Post by acromos on Jul 8, 2007 17:47:43 GMT 1
Background suggestion: Despite the best shielding, EMP wiped the Shelter computers clean of all the vital info stored there. Over the years, much of the knowledge of the first generation Survivors became trivial in the face of keeping a vault damaged by EMP running. Therefore, much of the recorded history of the world is lost to those inside the Shelter. They do not know what nation they were once part of, what part of the earth they live on.
Setting suggestion: I'm tempted - despite the scientific unlikelihood - to suggest a setting in a nuclear winter. After the war, the earth froze, and for some reason, it just never thawed. That gives us a very different type of wasteland - but with a new set of challenges to overcome.
Location suggestions: A town build inside the plane wrecks of an abandoned airfield. A town in an underground submarine factory (working, naturally, to get an unfinished nuclear sub completed). A village of inuit snow huts - whatever those are called. A location around an ancient weather station, with lots of surviving scientific equipment (this might be the north pole or some such). A town build inside the containers and shipwrecks of an old shipping port. A submarine drilling and research station, converted into the secret base of some power-hungry cult.
A number of military bases, space installations, ruined cities, bio-weapons research facilities, nuclear waste storage facilities and so on go without saying.
As for an actual story: During later years, the survivors inside the Shelter have started trading with outsiders. This is motivated mainly by need, as the Shelter-dwellers consider outsiders to be likely mutated, irradiated, infected with war-time virus - and presumably more than one of the above. But since contact with the outside has started, a new option has presented itself - the exile of undesirables. Hence our hero, after opposing the wrong people, is ousted and left in the snow of the surface world with barely enough survival gear to make it to safety anywhere.
Emerging into the world, our hero discovers what human nature will always strive for in a power vacuum. With no controlling power to restrain them, anyone with a shred of power to call their own are getting ready to extend their will as far as it will stretch. Basically, humanity is about to go back to war.
A few basic thoughts on factions:
The Borg: One faction has gained control of a military-grade bionetic enhancement lab, and are producing cyberwarriors to claim their goals.
The Genetic Revolutionaries: Seeking freedom in all forms of expression, these people are redesigning their genetic code material, shaping designer-mutants as diverse as human imagination.
Soldiers of the Light: One group of devoted zealots have chosen to follow the designs of a (deranged?) AI, leading the hopeless to a glorious future where all those hard choices are taken by a more competent intellect.
Overmind: A small group of survivors have developed psionic ability after years of radiation and mutation. The sum of their telepathic intellects is the Overmind, and they lead a swarm of mind-controlled soldiers in their bid for power.
And so on, and so on.
Now - don't tell me I stray very far from the story and background of the original games. I know that perfectly well, and I do it on purpose.
See - if this project is to have any chance of succes, we must make a game that is similar - but different. I've kept the post-nuclear theme, but created a unique setting (or as unique as is humanly possible in these times).
Let me know what you think. Until further notice, I consider the above to be my intellectual property - as it is (more or less) the plot of a pnp roleplaying game I once wrote.
Setting suggestion: I'm tempted - despite the scientific unlikelihood - to suggest a setting in a nuclear winter. After the war, the earth froze, and for some reason, it just never thawed. That gives us a very different type of wasteland - but with a new set of challenges to overcome.
Location suggestions: A town build inside the plane wrecks of an abandoned airfield. A town in an underground submarine factory (working, naturally, to get an unfinished nuclear sub completed). A village of inuit snow huts - whatever those are called. A location around an ancient weather station, with lots of surviving scientific equipment (this might be the north pole or some such). A town build inside the containers and shipwrecks of an old shipping port. A submarine drilling and research station, converted into the secret base of some power-hungry cult.
A number of military bases, space installations, ruined cities, bio-weapons research facilities, nuclear waste storage facilities and so on go without saying.
As for an actual story: During later years, the survivors inside the Shelter have started trading with outsiders. This is motivated mainly by need, as the Shelter-dwellers consider outsiders to be likely mutated, irradiated, infected with war-time virus - and presumably more than one of the above. But since contact with the outside has started, a new option has presented itself - the exile of undesirables. Hence our hero, after opposing the wrong people, is ousted and left in the snow of the surface world with barely enough survival gear to make it to safety anywhere.
Emerging into the world, our hero discovers what human nature will always strive for in a power vacuum. With no controlling power to restrain them, anyone with a shred of power to call their own are getting ready to extend their will as far as it will stretch. Basically, humanity is about to go back to war.
A few basic thoughts on factions:
The Borg: One faction has gained control of a military-grade bionetic enhancement lab, and are producing cyberwarriors to claim their goals.
The Genetic Revolutionaries: Seeking freedom in all forms of expression, these people are redesigning their genetic code material, shaping designer-mutants as diverse as human imagination.
Soldiers of the Light: One group of devoted zealots have chosen to follow the designs of a (deranged?) AI, leading the hopeless to a glorious future where all those hard choices are taken by a more competent intellect.
Overmind: A small group of survivors have developed psionic ability after years of radiation and mutation. The sum of their telepathic intellects is the Overmind, and they lead a swarm of mind-controlled soldiers in their bid for power.
And so on, and so on.
Now - don't tell me I stray very far from the story and background of the original games. I know that perfectly well, and I do it on purpose.
See - if this project is to have any chance of succes, we must make a game that is similar - but different. I've kept the post-nuclear theme, but created a unique setting (or as unique as is humanly possible in these times).
Let me know what you think. Until further notice, I consider the above to be my intellectual property - as it is (more or less) the plot of a pnp roleplaying game I once wrote.