Character Background Guidelines

When the asteroid was detected, people started building shelters.  Maybe they help, maybe they don't, but you may as well build them just in case they help.  There are shelters of all kinds, and all sizes, scattered around.  Not enough that you'll see one every day or even every month on foot, but enough that you could in theory find one anywhere. It's been two years since the bombs dropped, and meteors fell, and everyone who is still alive today, spent at least 18 months inside a shelter, those who tried different strategies were not successful.

When making a character for 198X, there are a few guidelines that must be observed, and other guidelines that are optional but worth reading and considering.

Required Character Background Elements

• For a variety of reasons (including statistical flukes) no people who were once bigots or zealots survived the apocalypse.  If you want your background to include bigots or zealots who got into shelters and were promptly knifed in their sleep, that's fine, but none of them made it back out into the world or polluted the minds of anyone who made it out into the world. These character backgrounds are simply not acceptable in 198X nor will they be represented by NPCs.
• Everyone spent 18 months or more, post-fall, in a shelter without going outside.  Any other plan simply isn't survivable and is thus not viable for a character background.  A shelter could be any structure with air filtration, food, water, and power.  It could be one person in their own basement bunker, or a large cargo ship that was sealed up in time, or even a cave with a really good front door and some other upgrades. The precise nature of your shelter is up to you, but it should be something at least plausible.
• All PCs are 18 years old or older.

Optional Character Background Elements

• Players who all agree, can have spent their 18+ months in a shelter together, you're free to include other NPCs that may or may not have survived, and any other details about how life worked in the shelter.  Maximum player created shelter population: 30, the larger shelters in the area have been accounted for by the Townships.  Generally these shelters had power, water, food and were sustainable for at least those 18 months, the less successful shelters are only useful as places to explore with corpses in them.
• PCs may have spent their 18 months with any one of the local NPC townships, in a large shelter.  If the PC had a significant impact on more than a few members of the township, that needs to be ironed out with the worldbuilding team, because those NPCs still exist and will have an impact on the nature of the game as it plays out.  PCs who were part of those townships must no longer be part of them.  You are free to determine if you're still on good terms with them, or they kicked you out, or you fled, etc.  Regardless of the method of departure, you are no longer part of their group and do not have a permanent home there anymore.  You may start with a small boost to your personal reputation for one (and only one) NPC township, but this bonus is available to everyone who wants it, so long as their background is compatible with the township's interests, and actions taken in game will have the normal positive or negative effect on your reputation.
• Any PC may start with a small positive reputation with up to one of the nearby townships.  This can have any reasonable justification but must be approved by the worldbuilding team based on a written and submitted background.  You may also have a negative starting reputation with any number of NPC townships, no writeup required, but you do need to make sure those negative reputations are properly marked on your character sheet.