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<hero description="The Wasted Lands is an alternate universe role-playing game set in the same world as the Mad Max movies: a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world where the end-game is simply survival.

The game was created to provide players an opportunity to create their own adventures while immersed in the world of cooperative writing. Roleplay opportunities are available in tandem on reddit for forum posting as well as on IRC for chat-based RP set in one section of the game-world.

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The official wiki of The Wasted Lands subreddit and IRC roleplaying game based on the fictional world of Mad Max created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy.

This wiki details the history, characters, and locations found within our roleplaying game.

Hello and welcome!

The Wasted Lands is an alternate universe roleplaying game set in the same world as the Mad Max movies: a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world where the end-game is simply survival.

The game was created to provide players an opportunity to create their own adventures while immersed in the world of cooperative writing. Roleplay opportunities are available in tandem on reddit for forum posting as well as on IRC for chat-based RP set in one section of the game-world.

This is the official wiki of The Wasted Lands subreddit and IRC roleplaying game based on the fictional world of Mad Max created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. The wiki details the history, characters, and locations found within our roleplaying game.

While all of the pages on this wiki are open for editing, we do uphold the standard of not touching a page that you didn't create. However, with that said, any help you are willing to provide is appreciated. We pride ourselves on an active and involved community, using our many and diverse skills to make this story the best it can be. If you have any questions feel free to ask one of the admins, or better yet, find us on the IRC to chat with us in real time.

Introduction[]

Who killed the world?

Life fades and vision dims. All that remains now are distant memories of a time before: a time of chaos, of ruined dreams. A time before these wasted lands. When the world was powered by the black fuel and the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. All of them gone now, swept away in the midst of a war that touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without the black gold they were nothing, so dependent on it they had become. All of the mighty, thundering machines sputtered their last breaths and came to a screeching halt. Leaders of warring tribes talked and talked until they had no voices left, but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. Cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting was followed by a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

On the roads it was a white-line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage could hold out any hope of survival. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed. In the roar of an engine, they lost everything and became shells of their former selves: burnt out and desolate, haunted by the demons of their past.

These men wandered out into the badlands, the Wasted Lands. And it was here, in this blighted place, that they learned to do more than merely avoid the promise of death.

They learned to live again.

Law and order, like every other aspect of Western society, have been swept away - put to the torch early one morning when Iranian troops, trying to export revolution, struck deep into the heart of Saudi Arabia.

Within two days the world’s largest oil fields were ablaze, the Persian Gulf had been mined and the Middle East’s once mighty torrent of energy had slowed to a trickle.

While the United Nations met in emergency session the price of oil doubled, then quadrupled and then quadrupled again. On the battlefield one disaster followed another - culminating in the destruction of both the North West and Trans-Persian pipelines. Almost immediately the West’s seven largest oil companies, led by Exxon, announced that they would no longer be able to fulfill their supply contracts.

The following day dealers on the Amsterdam spot market began to demand payment in bullion.

The price of gold soared; simultaneously the dollar, mark, and yen plummeted. In an attempt to control their economies and conserve their fuel, one prime minister after another declared a state of emergency. West Germany immediately imposed martial law. The military assumed power in Italy and Spain.

In Australia, as in every other industrialized nation, stockbrokers watched in awe as once-great companies were written down until they became nothing more than piles of worthless scrip. After more than two hundred years of steady expansion, the merchant bankers, the old investment houses and the mighty superannuation funds began to crumble overnight.

Day after day clerks and telephonists, managers and secretaries were being sent home to wait for a recall that would never come.

Heavy industry too began to rule off the books and roll down the shutters. With a dwindling amount of fuel and a rapidly diminishing supply of raw materials, the wholesale retrenchments began.

Century-old chimneys which had never once failed to belch out their waste, sputtered and died; the forges, the presses, the furnaces and the mills fell silent. In Newcastle and Wollongong - the anvils of the nation - people stopped in the streets and listened: for the first time they heard the sound of silence.

In Sydney and Melbourne, fear led to panic and panic led to riots as small investors fought to withdraw their savings. Bank after bank bolted its doors, never to reopen.

And all the time the gas stations were rapidly being sucked dry as motorists tried to stockpile as much fuel as possible. They slept in their cars, fought at the pumps and threatened the driveway attendants: the government’s ration coupons were left to rot in the gutter.

At night, bowser locks were smashed, storage tanks emptied and private cars milked.

Ordinary, decent people began to arm themselves, getting ready to defend what they had.

Out on the highways, which years ago had degenerated into a war zone, the remaining oil tankers had to run the gauntlet of gangs of outlaw bikers. Road hijacking was the country’s only growth industry.

Starved of fuel, interstate, intercity and finally inter-urban commerce just stopped in its tracks. Road rigs, semis, trucks and vans were abandoned where they fell. There were no more pickups, no more deliveries.

In city after city, the story was repeated - the world, as everybody knew it, was coming to an end. The dole queues grew longer by the hour, until, finally, they stretched clear across the country. No welfare system in the world could have withstood such an onslaught.

The lootings and robberies began; violence became part of the system. A hopelessly inadequate police force was pitted against a society forced into taking what it could no longer buy. Crime was now the only thing which paid.

But perhaps even that might have been checked if the power houses had not faltered and failed. First the massive oil-fired generators spun to a stop and within days the over-burned coal-fired turbines were grinding to a halt.

For the first time ever the lights went out across an entire country. Commuter trains stopped, elevators jammed, telephones died and television images vanished.

Worse still, canneries fell silent, the packing houses closed and the refrigerated warehouses thawed. Suddenly food was a precious commodity.

The cities became centres of feverish activity as once law-abiding citizens scrambled to grab what was left. Storekeepers and supermarket managers stood by helplessly as mobs stormed their stores. Women fought over the perishables; fathers told their kids: forget the candy, grab the tinned goods.

Checkouts and counters were overturned and banknotes trampled underfoot as families rushed to pile high their trolleys.

For one glorious moment everybody was rich: now you could have anything you wanted.

And in a frenzy of greed they also fought to carry off the flotsam of the old world: stereos and toys, rugs and furniture, gadgets and clothes.

But while by day the cities had become a carnival of looting and pillaging, by night they became a grim battleground: neighbours preyed on neighbours, the strong violated the weak.

In alleys and hallways, gangs of youths gave lessons in life and death, sex and violence. Night after night the cries for help went unanswered.

Outside the urban centres, in quiet leafy suburbs and on rambling country estates, once sociable people fortified their well-stocked homes and prepared to shoot any intruder on sight.

And as it became increasingly clear to everyone that the strong would live and the weak would perish, lone scavengers began to organise themselves into small marauding packs. Equipped with high-powered bikes and home-made dune buggies, they roamed across the wasted land, searching out the weak, laying in ambush for the unwary.

Striking fast and hitting hard, they would wage war for a few gallons of fuel: gasoline had now become the only currency of value, the most precious commodity in the world. To everybody it meant freedom and power: the power to maintain a private fortress or the freedom to scavenge; the power to cling to old ways or the freedom to search for a new life.

As gasoline supplies dwindled and the struggle for survival grew more brutal, some of these marauding gangs organised themselves into larger, more cohesive forces under the command of a single leader. By a combination of military skill and total savagery, these men quickly became the modern warlords - the inheritors of a tradition which dates back to Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.

Against this tidal wave of change - the wholesale destruction of a social system - an already under-manned police force did not stand a chance.

At first in two’s and three’s, and later by entire squads, they simply walked off the job, put away their uniforms and joined the rush for survival.

[This document was taken in its entirety from the Mad Max Preamble. No credit is taken for its writing, and it is reproduced here as source material/lore only.]

Respect For Others is a Must!

By playing in The Wasted Lands forums and associated IRC channels (#TheWastedLands, #Bartertown, #Bazaar, #TheThunderdome) you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct, detailed below. The goal of these rules, guidelines and principles is to create a vibrant, collaborative, character-driven roleplay environment with a welcoming and supportive community.

Rules[]

Observed and enforced with the implementation of a reminder, then a warning, followed by a ban.

Characters & Setting[]

Time period and technology. The Wasted Lands is a post-apocalyptic milieu set in the same Australian Outback as the Mad Max-verse in the near future. With regards to technology available to characters, this is generally limited based on resources--all of which, as a rule, are in exceedingly short supply.

No copyrighted characters. You may not play characters drawn from books, movies, TV or similar works to which you do not hold the copyright. You are allowed to play characters inspired by books, movies or TV or with comparable powers, but not characters directly lifted from those works or directly referencing specific elements of those copyrighted works.

There are no canon characters from the Mad Max universe allowed.

OOC Conduct[]

Foster a pleasant environment. Treat others as you would expect to be treated. Snark and negativity lead to an unpleasant OOC environment and such attitudes should be checked at the door. It is your responsibility as a member of The Wasted Lands community to ensure that the channel has a safe and welcoming atmosphere.

If a newcomer to the channel has questions, do your best to provide a helpful answer or point them in the direction of someone who can. If they prove to be disruptive, offensive, or problematic, inform a moderator, or if all else fails /ignore them. Don’t be a jerk.

Be considerate. The Wasted Lands is home to a community of players with diverse backgrounds and sensibilities. If you are informed that an OOC conversation is making another player uncomfortable please respect their feelings and find something else to talk about. Racism, sexism, homophobia, stalking, harassment, or other abusive or discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated.

Conflict resolution. The great majority of OOC conflict between players results from miscommunication rather than malice. Disagreements or differences of opinion between players should thus be addressed first with mutually respectful private conversation between the parties involved. Moderators can be called upon to provide neutral mediation if necessary.

Away for awhile? Let us know. Life always comes first. If something comes up which means you’re no longer able to participate in an ongoing story, let someone know! This allows the other players to work around your character’s absence rather than the story stalling and everyone being left in limbo.

IC Conduct[]

Consent-based roleplay. Free-form roleplaying uses consensus between players to resolve conflict between characters, based on a single rule: The player has the final say on what happens to their character. Your character may attempt to perform actions upon another character, but it is up to the other player to decide what effect (if any) it might have. Likewise, other characters may attempt to perform actions upon your character, but the result is up to you. However, if parties cannot come to a mutual decision, dice rolls will be utilized in order to discern a fair outcome.

No OOC on the RP subreddit or in the IC channels. Please only make in-character posts on the RP subreddit (/r/TheWastedLands) or in the IC channels on IRC (#BarterTown, #Bazaar, #TheThunderdome). All out-of-character comments or conversation should be directed to /r/TWLCommunity or #TheWastedLands.

Do not engage in any of the following behaviours:

God Moding is a term used to describe someone who consistently and flagrantly ignores, avoids, blocks or otherwise disregards actions taken against their character, often to the point of being effectively invulnerable. This makes things really boring.

Power Gaming is a term used for someone who defines the outcome of an attack themselves without giving the other player an opportunity to react or evade. This is considered to be very poor form and a breach of the central principle noted above.

Meta Gaming is a term used for the practice of basing IC actions on OOC knowledge. As a player you can access a lot of information that your character could not possibly know – reddit posts, Wiki entries, IRC roleplay, or OOC conversation with other players. Having your character act on such privileged information is strongly frowned upon unless there is a plausible way they could have come to hear about it.

“Mature” vs. “Explicit”. Roleplay in The Wasted Lands can and does touch upon mature themes--regularly more often than not. Characters are free to use adult language, engage in physical relationships, or commit acts of violence, but we expect our players to exercise a modicum of restraint in how such subjects are portrayed. Sexually explicit content is not appropriate on any of our channels or forums. As a rule of thumb, if it goes beyond heavy petting, it’s probably time to fade to black.

Does this mean that you have avoid sexual themes altogether? No, it does not. It simply means that we would really rather not get a graphic play-by-play of all of the ins and outs of such a scene, as it were. Please be responsible enough as a player to tag your posts as NSFW if they include sex or graphic violence.

Text Formatting on IRC[]

Know your colours and formatting options. In the interest of legibility we ask that you abide by the colour restrictions set for OOC discussion as well as IC interaction in the channels on IRC. Please use only black. Excessive use of colours otherwise is distracting. Additionally, italics (Ctrl+i on IRC) may be suitable for internal dialogue or character thoughts. Bold (Ctrl+b on IRC) and underline (Ctrl+u on IRC) are very selectively used for emphasis, but might not be visible on all IRC clients.

Please remember to surround all dialogue with quotation marks. This is helpful because it allows quick perusal of RP logs for pertinent dialogue.

RP Guidelines[]

Good RP Habits[]

Turn order. Whoever posts first goes first, whoever posts second goes second and so on; once established this turn order is maintained for the rest of the scene unless otherwise agreed--this goes for posts on the sub as well as on IRC. An easy way to keep track is to remember who posted immediately before you – if they’re the last player to have posted then it’s your turn again. If there are a lot of characters active in the IRC channel at once it is allowed (and even encouraged) to split into smaller independent groups, each with their own post order.

Post length for IRC RP. We do not impose strict limits on post length, but recommend that you try to keep IC posts in the general region of no more than about three paragraphs (that’s roughly 160-240 words or 800-1200 characters), with priority given to what your character does and says, since those are the main things to which other characters can react.

Post speed. If you’re in a scene with four other people on IRC, each of whom takes 15 minutes to compose a 500-word epic, everyone’s going to have over an hour between each of their posts. Please do what you can to keep your replies timely. If you have to go AFK between one round and the next it is common courtesy to tell the other players so they’re not left waiting for a post that’s not coming. When posting on the sub in a thread that involves other players, the expectation is that you will post AT LEAST once a day at a minimum in order to move the scene along and not hold up the roleplay.

If it is suspected that you are holding up RP in an effort to gain some sort of advantage in game by manipulating the time-line, you will be warned and the mods will reserve the right to step in and decide on the outcome of the scene. Any rolls necessary will be done to your character’s disadvantage in an effort to discourage such inaction.

If in doubt, ask. Is it my turn? Is this allowed? What’s going on IC? Where’s everyone standing? What does that character look like? If you find yourself uncertain or confused, the easiest solution is to ask for clarification in the OOC channel on IRC or via a PM to the player you’re interacting with.

Create opportunities for others. Roleplaying is above all a collaborative exercise, in which each player contributes not only to their own enjoyment but also that of their RP partners. The enjoyment you get from RP often directly relates to the amount of effort you make to include other players. A good principle to bear in mind is that every interaction should promote further interactions. Try to include hooks that will encourage both player and character interest and give them something to incorporate into their own roleplay. Give other players reasons and opportunities for their character to engage with yours.

Roleplay Timelines[]

Channel roleplay and forum roleplay occur at different rates. Forum roleplay is generally slower (sometimes much slower), and this can lead to confusion over how both forms of roleplay will fit into the IC timeline. For sanity’s sake:

Channel RP is considered to occur more-or-less in real time. If you’re roleplaying in #Bartertown on the first full moon of the month, then those events occur on that same day.

Forum RP is not considered to have occurred until the relevant thread has concluded unless agreed otherwise and there is a clear indication of precisely when it does take place.

This still leaves a lot of opportunity for confusion when a single character is engaged in multiple unresolved threads at once. As ever, communication is key. Talk to your fellow players and work out the order in which these different threads occur.

What is The Wasted Lands?[]

The Wasted Lands (/r/TheWastedLands) is an alternate universe roleplaying game set in the same world as the Mad Max movies: a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world where the end-game is simply survival.

The subreddit was created to provide players an opportunity to create their own adventures while immersed in the world of cooperative writing. Roleplay opportunities are available in tandem on reddit for forum posting as well as on IRC for chat-based RP set in a central area of the game-world for ease of play.

Is this a reddit-only RPG?[]

We offer opportunities for chat-based RP on IRC centered around the trade-hub of Bartertown as well as forums on reddit for exploring other parts of our game-world.

What IRC server is the game located on?[]

We will be using Darkmyst (irc.darkmyst.net).

How do I get to IRC?[]

There are a number of chat clients that can be used for IRC:

For PC’s:

mIRC - Preferred for ease of chat-based RP as it has no character limit in the text box.

Kiwi - Best web-based client. No download required.

XChat - Downloadable chat client for IRC.

For Mac’s:

Colloquy

LimeChat

Textual

Linkinus

Adium

For Android:

AndroIRC

AndChat

Yaaic

For Iphone:

TurboIRC

Colloquy

Palaver

Which channels are available on IRC for gameplay?[]

Roleplay on IRC is centered around the trade-hub of Bartertown. #Bartertown is for rp happening anywhere within the settlement. #Bazaar is for any rp happening within the saloon. #TheThunderdome is an almost-gladatorial arena where disagreements are settled; as such, it will be reserved for any rp fights.

The OOC channel for the game is #TheWastedLands. If you require any assistance or wish to speak with a mod, you can join #TWLMods.

How does RP on IRC work?[]

Much in the same way it does on any forum really, except the response time is much less. It’s still turn-based roleplay where your character can interact with whomever you choose that is in the same vicinity. Your posts still consist of descriptions/thoughts/speech, though perhaps on a shorter scale than you might write for a reddit post--usually anywhere from one to four paragraphs at a time is preferred.

And if you’re still unsure about how to do it, then by all means, come sit in the IC channels and watch others. That’s the best way to learn!

How do players reconcile the chat-rp timeline with the reddit/forum post timeline?[]

Channel roleplay and forum roleplay occur at different rates. Forum roleplay is generally slower (sometimes much slower), and this can lead to confusion over how both forms of roleplay will fit into the IC timeline.

For sanity’s sake:

Channel RP is considered to occur more-or-less in real time. If you’re roleplaying in #Bartertown on the first full moon of the month, then those events occur on that same day.

Forum RP is not considered to have occurred until the relevant thread has concluded unless agreed otherwise and there is a *clear* indication of precisely *when* it does take place.

This still leaves a lot of opportunity for confusion when a single character is engaged in multiple unresolved threads at once. As ever, communication is key. Talk to your fellow players and work out the order in which these different threads occur.

Do I have to submit a Character Sheet?[]

Yes, you do. All characters must be approved prior to play.

We have a two-step process for character creation/approval as described here in A Guide to Character Creation.

Can I contribute to the setting?[]

Definitely! There is a lot of room for growth where the lore is concerned. We welcome custom tribes, factions, and settlements as long as they are original and mesh with what we’ve already created as well as the lore of the Mad Max Universe.

I’m not familiar with the lore of Mad Max. Will that prevent me from RPing here?[]

No, not at all! While set in the same world as Mad Max, /r/TheWastedLands is actually an alternate universe setting, so knowledge of the original lore is not mandatory. What is important is that you familiarize yourself with the history of the world as presented in The Preamble as well as the current situation/setting of the game, as described in the Quick Start Guide.

Am I allowed to make a mutant?[]

This depends *entirely* on the sort of mutation that you have in mind: this is not a Marvel setting, after all. However, our world is post-nuclear apocalypse, and a great deal of illnesses and disease are to be expected in an environment where the people, plants, and animals have been exposed to radiation/extreme weather, etc. If you’re not sure if your idea will be approved or not, drop by #TWLMods and ask or shoot us a moderator mail on reddit.

Can I be Immortan Joe / Imperator Furiosa / Max Rockatansky / Other Canon Character?[]

No, we do not allow canon characters to be played in this setting. Our story takes place *after* the events of Fury Road and is an alternate version of the universe, so we want original characters.