ZONES - preview
A downloadable game
This is an ashcan of the final product. Feel free to download, playtest, and enjoy the game while it develops!
ZONES is an immersive tabletop roleplaying game set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by mysterious anomalies and inhabited by diverse factions vying for survival and supremacy. If you've played the STALKER series then you will be right at home in ZONES. Hell, even the player characters are called Stalkers!
Everything is written for solo and cooperative play. No GM required! Lots of tables, lots of rolling, lots of NSR goodness. ZONES is not forgiving! Expect to have a hard time navigating the world and the dangers that populate it.
What to Expect
Players take on the roles of adventurers known as Stalkers, navigating through dangerous territories filled with mutated creatures, treacherous environmental hazards, and valuable artifacts.
With a blend of tactical combat, resource management, and narrative exploration, ZONES challenges players to survive and thrive in a harsh and unpredictable landscape where every decision could mean life or death.
All rules provided allow for a solo gaming or cooperative play without a GM. Tables for everything needed to tell an immersive story from start to finish are included.
No matter your reason for coming here, getting into the zone is will be the easiest part of your journey. Welcome to the Zone!
What System is This?
ZONES uses the Cairn system (Into the Odd / Knave) as its skeleton.
A few new systems and changes are included. These are:
- Rules for handling guns and ammo
- Player growth using XP and Wounds, replacing the Scars system
- A new Wound system replacing Cairn's Scars
- Inventory management with new slots, quick and light inventories
- Artifacts replace Spells
- A few changes to how Time is measured to make travelling more dangerous
Using Other Cairn Content
You can transfer any of your own content from Cairn to ZONES with very little work. Stats are equal (TOU = STR, DEX = DEX, SUR = WIL). The new rules do not completely replace the old rules and players are free to mix-and-match as you see fit. With that said, ZONES is Cairn Compatible!
What isn't Included?
This is stuff that is currently a work in progress:
- Rules for creating your own monsters and encounters
- Faction reputation tracking and benefits for doing so
- A sample campaign and map for new players
- Implementation of positive conditions
- Rules for Quick Slots
- Combat setup rules (how far is the enemy when the combat starts) and a better example on how the players move around the battlefield
ZONES is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0. All works in this project have been adapted from Cairn and the Cairn SRD.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- ZONES - Now on Kickstarter16 days ago
- Version 0.429 days ago
- ZONES - Crowdfunding CampaignNov 04, 2024
- Ashcan - v0.2 UpdateJul 05, 2024
Comments
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This looks like it could be very fun to play. I'm a little confused by the traits section though. It says the stalker makes a trait test and forgives someone who wronged them. Maybe I'm getting it wrong, but are you expecting the player to adhere to checks against their personality traits? Typically those would be guidelines. I'd expect that sort of check for an NPC. Love the vibes and the artwork!
You are correct that the traits are guidelines for resolving NPC interactions. Its more of an add-to the existing game framework than a necessary system for people to use.
I included Traits to provide a system for resolving person-to-person interactions (NPC and player) that I always struggle with when playing solo or cooperatively without a GM. Players are the main characters of their story, so keeping roles one sided simplifies things and keeps the players locked into their decisions and progression.
Oh ok. So it's could be more like a backup, I'm on the fence as to how my character might react here, so I make a check against <trait pair> and see how it goes. It almost feels like a more robust "Lasers and Feelings", though it doesn't necessarily determine your character's skills.
Hi, I'm a little confused with the "detail adventure sites" instructions on page 30. Is a hex an adventure site when the landmark is "location" or are all of the hexes adventure sites? And what page is the hex-flower reference on?
Good questions. Adventure sites are intended to be where something happens and are the entire hex. A location is inside of a hex, meaning an adventure site can have multiple locations in it. The naming convention is confusing and will be fixed in the next version.
Hex-flower reference isn't included at this time, so in the meantime you can fill as you move or fill the whole map before you play. I like having the whole map before I play as it makes creating narratives easier, especially with the amount of rolling needed to generate solo stories.
Thanks for getting back to me and for the clarification! I'm really excited about the crowdfunding for this game
this looks sharp already! excited to see what more comes to it. looking like a home printout on the soon horizon
Thank you! Lots more playtesting to be done. Probably needing another good dozen pages of tables for random happenings and cool events.
Yes! This is like a dream comes true. I always yearned for a Stalker solo ttrpg. And I bought and love all your games until this point. Can't wait for its final product!
started reading it looks great and interesting
Thank you for taking a look!
this has a lot of potential but it needs a lot of pontential.
are you going to change the license in the future to be more open or closed?
Zones is CC-BY-SA 4.0, same as Cairn. I will update the license info to reflect this.