Zone Raiders Team Building

Before I get into making a team, I feel a brief overview of the setting would be useful, especially as context for the different factions. The setting is intentionally vague in some aspects, as even the denizens themselves are not privy to a lot of information about the nature of their world. However, what little that they do know shape and guide their existence in interesting ways.

Zone Raiders takes place in the world of Matrioshka, a vast megastructure which purpose has been lost to time. Beliefs regarding the nature of Matrioshka varies, but a common interpretation made by those with access to information is that it was created by humans who achieved singularity, known as Posthumans. They say the Matrioshka is a sphere with thousands of layers, and at its center, a burning white flame called the Core, which powers the whole thing. At some point, the Posthumans fell due to their hubris, and became relegated to the stuff of legends.

The Matrioshka is a place that always changes, building sprawling structures and destroying others, with no apparent rhyme or reason. These changes often leave behind vast unmanaged wastelands called the Dark Zones, or collectively known as the Zone. Some of the most dangerous machines and environments in the setting exist in the Zone, such as a Immunocytes, which singlemindedly exterminate any sapient life.

Despite this danger, the Zone presents opportunity with the unique resources present in it. Food, industrial compounds, and even ancient technology. Stuff left by the Posthumans is especially valuable, with particularly potent artifacts guiding the trajectory of entire civilizations. Most survivor cultures send their best to act as the titular Zone Raiders, scouting the Zone for threats to eliminate and treasures to extract. Many Zone Raiders are also interested in reaching the Core, with their motivations depending on how exactly they interpret its existence.

Another important element is the Dataplane. It's a sort of different plane of existence consisting of Posthuman machine code, though its nature is ambiguous. Even though it's not well understood, many can interface with it, and potentially draw out Datalore, which is type of artifact containing Posthuman data. The information present in Datalore is a big deal in a world where not a lot of information about the world is available, and often counts as one of the aforementioned artifacts which guides the trajectory of entire civilizations.

In case it wasn't clear, I'll be playing as one of these teams of Zone Raiders, doing all the cool and dangerous things they do on the regular. I've skimmed over some setting bits, but this covers the necessary basics needed to understand the factions, which I'll cover in another post.

Now, let's get on to the different factions. Though the settlements in the world of Matrioshka are small, varied, and disparate, there are broad categorical groups that survivors can be sorted into. Each faction also describes a couple of prominent subgroups, which I won't describe here for brevity's sake.

Nomadic Zone Dwellers a.k.a. Technomads
Used to refer to human bands of survivors which migrate through Matrioshka as a way of life. They make really good use of the stuff that they scavenge from the Zone, acting as a backbone to their continued survival.

Technomads have a large focus on tradition, and I personally like the way that Zone Raiders takes that trait. Instead of being tech adverse, as some may expect from such a traditions based culture, Technomads embrace it entirely. They meticulously pass down methods to understand machine code, and even use chip technology to preserve their culture by downloading them into their minds. This practice allows even those with limited written language or scientific knowledge to have high technical prowess.

Mechanically, Technomads seem to be very mobile and are no slouch when it comes to using tech. Their faction specific gear is mostly focused on granting movement abilities or interacting more reliably with the Dataplane. They also have a few tricks for avoiding the hazards present in the Zone, and have pretty strong melee stats across the board. They have rather low defense though.

Zone Stalkers
Zone Stalkers are human scouts and mercenaries which are sent out by small communities. Their reputation is mixed, with some being . Zone Stalkers are usually tolerated in foreign settlements due to the resources and information they bring, but are kicked out as soon as possible.

Mechanically, Zone Stalkers seem to be all about stealth, with all available units coming with with the Stealth or Superior Stealth skill, and a bonus for attacking while under stealth. For reference, the Stealth skill makes it so that, beyond a certain range, the unit can't be targeted until they lose their stealth by being targeted or by making a shooting attack. However, they're quite squishy, with a low defense.

Reclaimers
While normally, civilizations in Matrioshka are too small to raise armies, there are exceptions. Reclaimers are human soldiers which seek to bring order, civilization, and glory to Matrioshka through conquest. If it sounds familiar, it's essentially the obligatory "army of order" archetype present in many settings. They seek to master the Zone, and are not above trading lives for things that have strategic value. Reclaimer civilizations know that others like them fall all the time, so they tend to invest in science and industrial pursuits to prepare themselves better than the last fool.

Mechanically, Reclaimers are about teamwork. They have a lot of possible bonuses they could get just by sticking close together, and have quite a focus on Marking targets. For reference, Marking a target makes that target easier to hit with a shooting attack. On the downside, Reclaimer units are all a bit slower than all of the other factions. Notably, Reclaimers have pretty average stats across the board.

Morlocks
Morlocks are offshoots of the human species which have had their genotypes altered, whether through mutagens or leftover experiments from civilizations long gone. The name Morlock is most likely a reference to the Morlocks in H.G.Wells' novel, "The Time Machine".

Mechanically, Morlocks seem quite versatile. The most obvious example is that most units have you assign a number of stat improvements over the basic unit's statline, allowing you to customize a unit's capabilities to an extent. Additionally, they have a lot of options for healing and defense. Notably, their basic units have pretty poor statlines, but become rather robust in the higher tier units.

Atropics Nanotech Reanimated Organisms a.k.a. Atropics
Atropics are a result of a mutated strain of maintenance nanomachine and deceased biomass. Their intelligence is alien, and their motives unknown. Individuals take on many, many different unsettling forms, and each strain is basically its own type of being. Pretty much everyone is creeped out by them. Even the immunocytes hate them more than the other sentient forms of life, killing them with greater prejudice.

Mechanically, it seems the Atropics have a lot of tricks. Their main gimmick is that they gather biomass when they eliminate a downed enemy. They can then use that biomass to upgrade themselves to a high cost unit. They also have quite a few tricks to heal themselves, and even an option to revive and recruit a weaker version of a killed enemy model. They're rather strong in melee, but lack particularly good shooting and aptitude.

Nth-Generational Sapient Engines a.k.a NthGens
NthGens are machines that have evolved into synthetic life. They study the culture of humanoids and often find an affinity with it, then seeking to emulate it. Most NthGens can trace their development through a linear series of generational prototypes, building on the foundation as they adapt to environmental pressures.

Mechanically, it seems that NthGens have a particular gimmick. A team of NthGens must always have a prototype. The stats of all other units in the team are derived from the prototype's stats. Most options seem to be designed to keep the prototype alive. All NthGen units can interface with the Dataplane too, and have plenty options regarding interfacing. However, they seem to suffer from low Survival stat, which means they're poor against hazards and the likes.

Exanthropes
Exanthropes are humans that augment their biology with technology in order to escape the human condition. Most Exanthropes desire to become godlike, akin to the Posthumans of old, trampling over others in order to become a stronger individual.

Mechanically, Exanthropes have a couple of gimmicks that seem similar, yet distinct from, that of the Atropics. The only unit you can recruit at first are the lowest tier ones. At certain levels, they can then be upgraded to higher tier units. Exanthropes also come with a number of Augment tokens, which allow them to take more actions. To round it off, Exanthropes have quite a few melee related skills, which match well with its high melee stat. The downside is that their basic units are very expensive pointwise when compared to other factions, so they'll have to supplement their forces with some combat automata units, which don't level up and have some restrictions that make them less viable in the long run.

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Now that I've covered the factions, I'll finally get to making a team in the next post.