When you go into the Zone, you cannot and should not avoid describing the anomalies because the anomalies are what separates the Zone from the rest of the world. The charts on the preceding spread may feel boring and the anomalies too easy to avoid but it is all about the anomalies’ effects on their surroundings. The GM has to be creative in applying the results and always consider the effects on their immediate environment. That is why anomalies should preferably be planned ahead.
The size and area of effect of anomalies vary but typically they are several metres or even tens of meters in diameter. The effects of some extend up-wards with no limit but satellites have been able to cross over the Zone in the orbit with no ill effects. Other anomalies, especially liquids and some-times also gases, are possible to avoid by going over them. From the GM’s point of view, an anomaly fills “most of the clearing”, “the space within the walls of the ruined house” or “the pit, up to its brim”. Big enough to be noticed and considered a threat, small enough to be avoided.
The stalkers are expected to figure out routes past the anomalies and some-times even through them, so it must not be impossible. In exchange, the GM can be just as nasty as he wants with the environmental side effects, even if the anomaly itself is avoided: rain passing through an “Accelerator” threat-ens to tear the flesh off the bones. A “Flashpoint” can be avoided but avoid-ing the forest fire or smoke cloud will be much harder. A hurlavoid-ing anomaly can shoot a huge boulder at them and a mirage can conceal a natural hazard.
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When weather or darkness makes it even harder to notice anomalies, the players will be biting their nails alongside the stalkers.
Another way to use anomalies is to blur the line between a force of nature and a creature. An anomaly that seeks out warmth, motion or the stalkers’
equipment may resemble a creature or plant life of some sort that is now chasing the stalkers. Similarly, if the players have grown used to anomalies and are making too confident predictions about their behaviour, it is time to make exceptions just to keep them lively. A flat spot of ground that looks like a “Mosquito Mange” is something completely different. “Burning Fluff” is coloured a bit differently than before and starts to form a bluish web of glassy strands around its victims. A pool of liquid will sprout tentacles or pseudopods and reach for the stalkers. Even if the motion is slow, tension is based on the unpredictability of the consequences.
The anomalies are not enemies and they cannot be defeated. They can only be escaped and avoided. Sometimes throwing a steel nut into an anomaly will not only reveal its location but also trigger it, making the area safe for a while. Some anomalies will be active all the time, nuts or not. It is rumoured that some unscrupulous stalkers take green newbies with them as “lockpicks”, anomaly fodder, to trigger the anomalies for them. Since they do not survive, there is no need to share the loot.
The anomalies can also be used to gain an advantage. This was never done in the novel (the police patrol was driven off the cemetery by an inorganism, not an anomaly) but it is certainly possible. They often make guarding the border difficult even on this side. An electrical charge somewhere close to the border can discharge into something conductive and take out the flood-lights and motion detectors alike. In winter, a flashpoint can raise such a mist that even an infrared camera is useless. If the players come up with an ingenious way to use an anomaly to their advantage, it should usually work and sometimes be a complete disaster. The GM can use anomalies (especially dynamic anomalies) to save the players from trouble if he considers it appro-priate or sees good drama arising from such a solution.
If the sniper in a border watch tower shoots at a stalker in the Zone, the bullet will hit him long before he hears the sound. However, if there is a
“painting” between the two, the gunshot will echo from the surrounding ru-ins. The stalker starts and sees a bullet floating in the air nearby. It is tracking behind it a series of enlarging, concentric rings (the pressure waves from breaking the sound barrier). The “painting” has slowed down its move-ment.
The stalker knows he has been shot at and can make it out of the way. It’s worth the trouble to dodge the bullet since after passing through the anomaly, it will keep going at its original speed of 800+ metres per second.
The sniper, however, is too far to see and understand what has happened. He quickly fires off a couple of more shots at the still-visible stalker. A swarm of slowly moving bullets appears in the “painting” and gunshots echo all around.
It may be still hard for the stalker to fig-ure out what, exactly, is going on, since the “painting” is between him and the source of the sound, so the echo from his surround-ings will reach him minutes before the ac-tual gunshot sound makes it through the anomaly. And since the sniper is at a dis-tance, even the bullets are coming in at a misleading angle. The Stalker’s sensory perceptions of the event are contradictory.
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THE GAMEMASTER’S BOOK
Inorganisms
When the GM brings in an inorganism, it should be an object of both fear and curiosity. To avoid making the encounter just another dynamic anomaly, the GM should look into the behaviour of animals. An inorganism might stop to study the stalkers’ trail, or make sounds that are answered in kind from a distance. The stalkers might see the creature make dancelike movements, leaving behind curly scratches that might be mistaken for writing. Two inorganisms can meld together into a completely new creature, or one can break apart into numerous, independent and completely different creatures.
Inorganisms cannot be killed because they lack any bodily functions that might cease. A limb cut off a Replica will function independently of the body. Material inorganisms can be physically broken but this usually re-quires far more firepower than the stalkers are capable of carrying. It is unknown how inorganisms are born, how the damage inflicted on them af-fects them or how they die or disappear. Their behaviour is as unpredictable as everything else in the Zone.
Inorganisms can be designed along the same principles as anomalies by com-bining anomalous features with the features of an animal or a plant. In the examples below, the “Iron Devil” is based on wading birds, and “Rimelights”
behave like a swarm of mosquitoes. The “Salt Worm” vaguely resembles the tubeworms that live near underwater heat vents. Designed like this, the inorganisms, despite their alienness, will have something familiar to them.
This makes it easier to provoke impressions and mental images about them.
Still, they are not animals, so the “wormlike” creature that leaves behind a stone tube or the magnetic “crane” made out of junk metal are human impres-sions of what they see. Inorganisms have no understandable ecological niches, purpose, or methods of communication.
The interaction of inorganisms and stalkers is still rather complex. The GM should plan encounters with inorganisms beforehand as part of a scene and consider how (and if) the inorganism would react to the stalkers’ presence and possible provocations. The idea is not to kill everyone, so he should also think up different ways to resolve the encounter. These will rarely go as planned but if work has been put into them beforehand, improvisation will come easier.
Encountering an inorganism may well be the highlight of the expedition but they are not the boss monsters for the adven-ture. Stalkers usually should not even try to destroy them, but to avoid and bypass them, like any creature of the Zone.
It is not possible to make an even partially complete list of all possible inorganisms, or even the most common types (Rep-licas are probably the most common type of inorganism en-countered by people) but in the following pages there are examples of encounters between stalkers and inorganisms.
They do not have a Toughness value and surviving them is a matter of decisions and challenges rather than fighting.
If an inorganism touches or otherwise affects a stalker, the results are usually horrible. Replicas are an exception but even they are tremendously strong if provoked to use force.
Usually physical contact will cause the same sort of injuries as a similar anomaly, though perhaps milder. The following descriptions have sought to describe these as well. Burning a Fitness point will spare the stalker of the worst of it but touching a “salt worm” can still take away a few fingers or fingertips, even if the petrification of the stalker’s entire body is avoided.
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“Replicas”
The old woman looks like she’s playing the accordion but the bellows merely wheeze; her fingers are not pressing the keys. Her expression is peaceful, perhaps a bit sad, and her eyes are bright, though the glazed look makes them seem blurry. Her skin is dry and wrinkled as an old woman’s, though otherwise she might be middle-aged. She can sit on the stairs and play for days on end, rain or shine, but is somehow never there when the Institute comes to pick her up.
It is said that her name is Denise Roch and that she died long before the Visitation. Some of the old people still remember her and the stairs led to a café where she used to work. Now the door no longer opens and she hasn’t tried any others. Someone once shot her in the face with a shotgun but no trace of it remains except for the shreds of her shawl. The crystalline ma-chines that make up her body have repaired everything else.
Suddenly, she ceases her playing and looks at you with dead eyes. The hands start pumping again and the silent playing continues but she begins to howl words that are strange to you. A couple of running steps take you behind the corner and the howling ends abruptly. Then somewhere in the distance, an-other Replica howls in reply. The Carver is here. His trousers are the wrong way around and his shirt is buttoned up haphazardly. The clumsy motions and dark, dry face make him appear like an old man, but he is a youngster...
or the image of one, at least. There is much strength in his thin hands. The rebar throws sparks as he carves his pictures on the walls: triangles, spirals, curves and lines.
He always has a companion. A small child, wrapped so thoroughly in clothes that not even the eyes are visible. The child usually stands near the Carver, but can run like the wind if need be. Nobody knows who he or she is. Or what. The Carver has never attacked anyone but after seeing how lightly he uses the rebar, nobody wants to take the risk. People have been injured or even killed when a Replica made a sudden movement or they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.