TEXT: 1
  
  This edition of the Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City was made possible 
  with the support of thousands of backers on the successful kickstarter 
  campaign organized with the help of Exalted Funeral Press. The cats of the 
  Violet City salute the Exalted.
  Art & writing copyright © 2019
  Art, writing & design: Luka Rejec
  Editing: MoonRat Conspiracy
  Development: WizardThiefFighter Studio
  Publishing: Exalted Funeral Press
  Infinite Support: The Heroes of the Stratometaship
  www.wizardthieffighter.com
  www.exaltedfuneral.com
  Time is the essence 
  Time is the season 
  Time ain’t no reason 
  Got no time to slow
  Time everlasting 
  Time to play B–sides 
  Time ain’t on my side 
  Time I’ll never know
  Burn out the day
  Burn out the night
  I’m not the one to tell you what’s wrong or what’s right 
  I’ve seen suns that were freezing and lives that were through.
  —Burnin’ For You, Fire of Unknown Origin, Blue Öyster Cult
  2
  
  The Ultraviolet Grasslands (UVG) is a rules-light rpg pointcrawl module inspired by psychedelic heavy 
  metal, the Dying Earth genre, and Oregon Trail games. It takes a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast 
  and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of space, time, and fuzzy riffs.
  The UVG is for referees, game masters, judges, players, and fans of rpgs who want to run a months’ long 
  science fantasy Marco Polo-style voyage across a weird, old world.
  The UVG is for any gamer who wants to mine it for inspiration, adventuring locations, odd characters, 
  maps, items, and random encounters. 
  The UVG is also an artbook knitting together my art and maps and writing. Yes, every nut and fault, from 
  layout to Lamarckian Monstrosity, is my own.
  It has been encouraged, and made possible, by the fantastic support of my fans on Patreon. Thank you, 
  heroes of the stratometaship.
  Now, enter the silver machine.
  —Luka, 2019
  Welcome to the  
  Ultraviolet Grasslands
  3
  
  Content
  4
  
  The Edge of the World ...........................................................5
  Why are you together? ...........................................................6
  Starting character ideas (d40) ...............................................6
  Travel quests (d12) ..................................................................7
  Before the Voyage Begins ......................................................8
  1: Time, What is Time .............................................................9
  2: Inventory and Sacks..........................................................10
  3: Supplies and Survival ........................................................11
  4. Misfortune and Encounters .............................................12
  Miscellany ............................................................................. 13
  Factions of the Ultraviolet Grasslands ................................ 15
  UVG Equipment ................................................................... 17
  Trade & Goods ......................................................................21
  Milk Runs ..............................................................................22
  d12 Trade Obstacles..............................................................23
  Starter Caravans .................................................................. 24
  1. Violet City: a last eerie house  ...........................................25
  Townships of the Violet City, 
  halls of the graceful cats  .....................................................26
  Carousing viole[n]tly  ...........................................................27
  Drugs in a purple haze  ........................................................28
  The last gastrognome: 
  the eating experience  ..........................................................29
  Hiring Help in the Violet City ............................................. 30
  Who vould hurt Vorgo?  ....................................................... 31
  2. The Low Road and the High  ............................................32
  3. Steppe of the Lime Nomads .............................................34
  4. The Porcelain Citadel .......................................................37
  The Porcelain Princes ...........................................................39
  5. Potsherd Crater  ................................................................41
  6. Trail to the Grass Colossus ................................................43
  7. The Grass Colossus............................................................45
  Madmen and clansmen (d8) .............................................. 46
  8. The Last Serai ....................................................................47
  Sectors of the Serai .............................................................. 49
  9. The Way Stone Graveyard ................................................ 51
  10. The Death-Facing Passage .............................................53
  11. The South-Facing Passage...............................................55
  12. Fallen Umber ...................................................................57
  13. Long Ridge .......................................................................59
  14. Behemoth Shell ..............................................................61
  15. Serpent Stone Marker .....................................................63
  16. Moon-facing Ford ... 66
  17. Near Moon .............. 69
  18. Three Sticks Lake .....72
  Arriving in The Three Sticks 
  73
  The Three Living Villages 74
  The Dead Villages & Wild Areas 
  76
  19. Spectrum Crossing ..85
  20. The Refracting Trees 87
  21. The Ribs of the Father 89
  22. The Cage Run ..........91
  23. Spectrum Palace .....93
  Places in the Spectrum Palace 
  94
  Deep Spectral Lore ...... 94
  The Secret Empress/or .95
  The First and Last .........95
  The Council of Five........95
  24. The Iron Road ..........97
  25. The Ivory Plain........ 99
  26. Dead Bridge .......... 101
  [Degenerate] Quarterlings 
  102
  27. Dark Light Passage 104
  28. The Endless Houses 106
  Endless Houses Generator 
  107
  29. The Forest of Meat ........................................................109
  Carnibotanic Generator ......................................................111
  30. Black City .......................................................................112
  The End of Space ................................................................ 114
  The Grand Observer ............................................................116
  The Five Portals ...................................................................118
  The Pre-city ..........................................................................121
  The Black City .....................................................................122
  Update Notes .....................................................................124
  Appendix I: Some Bits & Pieces ......................................... 125
  Vomes and Vome Nests ..................................................... 127
  Sealed Gates .......................................................................128
  A Town: Cerulean Five Oasis ..............................................129
  Glass House of a Dead Merchant Prince ............................131
  Appendix II: Languages of the Rainbow Lands .................134
  Appendix III: Historic Periods and Styles (d20) ................ 136
  Exploring the History of the UVG ...................................... 137
  Appendix IV: Life, Death, and Treasures ........................... 139
  Other Voyagers in the Ultraviolet Grasslands ................... 139
  Death in the Rainbowlands ...............................................142
  5
  PLACEHOLDER TOC - none of the numbers apply.
  
  A world begins when it emerges from the mists of time. So it 
  is with the civilizations of the Rainbowlands—which mark 
  their count from when the Long Ago ended and the Now 
  began.
  The Rainbowlanders are the humans of a later era, 
  undisputed masters of the fertile lands around the Circle 
  Sea, dwellers in the Eye of Creation. They come in many 
  shapes, colors, creeds, and faiths. They pile unkempt 
  technology and misremembered lore together into a 
  teetering whole. They rule the settled lands under their 
  polychrome deities of ill-repute. 
  This story is not theirs. This story begins at the edge of their 
  world, at the Left End of the Right Road. At the westernmost 
  outpost of humanity, the Violet City: bastion against the 
  hordes, entrepôt to the exotic sunset lands, and last port 
  of civilization before the trackless steppe studded with the 
  detritus of the Long Ago.
  The last glimmer of the Rainbow before the skin-blistering 
  glow of the Ultraviolet Grasslands.
  You put the Cat Coffee in the samovar and rub sleep sand out of your eyes.
  On the other side of the hotrock the Dwarf rubs magitechnical ointment 
  into his golem armor’s joints. That means it’s half an hour to sunrise. Same 
  thing, every day like clockwork. Perhaps it is clockwork. Everyone says those 
  Salters aren’t human anymore.
  The demon-talker sits down beside you, noiseless as always yet somehow 
  comforting. You pass it a cup.
  “Ah,” she gurgles, “you make the best brew. It almost warms my bones.”
  “We’ll all be warm soon,” rumbles Eater-of-the-Dead from his sleeping sack, 
  “we’re nearly at the Violet City.”
  The World's Edge
  6
  
  Starting Character Ideas (d40)
  d40
  Who are you?
  Why Are you on the road?
  Starting with ...
  1
  Decapolitan ambassador
  Sent by a grim corporation
  One black metal vertebra
  2
  Redland district folk hero
  Dreams of a world ending
  Half a white porcelain skull
  3
  Hexad enforcer militant
  Blood memories of a great patrimony
  Green brick with the light and warmth of a candle
  4
  Safranian merchant adventurer
  Tracking a missing ledger
  Pink bottle with a singing spirit
  5
  Emerald city preacher
  Seeking new converts
  Three machine beetles with gem eyes
  6
  Redland bourgeoise botanist
  Rumors of a fabulous autofactory
  Yellow plastic ivory tablet with four truths
  7
  Oranjetic travelling entertainer
  Found clue to abmortality
  Silver book proclaiming revolution
  8
  Greenlander nomad herdsfolk
  Ordered by an ominous disembodied voice
  Cabochon ruby with a regal hologram inside
  9
  Exiled pirate liberal
  Map to an unclaimed aerolith
  Intaglio red pearl of a lingish trader
  10
  Salt dwarf prospector
  Soul of loved one stolen by a horror
  Violet bone crystalized in soulfire
  11
  Yellowlander climate migrant
  Stories of a secret healing vegetable
  Copper star incised with naughty limericks
  12
  Undercover rainbow inquisitor
  Portents of a deadly machine demon
  Four brassy cogs from a soul mill
  13
  Undergraduate purple wizard
  Paintings of a gorgeous cyan seaside
  Dusty positronic rat brain in a crystal case
  14
  Dilettante noble tourist
  Pursued by loving enemies
  Small lavender plant that cannot die
  15
  Exiled bluelander noble
  Grandmother’s lost autowagon
  Translucent dinner-plate sized force disk
  16
  Secret azure cultist
  Brother was stripped into a ba-zombie
  Grey healing lichen culture in ceramic jar
  17
  Violet revolutionary emigré
  Master boneworker sent an invitation
  Manual of the vechs, annotated with scribbles
  18
  Oranjist courtesan singer
  Delivering a letter of inheritance to a count
  Stainless steel thermos of blood wine
  19
  Metropolitan accountant monk
  Cure for a plague that killed your son
  Glass tub of vampire-grade sunscreen
  20
  Volkan diesel dwarf
  Biomantic bible in a lost library
  Platinum necrogoggles that reveal undead
  21
  Woodlander elf-touched trapper
  Repaying debts to the butcher bank
  Small furry brown vome that giggles when petted
  22
  Settled steppe-lander engineer
  Visions of a world ending in falling fire
  Machine horse in dappled shades of rust
  23
  Wine vampire priest
  Bearing a priceless pearl for a princess
  Crystal personality box to create ka-zombies
  24
  Purplefolk doghead anarchist
  Tracking a vile intruder from the void
  Yellow-orange weightless rock—an aerolith
  25
  Half-ling lunatic seer
  Mind entwined with a dying sentience
  Blue and white mechanical hand
  26
  Scrubland barbarian hero
  Nightly dreams of a lost world
  Quartzite tooth of a space worm
  27
  Black gold industrialist
  Seeking a prosthetic body for mother
  Animate furry chitin kite
  28
  Violet city mendicant healer
  Ordered by the clan quest golem
  Carmine cactus that secretes drops of blood
  29
  Independent freehold archaeologist
  Keeping tabs on a rival explorer
  Cogwheel monocle with small pits
  30
  Old city tutor
  Exploring clues to the great forgetting
  Seven strands of unbreakable silver wire
  31
  Exotic wastelander summoner
  Possessed by a demon in childhood
  Citrine soul stone with a third of a hero’s soul
  32
  Tumult fisher wizard
  Seeking allies for a revolution
  Gourd fetish with cowrie teeth
  33
  Safirian ruins scavenger
  Looking for new lands for lost tribe
  Teal warlock helmet with three white stripes
  34
  Wildfolk demon hunter
  Compulsion after meeting a seer
  Yellow cape of pure steel silk
  35
  Cogflower necromancer lawyer
  Sheer industrial greed
  Unaging plastic travel cutlery
  36
  Pueblo heretic rancher
  Determined to end a crippling disease
  Rainbow unicorn horn
  37
  Dessicated slaver spy
  Found the testament of a dead god
  Grey cube that weighs five times more than lead
  38
  Moon mountain witch
  Pursued by furies and a dark fate
  Lime green onion-and-skull cup
  39
  Half-island syndicalist tinker
  Visions of glory and rebirth
  Clear crystal heart of a vile
  40
  Union machinehunter general
  A queer unease after reading a metal book
  Red staff made of fused ancient pistols
  100,000 XP
  Experience points (XP) appear throughout the UVG. In common 
  with many classical rpgs, referees award XP to heroes for 
  experiences: discovering new locations, interacting with strange 
  creatures, making good trades, recovering cash, looting weird 
  artifacts, or completing missions. With increasing XP, heroes 
  increase in ability.
  The book assumes that the maximum possible XP a hero can 
  ever accumulate is 100,000. If your game allows higher XP 
  totals, like 355,000 XP, adjust the awards to taste.
  All the players in a group, heroes and referee together, should 
  decide before play begins on what XP awards to use. This 
  incentive can greatly change gameplay.
  7
  
  Travel Quests (d12)
  This caravan, this motley crew, journeying into a wild, half-forgotten 
  land, somewhere between the sunset and the stars, where the 
  veterans of the psychic wars still dwell, ruminating on their lost 
  lives. What does it seek?
  As the referee (or as a group) you can decide (or randomly determine) 
  an initial quest that takes the whole crew into the Deep West.
  1. 
  Because It’s There
  This is a valid reason, lots of explorers go off to see something 
  new. Award 1d6 x 50 XP for every new destination explored.
  2. 
  Make Money
  Another simple, valid reason. Provide the party with a financier 
  that loans them the money for their first caravan (creating 
  a debt). Award 1d6 x 100 XP for every new profitable trade 
  route discovered and for every profitable trade completed.
  3. 
  Explore Forgotten Ruins
  A university wants to build its reputation with an incredible 
  new collection and hired the party to escort an archaeologist 
  or as archaeologists. Award 1d6 x 100 XP for every suitable 
  find recovered—remember to delay and cut the expedition’s 
  funding at the most stupid and inopportune moments because 
  the university rector needed a new dining room.
  4. 
  Learn Ancient Secrets
  Give each destination a 20% chance of having lore and remains 
  that lead to the discovery of an ancient secret. Once five pieces 
  are recovered a wizard can spend a week researching the lore 
  and figure out the Teleportation of Innocents or perhaps the 
  secret of Liquid Stone Lamps. Award 1d6 x 200 XP for every such 
  secret learned.
  5. 
  Diplomatic Mission
  A faction in the ‘civilized’ lands wants to foment strife among 
  the barbarians of the wilderness, to stop them from getting 
  strong enough to threaten the civilization. Award 1d6 x 1,000 
  XP for every war started.
  6. 
  Tribute Mission
  The party is delivering, or collecting, a large amount of 
  wealth—or perhaps a groom—to seal a diplomatic agreement 
  or pay a debt. Remain unnoticed and complete this delivery as 
  quickly as possible. Award 1d6 x 500 XP on delivery.
  7. 
  Escort Duties
  The party is helping 3 to 10 squabbling clients reach their remote 
  destination. The clients may be bumbling aristocrats, over-
  eager dilettantes, cloistered cultists, pampered merchants, 
  ivory-tower scholars, or amateur archaeologists. Award 400 
  XP for every client that reaches the destination alive. 
  8. 
  Raiding
  Start the heroes off as barbarians or semi-nomads in the 
  wilderness. Determine the goods their clan requires (animals, 
  armor, weapons, or medicine) and have them go a-hunting. 
  Award 50 XP for every sack of the required goods acquired, 
  regardless of means (including trade). 
  9. 
  Assassination
  A rogue leader of a faction, a scary wizard, an important 
  researcher, or perhaps just a beautiful gladiator slave, has 
  escaped into the wilds. The upstart must be taught a lesson 
  and their head delivered back to the Divine President. Provide 
  1,000 starting cash and give each destination a 20% chance 
  of holding a clue to the target’s location. Once three clues are 
  discovered, randomly determine the target’s location. Award 
  1d6 x 1,000 XP on delivery of the head.
  10. Witness the End of Time
  The party is convinced that the world is ending and must deliver 
  the holiest of relics, a large and bulky artifact from long ago, to 
  the Final Destination. Each destination has a 20% chance of 
  holding part of the map to the End of Time. Once three pieces 
  are recovered, determine the location of the Final Destination 
  and a key for unlocking it. Award 1d6 x 1,000 XP on arrival at 
  the Final Destination—The End of Time is optional.
  11. Saving the World
  The party is convinced that the world is ending, and must 
  recover the Holiest of Relics from the Final Place to avert it. 
  Each destination has a 20% chance of holding a clue to the 
  Final Place and a 20% chance of being home to an Avatar of the 
  End. Once three pieces are recovered, determine the location of 
  the Final Place and a challenge for entering it (use a death trap 
  dungeon of your choice). Award 1d6 x 1,000 XP on arrival at 
  the Final Place—The End of Time is still optional.
  12. Ascending into the Sky like the Shamans of Old
  The people’s myths tell of the Long Long Ago, when the 
  ancestors walked in the stars. Following visions from the True 
  Mother, a group of noble and ruthless warriors and seers has 
  been chosen to return to the stars and tell the tale of their 
  oppression and bring the Ancestors back to the earth. Each 
  destination has a 20% chance of holding part of the Key to the 
  Sky Once three Keys are recovered, a Demon of Lies appears. 
  Inside the Demon’s head is a crystal compass that points to the 
  destination of ascendance. Award 1d6 x 1,000 XP on arrival at 
  the space port. Actual void-faring is optional.
  8
  
  Before the 
  Voyage Begins
  Now. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?
  Did you let your players convince you that it would be fun to do a 
  cool campaign where their heroes crossed the trackless wastes 
  of Eurasia to discover new kingdoms in Oceania? Did you roll up 
  characters and set off hex-crawling across a thousand leagues of 
  wilderness because it looked cool in the Lord of the Rings?
  Oh, you’re in for some trouble.
  The UV Grasslands are big. They’re weird, sure, but first and foremost 
  they are mind-bogglingly big. Vast and empty—it’s that emptiness 
  that kills heroes because it means there’s no wishing well to drink 
  from and no turnip farm to plunder.
  But, hey, we can make this work. The UVG is modelled on the 
  historical silk road, trans-Saharan caravans, medieval pilgrimages, 
  picaresque fantasy, and stoner doom metal.
  The Players: Referees and Heroes
  I’m the author and a referee just like you (I assume you are or want 
  to be an rpg referee). As the referee you’re the bass-player of this rpg. 
  But this ain’t a dungeon, it’s a steppe. Still, it’s cool. We’ve got this.
  The heroes are the players’ characters. They’re out for adventure, 
  loot and revolution. Don’t assume they’re good. Heroes are not 
  good, they’re excessive and over the top. Over the top is good.
  The Moving Pieces
  The UVG is rules-loose and adaptable to most popular current 
  tabletop rpgs, indie or behemoth, but still—there are some rules.
  First is a series of rules modules for the UVG (XX location).
  1. 
  Descriptive Mechanical Skeleton: making it rules-loose.
  2. 
  Time: the key to making spaces feel big.
  3. 
  Destinations and Discoveries: places in those spaces.
  4. 
  Inventory: because it’s always a pain in the ass.
  5. 
  Starvation: because running out of water kills.
  6. 
  Misfortune: dysentery happens while you travel.
  7. 
  Encounters: you meet people as you travel.
  It’s followed by a list of terms to get you familiar with the equipment 
  at your disposal. Grab the Caravan Sheet (XX location) and study it. 
  It represents a group asset for the players. 
  Finally, look at the Big Map (XX location). It’s a point-crawl 
  consisting of destinations, routes, and points of interest on a vast 
  scale. All the players use it, drawing and writing on it as they play 
  and explore the fantasy steppe.
  9
  
  Descriptive Mechanical Skeleton
  “Think of them more as guidelines, not rules per se.”
  —Skittens Three-Horned, councilor and machine whisperer
  The skeleton of the UVG is descriptive, but though it assumes 
  playing pretty fast-and-loose with the rules, there is nevertheless a 
  solid, metal core underneath. Reading this section might help you 
  enjoy and run the UVG.
  The dice are not your masters 
  At the heart of roleplay in the UVG is a conversation between players 
  and referees, which creates a shared world. When common sense, or 
  uncommon, dictate how a situation should pan out, don’t bring dice 
  into it. However, when outcomes are uncertain, referees and players 
  should determine probabilities before rolling dice. And players? 
  Yes, a player can appeal a referee’s ruling, and after discussion, the 
  referee might adjust the probability.
  However, once the dice do come out, they are the oracle and they 
  determine outcomes.
  Classic polyhedral dice 
  UVG assumes you have a couple of sets on hand, from d4 to d20. 
  Sometimes a strange die, like a d40, might be written. Use a digital 
  die roller or a creative combination of dice in those cases.
  Glorious d20
  The twenty-sided die is the core die of the UVG’s descriptive 
  mechanical skeleton because it is my favorite polyhedron and 
  because it has a comfortable, flat spread of probabilities.
  High is good, low is bad
  Throughout the text, from encounters to random results.
  The stat test 
  Whenever the d20 comes out to determine uncertain outcomes, 
  that’s a test. It means d20 + Stat + Skill over Target. A common 
  format is “easy Charisma test”—this means rolling a d20 then 
  adding Charisma and a relevant skill to beat an easy target.
  Relevant test
  Sometimes you’ll spot the phrase a “relevant test,” this means that a 
  hero can use any combination of stat and skill that makes narrative 
  sense in the circumstances.
  Over-defined Tests
  Some tests, particularly misfortune tests, may have multiple fail 
  and/or success results—you’ll recognize them by relevant tables of 
  outcomes. They do not require a descriptive target beyond, “just roll 
  high. High is good.”
  One fails, twenty succeed
  In every d20 test, if the die rolls and turns up 1 or 20 this is a “natural 
  1 or 20.” These always fail or succeed. If failure is impossible, a roll 
  should never be required. Don’t try to build tension with fake rolls.
  Advantage and disadvantage 
  This is one of the better rules around and the UVG uses it broadly, 
  for every die roll from a d4 to a d100. Advantage (+a) means rolling 
  an extra die and taking the better result, disadvantage (-d) rolling 
  an extra die and taking the worse result. They are shortened to +a 
  (advantage) and -d (disadvantage).
  Advantages cancel disadvantages. Heroes can “store” advantages 
  for later and use multiple advantages at once to boost their odds. 
  Consecutive Rolls
  Sometimes a result in a table is written with a slash, e.g. 6/6. This 
  means that when you roll a natural six, you roll an extra consecutive 
  die, and if this is also a six, voilá—you have a rare result. Additional 
  slashes indicate additional yet rarer possibilities.
  Consecutive Criticals
  In combat, heroes deal x2 damage on a natural 20. Natural 20s are 
  also always consecutive, and every additional twenty doubles the 
  damage multiplier (20/20/20/... = x2/x4/x8/... ).
  Exploding Dice, not kittens
  Rarely you will come across other exploding dice, written 
  with a little asterisk, e.g. d6*. Every time you roll a natural 
  6 on a d6*, roll an extra die and add the result. Repeat as 
  long as you keep rolling sixes. Exploding dice come into play 
  with strange weapons, artifacts, and spells—and even if you 
  forget this little rule, it won’t matter much.
  Life not hitpoints
  The key resource of every creature, which keeps them 
  narratively viable, is abstracted to Life. In practice this is 
  exactly like hitpoints in most games, but the name change 
  emphasizes that combat does not necessarily entail 
  spurting wounds, and that words can, indeed, also kill. 
  Further, the UVG often assumes that heroes can activate 
  artifacts and spells with their own life force.
  Descriptive Targets
  The difficulty of a test is described in the text as trivial, easy, 
  moderate, difficult, or extreme. A hero must roll over a target 
  number to succeed. The referee may decide on a case-by-case basis 
  whether the actual target number is fixed or a little bit random.
  Target
  Number
  d6 Targets
  Flat Spread
  % Target
  Trivial
  3
  1d6
  1d6
  15%
  Easy
  7
  2d6
  1d8+3
  35%
  Moderate
  11
  3d6
  1d10+6
  55%
  Difficult
  15
  4d6
  1d12+9
  75%
  Extreme
  19
  5d6
  1d12+12
  95%
  10
  
  Six stats: SEACAT
  The UVG plays with six stats, named Strength, Endurance, Agility, 
  Charisma, Aura, and Thought. A stat of 0 is the minimum, 5 is the 
  maximum. They map to the ability modifier bonuses of the  stats of 
  classical fantasy roleplaying games.
  Strength is the active physical stat. It does what it says on the tin. 
  Lifting bars, bending gates. That kind of stuff.
  Endurance is the passive physical stat. It’s about how much pain 
  and strain a character can take. Long-distance running and such.
  Agility is the dynamic physical stat. It’s about applying the hero’s 
  body with precision and speed to dodge oncoming triceratopsians 
  and throw head-lopper bombs with razor precision.
  Charisma is the active mental stat. It’s vitally important in 
  Skeleton because it goes back to its classical Greek khárisma, 
  representing divine fortune and favor. The gods and reason hate the 
  uncharismatic, and Charisma also serves as a luck stat. When a hero 
  tries to batter down resistance to their arguments through force of 
  personality, this is what they use.
  If a player asks if their hero can find a war pig, greased lightning 
  mobile, rod of doom, or simply the latest edition of Burly Barbarians 
  at the town market, that calls for a Charisma check.
  Further, nine times out of ten, random effects or mindless creatures 
  attacking a party of heroes will target the least charismatic one first. 
  Clearly explain this rule to players before they generate heroes.
  Aura is the passive mental stat. It indicates how much punishment 
  the hero’s soul, spirit, aura can take when faced by horror and stress. 
  It correlates almost completely with Endurance.
  It is explicitly not Wisdom. It does not show good judgement or 
  shrewd insight. Those are character traits that the player may decide 
  for their hero, much like they decide on the color of the hero’s hair or 
  shoes, without affecting mechanics in any way.
  Thought is the dynamic mental stat, correlated with how quickly 
  the hero can process and manipulate information. Its naming is also 
  a silly reference to the Egyptian god Thoth.
  Stat Damage
  In the UVG you’ll notice that many dangers damage the heroes’ 
  stats, from starvation to disease to monsters. When the text simply 
  says something like “reduce Strength,” remove 1 point of Strength. 
  If the text says a stat is severely reduced, remove 2–5 points (1d4+1). 
  Reduced to a minimum means the stat is now 0.
  All stat damage is temporary unless otherwise specified or a 
  character dies, in which case, yeah, it’s permanent. Stats are one of 
  the key attributes, along with life, that heroes recover by resting.
  Skills
  The UVG assumes a preexisting natural ability to each hero 
  (represented by their six SEACAT stats) which is different from 
  learned skills (represented by an inchoate series of descriptive skills 
  which vary from setting to setting and over time within a campaign).
  Examples of skills might range from “Sleight of Hand,” “Swimming,” 
  “History,” or “Carpentry,” to “Project Management,” “Bricklaying,” 
  “Neurosurgery,” or “Golem Whispering.” Players and referees are 
  both encouraged to make up their own and to apply them when 
  they make sense—skills are one of the simpler ways to distinguish 
  one game and campaign from another.
  An external comparison: in UVG parlance there is no mechanical 
  or terminological difference between what other games call 
  proficiencies, tools, and saves. They’re all just skills.
  Skills are linked to the level of a hero and have a minimum score of 2 
  and a maximum of 6, except for dashing thief types, like adventurer 
  archaeologists, whose skill scores can go as high as 8.
  Skills define what a hero is good at. Anyone can use a first aid kit, 
  dive to cover from a bragon’s death weapon attack, or say they know 
  some history—but a skilled hero is actually good at it. A character 
  can attempt any task, even if they don’t have a relevant skill, but 
  they make their rolls with disadvantage and without adding a skill 
  score to their roll. For example, a Saffranjian painball star can try 
  to decipher the glyphs on a Black City pseudolith or a Cat wizard 
  can try to fire a laser rifle with those cute paws, but they roll with 
  disadvantage because they’re not much good at it.
  For a list of example UVG skills check (XX location).
  Gaining New Skills
  To gain new skills heroes must visit different locations and mentors. 
  At the end of a week of study, they make a moderate Thought test. 
  After achieving five successes, they gain a new skill. Simpler or more 
  difficult skills are possible. Heroes can gain one skill per level.
  Players can invent new skills they want their heroes to learn based 
  on their experiences in the UVG. A good referee may then pepper 
  random sites and non-player characters around the steppe, creating 
  an instant personalized quest.
  Sacrifice 
  Heroes can sacrifice something they value at any point to gain 
  an advantage or two—so long as it makes some narrative sense. 
  Exactly how big an advantage results is up to players and referee. 
  A standard sacrifice, as a rule of thumb, is 10 life for an advantage.
  Hakaba 
  Body (ha), soul (ka), and personality (ba) form the really existing 
  trinity of every creature in the UVG. In game terms, body maps to 
  Endurance, soul maps to Aura, and personality maps to Charisma. 
  This makes raising the dead and reincarnation in the UVG weird. 
  Check out the appendix (XX location).
  11
  
  Time, What is Time
  In most rpgs rounds, minutes, and turns are used during the 
  exploration of dungeons or ruins while hours and days are used for 
  overland travel and the exploration of terrain hexes.
  When traveling in the UVG a week is the basic unit of activity to 
  drive home how far apart everything is.
  What about precise distance? Only worry about details like miles 
  and leagues on the scale of individual encounters and locations. For 
  the UVG scale time is a better experiential measure of distance.
  The use of Days
  Heroes traveling the UVG will also find uses for days, particularly for 
  taking short rests (a day), roughly exploring a point of interest (one 
  more day), mucking around a destination, and, most crucially, dying 
  of thirst (a baroque and brutal subsystem built in days).
  Tally extra days accrued from misfortune, exploration, short rests, 
  and other miscellaneous events until they reach a full week. Then 
  repeat steps 1 to 3 (no rest) and reset the tally.
  A caravan is slowed down when the animals are encumbered, 
  passengers are sick, it is using slow, clumsy, or heavy vehicles, 
  and so on. At the beginning of every week: tally an extra day for 
  every applicable condition and adjective (thus an encumbered (1) 
  caravan with sick (2) heroes using slow (3), heavy (4) wagons would 
  start every week by tallying four extra days).
  A caravan is fast if everybody is mounted, they have an exceptional 
  guide, they are using excellent steeds, or fast golem vehicles. Every 
  applicable condition negates one tally per week—leaving more 
  time for short rests and exploration.
  Rest and Recovery
  In keeping with the emphasis on weeks; a long rest takes one week 
  and each hero recovers only one of the following:
   ⁘
  Their full Life (hitpoints or health in some systems).
   ⁘
  One attribute (ability score or stat).
   ⁘
  From one harmful effect (death, soul removal, and so on).
  If a hero is being cared for by another character, they recover more 
  quickly. Looking at the starvation and survival rules, you will quickly 
  realize this is horrible.
  Every week of travel:
  1. 
  Remove one sack of supplies per human-sized person 
  from the caravan inventory.
  2. 
  One hero tests Charisma for misfortune, which applies to 
  the whole caravan but heroes resist effects individually. 
  A different hero tests each week.
  3. 
  Check what encounters happen and resolve them.
  4. 
  Any heroes that did not participate in a fight or flight can 
  treat the week as a long rest.
  5. 
  Check if the caravan has arrived at a destination. Most 
  destinations are a week apart but some require two, 
  or even three, weeks of voyaging in the wastes. If the 
  caravan has not yet arrived at a safe location repeat steps 
  1 to 5 until it does.
  6. 
  When the caravan arrives at a destination, one hero 
  makes a moderate relevant test for discoveries and 
  notes any on the map. These are points of interest a few 
  days’ journey from the destination. There is a limited 
  number of discoveries available at each destination.
  Instead of traveling a caravan may stop for a full week. 
  When a caravan is stopped in the wilderness each hero may 
  take one of the following actions before step 1:
   ⁘
  Forage for supplies: with a moderate relevant test they 
  gain one sack of supplies. Difficulty varies depending on 
  how plentiful the wildlife is.
   ⁘
  Take care of another character, who fully recovers a 
  damaged attribute and has advantage on tests against 
  illness and poison.
   ⁘
  Set an ambush: prepare a trap to waylay other travelers 
  or to gain advantage in a hostile encounter.
   ⁘
  Study: ancient artifacts, scrolls, or items to figure out 
  how they work, learn a new spell or skill.
   ⁘
  Hide the camp: advantage to avoiding encounters.
  If the caravan is stopped at a destination each hero may also:
   ⁘
  Explore further for additional discoveries.
   ⁘
  Buy and sell trade goods.
   ⁘
  Every hero may pay expenses for lodging and food rather 
  than consuming sacks of supplies and, in some places, 
  even buy additional sacks of supplies. This action is free.
  12
  
  DestinationS and discoveries
  The UVG is a pointcrawl—this is a bit of jargon to distinguish it 
  from a hexcrawl. All it means is that in the UVG you have a series of 
  known locations (“destinations”) connected by a network of routes. 
  You can see them clearly on the suspiciously minimalist long map 
  of the grasslands.
  Destinations
  Destinations are main nodes of the UVG pointcrawl on the big map, 
  safe-ish known locations on the trade and travel network from 
  the Violet City to the Black City. Some of them are cities, some are 
  ruins, some are just famous landmarks. Each route between two 
  destinations has a label indicating how long the average caravan 
  takes to cover it. Some destinations have facilities where heroes can 
  trade, rest, resupply, even stay at a guest house of some sort and use 
  them as temporary bases of operation.
  Give the players a copy of the map of the UVG. It will help them 
  imagine how far they are going and what they can discover. 
  Encourage them to write and make notes on their map. Although 
  this is a group asset, it is also an inventory item, and should be 
  carried by a character. Warn the players that storms or fires may 
  destroy their map, and that they might want to make backup copies.
  Near destinations travelers and locals mingle, strange omens 
  mingle with decayed signposts, and messages inhabit curiously 
  forgotten bottle. In short, there is information, and some of that 
  information may let heroes make discoveries.
  You can expand your game world north and south from any point 
  on the big map.
  Discoveries
  Discoveries are interesting locations, usually within a few days 
  journey from an existing destination, which are new to the heroes. 
  When heroes arrive at a new destination, one hero makes a 
  moderate relevant test for discoveries. Have heroes take turns, so it 
  is not always the same character making discoveries.
  Limit the number of possible discoveries per destination to five or 
  less, unless you want a very cluttered map. Each discovery visited 
  and given a touristic once over (1 day spent on site) is worth some XP. 
  Discoveries near your destination
  d20
  Relevant Test (usually Thought)
  1
  Nothing but blank stares, but 1d6 days after leaving the heroes get to 
  experience an honest-to-goodness bonus ambush encounter.
  2–3
  Nothing interesting nearby, but -d on the next encounter check.
  4–10
  Dust and haze and broken dreams, that is all.
  11
  Nothing here, but there’s this amazing place near the next destination.
  12–15 The locals mutter and nod, ah. A visitor. Another foreign “discoverer.” 
  Note down one discovery.
  16–19 In the silences. In the gaps in conversation. In the forgotten words 
  there is a map. Two discoveries.
  20+
  The locals no longer read the old manuals or the old stelae in the 
  crypts of their founders, but here is a dark clue. Three discoveries.
  When they discover new locations, note them on the map and how 
  many days it takes to reach them. The precise location is not crucial, 
  but players will usually ask, so give them a d6 and a d8 to roll.
  Where is the discovery?
  d6
  How Far Away?
  d8
  Which Way?
  1
  A mere day. Maybe less? 1
  West, towards the Black City.
  2
  Two days.
  2
  Southwest.
  3
  Three.
  3
  South, towards the Cyan Sea.
  4
  Four. Getting the idea?
  4
  Southeast, to the Red Mountains.
  5
  Five.
  5
  East, towards civilization.
  6
  Six. This is redundant.
  6
  Northeast, to the Moon Mountains.
  6/6
  A full week away.
  7
  North, towards the Silent Forest.
  6/6/6
  Right here! Hidden!
  8
  Northwest, towards the Flesh Coast.
  Example Discovery: blue Pyramid of the punta
  (2 days, 150 XP) 
  Eroding from a tufa cliff, a blue pyramid as hard as granite and as 
  blue as cobalt ceramics. Metal struts and bits remain embedded 
  in the pyramid, studding blasted entrances. At its summit a large 
  sphere was removed in some forgotten time.
  Within hyper-regular passages describe geometries leading into its 
  heart. There another blasted way thick with debris and skeletons 
  leads down to a devastated city of troglodytic half-humans. From 
  there worn tunnels lead up to a dead city buried in the tufa, built 
  around a prayer machine named Punta Mark IV. The machine offers 
  paltry blessings and mind-numbing platitudes. Fossilized machines 
  offer some reward ($500, 5 sacks).
  13
  
  Inventory and Sacks
  How do you convey how horrible it is to carry lots of gear long 
  distances without a hover-wagon, without strangling the players 
  with the classic pounds and packs as their heroes slog across a giant 
  savanna for months at a time? As with time, we change the scale for 
  the rigors of trans-continental travel.
  UVG uses sacks as a unit of measurement of the unwieldiness and 
  weight of things, not literal sacks. They could be barrels, crates, 
  bales, whatever. How much is a sack? A sack is:
   ⁘
  All of a hero’s adventuring or professional gear. Magic skulls 
  of memory for wizards, a year’s supply of swordmaceaxes for 
  fighters, golf clubs for the thief, whatever.
   ⁘
  A sack of supplies. Enough food, water, camping gear, and toilet 
  paper to survive for a week. Bad quality supplies cost $2/sack, 
  good ones $10/sack—or more the deeper they are in the wastes!
   ⁘
  One rider or unconscious human.
   ⁘
  A unit of trade goods.
   ⁘
  $2,500 in coins.
  In the interest of simplicity a sack is exactly as many pounds, stones, or 
  inventory slots as an average character can carry in your system. You 
  may allow very strong characters to carry multiple sacks if you want.
  The pleasure of Treasure
  Regardless of whether you award XP for treasure recovered or not, 
  heroes will try to make away with rare treasures like the insidious 
  crystal omphalos of Last Fish Heaven ($4,500, 3 sacks). How much 
  are treasures worth? You can either decide based on your rough 
  estimate, a hero’s Charisma test, or a flat d00 roll.
  d00
  Rough Idea
  Charisma Test
  Cash Per Sack
  01–50
  Uncommon
  1–10
  $50
  51–80
  Valuable
  11–15
  $250
  81–98
  Rare
  16–19
  $1,000
  99–00
  Exceptional
  20+
  $5,000
  00/0
  Unique
  20/20
  $25,000
  00/0: on a result of 00 roll an additional d10. 20/20: if a player rolls a 
  natural 20 on their Charisma test, they roll an additional d20. Yes, the 
  odds aren’t the same. This is because heroes are luckier than statistics imply.
  Treasure is Heavy
  If the heroes come across a series of beautiful crystal sculptures 
  with diamond eyes, why do they hack out just the eyes? Space.
  Any time a treasure or item is described with fancy words add a sack 
  to its size for every relevant word. Add sacks for heavy materials, 
  fine workmanship, intricate mechanics, cyclopean architecture—
  just pile it on.
  Example: the fabulous gold and marble statue of the metaphysical 
  insinuation of being by Jeerida the Artistique is worth $6,000 and 
  takes 6 sacks of inventory to transport safely.
  So Hack It Up
  A smart (philistine) hero can hack out 1d6 + Level percent of a 
  treasure’s value in one turn. This will reduce the value of the rest of 
  the work by 10x that amount in percent.
  Example: Pointy d’Or rolls 5%, gouges out the gold bits for $300, 
  and pockets them. The remaining defaced sculpture is now worth 
  50% less: $3,000. Yeah, looters like Pointy d’Or are assholes.
  Units and Encumbrance 
  1 sack = 10 stones = 100 soaps = 2,500 cash
   ⁘
  Sack: basic inventory unit
   ⁘
  Stone: a tenth of a sack, also a generic significant item, 
  like a sabre or spear or shield or shovel. About 15lbs.
   ⁘
  Soap: a hundredth of a sack, also a generic small item, 
  like a signal whistle or signet ring or spike. Or bar of soap.
   ⁘
  Cash($): one standard unit of currency.
  Each human can carry one sack unencumbered.
  Each human can carry two sacks encumbered.
  Encumbrance imposes disadvantage on every physical 
  activity. Impose additional penalties when a fighter is 
  carrying a platinum refrigerator out of a zombastodon lair.
  Players will come up weird justifications for how they are 
  going to rig up rollers, ropes, and pulleys to drag heavy things 
  long distances. This is good. Encourage them.
  14
  
  Starvation
  A sack of supplies is an abstraction of the food, water, camping gear, 
  video games, gum, prophylactics, nylon stockings, and toilet paper 
  a human needs to survive for a week.
  How Not To Starve
  Running out of supplies is bad. Waiting until things are very bad can 
  be terrible. Sometimes the weak must be sacrificed for the strong.
  1. 
  Cannibalise the expedition. This is the fastest way to get 
  supplies. A human provides one sack of supplies, an ordinary 
  pack animal provides two sacks of supplies.
  2. 
  Forage for supplies before the caravan runs out. If a hero succeeds 
  at a moderate relevant test, they gather one sack of supplies.
  3. 
  Buy more supplies in a settlement. Obviously. Prices can vary, 
  but between 2 and 10 cash per sack is reasonable.
  Some inhabitants of the Ultraviolet Grasslands may frown upon 
  cannibalism.
  Test vs. Starvation
  When there are no supplies left bad things happen—quickly 
  and lethally. In deserts without fodder animals test, too. 
  Supply Situation
  Endurance Test Target
  Full rations (phew!)
  No test
  Half rations (1 sack, 2 humans)
  Easy (7)
  Quarter rations (hungry!)
  Moderate (11)
  No supplies (thirsty!)
  Difficult (15)
  Success: physical stats are severely reduced and disadvantage 
  on all physical tests. Hero cannot die from this effect.
  Failure: hero is starving. Physical stats are reduced to a 
  minimum, mental stats severely reduced, disadvantage on 
  all tests, movement slowed. Hero can die from this. 
  Repeat the roll every week with reduced supplies. Heroes 
  have advantage on the roll if they do not travel.
  15
  
  Misfortune
  Voyages can be summarized as long periods of boredom 
  punctuated by moments of terror and loss. [Mis]fortune and 
  encounters simulate those moments. They deplete the resources of 
  the voyagers, threaten their survival, and provide vital color to the 
  environment.
  In the UVG Charisma is crucial in both cases. 
  The concept of Charisma comes from Ancient Greek, where it 
  referred to grace and divine fortune bestowed by capricious deities. 
  This wasn’t some approximation of “sex appeal” or “leadership 
  potential.” This was straight up divine favoritism. A hero could be a 
  complete dirtbag but her divine mother had dipped her in god ju-ju 
  and given her teflon skin. Others got the plague, she was untouched. 
  Others got scarred, she glowed with beauty and grace.
  Classical Charisma is utterly unfair which is why it works so well 
  in games as a proxy for luck, misfortune, and encounter checks. If 
  players are new to this concept let them know in advance so they 
  can adjust their hero’s stats.
  Each area of the UVG has its own perils and every week of travelling 
  a different hero tests Charisma to see what kind of bad luck has 
  befallen the caravan this time. Misfortune applies to the whole 
  caravan, but heroes make individual moderate relevant tests to 
  avoid the worst outcomes (like contracting a horrible disease).
  General travel misfortune and misery
  d20
  Charisma Test
  1
  Horribly lost (waste a week).
  2
  Contracted a debilitating disease (lose 3 stats).
  3
  Drought-afflicted land without fodder. Each animal needs a sack of 
  supplies. Starvation tests ensue if there is not enough.
  4
  Vicious food poisoning (lose 1d6 life), humorous side effects.
  5
  Floods wash away road (lose 1d4 days).
  6
  Contracted a loud, attention-grabbing cough.
  7
  Storm blows away loose item, soaks documents.
  8
  Weevils or dust rats get into supplies (lose 1 sack).
  9
  Pack animal wanders off. Lose 1 day or 1 animal.
  10–11
  Piece of equipment worn out and useless until repaired.
  12–20
  The road is dusty, long, and dull. Boredom grows.
  21+
  Your understanding of the steppes grows, gain one success towards 
  acquiring a UVG wilderness skill, like Mule Whispering, Steppeland 
  Protocols, or Storytelling (XX location).
  When circumstance requires, feel free to invent your own travel 
  troubles, or use this table:
  16
  
  Encounters
  Each week at least one encounter will occur. The only questions are: 
  how intense and hostile is the encounter, and what is it?
  Roll three d12s for the intensity, type, and hostility of the encounter. 
  If the total of the three rolls is 13 an additional encounter occurs 
  (possibly simultaneously). Keep adding encounters as long as you 
  keep rolling 13s (within reason).
  Each destination region has its own list of creatures and encounters. 
  Use that to further clarify the type of encounter the players are 
  facing. One biomechanical buffalo might be useful as a steed but a 
  herd would be very dangerous.
  “Remember: most encounters should not result in combat and not 
  all combat should be to the death!” 
  —Galina Foreburn 4-body, porcelain walker pilot and scout
  Sacrifice to skip
  Sometimes encounters waste time. Running into several angry 
  limping zombies ambushing the heroes may be funny once; but on 
  your way to the Blue Pyramid of the Punta those zombies are dull. In 
  such cases let the heroes ditch some of their stuff and narrate how 
  they overcame the encounter. If their story is funny feel free to even 
  dish out a reward.
  Simply sacrifice some sacks: one sack of supplies or other valuables 
  per level of the enemies. A pack of Red Hounds (L1, vampiric) will be 
  distracted with a sack of salamis, but it will take a couple of asses or 
  mules to distract a pride of Thundercats (L4, sword-wielding).
  Cut To The Chase
  In a chase the key question is: how long till the pursuers catch their 
  prey? The handwave and the fiat are both valid referee options. 
  Another option is for the pursuers to make a relevant test on the 
  Chase Table. If they are faster, they roll with advantage. If they are 
  slower they roll with disadvantage.
  Chase Table
  d20
  Relevant Test
  1
  1d6+1 days wasted on a failed chase. Led astray, possibly lost, and roll 
  for misfortune.
  2–3
  1d6+1 days wasted in a wild goose chase and roll for misfortune.
  4–7
  After a chase of 1d6+1 days those pesky fools got away!
  8–11
  Losing them. Roll again with disadvantage in 1d6+1 days.
  12–14
  Gaining steadily. Roll again with advantage in 1d6+1 days.
  15–19
  Running the prey down. Catch them in 1d6+1 days.
  20+
  On top of them. Catch them in 1 day.
  20/20
  Surprise! They prey took a wrong turn and are caught.
  Most chases over the long distances of the steppe play out over days. 
  For closer encounters reduce the time frame to hours or minutes. If 
  running a chase over hours or minutes replace misfortune rolls with 
  obstacles and injuries, like crevasses and lame horses.
  Morale: Fear and Loathing in the Wasted Wonderland
  Not all fights should be to the death: most creatures want to live 
  to ride another day across the glorious vastiness of the UVG, to sire 
  more offspring, to put off the end of time another day.
  When combat goes badly, when a leader dies, when a horror from 
  beyond the colourless wall emerges from the ventral cavity of a 
  camel the wizard just dispatched with his plasma rifle, its time for 
  a random member of the troubled side to make an Aura test. The 
  difficulty of the test depends on how badly the fan is being hit. If 
  the whole side doesn’t retreat, subsequent tests have disadvantage.
  Making or Breaking the Team
  Aura Test Difficulty
  Situation The Team Is Facing
  Trivial (3)
  Bad omen, upset stomach, impressive war chants.
  Easy (7)
  First casualties, unusual opponents, scary champion.
  Moderate (11)
  Larger numbers, multiple casualties, gore, monsters.
  Difficult (15)
  Overwhelming fire, resistant enemies, horror.
  Extreme (19)
  Invulnerable foes, mass slaughter, maddening horrors 
  from beyond time and space.
  A character (or group) that’s failed their morale test retreats 
  carefully from combat. If things go badly enough, or they roll a 
  natural 1, they may turn and flee—and devil take the hindmost.
  3d12 Encounter rolls: intensity, type, and hostility
  d12
  Intensity (Distance 
  and Time)
  Encounter (Who or 
  What They Are)
  Their Attitude
  1/1
  It’s an ambush.
  Utterly deadly.
  Murderous, disguised.
  1
  It’s on. Everyone is 
  surprised.
  Something very bad.
  Aggressive (attacks).
  2–3
   Close. Hard to avoid.
  Something bad.
  Hostile (may attack).
  4–6
  Near. Moderate test 
  to avoid.
  Potentially 
  dangerous.
  Unfriendly and 
  cautious.
  7–9
  Distant. Easy to avoid.
  Interesting, but not 
  useful.
  Neutral and 
  indifferent.
  10–11 Fresh tracks. Easy test 
  to read.
  Potentially useful.
  Polite or friendly.
  12
   Cold tracks. Hard test 
  to read.
  Someone useful.
  Helpful.
  12/12
  Easy to track and 
  ambush. Oblivious.
  Someone or 
  something valuable.
  Ally for the road.
  17
  
  Terminologia & miscellanea
  Caravan
  The caravan is like a group character for the players, a joint mobile 
  base of operations.
  Cash
  Coinage is listed as cash ($). Treat $1 as 1 base unit of system currency.
  Company
  This is the name the players choose for their caravan.
  Caravan Combat Company
  When a caravan or has a lot of similar combatants, it helps to treat 
  them as a simple swarm. You just need two numbers: their total 
  levels (add up all the combatants’ levels) and their total number 
  (add up how many combatants there are).
  Combat Company Stat Calculator
  Combat Attribute
  ...And How To Figure It Out
  Life
  5 x total levels. Every time a swarm takes 10 damage, it 
  loses one of its number. Swarms never fight to the death.
  Number of 
  Attacks
  = total number. One of the attacks is special, the others 
  are regular. Only 3 attacks can target the same target.
  Regular Attack
  = d20 + lowest level + 2
  Attack Damage
  = lowest combatant damage
  Special Attack
  = d20 + lowest level + total number
  Special Damage
  = highest combatant damage + total number
  Financier
  An NPC that fronts the cash required for a group of heroes to equip a 
  caravan and buy initial trade goods. 1d20 x $500 with 100% annual 
  interest should make things  interesting.
  Helpers
  For henchmen note down their primary skill(s) and their associated 
  bonus (assume their bonus is double their level). Helpers with 
  combat abilities count as fighters if the caravan is in a fight. Example:
  Black Joni (L2, gunsmith, hunter): forged in the fires of the Scorch. 
  Despite her mute visage, she is a kind soul who shows her love by 
  bringing dead game to her employers and crocheting poorly color-
  coordinated scarves.
  Mechanomagical Voyagers
  How many characters, creatures, or vehicles need no supplies.
  Motors to Fuel
  How many vehicles need supplies.
  Mounts to Water
  How many mounts need supplies in harsh environments.
  Mouths to Feed
  How many sacks of supplies are needed every week for humans.
  Meeple
  A useful piece for representing the caravan on the map.
  Mobility Attributes
  A caravan accrues both slow (wagons loaded with heavy bullion) 
  and fast (fresh horses) attributes over time. List both, but keep a 
  single tally of attributes: fast and slow cancel each other out one 
  for one. At the beginning of every week tally excess slow attributes. 
  Excess fast attributes negate tallies from misfortune or exploration. 
  Point of Interest, also a Discovery
  A pointcrawl sub-node, sometimes a dungeon, accessible from a 
  destination. Worth XP when explored. Example:
  Route
  The fastest connection between two destinations, with time 
  required marked in weeks.
  Transport
  Porters, animals, and wagons lumped together.
  Traveling Slow
  If a caravan travels slow they tally an extra 7 days every week, but 
  have advantage on all misfortune and encounter rolls.
  Visibility
  This attribute only comes into play if the caravan is explicitly 
  trying to avoid being spotted by large groups of bandits or other 
  (potentially) hostile NPCs who might want to “investigate” it. 
  Visibility equals the number 
  of 
  mechanomagical 
  voyagers, 
  motors, mounts, and mounts (to a 
  maximum of 95). Consult the table 
  at right and let a random player 
  make an appropriate Agility  test 
  once a week. Or just let them roll 
  d00 over visibility. That’s cool, too. 
  Round down 
  When you divide numbers, round down. This makes exploiting 
  fractions less interesting.
  Specific beats general 
  Where a specific mechanic clashes with general rules, default to the 
  specific.
  been seen check
  Visibility
  Agility Test Target
  1
  Trivial (3)
  2–5
  Easy (7)
  6–20
  Moderate (11)
  21–100
  Difficult (15)
  101+
  Extreme (19)
  18
  
  the caravan sheet
  Insert here
  19
  
  the Big Map
  Insert here
  Next, look at the Big Map (XX location). It’s a point-crawl consisting 
  of destinations, routes, and points of interest on a vast scale. All the 
  players use it, drawing and writing on it as they play.
  ADD NOTES ON LOCATIONS FOR THE REFEREE! MENTION 
  UNLABELLED HANDOUT FOR PLAYERS AND HOW TO USE IT.
  The next section, Rules Modules (XX location) goes into more detail 
  on the following five crucial rule modules for the UVG.
  1. 
  Descriptive Mechanical Core: making it rules-light.
  2. 
  Time: the key to making places feel big.
  3. 
  Inventory: because it’s always a pain in the ass.
  4. 
  Supplies: because running out of water kills.
  5. 
  Misfortune and Encounters: stuff happens while you travel.
  20
  
  21
  
  Factions of the UVG
  “Why do all of their merchants carry cats?” asked Poncho.
  “The cats are the merchants,” replied Demiwarlock.
  These are some of the larger factions encountered throughout the 
  Ultraviolet Grasslands. At your discretion you may permit heroes to 
  join (or come from) these factions.
  Catlords of the Violet City (Cats)
  The Purple God(dess), divinity of magic, and most prominent deity 
  of the Violet City has a fondness for cats. Indeed, cats are the rulers 
  of the Purple Land—through their doting human servants.
  Some or all these rumors may be true (d8)
  1. 
  Cats are the priests of the Purple God(dess).
  2. 
  The high magi of the University of the Citadel are changeling 
  cat-people.
  3. 
  Cats eat traveller babes.
  4. 
  Hidden horned rat masters secretly dominate the cats.
  5. 
  The cats have small, perfectly-shaped hands instead of paws.
  6. 
  There are doghead insurrectionists in the Broken Wall districts.
  7. 
  The cats are lazy and conservative and have no agenda beyond 
  staying in power.
  8. 
  The cats weave powerful charms to bind their servants to them.
  Names: Twinklestar, Brighteyes, Sleekums, Mazzo, Sparkles, Mr 
  Cuddles, Kittles, Lady Elegant.
  Catlords as Heroes
  Cats advance as wizards, they have cute little opposable thumbs, 
  sharp claws and a keen sense of smell (works like a skill).
   ⁘
  Bonuses: Cats start with 9 life, cats have higher Agility, 
  Thought, and Defence.
   ⁘
  Penalties: Cats gain less life as they level up, cats have lower 
  Strength and Endurance
   ⁘
  Feline Telepathy: Cats can telepathically communicate with 
  their pet.
   ⁘
  Ventriloquism: Cats can make their pet speak, like a ventriloquist 
  with their dummy.
   ⁘
  Enthrall Human (cat spell): Cats can turn an independent-
  minded human into their pet. A pet happily serves their cat 
  master until the cat grows bored and mistreats them. Level 3: 
  as soon as a human pets the cat it can begin to weave its magic. 
  If the cat succeeds at a moderate Charisma test, it has a new 
  pet. If it fails, the human turns out to be allergic. A cat can only 
  control one pet in this way.
   ⁘
  Cat Pet: A secondary character for the Catlord player. The cat 
  pet’s goal in life is to feed, groom, and care for “their” cat.
   ⁘
  Serpent Tail: Catlords have serpent-headed tails with narcotic 
  bites (moderate Endurance test).
  Humans (Rainbowlanders)
  The common humanity of the Rainbowlands includes all the close-
  to-baseline sentient and soulful post-humans. This includes the 
  Retro-Humans, Dwarfs, Half-Elfs, Half-Lings, Quarter-Lings, and 
  Half-Orcs.
  Rumors of Humanity (d12)
  1. 
  Dwarves are a culture-class of selectively biomagically altered 
  humans who fought the traditional aristocrats of the Red and 
  Orange lands to a draw and now form a major industrialist class 
  of the Rainbow Lands. Famously bureaucratic and collectivist.
  2. 
  Half-Orcs are the degenerate descendants of the combat-
  adapted para-humans of Long Ago.
  3. 
  Quarter-Lings are a motley collection of moderately rare human 
  phenotypes marked by Lingish traits such as exceptional 
  hand-eye coordination and odd fur patterns.
  4. 
  Half-Elves result from the Elf-Touch, a progressive neuro-moral 
  degeneration that prolongs their life spans as a side-effect. 
  Many eventually succumb to the Elven infection and disappear 
  into the Wall of Wood.
  5. 
  There was a mysterious sentient subtype in the past known as 
  the Lings.
  6. 
  Long ago a subtype known as the machine humans managed 
  to weld their soul-personalities to machines built from the 
  dust of the earth.
  7. 
  The Steppelanders are Sub-Human.
  8. 
  The great folk are degenerate bone-shapers.
  9. 
  The Greenlanders are the most industrious and devout of all 
  Humans.
  10. The Yellowlanders have the best noses for business and the 
  finest sense of dress.
  11. The Bluelanders were abominations, exterminated for their 
  worship of the Rot.
  12. The Orangelanders are all Half-Lings.
  Names: Bagaglio Misto, Colle deJus, Isamba Allorca, Deleuse Iaourd, 
  Van Gnee, Blanche de Namur, Soren deColpa, Ala Decapolitana, 
  Ugo Xorizo, Slaba Scialla, Imona Citronella, Origen od Grozze, Yuan 
  di Pusca.
  Humans as Heroes
  Humans can advance as any class, change their minds during 
  creation or afterwards, rearrange their stats a bit, mix and match 
  different backgrounds, and choose precisely how they look pretty 
  much at will. Do they want little horns, pointy tails, and golem-
  derived legs? Sure, fine—so long as they can explain it. There is a 
  large appendix section on the rainbowlanders (XX location).
  22
  
  Porcelain Princes (Para Humans)
  Steppeland not-quite-liches who seek immortality by spreading 
  their vital cognitive essence among several bodies linked by real-
  time glandular psyche-to-psyche links. Customarily each Polybody 
  Entity uses the same porcelain masks for every one of its drones.
  Masked Rumors (d10):
  1. 
  They are not more intelligent than before but the addition of 
  new bodies keeps their minds from dying.
  2. 
  The continuity of personality is flawless and perfect. 
  3. 
  The link between bodies has a limited range.
  4. 
  Princes do not like to send individual bodies too far by 
  themselves in case they go rogue.
  5. 
  Rogue bodies have on occasion tried to take over the original 
  parent sentience.
  6. 
  They always travel in groups of three or four to reduce the risk 
  of personality collapse.
  7. 
  They are conservative to a fault.
  8. 
  They maintain their oldtech porcelain walkers religiously but 
  without the understanding to repair them if they fail.
  9. 
  Any change to the status quo is a problem to be crushed.
  10. They are allergic to alcohol and it breaks up their psychic links.
  Names: Vitreous Spark 3-body, Orangeware Spiral 8-body, Engobes 
  Oxide 5-body, High Fire 3-cycle.
  Porcelain Princes as heroes
  The defining features of the Porcelain Princes are their masks, 
  obscuring their bodies’ original unique identities, and the fact that 
  they are one personality and soul with multiple bodies. 
   ⁘
  More Bodies: Adding additional bodies requires a body 
  lab, a specialist surgeon-psychopomp, a (hopefully willing) 
  body donor, and at least $2,000. Each additional body in the 
  polybody is essentially a fragile psyche-to-psyche linked 
  henchman with unlimited morale. 
   ⁘
  More Stats: Generate physical stats for the new body and list it 
  as a secondary body. 
   ⁘
  More Life: When polybodies are in visual (or glandular) 
  range treat them as having a single shared life pool, but every 
  polybody gets an attack. Add an additional 1d8+1 life to the 
  hero’s total for each extra body (optionally limit the number of 
  additional bodies to one per level). 
   ⁘
  Splitting Poly: If a polybody is sent off on its own, the hero 
  decides how much life to send off with it (roll a die if you like). 
   ⁘
  Every Body Burns: Area attack damage against a polybody is 
  multiplied by the number of bodies.
   ⁘
  Soul Merger: Heroes may merge bodies and psyches instead 
  of outright dominating the additional body. In this case roll 
  mental stats too, and use the better result. This may result in 
  significant personality change, including outright domination 
  of the original body (and class change and so on).
  Spectrum Satraps (Para Humans)
  Para-human cult or clan living far to the west, fond of bright-colored 
  suits that cover their whole bodies and glass helmets. They travel in 
  great prismatic walkers and are fond of illusions and radiant magics. 
  Fiery Rumors (d10):
  1. 
  All telepaths.
  2. 
  There can only be 360 Satraps at any one time.
  3. 
  They are inhuman colony swarms of vermin like rats or roaches 
  unified by transplanted minds.
  4. 
  Their suits are the actual Satraps; there is nothing inside.
  5. 
  Their language is based on lights and tones.
  6. 
  They store personality backups in great prismatic crystals.
  7. 
  They have no souls, the price for becoming creatures of light.
  8. 
  A Satrap can be embedded in a golem.
  9. 
  Satraps can be duplicated.
  10. The Satraps are all dead.
  Names: Satrap 13, Satrap 200, Satrap 359.
  Spectrum Satraps As Heroes
  It is unclear exactly how many satraps there are, but the number 
  seems to be quite small and each satrap possesses a unique color 
  combination and pattern. Within their suits (or are those mirror-
  faced secondary skins?) they mostly conform to a human body plan.
   ⁘
  Crystal Bodies: The spectrum palace and its outposts possess 
  great crystals which can replicate the personalities of the 
  stored Satraps. A Satrap character can effectively be restored to 
  its last save point, if its body is killed. The player with a satrap 
  character should make a “save sheet” when they want visit a 
  Satrap outpost, detailing all skills, abilities, and attributes they 
  want to store in the backup crystal. Restoring a Satrap body 
  costs around $5,000. Satraps in good standing have access to 
  service credits.
   ⁘
  Endosymbionts: Satraps can store small, telepathically-
  bonded symbiotic creatures in their synthetic skin (one per 
  level). These can perform specialized tasks, whether many-
  fingered monkey-lizards, or venomous rabbit-snakes. They do 
  not occupy inventory slots.
   ⁘
  Light Magic: Satraps retain some of the force-shaping magics 
  of Long Ago, creating illusions and scorching rays of coherent light, 
  as well as solid planes and lines of ‘hard’ light.
  23
  
  Steppe Nomads, 
  Steppelanders (Humans)
  The uncommon humanity of the vast steppes, inheritors of the Long 
  Ago, warriors against the vast madness left by fall after fall.
  It is said (d12)
  1. 
  They grow the best purple haze.
  2. 
  They are all thieves and raiders.
  3. 
  Their clans are all named after citrus fruits because they believe 
  in the Lemon World Tree.
  4. 
  Actually, they are named for colors, much like the 
  Rainbowlanders, they just take to more citrusy colors.
  5. 
  Actually, their ancestors came from the grasslands between 
  the Yellow and Green lands during the Latter Imperial Collapse.
  6. 
  They are actually semi-nomadic, settling for extended periods 
  around fresh springs or lush grasslands.
  7. 
  A nomad only becomes an adult after hunting down and 
  executing a violent mechanism (Vome).
  8. 
  They are oddly friendly with the Ultras, many of their shamans 
  visiting them in their dreams.
  9. 
  They worship underground grass cults and create wicker and 
  bone fetishes from their own essences.
  10. Farther west the clans grow stranger, and less human, with 
  more Lingish heritage.
  11. The clans oscillate between very egalitarian and horribly 
  stratified depending on the phases of the Dark Moon and the 
  weeping of the Earth Mother.
  12. They expose the weak and the infirm.
  Clan Names: Teal, Lime, Tangerine Dreaming, Pinegreen, Pine Nut, 
  Darling Tree, Fortunate Son, Unbroken Patrimony, Prodigal Father, 
  Copper, Jale, Citrine, Ever-Roasting Man, Ashwhite.
  Names: Saloc, Pugnat, Colpec, Saltat, Draganogac, Gromoc, Lisciac, 
  Lemonc, Sorbec, Passegiat, Rundat.
  Steppelanders as Heroes
  Though many cityborn disagree, the Steppelanders are as human 
  as they come, even if many have a bit more Ling in them. They 
  change their minds, rearrange their stats, mix and match different 
  backgrounds, and choose precisely how they look. From light fur 
  and dappled patterns to snake eyes or gills, it is know that Long Ago 
  many changes were made.
   ⁘
  Stronger: Steppelanders have higher Strength, Agility, or 
  Endurance.
   ⁘
  Vulnerable: But their immune systems are not as well trained 
  and they are disadvantaged against diseases.
  Ultras (After-Humans)
  Ghosts or body-hopping spirits that rewrite the spiritual vital 
  essence of their hosts to suit their needs. They are said to live in the 
  wildest of wild places. 
  Truths Beyond Truths (d12)
  1. 
  They are biomancers par excellence.
  2. 
  The apocalypse is their ultimate goal.
  3. 
  They have no goals.
  4. 
  They were once human.
  5. 
  They are undead.
  6. 
  They are unborn.
  7. 
  All true religions and trading organisations treat them as a 
  hostile menace.
  8. 
  To call them demons is inaccurate.
  9. 
  They have infiltrated many settlements.
  10. They were once elves.
  11. They cannot die for they do not live.
  12. They can incarnate as trees, rocks, or even machines.
  Names: Visec Brego, Daleni Vis, Eter Kabe, Kaba Simeone, Tri 
  Eskatin, Lomo del Pavo, Karne di Sosta.
  Ultras as Heroes
  If the Ultras do exist, and they are not simply wives’ tales, then 
  they are immortal spirits who can wear and shed bodies and 
  personalities.
   ⁘
  Body Borrower: The Ultra can possess weak body-personalities 
  and make them its own. This process takes a few hours and is 
  best done at night, when their target is asleep.
   ⁘
  Astral Walker: The Ultra can walk as a spirit. It walks at its 
  normal pace, unless it attaches itself to an object, like an arrow 
  or a rocket. While walking this way, its body-personality is 
  comatose.
   ⁘
  Literally Cannot Die: An Ultra whose body-personality is 
  destroyed merely becomes a ghost. It can try to acquire a new 
  body once per week, if it comes near enough. Dying at the 
  bottom of an ocean trench can mean a long underwater walk.
   ⁘
  Let’s See Who I Am Now: Generate new stats when an Ultra 
  puts on a new body-personality. The Ultra must accept the 
  new physical stats, but can choose whether to keep its current 
  mental stats or the new ones. For every new mental stat it 
  accepts, it is changed and loses one of its old abilities or skills.
   ⁘
  Bodies Like Moccasins: When an Ultra takes over a body-
  personality it is like a new shoe, tight and stiff in all the wrong 
  places. All stats start reduced and must be recovered by resting.
   ⁘
  Drop Memories Behind: When an Ultra leaves behind an old 
  body-personality it can only take a number of abilities and 
  skills equal to its level along, the rest are lost. New abilities and 
  skills up to the Ultra’s current level are gained randomly afresh 
  for the new body-personality one per week.
  24
  
  Vomes (Violent Mechanisms)
  Self-replicating synthetic organism or auto-golems, many of 
  them hive-minded. They do not seem to have any overarching 
  organization, most seem incapable of communication. 
  It Is Known (d12)
  1. 
  They were created by a serpentine capitalist faction in the 
  Long Long Ago to fight in a series of mutually-assured wars of 
  extermination.
  2. 
  They are mindless.
  3. 
  They are differently minded, intelligent and hateful.
  4. 
  They are insane.
  5. 
  They assimilate or modify creatures on a whim.
  6. 
  Their source is riddled with baseline bugs and coding 
  cockroaches which make them fall short of their potential.
  7. 
  They travel through time.
  8. 
  They form Vome nests.
  9. 
  They can be severed from their nest mothers with 
  electromagnetic rays and fields.
  10. They know how to create auto-factories.
  11. The original designer of the Vomes was named Jane.
  12. The first assimilated unit was named John.
  Names: Jane, John-Five, John Jane, Jane Golem, Doe Nohn, Zero-
  John, Jane Machine, Error, Naming Error, Johnny-Seven.
  Vomes as Heroes
  Vomes should never be heroes! They are supposed to be villains! 
  Just joking. of course they can be heroes.
   ⁘
  Start Normal: Vomes are autonomous machine interwoven 
  with biological substrate at the source code level—but start at 
  level 0 as basic biologicals with just a simple bug in their brain.
   ⁘
  New and Improved: Every level the Vome’s machine essence 
  expands, bringing it new features and abilities, whether 
  concealed biomechanical weapons, super-normal sensors, 
  transmutation drives, communication arrays, or even straight 
  up biomechnical replicators. The Vome can assimilate found 
  weapons or body parts this way.
   ⁘
  It Was Probably Not Important: Every level the Vome’s 
  biological body degrades due to errors integrating machine 
  and biological source codes, permanently reducing one stat.
   ⁘
  Power From The Sun: As one of its upgrades, the Vome 
  becomes photovoltaic, feeding only on sunlight.
   ⁘
  Power From Nothing: Upgrading itself further, the Vome 
  begins to feed on a strange zero-point energy, which is certainly 
  not creating micro-tears in the fabric of reality.
  Spirit Voyagers and Ultras
  The crystal cilia wriggled as they crawled into his ears. Sparks of 
  light dashed along as they pierced the brain barrier, connecting 
  with his cortex. The snakeman’s eyes rolled, citrine orbs in jade-
  studded sockets. With a few final flashes the translucent worms 
  melded into his brain, attuning him to the world-spirit.
  His eyes swam hazily, but his mind expanded and sharpened, it 
  looked at Demiwarlock through the eyes of every insect in the 
  glade, felt her through the crushed grass beneath her.
  “Ah, these are the good whiskers,” he said.
  “Will you speak now of the voyager?”
  “The voyager and her companion, yes. Tourists of ruined empires. 
  They’ve been travelling for a long time, though time is different 
  to the over-bodied.”
  “So, she is an Ultra?”
  “You would say that. When they travel through on the spirit 
  voyage they sometimes incarnate like your Ultras do. A body for 
  a secret, that is often their way.”
  “So, she is not an Ultra?”
  “You would think that. But truly, there are no Ultras.”
  “What? Of course there are! I’ve seen them with my own eyes!”
  25
  
  UVG Equipment
  “We’re going to the Black City and we don’t care if it’s supposed to 
  take eight weeks, we’ll make it in four and bring enough black-light 
  to set us all up. Now, how many horses will you loan us?” Inge and 
  Ingot, the bearded ambiguously dwarfish merchants glowered 
  and pointed to the large sign that read, “No Lones to Adventerers, 
  Frybooters or Wagonbonds.” 
  The Violet Citadel is the last place in the Rainbowlands to buy 
  supplies and animals for the long crossing. Old hands advise at least 
  four beasts per traveler, loudmouths suggest it’s possible with two.
  Money (Cash)
  Cash ($) is the currency of the UVG. An unskilled laborer earns $1/
  day. Adventurers earn 1 XP per $1 recovered from Long Ago ruins. 
  Lower denominations exist as do letters of credit for large amounts.
  Size
  Equipment is usually sized in sacks, stones, and soaps. A sack is the 
  size of a pack, ten stones fit in a pack or a sack, and a soap is small 
  enough to slip in a pocket. Sometimes another unit is mentioned, 
  like doses, flasks, bricks, or kegs. This is purely cosmetic.
  Grassland Essentials
  d8
  Essential Item
  Description
  Cost, Size
  1
  Supplies, Premium Basic
  Dwarf bread, water, hempen cloth, and wrapping rags. Disadvantage on healing and recovery.
  $2/sack
  2
  Supplies, Voyager
  Tinned meat, travel ale, disinfectant schnapps, novelty items, rough newspapers, socks, gum, and prophylactics.
  $10/sack
  3
  Curative Snake Oil
  Generic remedies against venom, bugs, parasites, diseases, rashes, and blisters. Surprisingly, actually works.
  $10/dose
  4
  Lamp, Iron
  Basic travel lamp, hooded against wind, burns oil, can be used to warm tea, lights stuff up nearby.
  $5, stone
  5
  Lamp, Solar
  Magic lamp of the Long Ago that eats sunlight to illuminate things nearby.
  $100, soap
  6
  Lamp, Spectrum Ray
  Satrap crystal lamp that projects a ray of light far away. Powered by tears and sunlight. Can start fires.
  $100, stone
  7
  UV Lotion
  Protects from the UVG radiation and provides resistance against radiant damage.
  $5/daily dose
  8
  VC Healing Lotion
  Restores 2d6 Life or 1 physical Stat point.
  $40/dose
  Toolkits
  These are portable assemblies of kit, ready made for heroes venturing out into the grasslands. They give advantage to relevant tests. 
  Unsurprisingly, a hero carrying both a kit and a full backpack of premium basic supplies is encumbered—mules do help (see transport).
  d18 Tool or Kit
  Description
  Cost, Size
  1
  Adventure Kitchen
  Portable stove, samovar, canteen, cast iron pots and pans, oils, salts and spices, ladles, tongs, knives, 
  chopping blocks, and more. No more eating raw game!
  $100, 1 sack
  2
  Ambassador’s Trunk
  Fine dress, etiquette manuals, beads, liquors, ink, forgery equipment, sealing wax, hidden drug 
  compartment. Perfect for trade deals or pretending you’re a count. Servant not included but recommended.
  $500, 1 sack
  3
  Dungeoneer’s Kit
  Telescoping pole, net, rope, hook, crowbar, hammer, lamp, oil flasks, block and tackle, pitons, magnifying 
  glass, flour, chalk, grease, lock picks, and bag of marbles. Everything you need to poke around a dungeon.
  $100, 1 sack
  4
  Excavator’s Kit
  Block and tackle, pulley, cable, ropes, snap hooks, carabiners, knives, shovel, pick, crowbar, drill, chain, 
  sledgehammer, rollers. The gear you want for easily removing heavy objects.
  $100, 1 sack
  5
  Farmboy’s Big Adventure
  Bulky backpack full of pockets, a pet rodent, mementos, heirloom weapon, and a sack’s worth of trail mix.
  $10, 1 sack
  6
  Golem Coding Gear
  Leather tubes of writing paper, inks, pens, chisels, scalpels, ritual writing desk, and portable potter’s wheel.
  $200, 1 sack
  7
  Inquisitor Standard Case
  Pliers, portable rack, small bellows, selection of scalpels, lunchbox, comfortable chair, many colored robes, 
  nice shoes, kissable knuckle rings, fire-starting equipment, and more. You know what it’s for.
  $200, 1 sack
  8
  Mechanic’s Chest
  Tough steel chest full of picks, wrenches, nuts, screwdrivers, ratchets, extractors, pliers, hammers, snips, 
  crimpers, files, scrapers, keys, Allen wrenches, bolts, wire, glue, duct tape and suggestive literature.
  $200, 1 sack
  9
  The Original Medikit
  Everything a real doctor could want. Stethoscope, scalpels, placebos, alcohol, morphine and degree included.
  $300, 1 sack
  10
  My First Archaeologist Kit
  Shovels, picks, sacks, ropes, buckets, brushes, pith helmets, more mustache wax, shiny boots, safety whip, 
  notebooks, and lamps. Everything a budding tomb raider could want!
  $100, 1 sack
  11
  Naturalist’s Portable 
  Laboratory
  Jars, flasks, pins, boxes, nets, scalpels, prods, pens, brushes, paints, notebooks, easels, and an organic source 
  reprogramming handbook (with pictures in five colors!). Perfect for the amateur biomancer.
  $200, 1 sack
  12
  Navigator’s Suitcase
  Case of compasses, maps, little telescopes, odd crystals, and baroque clockwork for astrologer or wayfinder.
  $200, 1 sack
  13
  Necromancer Gear
  Saws, knives, scalpels, stakes, hammers, leather cords, needles, petri dishes, wires, batteries, starters, and 
  legal tomes. Tailored to the aspiring dead-talker.
  $300, 2 sacks
  14
  Porter’s Pack
  Great walking boots, beat-up tea flask, extra water bottle, sunscreen, lamp, bandages, sleeping bag, blister 
  cream, numbing chew root and carry rack for one more sack of supplies.
  $20, 1 sack
  15
  Prospector’s Kit
  Similar to archaeologist kit, but more hammers, a hidden revolver or stiletto and fewer beauty products.
  $50, 1 sack
  16
  Shaman’s Gear
  Psychopomp relics, antivenom, laxatives, emetics, pickles, pipe, tobacco, “tobacco” and a psychedelic brick.
  $100, 1 sack
  17
  UVG Pro Hiker Kit
  The tourist’s dream: toiletries, zinc sunscreen, tent, sturdy walking stick, Greenland army knife, sombrero, 
  mustache wax, kangaroo bag, schnapps and wineskins, nifty cord belt, and a sturdy backpack
  $50, 1 sack
  18
  Veterinarian Kit
  Saws, rubber gloves, knives, scalpels, leather straps. Everything a doctor could want! Works on humans!
  $100, 1 sack
  26
  
  Transport: Mounts and Wagons
  Smart players quickly realize that carrying their own supplies is not 
  a good idea. If they do not realize this tell them to get two mules 
  each to be on the safe side.
  The vehicles in the transport table are all less cost effective than 
  buying a lot of animals. It’s hard to keep machines running in the 
  wilderness and their key value is transporting big heavy things that 
  a single mule or camel couldn’t manage like magical sarcophagi, 
  golden idols, and glass cannons.
  Dragging 
  Using improvised stretchers, ropes, rollers or skids, a creature can 
  pull double its normal sacks. A creature pulling one load can’t also 
  carry a second load. Just no.
  Carting
  Adding wheels is great, because drag is reduced, letting a creature 
  pull triple its normal allotment of sacks.
  Flying
  Not a good idea because of the Purple Haze, which rots human 
  minds. At least, that’s what natives say. Also, there are fragments of 
  stuck force littering the sky, an invisible cutting hazard.
  Overloading
  possible, but not smart. Moderate relevant test once a week or 
  something goes wrong, like a broken axle or a lamed animal.
  Epic Vehicles and Mounts 
  Sure. Possible. Double the cost and Charisma test.
  d20
  Relevant Test
  1
  It’s infectious or cursed! This is terrible! If only we had known!
  2–6
  It was a con. See, the red paint is coming off!
  7–9
  It is quieter than usual (does not increase visibility).
  10–12
  It is stronger than usual (carries 1 more sack).
  13–15
  It is tougher than usual (increase level).
  16–18
  It is faster than usual (increase speed).
  19+
  It has an unusual mechanomagical ability.
  d20 Transport
  Level Description
  Capacity
  Requires
  Cost
  1
  Human, Common-ass 
  0
  Random laborer hired to carry some stuff. Probably cowardly.
  1 sack
  1 supply/wk
  $7/week
  2
  Disposable Slave
  0
  Perfect for evil caravans.
  1 sack
  1 supply/wk
  $100
  3
  Porter
  1
  Tough-ass professional in packing and carrying stuff, preparing supply 
  depots, and surviving in the wilds.
  2 sacks
  1 supply/wk
  $20/week
  4
  Slave Porter
  1
  Enslaved tough-ass professional. May be resentful.
  2 sacks
  1 supply/wk
  $300
  5
  Skeleton Porter
  1
  Slow but ‘ethical,’ smell-free alternative to slavery. Though ...
  1 sack
  necromancy
  $200
  6
  Zombie Porter
  2
  Very slow and a bit smelly. ... this kind of necromancy might bother folks.
  2 sacks
  necromancy
  $200
  7
  Pony, Mule or Camel
  1
  The classic solution.
  2 sacks
  grazing
  $70
  8
  Proper Heroic Horse or 
  Charger Camel
  2
  A noble steed. Can be ridden in combat.
  2 sacks
  grazing
  $200
  9
  Metal Steed
  2
  Fast and flash, it roars like thunder when pushed hard. Might be a golem.
  2 sacks
  —
  $1,200
  10
  Adventuring Handcart
  2
  A glorified wheelbarrow. Requires a human (not included).
  3 sacks
  —
  $10
  11
  Wicker Autowagon
  3
  Fast, self-propelled golem wagon of synthetic ivory, iron-reed, and rubber. 3 sacks
  —
  $2,000
  12
  Magnificent Velblod Camel
  4
  A true galleon of the trackless steppes. May cause motion-sickness.
  3 sacks
  grazing
  $300
  13
  Small Wagon, Rickety 
  Coach or Swaying Cart
  4
  These vehicles are slow and vulnerable, but trivial to maintain. Require a 
  trained draft animal (not included).
  6 sacks
  —
  $200
  14
  Burdenbeast
  6
  Biomantically enhanced small-headed rhinobuffalo. Pretty rare.
  4 sacks
  grazing
  $600
  15
  Biomechanical Beast
  8
  Terrifying amalgam of twitching muscle and cybernetic endoskeleton 
  sheathed in synthetic skin. Very rare. Can be ridden in combat.
  6 sacks
  grazing
  $3,000
  16
  Solid Coach or Wagon
  8
  These vehicles are slow and heavy. Require 2 draft animals (not included).
  12 sacks
  —
  $600
  17
  Generic Vech, Porcelain or 
  Prismatic Walker
  12
  Slow, enormous biomechanical beast. Carries 1d4 passengers in internal 
  gall-like cavities. Among the most stylish biomech travel systems money 
  can buy. Golem versions also exist.
  12 sacks
  1 supply/wk,
  biomass
  $6,000
  18
  Massive Hauling Wagon
  16
  Very slow, barely faster than a sloth. Requires 4 draft animals (not included).
  24 sacks
  —
  $1,500
  19
  Autowagon
  16
  Slow, self-propelled golem wagon. Armored, tough, and impressive as 
  heck. It drives itself safely—but beware crossing marshes or rough terrain. 
  Carries 2d3 passengers in ridiculous bolted-on cabins.
  24 sacks
  1 supply/wk, 
  energy
  $10,000
  20
  Epic Floating Barge or 
  Hover Wagon
  4
  Magical float from Long Ago, it can be pulled by a single creature (not 
  included). Very fragile and may be disabled by a single well-placed shot.
  20 sacks
  —
  $7,500
  27
  
  weapons: guns, wands and Steel
  It wouldn’t be a pseudo-colonial-apocalyptic savanna-crawl without 
  guns. Unless specified otherwise, weapons are one-handed.
  Blinding 
  If any damage dice deals maximum damage, the target is blinded 
  for one round. Critical hits may cause permanent blindness (difficult 
  Agility test).
  Burst 
  Unload all your charges or ammo to deal damage in a small area, 
  difficult Agility test for half damage. Targets under cover take half, 
  none if they make their test.
  Frag 
  Charged with epic energies beyond mortal ken. Killed enemies 
  explode and deal 1d6 damage to all nearby.
  Intravenous
  Rounds can be loaded with liquid toxins or holy water.
  Mounted
  A heavy one-handed weapon for use mounted, does double 
  damage when charging.
  RaNges and Areas
  Like in the Black Hack (check it out), the UVG assumes abstract 
  range: close, near, far, and distant. On their turn a hero can move 
  somewhere near as an action, somewhere far with two actions, and 
  somewhere distant with three (or more). The same dimensions also 
  work for area affecting effects.
  Range
  Area
  Dimensions
  Movement
  Close
  Small
  ‘Precisely’ 2.5743 metres or 
  8.44586614 feet.
  Adjacent, no movement.
  Near
  Medium
  About 10 metres or 30 feet.
  An action.
  Far
  Large
  About 40 metres or 120 feet.
  Two actions.
  Distant
  Massive
  Further away. Attacks 
  require careful aim.
  Three or more actions.
  Rare and restricted
  Rare equipment is hard to find, overpriced outside of the settlement 
  that produces it, often controlled by some faction or powerful group 
  and may provoke hostile reactions. Zombies are such a thing.
  Reach
  The weapon reaches further and always attacks first in close combat. 
  Relevant Stats
  Most ranged attacks use Agility, while melee attacks use Strength. If 
  a weapon can use other Stats, this is noted.
  Reload #
  A weapon is out of ammo and needs to be reloaded when the 
  attacking d20 rolls a natural # or below. Option: simplify the rule 
  and have every weapon run out of ammo on natural 1 and 13.
  When out of ammo or charges, it takes an action to reload. Skilled 
  fighters reload for free. A box of ammunition takes up a stone’s 
  worth of space and costs one tenth as much as the weapon.
  Two-Handed
  This big weapon needs two hands (2H) to use properly.
  Versatile
  This weapon can be used two-handed. In that case, its damage dice 
  increase one step (1d6 becomes 1d8, 1d12 becomes 1d20).
  Weapon Size
  The average weapon occupies one stone in the inventory. Light 
  weapons take less space, heavy ones more. Precise dimensions 
  really don’t matter too much.
  ranged weapons: Bows and gun wands
  d14
  Weapon
  Damage
  Range
  Size
  Description
  Cost
  1
  Bow: first among weapons
  1d6
  Far
  Stone
  Two-handed (2H), the lack of features is a feature.
  $25
  2
  Crossbow
  1d8
  Far
  Stone
  Reload 20.
  $25
  3
  Steppelander Composite Bow
  1d8
  Far
  Stone
  2H, Decent at distant ranges.
  $150
  4
  Heavy Crossbow
  1d10
  Far
  2 stone
  Reload 20, 2H, optional knocback bolts.
  $50
  5
  Scavenger Bolter
  1d10
  Far
  2 stone
  Reload 10, 2H, a basic recycled rifle.
  $100
  6
  Porcelain Prince Pistol
  2d6
  Near
  Half stone
  Reload 2, automatic ceramic, rare.
  $300
  7
  Violent Cat Rifle
  2d10
  Far
  2 stone
  Reload 4, 2H, sturdy and deadly.
  $600
  8
  Satrap Radiant Gun
  2d12
  Far
  2 stone
  Reload 7, 2H, laser, blinding, starts fires, rare.
  $1,100
  9
  Redland District SMG
  2d6
  Near
  Stone
  Reload 1, 2H, burst, revolutionary, rare.
  $500
  10
  Vome Slagger
  3d6
  Far
  2 stone
  Reload 10, frag, usually implanted, rare.
  $1,500
  11
  Ultra Blaster
  3d6
  Near
  Half stone
  Reload 1, radiant, blinding, rare.
  $2,000
  12
  Blue God Blaster
  4d8
  Close
  Stone
  Reload 7, 2H, necrotic, burst, unholy, rare.
  $3,000
  13
  Inquisition Squirtgun
  1d6
  Near
  Half stone
  Reload 5, intravenous, rare.
  $300
  14
  Voice of Death
  3d10
  Near
  3 stone
  Reload 10, 2H, sonic, very loud, rare.
  $4,000
  28
  
  Simple melee weapons
  d8
  Weapon
  Damage
  Range
  Size
  Features
  Cost
  1
  Rock
  1d3
  Close
  Stone
  Throwing (near). Can usually roll.
  —
  2
  Dagger: a cult classic
  1d4
  Close
  Half stone
  Strength or Agility, throwing (near). 
  $2
  3
  Battle Stick
  1d4
  Close
  Stone
  Strength or Agility.
  $1
  4
  Axe
  1d6
  Close
  Stone
  Combine with a shield for best effect.
  $5
  5
  Club
  1d6
  Close
  Stone
  A blunt, cheap axe.
  $1
  6
  Spear
  1d6/1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Versatile, throwing (near).
  $2
  7
  Staff
  1d6/1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Versatile. A long stick.
  $1
  8
  Great Rod
  1d10
  Close
  2 stone
  Two-handed, a bigger badder stick.
  $1
  Military melee weapons
  d14
  Weapon
  Damage
  Range
  Size
  Description
  Cost
  1
  Whip, Burdenbeast Leather
  1d4
  Close
  Stone
  Strength or Agility, reach. Can be used to swing.
  $3
  2
  Scimitar
  1d6
  Close
  Stone
  Strength or Agility. 
  $15
  3
  Flail
  1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Swingy and hitty. A symbol of chaos.
  $10
  4
  Mace
  1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Blunty and bashy. A symbol of chaos.
  $20
  5
  Dagger-axe
  1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Sharpy and stabby. A symbol ... ok is this a joke?
  $15
  6
  Battle Axe
  1d8/1d10
  Close
  Stone
  Versatile.
  $20
  7
  Warhammer
  1d8/1d10
  Close
  Stone
  Versatile.
  $30
  8
  Sabre, Symbol of Chaos
  1d8/1d10
  Close
  Stone
  Versatile. Good for ending  nonsense.
  $45
  9
  Great Spear of Stabbing
  1d10
  Close
  2 stone
  Two-handed, reach. Whose was that chaos joke?
  $5
  10
  Halberd of Polearming
  1d10
  Close
  2 stone
  2H, reach, armor-cracking. Ok, fine.
  $20
  11
  Cavalry Lance
  1d12
  Close
  2 stone
  Mounted, double damage on charge.
  $15
  12
  Cavalry Sabre
  1d12
  Close
  2 stone
  Mounted, double damage on charge.
  $70
  13
  Great Axe
  2d6
  Close
  2 stone
  Two-handed, beloved of barbarians.
  $40
  14
  Great Sword
  2d6
  Close
  2 stone
  2H, also goes well with loin cloths.
  $100
  Weird melee weapons
  d10
  Weapon
  Damage
  Range
  Size
  Description
  Cost
  1
  Cat Claws (Gauntlet)
  1d4
  Close
  Half stone
  Counts as an unarmed attack.
  $50
  2
  Neural Whip
  1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Str or Agi, reach, stuns on natural 20. Beloved of slavers.
  $50
  3
  Sabre Tooth
  1d8
  Close
  Stone
  Str or Agi, necrotic, intravenous. The tooth of a grim predator.
  $200
  4
  Ceramic Mace
  1d10
  Close
  Stone
  Ignores damage resistances. Favored by the Porcelain Princes.
  $300
  5
  Black City Blade
  1d10
  Close
  Stone
  Ignores damage resistances. Whispers to you.
  $300
  6
  Chain Sword
  1d10/2d6
  Close
  2 Stone
  Versatile. Decapitates on natural 20.
  $600
  7
  Crystal Swordspear
  1d12
  Close
  2 Stone
  Two-handed, stores up to 2 direct damage radiant or fire spells. $450
  8
  Vomish Centaur Flail
  2d8
  Close
  2 Stone
  Mounted, double damage on charge, stuns on natural 20.
  $300
  9
  Ghost Bone Axe
  2d8
  Close
  2 stone
  2H, deals full damage to ghosts, ignores undead immunities.
  $600
  10
  Forty Pound Rare Metal Rod
  2d10
  Close
  4 stone
  2H, always loses initiative, stuns on matching damage dice.
  $900
  Stranger things have also been found in the wilderness.
  29
  
  ARMORS
  Armors suitable and unsuitable for the continental steppe climate 
  of the Ultraviolet Grasslands.
  Cool
  Looks good in a hot environment, but a thermal blanket is 
  recommended at night because it gets chilly.
  Cumbersome 
  Disadvantage on Stealth and other relevant physical tests.
  Defense
  Usually 10 + Agility + Armor. This is a character’s difficulty target 
  when attacked. In the UVG it has a hard cap of 19.
  Environmental
  Magically provides advantage to tests against environmental 
  effects like acid, toxic clouds and dying of thirst. Often with magical 
  hazmat runes or post-mechanical breathing implants.
  Hot
  Good in winter, but sucks in hot environments. After every exertion 
  (e.g. a battle) the hero rolls an Endurance test—the heat determines 
  the difficulty. If the hero fails they are fatigued (disadvantage to 
  attacks and physical tests (including Endurance) until they rest.
  Intravenous
  Set up to inject a potion directly into the body with a free action.
  Powered #
  Uses a magical source of energy, be it solar prayers, thermonuclear 
  batteries, blood sacrifice or something else. Armor has # charges 
  and loses a charge after every combat or significant exertion. The 
  wearer can spend a charge to increase Strength by 1 for the duration 
  of combat. An extra power source and protective cradle (or prayer 
  altar) takes a whole sack.
  Size
  As a rule, ordinary shields and light armors take one stone, medium 
  armors take two stones, and heavy armors take three.
  All the Armors and shields
  d20
  Armor or Shield
  Armor
  Type
  Size
  Description
  Cost
  1
  Shield (there is only one)
  +2
  Shield
  1 stone
  A basic shield. Sunder to negate one attack.
  $5
  2
  Nomad Robes
  +1
  Light
  1 stone
  Cool, with padded bits.
  $10
  3
  Boiled Leather
  +1
  Light
  1 stone
  Hot. But cheap. And shiny when oiled. Goes well with sandals.
  $10
  4
  Ballistic Linen Suit
  +2
  Light
  1 stone
  Cool, perfect for the gentleman adventurer. Secret pocket for a nip.
  $100
  5
  Spiked Leather
  +2
  Light
  1 stone
  Hot, with space for mounting skulls, furs, and masks.
  $50
  6
  Synthskin Light Environment Suit
  +1
  Light
  1 stone
  Environmental, hot, dedicated to the goddess Hazmaat. Rare.
  $150
  7
  Cat Armor
  +1
  Light
  5 soaps
  A tiny helmet and little silken cuirass. Ever so cute. Cat-sized.
  $200
  8
  Skinchanger Suit
  +3
  Light
  Light
  Symbiotic biomechanical suit grafted with wearer’s skin. Adapts to 
  different environment in a week. Requires regular feeding. Takes a 
  few hours to fully remove. Versions without face cover possible.
  $2,000
  9
  Dryland Weave
  +3
  Medium
  2 stone
  Cool. Woven from the cilia of special dryland coral hybrids, 
  surprisingly breathable, cumbersome.
  $100
  10
  Scale Shirt
  +3
  Medium
  2 stone
  Hot and cumbersome. Made from extinct iron pangolin scales.
  $50
  11
  Chitin Cuirass
  +4
  Medium
  2 stone
  Cool, cumbersome. Also called lobster armor.
  $600
  12
  Iron Breastplate
  +4
  Medium
  2 stone
  Hot, cumbersome. A classic.
  $400
  13
  Watersuit
  +4
  Medium
  2 stone
  Cool-suit of synthskin over woven bone mesh, with uncanny vascular 
  cooling and filtration system. Cumbersome, environmental.
  $1,200
  14
  Spectral Combat Suit
  +5
  Medium
  2 stone
  Satrapy steel-glass scales with an environment maintenance 
  parasite. Cool, powered 6, environmental, cumbersome.
  $2,400
  15
  Bone Mesh Armor
  +6
  Heavy
  3 stone
  Horrible product of the bone wizards. Pretty cool, cumbersome.
  $500
  16
  Chain Mail
  +6
  Heavy
  3 stone
  Hot and cumbersome, but a classic heavy armor design.
  $200
  17
  Porcelain Walker Suit
  +7
  Heavy
  3 stone
  Cool, powered 6, cumbersome, intravenous. The best in Princely 
  technology, with shiny polychrome ceramic plates.
  $600
  18
  Splint
  +7
  Heavy
  3 stone
  Hot, cumbersome, primitive and cheap.
  $400
  19
  Plate and Ballistic Weave
  +8
  Heavy
  4 stone
  Hot, cumbersome, combines modern smithing with old tailoring.
  $1,500
  20
  Full Archaic Armor
  +8
  Heavy
  3 stone
  Cool and rare. A suit that’s also a golem. May develop personality, 
  powered 8, environmental, intravenous, cumbersome.
  $5,000
  30
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Old School Revival (OSR(ic))/[OSR Generic]/OSR Adventures & Settings/Ultraviolet Grasslands (OSR)/Ultraviolet Grasslands wip1.3 p1-30 (OSR).pdf