Rust and Redemption

Rust and Redemption is a post-apocalyptic setting/toolkit supplement for the Cypher System, published by Monte Cook Games. Authored by Dominique Dickey and Bruce R. Cordell, the 224-page book is available in both hardcover and PDF formats. It offers GMs a complete framework to build and run apocalypse campaigns tailored to the kind of end of the world you and your players want: zombies, climate collapse, alien conquest, supernatural invasions, or combinations thereof.

The text emphasizes themes of survival, hope, decay, resource scarcity, mutation, and redemption — hence the title. It aims to balance grim settings with opportunities for heroic or resilient storytelling.

🛠 Contents & Tools

Here are the key features and mechanics Rust and Redemption brings to the table:

• Genre exploration & campaign building: The book examines how civilizations might end (“whens, wheres, and hows”), covering multiple apocalypse tropes and environmental disasters. It offers advice for building themes, designing set-pieces, and structuring campaigns in this genre.
• New character options: Additional descriptors, foci, and character abilities tuned to post-apocalyptic survival. GMs and players can make characters suited for scavenging, dealing with exposure, mutations, radiation, etc.
• Special rules / mechanics: Rules for scavenging resources (food, ammo), repairing / kitbashing technology from salvaged parts; dealing with exposure, radiation; mutations; special artifacts & cyphers specific to apocalypse settings.
• Creatures & threats: A wide array of apocalypse-themed threats: examples include the radioactive bear, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, voracious nanobots, and more standard undead or mutated creatures. These are accompanied by lairs, hazards, environmental challenges.
• Setting & adventures: The supplement includes a campaign setting called the Radio Quiet Zone, along with multiple adventures / “Cypher Shorts.” The adventure “Safe Zone” is provided as a starter adventure to launch play.
• GM resources: Rules / guidelines for post-apocalyptic hazards—nuclear winter, shelf life of goods, exposure (weather, radiation, etc.), mutagens and their risks. Practical advice for handling resource scarcity, societal collapse, dangers of environmental decay.

🎯 Play Experience & Use Cases

When used in play, Rust and Redemption excels in creating a high-stakes survival atmosphere. It supports multiple play styles:

• For survival horror or grim campaigns, the scarcity mechanics (food, radiation, gear degradation) lend tension. Improvisation by players becomes meaningful: do you scavenge that dangerous ruin? Do you risk exposure for better gear?
• For character-driven arcs, the mutation rules, descriptors, and thematic foci allow PCs to be changed by the apocalypse—not just physically but mentally, socially. Redemption arcs (in its many forms) become possible.
• The Safe Zone starter adventure gives a low-entry point. Whether used to introduce players to the setting or begin a larger arc, it helps the GM get into the mood and mechanics with minimal prep.
• The Radio Quiet Zone gives a distinctive setting flavor: hazards, isolation, odd zones (areas where radio, radiation, or strange events happen), which helps differentiate one apocalypse from another.

Because the rules are modular, GMs can dial up or dial down the harshness—if mutations or exposure are too punishing, you can soften or omit them. The variety of creature threats and environmental dangers means each session can feel distinct.

✨ Strengths — what it does very well

• Flexibility in apocalypse style: The many possible “how it ended” and “what endures” options let each table pick what flavor of apocalypse they want: sci-fi, supernatural, zombie, environmental collapse, etc.
• Mechanics that match theme: Scavenging, exposure, radiation, mutagens — these are not just flavor text; they have rules, risks, and rewards. That helps ground the campaign in its setting.
• Strong setting support + starter content: The Radio Quiet Zone and Safe Zone adventure provide solid entry points so GMs don’t have to create everything from scratch.
• Good creature variety: From classic mutated wildlife to supernatural / technological horrors, the threats feel thematic and varied, not just variations on zombies.
• Production & layout: As with many Monte Cook Games products, layout, art, sidebars and GM callouts are clean, readable, and well designed to support table-use.

⚠ Caveats & Things to Watch

• Harsh mechanics risk: If your group is less interested in hardship, scarcity, or harmful environment effects, some of the mechanics may feel punishing. GMs might need to tune or omit exposure, radiation, or mutation rules to avoid player frustration.
• Potential for tone mismatch: Apocalyptic settings tend toward bleakness. Even though “redemption” is in the title, the material sometimes leans heavy on survival, despair, and decay. If your group wants a more heroic or hopeful apocalypse, you’ll want to emphasize the hopeful foci and narrative arcs.
• Scale of campaign effort: Because the setting and threats are thorough, GMs wanting to run long campaigns will need to build or adapt many threads—settlement building, NPC societies, ruins, factions, mutated zones, etc. The book gives tools, but the GM still has work.
• Overlap with other post-apocalyptic material: If you already have other apocalypse supplements or creature collections (for Cypher or other systems), some threats or mechanics may feel familiar. The unique mutations, setting, and flavor help, but for some tables the novelty will decrease.

🗡 Final Verdict

Rust and Redemption is one of the stronger recent additions to the Cypher System’s “white-book” genre tools. It delivers a rich, varied, mechanical and narrative framework for post-apocalyptic stories that feel meaningful, dangerous, and vivid. For GMs seeking a setting with both decay and hope, where the choices of survival matter and the world is harsh but fertile with possibility, this volume is very well done.

If you’re planning a campaign somewhere between “end-of-the-world survival” and “rebuilding societies amid wreckage,” this book gives you strong building blocks. If your group prefers less danger or less environmental stress, you may only use portions—but even so, the creature threats, mutations, and starter content will likely make the purchase worthwhile.