Denizens of The
Twisted Earth
http://www.darwinrpg.com
Copyright 2001 © RPGObjects®
The 'd20 System' and the 'd20 System' logo are Trademarks
owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used according to the
terms of the d20 System License version 1.0a.
A copy of this
License can be found at
www.wizards.com
. Portions of this work
are derived from the d20 System Reference Document.
Table of Contents
Introduction:
2
Adventure Locations:
3
Major Groups:
4
Legends, Myths, and Famous
Places:
11
Prestige Classes:
19
An Undiscovered Country:
34
GL:
35
A Darwin’s World Sourcebook v1.1
By DOMINIC A. COVEY
- Credits -
Editor:
Chris Davis
Cover Art:
V. Shane
Interior Art
: V. Shane
PDF Creator
: Chris Davis
Playtesters
: Kevin Milhoan "Caoster", Mladen Spasic, Sergey
Kushch, Percy Snyder, Will Nichols, Alex Kashyrin, Chris Covey,
Jake Schwab, Mike Guild, Andrew Ma, and Murat Beydere.
The SRD, OGL, and d20 System
apocalyptic d20 game available and your help is
greatly appreciated.
DARWIN’S WORLD utilizes the System Reference
Document (SRD) released Under the Open Game
License (OGL) by Wizards of the Coast®.
DARWIN’S WORLD is a d20 System product and
requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons®
Player's Handbook, Third Edition, published by
Wizards of the Coast®. Dungeons & Dragons®
and Wizards of the Coast® are Registered
Trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, and are
used with Permission.
RPGObjects® is a strong supporter of the OGL.
The OGL allows game developers to release
material under an “Open License” that permits
others to copy, modify and distribute that
content. Significant portions of this document
are released under the OGL. There are 2 ways to
recognize OGL content. First, any content
highlighted in gray is OGL material.
Bolded
material contained in highlighted areas is Product
Identity. Second, some sections are entirely OGL
sans the opening paragraph. Those sections will
be identified accordingly. The words
Darwin’s
World
and
Twisted Earth
are always Product
identity no matter where they appear. All
illustrations, pictures, and diagrams are Product
identity and property of RPGObjects®. A copy of
the OGL can be found at the end of this module.
Introduction
The Ancients were, as anyone left alive in this
world knows, the Gods who once ruled the earth.
Theirs was a time of great knowledge and
industry, where technology knew no bounds, and
where the world was populated with more people
than there were grains of sand. It was a world
filled with beauty and great things, where disease
was almost unknown and sadness completely
extinct.
But something happened. No one really knows
what – not anymore, anyway. They call it the
“Fall”, because that’s what it was. Somehow,
somewhere, the Gods forgot themselves and fell.
Maybe they soared so high that, like a towering
spire, they grew too lofty and collapsed under
their own might. Perhaps they took for granted
all that beauty and became jaded to perfection,
and sought only to undo what they had done.
Who knows? But it happened. In one fell swoop,
all the nations of the world, all it’s people,
became upset with one another and without so
much as thinking brought a terrible end to what
had once been.
And so it came to pass. Their weapons were
great, their destruction complete. They
unleashed on the world a plague of fiery bombs,
mighty missiles, and armies of robots. Diseases,
their effects forgotten for generations, were
brought out from hiding and released on the
masses. Men, women, and children died by the
millions. Chemicals, poisonous not only to man
but the very earth and air, came to taint even the
fabric of the planet. And then, the great clouds
of red fire came to burn away what was left,
erasing every last vestige of the Ancients’
presence on the world. Entire cities were blasted
into oblivion; nation-states smudged like smoky
vapor in the burning wind, or buried under the
dust that had once been the bodies of so many
billions of humankind.
But life did not die there. Somehow...people
survived. Like rats hiding under a smoldering
furnace, life escaped ultimate destruction. No
one can know who they were, or what horrors
they faced in their time – it was far too long ago
for anyone to truly know. But they lived, they
persisted, and they gave birth to the men of what
Book Versioning
Darwin’s World books are published in an
electronic format rather than the traditional
paper format. We at RPGObjects® feel that
there are several advantages to publishing role-
playing games in an electronic format, one of
which is that we can update the books with no
cost to you. Thus we can avoid the hated errata!
We regularly update our products to correct
typos, errors, and game mechanic issues. We
are always seeking to improve our existing books
with each new version. Often we will include
additional content and art in newer versions. You
can get the latest version of this book at the
Darwin’s World website,
http://www.darwinrpg.com. There you will find
instructions on how to receive an updated
version. If you find an error or feel that a game
mechanic needs adjusting, please let us know.
We want Darwin’s World to be the best post
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Darwin’s World
is now known as the Twisted Earth, the
unraveling ruined world that is DARWIN’S
WORLD.
This book,
Denizens Of The Twisted Earth
, puts
forward information on these survivors, and the
pseudo-societies they have come to resurrect.
Denizens Of The Twisted Earth
is an important
addition to the basic rules that embellishes upon
the basic framework of the Twisted Earth and it’s
rumored inhabitants. It is also a major
sourcebook for the wind-swept and desolate
setting of DARWIN’S WORLD, a lost planet of
dead dreams and dwindling life.
Within these pages you will find a much more
in-depth look at the deserts, ruined cities, and
wilderness of the world; as well as the numerous
struggling communities, factions, and post-
apocalyptic cultures that vie violently for it’s
control.
Also within these pages are a number of
prestige classes meant to spark interest and
creativity in the minds of players and referees
alike.
members of a society. As a result, many
skeletons are found among the sands ... a few
who manage to survive often form bandit groups
that raid the trade routes around the outskirts of
the 'zone. Despite the slim prospects for life in
these desolate regions, the lucky traveler might
stumble upon the ruins of some ancient structure
- a generations-old tanker, beached in the middle
of the sandy desert, still managing to power it's
own cargo hold filled with foodstuffs, fuel, and
supplies. Perhaps the wanderer is less lucky,
finding only an ancient oil refinery, it's parched
rusted towers jutting from the sands like gnarled
bony fingers struggling for life in this forgotten
wasteland...
Fallout Shelters:
Rumored "domes" -
underground or otherwise completely-enclosed
shelters built to withstand a direct nuclear attack,
as well as support a large community for decades
or more - erected in the American countryside
still exist, in one form or another, so many years
after the cataclysm they were designed to protect
against. Some opened long ago, the occupants
eager to see the world again - never to return.
Some are now home to weird monsters, having
moved in for refuge (or perhaps they are the
degenerate descendants of those who once lived
there?), while others are still bottled up, their
occupants afraid to come out. They are cautious,
almost xenophobic communities that hold vast
reserves of useful tools, food, water, and
knowledge of the Ancients.
Machine Worlds:
Many "communities" exist
in DARWIN'S WORLD, but those of this type are
among the most mysterious. Certain
"communities" of robots still exist in the ruin,
such as ancient factories, corporate buildings,
military bases and depots, etc. Robots that have
survived all the decades still roam the halls and
corridors, performing the functions they were
originally programmed for, never having been
given the order to quit. Now that mankind is no
longer "mankind", they no longer recognize the
orders of mutantkind - and still perform their
duties, eradicating "intruders" into their
territories. These locations are like taboo regions
to wasteland mutants, totally avoided because of
the "ruthless and mysterious" inhabitants within.
Often entire valleys (old weapon test sites, for
example) are bypassed for fear of intruding.
More often than not, however, these locations
conceal a bounty of pre-holocaust technology and
artifacts, and sometimes a group of raiders or
Adventure Locations
The wastes of DARWIN'S WORLD are home to all
manner of creatures and ruined remnants of the
Ancients. When designing adventures and
scenarios for your players, feel free to
incorporate things from movies, books, and even
real life. There really is a kind of "beauty" to
decay - rusted old oil refineries, the hollow
remains of a crashed jet liner, etc. The people of
the ruined wasteland make use of mankind's junk
and wrecks the way birds make nests from
human garbage. Old junkyards are storehouses
of useful things, old military depots are
storehouses of Ancient treasures, etc. Here are a
few ideas to help flesh out the flavor of locations
in DARWIN'S WORLD.
Dead Zones:
Large expanses of the world
were left completely and entirely desolate after
the fall of civilization. With climactic change
came the encroaching deserts, which engulfed
entire regions and even turned some smaller
bodies of water into great dune "seas". Such
areas are often avoided - they hold nothing for
hundreds of miles, just barren, naked sands.
Often they are infested with weird mutated life
forms (giant sand worms, for instance), and thus
they are the perfect place to exile the unwanted
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Darwin’s World
adventurers will dare the legendary guardians to
get at what they hide within. Few, if any, return.
Necropoli:
The great cities of old, the
"necropoli" ("cities of the dead"), are great metal
and stone ruins located in the blistered deserts
and thick lustrous jungles of the American
continent. Usually shunned because of the
"glow" surrounding them (the tell-tale sign of
lingering radiation from the wars), and legends
telling of great diseases infesting them (from bio-
engineered plagues unleashed during the final
fighting of the apocalypse), they are, regardless,
a haven of life. Mutated beings thrive in the tall
burnt-out skyscrapers, in the clogged and
decrepit sewers, and in the barren streets.
Ghouls seem to congregate here more often than
other beings, but colonies of "wild men" (insane
savage humanoids) are also known to thrive in
some as well. In jungle-covered cities of the old
South, it is said, snake-men dwell in the old
monuments and buildings of the Ancients,
possessing a kingdom of great evil and tyranny.
oil
. Benders claim to be the descendants of the
personnel that originally operated it as an
important installation of the Ancients. Whatever
the truth of their origins, the oil supply is a
steady one, steady to such an extent that the
water merchants of the Clean Clan have been
navigating a particularly-dangerous route south
from Trade City to Bend for the past decade or
so. In return for their water shipments, the
Clean are warily rewarded with bountiful oil that
is perhaps the single-greatest source of oil
outside of that produced by the Cartel.
This abundant oil does not come without a
price. The mountainous desert region around
Bend City is legendary for it’s dangers – extreme
heat and lack of drinkable water, rare but
ferocious sand-burrowing worms, and especially
road gangs
. Raiders, whose vehicles have often-
times been stripped of their electric power to run
off combustible fuels, have always sought to
crack Bend City open and loot it’s wells for the
millions of gallons it allegedly hordes.
To protect itself, Benders have turned Bend
City into a great fortress, surrounded by metal
and wooden walls, great moats, and towering
lookouts to spy the dusty approach of such
gangs. Not even the Clean and their caravans
are permitted into Bend City. The people of Bend
City have never shown any inclination to joining
any regrowth community, and have even denied
the protection of the Cartel. According to the
Clean, their dealings are always done at a
distance, with intermediary drop-offs and pick-
ups, as if they feared everyone else in the world
had the plague. As such, accounts of the actual
people have always been vague at best.
Brethren (Resentfuls; Membership
unknown):
The “Brethren” are a rather
disturbing army of men, women, and children
dwelling in the radiated and diseased ruins of the
San Francisco and other cities in the Sierra
Gehenna region. Many stories surround the
Brethren and it’s activities, and traders who have
been to their decrepit cities often speak of the
danger they pose to outsiders. The Brethren
believe that the Ancients were demons, and
through their own malevolence they destroyed
the world, reducing mankind to what it is now –
twisted and hideous. Themselves mutants of a
sort (years of troglodilian existence beneath the
city – a lifestyle forced upon them by more
powerful mutant groups now vanished from the
face of San Francisco – has left them albino and
photosensitive), they detest everything the
The setting of DARWIN’S WORLD is rich with
scattered communities and enclaves of
civilization. Certainly there exists virtually scores
of villages, towns, and even “cities” among the
sands, but these are generally isolated or unique,
their presence felt only in their specific locality.
Elsewhere, however, exist what can only be
described as major factions, movements, and
philosophical fraternities. Organized along
numerous lines (monastic traditions, neo-military
structure, etc), these few are the major
powerhouses that promise to one day bring back
civilization in their own form – or threaten to
bring about another Fall through their own wars
of ignorance and domination.
Benders (Ressurectors, Membership 800):
The community of Bend City is said to be home
to a stable populace of peaceful yet wary folk on
the edge of known country. The Big Bend is a
rugged valley where once a great river ran wild
and free, but which has turned into an
impassable gulch that separates the northern,
flat lands with the mountains of the south –
mountains which, according to local legend, run
to the edge of the world.
The Benders maintain this distant outpost
because of what Bend City sits right on top of –
Major Groups
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Darwin’s World
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