THE AFTERDAWN SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: COMPLETE NEWBIE GUIDE
Welcome, survivor. The static is clearing. This comprehensive handbook contains everything you need to navigate the ruins, manage your pack, and survive the suffocating Miasma. Read this documentation carefully—ignorance in the wastes is fatal.
What is an ARPG?
An Art Role-Playing Game (ARPG) is a collaborative, community-driven world where your personal creations—art, literature, and roleplay—directly drive your gameplay.
In AFTERDAWN, you are the Overseer of a pack of mutated canines surviving centuries after the "Great Silent Bleed." You do not play with a controller; you play with a pen, a tablet, or a keyboard. By submitting artwork and stories of your characters performing tasks, you trigger "Staff Rolls." Our administrators will use a randomized, stat-based system to determine the outcome of your actions. Did your wolf catch a mutated stag, or did they fracture a bone fleeing an Aberration? Your art initiates the action; the roll dictates the consequence.
Getting Started: Your First Pack-Kin
To survive, you need a founder. Every new player is entitled to one free starter Pack-Kin to establish their pack.
The Claiming Process:
- Join the Network: Navigate to our official Discord Server and locate the
#new-arrivalschannel. - Request a Roll: Post a simple message requesting your starter roll.
- The Fates Decide: A Staff member will generate three random, uniquely designed Pack-Kin options for you. You will receive exactly one of each subspecies:
Vulpine: Nimble, cunning, and excellent at navigating tight ruins.Silken: Swift, perceptive, and highly attuned to the shifting Miasma.Lupine: The heavy hitters, built for raw strength and taking down large threats.
- Make Your Choice: Reply to the Staff member with your chosen wolf. The other two will scatter back into the wastes.
- Registration: Staff will log your new wolf into the Master Ledger. They are now yours to name, develop, and command.
Expanding the Pack
A lone wolf is a dead wolf. As you progress, you must grow your numbers to secure your territory and run multiple activities simultaneously.
- Breeding (The Den): You may pair two existing Pack-Kin (yours, or collaborate with another player). Offspring stats are calculated via a weighted average of the parents' stats, plus a random mutation variance. All pups will inherit a unique genotype and the mandatory Blight-Trace marking.
- Dispersals (Encountered): While Hunting or Scavenging, a Staff roll might result in an encounter with a "Dispersal" (a randomly generated lone wolf). To claim them, you will be given a specific prompt (e.g., "Draw your wolf sharing a meal with the stranger"). If completed successfully, they join your ranks.
- The Marketplace (Purchasing): Players frequently sell pups or specific genotypes in the Discord marketplace. You can trade your hard-earned Scraps with other players to buy their wolves outright.
Currency & The Market
In a world without banks, Scraps are the universal currency. They represent salvageable pre-collapse tech, rare biological samples, and literal bone fragments used for trade.
How to Earn Scraps:
- Successfully returning from Hunts and Scavenging runs.
- Selling surplus meat, pelts, or ancient tech to the NPC Exchange.
- Trading art or characters to other players.
How to Spend Scraps:
- Survival Gear: Purchase items like Chitin Armor to reduce injury severity.
- Healing: Pay for medicinal herbs to instantly clear an injury cooldown.
- Genetic Catalysts: Buy highly expensive, rare mutation items that allow you to force-add rare markings (like Bioluminescence) to your next litter.
Stats, Genetics, & The Blight-Trace
Your wolf’s success is not just based on luck; it is weighted by their biological capabilities.
The Core Stats:
Genetics & The Blight-Trace:
Every wolf has a visible genotype code on the Master Ledger (e.g., Base:VV - Dilution:Ff). When breeding, these codes determine the coat colors and markings of the pups.
Mandatory Lore: No matter the genetics, every wolf in AFTERDAWN bears the Blight-Trace—glowing, vein-like markings caused by the world's latent virus. When designing your wolf, this marking must be clearly visible.
Core Activities: The Gameplay Loop
Activities are the heart of AFTERDAWN. Every wolf can participate in one activity every 3 days (unless modified by items or injuries).
The Submission Cycle:
- Create: Draw or write your wolf performing the specific activity.
- Format: Copy the mandatory Submission Form from the
#resourceschannel. - Submit: Post your art and the form in the designated Discord channel (e.g.,
#hunting-grounds). - Wait: Staff will reply with your narrative result, loot, and injury status.
Activity Types:
- Hunting: Track mutated wildlife for food and pelts. Uses Perception and Strength. Failure can result in minor physical injuries (lacerations, broken bones) or hostile enemy markings.
- Scavenging: Delve into pre-collapse human ruins for tech, medicine, and metal. Uses Agility and Perception. Failure often results in environmental hazards (chemical burns, structural collapses) or toxic contamination.
- Territory Guarding (Sentinel Duty): Secure your pack's borders. Uses Strength and Endurance. Success grants Pack Prestige (used for clan-wide upgrades), while failure can result in an Aberration breaching your stash and stealing your Scraps!
07 // HIGH-STAKES WARNING: PERMADEATH
The wastes are unforgiving, and AFTERDAWN features a permadeath mechanic.
The Death Roll: When an activity results in a "Critical Failure" (rolling a natural 1), the Staff will initiate a mandatory Death Roll using a standard baseline formula:
- 0.1% Fatality: If the Staff rolls a 1 on this secondary check, your wolf is killed in action.
- The Aftermath: If your wolf dies, their status on the Master Ledger is permanently changed to
[DECEASED]. They can never again be used for activities, breeding, or lore progression. Any items or Scraps they were carrying are inherited by your pack. - Your Rights: You retain 100% ownership of the character design. You may use them as a personal OC outside of the AFTERDAWN game universe, but their canon journey within this world is over.
Art & Literature Requirements
To ensure a fair economy, all submissions must meet minimum effort requirements.
- Visual Art: Must be at least clean lineart, flat colored, with a semi-complex background (e.g., recognizable ruins, trees, or terrain—not just a color gradient). Shading provides a bonus to your roll.
- Literature: Must be a minimum of 800 words, focusing primarily on the character performing the specific activity. Proper spelling and formatting are required.
- Official Design Rules: For a complete breakdown of anatomy rules, base downloads, and how to properly render the Blight-Trace, you must read the official AFTERDAWN Art Guide before submitting.
The Master Ledger
We do not track your items or wolves on this website. All player data is held in the Official Master Ledger (a public Google Sheet).
- How to check your bank: Click the Ledger link in the Discord
#important-linkschannel. Press Ctrl + F and type your username to find your row. - View-Only: The Ledger is highly protected. Only Staff can make edits.
- Reporting Errors: If a staff member forgot to add 15 Scraps to your bank after a hunt, do not panic. Go to the
#supportchannel in Discord, open a ticket, and use the "Ledger Error Template" to provide proof of your missing loot.