LINGO:
ANOMALIES: (Also known as: “Traps”) Anomalies are what made the Zone so dangerous in the first place. “Anomaly” refers to patches of the Zone, ranging from a few inches to dozens of feet across, that, for whatever reason, no longer obey the laws of our reality. Gravity reverses. Pressure increases to deadly levels, or decreases until those inside explode. A vacuum forms in the very air, and suffocates people standing outside on a sunny, windless day. One stalker vanishes into thin air while scoping out an abandoned hallway. Another is struck by lightning twenty times in a row over the course of two minutes, merely a charred corpse after the third bolt. The point is, anomalies are deadly, but they can be detected, and they can be used to your advantage. The most common anomaly is called Mosquito Mange, and is detailed below, as is the infamous Witch’s Jelly.
ARTIFACTS: (AKA: “Loot,” “Stuff,” “Anomalous Objects,” “Alien Tech”) Artifacts are the reason that stalkers brave the Zone. Some artifacts, like Bracelets, seem to be transformed objects from our own world. Others, like Itchers, are completely alien in origin. Long story short, they do crazy things the likes of which we can only dream of. Some keep you alive long past your years. Others absorb heat, cold, and electricity, rendering the holder immune to nature’s ravages. Yet more seem to loosen gravity around those near them, lightening any loads that a stalker might be carrying. And that isn’t even mentioning the Batteries, which were first used to power cars in ’72 and haven’t stopped powering those exact same cars since then. You can get a lot of money for artifacts…if you live.
BANDITS: (AKA: “Marauders,” “Rogue Stalkers,” “Robbers,” “Assholes”) Bandits are stalkers gone bad. Some might have gotten a little too desperate or greedy. Others just realized it makes a lot more sense to let others get your artifacts for you. Put simply, bandits kill stalkers for their equipment and artifacts, as opposed to going out and gathering the stuff themselves. The bandits used to be disorganized and isolated, but after the various free stalker groups began to group together to take them on (culminating in the foundation of Haven, a free stalker base about six miles into the Zone), the bandits were forced to unify to survive, and have since been a single, powerful faction. Although they used to be indistinguishable from free stalkers, to cut down on accidental inter-faction conflict, the Bandits established a “dress code” of sorts, consisting mostly of blacks and reds with a few threatening “Road-Warrior-Style” accoutrements tacked on for good measure. This is not to say that independent bandits don’t still exist; they merely don’t have the same backing as the “professionals.”
BATTERIES: (AKA: “So-Sos,” “Infinites”) Uncommon but well-known artifacts, batteries are small, hybrid cylinders of smooth metal and chunky organic components, looking something like a cross between a double-A battery and somebody’s thumb. An electric car or anything smaller can run on them indefinitely. So, yeah, they’re pretty f**king valuable. Larger, incredibly rare batteries, the size of a human fist, can run a city block (if we’re feeling generous, they could probably run a city block in Downtown Manhattan), and will get you targeted by Mercs and Bandits very, very fast if word gets out.
BLACK SPRAY: (AKA: “Obsidian,” “Nighteye”) A crystalline artifact substance that appears randomly in the Zone, sometimes in its own clusters or sometimes encrusted into existing objects. A black spray cluster will slowly, slowly expand, to the tune of about an inch every decade, so anyone wearing black spray jewelry typically gets it recut every year or two. Black Spray is only slightly softer than diamond (which is a godsend, as it can be cut easily enough with diamond tools), lightweight and, more importantly, it “eats” light; light gets noticeably dimmer close to a black spray crystal. Scientists have experimentally fired lasers into black spray, and oftentimes they refract out of the crystal days after the original laser was turned off, at a fraction of the intensity.
BRACELETS: (AKA: “Loops”) Appearing to be strips of existing Earth metal bleached white and curled into rough circle shapes, Bracelets (they are not all wrist-sized, but most are) slow the wearer’s metabolism to a ridiculous extent, and seemingly supply most of the energy to the body themselves. People in direct skin contact with bracelets do not need to eat or sleep, and feel constantly as though they are on a caffeine high. Bracelets are a major export of the Zone, as they are extremely valuable while being somewhat common compared to Batteries, another well-documented and extremely valuable artifact.
BUNKERS: (AKA: “Nerd-Holes”) The Scientists have a system of four bunkers throughout the Zone (two on the East and West sides, one about four miles in from the North end, and one deeper into the Zone, supposedly about nine miles in from the South), from which stalkers can make contact, seek shelter, and do business with the scientists, without having to leave the Zone. They’re useful, if small, but watch out for the scientists’ Military escorts: they’re less friendly to stalkers than the scientists.
CARTHAGE: A town to the west of the Zone, now a huge circus of stalker tenements and markets, haphazardly expanded with the (mostly illegal) economic influx. Most professional stalkers live in Carthage.
EMPTIES: (AKA: “Tin Cans,” “Coppers”) The most common artifact in the Zone, fetching about $2,000 in outside markets. An empty consists of two copper disks of variable (but immovable) distance from each other, containing a gravitational anomaly that holds liquids between them but not solids. Useful as a storage container for liquids in the long term, but not for carried liquids (too easy for outside solids to drift into the liquid, contaminating it). Very weird.
ITCHERS: (AKA: “Crazy Grenades”) Itchers are little, hairy, squeaky, greasy balls. When squeezed or otherwise agitated, they release an invisible cloud of pheromones that manipulate emotion, turning calm debates into heated arguments (if not violence), cautious paranoia into whimpering, pants-wetting terror, and righteous indignation into berserk rage. They used to be popular as pranks until people started dying. Now they’re popular as weapons.
MERCENARIES: (AKA: “Mercs,” “Guns-For-Hire,” “Corporate Soldiers”, “Scumbags”) The good news about the Mercs is that they’re rare, and they’re not familiar with anomalies, so if you can lead them into an anomaly field you’re good. The bad news is that these motherf**kers are highly-trained and well-equipped soldiers out for your blood, whereas bandits are petty crooks with shitty AKs. Private corporations capitalize on the fact that the Zone is technically lawless by planting stalker spy networks in the Zone and then shipping the mercs in whenever stalkers make an intriguing new find. You won’t run into mercs on a standard empty run (or, if you do, they probably won’t shoot at you), but if you discover something new and incredible, watch your ass.
MILITARY: (AKA: “Troops,” “Grunts,” “Uniforms”) The military keeps squads on call around the Wall, although they only ever enter the Zone to protect the Scientists. The official government policy on stalkers is to shoot on site, but most grunts can be easily persuaded (or bribed) out of killing stalkers. Still, some will shoot stalkers just to get their jollies, or will confiscate artifacts under penalty of death, so it never hurts to be cautious around the military. On the plus side, the Zone is lawless, so if you kill a few troops in self-defense no one is ever going to know…right?
MOSQUITO MANGE: (AKA: “Gravianomaly,” “Shimmer,” “Distortion”) Mosquito Mange is the most common and most variable anomaly. Appearing as a shimmer in the air, the Mange consists of any number of gravitational effects, be they horrific crushing, 300-foot punts into the sky, or light boosts about 10 feet up. Be sure to test the Mange before you try to jump in; many a stalker has figured a particular Mange patch was harmless enough, only to find that the effect changed halfway through. No one bothers trying to clean the stains off the ceiling when that happens.
NEW HAVEN: A stalker camp about seven miles into the Zone, consisting of a wall and tenements built around an abandoned bar and grill in the middle of nowhere. The free stalkers who built the settlement (with an impressive population of about 100 regulars) chose the site for its incredible lack of anomalies, and the few anomalies that are in the area are well-marked and fenced-off. Old Haven was built around a rural high school with similar characteristics on the other side of the Zone, but it was taken over by Bandits as retaliation for a stalker attack. New Haven is ‘run’ by a large stalker clan known as the Knights, who have established a basic “Stalker Code” that they attempt to enforce in the surrounding areas in lieu of any real law. New Haven is periodically attacked by Bandits, but is fortified well and usually holds them off with ease. Mercs, meanwhile, are smart enough to know to follow the Code as long as they’re within its walls.
NUTS AND BOLTS: (AKA: “Lifesavers”) Buy them in bulk, tie them to strings, and throw them ahead of you every time you even think that there might be an anomaly in front of you. Test the waters, so to speak, and you won’t get killed by anomalies. Bandits? Eh, maybe.
RECRUITS: (AKA: “Mutants,” “Muties,” “Monsters,” “Freaks”) Recruits are hyperevolved animals that seem to have a strange level of coordination, and a drive to keep people out of the Zone. The second generation of creatures born within the Zone often become recruits (who can in turn reproduce with other recruits of their type or their former species) leading to most stalkers who are thinking of having kids conceiving outside the Zone (if that weren’t already good advice). Dogs became large, wolf-like creatures, Horses became charging engines of death, cows became bovine tanks…and you don’t want to know what happened to humans. Though physically appearing “devolved,” and more primitive than their non-mutant cousins, recruits are faster, stronger, and tougher than their former species.
SCIENTISTS: (AKA: “Nerds,” “Newtons,” “Eggheads,” “Einsteins”) Government-sponsored researchers in and on the outskirts of the Zone. Stalkers who are attempting to stay reputable mostly sell to the scientists (and it’s certainly easy to sell to them, given their Bunkers inside the Zone). Although the eggheads travel with the military, they don’t mind free stalkers, and will frequently contract them for difficult jobs. Bandits leave the scientists alone for the most part, given their military guardian angels, but mercs have been known to attack scientists for their discoveries before the scientists can deliver them back to the outside.
SPEAKING PINS: (AKA: “Lightshow”) A very common artifact, speaking pins are tiny toothpick-sized slivers of metal that glint and change color frequently. They are called “speaking pins” because the scientists believe that their patterns are transmitting some sort of alien code (hence, “speaking”), and have sent out a call for them.
SPONGES: (AKA: “Carbonation”) Appearing as their namesake, albeit rounded, possessing a clay-like texture, and so light as to float like half-filled balloons, sponges are the collective name for a group of artifacts of various sizes that absorb or produce certain types of energy. The most common three absorb heat and electricity and produce heat. They can protect from burn, shock, and frostbite respectively, and are highly-valued by stalkers. They are less valuable to people on the outside, who typically do not work in such high-risk environments.
SPRINGFIELD: (AKA: “The Center”) The city at the very center of the Zone. Previously Missouri’s third-largest city, it now has a stunning population of zero. Packed so full of anomalies that it probably doesn’t count as earth anymore, most stalkers try to stay clear of Springfield…that is, unless they’re going for the set-you-for-life bucks. Recruits and zombies seem to emanate from Springfield, although the exact source of either is unknown.
STALKERS: (AKA: “Free Stalkers,” “Loners”) Private citizens who illegally trespass into the zone for artifacts. They’ve formed an informal “union” of sorts, and tend to band together when something else, like bandits, mercs, or the military, threatens them.
THEM: (AKA: “The E.T.s,” “The Aliens,” “The Picknickers”) The aliens who landed in 1972 and started the whole Zone debacle. We don’t even know what they look like; all we know is that they were here and they left one hell of a mess. Ask a scientist about his theories sometime if you want to get bored fast.
WALL, THE: (AKA: “The Border”) A Military-manned twelve-foot wall around the Zone. Try talking to the scientists or bribing the military to get through. Otherwise, hope you like climbing.
WISH GRANTER, THE: (AKA: “The Golden Orb,” “The Monolith”) A hypothetical God-artifact at the very center of the Zone. Stalkers claim that those who reach the Wish Granter have space and time literally rewritten to fit their wishes; for instance, someone who wished for riches might find time rewritten such that he never was a stalker, and instead went to business school and became a wealthy CEO. These time-rewrites, if anything, make it obscenely hard to verify whether anyone has ever actually found the Wish Granter. However, the fact that artifacts get more and more powerful as one gets closer to the center does lend credence to the existence of such an object.
WITCH’S JELLY: (AKA: “Alien Acid,” “Blue Death”) Glowing, dense blue sludge collects in basements and sewers. If you see Witch’s Jelly, don’t touch: it’s absorbed through the skin, and as soon as it does, it dissolves your bones from the insides. Look for corpses that have turned into rubbery, mangled sheets of skin, fat and muscle. They’re not hard to spot. Witch’s Jelly is infamous for being the most consistently deadly single anomaly type in the Zone.
ZOMBIES: (AKA: “Mumblers,” “Moaners,” “Limpers”) Something deep in the Zone fries people’s brains. It could be an artifact, a “cursed item” of sorts. It could be an anomaly. Or, and this is the most wild explanation, it could be a hyper-advanced psychic Recruit. Long story short, whatever it is that turns people into nonsense-mumbling, mindlessly aggressive shamblers also alters the chemical properties of the body, preserving these walking corpses long after they should have starved. Zombies travel in packs, wander aimlessly, and are known for being extremely uncoordinated, supremely dumb, and deadly if they happen to still have their guns from life. That’s right. Zone zombies are smart enough to use guns.
ZONE, THE: (AKA: The Springfield Zone of Alienation) 600 square miles of crazy alien death, the Springfield Zone of Alienation is one of eight around the globe (the two nearest are the Harmont Zone of Alienation, in Canada, and the Caribbean Zone of Alienation) and is home to all of the things previously described here…and many, many more. Have fun, kiddos!