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Nuked! Player Rules

Overview

This source functions as a compact player-rule handout for running harsh post-apocalyptic play with minimal mechanical overhead.

Design Value

  • Fast onboarding for low-prep survival sessions.
  • Clear player-facing expectations for risk and scarcity.
  • Good fit for one-shots and interlude expeditions.

Core Resolution Loop

The raw source defines a clear four-step action structure:

  1. Referee describes what the characters perceive.
  2. Players state what they do.
  3. If the action is possible but risky, the referee telegraphs consequences and calls for an ability test.
  4. Success resolves as intended; failure resolves with situational consequences.

Impossible actions are not rolled. Some actions take time or tools without requiring tests.

Ability and Test Procedure

  • Roll d20 equal to or under the relevant ability to succeed.
  • Opposed tests: both sides roll; highest successful roll wins.
  • If both opposed rolls fail, both sides suffer consequences.
  • Advantage/disadvantage is applied by rolling 2d20 and keeping best/worst.

This keeps the system in the old-school "rulings first" mode while preserving a predictable core.

Combat Sequence

Combat operation:

  1. PCs make Agility tests for initiative.
  2. Successful PCs act first, then NPCs, then failed PCs.
  3. On turn: move (30 ft) and take one action.
  4. Attack test uses Muscle (melee), Sense (ranged), or Brains (relics).
  5. Defender chooses Counter-Attack or Dodge.
  6. Attack, counter, and dodge rolls resolve simultaneously.

Damage model details:

  • Damage dice can explode.
  • Defense die reduces incoming damage.
  • 0 HP is unconscious; below 0 HP is dead.
  • Damage types are acid, energy, physical, poison, radiation.

Stunts and Fiction-First Tradeoff

The source allows damage-for-effect exchange:

  • on a successful attack opportunity, declare a stunt (trip, disarm, grapple, etc.),
  • target chooses to take stunt effect or weapon damage.

This gives tactical texture without adding subsystem complexity.

Attrition Economy (Usage Dice)

After combat, used weapons/armor roll usage dice:

  • result 1-2 degrades the item's usage die.

Combined with deprivation rules, this creates constant survival pressure even in short expeditions.

Recovery and Deprivation

Survival loop:

  • meal plus full rest restores 1d8 HP,
  • deprivation (food/water/sleep over 24h) prevents healing and imposes disadvantage,
  • each deprived day adds one fatigue slot,
  • safe haven rest restores HP and clears fatigue if deprivation cause is solved.

Character Generation Compression

The raw source supports fast zero-to-play chargen:

  • Abilities: 2d6+6 in order, then one swap.
  • HP: 1d8.
  • Grit: 8 minus starting HP; one-use rerolls.
  • Start with one trait pick from Perk/Mutation options plus random character traits.
  • Starting loadout: ration/water/fuel usage dice and rolled gear/armor/weapons.

Table and Content Inventory

The source includes a complete quick-start table suite rather than only rules prose:

  • Starting armor table (d20 tiered from no armor to heavy armor + shield).
  • Starting weapon table (d20 spanning melee, handgun, bow, rifle, shotgun, carbine).
  • Scrapper gear table (d20 utility items with Usage Die quality).
  • Trait generators for physique, clothes, scars, virtue, vice, and background.
  • Junk-pocket generation and perk/mutation selection hooks.

This means it can run as a stand-alone player packet for one-shot setup without additional chargen supplements.

Campaign Pressure Model

Nuked's pressure comes from three linked attrition channels:

  1. HP loss and lethality at 0/below-0 thresholds.
  2. Equipment decay through post-combat usage-die rolls.
  3. Deprivation leading to disadvantage and fatigue-slot tax.

That triad creates a stable survival tone even with very light rules overhead.

Referee Utility for Science-Fantasy Campaigns

The strongest extracted value for your depot is procedural economy:

  • minimal rules overhead,
  • explicit wear-and-tear loop,
  • portable stunt mechanic,
  • immediate wasteland tone from character tables.

This makes the source a strong reference for survival-heavy modules and harsh side procedures.

See Also