The strange world of Ehrth is both like and unlike our own world. In the distant past, in the Devonian Period, the world was ruled by a highly advanced 'Silurian' civilization of reptoids that, it is believed by modern archeologists who have studied their legacy, traveled to other worlds and dimensions. Some researchers believe the Silurians to have originated on Mars. Alongside the Silurians, the remains of an prehistoric civilization of intelligent and highly advanced synapsids have also been discovered in the ice deep beneath the Antarctic -- these apparently referred to themselves as the Khor (also spelled Khorr/Khoor/Khar/Khaur/Khaar), and may have arrived to Ehrth from the Sun. Whatever the truth, the vast and long-lived civilizations of the Silurians and Khor fell in great disasters, but their legacy was taken up by the Empire of Atlantis in the 'time before history'. The Atlanteans colonized every corner of the globe, and also pioneered the use of gene-editing alchemy to create the first mutant animals -- walking, talking fauna that lived alongside, and sometimes in conflict with, their human creators.The Atlantean legacy was revived by the ancient Greeks, who handed on this legacy to the Romans, and then to subsequent civilizations.As a consequence, the world of Ehrth has consistently enjoyed a comparative level of technology roughly three centuries advanced beyond that of our Earth, though this technology has an occult flavor based on the Silurian and Khor legacy upon which it was established -- alchemical processes and 'philosopher stone' engines, black Vril-energy machines, Ethererum-tech ornithopters, and so forth. Nothing quite seems to have gone quite right in the world of Ehrth since the Gotterdammerung, a 1 teraton Ethereum Nuke, was detonated over the Princely States of Germania, specifically the Rattenreich 'throne city' of Kroenigsburg, at the close of the 30 Years War. The perpetrators of this dreadful deed remain unknown, but its effects are undeniable. The Central Plain of Europa was transformed into a polluted wasteland of blast-riven cities populated by mutants and the living dead. The mutated Kommandants of the Rattenreich of Prussien now command vast legions of zombies and mutants as they strive against their fellow warlords and the other powers of Europa for mastery of the lands of their once flourishing empire. At the same time the Gotterdammerung was detonated, the lands of Ehrth from distant Nippon to the Dominions of New England endured a strange phenomenon known as the Three Days of Darkness, where the sun failed to rise for a fearful 72 hours. Since that day, the world has been plagued by increased demonic activities. Reports of encounters with ancient cryptids and supernatural terrors have become more frequent. Alongside the Three Days of Darkness, the despoiling of Central Europa, and the re-emergence of the leylines, a mysterious illness killed off 99.9% of the human population. The world now belongs to the mutant animals, and has for roughly two and a half centuries. These three great cataclysms -- the bomb, the rifts, and the days of darkness, were also followed by the opening of the 'gates' -- the openings in the continental icewall that surrounds the central territories of Ehrth into the Outer Seas. Atlantis and Atilla, along with other lost continents such as Mu, Thule, Hyperboria, and Lemuria, were all rediscovered or re-arisen. Now, the forces of Hades and Dyval both seek to make new inroads in this age. The 'Dominions of New England', a confederacy of mutant animals which dominates the Northeastern and central Atlantic coast of Northern Laurentia, is, in particular, riven by the influence of these two infernal powers... Time: Thursdays, 5pm EST-9/10pm est (4-5 hrs). System: After the Bomb 2e (Palladium Megaversal), as well as other Palladium properties (see rules) Format: Roll20 for sheets and rolling. Tableplop for battlemaps. Discord for voicechat (no cameras). More detail: I've been running this game for 10 sessions over the past few months. Unfortunately, we've had some schedule changes that require us to seek to add another 1-3 players to our current roster. The setting is a homebrew mashup of After the Bomb (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Nightbane, and Rifts.The world is basically the conspiracy theory setting of the 'ice wall cosmology' where the world is flat and there are additional continents beyond an icewall which surrounds the central continents.There are continents the approximately correspond to North America (though there are two North Americas -- one east, which is the primary setting, and one west, which is a wasteland), South America (with a huge impact crater taking out the 'southern tail', Europe, Africa (except the Mediterranean is bigger and there is an inland sea), Asia (except Japan is a peninsula), Sundaland and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea), Atlantis (in the North Atlantic), Thule (super Iceland), Hyperboria (super Greenland). Most of the continents are bigger than their real world counterparts. Here is a campaign map with prominent areas pinned: <a href="https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/d02a61f747d244f68c05d47f90570bb9" rel="nofollow">https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/d02a61f747d244f68c05d47f90570bb9</a> . I got a lot of ideas from these maps as well: The World Beyond the Ice Wall: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/art/THE-WORLD-BEYOND-THE-ICE-WALL-3-0-968699994" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/art/THE-WORLD-BEYOND-THE-ICE-WALL-3-0-968699994</a> . 1830 AD The Flight of the Eagle: <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/art/BTIW-1830-AD-THE-FLIGHT-OF-THE-EAGLE-948996288" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/art/BTIW-1830-AD-THE-FLIGHT-OF-THE-EAGLE-948996288</a> The setting history also combines the conspiracy theory of reptoids/annunaki with the conspiracy theories of an ancient 10,000 year old super human civilization of Atlanteans as reflected in the Assassin's Creed franchise or Graham Hancock's Netflix specials. The current campaign started in Camden, New Jersey, and has moved to Newfoundland, which is partially controlled by Vyking colonies established in the middle ages. The major plotline is the attempt to foil the machinations of a group of powerful servants of Dyval known as the Sable Circle. This is a druid circle of Jersey Devil mutant deer (basically red-scaled deer mutants with devil horns) that have turned to the forces of Dyval to oppose urban encroachment upon the Pine Barrens. The Sable Circle have infiltrated several settlements with their allies. The heroes uncovered one such -- a priest of Hela, Lady of Dyval -- in a town in the Pine Barrens. They are also allied with the Sedna'assa, a pair of tribes of the Inuit peoples made up of mutant otters and leopard seals that worship the goddess of darkness and death -- Sedna. The two great tribes of the Sedna'assa venerate their divine patron in the form of the Behemoth -- a killer whale lovecraftian mutant that assumes several forms -- orcas with tentacles or dinosaur feet etc., and the Tunbaaq, a polar bear demon with a giraffe like neck reputed to be invincible. The forces of the Sable Circle and the Sedna'assa have allied to drive out the settlements of the Vykings from Newfoundland. These have existed since the late Middle Ages much to the chagrin of the oppressed Inuits. The heroes have last stopped at a camp of a tribe, referred to as the 'ice spires' by outsiders, that is particularly renowned for their mastery of ancient Atlantean sorcery, which they have derived from the library buried beneath their clan hold. The ice spires camp came under attack from the forces of the Sedna'assa and their allies, and the resulting conflict has driven apart the ice spires camp, some of whom wish to ally with the servants of Sedna to drive out their long-standing oppressors, and some of whom fear to conspire with the children of the dark goddess.The heroes are intending to intervene in a current siege of a Vyking coastal city known as Rysvaltig. The forces of the Sable Circle have dispatched a dark priest of Leviathan known as Asuraman who has severed the leylines in the vicinity of the siege and isolated the city from aid. The full scope of their dark intent is unknown. These are the build rules -- we're using some homebrew rules to give a bunch of free 'quality of life'/'basic function' skills for free and to add an occ to an rcc for each character so every pc can be both a mutant animal and an occupational character class. #1 Attributes: Roll 1 more die than specified (i.e. 4d6 instead of 3d6), throwing out the lowest die rolled and tallying up the total as the final attribute. This continues straight down the line as normal. You do not have to accept any roll tally that is lower than 8. Then roll a second time, selecting the higher of the two totals as the final attribute. If you need a certain attribute for an occ, you can roll as many sets of attributes as you need to get an ability score array that will allow you to meet the requirements of that occ. #2 RCC/OCC: everyone's character has the mutant animal rcc and an occ. For example, you could be a mutant animal otter and an elemental fusionist. Or a mutant animal wolf and a nightbane. Or a mutant animal rat and an assassin. Both the rcc and the occ level up at the same time. You get all the skills and abilities/Bio-E modifications of both the rcc and occ. Take whichever hp/sdc advancement is higher. If you have overlapping skills from your mutant animal rcc and occ, either pick new ones or you'll receive a bonus for picking the same skill twice (I have rules for this, but we don't need to get into it unless someone actually wants to do that). There will probably be some other issues we'll have to deal with, but those comments should cover most of the rules interactions. Start at level 5. #3 Free Secondary Skills: To avoid having to come up with untrained skill checks rules for lots of common actions, I'm giving some common 'country skills' as free secondary skills so we can just have normal skill check rolls for this kind of stuff in the game. It's also going to be a pain if everyone fails common wilderness stuff like tracking b/c no one has it as a skill, so I'd rather just have that as assumed background competency to avoid getting slowed down by mechanical silliness. If you already get these from an rcc or occ, just pick another secondary skill to compensate. #3 Free Secondary Skills: To avoid having to come up with untrained skill checks rules for lots of common actions, I'm giving some common 'country skills' as free secondary skills so we can just have normal skill check rolls for this kind of stuff in the game. It's also going to be a pain if everyone fails common wilderness stuff like tracking b/c no one has it as a skill, so I'd rather just have that as assumed background competency to avoid getting slowed down by mechanical silliness. If you already get these from an rcc or occ, just pick another secondary skill to compensate. Note: Edit this list of 'base package' secondary skills if you need to to reflect a more urban background for your character. It should give you a sense of the basic kinds of stuff you should automatically be able to do. Communication Barter Language Sing Espionage Wilderness Survival Horsemanship Horsemanship: General Mechanical Basic Mechanics Medical Animal Husbandry Brewing: Medicinal First Aid Holistic Medicine Military Camouflage Physical Physical Labor Pilot Boat: Paddle Science Math: Basic Technical Breed Dogs General Repair Jury Rig Leather Working Masonry Rope Work Salvage Whittling Pretty much any Lore Wilderness Carpentry Hunting Identify Plants and Fruit Land Navigation Preserve Food Skin and Prepare Hides Track and Trap Animals Wilderness Survival If you're reaching for and need more skills, I also use these for npcs -- <a href="https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Skills" rel="nofollow">https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Skills</a> E for Easy = 50% + 5%/level A for Average = 40% + 5%/level H for Hard = 30% + 5%/level VH for Very Hard = 20% + 5% level #4 HP/SDC: You can roll your health value twice and taken the highest, and also reroll all 1s. #5 Equipment: I'm just handwaving this and encumberance rules -- just pick stuff that's thematically appropriate for your character -- don't be silly a have two boom guns or similar nonsense, but just pick reasonable equipment. #6: Advancement I'm not adding up xp -- it's a pain in this system since it's granular down to stuff like skill checks. I'll just tell you when you go up in level. I'll probably hand out additional micro- #7 The Palladium Books forums have several threads of homebrew that you can use if you want: <a href="https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=12&amp;sid=2dec163e6967ec098119575f78a48cd2#6" rel="nofollow">https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=12&amp;sid=2dec163e6967ec098119575f78a48cd2#6</a> #8. Extra stuff: Pick three special powers for me to convert to Palladium for your character -- this can be a Pathfinder or 3.5 Feat, Talent, or Path of War manuever etc. It can be a Savage World edge.