Free Content Friday – Outbreak: Undead..
August 2021
RAG & BONE – CHAIN OF COMMAND
Written By:
Noxweiler Ignatius Berf
Attention, soldier! When I say ‘Attention!’ that means that you wipe
your fuckin’ nose and, at the very fuckin’ least and pretend to be an
adult enlisted in the greatest fuckin’ city-state in The Penn! Did I give
you permission to blink, motherfucker? No! No, I did not. Private,
I am getting the distinct sense that your head isn’t on a swivel today
and that I’ve been wasting my fucking time training you these last seven
months. You see, I don’t get two wet farts how long you been living in
these wall, sucking on the sweet titty of Momma Citadel, your days on
the practice range are over as of today...
The Citadel pulled you out of the filth and squalor that you were
crawling in and brought you up. We taught you to shoot at five years
of age, gave you kitchen and latrine duties at ten, and made you part
of the security detail inside the walls at thirteen….but, today, you are
MAKING A STAND
The United States of America has fallen. It fell over twenty years
back, alongside every other government on the planet. There
simply were not enough people left to maintain any sense of
order in the face of an extinction level event for humanity. At
the time, every major metropolis was a death sentence and the
only people that managed to survive are the ones that got far
enough away from it all to ride out the worst of the fall out.
The dead roam the streets and highways endless seeking to
sate their hunger on the warm flesh of the living, the infection
that brought them back from death spreading and preserving
their rotten and mutated forms, giving them bottomless wells
of endurance as they hunt and destroy. In the largest congrega-
tions of the Romero swarms, entire cities of the dead migrate,
like birds across the countryside.
Nuclear fallout has made the majority of the East Coast unlivable.
Graphic Design & Layout:
Christopher J. De La Rosa, Caleb Cleveland, Alex Huilman
sixteen mother fucking years old and officially a private in the Citadel
Armed Forces of the Resurgent United States,The Penn’s Fighting First.
You’re leaving the walls, and when you do remember the chain of com-
mand and the laws that we live by, they will save your sorry ass when
you’re out there in the middle of weeds, dropping the Romero threat
and bringing the civilian population into line. We stand for something
in a world that can’t stand for itself. We are the last thread of civili-
zation that binds this whole shit-show together and Command has our
marching orders dialed in. Ours is not to question why, Private, ours is
just to do or die. Happy fuckin’ birthday, Private….
James Allen Riggs,“Riggs” — First Lieutenant Captain of
The Citadel Armed Forces
The Southern regions the former United States—as far as anyone
in the Iron Penn has been able to explore it are empty, barren,
and ruined land. Scarred by sprawling marshes unable to sustain
any farming whatsoever. The lands are glutted with the dead
and there has been no radio contact that have led anyone to
believe that there is much worth risking the trip for. Most of
the survivor came north in an exodus that swelled the numbers
of the sustainable lands of The Penn to sizes that made any sort
rebuilding possible.
With the verdant lands, untainted soil, fresh water from the
Three Rivers, the land that would become The Penn was born
out a few hundred survivors gathering from all corners of a
destroyed nation, hoping to make it another day. The world is
a big place and, as best as anyone can tell, there are only about
1 million people left on the entire planet. Compared to the
Billions of people that clogged Earth before the Apocalypse, that
number might well spell out the End of Days for the human race.
But people are people, and they find each other, they keep trying
 to make themselves safe and secure, they have children—even
now—and they fight. Like cockroaches, humanity just doesn’t
know how to give up the ghost. And in The Penn, communities
of wildly diverse cultures and backgrounds have settled into
something that is beginning to look like it might be the start of
something approaching a new beginning.
At the same time, things are violent and messy out there and
for the past twenty years communities have risen and fallen in
the wake of countless skirmishes and tiny wars for resources
and land, people and pride. From that maelstrom, a few groups
have managed to solidify themselves, those groups are slowly
become city-states unto themselves. Some of them have good
intentions, others….not so much. All of them, however, are
under the leadership of strong-minded survivors that have carved
a place for themselves in the emerging history of the The Penn.
Ten-Four—the field leader of The Ender’s Line and the public
face of a strong Rag & Bone collective that has single-handedly
pulled together many of the small knots of humanity gathered in
the only safe-zones of what was once the American Midwest—
knows much more than he’s letting his people onto. He wants to
trust all his agents and caravan personnel, but he can’t. He knows
that someone inside of the local cells of Rag & Bon—most likely
one of his own Enders—is selling out the entire organization and
slowly causing the network that he and his wife built to fall apart.
A lot was riding on the safe transfer of Doctor Maria Espinoza
into the network of the Ender’s Line and securing the Grey Ridge
farm as a functional community capable of producing viable
antibiotics and other medicines would have made things better
for a whole lot of people. Strategically speaking, the location
of that old farmhouse and its defensible position against the
Mount Pleasant, made it a perfect springboard for bigger things.
Along with their network of mines and tunnels, the emerging
002 – Walkthrough
settlement was a perfect fulcrum against the Citadel’s increasing
aggression and a bottleneck to their ever-expanding territory.
Simply put, Grey Ridge would have unified the neighboring
communities and forced the Citadel to tow a more civil and
cooperative line….That’s all out the window, now, and the com-
munities that are present are now left to scavenge for whatever
is left behind. There are hopes that books, papers, instruction,
journals, and maybe even a trained assistant or two might be
discovered and some of that medical research and skill might be
salvaged from the catastrophe that occurred a few months back.
It’s not looking good.
It’s a long shot, however. At the end of the day, Ten-Four and the
Ender’s Line want to help people. They are a valuable resource
in a world that is on the brink of extinction. But Ten-Four’s
patience and good-nature can only be stretched so thin. There
are elements within the new blood of the organization, the outer
circles of the Enders’ Line that have grown too fast to be fully
and truly vetted by Ten-Four or Ruby Red.
Neither of them have their hands on every cell and group that
wears the Crossway symbol. The genie is out of the bottle and
the idea of organizing all the Rag & Bone across The Penn region
has become too big to manage with home-grown spit and deter-
mination. If they want to make local unity a reality, then the
leadership of the Enders’ Line have little choice but to continue
to let go of the strict standards that had protected them when
forming up their early groups.
It’s a risk that they have been rolling the dice on for a few years
now…and, with Grey Ridge, the price has come due.
Someone is trying to destroy everything that they have built
together.
Walkthrough – 003
JOSEPH “TEN-FOUR” WHITTAKER Traits

Abilities:
Echo Survivor
5 Basic First Aid Training: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 39)
”Welcome to the Ragged Edge of Nowhere, friend. If you got
the stomach for it, I could use someone with your particular 5 Billy Goat: Tier 1 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 40)
skillset. The pay in trade is well worth your effort and better
than the scraps that you’ve been stealing from my caravans…. 5 Charisma: Tier 3 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 40)
What do you say? We in business?”
5 Craftsman, Wood: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 42)
- Ten-Four to Achira Samson when he caught her stealing from
Station B9, Sometime in January 24 A.F. 5 Damage Threshold: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 43)

Joseph was born poor, his parents—before the Fall—were both laid off 5 Efficient: Tier 3 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 43)
the bottom fell out of the automotive industry in the United States in the
5 Honor: Tier 1 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 44)
1970s. They never recovered.
5 Marksman: Tier 1 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 45)
But having nothing made Joseph, known as Joey at the time, appreciate
everything that he ever earned. He also learned how to make something 5 Mule: Tier 3 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 46)
out of very little. How to stretch a soup and fix his old shoes. As he grew
older, he left home and hit the open road, taking on a job as truck driver. 5 Salesmanship: Tier 3 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 47)
He saved every penny that he could and eventually owned his own truck.
5 Survival Skills, Temperate Forest: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 48)
When the world ended, he didn’t stop doing the only thing that he knew
how to do, get people things that they needed. Soon others started to 5 Training, Long Gun: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 49)
help and supply runs formed, even after the roads and highways became
useless and most vehicles were rusted out and forgotten. Things evolved and 5 Wheedle: Tier 2 (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 50)
changed. Joseph became Ten-Four, and Ten-four became a leader in a dark Disadvantages:
and dangerous landscape.
5 Addiction — Tobacco (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 51)
People respect him and he treats people as well as they treat him. He and
his wife, Ruby-Red, run the Enders’ Line, mostly from afar via CB Radio but 5 Addiction — Alcohol (Survivor’s Guide, pg. 51)
they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty from time to time. In theWaste-
lands of The Penn,Ten-Four has managed to carve out something special Supported Skill(s)
that brings people together and give the world a real chance at rebuilding.
{Composure%, Expression%, Diplomacy-Barter%, Diplo-
Affiliation macy-Command%, Diplomacy-Determine Motives%,
Diplomacy-Persuade%, Firearms-Long Gun%, First Aid%,
Enders Line, Field Leader Construction/Engineering%, Survival%}

004 – Walkthrough
 Ten-Four

6 4

2 0 2 3 4 0 4 0 10

27 42
22 22
8 0 8
24 24
9 53 42
Voluntarily indulge in an addiction as a form
25 8 35
of stress relief to prevent the loss of Morale.
5 29 5 32
7 49 27
24

25 18 45
44 27
3
13 40
20 64 24
5 49 24
14 58 24
44 27
7 51 24
27 25

6 8
6 2
6

2
7 13
4 3
6
11
2
6

Walkthrough – 005
 FORMATIONS
ENDERS LINE RAIL WALKERS
Working in tandem with other Rag &Bone, the team undertaking
this formation works together to create a secure and effective
unit for the long journeys that are often required in traveling
with large pallets of supplies. While far from perfect, Rail-Carts
are hand pulled with a flanking member on each side of the rails,
out of sight and ready to cover their allies.
Faction Leadership & Mastery
Use the following ruleset to determine large scale troop move-
ments, combat tactics, and support actions. Examples would
include commanding soldiers in the defense of a settlement,
organizing a supply line and maintaining its security, and foster-
ing increased loyalty and building morale of a large gathering of
people through action, speech, and spectacle.
Note that these rules may be used alongside the Stronghold and
Core Rules of any Mode of Play, should you like, but they are
intended to offer Game Masters a quick and fair means with
which a player, or group of players may interact with larger
scale faction actions.
A Faction Leadership or Mastery Check can be constructed using
the Skills and Abilities that are present on a player’s character
sheet and do not require new Skills, Attributes, or Abilities to
be added. A Faction Leadership or Mastery Check is much like
other Checks in the Outbreak: Undead.. system across the varied
Modes of Play. A Game Master is only gathering the necessary
information to guide the players in larger, more open usage of
Skill and Abilities on scales not originally, or explicitly, intended
in the core ruleset.
Imagine that the collective of your player group is a single char-
acter, when they are activating these Faction Leadership rules.
The positive—and negative elements— that each player brings,
who is attempting to take the lead, all factor together to boil
a very complex, large-scale action into a manageable and easy
shorthand.
If the action requires further support, then rolls can be deter-
mined at a Time interval that is reasonable to the Game Master.
Maintaining and nurturing these actions can result in further
growth time and greater success.
If the survivors in your game are located within a Stronghold, add
automatic + - or based on the health, security, population,
and morale of the Stronghold. This may result in an automatic
failure. That is perfectly acceptable. After all, a population that
is starving isn’t going to listen to a player’s orders to fight against
an encroaching settlement before they are properly cared for.
To build Faction Leadership dice pool use the appropriate skill
for the action as per your own best judgement. Some examples
might be: {Diplomacy-Command%} for a military march,
006 – Walkthrough
This formation provides J
1 and allows the survivors to make
good time at roughly 1 mile per ^ 1
Traveling the Ender’s Line provides S1 for every 10 miles trav-
eled with a maximum of S250 attainable in a single Mission.
{Diplomacy-Persuade%} to get people to go recruit follow-
ers for your cult, or {Diplomacy-Intimidation%} to get
your people to leave grisly trophies hanging outside of all the
nearby warehouses to frighten any that might cross your group.
The Game Master would take into consideration the overall Morale
of all the involved parties and add a number of Difficulty Dice based
on every individual involved with a Morale score of three or less. For
example, if Lucy has a Morale score of two and John and Rebecca have
scores of four, then the collective roll for the action will automatically
have two dice of Difficulty.
The roll would also include any added dice that the Game Master
sees fit to include due to environmental difficulties such as poor
weather or foreign territory.
The Leader in this example would be the one using their Skills for the
roll, however any other character may support or even deter from the
results with their own Skill rolls, as determined by their actions. So,
if Lucy is rolling {Diplomacy-Command%} to get two units of
soldiers to attack at opposing flanks of an enemy encampment, she
would treat the roll much like a normal action roll.
However, the Stronghold Morale of those troops and the Morale
of her companions will affect that roll with the addition of Dice
of Difficulty. In this example they are all above a four other than
Lucy herself who is at a two. n n are added to the roll, but as
John and Rebecca are both supporting Lucy as she roleplays the
{Diplomacy-Command%}, they can each roll a Skill Check
and potentially help Lucy succeed.
John rolls {Diplomacy-Intimidation%} as he is standing
behind Lucy looking like he might rip off someone’s head, and
Rebecca rolls {Diplomacy-Persuade%} as she plays the “good
cop” and offers everyone additional rations from her personal
stash for the evening meal. For every +
on either roll, you can
reduce the Difficulty in Lucy’s pool by one until there is either
no Difficulty remaining or until there are no
any of the Support Pools.
+
remaining in
Using the following general chart, compare the Degrees of
Success or Degrees of Failure and narrate the results in what-
ever way is best for your story. More specific types of Faction
Leadership Actions and their usage will be included in future
releases. This ruleset will evolve further as we expand this series.
+ — The Faction Leadership Action succeeds but there are no
bonuses attributed to future Faction Leadership Action Checks
- — The Faction Leadership Action fails. Morale remains
unchanged.
for the Upkeep of this Order or Action. Morale remains stable
but unimproved. -- or --- — As above, but have all characters
make immediate {Composure%} Save Throws, any who are unable
++ — As above, but your Action is positive and may have
greater lasting effects. You may increase a Stronghold Morale by
to succeed remove J
1 from their current total.

1 for ^ 20. - - - - or - - - - - — As above, but

involved parties lose J1 without the ability of making a {Com-
+ + + — You have made a very positive improvement on
the Morale of everyone involved in this Mission and, in addition to
posure%} Save Throw.

success, may improve a Stronghold Morale by J1 permanently

and increase the Morale of all involved characters by J1 if they
are currently below J4.

+ + + + or + + + + + — As above, and
increases all involved characters total Morale by J1 regardless of
their current Morale total. Also the Game Master may forgo Upkeep
checks for the amount of Time that they feel is appropriate based
on the complications of the Faction Leadership Action.

s
e TRUTH about what lie
BLOCKBUSTER knew th
He was no sort of fool.
beyond the wastelands.
l. Get answers.
Crazy as a bat, but no foo
and leave no trace.
Burn this station do wn

— Ten-Four

Walkthrough – 007