the stage for a volatile struggle between factions both inside and outside the barricades. By October of 1997, public unrest had reached an all-time high. Rumors spread that the KLF was planning something major, and the tension drove many survivors to seek escape through desperate means. Some fled into dangerous and unstable caverns, others made deals with a criminal group known as the Vultures, and a few aligned with a pharmaceutical company called Mercury Dynamics, who promised evacuation in return for a last-minute dangerous mission.
The KLF destroyed a major section of the wall to give survivors a chance to escape. In doing so, they also unleashed a seething mass of undead into the open. In the chaotic days that followed, a violent internal coup fractured the Task Force. Both sides launched nuclear strikes.
The Task Force aimed their warheads at the Great Plains, hoping to stem the tide of the infected: the result was widespread devastation across central states, the collapse of critical infrastructure, and the deaths of countless civilians caught in the crossfire. In 1997, a desperate military coup launched nuclear strikes and firebombed large areas of the heartland, touching off raging wildfires, and rendering everything between the Appalachians and Rockies uninhabitable. These Deadlands divided the country in more ways than one. While the destruction worked to slow the spread of infection, the world was left fractured and the dead beat against what barriers they could, advancing year by year.
The smoke from the Firestorm of '97 lingered in the atmosphere, lowering temperatures, resulting in a winter that was called the Long Dark which lasted two years. This triggered widespread famine, collapsing the U.S. military, and led to the formation of Independent West America, incorporating some of the westernmost parts of Canada and Mexico. North of the 45th Parallel, the Pan-Atlantic Union formed out of Canada, the United Kingdom and the significant portion of the remaining US Government and military who had retreated north. A movement of auto workers and truckers established themselves in northern Rust Belt factory cities under the banner of the Steel Syndicate. Scattered settlements desperately cling to survival amid dense forests, swamps and mountains, where no law exists and humanity is a luxury. What civilization remains in the Splinters is debatable. Humanity endured.
Chapter 2
Life on Merchant Island used to be idyllic -it was a safe enclave protected from the hordes of infected, lawless bandits, and dangerous military forces. It had been 23 years since the first outbreak of SiB-6 in Louisville and Merchant Island endured, surviving amidst destruction, but, in 2017, the safe haven fell to the Runic menace. They knocked down the gates by sending in children to distract the guards until they could get hordes there, the attack being quick and bloody.
While the Keepers kept to their books and a new threat called Deadvine, MILI -with the help from the survivors- battled the Runics for the island.
The Runics had seen Merchant Island as just another target to conquer, but it would be their end. MILI began working with the survivors to sabotage and ruin the war effort of the Runics and, slowly over time, they eroded their presence until they were finally able to kill their top figures: Lanaris and Harbinger.
Even with them gone, the Runics had one last card to unleash upon the world: they had a mutated parasite they forced researchers to create. It was a variant that made zombies faster and quicker, but short-lived. This new strain lashed out at the continent and caused widespread damage, but Merchant Island survived.
Check out the timeline if you'd like the full extent of the world's lore in more depth!
Chapter 2 Map: