[Aenichine] Premise and Introduction

[Cold Black Wind]

Hello Gentlemen,

I have written a premise for my RPG for those who wish to view this. I have not done a fully written summary of the System, but my idea is to have a point based (Karma) system with Fortune game mechanics tied to risky situations. It will be percentile dice for the fortune portion of the mechanics. (More on this later on).

For now I will give the premise of what I propose. I would like to take this all the way to book publishing and full support. Commercial profitablity is of somewhat importants to me, but if this game is as sucessful as Nobilis is, I will be quite happy!

Now the Premise:

Imagine that you “died” with your soul extracted from your body upon your death bed. For an undefined period of time your consciousness/ soul was still together in a quantum energy cloud waiting, dreaming inside a huge chamber called the Oversoul. Then in a flash of light you are awake, conscious within a machine, a machine that functions to your will. You are now more than human you are Aenichine.

The earth has changed drastically since last you gazed into its clear blue sky. Sixty percent of the planet is uninhabitable for humankind. In fact the whole human race is extinct, waiting to be reborn when the planet is ready to be inhabited again.

But several things halt this Terraforming effort. An alien race has taken advantage of the dormant time before the Aenichines could establish themselves as a force creating colonies of their own in several regions of the planet. Now across the earth, a struggle for earth is taking place fighting for territory and resources. For the most part every Aenichine is fighting for a new future of humanity, for Aenichines cannot reproduce and are dwindling in number each day.

Not everyone sees humanities rebirth as the answer. Several factions and beliefs have formed around different groups of Aenichines. The most prominent three are Humanity First, Aenichines United and The Restorationist. Each faction rules a Hive City where one of the Hive Ships containing the Aenichines landed. For the most part the political groups have worked together for their own kind’s sake. But there are major differences which represent ideological shifts in their overall thinking.  

Now you must choose. Several programs and frames are there for your Aenichine to run and function within this new environment. These choices along with the beliefs you will form will make up who you are and what place you have in this new society of ghost machines. What choices you make in this game will affect the future of humanity.

[Uccisore]

If you worked some anachronism into the game as a major theme, this could really kick butt- Like for example, stress the fact that a person who died in the 1920's and a person who died in the 2000's have radically different outlooks, and perhaps initial skills.  Or are you planning on this affecting only a set group of people who died at a particular point in history?

[xenopulse]

a) Are Aenichines going to be reincarnated as humans once they rebuild the world?
b) Are Aenichines going to be "retired" a that point?

The answer to those two questions (especially if they are disputed) might explain the behavior of several factions.

I like the setting. It has potential. Especially if you focus on enstrangement, alienation, greater good v. personal survival, etc.

[anonymouse]

The essential IGD question, which you need to answer before any real discussion can take place:

What do the characters do? I don't mean abstractly, either, with an answer like, "They try and restore Earth." The answer needs to be fairly concrete: "They fight crime," "They fight aliens," "They play politics with an insane AI to push their agenda," et cetera.

Give us an example of a session of play, sketched or in full. Then you can start looking for conversation about the game; cos right now, it's just some Color, and we've all got boxes of crayons laying around.

[Cold Black Wind]

Hello Guys,

I plan to put together an example of play soon. Right now I am hashing out the rules and how a character will look.

Currently the individuals who become QEspirits will be those from the 21st century. Even though they are in a machine body these Aenichines still have human thoughts and spirits motivating them. Instead of skills there will be programs you run, leave idle or put into storage. RPing an Aenichine will be much like running a computer with moving parts attached.

Again I should have a nice example of play soon.

Richard