THE AFTERDAWN FIELD REGULATORY HANDBOOK
Attention Overseer. Leaving the safety of the perimeter limits is a heavily calculated strain on pack assets. This tactical documentation dictates the mechanical infrastructure, creative parameters, and rolling configurations that govern out-of-bounds deployment cycles.
CRITICAL EXPEDITION REGULATION: GENERAL RULES
The volatile environmental conditions of the wastes necessitate specialized tactical formatting rules for all operations.
- Maximum Participation: A maximum of 5 Pack-Kin characters can participate in one specific activity submission at the same time.
- Danger Tiers: Each Hunt and Scavenge features 3 Tiers of escalating danger. Every tier has a minimum "suggested" stat threshold to safely enter, but wolves with lower stats may still attempt the run—at a significantly higher risk of failure and injury.
- Regional Locks: Every expedition must be explicitly stated to take place within a specific, chosen region of the map. Territory Guarding is strictly locked to your pack's currently claimed region.
- Pup Restrictions: If a participating Pack-Kit is still in their Pup stage, they are strictly forbidden from leaving the den alone. Pups may only participate in Hunts and Scavenges if they are accompanied by at least one of their registered parents.
HOW TO SUBMIT ACTIVITIES: Create your artwork or literature based on the specific activity rules below, and post it in the corresponding Discord channels (#hunting, #scavenging, or #territory-guarding).
You MUST include the universal submission form provided in the sections below alongside your piece for Staff to process your roll.THE HUNTER'S CODEX: ADVANCED EXPEDITION GUIDE
To run with the pack is to hunt. In AFTERDAWN, hunting is the lifeblood of your community's economy, providing the vital meat, pelts, and Scraps required to secure your territory and purchase rare upgrades. However, the mutated ecology of the wastes is volatile. The line between predator and prey has blurred, and every expedition outside the border is a calculated risk. There is no limit or cooldown on how many Hunts you can submit.
I. Expedition Submission Requirements
To maintain economic balance and ensure a high standard of creative effort, all entries submitted to the #hunting channel must strictly adhere to the following baseline criteria.
A. Visual Art Criteria
- Minimum Composition: Flat Full Body with Simple Background.
- Character Rendering: The participating Pack-Kin must have at least 80% of their body visible. The lines must be clean, and the base coat, markings, and mandatory Blight-Trace must be flat-colored and accurate to the wolf's official Master Ledger design.
- Background Rendering: A simple background is mandatory. A solid color, a simple gradient, or a digital blur is not acceptable. The background must feature recognizable environmental elements of the post-apocalyptic landscape (e.g., ruined concrete pillars, twisted rebar, blighted trees, toxic puddles, or dynamic weather elements like Miasma fog).
B. Literature Criteria
- Minimum Length: 700 words.
- Content and Focus: The narrative must place the participating wolf as the central focus of the text. The story must clearly depict the progression of a realistic hunt within the AFTERDAWN setting: tracking the spoor, enduring the toxic elements, stalking the target through ruins, and executing the final physical engagement.
- Formatting: Text must be divided into readable paragraphs. Correct spelling, grammar, and coherent sentence structures are expected. Poetry or disjointed stream-of-consciousness text will not be rolled.
II. Stat Mechanics in the Field
Your wolf's base stats drastically alter the mathematical outcome of your hunt. When a Staff member processes your submission, your wolf's stats act as positive modifiers against the environment's difficulty check (DC).
- Perception (The Tracking Phase): High Perception reduces the chance of empty-handed runs (Partial Success instead of Failure). It allows your wolf to notice camouflaged prey, hidden environmental traps, or incoming predatory ambushes before they strike.
- Strength (The Takedown Phase): High Strength directly increases your loot yield when hunting larger, armored prey. It ensures your wolf can overpower struggling quarry and successfully drag heavy carcasses back across the border without dropping valuable materials.
- Agility (The Evasion Phase): When a hunt goes wrong, Agility is your shield. High Agility minimizes the severity of injuries sustained during failed rolls, allowing your wolf to dodge thrashing antlers, venomous stingers, or collapsing debris.
- Endurance (The Survival Phase): The wastes are choked with Miasma. Endurance dictates how long your wolf can stalk prey through contaminated zones and protects against toxic fatigue.
III. Prey Tiers & Eco-Zones
When submitting a hunt, you must specify which Tier of prey your wolf is actively tracking. At least one Food category item is guaranteed upon a successful roll.
| Prey Tier | Examples | Optimal Stats | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Small Game | Rad-Hares, Shambler Vermin, Miasma Scuttlers | Perception & Agility | Low |
| Tier 2: Medium Game | Blighted Fallow Deer, Rotskin Boars, Scrap-Horn Goats | Strength & Perception | Moderate |
| Tier 3: Apex Prey | Irradiated Megafauna, Corrupted Bears, Echo-Stalkers | Strength & Endurance | High |
IV. Hunting Roll Consequence Matrix
Every submitted piece triggers a d100 roll by the Staff, cross-referenced with your wolf's current stat sheets.
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1. Critical Success (Roll: 96–100)
The hunt is flawless. Your wolf perfectly tracks and executes the target with zero physical strain.
Rewards: Maximum Tier Loot, +25% bonus Scraps, and a 10% chance to discover a rare Geno-Stimm Ampoule or trigger a Dispersal Wolf Encounter.
Condition: Completely unharmed. -
2. Success (Roll: 61–95)
The hunt is successful, matching the standard operational parameters of the pack.
Rewards: Standard Tier Loot and Base Scraps payout.
Condition: Unharmed. -
3. Partial Success (Roll: 31–60)
The prey was caught, but it put up a brutal fight or parts of the carcass had to be abandoned due to encroaching threats.
Rewards: 50% reduction in Scraps payout; minimal usable materials.
Condition: Minor Physical Strain. Your wolf faces a -1 penalty to their next activity roll due to exhaustion. -
4. Failure (Roll: 2–30)
The prey escaped, or your wolf was ambushed by an Aberration during the stalk. No food or materials are brought back to camp.
Rewards: 0 Scraps.
Condition: Physical Injury. Staff will roll on the Injury Table. Your wolf will sustain anything from a Minor Scratch (0.5/3) to a Deep Laceration (2/3), inducing a mandatory recovery period where they cannot perform any actions until healed. -
5. Critical Failure: The Death Roll (Roll: 1)
Disaster strikes. Your wolf was caught in a structural collapse, a severe Miasma pocket, or a lethal confrontation with an Apex Aberration.
The Mechanic: Staff will immediately halt standard processing and execute a mandatory secondary Death Roll ($d1000$).
The 0.1% Fatality Risk: If this secondary roll lands on a 1, your wolf is killed in action. Their ledger file is permanently updated to[DECEASED / LOST TO THE WASTES].
Survival Variant: If the Death Roll passes, your wolf survives but sustains a Broken Bone (3/3 Injury), forcing a mandatory 2-week real-time recovery lock unless healed with premium Marketplace medicine.
V. The Standing Submission Form
This exact text block must be included with your submission in the Discord channel:
THE SCAVENGER’S PROTOCOL: URBAN RUINS & TECH RECOVERY
The cities of the Old World are silent monuments to humanity's extinction. For the Pack-Kin, these crumbling concrete labyrinths, shattered military installations, and rusted research centers are highly lucrative goldmines filled with pre-collapse technology, medicine, and raw materials. But tread lightly: the ruins are structurally unstable, highly radioactive, and choked with ancient chemical toxins. Scavenging requires patience, sharp eyes, and absolute caution. There is no limit or cooldown on how many Scavenges you can submit.
I. Scavenging Submission Requirements
To maintain economic balance and ensure a high standard of creative effort, all entries submitted to the #scavenging channel must strictly adhere to the following baseline criteria.
A. Visual Art Criteria
- Minimum Composition: Flat Full Body with Simple Background.
- Character Rendering: Same as hunting standard parameters. The participating Pack-Kin must have at least 80% of their body visible with clean lineart and correct Ledger designs.
- Background Rendering: The background must feature recognizable environmental elements of human ruins (e.g., rusted vehicles, shattered glass, exposed rebar, glowing computer consoles, overgrown subways, or toxic sludge pools).
B. Literature Criteria
- Minimum Length: 700 words.
- Content and Focus: The story must clearly depict the progression of an urban exploration run: navigating unstable structures, detecting chemical fumes, searching through debris, overriding old mechanical locks, or physically carrying salvage back to camp.
- Formatting: Same as hunting standard parameters. Divided into clear, readable paragraphs with correct spellcheck strings.
II. Stat Mechanics in the Ruins
The structural and environmental dangers of the ruins require a different tactical approach than hunting. Your wolf's base stats act as positive modifiers against the environment's difficulty check (DC).
- Perception (The Discovery Phase): High Perception is critical for locating hidden wall safes, rare medical caches, and intact microchips hidden beneath tons of rubble. It also allows your wolf to notice wire traps, structural weaknesses in the ceiling, or shifting floors before stepping on them.
- Agility (The Navigation Phase): Urban ruins are tightly enclosed and unstable. High Agility ensures your wolf can squeeze through broken windows, balance on exposed steel beams, escape sudden building collapses, and dodge triggering automated defense turrets.
- Strength (The Extraction Phase): Human tech is often heavy, bolted down, or buried under concrete. High Strength allows your wolf to tear open rusted steel doors, pry apart heavy metallic lockers, and drag massive mechanical parts or metal sheets back to the territory.
- Endurance (The Filtration Phase): Closed ruins are hotbeds for toxic dust, radiation pockets, and stagnant pools of old biochemical waste. High Endurance protects your wolf from taking chronic poison or chemical burn damage while sifting through contaminated sectors.
III. Sector Tiers & Hazard Levels
When submitting a scavenge run, you must specify which environmental sector your wolf is venturing into.
| Sector Tier | Examples | Optimal Stats | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Outskirts | Abandoned Suburbs, Ruined Highways, Overgrown Farms | Perception & Agility | Low |
| Tier 2: Commercial Center | High-Rise Offices, Shattered Malls, Subways, Auto Shops | Strength & Perception | Moderate |
| Tier 3: Restricted Zones | Military Bunkers, Research Labs, Automated Factories | Agility & Endurance | High |
IV. Scavenging Roll Consequence Matrix
Every submitted piece triggers a d100 roll by the Staff, cross-referenced with your wolf's current stat sheets.
-
1. Critical Success (Roll: 96–100)
Your wolf discovers an untouched pre-collapse cache. The extraction is smooth, silent, and incredibly bountiful.
Rewards: Maximum Sector Loot, +25% bonus Scraps, and a highly increased 15% chance to pull a rare Geno-Stimm Ampoule or trigger a Dispersal Wolf Encounter.
Condition: Completely unharmed. -
2. Success (Roll: 61–95)
Your wolf successfully bypasses the structural hazards and recovers valuable human technology.
Rewards: Standard Sector Loot and Base Scraps payout.
Condition: Unharmed. -
3. Partial Success (Roll: 31–60)
Salvage is secured, but a sudden collapse or gas leak forced your wolf to drop half their loot to escape with their life.
Rewards: 50% reduction in Scraps payout; minimal usable electronic materials.
Condition: Minor Technical Strain. Your wolf faces a -1 penalty to their next activity roll due to chemical inhalation or muscle fatigue. -
4. Failure (Roll: 2–30)
An automated alarm triggers, a ceiling collapses, or the sector turns out to be entirely picked clean. No materials are salvaged.
Rewards: 0 Scraps.
Condition: Industrial Injury. Staff will roll on the Scavenge Injury Table. Your wolf will sustain anything from a Chemical Burn (0.5/3) to an Acid Corroded Paw (2/3), inducing a mandatory recovery period where they cannot perform any actions until healed. -
5. Critical Failure: The Death Roll (Roll: 1)
Catastrophe. Your wolf falls through an elevator shaft, triggers a dormant pre-collapse explosive, or breaches a pressurized bio-hazard tank.
The Mechanic: Staff will immediately halt standard processing and execute a mandatory secondary Death Roll ($d1000$).
The 0.1% Fatality Risk: If this secondary roll lands on a 1, your wolf is killed in action. Their ledger file is permanently updated to[DECEASED / LOST TO THE WASTES].
Survival Variant: If the Death Roll passes, your wolf survives but sustains a Crushed Limb (3/3 Injury), forcing a mandatory 2-week real-time recovery lock unless healed with premium Marketplace medicine.
V. The Standing Submission Form
This exact text block must be included with your submission in the Discord channel:
THE SENTINEL’S DIRECTIVE: BORDER PATROL & BORDER DEFENSE
A pack is only as strong as its borders. In AFTERDAWN, Territory Guarding (also known as Sentinel Duty) is the primary defensive activity required to protect your accumulated resources, secure breeding dens, and establish dominant pack influence across the ruined landscape. While Hunters bring in meat and Scavengers bring in technology, Sentinels ensure that hostile player factions, environmental disasters, and mindless Aberrations don't tear down everything you have built. Guarding is a test of raw endurance, unyielding strength, and tactical vigilance. You must wait 7 real-world days between Territory Guarding submissions. Furthermore, this activity can only be performed in the region currently claimed by your pack.
I. Sentinel Submission Requirements
To maintain economic balance and ensure a high standard of creative effort, all entries submitted to the #territory-guarding channel must strictly adhere to the following baseline criteria.
A. Visual Art Criteria
- Minimum Composition: Flat Full Body with Simple Background.
- Character Rendering: Same as standard matrix. The participating Pack-Kin must have at least 80% of their body visible with clean tracking lines.
- Background Rendering: The background must feature recognizable environmental elements of your pack's claimed territory boundaries (e.g., razor-wire fences, barricaded highway checkpoints, ruined watchtowers, neon-lit perimeter markers, or scarred earth marking the edge of the Miasma zone).
B. Literature Criteria
- Minimum Length: 700 words.
- Content and Focus: The story must clearly depict the progression of a defensive patrol run within the AFTERDAWN setting: walking the perimeter line, marking scent boundaries, checking automated motion sensors, scanning the dead-zones for movement, or physically standing ground against a breaching threat.
- Formatting: Same as hunting standard parameters. Divided cleanly into standard coherent paragraph parameters.
II. Stat Mechanics on the Border
Defending a fixed line requires physical resilience and sharp senses. Your wolf's base stats act as positive modifiers against the environment's difficulty check (DC) or an network's attack value.
- Strength (The Engagement Phase): If a perimeter breach occurs, raw power is required to hold the line. High Strength directly increases your combat effectiveness against physical threats, allowing your wolf to overpower breaching targets, throw back hostile invaders, and minimize resource theft.
- Perception (The Detection Phase): Ambush is a constant threat in the dead-zones. High Perception allows your Sentinel to spot stealthy threats, detect incoming weather anomalies like sudden Miasma shifts, and intercept infiltrators long before they reach vital pack assets.
- Endurance (The Vigil Phase): Sentinel shifts are long, grueling, and physically taxing. High Endurance allows your wolf to withstand freezing nights, toxic air pockets, and extended exhaustion.
- Agility (The Tactical Phase): When outmatched or facing multiple combatants, positioning is everything. High Agility allows your wolf to utilize cover, dodge incoming projectiles or environmental traps, and successfully fall back to sound the pack alarm without being pinned down.
III. Patrol Sectors & Perimeter Tier
When submitting a guarding run, you must specify which sector of your territory boundary your wolf is actively patrolling.
| Sector Tier | Description | Optimal Stats | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Safe Zone Interior | Camp Perimeters, Den Lines, Established Safe Pathways | Perception & Endurance | Low |
| Tier 2: The Gray Borders | Unclaimed No-Man's-Land, Shifting Miasma Edges | Strength & Perception | Moderate |
| Tier 3: The Breach Zones | Active Aberration Nest Borders, Hostile Faction Frontlines | Strength & Endurance | High |
IV. Guarding Roll Consequence Matrix
Every submitted piece triggers a d100 roll by the Staff, cross-referenced with your wolf's current stat sheets.
-
1. Critical Success (Roll: 96–100)
Your wolf executes a flawless patrol. They notice a major security vulnerability or successfully neutralize a high-value target before it can alert its pack.
Rewards: Maximum Sector Loot, +25% bonus Scraps, a permanent +5 bonus to the territory's overall security rating, and a 10% chance to trigger a Dispersal Wolf Encounter (a lone wanderer trying to cross your border peacefully).
Condition: Completely unharmed. -
2. Success (Roll: 61–95)
The perimeter remains secure. Scent marks are refreshed, and minor minor incursions are easily deterred.
Rewards: Standard Sector Loot, Base Scraps payout, and standard Pack Prestige allocation.
Condition: Unharmed. -
3. Partial Success (Roll: 31–60)
A minor breach occurred. An enemy or Aberration managed to slip past and scavenge from a minor outer cache before your sentinel drove them off.
Rewards: 50% reduction in Scraps payout; small deduction from your global pack resource pool.
Condition: Minor Physical Fatigue. Your wolf faces a -1 penalty to their next activity roll due to minor bruising or lack of sleep during an extended lockdown. -
4. Failure (Roll: 2–30)
The border is breached. A hostile force or Aberration overpowers your sentinel, raiding an outer stash or damaging perimeter defenses before fleeing.
Rewards: 0 Scraps. Loss of specific inventory items from your public pack cache.
Condition: Combat Injury. Staff will roll on the Combat Injury Table. Your wolf will sustain anything from a Bite Wound (0.5/3) to a Torn Ear/Severe Concussion (2/3), inducing a mandatory recovery period where they cannot perform any actions until healed. -
5. Critical Failure: The Death Roll (Roll: 1)
Cataclysmic breach. Your wolf is completely overwhelmed by an Apex Aberration horde or targeted by an organized elite raider assault while isolated on the border.
The Mechanic: Staff will immediately halt standard processing and execute a mandatory secondary Death Roll ($d1000$).
The 0.1% Fatality Risk: If this secondary roll lands on a 1, your wolf is killed in action defending the pack. Their ledger file is permanently updated to[DECEASED / LOST TO THE WASTES].
Survival Variant: If the Death Roll passes, your wolf survives by a miracle but sustains a Grievous Maiming (3/3 Injury), forcing a mandatory 2-week real-time recovery lock unless healed with premium Marketplace medicine.
V. The Standing Submission Form
This exact text block must be included with your submission in the Discord channel: