by Ted Bushman

quickstart
INTRODUCTION
WHat is "The Last Caravan?"
The Last Caravan is a tabletop roleplaying game about a midwinter
road trip in the wake of an alien invasion, being developed by Ted
Bushman. You could call it Little Miss Sunshine meets War of the
Worlds.

In this cozy, melancholy post-apocalypse, the aliens came less than a

year ago. The war lasted two months, but nobody won. Now, with an
alien army rising from the ashes of war, you will have to make a
dangerous journey across a shattered North America in search of a
new home.

You are normal people finding heroism in extraordinary

circumstances. You will explore transformed landscapes, search
abandoned towns, discover otherworldly technology, negotiate with
newly-formed factions, outrun alien pursuers, and — and all you’ve
got is a car, your fellow travelers, and the road.

Kickstarter
The Last Caravan is on kickstarter! We are funding a version that
includes glorious art, an album of unique music, and other elements!

You can also check us out at our website, thelastcaravan.com!

What is This?
This PDF is a quickstart — the equivalent of a 1990s CD-ROM demo
disc — for a tabletop RPG called The Last Caravan. The quickstart will
teach you the game’s basic rules, help you create your characters, and
provide a setting and story for you to travel through 3 regions —
about 3 sessions of gameplay.

Everything in this quickstart is in-development! Not only are they

subject to change, but they do not represent the entire game’s
systems.

For a vast game with expanded systems for inventory, additional

character imprints, and more regions/lore/story, you can seek out the
full book of The Last Caravan or its kickstarter.
Getting Started
The Road
The Two Months War — the massive war that happened when the
aliens arrived — ended a while ago. As far as you could tell, everybody
lost. The government was destroyed, the radio stations went silent,
and the aliens’ ship was nuked into pieces. You and your family have
been hidden away in rural Maine, waiting it out. Things were quiet —
but now they’re not. You can hear the rumbling, whale-like songs of
alien technology waking up. Nearby towns are disappearing. You
need to head West.

People say that there’s a city on the West Coast that survived: The
Republic of Saint Francis.

This quickstart will get you halfway along your journey West, through
the regions of Fog Coast, Penn’s Woods, and Winterlake. Each region
should take one or two sessions. There’s a page detailing each region
later in the book.

For your journey, one player will take the role of the Atlas, this game's
version of the Game Master. The other players will take the role of
travelers in a caravan of Kin.

Travelers
Travelers are the main characters of the world of Last Caravan.
Travelers come in several varieties which we’ll call imprints.
There are eight traveler imprints. Five of them are available in
this quickstart. The Star-Gazer, the Innocent, and the Good Boi
will be part of the kickstarter book!

Wrench — a handy tinkerer and repair person

Lookout — a farsighted hunter and scout
Talker — a charismatic negotiator and liaison
Bruiser — a tough fighter and protector
Bandage — an insightful doctor and friend
Creating a Traveler
1. Choose a Traveler Imprint. Imprint Sheets are available in
the other PDF of this quickstart.
2. Choose a background. Who was this person before the
end of the world?
3. Assign 4 Gambit Dots. Gambits are the eleven actions (Rig
& Repair, Search & Survey, etc) on the right side of the
Imprint Sheet. Each traveler starts with 4 dots filled in. Add
four more. No Gambit can have more than two dots in it at
character creation.
4. Choose a Special Ability. Special abilities are imprint-
specific and will be listed on your imprint sheet. Choose
one.
5. Choose Your Inadequacy. Your traveler is capable, but they
have self-doubts and weaknesses. Decide on one of the
inadequacies from the list on the imprint sheet.
6. Record Your Name and Appearance.

Establish caravan relationships

There are four caravan types in the main game, but for this
quickstart, you will play as Kin. Kin is family, whether you’re all
related or not. You’ve all got shared history. This can lead to
acts of incredible heroism and love, as well as bickering and
family road trip vibes.

Before you play, discuss your relationships. One simple

strategy is for every player to decide on a good memory and a
bad memory they have about each other traveler.

Here are some prompts:

Think about your inadequacies. If you have “regret” or “blame,”
how could those relate to your fellow travelers?
Embrace differences and disagreements. What if your characters
come from entirely different walks of life?
The past is present. Difficult experiences in the past can lead to
beautiful chances for fighting — and reconciliation — down the
line!
Remain open to change! Crisis opens people to change; your
narrative will be more powerful for it.
How does the game work?
Core mechanic 1 - Gambits
Whenever a traveler tries to do act and the outcome is
uncertain, you use gambits. There are eleven gambits, and
each is applicable to its own situation. When Uncle Larry tries
to fix a busted engine, you’ll go for rig & repair stuff. When
Colm shoots a rifle at a hulking alien monster, he’ll probably
roll precision shooting.

When you use a gambit, you roll six-sided dice and you find the
highest number you rolled. If you roll:

6
You get it done. If you roll more than one 6,
things went better than you could have
hoped — this is called a critical success.

You get a success with complication. Even

4-5 though you did what you were trying to do,

something else goes wrong in the process —
a drawback, harm, a consequence.
Mechanically, we’ll start calling this trouble.

1-3 It’s bad. Whatever you were trying to do

didn’t go your way, and something else is
going wrong on top of it. Two troubles occur.

You’ll roll 1 or more dice for gambits. To determine how many,

you’ll look at your imprint sheet. Next to each gambit is four
dots. The filled-in dots represent the strength of that unique
gambit. For each filled-in dot, you’ll roll a six-sided die and
take the highest number. If you don’t have any strength in a
particular gambit, you can still try it, but it probably won’t go
well: you roll two dice and take the lower number.
Core mechanic 2 - Trouble
When gambits fail, when luck doesn’t go your way, there’s
trouble. Trouble occurs when your highest die rolled is 3 or less,
and can take a few forms: harm, drawbacks, and clock effects.
The Atlas gets to choose what form trouble takes.

Traveler imprint sheets have a

harm tracker that represents
their health. Harm will come
Harm as a number from 1-4, which
players mark on their sheet. If
your harm tracker is full, you’re
dead.

Drawbacks are the most

versatile kind of trouble,
because they are narrative-
specific. The Atlas introduces
Drawbacks an immediate problem that
results from what’s happening
in the story. More baddies
show up? A bridge cracks?
That’s a drawback.

Clocks are segmented

progress trackers that, when
filled or emptied, active
narrative events. Some clocks
Clocks — “The aliens destroy the radio
tower,” for instance — are no
good. When a trouble is rolled,
the Atlas can choose to add or
remove ticks from clocks.
Core mechanic 3 - Heroism
During your journey, the travelers will become capable of
things they never thought possible. Mechanically, this is
represented by heroism.

Your travelers’ heroism is represented by heroism dots on your

imprint, or, preferably, by physical tokens at the table. You gain
heroism through roleplay, and spend them for mechanical
benefits.
Gaining Heroism
You get heroism through narrative touchstones called heroism
triggers. Heroism triggers are listed on each imprint sheet. A Wrench,
for example, can gain heroism by improvising with materials on
hand, a Bandage from diving deep into someone’s feelings, and a
Bruiser from choosing violence. Heroism is valuable, so trying to
activate the triggers frequently is good for you — and good for the
story!

When you fulfill one of your triggers, mark it or take a token. At first
you might state aloud “I’m fulfilling this heroism trigger,” but as your
group comes to know one another, you might use a shorthand. It
should be clear that you're activating a trigger, but it doesn't need to
interrupt roleplay at the table.

Spending Heroism
You can spend heroism at any point to gain the listed effects:

Find a useful item. Name an item you’re looking for, or an idea

of what you need an item to do. The Atlas will then decide
what item you have found, as well as any stats or tags the item
has. You won’t always find exactly what you want.
Add a die to any gambit roll. This is probably how you’ll spend
most of your heroism. This can be applied to other traveler’s
rolls as well as your own. There is no limit to how many dice
you can use on a single roll.
Increase harm on a gambit roll. (Limit 2/gambit.) After a
successful attack, deal an additional harm. This can only be
done twice per gambit roll, and cannot be applied to harm
dealt outside a gambit roll.
Inventory
Travelers in The Last Caravan have a backpack with 7
inventory slots.

Items will always have, first, a size value. This determines how
much room it takes in your inventory. The second number is
the number of uses the listed item has. This can apply to how
many encounters in which the item can be used before it is
expended. When a character decides to use it, they check off a
use — they can then use the item for the rest of that
encounter. If it does not have a “uses” value, the item will not
wear down or break.

Basic Inventory Size / Uses Tags

Utility Knife 1/5 non-combat

Flashlight 1/3

Pistol 1/3 Harm 1, near, jams

Rifle 2/4 Harm 2, far reload

Skinning Knife 1/2 Harm 1, close risky

Baseball Bat 2 / 4E Harm 2, close

Many items, like guns or first aid kits, can be re-stocked or

refilled with materials found in similar items. Ammo can be
general or specific, at the Atlas’ discretion, and grants uses to a
weapon 1:1. If an item is too unique to be refilled with a general
item, it is marked R for rare and requires unique ammunition.
Items that cannot be refilled will have an E next to their uses;
this means that they will be destroyed after their last use.

The next two pages suggest possible items for

travelers at the start of the game. Each traveler may
have 3 items or 3 inventory space worth of items,
whichever comes first.
 Lookout Size / Uses Tags

Binoculars 1

Regional Maps 2/3

Climbing Gear 3/5

Flare Pistol 1/3 1harm blinding scary

Bruiser Size / Uses Tags

Shotgun 3 / 2R 3harm close messy loud

Sledgehammer 3 / 4E 2harm 2targets close awkward

Stimulants 1/3

Bandage Size / Uses Tags

Tea 1/3 Slow 1heal

Extra
1/2
Ammunition

Talker Size / Uses Tags

Small Pistol 1/4 1harm stealthy quiet

Cooking
1 / 6R tasty spicy
Spices
 Star-Gazer Size / Uses Tags

Flashlight 1/3

Measurement
2 slow
Tools

Water Purifier
2/5
Kit

Wrench Size / Uses Tags

Multitool 1/3

Toolbox 3 slow unwieldy

slow (restores uses to bladed

Whetstone 1/5
weapons)

The following lists include items that may appear later in a

journey. None of these can be taken at character creation.

Uncommon
Size / Uses Tags
Items

Rabbit Snares 3/3 slow (+1supply / use)

Hollow Point
1 / 1E +1harm to a rifle or pistol
Ammo

First Aid Kit 2/3 slow (free recovery roll/use)

Grenades 1 / 2E 3harm 2targets near

Combat
Combat, in general, follows the same rules as gambits. Choose an
appropriate gambit, roll the dice according to your strength in that
gambit, and take the success and/or trouble.
In order to deal harm to enemies, you must use weapons. Once they
choose to use a weapon, they expend a use of it. Each use is best
understood as a magazine — a finite amount of attacks that will
generally last an entire Detour. If a fight goes overlong, the Atlas may
choose, as trouble, that you need to expend another use. When a
success occurs on a gambit where a weapon is used, deal that
weapon’s harm stat. A critical success adds 1harm to the damage
dealt.

It’s likely that during a combat, some members of your caravan will be
fighting and others will be doing something else. While a combat is
occurring, at least every third gambit rolled must be combat related.
If, for any reason, you choose not to follow this, every member of the
caravan takes 1harm, ignoring armor.

Aliens, Monsters, and ENemies

Specific lore and mechanics for enemies will be engaged in more in
the full book, but here's what you'll need for the quickstart.

The aliens are humanoid.

The aliens' primary technology is a weaponized form of music called
Harmonics.
Some aliens can speak human languages and use technology to
disguise themselves as human.

For the quickstart, treat NPCs as having two defining attributes:

Health: A floating alien drone might have 2 health. An alien warrior,

4. A powerful alien foe wearing armor? 8.

Damage: How much harm does the NPC deal in combat? 2 is the
norm. 4 should be your maximum.

Give aliens and other NPCs unique abilities at your discretion. As

stated, the full game will give many options, including enemy
inventories and alien artifacts of note.
gameplay loop
The Gameplay Loop
The Last Caravan has three phases: the Travel Phase, Detour Phase,
and Upkeep Phase.

During the Travel Phase, you’re on the road — you’ll scout for points of
interest, scour the radio for information, recover, talk, tinker, argue,
make decisions, and sleep. The Travel phase also includes ‘montage’
activities like repairing a car, researching alien technology, or crafting
a better weapon. Trouble will come to the caravan in the form of Tolls.

The Detour Phase is where the action happens. When you leave the
car for a significant reason, in a scene that needs to happen moment-
to-moment, you’ll enter the Detour phase. On detours, you’ll search
abandoned homesteads and downed alien vessels. You’ll visit towns
and parlay with factions. You might sneak around foes; you might
assault their position. Detours are as numerous as they are dangerous.
After each Detour Phase also comes an Upkeep Phase, a bit of
bookkeeping that keeps narrative wheels turning.

A normal session of The Last Caravan will consist of two or three

Detours, with Travel Phases in between.

The Detour phase

During the Detour phase, the caravan stops at a location. When they
are finished with the Detour, they return to the road.

Detours start with a general objective: explore, fight, negotiate, etc.

Travelers might be searching an abandoned town for a P.O. Box while
alien drones circle overhead, or escaping their hometown as it’s
besieged by alien forces. Later detours are as diverse as there are
challenging situations: parlays, assaults, stealth missions, salvage
operations — more examples can be found in the ‘Shaping an
Odyssey’ chapter.

Detours are your moment-to-moment sequences. Here, Travelers

make gambit rolls, succeed and fail and encounter trouble. They use
heroism and teamwork to make it through.
The Upkeep Phase
Go through these steps in order whenever you finish a Detour and
return to the road:

1. Spend 1 or 2 Fuel; Update the Region Clock

Spend 1 Fuel per vehicle in your caravan.

To travel through a region, you must fill that region’s Way Out. If the Way Out
is achieved, you may choose a new region to travel into. When you do, your
travelers Develop, taking one of the traveler developments listed on their
sheet.

2. Consume Supplies
You have to eat. Consume 1 supply for the travelers. Consume an additional
supply for each clutch and for every 2 loners in your caravan.

2. Worsen
Each traveler whose harm is on the ‘worsening’ side of the track gains 1 harm.

When this is complete, continue to the Travel Phase.

The Travel Phase

If The Last Caravan is a movie or a TV show, the travel phase
will often feel like a road trip montage. Your travelers will
discuss their next destinations as they drive down highways.
They’ll camp out under the stars and the orbiting wreck of the
aliens’ mothership. They’ll bond and bicker. To keep with the
TV metaphor, we’ll call these events ‘scenes’.
scenes
Usually, during the Travel Phase, the Atlas will ask open-ended
questions like “What do you guys do while on the road? Who’s
driving?” Take this opportunity to roleplay and decide on your
own scenes. Feel free to jump in and say “Oh, I want to do a
scene where I start playing guitar in the backseat” or “I wanted
to talk to Sylvia about that fight we had with that alien bug”.
Then you and the character playing Sylvia have that
conversation. When it’s starting to feel like you’ve said what
you need to say, you can move on to another one or just say so:
“Great, I think that’s all I wanted to say.” Once your group is
comfortable with each other, you’ll find a rhythm where you
can shift in and out of scenes without even saying you’re doing
one.
Travel Actions
During each Travel Phase, the Caravan as a whole (not per
individual players!) must take 3 Actions from the Travel Actions
List.

Having only three travel actions — especially when travelers

are injured or supplies are running low — can feel limiting! It’s
meant to represent that travelers need to stop every once in a
while. If the Caravan wants to use additional Travel Actions,
they can do so by spending 1 Supply or 1 Fuel per additional
Travel Action. Also, for each Clutch or 2 Loners, the Caravan
may take 1 additional Obtain Supplies, Obtain Fuel, Lie Low, or
Repair a Vehicle action.

These are the travel actions in the quickstart. The full game
includes several others.
Repair a Vehicle
Modify a Vehicle
Obtain Supplies
Obtain Fuel
Recover

Repair a Vehicle. If you can’t drive, you’re stuck.

A traveler rolls Rig & Repair. They then advance the Repair
Clock on the vehicle sheet by a number of ticks according to
the roll. 5-6: 3 ticks. 3-4: 2 ticks. 1-2: 1 tick. When the repair clock
is filled, you may repair one vehicle’s hull by one point. Empty
the repair clock.

Modify A Vehicle. Desperate times call for sick vehicle mods.

When beginning a modification, choose one of the following:
Remove a con
Add a pro
Add vehicle armor (+1 hull)
Add other modification (from Chapter 6 tables or
homebrew)
A traveler rolls Rig & Repair and expends any necessary
components as decided by the Atlas. They then advance the
Modify clock on the vehicle sheet by a number of ticks
according to the roll. 5-6: 3 ticks. 3-4: 2 ticks. 1-2: 1 tick. When
the modify clock is filled, the vehicle is modified and the clock
is emptied.

Obtain Supplies. Gotta stay fed.

Up to two travelers roll an appropriate gambit to search for
supplies in this region. Gain 1 supply for each traveler who
rolled at least one 5 or 6.

Obtain Fuel. Gotta stay moving.

Up to two travelers roll an appropriate gambit to search for fuel
in this region. Gain 1 fuel for each traveler who rolled at least
one 5 or 6.

Recover. Gotta stay alive.

The caravan chooses a traveler to heal 2 harm.

The Toll Phase

Tolls are unique events, unexpected or negative, that occur
during the Travel Phase. These might include Adverse
Weather Conditions, Contact With Local Factions, Pursuits, or
Forced Detours. For this playtest, Toll intensity depends on
which region you're in, and a single Toll should occur per
Region.

Fog Coast: An unexpected meeting or ominous sign

Penn's Woods: A threatening encounter or impediment
Winterlake: a dangerous circumstance or brutal storm.

choosing a Detour
The Travel Phase is more loose than the Detour Phase. Once
the Upkeep Phase is complete, the order of Travel Actions /
Tolls / Scenes & Freeplay isn’t decided. It can happen in any
order, but eventually, you’ll start to feel like it’s done. You’ll
want to get moving to your next destination. Your next Detour.
Info for the Atlas
These pages will give you the lore and information you need to know
about the regions your players will explore.

As the Atlas, your job is different from a Dungeon Master or other

Game Masters. You will find in The Last Caravan that players may shy
away from combat or loot -- instead, you'll want to give them reasons
to care about and engage with the world.

Obstacles -- whether it's a fallen tree trunk, an armed blockade on the

highway, or an entire region being trolled by hostiles -- will force the
caravan to reconsider their plans. In addition, rewards or benefits
offered by the region's factions can incentivize players to care.

Another important mechanic is the Caravan Hook.

Caravan hook
In order to make the broader narrative of The Last Caravan matter to
your players, you'll need to connect them to it. In the full game, this
mechanic will be called the Caravan Hook or Campaign Hook. There
will be numerous options of hooks and guides on how to create them.

For the sake of this quickstart, you have a simple hook:

The travelers have been called to the home of their matriarch.
She'll be gone by the time they arrive, but they'll find something
left behind -- an alien escape pod. Inside it is a small humanoid
alien that cannot speak English. It might seem a child to the
players but it is, in fact, an Aernian Elder -- a powerful being whose
influence could turn the tide of the war. But the Elder is being
hunted down by remnants of a new human faction called The
Answer, who hope to experiment on and interrogate him.

There are a few ways to introduce the Aernian Elder. Perhaps the
matriarch is dead, having tried to defend it. Perhaps she's already
gone -- called away for an important purpose -- but left behind the
pod for you to discover, open, and bring to her further West. Perhaps
when you arrive, the Elder is under threat by other aliens that are
hostile to you. All of these things can help give the Elder a sense of
significance and narrative attachment.
Fog Coast
Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Before the war, this region
was a sleepy collection of seaside hamlets and small forest towns,
known for its lighthouses, its rocky shores, and its misty woods.
Now a rising alien threat hides in the snowdrifts and fog clouds.

Way Out: Take 2 Detours

Factions:
The Throne is rising from its slumber. Squadrons of Firststeppers seek
useful technologies and vehicles from the wreckage of the war, recruit
existing communities of aliens to join their cause, and shut down human
resistance and communications in the area. They see any caravans as
potential spies, and hunt them down with a squadron if they have useful
technology or information.
The Fishermen Militia are trying to evacuate their towns and save people
from the alien threat. They may ask the caravan to help in an evacuation
or distraction; a few might be foolish enough to try to strike an alien
convoy.

People:
Boro Naldyan, a Warsinger of the Throne. Arrogant and simple-minded,
he hopes to prove himself invaluable to Idal Iskanda by brutally
massacring all humans in his way. His eagerness makes him easy to
surprise or trick.
Helen and Theo Kindermann, organizers of the Fishermen militia. They
met while municipal accountants for Knox Township. Theo was a
volunteer firefighter until his retirement and Helen wrote a weekly
column for a local paper. Their access to government records and
knowledge of the region allowed them to speedily respond to the crisis.

Detour Ideas: Explore a lighthouse that’s been sending out a strange red
light
Salvage supplies from a forested homestead
Help the Fishermen evacuate a town as aliens descend on it
Make an escape driving across a frozen Lake Champlain
Penn's Woods
Enormous stretches of frozen forest, farmland valleys, and rivers, Penn’s
Woods is controlled largely by strong independent townships of humans.
Pittsburgh was attacked by a colony pod, killing a major percentage of
the population, but the pod’s life support systems malfunctioned and
everyone aboard was dead on arrival. Folk are reclaiming Pittsburgh now
and generally being effective in their fight against the aliens — but this
has drawn a major alien force trying to destroy any resistance.

Way Out: Take 2 detours and the Fort Pitt Bridge Bottleneck.

Factions:
The Allegheny Army: A competently organized collection of war
veterans, blue collar workers, and Steelers fans refusing to abandon
the state to the aliens. They will open their gates to the caravan and
offer them sanctuary, but it might be short-lived.
The Throne Spearhead: personally directed by Once-Honored
Nemrion Nalem, the Throne’s core force is making a ruthless and
calculated assault on Penn’s Woods communities of survivors.
The Answer Recruitment Division: doesn’t believe the Allegheny Army
can survive against alien powers, and wants to recruit their forces to
help in battles that can be won. The Answer is willing to call in an
airstrike or elite squadron to help with an evacuation but won’t fight a
full-on battle against the Throne. They might contact the caravan via
encoded radio signal to help them deliver a message to Allegheny
leadership.

Detours:
Help protect a rural valley town from alien deserters in exchange for supplies,
fuel, and information.
Find a cloaked alien vessel inside an abandoned factory.
Defend Fort Pitt against the Throne’s major forces. Collapse the Squirrel Hill
tunnel! Blow up bridges while the aliens are crossing them!
Winterlake
One of the coldest places on the continent; six-inch thick ice
covers the Great Lakes. The aliens of the region are united and
aggressive, and the roads are dangerous, so caravans have taken
to making a dangerous ice-bound crossing from Lake Huron
through to either Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.

Way Out: Journey over the Great Lakes with the Crossers.

Factions:
The Crossers: A community of people who’ve made a living and a service
out of getting people around Lake Huron & across Lake Superior! They’ll
get you across safely for a small fee of Supplies and Fuel, or you can do it
yourself.
Bandits: Hostile, desperate humans who see the Crossers’ endeavor as a
chance to raid and steal food and resources. Some Crossers might take
bribes to ‘fail to defend’ certain caravans from bandits.
The Abandoned: Uiliani deserters who have resorted to banditry in order
to survive. Their enormous crablike appearances and lack of facility with
language makes it impossible for them to communicate and thus renders
them automatically villainous. They are primarily seeking food, but might
kidnap the caravan in hopes of communicating their wishes through a
talented young Uiliani or allied Aernian.
The Unity: A small contingent of the alien peace-seeking coalition needs
something delivered across the lakes. They may ask the caravan to help
them.

Bonnie Maclain — leader of the Crossers, mostly stays ashore. Big exhausted
mom-of-four energy. She knows it's more dangerous than she says but she is
generally well-intentioned.
Magnus — a magnanimous, burly crosser who leads groups across. He has
caused the "accidental' deaths of two previous caravans and stolen their supplies,
and plans to do so with the travellers.
Dragov — fought in the Russian army against Ukraine, but before the alien
invasion came to the US. He works for the Crossers but is sneaking supplies to
the Abandoned on the side out of sympathy for them.
Ko-titek — the highest-ranking of the Abandoned.

The camp settlement built onto the ice where you negotiate for passage and find
your guide
Islands with new settlements on them
Alien crashed stuff
Forced: Being abducted by Bandits or The Abandoned.