D&D General Radiation & nuclear waste

[J-H]

This is not a place of honor.
No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
Nothing valued is here.
What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us.
The danger is still present in your time, as it was in ours.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

Has anyone written an adventure featuring nuclear waste, a Chernobyl-style reactor ruin, or anything else? I didn't find anything on Adventure Lookup under "nuclear" and nothing relevant under "radiation."

I know radiant damage is supposed to sub in for radiation in 5e, but I think an effect closer to a Mummy's Curse would be better: Maximum HP loss with a Constitution save each long rest to reduce or prevent the HP loss, and fairly stringent magical healing requirements. The amount of HP loss could be based on the amount of radiation (Grays is a really cool unit name for this) exposure. Some characters would make it, others wouldn't. An active malus to some or all rolls would also fit to represent the nausea and other side effects, but steady HP drain is already pretty punishing.

Inspired by the video below and some Chernobyl stuff I've been watching... I'm thinking of something where the party gets sent to pursue someone into an archeological dig, finding warnings but having to bypass them in pursuit of a madman who claims he can find ultimate destructive power below... perhaps by slamming a pair of hemispheres of some strange metal together. Instead of undead in the ruin, they find a few mutated creatures (probably something oozy), ghosts, rockfalls, and maybe a few automated defenses or traps, and perhaps an amulet that makes clicking and screeching noises that get louder the farther down they go..

I recall an SCP where a dimensional portal led to an alt-Mesoamerica ruin where there were references to thaumaturgical nukes (+- some details) but I haven't been able to find it in a few years.

 

[mixmastashizz]

Two adventures come to mind for me, both written for old school dnd:

Anomalous Subsurface Environment (scifantasy megadungeon with radioactive material that demihumans can see as "sick rock")

Temple of the Beggar King (start of the adventure features a warning similar to the beginning of your post, though i dont think it delves in to nuclear related topics itself)

 

[Stormonu]

Are we talking like Gamma World here?

For D&D, check out the Blackmoor adventures (DA1 - Adventures in Blackmoor, DA2 - Temple of the Frog, DA3 - City of the Gods) and especially The Immortal Storm, which deals with the god Rad (as in "Radiation") fitzing with a nuclear reactor that is causing magic to fail across the world.

Also, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks features a spaceship that has areas bathed in lethal radiation.

 

[SkidAce]

Full adventure, no.

Lost City with psionic computers powered by nuclear devices? Yes.

I made the damage an area effect, radiant/necrotic (unless the creature is resistant to BOTH, it takes full damage).

Used exhaustion for lingering poisoning after a CON save. (radiation was 1d6, so DC was 1-6 depending on damage taken).

But @J-H I really like the mummy rot idea. Might revise my rules.

 

[AlViking]

I have areas that are still scarred by ancient magic, magic is a little wonky (You get to be a Wild Mage and You get to be a Wild Mage!), lots of aberrations, mutants (maybe even a Deathclaw or two) and weird weather effects. I haven't used them all that often because they're dangerous areas. The other effects weren't so much physical as mental effects that build up over time where reality starts to fall apart.

So not radiation per se but the same idea, a powerful energy source that permanently scars the land. I figure that if games can make nuclear radiation magic, why not just have persistent magical residue?

 

[mellored]

Steel the plot of Fallout (1,2, or any of the 3d games).

Can steal some of their maps too.Fallout locations

Or if you want to try a new system, the Fallout RPG (never tried it, so no idea if it's any good).
Fallout The Roleplaying Game

 

[the Jester]

I use radiation a fair amount in my game- the tabaxi had an ancient empire that left a bunch behind. So I have written a number of adventures using it, but unfortunately, I don't think I have a digital version of any of them anymore.

My favorite was an epic level adventure for 3e set in a ruined underwater reactor and weapons factory.

I do have the 3e version of my basic rules for radiation; I'll post them if you're interested.

 

[J-H]

I have areas that are still scarred by ancient magic, magic is a little wonky (You get to be a Wild Mage and You get to be a Wild Mage!), lots of aberrations, mutants (maybe even a Deathclaw or two) and weird weather effects. I haven't used them all that often because they're dangerous areas. The other effects weren't so much physical as mental effects that build up over time where reality starts to fall apart.

So not radiation per se but the same idea, a powerful energy source that permanently scars the land. I figure that if games can make nuclear radiation magic, why not just have persistent magical residue?

I've used ancient magic before (or seen it used) but actual hazardous radiation is kind of an OCP for D&D characters if Detect Magic doesn't work on it.
Did you stat up a Deathclaw for 5e? I'm always interested in ways to make something that's not just "basically an ogre with better stats" that isn't a spellcaster. I remember them having some knockdown abilities in FO1/2.

Steel the plot of Fallout (1,2, or any of the 3d games).

Can steal some of their maps too.Fallout locations

Or if you want to try a new system, the Fallout RPG (never tried it, so no idea if it's any good).
Fallout The Roleplaying Game

You know... my IRL players are either too old or too young to have played Fallout 1!
Start them out at level 1 and go from mole rats to Arcanomutants over about 10-12 levels. Plasma rifles and other high-tech weapons are certainly the equivalent of magic items, and a plasma rifle becomes a wand of X or a +3 weapon or whatever.
It already has a functionally dungeon-based structure.

I use radiation a fair amount in my game- the tabaxi had an ancient empire that left a bunch behind. So I have written a number of adventures using it, but unfortunately, I don't think I have a digital version of any of them anymore.

My favorite was an epic level adventure for 3e set in a ruined underwater reactor and weapons factory.

I do have the 3e version of my basic rules for radiation; I'll post them if you're interested.

If you'd like, or you could summarize them. 3e tended to have too many condition tracks.

 

[mellored]

As far as radiation, I would keep it simple and just use exhaustion.

Low radiation area: DC 12 Con save after a long rest or gain exhaustion
Medium: DC 13 Con save every hour, or gain exhaustion.
High: DC 14 Con save every minute or gain exhaustion.
Very High: DC 15 Con save every round.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I have a d20 modern add-on called Grim Tales. It has a whole section on radiation and mutations

They rate it in Rads and a hazard is rated in Rads per interval (rounds, minutes, hours etc..)

Every interval they are exposed to fallout, they accumulate rads. They make a con (fortitude)save DC 10+accumulated rads. Failure means they take one point of con damage.

You can reduce your rads by resting (1/day or a saving throw to reduce it - depending on how deadly you want it)

You can also reduce your rads by 2 by taking on a mutation. They have a whole CR formula for creature powers to emulate mutations. But for every positive mutation (ex: claw attack!) you get a negative mutation (Ex: reduced movement) so that the CR evens out.

maybe that will give you ideas.