Character Primer

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WASTELAND UK Player Guide .1

Welcome to the Wasteland
The plot team would like to thank Troy Healy, Luke
Gouldstone, Richard Crookes, Craig Harding, Reuben
Trimby, Max Dubiel and anyone else who has contributed
ideas, large and small, towards the Britain we’ve
created. We’d also like to thank Interplay for making a
great universe to roleplay in and our players in advance
for the contributions they will make in evolving our
universe in-game.

Contents
4 Britain after the Bomb
5 Map
6 The Lay of the Land
8 England
12 Scotland
13 Wales
14 Ireland and the outlying islands
16 Inhabitants

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .2

War... War never changes.

Since the dawn of humankind, when our ancestors first discovered the
killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of
everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage.

But war never changes.

In the 21st Century, war was still waged over the resources that could
be acquired - only this time the spoils of war were also its weapons,
petroleum and uranium.

For these resources, China would invade Alaska, America would

annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve
into quarrelling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last
resources of the Earth.

In 2077 the storm of a World War had come again. In two brief hours
most of the planet was reduced to cinders, and from the ashes of
nuclear devastation a new civilisation would struggle to arise....

The Great War, was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world -
indeed humanity survived, and the apocalypse was instead the prologue
to another bloody chapter in human history.

Because war never changes.

In the ruins of what was once the United Kingdom, humanity endured.
Some were spared the horrors of the war in vast underground shelters,
but for the great majority, no such luxury was afforded them. Thousands
of those who survived the initial exchange died within days, but some
clung to life.

Despite all efforts, Britain could not be saved. Even as elements of the
Government emerged to reclaim the surface they found themselves
resisted by those they had abandoned to the horrors of war - and with
so little resources to survive upon the survivors quickly came into
conflict.

Because war... never changes.

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .3

Britain after the Bomb
When the Great War erupted, it engulfed
the world in nuclear fire. As we reached
towards the final years of the 21st century,
there were few nations on the face of the
Earth that did not possess at least limited
nuclear capabilities. The Resource Wars
replaced diplomacy with limited nuclear
exchanges, often at the battlefield scale.
Those nations who couldn’t punch back
were knocked out of the fight quickly, and
their territories overwhelmed. So when
the Great War came, and every nation
on the Earth unleashed the full extent of
their nuclear arsenals against each other,
the sheer destructive force created was
unimaginable, even by the standards of
mankind. Earthquakes and massive tidal
disturbances sunk whole regions of land
into the sea, and the sudden and dramatic
force was enough to encourage limited
continental shift as sea waters rose as a
direct result of the two hour exchange.
The United Kingdom was utterly fractured
in the devastation of the Great War. What
had long been a tenuously maintained
unity between the four countries of
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales
was strained to breaking point by
nationalist tensions. A conspiracy of
senior British government figures had
long schemed and prepared for war - they
were uninterested in the fate of any of its
citizens when the Great War came. Long
had they planned fail-safes to protect their
futures - at the expense of providing them
for the British people.
When the Great War came, those left the very same ingenuity that had led them
on the surface were abandoned by the to create the weapons that had been the
survivors of the government when they downfall of the old Earth. While the old
retreated to their Havens - left to perish nations fell, humanity had survived in this
amongst the ashes of the world they desolate new world it had created for
had known. Few people found safety - itself - protected by nuclear shelters and
those who had not been selected by the bunkers, armed with chemical cures for
government to be saved in the Havens the once-fatal effects of radiation.
had very few alternative forms of shelter.
The few Vaults constructed within the Those that lived did not do so simply by
UK were too crowded to accommodate tenacity alone, for humanity endured as all
many, and the protection of alternative, life has endured - by adaptation. A certain
smaller shelters was questionable at breed of humanity survives on the surface,
best. Millions died on the surface when one better able to endure radiation and
the bombs came, burnt alive in nuclear illness. Bred by survival of the fittest or
fire, their shadows etched onto walls unforeseen mutations created by various
by the blasts. Millions more died in the post-war factors, the ‘new’ humanity is
days, weeks and months after, taken a rugged and adaptable species, better
by radiation sickness, starvation, thirst equipped to endure the wasteland than
and exposure. Over eighty percent of those who would consider themselves
the British population left on the surface pure.
died in the initial exchange, and a further
ten percent of the pre-war population
died in the immediate months after - but
a fraction of the population survived,
enduring the five years of radiation storms
and chaos created by the Great War.
The power that man had unleashed upon
the world was not enough to destroy
it. Even with the fire of nuclear war the
Earth endured the damage. Rather than
destroy the world, the Great War re-
forged it - vast amounts of wilderness
and wasteland inhospitable to man came
into being. Yet, despite all odds, humanity
survived on the brink of extinction through
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .4
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .5
The Lay of the Land
Britain, as a whole, is a very different Wasteland then the one found
in the former United States. While America was scorched clean of
life under concentrated nuclear bombardment, Britain suffered only
strategic nuclear strikes designed to devastate cities and fighting
capabilities. For the most part, large parts of Britain went untouched by
nuclear weaponry, though it suffered the full wrath of the apocalyptic
storms and seismic disturbances caused by the Great War.

In Britain, plants did not give way to the devastation of nuclear war.
Indeed, it was the plants that were the first to adapt. Floral mutations
in Britain are incredibly common, and the wasteland is populated by
new forms of plant-life better adapted to survive then most animals and
humans. The major problem preventing Britain from easily striking up an
agricultural society once again is that Britain’s poor weather, famously
caricatured pre-war, has only got worse as a result of the radiation that
permeates the Earth’s atmosphere.

Though the radiation is beginning to lessen, and radiation-storms have

grown infrequent, the effect of a sudden downpour of radioactive
toxin-laced rain can turn a previously safe area into a radioactive hell
in a matter of moments. For the most part this has made nomadic life
the norm for most Wastelanders, reverting to the early hunter-gatherer
fashions of the distant past of human nature . Those Wastelanders who
have settlements are dependent entirely on sheltered crops to survive.
To this end Britain is something of a honeyed trap - like the old story of
the golden paved streets of London, there may be fertile land, but it is
not necessarily land that humans can survive from.

The massive seismic activity set off by the Great War affected Britain,
the Earth-fracturing force causing tidal waves to bombard the coastal
regions of Britain, the west coast of the British Mainland, Scottish Isles
and Ireland suffered the most, as huge tidal surges off the Atlantic
Ocean devastated the coastal regions, swallowing whole islands and
sinking areas of the coastline beneath the sea. Britain now is a strange
place, with huge tracts of abandoned land, reclaimed rapidly by plant
life, and whole skeletons of cities consumed entirely by nature. Where
cities still stand and are still occupied, shanty towns and patchwork
repaired architecture marks the survival of human civilisation in Britain.

Only inside the foreboding walls of the New United Kingdom’s “safe
zones” - where freedom ends and the tyranny of ‘safety’ begins -
does anyone believe in the falsehood of a ‘United’ Britain. The United
Kingdom died in the fires of atomic warfare, its remains carved up
between various factions that have emerged in the wake of the old
world’s fall.

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .6

Statistics
Each of the regions below are provided with simple
statistics in order to give a quick and basic idea of their
current nature - this is supplementary to the region blurb
which provides a bit more detail on the region
Population
Light Population: Regions where the environment is
largely inhospitable to life and the effects of the war
are still felt greatly. Any population here is often spread
lightly across the region, often nomadic or confined to
limited scattered settlements.
Medium Population: Largely habitable regions, population
density is relatively low purely due to the decreased
numbers of inhabitants as a whole as a result of the
Great War, or because of factors such over-competition
for resources preventing the expansion of the population
to higher figures.
High Population: Currently unique to urbanised regions,
often due to increased population density due to the
smaller area of such regions. Very few regions in the
British Wastes can support such a population, to note
only the city of Brum rates in this category, largely due to
huge numbers of slave labourers.
Major Inhabitants
The primary ‘races’ of mutants or human cultures that
represent the majority of the population of a region.
The region may have limited numbers of other cultures
and ‘races’, but their number will be too small to really
provide representation.
Development
Low Development: Literally, a wasteland. There may be
small settlements but these will be rare and often short-
lived. The land is completely lawless, populated only by
mutants and nomads. (The desert regions of the United
States as seen in F1 before the NCR’s growth are a good
example of this.)
Medium Development: Larger permanent settlements
have begun to appear amidst the ruins. There are known
trade routes. There is some kind of law and order, at least
within the settlements and along the trade routes, though
it is generally independent and self-appointed, or loosely
aligned to an idea of law at best. (The Capitol Wasteland
from Fallout 3 is a good example of this.)
High Development: Areas of high development have a
central government or authority which tries to enforce
a consistent code of law and governance across its
territory. These authorities are also beginning to re-
introduce permanent utilities, such as roads, electricity,
and water supplies. (The New California Republic from
Fallout 2 and New Vegas is a good example of this.)
Advanced Development: These areas have either
preserved or recovered the full benefits of pre-war
technology, and as such are extremely, extremely rare.
Such locations have full control of their territory, thanks
to their enormous technological superiority, but almost
never have any non-violent contact with the outside
world. (The Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel are
good examples of this.)
Currency
While the Cap is the single largest currency across the
Wasteland, several other factions mint their own coins or
produce paper money - but in some areas, there is little
to no currency at all. Instead all trade occurs via basic
barter and exchange, either of goods or of services.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .7
ENGLAND
South Eastern Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Mercenaries, Nomads, Ghouls
Population: Light (limited settlement, primarily
nomadic)
Development: Low
Currency: Meantime Brewery Cap, Barter
Of all the Wastelands, London and the South East were
the most heavily hit during the war. During the Resource
Wars and the subsequent European Wars, huge numbers
of military facilities had been centred here, to ensure
that military command was close to London and directly
accessible by the government. Kent, for instance, once
the ‘Garden of England’, became the Guard of England
when it was largely stripped of its civilian population and
occupied mostly by various military units and munitions
factories.
Today the South East is a lightly populated expanse,
scorched and polluted by nuclear weapons. Large
expanses of this region lie uninhabitable to most humans
- those that do remain are by and large some of the
hardier wastelanders, most of them remnants of British
military families stationed in the region that managed to
survive the conflict by finding shelter in caves and other
areas. While the region is heavily polluted, large military
stockpiles draw in scavengers from across Britain.
Drawn to the region despite the large numbers of feral
ghouls that roam in its irradiated wastes. At the coast
of the region, lies the Franco-British Transit Tunnel, the
most stable route to the Continental Wasteland, guarded
by London-sponsored mercenaries who defend the
tunnel mouth from imaginary ‘foreign incursions’, largely
these mercenaries spend their time exploiting travellers
from the Continental Wasteland by forcing them to pay
tolls to pass their guard posts.
Ghoul City of London
Major Inhabitants: Ghouls
Population: Medium (relatively dense urban re-
settlement)
Development: High
Currency: Meantime Brewery Cap (Royal Mint
Destroyed)
At the north-eastern edge of the South Eastern
Wasteland lies London. When the Great War came,
London was the most heavily hit location in the entirety
of Britain. Some of the most powerful weapons hit the
city, levelling many buildings and leaving deep craters
in the ground. Being closest to the centre of government
did have some advantages for the population, however,
with many being able to evacuate to nuclear shelters
constructed within the city. However having suffered
from poor construction, the shelters only shielded the
people within from the initial blasts - people sheltering
in basement-shelters and the city’s Underground system
were equally as well protected. Over the course of days
radiation seeped into the shelters, exposing the survivors
to the pain and suffering of radiation sickness – a high
percentage of the population that had survived the initial
nuclear holocaust died in the shelters. But a number of
them did not die - trapped and surrounded by the dead
and dying as they found their skin start to peel away,
reducing them to corpse-like appearances, they became
the Ghouls.
The Ghouls have rebuilt much of London in the
aftermath of the Great War. Their irradiated city-state is
uninhabitable for all but their own kind, and they like it
that way - it is a very common attitude of Londoners to
look down at those from beyond the boundaries of the
city. In their mind, civilisation stops at the edge of the
ruined M25 motorway.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .8
The South Western Wasteland and the Woad Lands
Major Inhabitants: Woads
Population: Low (Dominated by Unsettled Tribal groups)
Development: Low
Currency: Barter
A corrupted vision of the Celtic ‘Old Religion’ saw a
resurgence in the South West of England. From their
seat of power at Avebury, the Druid leaders of the cult
outlawed technology, considering the damage it had
already wrought to be enough reason to give it up
forever. Over time the cult has grown into a culture,
spreading throughout the South West to Devon and
Cornwall. It has grown increasingly extreme as it has
spread, actively seeking to destroy technology they
encounter, even raiding northwards to do so. Eventually
the extremity of the anti-technological hate has led
to Woad attacks driving the majority of non-Woad
wastelanders out of the South West.
The Woads have increasingly fractured into tribal groups
as they have grown. Disagreements between different
branches of the religion as well as personal dislike
between various would-be leaders has seen the South
West divided between several distinct tribal groups.
The former heartland on Salisbury Plain, for instance, is
now dominated by the Peculiar People tribe, led by the
Chieftain Moonbeam, who claims to be the High King of
the Woads - a claim not recognised by the other leaders
of the various tribal factions of the culture.
Midlands Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Slavers, Raiders, Slaves, Settlers,
Nomads
Population: Medium
Development: Medium
Currency: Meantime Brewery Cap, Barter
It is the greatest tragedy that the most fertile region of
the British Wastes has been torn and burnt by repetitive
conflict throughout the post-war history of the region.
When the Nuclear Bombs fell, the countryside of the
Midlands was largely spared significant devastation.
While this region could have erupted with a prosperous
population, were it under the rule of law, it has instead
become a battleground for various competing factions
and warlords. Primarily dominated by Raiders and Slaver
factions, the region is largely under the influence of
the slaver-dominated city of Brum - an industrial hell
that supplies weapons to fuel the conflict between the
various factions, as well as to feed its own need for
slaves which serve as the primary currency in the region.
The majority of Slaver and Raider groups - or often,
alliances of both - that dominate the regional landscape
have divided the Midlands into various territorial regions,
regardless of the population that already live there. For
many Wastelanders the nature of this factional rule
is feudal - they are expected to pay some form of tax
and service to their rulers and in exchange go largely
unmolested provided they remember who is in charge.
These settlers live in fear of friends and family being
taken as slaves, or killed as a result of the disputes
between the various factions. Whether they are called it
or not, every non-Raider or Slaver is effectively enslaved
to the whims of the factions.
Besides Brum, the region holds a number of points of
interest, primarily the sunken ruin of Sheffield known as
the Pit - a mile-deep hole in the surface of the Wasteland
where the city collapsed into the ground suddenly and
dramatically. The deep ruin is a source of all sorts of
metal and junk that supplies Brum with a large amount of
scrap material from ‘down’t pit’ as the local say.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .9
Brum
Major Inhabitants: Slavers, Slaves, Mercenaries
Population: High
Development: Medium/High, stunted by disruptive
factional rule
Currency: Meantime Brewery Cap, Barter
A group of survivors began the rebuilding of the city
of Birmingham, hoping that they would be able to
use the surviving factory machinery to help with the
reconstruction of Britain. Founded by an alliance of
left-wing unionists, they planned to make the city a
workers’ collective, governed by its inhabitants. They
were successful in reconstructing a portion of the city
and restoring several factories, including a weapons
manufacturing plant – however before their plans for a
workers’ paradise could come to fruition, human greed
undid them.
The Free Canadian Forces, raised in Britain following
the annexation of Canada during the Resource Wars,
were one of the few military units to remain largely intact
during the war, under the command of General Arthur
Stewart. A right-wing fascist, Stewart invaded the city
and stamped down on the leaders of the workers’ state.
The warlord’s rule of the city was short lived, as over
time petty conflict between the remains of the Canadian
forces and the arrival of new factions to the city
gradually led to his assassination - leading to the grand
tradition of factional conflict that has defined the rule of
the city.
Today, the city has been largely ‘reconstructed’ - while
some elements of the city are still devastated from the
limited nuclear attacks against Birmingham, the reason
that this city is known primarily as ‘Brum’ now days is
largely unknown. At some point in history, people simply
stopped calling it Birmingham. The red-bricked industrial
hell feeds on human life as if it needed their blood to keep
its colour. Every year the city consumes thousands of
slave labourers to keep its forges running, manufacturing
weapons for sale across the Wasteland. The city endures
purely by keeping the various factions in the Midlands
Wasteland too busy fighting each other to dominate the
city, and the New United Kingdom ‘Haven’ at nearby
Warwick has so far seemed unwilling to risk its forces to
take the city.
East Anglian Alliance
Major Inhabitants: Settlers (EAA Citizens)
Population: Medium (Scattered Permanent
Settlements)
Development: Medium (Fledgling Democratic Nation)
Currency: Anglian Pound, Shilling, Pence
East Anglia is, as it always has been, quite a rural
region, particularly after Britain’s defences were moved
southward. While the empty shells of some former
military airfields remain, what settlements there are - and
there are many, even if they are all small and distant
from one another - are based around the locations of
the most fertile land, and restricted in their size simply
based on how many mouths the area can feed, which is
never many. The Fens have once again been flooded by
the seismic disturbances of the war, leading to a region
in the north with a largely defensible, difficult-to-traverse
watery terrain.
It was the threat of Brum and the other factions that
dominate the Midlands Wasteland that inspired the
inhabitants of the East of England to band together in
mutual self defence against the Slavers and Raiders. It
is this region that is the point of origin of the Association
of British Constables (ABC), the alliance of somewhat
vigilante law-bringers that have sought to restore
some national law and order to the wasteland. Over
time, as settlements have developed in the region, this
alliance has solidified and formed a fledgling nation, the
East Anglian Alliance (EAA). The EAA is a democratic
nation, governed primarily by a council in the region’s
most intact settlement Norwich. It is guarded by a
mixture of the local EAA Home Guard, supported by the
experienced Constables, that enforce the EAA’s laws
across its territory.
By and large, the EAA’s forces are focused towards
the west of the Alliance’s territory. They engage in
occasional skirmishes with Raider and Slaver forces out
of the Midlands Wastes, protecting the people of the EAA
from the predations of these forces. However recently
sea-raiders from the Continental Wasteland have been
attacking towns along the EAA’s coastline. These foreign
barbarians have taken a heavy toll on several settlements
along the coast, taking several lives and burning several
settlements.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .10
Forsaken Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Mutants
Population: Light
Development: Low
Currency: Barter (if at all)
The Yorkshire and the Humber has suffered the greatest
destruction of any region in Britain. Prior to the war,
extensive elements of the British Biological and Chemical
Warfare Command - as well as underground atomic test
sites and nuclear missile silos - were relocated to the
region. After London and the South East, Yorkshire and
the Humber region were the most heavily targeted by
atomic weaponry. The once fertile land was burnt clean
and poisoned by toxins. Rumours persist that Yorkshire
was the site of several Havens and at least two BVAC
Vaults, but even the most prepared people could not
escape the region’s fate. Something escaped from the
bases of this region, flooding the water supply - an
aggressively infectious virus quickly spread across the
region, infecting hundreds. Rather than being deadly, this
malaise was mutagenic, causing sudden and dramatic
mutations in infected individuals. Even if it was not
deadly, however, its effects made many wish they were
dead.
These mutations are not uniform, unlike those
encountered due to necrotic radiation. Instead, they
affect individuals in unique fashions, leading to a varied
and monstrous appearance of the mutants encountered
in this region. While the virus gives some immunity to
the effects of radiation for those poor souls infected, it
invariably drives them insane, increasing their aggressive
nature. Containment of the Mutants and the virus is one
of the very few benign actions of the Slaver and Raider
factions of the Midlands Wasteland - unfortunately, the
spread of the virus into groundwater has made large
areas around the region equally inhospitable, and it is
unknown if the virus’ spread will ever be halted.
The Mutant problem is by and large the greatest.
Settlements along the border of the Forsaken Wasteland
are under constant threat of attack. The city of York,
which had managed to survive as a settlement for
several years, was only recently overrun by a concerted
effort of mutant bands in the region, showing an
unprecedented level of organisation from the otherwise
feral and savage once-humans.
The North English Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Free Scottish Forces, Raiders,
Slavers, Settlers (English and Free Scottish), Nomads
Population: Light/Medium (Scattered Settlements
and Occupying Forces)
Development: Low (Medium prior to conflict)
Currency: Meantime Brewery Cap, Barter, formerly
Mercian Groat (now worthless)
Northern England avoided taking nearly as much damage
as Southern England had done. Much like East Anglia,
little of the atomic conflagration fell upon the area,
thanks to the relocation of most of Britain’s military
assets to areas south of London. The survivors there
were of a sturdy, practical kind, and for years after the
war they began to rebuild, with permanent settlements,
limited agriculture, and the beginnings of a new, loose
confederation of feudal states based in the castles of
Newcastle, Carlisle, and Durham.
These stirrings of civilisation, however, were soon
interrupted by raiders and slavers coming up from
the south. Conflicts erupted over the resources of
the Cast Iron Shore along the western coast. The
Mercian Confederation fought bravely, despite being
outnumbered, but found themselves pushed back to the
Morecambe Bay area. This was only ‘safe’ overland
path and trade route from the Midlands to the North,
sandwiched between the devastation of Yorkshire and
the sea, and so held particular strategic significance.
When the Mercians encountered their northern
neighbours in the Free Scottish Republic, they were
overjoyed to receive an offer of military aid and alliance.
Once the Scots had been allowed into the territory,
however, they soon seized control, besieging the centres
of power and reducing the castles to rubble. Betrayed by
their estwhile allies, and too poorly equipped and drained
by years of southern conflict to resist, the Mercian
Confederation collapsed, allowing the groups of Midland
raiders and slavers to move up into the territory.
Ever since, the Northern English wasteland has been
devastated by the new war, with areas frequently
changing hands between Midland and Scottish control,
and the remaining settled population desperately trying
to survive as their lands are occupied by two uncaring
powers.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .11
SCOTLAND
Free Scottish Republic Caledonian Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Settlers (Free Scottish) Major Inhabitants: Highlanders, Mutants, Nomads
Population: Medium/High (Several Major Population: Light
Settlements and many minor Settlements) Development: Low
Development: High Currency: Barter (Scottish Dollar see’s limited usage
Currency: Scottish Dollar on borders with FSR)

The Free Scottish Republic (FSR) controls the largest
amount of land of all of the major factions in the
Wasteland, its domain extending over much of what
would have once referred to as ‘lowland’ Scotland. The
region mostly escaped heavy bombing during the war,
and as a result they have been able to maintain a level of
industry and a standard of living that most groups in the
Wasteland cannot. Unlike much of the ruins of Britain,
the Republic is relatively safe thanks to the efforts of its
Militia and Army in protecting the people from mutants
and other hazards that plague other regions of the British
Wastes.
Governed by a military-dominated “Veterans’ Council”,
the Republic believes strongly in the importance of
maintaining a strong military tradition. To this end it is a
requirement for all citizens of the Republic to do National
Service when they turn eighteen - on top of this, it is a
requirement for a citizen to obtain his franchise (right to
vote) with a further four years of military service. This
both reflects the role that Scottish veterans played in
liberating the region from British rule, as well as the
need of the Republic to sustain a relatively large military
force at all times. The majority of the Republic’s military
is devoted to the conquest of the North of England and
the wars with the Midlands, but a large number of its
forces are stationed along the borders of the Caledonian
Wasteland in order to dissuade the Highlanders from
raiding the Republic’s territories.
Inhabiting the inhospitable hills, mountains, and
inaccessible, windswept islands of Scotland, the
Highland Clansmen are more traditional and savage than
their lowland cousins in the Free Scottish Republic born
into a harsh environment and in constant competition
with mutant threats. These rugged people follow the old
ways of a clan-based society, with a caste system within
their own clans. What unifies them, ironically enough,
is their desire to be ruled by no-one whose home they
cannot see from their own front door.
Repeated attempts by the lowlanders to secure their
control over this difficult territory have consistently
failed, thanks to the propensity of the Highlanders to
band together, stoking themselves up for ferocious battle
with their inspiring but simplistic rhetorical speeches.
Adding to their numbers are the ever-increasing numbers
of outcasts from the Free Scottish Republic, fleeing the
nation thanks to their ‘exile or execution’ judicial policy.
Many of these exiles do not survive, but those that do are
often accepted into the Highland clans.

The Republic’s actions in betraying the Mercian

Confederacy and invading the Northern English
Wasteland have somewhat lowered opinions of it in
the South. However, day after day refugees flood to its
borders, seeking the relative safety that the Republic
represents. Not harsh at heart, the Republic largely
welcomes new citizens, providing they obey its laws
and serve their military term. The laws of the Republic
are practical but strict - it does not seek to impede the
freedom of its citizens more than it has to, given the
situation. The Republic does not imprison criminals, as
it does not wish to burden itself with their needs - rather
its judicial policy is ‘exile or execution’. Where a warning
or fine does not suffice, an individual will either be
exiled from the Republic’s territory or hanged - Shooting,
chemical execution and electrocution are considered
wasteful, and beheading is considered distasteful.

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .12

WALES
The Great Forest (Southern Wales)
Major Inhabitants: Settlers (Cardiff/Swansea Ruins),
Nomads
Population: Low
Development: Low (Medium in cities)
Currency: Meantime Brewery Bottle Cap
The fate of South Wales is something of a mystery. While
both Cardiff and Swansea suffered limited bombardment
like the rest of the country, the countryside of South
Wales is largely recorded as being untouched by the war.
The sudden growth of plant life in the region came as
something of a shock for its inhabitants. It is believed that
a chemical, not dissimilar to the plague in the Forsaken
Wasteland, led to major alterations in the plant life in the
region. Not known for its forest, within months of the war
a new forest had spread dramatically across the region’s
hills, choking abandoned villages in vegetation. At first
this was welcomed as a sign of fertile land - the plant life
spread into settlements, aggressively consuming them,
and it released toxins that seeped into the groundwater.
This effectively exterminated non-plant life in the regions
where the forest spread - and so people came to see the
forest as the threat it was.
There was little the survivors in South Wales could do to
stem the tide of the forest’s growth. Within fifteen years
of the war, it had utterly consumed most of the interior
of South Wales, spreading to the coast, and only at the
ruins of Swansea and Cardiff did the growth stop. Some
assume that it is the urbanisation of these cities, and the
pollution of the pre-war era that has rendered them some
defence against the growth of the plants, but they are
isolated by the forest’s growth, mostly surviving with a
lifeline of supplies transported by sea. Crossing the forest
is a dangerous option - while its growth has preserved
many pre-war artefacts and places, the plant life is far
from static. Rumours persist of carnivorous plants - and
worse -living in the depths of the forest.
Gwynedd Conwy National Power Complex and
the Northern Wales Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Free Scottish Forces, New
United Kingdom Forces, East Anglia Alliance Forces,
Raiders, Mercenaries, numerous other minor
combatants
Population: High (Major Warzone)
Development: Low (Advanced inside Automated
Complex)
Currency: Meantime Brewery Bottle Cap, EAA
Pound, FSR Dollar, Barter
Prior to the Great War, the near meltdown of the
Windscale nuclear power plant led to the relaxation
of the use of robotic workers. The concept of an
‘automated’ power plant was a popular one, given
Britain’s technological lead in robotics and artificial
intelligence, and this led to a grand undertaking in the
construction of the Gwynedd Conwy National Power
Complex - a fully automated chain of nuclear and thermal
power plants built directly into what had once been the
Snowdonia region of Wales. Though its construction
completely devastated the surrounding area, the complex
runs for miles beneath the mountains of Snowdonia,
with only limited elements of the facilities located above
the surface. Capable of providing enough power output
to sustain most of Britain following its completion, the
complex survived the Great War largely intact and
now serves as the major source of power for the entire
wasteland, where the national grid is intact.
Naturally, the disagreement as to who retains control
over the power lines leading out of the region has
sparked massive conflict between the factions within
Britain. The ability to control the power for the entirety
of Britain has attracted numerous groups to send
expeditionary forces to this region. The entire North of
Wales has become a series of reinforced fortifications
for the various factions, each locked in constant conflict
with each other. Some seeking to retain their access to
the power, others seeking to take control of the power
lines and hold the other nations to ransom.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .13
IRELAND AND THE OUTLYING ISLANDS
Irish Wasteland
Major Inhabitants: Wastelanders?
Population: Low?
Development: Low?
Currency: Barter?
For the majority of the survivors living in the British
wasteland, Ireland is something of a mystery. Prior to
the Great War, the land was on the periphery of British
interests - the British government had long relaxed its
grip on its tiny holdfast in the North, and by and large it
remained neutral towards Britain during the European
Wars for fear of attack by its more powerful neighbour
and once-ruler. For the most part, it is not known how
badly Ireland was hit, if at all, because of the limited
numbers of seagoing vessels available. Little information
is available on the country beyond what is passed on via
those who have had limited contact with Irish survivors
and those few British Wastelanders with boats.
It is largely believed that Ireland was devastated by
tidal waves and civil strife following the war at the very
least. Many find it hard to believe that there could be any
possibility of the rumours spread by sea captains being
true - some say it is lush and fertile, that the people there
are thriving in limited numbers safe from the horrors of
the Wasteland. Others talk of an isolationist people, who
turn away or even attack boats getting too close to their
shores. Still more talk of some horrific mutant horde that
has taken up residence in the region. Truly outlandish
claims speak of strangers from across the Ocean taking
up residence in the region. But no one believes those
who ply the seas around Britain - the motion of the
waves, the isolation, and something polluting the water
obviously makes them completely insane.
Island Wastelands
Major Inhabitants: Varied
Population: Varied
Development: Varied
Currency: Varied (Mostly Barter)
Asides from the British Mainland and Ireland there is a
plethora of smaller islands that form a part of the British
Isles, many of these were wiped barren of life as a result
of the massive tidal disturbances triggered by the Great
War, but a limited number survived, the more far-flung
islands such as those close to the Continental Wasteland
have had little to no contact with the mainland since
the war - those that are closer to the mainland have
limited contact with the Wastelanders in the mainland
wastes via the various sea captains who still operate in
the former British waters. Naturally as these people are
wont to do, the outlandish rumours of the practices of the
Islanders are many and difficult to believe - talk of cults
and large wooden men are particularly popular amongst
those with more classical tastes, but rumours of these
small communities resorting to desperate measures to
survive, going so far as to eat human flesh, mean that
many are somewhat suspicious of those coming from
these islands.
For the most part the Islanders are on the periphery of
the concerns of the major factions, there are rumours
that the NUK maintains several island bases as well as
the North Sea Oil and Gas Rigs, but these are largely
ungrounded, and few willing to risk confirming them.
Given that many of the large Canadian-owned Oil assets
in the region were ‘acquired’ by the American Poseidon
Oil company following the annexing of Canada was a
major source of contention with the old government, and
the possibility that the NUK would have taken over such
assets is not unlikely.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .14
THE NEW UNITED KINGDOM
Major Inhabitants: Shelter-Born Humans (NUK citizens) Refugee Wastelanders (Slaves/Peasants).
Population: Medium/High (Scattered Major Settlements)
Development: Advanced
Currency: Pound Sterling
The New United Kingdom (NUK) is different to any of
the other factions currently active within the British
Wasteland. The NUK represents the surviving elements
of the New Britain Party (NBP), the extreme-right (some
would say totalitarian fascist) coalition that held power
in the United Kingdom leading up to the Great War.
Self-serving and selfish, the NBP retained a monopoly
on the ‘Havens’ the network of underground shelters
constructed to preserve humanity in the case of Nuclear
War and equip them with the ability to retake and
repopulate the surface once the hazards of the war had
cleared, and the environment above was capable of
sustaining life. No one had counted for the ability of some
humans to adapt to the environment of Britain after the
Great War - certainly not the NBP. The NBP had expected
that the surface would be wiped clean by the Nuclear
Holocaust, that they would emerge into a world free of
those elements of society they hated and despised...
communists, liberals....the NBP rechristened themselves
as they retreated they became the New United Kingdom,
as that is what they would found when they emerged.
The NUK discovered a very different world when they did
emerge from the Haven’s, those they had abandoned to
die on the surface had survived, and had, to some extent
thrived, the surface had not been purged as expected
and the NUK quickly found that it was competing with
others for land and resources. Though the NUK retains
a major military force that is incomparably better armed
then any of the other major factions in the Wasteland it
is plagued by major supply issues which prevent it from
sustaining the growth in population it needs to expand.
Several of the Havens expected to provide resources
to the others have either failed, been overrun by other
factions or simply have failed to communicate with the
NUK since it emerged - for all its incredible pre-war
technology and immense firepower, the NUK has been
forced to seek solutions for this issue that have led to
major conflict since its emergence. It does not control
one unified territory, rather there are several Havens up
and down the British Wasteland that have formed the
centre-points of NUK civilisation. Very little is known
about their Government, in conversations some NUK
individuals have spoken highly of a ‘King’ and the ‘Party’
but very little information exist on either of these.
To this end many Wastelanders who found themselves
suddenly living in the shadow of this immensely powerful
faction, have become its slaves, the NUK extends
practically feudal dominance via the threat of force
beyond the walled-off settlements its ‘citizens’ call home
- fear of repercussions and the introduction of explosive
collars to maintain discipline has kept many in line. It
is a sad fact that, to an extent, this pitiful life attracts
many Wastelanders to submit to NUK rule, the limited
benefits being enough to encourage many to sacrifice
their freedoms for the relative safety of NUK rule. Very
few ever get to see the inside of the NUK’s much-vaunted
cities, and the rumours of life within the walls are varied
and wild, there truly is a belief that the NUK’s streets are
metaphorically paved with gold, that life inside of these
Havens is clear of sickness and radiation, sustained by
pre-war wonders.
No one really knows for sure what lies behind the
foreboding heavily defended walls of these settlements,
the dangerous, gruff and loyal soldiers of the NUK have
no interest in communing with outsiders, and those
who leave the walls are sworn to secrecy. Certainly
no one has betrayed the secrecy of the NUK and lived,
and neither have those who they have spoken to - no
one knows how the NUK finds people, but any smart
Wastelander is very careful about dealing with the NUK
- many would rather deal via intermediaries, usually
representatives from those Wastelanders in NUK service
then deal directly with these grim people. Not even the
greatest of the Raider factions are stupid enough to risk
the ire of the NUK, talk of heavily armed troopers, and
powerful pre-war power armour is enough to discourage
even the hard headed and most violent individuals.
WASTELAND UK Player Guide .15
Inhabitants
a rough guide to the ‘groups’ or ‘races’ of the Wasteland
Note :: On the usage of ‘Wastelander’ ::
Within Wasteland UK terminology, Shelter-Born banditry and violence to survive. Some
and that of the Fallout universe as a of them are well organised, militarily
whole ‘wastelander’ is a generic and Shelter-Born sometimes called Vault organised raiding parties that plan their
interchangeable term - by and large it is Dwellers are to an extent a different breed attacks and train their people - others
used in the same way that we refer to the of human from those that have grown up are simply psychopathic murderers
‘human race’. Because of the variance in the Wasteland, these are the lucky few and worse who have banded together
of human culture after the great war, and whose family were rescued from the fires like packs of animals for some form of
the number of minor mutations that make of nuclear extermination and survived in mutual protection and to work against the
post-war humans distinct from pre-war deep underground shelters, the majority defences of civilised settlements so they
humans, the term has largely come as a of these individuals that wander in the may continue their lifestyle.
replacement for ‘humanity’ and other such British Wasteland come from the Vaults
terms, allowing for the term to incorporate the shelters originally constructed by Raiders tend to organize into loose
mutants and other post-humans. the American company Vault-Tech and confederations of gangs in the post-
later administrated by the British Vault apocalyptic wasteland and are a constant
Administration Company (BVAC) which problem, because it’s much easier for
Nomads and Settlers took them over in the wake of Vault-Tech’s them to just shoot people for their money,
pullout from Britain. Very few of these food, and other valuables than to earn an
Nomads and Settlers are the two individuals emerge from the safety of honest living. Raiders typically prey upon
most common groups of individuals the Vaults, instead preferring the safety travelers and very small towns, leaving
encountered in the Wasteland these of their self-sustaining communities. more populous or larger areas alone,
groups are those individuals who have Those who do emerge are almost entirely where they are outnumbered, often faced
endured the war as best they can without considered to be complete oddities, often with superior firepower, and have no
devolving too savagery or other methods, their pre-war naivety gets them killed very element of surprise - some of the larger
they are the ‘civilians’ of the Wasteland, fast, or the fact that unlike humans who Midlands factions are known to attack
the ordinary average folk. What sets have grown up on the surface, they are larger civilisations, notably plaguing the
them apart from the pre-war world is ill adapted to survival in the Wasteland borders of the EAA and the FSR.
the world they live in and that they have and often die of illnesses, exposure,
adapted to survive. By and large they are starvation or rad-sickness before long.
descended from cultures of the pre-war They are however somewhat useful as Slavers
world, retaining a similar moral outlook, if their greater technological knowledge
adapted for the practicalities of living in gives them something of an advantage Slavery is an unfortunately common
the Wasteland. over those who have grown up with occurrence in the British wastes, while
lack of information available to common factions such as the EAA and the FSR
There is really no unitary culture for these Wastelanders. outlaw the practice and many Settlers and
people the only thing that distinguishes Nomads are incredibly hostile to it, the
them apart from each other is that Those who did not grow up in Vaults by needs of Raider factions and other less
Nomads are the homeless many, making and large grew up in Havens and are, as morally inclined Wastelanders for fresh
their home on the road, moving from place one might expect, subjects of the New supplies of ‘meat’ to carry out certain
to place only for as long as an area can United Kingdom there persists rumours duties they are unwilling to undertake,
sustain their travelling communities. Some that some of these have broken away drives the need for Slaves. Slaver is a term
of these are cultural groups, others are from the NUK but there is little to confirm applied to both those who actively acquire
simply wandering merchant caravans, these rumours. Many believe that the NUK and sell slaves as well as those who
entertainers and other such professions would have discovered these ‘rebels’ long use them. Many Slavers work alongside
that call upon a person to travel to make ago given that it must have a map of the Raiders buying those taken in their raids
a profit. locations that Havens were placed. - as one might expect many Raiders are
also Slavers. In the EAA and FSR as well
Settlers are those Wastelanders lucky as many other areas, Slavers are treated
enough to find habitable and stable Raiders with the same attitude as raiders, they
regions that are capable of sustaining are shoot on sight - the idea of slavery
larger communities, they are a far smaller Like Wastelander or Nomad or Settler, brings out a deep moral objection in most
number than the Nomads because of the ‘Raider’ is a generic term used to describe Wastelanders.
inability of most areas of the Wasteland a varied group of individuals. Raiders are
sustain permanent life either because any group of Wastelanders who pillage, Slaves come in all shapes and sizes, the
of devastated ground, or because of the plunder, murder, or otherwise ruin the day reasons for enslaving an individual are
conflicts that still rage across Britain. of anyone unfortunate enough to not be greatly varied - some might be for work,
The majority of these people make their one of them. In pre-war Britain they would some for pleasure and others still might be
homes in either the EAA or the NSR as be criminals and outlaws, hunted by bought for pit-fighting - the endless varied
only these factions really have the forces authority, and while some Wastelanders reasons for enslaving an individual are
(and interest) to maintain a level order that attempt to bring them to justice they are what keeps Slavers in business. NUK-
really secures permanent those who have endured the reality of the ruled Wastelanders might not be referred
nuclear holocaust by turning to barbarism, to as slaves, but the tight controls placed

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .16

upon them by the faction makes them Tribals are outcasts from society, rejected out
little more than that - it is Brum that most of fear by those around them, often
actively utilises Slaves sending hundreds A Tribal is a Wastelander who relies they band together, and many turn feral,
to work in its dark and dangerous on far more superstitious and primitive preying like Raiders.
factories every day. methods to survive - as one might imagine
the Woads are by far the most common The uniformity of mutations is rare, the
Tribals found in the British Wastes, mutagenic plague found in the Forsaken
Mercenaries and Law Bringers certainly they retain the most territory. Wasteland rarely produces mutations that
But up and down the wastes and on some remain the same, rumours persist of other
Some people are born fighters, in settled of the outlying islands there are smaller, ‘species’ of Mutants in other areas of the
civilisations these people become Soldiers varied Tribal groups. By and large what wastes, but by and large this is a diverse
and Warriors but in the wasteland, where unites these individuals is that they largely lot, with only the Ghouls forming any kind
such things are not needed, they usually reject technology, some might utilise of a ‘distinct’ race of mutants.
find themselves falling into various roles. firearms but either out of lack of supply,
These people are distinct from Raiders in lack of understanding, or outright fear and
the eyes of most Wastelanders because hostility towards technology most will not Ghouls
they do not kill and prey on others to make use of anything more complex than
survive. These people have made some a bow and arrow. Most of these cultures Necrotic mutations were an unforeseen
element of moral choice not to use their reject drugs, instead relying by and large consequence of the nuclear fallout of the
abilities to help them survive, either out of on ‘natural’ medicines made from plant life Great War, some believe it to be the result
some moral conscience or the concept of and other ingredients. Many of these have of faulty environmental shielding, others
profit.. Some people simply aren’t barbaric little more effect than eating an apple, but that it is attributed to some genetic factor
and uncivilised enough to resort to murder a few have some grounding as cures for in those who suffered them, and others
to survive as a first course of action. things, and some are at least valued by still attribute it to certain environmental
other Wastelanders as recreational drugs. factors in areas where such mutations
The greater majority of these people are most prominent. Given the number
become Mercenaries simply because The reasons for a Wastelander to resort of necrotic mutations that have emerged
they need to feed themselves - often they to such a primitive state are numerous, since the War in areas outside cities,
might exploit those in need of protection for instance a number of tribal groups suggests it may be a combination of all
from threats, sometimes they will use were founded by children left to fend for these factors. Given the massively diverse
fear of violence to earn their keep, but themselves, over the generations the population of London prior to the Great
they rarely kill unless they have to. The technical knowledge simply has been War, it seems that more than simple
greater majority are employed by smaller left out of these groups, leaving them in a genetics were at work in creating such a
factions and settlements that do not primative state. Others such as the Woads large number of these mutants inside of
have individuals within their community simply reject it out of a pseudo-religious London
capable of providing the kind of protection principle, and anti-tech stance that
they need - either due to major Raider their cultures take. By and large Tribals While out-would appearances of necrotic
threats, or because of some of the more are rare, and strange people, who hide mutants are hideous to look upon, giving
deadly mutant creatures found in the themselves from civilisation. them the appearance that has earned
Wastes. them the common nick-name of Ghouls,
the mutation has proven advantageous
Law Bringers are the noble few, usually Mutants in the extent of granting these mutants a
members of the EAA based Association state of cellular regeneration that keeps
of British Constables, who do not seek to Racism is still a problem, even in the them effectively ‘young’ allowing them to
profit from their talents and instead seek British Wasteland, while colour and creed have massively extended lifespans, there
to provide some semblance of law and might not be a defining factor, it is fear of are no known cases of necrotic mutants
order in the Wasteland, at the very least the mutant that often brings out the worst dying of old age. Radiation has no physical
protecting innocent folk from the threats side in most Wastelanders, while some effect upon Ghouls though it has been
that the Great War bore. These individuals have come to accept Ghouls despite their noted that high levels of radiation have a
do not seek payment for their work rather grisly appearance, many struggle profound effect on brain chemistry, driving
(though they might accept gifts from those to accept the more dramatically mutated them gradually more feral and insane.
they protect) instead they are motivated individuals that might have once been Ghouls generally belong ‘culturally’ to
by moral reasons - the Constables of humans. Mutations in the wasteland are one of the above groups, but many are
the Association are a ranger-esque rarely due to nuclear fallout, radiation is distinctly aware of their conditions, having
number, largely devoted to providing not the greatest of catalysts, as it more lived with them since the Great War
some form of ‘frontier law’ and protection often poisons and kills individuals then it leading them to be somewhat sarcastic
to the settlements scattered out in the does mutate them. Rather it is a series of when met with racism, a very human
wastes away from the major centres of pre-war chemicals and viruses that seem attribute that makes others accept them
civilisation. to be capable of encourage dramatic more easily than other mutants.
evolutions of humankind. Most Mutants

WASTELAND UK Player Guide .17