Dustland Background
Climate change and a massive solar flare have transformed the world forever, and as far as anyone knows, the survivors in the towns scattered across the Dustlands are what remains of life as it was.
The player is a Dustcap, a messenger working among the various settlements. Some Dustcaps run, some ride. Others row, surf, drive or fly. All of them carry information, technology, light and hope between what they think are the huddled remnants of humanity.
Or at least, that’s where the game starts.
The Dustlands span a broad parcel of North Carolina and this is where the game is set. In game terms, the Dustlands marks the edges of the vast campus of land bought by the White Barrow Initiative to serve as accommodation, testbed and ultimately petri dish for its plan to save the world.
The most common name used for the groups of couriers and porters who work out of each town. They are transporters, postal workers, occasionally sheriffs, scientists, medics, assistants and messengers. A Dustcap can be called upon to do almost anything. And, sooner or later, all Dustcaps will be.
Each town’s Dustcaps have their own unique wardrobe and style but all Dustcaps are united by three common factors:
- A headset including a mic, a camera, and varying levels of additional technology;
- A Halycon-A full body suit designed to keep the Dustcap cool in the punishing environment of the Dustlands;
- An operator, working out of their hometown, who provides assistance, context and off-site backup for every Dustcap. To borrow the term used in Spider-Man: Homecoming, the operator is the ‘guy in the chair’ for each Dustcap.
Dustcaps do the same job in wildly individualistic ways. That’s reflected in their Halycon suits, their garb, their headsets and their approach to the work.