The following are extracts from The Outside World and You: A Guide to Not Getting Wasted by the Wasteland, a popular and accurate guide to what lies beyond the great rusting walls of Bastion.
Surrounding the City is a flat, arid wasteland. Some areas are grassier, some areas rockier. There are scattered trees and areas of brush, but no forests per se. There's a small amount of cultivated farmland, though, provided that you don't stray too far from Bastion's walls. Small rivers trickle through from the mountains, just visible to the East as a line of dark bumps above the horizon.
The technological Monsters can be found generally all over, so if you're after one of them you can probably set up in the arid wasteland, without needing to go to a specific, far-off habitat.
The biological Monsters come from the more dangerous terrains. There are volcanoes to the South-West, lots of bodies of water turning to snowy hills and icy mountains towards North, and of course the cliffs if you go far enough.
The volcanoes are a fair distance away - though in a fast convoy, still reachable in under a week - which is a good thing because when they blow, rocks can rain down miles away, and the lava can course down the slopes faster than a person can run. Fiery Monsters live here: heat-resistant, fire-wielding, awesome Monsters. It's tricky to find them; some burrow in lava flows, or live inside the glowing magma chambers themselves.
The cliffs are big! They're sheer: they just drop down with no bottom in sight. The faces are rock, and they look similar whichever terrain you approach them from, but it's not known how far down they go. Most people who've looked say the cliffs go down forever. What is known, though, is that there are overhangs and caves where Monsters live, and that courageous Monster Hunters can try daring feats to catch them from the cliffside.
It's known that the nearest cliffs are to the South, and they are the most dangerous (and therefore awesome) places of all to hunt Monsters.
There's only two reasons anyone would want to head out of Bastion: To catch Monsters, or to find Archaeotech. For both, you want to join one of the organised expeditions. Very few people strike out on their own. You'd probably run into a ten-metre-tall Monster made of pistons and hate with huge ripped-metal teeth, and that'd be that. Those that do manage to make it without an expedition have said they survive on things they scavenge - tins of food being a staple some swear by.
Expeditions head out pretty regularly. The convoys run on a schedule and have reinforced, usually Archaeotech-powered, vehicles pulling rusting, equally reinforced, wagons, plus guards that are used to unexpected Monster attacks. Fortunately, near the City the Monsters aren't that big and don't have terrifying attack moves, so those hoping to come across Archaeotech and dig down into new sites are usually ok within a few days' travel. On the other hand, Monster Hunters need to head out further for the truly awesome Monsters – but if you wanna win the crowd…
You need to pay for a space in the convoy's armoured wagons, but you can always tag along in your own vehicle free of charge, if you're feeling confident enough to defend yourself. You might even peel off from the main group and arrange to meet them somewhere on their way back. Sometimes the expert Monster Hunters head off to chase promising Monsters in the distance. It's pretty exciting to watch the hunts; they usually involve one or all of harpoons, nets, pit traps, Archaeotech weaponry, foolhardy tough-guys, and trained Monster-hunting Monsters.
So, there are two types of people in the Wasteland: the Wastelanders that just live there – basically a tribe that for some reason have settled and are really good at surviving – and the Bandits.
The Bandits are groups of people out to steal, kidnap, and hold explorers hostage. They were from the City, and like criminals in the City, they're out for money and themselves. Unlike criminals in the City, they're mad enough to have taken up in the Wasteland and prey on convoys and Archaeotech excavation sites.
The Wastelanders are strange. They're not always hostile, but they're always enigmatic. In a way they're like us, in that they talk, build houses, and have trained Monsters; they've been sighted riding tame broad-backed Monsters. On the other hand, they don't have a City, they don't have a Network, they don't have an Arena, and they don't seem to fight Monsters. What exactly they do in their little villages for entertainment and reputation is anybody's guess.
Also, they have a different Culture. This means they have different ideas of business (they appear to use bartering most of the time), Archaeotech (they don't use it), and how to talk to strangers (despite appearances, they're probably not trying to be rude). The first time you meet them, have someone with you who has experience of dealing with them, or you might have a Cultural Misunderstanding. Cultural Misunderstandings are often painful. They do seem to be pretty keen on trading for coin, however, so it would be wise to bring a handful of Riel or a bag of Kyat with you. You never know what kind of useful stuff they might be hanging onto out there.
Nobody's sure where Wastelanders come from. Maybe they were normal people who got lost on an extended expedition, but if they know a good Monster-hunting or Archaeotech spot a long way away they're not telling. Maybe they've been tricked into staying by a really persuasive psychic Monster. Some people say they might have been outside since before the City, but it seems improbable that people have survived in the Wasteland all that time.
