Character and Ark Creation

Cruise ships don't run on nuclear reactors. 🤣🤣

yet

True.

IRL that seems a very long ways away (at best). In the setting, at least to my understanding, our current tech level is still considered more or less baseline for the game.

So I don't think commercialized small-scale use of nuclear reactors ever became a thing. 🤷

We could swap out the cruise ship for a Carrier. That ship does generate power from reactors and still holds 5000 people.

Crossed my mind too actually. They're good for about 200,000 gallons of drinkable water per day in addition to a nuclear reactor as a power source.

My biggest hang-up is lore based more than anything. I have a lot of trouble believing US Carriers weren't targeted during the conflicts at the end of the world. That said, if the GM says some survived then some survived. I mean, my character is Diet Magneto. Suspension of Disbelief is part and parcel with RPGs.

What was the end of the world anyway?
Conflict? Then yes, carriers of participating countries would be targetted.

But what if it was something like meteor impact? Pandemic? Global warming?


I kinda like the cruise ship better though

From the book:

"Of course the world ends. It happens quickly, faster than anyone could predict. The Red Plague hits a world already on the brink of collapse. Extreme climate change, global economic crisis, increasing conflict between old and new superpowers. When the pandemic comes, the last thin veneer of stability crumbles.

One billion people die in the first year. Utter panic reigns supreme, solidarity between nations is non-existent. Wars break out over the last, dwindling resources of the world. For the first time since 1945 nuclear weapons are used in armed conflict. Mushroom clouds rise from east to west."

(Emphasis mine.) That's why I personally don't think carriers would have survived. I also feel like anywhere that would fix vessels -- places like Portsmouth, Norfolk, Bremerton, etc. -- would have been wiped out, probably first.

But like I said... ultimately, it's our GM's call.

Food: water will be easy, food will be harder I guess
Culture: with ship maintenace and food production challenges going on, I think this will be less priority
Technology: high, we have ship equipment and need understanding of it so that is a learning ground for gearheads
Warfare: medium high, a cruiseship can be like a bunker. Seal of the port entrance, raise the walking plank, close all hatches, and attackers face a metal hull

I like this!
So my proposition, according to above is:
Food Supply: 4
Culture: 1
Technology: 4
Warfare: 3

With Culture on 1 - there will be a lot of work for Aspiring Teacher :)

I'm going to take a different route:

Food Supply: 1
Culture: 0
Technology: 10
Warfare: 1

I am sure you all are wondering why I picked the numbers I did. Allow me to elaborate.

Technology is the hardest factor to raise.

Ark Projects allow us to improve Food, Culture, and Warfare. At low levels, they can even be increased fairly rapidly. However, increasing our Technology level requires asventuring out into the zones, finding artifacts, and then turning them in to the Vault. (Meaning we may have to donate equipment we want to keep in order to raise our Tech level.)

Many of the Ark Projects also have prerequisits, and a Technology level of 10 allows us to access a good number of potential projects.

So yes, I would prefer to start with most of our points in the hardest factor to improve, and raise the easier factors in-game.

MaJunior: from min-max perspective your proposition is perfectly valid. But how we will justify having so high technology level in "ordinary" cruise ship wreckage from RP/in fiction perspective? I'm very ok, with having numbers on our side, but it would be perfect - for me - to also have it feel "believable".

Easy explanation: The cruise ship itself.

The Technology level stems from the fact that they started by learning the ship's systems -- it's how they've kept the water filtration plants online, it's how they've kept power to certain parts of the ship, and so on.

The ship certainly hasn't kept itself maintained. And learning to perform that maintenance would easily justify a 10 in Tech, IMO.

Most Artifacts, if turned into the Dawn Vault, grant a 1d6 bonus to the Technology level of the Ark (assuming time to learn the intricacies of the new Artifact). Some items give a flat +1 to Tech -- a bow and arrow, a helmet, and so on. But -- Even relatively simple items like a flashlight, a compass, or a chainsaw grant a d6 bonus. Then again, so does a scooter or a car. So I feel like the ship has more than enough to get us to 10.

Ok, no problem with me. Let's go with 10 in technology, than... but I hope we will invent agriculture soon ;)

My recommendation? (And remember, that's all it is.)

We start with the Hunting Party project. Very low Work Point cost for a 2d6 increase to food. Best ratio of cost to reward (outside of Cannibalism, but we won't talk about that).

After that, we could tackle the Cropland project. It's got a high Work Point cost, but gives a 3d6 increase to food. The Pigsty project is middle of the road in terms of cost and benefit.

And there are a few projects that can improve our Technology level, but AFAIK you have to have a 10 to do the first one (the Workshop project). However, with lucky rolls the first one can raise our tech level to the level required for the next one, and so on. My hope is that we can keep some of the gear we find in the zones.