The Wastelands:
 After the war, the desert became a much deadlier place.  Traveling without an experienced guide can be regarded as almost suicidal due to the large population of predators - both human and inhuman.  Most merchant caravans tend to hire experienced mercenaries to protect their goods as they travel between the lingering outposts of civilization..

Map of Desolation (24kb)
Giant Map (559kb)

URBAN CENTERS:

Darwin Village (Military Base)

  • Location: On the eastern bank of the Colorado River.
  • Builders: Bitterman
  • Danger: High due to fierce inhabitants, and high levels of radiation.
  • Approximate Size: 29 rooms


Needles (City)

  • Location: Northwest of the Colorado River.  North from Quartz.
  • Builders: Mary
  • Danger:  Police keep the city fairly under control.
  • Approximate Size: 88 rooms


Quartz (City)
The city of Quartz rests on the eastern bank of the mighty Colorado River.  Due to its distance from the New Nevada Ranger Center, it has become a safe haven for thieves, murderers, arsonists, and just about every other sort of undesirable you'd care to name. The seat of local government has been usurped by Ugly John, a rather miserable sort, made more so by his recent failed attempt at kidnapping.
Gary Glow's Guide to Vacation (Non-Radioactive) Hotspots lists Quartz as a 3 out of 10. Of course, that's not too bad in comparison to its neighbors, Needles and Las Vegas.

  • Location: On the eastern bank of the Colorado River.
  • Builders: Ugly John, Cavalier, Squid
  • Danger: Moderate due to aggressive gang activity.  Sections of sewers very dangerous.
  • Approximate Size: 78 rooms
     

The Savage Village (City)
The Savage Village is a small trading outpost in the southwestern section of the desert.  Originally the home of a underground no-holds-barred pit fighting organization, the pit was closed when big crime began to take an interest in it.   Today Savage Village is a disorganized trade town with little to offer over the larger cities.  The town is built on the site of a landfill, and crammed with broken autos, scrap metal, and junk.

  • Location: Southwest region.
  • Builders: Bitterman
  • Danger: Low, city inhabitants aid each other in time of crisis.
  • Approximate Size: 49 rooms.

 

FACTION HEADQUARTERS:

AIM Mercenary Base

  • Location: Central Desert
  • Builders: Arkandor
  • Approximate Size: 37 rooms.


Ground Zero (Nightclub)

  • Location: Northwestern region, east of Needles.
  • Builders: Devil, Bitterman
  • Approximate Size: 28 rooms.


Kinetek Weapons Factory

  • Location: Southeastern edge of the desert, near Darwin Base.
  • Builder: Foxx
  • Approximate Size: 35 rooms.


New Nevada Ranger Center (Prison Complex)
 The New Nevada Ranger Center, an old prison complex was annexed by a division of the Army Core of Engineers before World War III. Since then, it has been made into a fortified military base and is now the home of the Desert Rangers.

  • Location: Southeastern edge of the desert.
  • Builder: Ranger Dagg.
  • Approximate Size: 49 rooms.


Scorched Earth Village (Camp)
The Tribe of the Scorched Earth believes that the gods rained fire and plague over the lands after mankind strove to close to godhood.  They revere advanced technology, but hate to see its misuse.  The people of the tribe live a simple life under the leadership of a chieftain.  Their religion focuses on three gods.  one that chaotically creates without order or sense (The Creator), one who consumes and destroys in order to keep the balance (The Destroyer) and one who brings rules and natural laws and brings order to reality.  (The Weaver).  The tribe strives to be self-sufficient but they trade crops and cattle for outside goods.

  • Location: Southwestern desert, west of the Colorado.
  • Builder: Kastyr
  • Approximate Size: 23 rooms.


New Nevada Medical Association

  • Location: Just outside of Needles to the northwest.
  • Builder: Rylen
  • Approximate Size: 40 rooms.


Sindikat Compound

  • Location: Southwestern corner of the wastelands.
  • Builder: Viktor
  • Approximate Size: 20 rooms.


Las Vegas Mining Camp
A squalid mining camp in the middle of a dust-choked mountain valley.  Here the men of the Las Vegas Mining Camp work the earth, and send their valuable ore down the river to the city of Vegas.

  • Location: Northeastern corner, along the mountains near the Colorado river.
  • Builder: Armrha
  • Danger: Mine Cave-Ins
  • Approximate Size: 24 rooms, plus player-dug rooms.


Warrior Silo

  • Location: Central Desert
  • Builder: Mao, Lucus
  • Danger: Moderate
  • Approximate Size: 55 rooms.


MAJOR POINTS OF INTEREST:

Abandoned House

  • Builder: Trujillo, Mercy
  • Danger: None, it's abandoned.
  • Approximate Size: 19 rooms.


Agricultural Center
A stone-walled new farming coop, the agricultural center has banded together to raise and sell food for nearby cities.  While they are kept well defended from raiders, lesser vermin go unnoticed.

  • Location: West of Highpool and the Ranger Center, East of the Mojave Mountains and Colorado River
  • Builder: Lucus, Trujillo, Bitterman
  • Danger: Low
  • Approximate Size: 150 rooms.


Boot Camp
The boot camp serves as the newbie-school for Desolation, and teaches new players the basic commands necessary for getting started on Desolation.  It is considered an out-of-character area.

  • Location: Just north of the Ranger Center.
  • Builder: Foxx
  • Danger: None
  • Approximate Size: 10 rooms.


Camp Highpool

  • Location: East of Agricultural Center, northwest of Ranger Center.  Southeastern area of the desert.
  • Builder: Taran
  • Danger: Low
  • Approximate Size: 84 rooms.


Crashed Mining Skiff

  • Location: Northeastern wastelands, just down the River from the Las Vegas Mining Camp.
  • Builder: Bryan
  • Danger: Low
  • Approximate Size: 9 rooms.

 

The Hangar (Trading Post)
An old pre-war rusty airplane hangar that has since been occupied by a small smattering of trade folk.  This trading post is fiercely protected by mercenaries from the threat of raiders and visitors are recommended to mind their manners.   The Hangar offers a unique service: visitors can store their extra gear there for a nominal fee.

  • Location: Northeast of Needles, across the Colorado.
  • Builder: Mercy, Trujillo
  • Danger: Lethal, if you piss the guards off.
  • Approximate Size: 6 rooms.


Iron Springs (Fortress)
Amongst the lowlands of the northern Mojave mountains, a large concrete fortress has been established by a band of fierce raiders and slave traders called the Iron Springs Slavers.   To this day, no-one has penetrated their hilltop fortress.

  • Location: Northeast of Quartz.
  • Builder: Squid
  • Danger: High, Raiders are hostile and numerous.
  • Approximate Size: 22 rooms.


Peaceful Bliss Sanitarium (Bedlam)
This once respected sanitarium stands along the Colorado river on the outskirts of the city of Quartz, since the fall of civilization the large white building has fallen into disuse and has suffered at the hands of its vandal inmates.

  • Location: West of Quartz.
  • Builder: Bitterman, Paco, Turk, Devil, Armrha, Arkandor.
  • Danger: Loosing your sanity.
  • Approximate Size: 17 rooms.


Rail Nomad's Camp
The three rail tribes have founded a small tent city along the railroad tracks in the deep desert.  This backward city offers little to travelers except for some shelter from the harsh desert winds and a chance to gamble at the railcars

  • Location: Central Desert
  • Builder: Mao
  • Danger: Mild.
  • Approximate Size: 15 rooms.


Ranger Outpost
The Ranger Outpost is a small base of the Desert Rangers. It has been a sort of refueling point for the Rangers since its founding.
Recently, the outpost has become mostly self-sufficient. Only needing to send out the occasional supply run. Contact has been sparse between the outpost and the Ranger Center of late.

  • Location: Hidden among the north end of the mountain range, east of Quartz.
  • Builder: Arkandor
  • Danger: Moderate to those unwise enough to attack the rangers.
  • Approximate Size: 31 rooms.


The Rat Warren (Cave)
The Rat Warren is a small cave system populated by overgrown insects and abnormally developed and marginally intelligent rodents.   While the inhabitants are not very dangerous, the warrens themselves hold many secrets.  Explorers have reported finding a deeper way into the twisting caverns.

  • Location: Southeastern region, west of Ranger Center, just east of the Colorado River.
  • Builder: Squid
  • Danger: Low, denizens are not dim-witted and not aggressive.
  • Approximate Size: 17 rooms.


Short-Stop Truckstop

  • Location: Grasslands west of Quartz, across the Colorado River.
  • Builder: Foxx
  • Danger: Low.
  • Approximate Size: 12 rooms.



MINOR POINTS OF INTEREST:

Bluebeak Crag (Mountain)
The crag is a small sandstone rock outcropping east of the Ranger Center Complex.  It is a great place to practice your mountaineering as the cliffs are filled with countless holes for hands and feet.

  • Location: East of the Ranger Center
  • Builder: Squid
  • Danger: Low, some wildlife may be hostile.
  • Approximate Size: 4 rooms.


The Cranium Shrine
An old, indestructible pre-war goliath of a robot stands guard over a scrap heap of destruction.  The Cranium Keeper emotionlessly asks any to return the lost central processing cores of his fallen soldiers.

  • Location: Central Desert
  • Builder: Squid
  • Danger: Players carrying a skull are vulnerable to attacks from other players.
  • Approximate Size: 1 room.


Maricopa Graveyard 
For a generation the bodies of those found dead in the wastelands were quietly interred at this windy hilltop cemetery that overlooks the flowing Colorado river.  The cemetery has since fallen into disuse, but still stands as a testament to the dead.

  • Location: Southwest region, just east of the Colorado River, near the Rat Warren.
  • Builder: Squid
  • Danger: None.
  • Approximate Size: 1 room.


RV (Shop)
Along the northern shore of the Colorado stands a broken down beige mini-RV.  The shopkeeper, Will, sells a variety of clothing and scavenged equipment.

  • Location: North, near the fork of the river, north of the Hangar.
  • Builder: Lucus
  • Danger: None.
  • Approximate Size: 2 rooms.


Tribal Tent (Shop)
The tribal woman named Washington owns a small teepee on the plains where she  sells a variety of primitive armor to members of the Scorched Earth Clan.

  • Location: Northwestern plains.
  • Builder: Squid.
  • Danger: None.
  • Approximate Size: 1 room.


Wrecked School Bus (Shop)
The school bus is a wrecked, rusted thing out in the desert, with a small cave system dug below, home to a scavenger called Donny that sells some basic gear.

  • Location: North of Needles.
  • Builder: Viktor
  • Approximate Size: 6 rooms.