Contamination is a term for the mix of technology-destroying nanoweapons, radiation, pollution, and environmental hazards.
It spreads through air, water, blood, and permeates almost everything in the environment.
Contamination is measured by a level indicating its intensity.
Only inside the Domes of the Supervivo, inside a Mecha, or similarly purified environments can contamination reach level 0.
Levels below 0 are needed to dismantle Experimental Tech, but such purity is very hard to achieve.
There is no upper limit to contamination levels.
Entities in contaminated areas take contamination damage every hour equal to the local contamination level.
To quickly determine an areas contamination level a combination of dice may be used, usually 1d10 for settled areas, 2d10 for the wilderness and 3d10 at especially dangerous places.
Environments cause their Contamination level in damage, roughly every hour. If less than an hour is spent in the environment, the applied damage is halved.
Water naturally draws contamination and is usually 2-3 times as contaminated as the rest of the surroundings. A Character in direct skin contact to soil or pools of water takes increased contamination, at faster the intervals, depending on the amount of contact.
When an entity takes contamination damage, they roll their contamination resistance plus relevant modifiers.
Remaining damage (above 0) is applied to a wound called "Contamination Ingress", increasing it or creating it if there currently isn't one, and raises the entity’s contamination by 1.
The current contamination level grants an internal bonus to ingress resistance rolls causes complications during, healing, making a little scratch potentially life threatening.
People roll Resistance as the attribute, unless they have equipment or skills which can be used in Ingress resistance, nothing else.
Mecha/Technology use their Adaptation level, any leftovers are applied as Contamination Ingress Damage from the outside in.
Contact with Contaminated entities (Systems in the same Mecha are in contact) applies their Contamination, once per hour if the receiver has no bonuses to its resistance, and every time an Affinity roll fails or resonates with 1, Contamination Damage is applied as well, with the Amplitude of the Affinity rolls 1-Resonance AND the amplitude of the Contamination rolls 1-Resonance added.
This means that even 1 Contamination can in unlucky circumstances start damaging equipment, even though it is usually safe.
A character may
When a character interacts directly with an entity, contamination damage equal to Character Contamination is applied each hour.
Only internal resistance applies during direct contact (e.g., piloting a mech, handling a weapon, shaking hands), unless proper seals are used.
Objects use their adaptation level and Maintenance status instead of attributes and skills, based on factors like artificialness and complexity.
Generally, more artificial and complex objects break down or malfunction faster.
Examples:
Damaged objects may lose functionality or impose penalty dice when used.
A seal reduces contamination behind it by its level.
If damaged, seal effectiveness drops by 1 and until it is repaired/reapplied the effective level is halved.
Air must be purified or oxygen-enriched separately.
(The average human consumes about 500–600 liters of oxygen daily.)
The Domes of the Supervivo usually have level 25 hermetic seals with purified, oxygen-enriched air.
Examples of human-sized external contamination protection:
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Alacast-infused rag or shut wooden door (oxygen may run out) |
| 2 | Breathermask or simple wooden door airlock (oxygen issues) |
| 3 | Partial gasmask or airtight airlock |
| 4 | Heavy partial gasmask with goggles or basic air filtering |
| 5 | Full gasmask |
| 6 | Full gasmask + sealed clothing or low-tech air filtering |
| 7 | Above + mid-tech scrubber (small backpack) |
| 8 | Above + high-tech air scrubber or mid-tech filtering |
| 9 | Above + full mask with compressed air tank |
| 10+ | Specially sealed suit with airtank or high-tech filtering |
Characters have a Contamination Resistance from 1–5, and are classified:
| Entity Type | Contamination Resistance | Affinity Required |
|---|---|---|
| Experimental | 1 | 5 |
| High Tech | 2 | 4 |
| Mid Tech | 3 | 3 |
| Low Tech | 4 | 2 |
| Base Tech | 5 | 1 |
If Affinity requirements aren’t met, each use adds penalty dice equal to the difference.