RPGaDay Day 13: Strain

 

Now we're looping back to Ureka, and since the last NPC for Ureka was female, this one will be male and he is under some Strain.

Our last Ureka NPC was the wife of a timber baron, so that means that there are probably a good number of lumber workers of varying varieties and that has got to be hard work. We also established that she used her immense social power to protect her timber baron wife from any evidence that there might be anything wrong with her operations. So let's make our strained NPC the face of what's going wrong with Dolbeer Timber.

There are a couple of ways to play that. One way is simply to accept that being a lumberjack is a dangerous job. Another would be to lean in to an aspect of the Fallout series, which is the dark humor of corporate absurdity. Vault-Tec and the other corporations of pre-Fallout America were constantly developing new products and new lines of scientific research. The Vaults themselves were given over to psychological and sociological experiments, but there was nothing that Vault-Tec wouldn't try to improve upon. We find these documented in the games via logs kept on the various computer terminals throughout the game environments.

So there might be an efficiency upgrade to the fusion donkey that pulls an immense log at up to 100 feet per second, but nobody was aware of how fast that really is and 12 loggers were crushed. Which is still an improvement, since the last tree of that size cost 15 loggers their lives.

In either case, Harry is a rough and tumble kind of guy. And I think the Strain he's under isn't just the labor of harvesting enormous redwood trees. I think he's lost something that he is struggling to get back. Maybe he was there when the fusion donkey crushed those loggers and he feels the need to get justice for them. As a post-apocalyptic reconstruction of the 19th Century, it is both before and after OSHA.

Name: Harry Bridges

Appearance: A solidly built white man with a bushy dark beard and a knit cap on his head. His clothing is rugged, flannel shirts and denim jeans.

Quote: "Do right by your team and they'll see you through"

Roleplaying: Gruff and empathetic.

Background: Harry's been a lumberjack long enough to know how dangerous it is. He's lost a number of fellow loggers to enormous trees and the powerful equipment needed to move them. He's got some ideas about how to make things safer if only anyone would listen.

Key Info:

Harry wants to make logging safer
Harry does not want to take extreme action, but might be forced into it.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 12: Loss

 Now it's time to create a male NPC for the Eureka Ruins. This typically means that we're looking at a Ratfolk. And this Ratfolk is going to be someone who has experienced a Loss.

To keep things interesting, let's think about the kinds of losses that only Ratfolk can have. Such as their tail. Now, on the common rat, the tail actually does a lot of work. It helps with balance and heat regulation, among other things. Among the Ratfolk, the tail allows them to connect their minds with other Ratfolk to form a collective consciousness known as a Rat King. The Ratfolk of the Eureka Ruins are led by such a hivemind, which has applied its intellect to the problem of the people of Ureka.

But that's not the only Rat King. Similar collectives may be formed to accomplish some other goal requiring significant mental effort, which are known as Philosopher Kings.

So today's NPC, who I'll call Splinter, was part of one of these Philosopher Kings, but after a raid on the school they were occupying by the Ratcatchers, his tail was severed, removing him from the collective and destroying any chance of joining another. Not only has Splinter had to adapt to being alone in his own head, the loss of the nerve clusters in his tail has affected his cognition as well.

Having his tail severed in a Ratcatcher raid gives him reason to be antagonistic, but the link to a Philosopher King is intended to tie in to the other Tag that was rolled for the Eureka Ruins: Hidden Purpose. Whether that's something that the Ratfolk themselves are working on, or something that came to Eureka before the Collapse that they are trying to discover (I'm not sure yet myself), that's something that should be brought up.

Name: Splinter

Appearance: A dark-furred Ratfolk with scars on his body and no tail.

Quote:

Roleplaying: His mind is splintered. He's got more control when he's calm, but especially when agitated, he will suddenly trail off or pause, unconsciously trying to pass off the mental effort along the link that is no longer there. His memory is muddled because some pieces of it were stored in other rats when he was separated.

Background: Splinter spent much of his life linked into a Philosopher King living in the Eureka High School library. A Ratcatcher raid some years ago stormed the place and forcibly separated the Philosopher King, leaving Splinter as the only survivor. Now missing a tail, he struggles to manage thoughts and memories that are only fragments of the hivemind.

Key Info:

Splinter likely has information from his time in a Philosopher King that could reveal a secret that the Ratfolk are trying to keep or discover.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 11: Tact

 

Now to create a female NPC for Cow Town. With the prompt being Tact, there's the temptation to recycle the society matron concept that I already used for Ureka. But Cow Town has its own needs. I think someone with a lot of Tact in Cow Town would probably be a doctor who has to give their patients increasingly bad news.

But we also want to use this round to create NPCs that are possibly antagonistic and would wind up in conflict with a prospective adventuring party. So let's make her a little cold, a little ruthless, maybe a little too eager to make the hard decisions.

Name: Dr. Kristi Hale

Appearance: Middle aged aged, thin faced white woman with her light brown hair pulled up into a messy beehive in a failing effort to keep it out of her face. She wears a clean lab coat over worn, drab clothes.

Quote: "Would you please stop! You're not doing anyone any good!"

Roleplaying: She uses the forms of politeness, but she is used to being obeyed. "Please" is an order.

Background: She took over her father's practice as the Cow Town doctor when his passing from radiation poisoning forced her to take it on. She was quite young at the time and she was not prepared for the amount of death she would oversee.

Key Info:

Dr. Hale is likely to restrict care for patients that she feels are lost causes.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 10: Secret

Following the patterns that we've previously established, we are now devising a male character for Squatch-Ville.

While it would be interesting to have another sasquatch to build out more of what they're like, let's make this character human so we can see that society from their perspective. And let's see if we can make this character more antagonistic towards any interlopers, such as a potential PC party.

Another thing to touch on would be the Reckless Complacency that is affecting Squatch-Ville. There is a threat of some kind that everyone is pointedly ignoring. What could that be?

One thing that we've already established that the sasquatch are complacent about is "invisibility." Sometimes, a sasquatch experiences such extreme social anxiety that they disappear, living the invisible, solitary existence that they had before the Collapse. When they are ready to return, they are more or less welcomed back into Squatch-Ville. Any role they had before they left has likely been filled and they will have to find another if they've been gone long enough.

It only makes sense that the sasquatch would be equally open to humans under their care coming and going just as easily. There would be patrols and such to respond to violent raiders, but peaceful folks would be allowed to pass without incident.

So let's say that our character's secret is that he is a raider, infiltrating the community to undermine it and make it easier to raid. It's been a while, and even as he's passing on information to his old raider gang, he's developing attachments to the community of Squatch-Ville.

Name: Ham

Appearance: Dark skinned with black straight hair cut short. Has either a permanent 5 o'clock shadow or a light beard. Dressed in simple clothing

Quote: "You didn't hear it from me."

Roleplaying: Ham is cautious about everything. He's constantly trying to figure out who he can trust and what he can trust them with.

Background: Abandoned as a child, was adopted by a raider gang. While they did well, stealing supplies from other raider gangs as well as small farmsteads, the major prize has always been Squatch-Ville. A simple frontal assault was out of the question, so Ham volunteered to infiltrate it, gathering information and exploiting weaknesses as best he could. But he has started to "go native," making friends and connections throughout Squatch-Ville that he's not sure he wants to betray once the Enclave is taken over by his gang.

Key Info:

Ham has an understanding of Squatch-Ville's underworld
Ham often has plans to sabotage parts of the community

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 9: Privilege

 And now we loop back to Ureka. Even though we created a female character for yesterday, our last NPC for Ureka was male (back on Day 1), so it's another female character to keep up variety.

Going with the notion of Privilege, let's assume that she's a member of the upper class of Ureka, closely associated with Carsonism, the specific flavor of Victorian Reconstructionism that inspired the reclamation of Ureka, and/or the previously mentioned timber barons.

I have nothing against the notion of a woman being a timber baroness, but my brain is sticking on the idea of a society matron; The woman who controls the gossip mill rather than the timber mill, and wields enormous social power. Because now that I have created a potential ally back on Day 1, I am now free to create something more antagonistic.

Mildred Dolbeer is the wife of reconstructed timber baron Lavinia Dolbeer (the last name is borrowed from historical Humboldt timber baron John Dolbeer). While Lavinia oversees the business operation, Mildred organizes their social calendar, planning luncheons and soirees, making sure that the right people are invited and the wrong people are kept out. She's also not above organizing whispering campaigns to steer opinions.

Her primary goal is to protect the reputation of her wife Lavinia. Unfortunately, by preventing her from experiencing blowback from bad, unpopular and harmful business actions, Lavinia has developed a casual callousness that makes future damage control constantly necessary.

Name: Mildred Dolbeer

Appearance: An imperious, heavyset woman in her early 40's in elaborately tailored dresses. Her pale blonde hair is wrapped like a crown around her head.

Quote: "I will not have that sort of thing happening here!"

Roleplaying: Mildred is saccharine and obsequious among the upper crust, and disdainful of those of the lower classes.

Background: Mildred was always an aggressive social climber. Her attachment, and later marriage, to Lavinia, was merely the latest step.

Key Info:

Mildred will protect Lavinia Dolbeer at all costs
Mildred has extensive connections and can open or close any social avenue to the party that she chooses.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 8: Resolve

Today gives us a look at our final Ruin through a female NPC. And since that last Ruin is Hupa, that puts me in a bit of a bind. Touching on Native American topics comes with real consequences for Doing It Wrong, which I really want to avoid.

The best defense is research. The second best defense is going so hard into the land of Make-Em-Up that everyone knows that you're not talking about something real. A solid backup is to avoid narratives about exploitation and give potential marginalized groups the power to determine their own fate.

As I was rolling this up, that last item was one of the things that I decided to lean into. The idea of this sort of Area 51 location seemed cool, but to place it in what is now a reservation had a lot of potential for exploitation. Some outside government used this area as a dumping ground for whatever weird weapons research or other unethical and bizarre things they were doing. Not very cool.

The idea that the Indigenous people living there made the choice to build that on their own is actually kinda cool. It becomes a mad rush for poorly considered power. It may have been stupid, but they would have the self-determination to make that stupid decision.

But because it is more or less lost, that also gives me a bit of of an out in terms of Native American representation. The "face" of the area doesn't have to be one of the people that lived there previously.

Let's say that, while nobody really remembers what Hupa became for a brief moment during the Collapse, it did leave a legacy. Spooky happenings make people think that the area is haunted. So a raider gang has decided to exploit that by using the area as a safehouse.

The leader of this gang is Raider Queen Sia.

Name: Raider Queen Sia

Appearance: A tall, athletic Asian woman. Her black hair is cut short on the sides, with the rest of it just long enough to jut out from her head in a chaotic spikey mess. She wears cobbled together armor made of leather and whatever metal bits she can find (scrap mail).

Quote: "Try and stop me!"

Roleplaying: Sia is arrogant, but tough enough that it's got some backing. She knows she is attractive and will use that to her advantage whenever possible.

Background: Sia grew up in a raider camp deep in the redwoods. As an adult, she struck out on her own and formed a roving raider gang. They found some success raiding caravans along the route of the old Highway 299, between Squatch-Ville and Yreka. Increased patrols along that route have forced her to be more cautious.

Key Info:

She has connections to other raider groups in the area.
She is losing the iron-fisted control over her gang because of strange occurrences (and even a few deaths) at their new camp.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 7: Mercy

 Now to come up with a male character from one of the remaining 2 Ruins. Mercy feels like something that McKinleyville sorely needs.

It does mean that I'm going to have to make some decisions about what happened there. There was a community there. It might have been a continuation of the current community that occupies the location or a community attempting to re-occupy the old site. Back in February, I suggested that it might be part of the story of the migration from Squatch-Ville to Ureka, but I'm not sure that makes sense with the development that Ureka has received since.

McKinleyville is home to the Eureka-Arcata Airport, which is the only significant airport in the area. Without significant air travel, it's very easy to imagine the community shrinking to insignificance. So our Failed Community tag comes from an attempted re-settlement at some point after the apocalypse.

And since we're thinking about NPCs, let's think about the person who might be the "face" of this Ruin. Not an original inhabitant, but someone new. Perhaps an archeologist or anthropologist of some sort. Since we are talking about a town with the largest airport, let's say that he came from the air. Perhaps the failed community also came from the air. They came from another surviving Enclave with an airport and our new "face" isn't just cataloging them for curiosity, but for closure.

They had come to resettle and rebuild the air travel networks that crisscrossed the country before the Collapse, but fell to some disease or other complication. So Delmos Jones (a name borrowed from a real Black anthropologist to make sure that my names and characters stay interesting and diverse) comes back a generation or two later to check up and finds everyone dead.

Name: Delmos Jones

Appearance: An older, solidly built Black man, balding with short tightly curled grey hair circling his head and a neat grey beard. His clothing is rugged, but neat and well-maintained.

Quote: "Let's see what we have here."

Roleplaying: His demeanor is serious, and more than a little sad. He is very empathetic, seeing each body as a person and seeking to understand their story through the evidence left behind. While no one is a stranger to violence in the post-apocalypse, this empathy causes him to prefer peaceful resolutions and to mourn anyone he is forced to kill.

Background: Delmos grew up in The ReDD (formerly Redding Regional Airport) and looked at the travel maps and brochures with awe. He has flown to other airports and communities throughout the state, learning everything he could. His flight to this airport should have been another renewed connection, but led to him discovering the site of a tragedy.

Key Info:

He is one of the few people from outside the area who live here.
He does have access to a small airplane and can provide aerial recon, supply drops and possibly transport.

Stat Block: