The Geographic Exclusion Zones, commonly called G-Zones, are among the darkest scars left upon the Reich. Officially, these regions are territories rendered unsuitable for normal habitation by war, environmental contamination, industrial disasters, disease, civil unrest, or other hazards. In practice, many became dumping grounds for populations the Reich considered inconvenient, undesirable, or simply expendable. Generations have now been born within some of the oldest G-Zones. They survived. More troubling is the growing evidence that the Reich did not simply abandon them there.
Human Testing Grounds
For decades, some G-Zones served as enormous human laboratories. The isolation of their populations, combined with their lack of political status and outside oversight, made them ideal locations for experiments considered too dangerous, unpredictable, or politically sensitive to conduct elsewhere.
Government ministries, military research divisions, universities, and Megakonzerne used G-Zone populations to test experimental pharmaceuticals, pathogens, environmental contaminants, reproductive treatments, eugenic drugs, and prototype genetic therapies. The people subjected to these programs were rarely told the truth.
An experimental treatment might be distributed as a vaccine. A settlement’s water supply could be treated with an unknown compound. Food shipments might contain nutritional supplements intended to alter metabolism or fertility. Medical examinations could secretly track hereditary changes across generations.
Children displaying unusual physiological traits sometimes disappeared into research facilities and were never seen again. Most of these experiments failed. Some did not.
By 2099, natural selection, environmental exposure, malnutrition, disease, epigenetic inheritance, and generations of poorly documented genetic manipulation have produced noticeable differences among some G-Zone populations.
There is no single G-Zone genotype. The experiments were too numerous, the environments too different, and the populations too scattered for anything so predictable. A Survivor from one Zone may be biologically indistinguishable from an ordinary Earthborn Unter, while someone from another may possess unusual resistance to toxins, enhanced night vision, abnormal tissue density, or some other adaptation.
Even within the same community, the results can vary dramatically. The Reich created the G-Zones to contain people it considered undesirable. Instead, it may have created entirely new human adaptations.
Nobody Knows What They Did
There was never necessarily a single coordinated program controlling experimentation throughout the G-Zones. That may be the most horrifying part. The Zones simply became places where the normal restrictions on human experimentation did not apply.
Agrippa AG needs several thousand subjects for an experimental gene therapy? Use a G-Zone. Military researchers need data concerning prolonged radiation exposure? Use a G-Zone.
A pharmaceutical division wants to determine whether a compound can increase human tolerance for industrial pollutants? Put it in the water. A eugenics researcher wants to study hereditary changes over three generations? There are entire families that cannot leave.
Different organizations conducted different experiments across more than a century, sometimes without knowing what previous researchers had already done to the same population. Records disappeared. Research divisions were reorganized. Scientists died. Megakonzerne merged. Projects were classified, abandoned, or deliberately destroyed. As a result, nobody knows everything that has been introduced into the populations of the G-Zones. Possibly not even the Reich.
Born to Survive
Life in a G-Zone produces survivors even without genetic manipulation. Children learn practical survival skills early because failure has consequences. They learn where clean water can be found, which ruins are structurally sound, how to recognize contaminated soil, where patrols travel, and where to hide when aircraft pass overhead.
They learn not to touch unfamiliar machinery. They learn which plants can be eaten. They learn which seemingly abandoned buildings should remain abandoned.
Most importantly, they learn to distrust anything that comes from outside. Government food shipments are examined before anyone eats them. Water is tested whenever possible. Pills are broken open. Containers are checked for tampering.
A clean government medical clinic can inspire more fear than a filthy back-alley doctor. An injection offered for free is immediately suspicious. An evacuation order may cause an entire settlement to disappear into the ruins before the authorities arrive.
Outsiders sometimes mistake this behavior for superstition or ignorance. G-Zone Survivors know better. It is accumulated experience.
Violence and Survival
Violence within the G-Zones is equally pragmatic. G-Zone Survivors rarely possess formal military training unless they acquire it later in life. Instead, they learn how to fight with whatever happens to be available.
A length of pipe is a weapon. A broken tool is a weapon. A brick is a weapon. A kitchen knife is a weapon. The objective is rarely to fight fairly. It is to survive long enough to escape or make certain the other person cannot continue the fight.
Some outsiders interpret this as brutality. Survivors consider it practicality. Honor is something people with safe homes can afford.
The Mark of the G-Zone
Leaving a G-Zone does not necessarily mean escaping it. Reich propaganda has spent generations portraying the inhabitants of the Zones as criminals, degenerates, carriers of disease, genetic failures, and barely civilized scavengers. Even ordinary Unters who suffer beneath the same regime may have absorbed these prejudices.
A known G-Zone Survivor entering mainstream society may consequently encounter a strange combination of disgust, fear, fascination, and suspicion. Some people avoid physical contact. Others assume Survivors are violent. Employers may refuse them work. Police officers watch them more closely. Doctors may regard them less as patients than interesting specimens.
Among certain researchers, the discovery that someone was born within a particular G-Zone can produce an entirely different and potentially more dangerous reaction. Scientific interest. Some Survivors bear visible evidence of what happened to their ancestors. Others do not.
The cruelest question a G-Zone Survivor can be asked may be: “What happened to you?”
The answer is simple. “You did.”
G-Zone Survivor Ancestral Abilities
G-Zone Survivors are not a distinct species or even a uniform human population. They represent Earthborn humans whose families have survived generations within Geographic Exclusion Zones. Their abilities emphasize survival, improvisational combat, resistance to environmental hazards, and the possibility of inherited biological changes caused by generations of Reich experimentation.
No Identity: Characters born within a G-Zone generally begin life without a ZIK implant or recognized Regime identity. A G-Zone Survivor operating within normal Regime society must obtain a forged identity and ZIK. Monolith agents receive these during their induction unless the GM determines otherwise.
Paper-Thin Past: A G-Zone Survivor’s manufactured identity may withstand ordinary ZIK checks, but an investigation into their personal history can expose inconsistencies. Deep background investigations, biometric comparisons, medical examinations, or surviving historical records may reveal that the character is not who their ZIK claims.
Survivor’s Instinct: G-Zone children learn survival long before most people would consider them adults. G-Zone Survivors begin with Survival d6. If the character already has Survival at d6 or higher, increase the Skill by one die type instead.
Hard Lessons: Contaminated water, spoiled food, industrial pollution, disease, chemical exposure, and other environmental hazards are part of everyday life within many G-Zones. G-Zone Survivors gain +2 to rolls made to resist disease, poison, radiation, pollution, contaminated food or water, and similar environmental biological Hazards.
Scrapper: A Survivor learns quickly that almost anything can become a weapon. G-Zone Survivors ignore the usual penalty for using Improvised Weapons. This represents experience fighting with tools, debris, broken machinery, household objects, and whatever else happens to be available rather than formal weapons training.
Marked: G-Zone origins carry a powerful stigma within mainstream Reich society. The character suffers −1 to Persuasion when dealing with individuals who know the character is from a G-Zone and hold the common prejudices against its inhabitants. At the GM’s discretion, the same reputation may instead grant +1 to Intimidation when dealing with someone who fears G-Zone inhabitants.
Experimental Legacy: Generations of environmental exposure and uncontrolled human experimentation have left unpredictable biological changes among some G-Zone populations.
Choose one Experimental Legacy during character creation. The character should also determine how the Legacy manifests. Some mutations are obvious, while others can only be discovered through medical examination.
| Experimental Legacy | Effect | Drawback |
|---|---|---|
| Toxin Resistant | +2 to resist poisons and chemical toxins. | The character’s unusual metabolism treats many beneficial drugs the same way it treats toxins. |
| Disease Resistant | +2 to resist disease. | The character’s unusual metabolism treats many beneficial vaccines the same way it treats diseases. |
| Rapid Clotting | +2 to Vigor rolls made to resist Bleeding Out. | Causes thick, irregular scarring around old injuries. |
| Dense Tissue | +1 Toughness. | Result in unusually heavy bones and difficulty swimming. -2 to Athletics. |
| Night Eyes | Ignore 2 points of illumination penalties. | Produce noticeably enlarged pupils or reflective retinas. |
| Pain Suppression | Ignore 1 point of Wound penalties. | Character strangely insensitive to touch. |
| Thermal Adaptation | +2 to resist extreme heat and cold. | Character strangely insensitive to temperature. |
| Accelerated Metabolism | +2 to natural healing rolls, but the character requires considerably more food than a normal human. | The Character rarely feel completely full and becomes hungry much more quickly than other people. |
| Contaminant Tolerance | The character can consume mildly contaminated food and water without suffering the effects that would normally make someone ill and gains +2 to resist ingested toxins. | The character has Poor Nutrient Absorption. Their inefficient digestive system requires roughly 50% more food and water than a normal human. |
| Hyper-Adrenal Response | Once per encounter, the character gains +2 to a single Athletics, Fighting, or Strength roll made in response to immediate physical danger. | Characters have Adrenal Crash after use. After the action is resolved, the character must make a Vigor roll. On a failure, they gain one level of Fatigue. This Fatigue disappears after a short rest and cannot cause Incapacitation. |
G-Zone Survivors and Monolith
G-Zone Survivors can make particularly effective Monolith agents. They are accustomed to living beyond normal Reich society, surviving with limited resources, recognizing government deception, and functioning in places where official infrastructure has collapsed.
Recruitment presents its own difficulties.
A Survivor may have spent an entire lifetime learning that anyone offering medicine, transportation, safety, or a better life probably wants something in return. Monolith recruiters approaching a G-Zone community must overcome generations of justified suspicion.
Those who do join sometimes have another reason for doing so.
They want answers.
Monolith medical examinations occasionally discover genetic markers, unusual antibodies, altered metabolic processes, or other abnormalities the Survivor never knew existed.
Sometimes Monolith can identify their purpose.
Sometimes they cannot.
A Survivor may therefore discover that something has been passed down through their family for generations without ever knowing why.
Somewhere inside a forgotten Reich archive may be a project number explaining exactly what was done to their grandparents.
Somewhere beneath an abandoned laboratory may be samples taken from their ancestors.
Somewhere, a researcher may recognize what the Survivor has become.
The G-Zones were intended to be places where the Reich could hide its mistakes.
Instead, the Survivors themselves may have become living evidence of its crimes.