I love the Wasters in Rimworld. They remind me of the ghouls from the Fallout franchise and it's pretty easy to see why.

I keep finding myself thinking about Wasters and how they would fit into a community that's dominated by some other xenotype. They're capable of living in this unpolluted environment, but it's not as comfortable as it could be. Special care would have to be taken for them by the other members of the community, in the case of their Psychite dependency. Also they're not the prettiest to look at (Rough, papery charcoal-black skin stretched taut over a bony, gaunt frame. With perpetually-bloodshot eyes sunken in their sockets), and that of course affects their social standing.

Then, how a community of Wasters would appear to another xenotype as they pass through, or visit for a short time. I can imagine that a bunch of Wasters grouped up can carry a lot of negative stereotypes, like how they deliberately pollute the environment to better suit them, or how they're constantly high off their asses on Psychite. Like a group of thugs or bandits, nobody wants to mess with a group of toxic Wasters on their turf.

Then I think about the xenotype's origins. Genetically-engineered to live and breed as living area-denial weapons. Used en-masse by urbworld military generals dumping them onto a toxic battlefield just to make the area worse for their enemy. Scorched-Earth tactics taken to their logical extreme as an entire group of people lives on and defends an otherwise inhospitable scrap of land. I think of Wasters in these systems dreaming of a promised land, a paradise where they can live away from their enforced obligations as living bioweapons.

Here we have Skarskalp. Despite his scowl he has a rough medical knowledge and no memories of his childhood. RIP Then we also have Josiah

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and has a significant population, which means there is a significant amount of rubbish that needs to be disposed of properly.

Dungeon23 1/14-20

Okay! A busy week means you’re getting one long post on the east side of Level 1.

Most inviting is 15, we have an Automat, the greatest quick service ever invented with a note that “CC killed us” scratched into the wall.

An office (14) beside it with an access card to the back of the Automat and some motivational posters.

A pantry (16) with rotten food, some days rations and a valuable pack of pre war cigarettes.

A small access hatch (17) used by maintainobots to travel floors and keep the place clean, hackable and with enough room for 1 at a time to go down.

We get the office of Expansion Management (18), with notes on their newest project post sealing “population replacement and longevity” and a nice note about a portable concrete extruder, which can be used by archivists to effectively cast Wall of Stone.

19 is a depowered lift with a corpse on top, she has IT privileges in her access badge.

20 is Forecast and Analytics, where number crunchers played with foam weapons and wrote reams on survival odds and whether or not the Preserve’s AI core would go rogue and kill everyone (22% chance, admin not responding to emails.) A note betrays a plan with a member of IT to see what they know.

You bet your boots today’s a three in one!

I added three more rooms to our Preserve over the last couple days.

1/11 A janitors closet with four bottles of accelerant, typically used by the maintainobots to power their built in torches.

1/12 We get Knowledge Management where a de powered, password protected console has info on the three projects of the location.

A 7billion dollar project to breed and proliferate radiation proof flora, a digital collection of scientific research and prewar classic literature, and the Central Command Intelligence, an AI set to take over the Preserve after six months. None of those are seeds for me to play with layer.

The last office is Communications, more of a workspace and check out station, but we get a pair of high power Walkie-Talkies and the note that the Preserve never received a high frequency transmitter dish. Also another new item, a repair kit to add a bonus die to any rolls interfacing with electronics. Should be helpful for door locks, robots or something else.