S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

What Is It

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series began in the late 2000s. Inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic, as well as the film (Stalker)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)], it is set in an alternate-history Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. “The Event” has filled the abandoned marshes and towns with unnatural phenomena, bizarre artifacts, frightening mutants, and drawn the interests of dangerous factions.

This is a great setting for a game!

Essential Elements

Artifacts - Weird macguffins that give their holders superpowers (sometimes). They are a reason to enter the Zone in the first place, and then to explore the ruins and interact with phenomena. They explain supernatural elements that characters have control over.

Danger & Illegality - Not only is there danger inherent in the environment, the authorities prohibit entry. The Zone is a place where normal people don’t go. Any characters that break in to the Zone are unusual outlaws.

Mutants & Bandits - Radiation and secret experiments produce mutants and lawlessness produces bandits.

Alternate History - Blending the fantastic with a real place and history has advantages. Especially when secrecy leaves room to fill in the blanks.

Unknown - The Zone is unstable and changing even as it is explored. There’s always something unknown, driving inquiry and upsetting balances.

All together it makes for a great setting for small groups of colorful characters to adventure in, either as a party of player characters or a small warband.

What More Could You Want?

But does it always need to be Chernobyl? The three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are all set there and the fourth is due to return. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-inspired game Chernobylite is set in the same area geographically, if not the same Zone.

When Zona Alfa was announced, I thought it might bring the format to a new locale. But they returned to Chernobyl once more.

Can we take what makes the Zone work, and apply it to new regions of the world?

Negev Desert

In 1963, a project was proposed to excavate a canal across the Negev desert by detonating hundreds of nuclear bombs. What could possibly have gone wrong with such a plan? Peaceful nuclear explosions didn’t go very far, historically, but what if?

Voyages down the canal start taking longer than expected. Vessels entering the canal didn’t always leave. What was built as a straightline now twists, spirals, and switches back. The Zone is somewhere out in the desert, but you’ll only find it if you travel by water.

Yellowknife

In 1978, a Soviet reconnaissance satellite, with an on-board nuclear reactor, crashed in Northern Canada. A joint American and Canadian military mission was launched to recover the radioactive debris and that was that. But what if?

The Event occurred over a decade later. The military established a cordon. The location is quite remote, but the Stalkers are determined. Abandoned military facilities are found within the cordon, radar and warning systems, but also secret labs.

Fukushima

In 2011, following an earthquake and tsunami, the cooling systems at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant were damaged, threatening meltdown. Tremendous efforts eventually succeeded in bringing the reactors to cold shutdown. But what if?

Just when it seemed like the emergency was over, Anomalies spread around the district. Rumors spread and evacuations continue. The demand for Artifacts drives Stalkers and gangs to infiltrate the abandoned town.