The Union States of Americo

[RPunkG]

I have a RPG I have been working with for the past 2 years.  The mechanics uses 2d6, but before I go into too much detail I will let everyone read about the world before I post them to see if there is interest.

The Union States of Americo covers the political struggle of a handful of cities populated with the survivors of the apocolypse.  The year is 2020 and the people of the Land (North America) cannot recall what brought about the collapse of civilization, nor anything else before the year 2000.

Unlike some post-apocolyptic worlds, this is not a bunch of derilects running around in beat up dune buggies fighting sand monsters while looking for gasoline.  The Union States of Americo is a world where a baseball cap is rare and worth a fortune.  Finding a gun is unheard of.  Only in select cities can structures be found.

Each group of survivors banded together and their society becomes unique compared to everyone else.  The City of Scholars collect Ancient (Before 2000) literature, trying to peice together the past.  However, they have difficulty peicing together the truth and fiction, leading to skewed interpretations of the past.

Other cities have their own personal goals: reunite all the cities under the red, white and black flag of the Union States of Americo, use Ancient machinery to pump Black Gold from the frozen soil of the Tundra (Alaska), destroy the Missouri Monster which struggles to kill the citizens of Sanctuary and Safehouse, or even political destruction of other city mayors to bring the Land under their control.

This game represents a hypothetical situation about how humans would attempt to reconstruct society.  It also is a game of human ingenuity, for example the scholars installed windmills inside the husks of Ancient trains, build Wind Transports.  The windmill connects to gears which turn the wheels of the trains.  The citizens of Sanctuary (who live inside their walls in fear of the Missouri Monster) grown and harvest worms and moss to eat.

Each city has developed their own means of surviving in a world different from the Ancient World geographically, politically, and personally.

Please tell me what you think so far; there is a lot more, so ask questions if you feel I have glossed over some more interesting lore.

RPunk

[Eric J.]

Interesting concept.  I don't understand, however, what the focus would be on.  It sounds simulatonistic or narrativistic.  Is it about rediscovering the past or killing monsters in "dune buggies".  I would find it hard for the players, though.  The problem with Post-apoptaliptic scenerios is that they're usually depressing and the players don't have the awe and glory of the dark ages of Tolkien or the awe and spiffyness of Star Treks, Enterprizes.  While it isn't without its charm it still would seem kinda boring to exist in a world where you can get eaten by monsters {period} or have to pick up a stick to battle a car.  But this is all coming from me, with limited data.  Give us the focus and we can respond better.

[RPunkG]

My intention was to say this game is NOT like other post-apocolyptic games without cars or firearms.

This game uses mass transports such as the Wind Trains, Hot Air balloons, or wooden ships for long distance travel and bicycles and horses for personal transport.

Also, the concept of monsters is limited to the MidWest, which has only the Missouri Monster.  Outside of the MidWest Horror Country, the only thing that can kill you is another human or mother nature.

Ideally, with Americo's dreams of political unity, the Nation of Oil Co's struggle for econimic power, the Horror Countries hopes of survival and escape into a safe are of the Land, the game provides regions that can put more focus on politics, combat, survival or player interration depending on where the GM wants the game to go.

For example, "power gamers" can gather up flintlock pistols, dynamite and axes to help defend the massive wooden walls of Sanctuary of Safehouse in the Horror Country.
Players who prefer the more political aspects of civilization can spend time in Americo and see as their diplomacy makes changes.
Those who enjoy making large amounts of wealth can travel the trade routes of the pirates of the West.

And there are other regions which have some of these aspects to different degrees, so the GM can steer the action of a campaign in a more appropriate direction.

Also, travel between these regions require different players.  For example, politicians traveling from Americo to the West have to travel through Horror Country, so a group of players come to depend on eachothers skills moreso than a diplomat who is constantly hiding while storming the castle.

[RPunkG]

Upon going back a reading, I realize I left out the word "not" in my initial post, which completely changes the concept of what I was trying to say.  Combat plays its role in this game on occasion, but it isn't like some games where half of the time you kill kill kill and the other half you barter for better killing gear.

Combat goes on the back burner (to be used occasionally) while political interration, exploration and survival are the main focus.

[RPunkG]

To expand on my concept and, therefore, receive more constructive feedback...

another region is NEVADA, essentially, an expanded Area 51.  Damaged, but surviving the apopolypse, troops and scientists in Area 51 used supplies to expand their electric fences and have their own colony.

Nevadarians have all recollection of the past and retain a good deal of their technology.  They spend most of their time living in an otherwise destroyed world trying to determine what to do.

Using their surveilance equipment in space, they have monitored the advancement of all the survivors.  Originally, they had no intentions of assisting the survivors, fearing they would overwhelm Area 51 for food and supplies.  However, after watching them struggle to survive, watching the Missouri Monster force the citizens of Sactuary and Safehouse behind wooden walls, several men wanted to help.  Immediately after the plauge of 2011, these men left Nevada.

These men followed the train tracks north to Scholars Dell (Idaho) where they founded the City of Scholars.  The scholars called these men ancients and, from them, learned to speak Anceint English.  However, after the Ancients explains the general concept of pre-2000 life and before they could get specific, the Ancients were assassinated by other Nevada troops.

The City of Scholars, with seven bronze and marble statues honoring these Ancients, continue to study about Ancient times, exchanging good money or food for anything dating before 2000.

At night, travellers can see the lights from inside Area 51, knowing they have harnessed the power of the sun.  They also fear their metal walls which electrocute anyone who touches them.

No one from Nevada is allowed to leave, and anyone found with intention to escape has their memory wiped and placed outside the fence.  Citizens of Nevada aren't really playable, because they mystery of pre-2000 is part of the intrigue of the world.  However, playing a recently mind-wiped citizen is allowed.

Certain skills are dubbed Ancient, such as Computer Use, Electronic Use, Drive Space Craft and several firearms skills.  These skills are impossible to learn without a teahcer, and finding a teacher for these skills would be next to impossible.  However, they are provided in the happenstance that a GM might want to include them for their game.  (i.e. Nevada is stormed and raided or a Nevada citizen escapes and tells the world about Ancient Skills.)

[Alan]

Hi RPunk,

I think what Pyron was getting at was that your setting has lots of detail and many possible entry points of entry, but no clear hook for players.  I think your presentation needs some sort of focus in order to draw an audience.

First, you might want to read Ron Edward's article http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/gns/gns_introduction.html">GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Design.  

and check out the thread the http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3727">role of setting in RPG Theory.

These two things will give you lots to think about - What kind of play do you want to encourage?  What role do you want your setting to play in another person's game?  But most importantly, how do you interest _players_ in playing?

About character and setting, Ron says: "So: what does Setting do? As I see it, the first two elements of play (Character and Setting) are like words and pictures in comics. If they both do "everything," they get in one another's way. If they trade off in intensity and complement one another, in any functional combination, then the process (of play for RPGs) can occur smoothly."

You've got a detailed, wide spread setting, but no development of how players fit into it.  I would suggest identifying two or three situations in the setting that pose interesting premises.  Then present those situations with a sketch of what roles the players might take.  

But leave lots of room for players to create the characters!  You've already painted a lot of the setting, so they need that avenue for their own creativity.

A good premise will make your game stand out from the dozens of other detailed settings already on the market.

- Alan

[RPunkG]

Essentially, the premise (and what sets this game apart from others) is the experience of trying to survive and make a living in a post-apocolypic world.  Second to that is the constant desire to know what caused this change in society.

The survival part is simply using your skills to overcome the obstacles proposed by the GM of adapting to a life with no luxuries.  No readily available food or water, poor shelter and rare medicine.

The make a living part is what keeps the game from becoming boring.  While some jobs such as metalsmithing or pottery would generate enough money to live, it is the other skills that add a sense of adventure to the game.

For example, as the politicians of the cities work to get other cities to join in their government, they require couriers.  These couriers must be a group of men and women skilled to handle the journey from city to city, travelling through the dark forrests of horror country, the swaps of the Reptile Lands, the deserts of the West and the cold Tundra.

If a player is so inclined, they can create a politician of their own, struggling to usurp control of a city for their own gain.  These character might require thugs and scholars to advise and protect them.

A group of scholars may be scouring the Land to determine what caused the apocolypse or the nature of Nevada.  Clues abound in the Land, but the journey isn't safe for the educated alone.

Essentially, I intended to provide a rich world with thourough details so GMs could tailor their adventures to their players.  If, at any time, they felt their adventure needed a shot of intrigue, combat, or politics, they could easily work it in without seeming trite or forced.

I hope this helps better convey my intentions with this game; if i'm being obscure in an area, tell me so I can cover it more in depth!!!

[Christoffer Lernö]

Is the game supposed to be partly about "finding out what happened year 2000"? In that case, who decides? Is it something every game group will decide on its own through their adventures, or is there gonna be kind of a "final word" on the subject in the game or a supplement?

If there's no final say, then I'd go as far as suggesting that you remove any hints of anyone actually KNOWING what happened. That way the truth can only be find if the group decides that in their adventuring they will be able to find it. And if they can find it it should (in my opinion) be something every game group defines on their own.

In fact I'd go so far as to suggest that there should be a dedicated chapter on "how to create your Year 2000 Enigma" for the GM.

The secret itself, if revealed, would limit what could be done with the world. As long as the secret always is secret (except when the players and GM agree to let them find out), you can always add some new strangeness and blame it on the Enigma.

Let me illustrate what I mean by limiting the answer to the enigma:

If we ignore the Nevadans, we could for example conjecture that the apocalypse (the version when god comes and have war against satan and stuff) happened year 2000, and the people left in the world are those neither taken up to heaven nor thrown into the burning lake.

Or maybe UFOs came on a gigant scale or something and mindwiped everyone after performing their experiments.

But we can't have those explanations because there are people who know and who possess technology.

An easy FIX however is to simply not describe the nevadans or tell of their history.

The stuff about "No one from Nevada is allowed to leave, and anyone found with intention to escape has their memory wiped and placed outside the fence. "

could be changed to: "Noone nows what happens in Nevada... (insert description of what it's like if players get into Area 51)... it is rumoured that sometimes people emerge from the area with no recollection of their past. It is rumoured that there are beings there who know the truth about the time before the Enigma, but noone knows for sure"

That way it's up to the GM to decide if there really IS an answer to the enigma or not.

[Kuma]

The Union States of Americo covers the political struggle of a handful of cities populated with the survivors of the apocolypse.  The year is 2020 and the people of the Land (North America) cannot recall what brought about the collapse of civilization, nor anything else before the year 2000.

Having read your posts and the others posted here, I have one question of my own: How?  How is it that no one remembers anything about the world prior to 20 years ago?  Others have suggested that you include a 'How To Create Your Own 2000 Enigma' ... I disagree.  You need one (and only one) Enigma, because the symptoms of this "disaster" are very specific.

[list=1]
[*]Apparent there is no one over the age of 20, or their memories have all been erased or altered in some fashion.
[*]No tech working.  That's fine.
[*]No books.  This is a bit more puzzling.
[*]No monuments of any sort.  The cities must all be gone, and all of the information in them gone as well.
[/list:o]
I guess what I'm getting after is that 20 years is a bit of a short time for the complete reordering of society, unless there's some pressing, metastory reason for it.

[Christoffer Lernö]

Kuma, I actually think that the symptoms makes the Enigma idea so much better (compared to use in any other apocalyptic scenario). In this game there is no way characters can ignore that something REALLY FRIGGIN BIG happened 20 years ago. Since it is so close there is no way to know if it will happen again, and maybe soon. The moment there's a word on WHAT it is, that will drive away a lot of the speculation. I think the UNKNOWN, the enigma of what happened is the driving force here, the thing that helps creating the whole setting. It shouldn't be given away cheaply.
Saying that people make up their own Enigma simply means that the answer will never be revealed although RPunkG would to well to pretend he(?) knows the answer even if he doesn't.

Just my humble opinion.

[Eric J.]

I am seeing it more clearly now, but the last few posts have brought up some interesting points.  However, they seem to undeline a more severe factor that I've encountered in Sim. games (which your definition seemed to point out).  How many times will the players be able to play in this setting (which is all you've told us about to this point)?  I can see a few roles that they would be able to do, but I don't think that it's as open as you think, particurally in the way of enemies.

This next statement may make me look stupid, but does this remind any one of dune?  In that setting there are few roles for a player, and this is little different.  I think that this has great potential, but I just want to remind you that there is only one enigma, monster, and race.  I could easily see this for a campaign, but for a campaign setting?  I leave the rest to you.

[RPunkG]

The idea that the Enigma be different from gameworld to game world is a great idea!  That might appeal to different players personal tastes of religious apocolypse,  alien invasion, nuclear war, etc.  I will start comping up with rules for generating a unique enigma.

Someone had expressed their confusion over the year 2000 and the age of the survivors.  The year is 2020, but not everyone is twenty years old.  There were survivors of every age, but they simply cannot recall anything relating to the apocolypse.  They remember food riots and the reconstruction of civilization, but nothing before that.

As for the absence of books and other items pre-dating 2000, the concept here is that nothing was intended to survive.  (For each enigma,  whichever it might be.)  Humans were not meant to keep living.  Books, buildings and clothes were not indended to remain.  This was SUPPOSED to be the apocolypse, but somehow something went awry.

As for the similarities between this concept and Dune, I know very little of Dune.  All I know about Dune is what I saw on previews for the show on Sci-Fi channel.  However, Dune appeared to be space ships and technology and the like,  whereas this is about humans landlocked on North America trying to get by with what little resources they have.  Almost like a wild west/steam punk hybrid.[/quote]

[RPunkG]

As for playing in the world for multiple campaigns, the intention here was a political world that changes after a campaign ends.  Depending on their mission, some cities might have changed alleigances, others might be in economic termoil or even destroyed- leaving refugess to overwhelm a neighboring region.

While political peace and ultimate unity is good in theory, it's not very probable in 2020.  The different politicians clash on what is most important (whether it's peace, food for everyone, or the nature of the apocolypse) and eventually war will break out.

Conversely, all the cities might be brought under a tyrants reign, depending on what the GM and the players work towards (or against.)

The largest option of all is the exploration of the oceans.  The City of Scholars have books showing lands across the sea and maybe that's where more will be found out about the apocolypse.  Is Europe obliterated?  Is Europe responsible?  Are the Scholars wrong and is this actually the year 3000?  Was time travel involved and do dinosaurs roam the land across the waters?  Any number of options could exist and they all should reveal more about the true history of humankind.

As in most RPGs, the longevity of playing relies most on the players interest in the world.  If they make charcaters who attempt to change the world, they would want to live through the changes they have made.  And maybe their changes are disasterous.  It would then be up to the GM and the players to build on the world and keep the doors open for more story arcs and keep the interest high.

[Mike Holmes]

As for the absence of books and other items pre-dating 2000, the concept here is that nothing was intended to survive.  (For each enigma,  whichever it might be.)  Humans were not meant to keep living.  Books, buildings and clothes were not indended to remain.  This was SUPPOSED to be the apocolypse, but somehow something went awry.

OK. From what I'm reading, the apocalypse somehow targeted information as well as people? That is, books were specifically destroyed as well as people and infrastructure? Or were these things just destroyed by accident as part of the destruction? If the latter, it's hard to believe that a source of destruction could get all the books, but allowed some people to survive somehow.

Some small amount of books managed to survive, right? Which is why there are some small technological enclaves? And people remember the term America, etc?

Also, with as many people as you imply existing (enough to form several potentially clashing polities across an area as large as North America), that means that these are mostly survivors. newborn mortality rate would be high, as would be the mortality rate of mothers. So pregnancy would decline. IOW, few births. Of those, only those born in the first few years would be adults at this point anyhow.

So this implies a large percentage of survivors. Which begs the question, how did some source of mass destruction manage to destroy so much information in so many media and still leave so many humans alive?

There were survivors of every age, but they simply cannot recall anything relating to the apocolypse.

How literal is this?

You have to get specific on what people do remember. Obviously, when whatever happened did occur, people forgot about what it was that did happen. But did they forget how to tie their shoes? Who they were? Where they were? How to build technology? Or did they only forget the nature of the apocalypse, and nothing else?

You've got some holes to fill in your description before we can comment better.

Have you ever seen Aftermath! ?

Mike

[RPunkG]

Obviously, not explaining the original idea of the Enigma has left a lot of confusion.  It's a long explaination, but I will attempt to sum up.  Essentially, this idea was based on the Phobos Project in New York where they are attempting to recreate the Big Bang inside a vaccuum tube.  Through a series of bankruptcies, mis-calculations and rival influences, this Phobos Project was abandoned.

It was in the year 2000 that the scientists attempted to start the computers to ensure it would survive the Y2K bug.  It was then that the project activated, creating a Big Bang inside the vaccuum tube.  The containment field ruptured and this "New Universe" was superimposed on the Old Universe.

However, parts of the Old Universe bled through onto the New Universe (much like photocopying two images onto one peice of paper or taking two sets of pictures with one roll of film.)  That is what has left the world an unbalanced melting pot of collapsed buildings, barren deserts and few survivors.

The survivors do not remember the term America.  Scholars have sifted through Ancient texts and confused the name for the land they live on with a 1999 company name of AmeriCo.  So this slightly altered term is what everyone assumes is the actual term.

The amount of survivors is low, comparitively.  From 19,000,000 people who live in New York, the new colony which has been rebuilt in the ruins has a population of about 19,000.  Of the 284,000,000 people who lived in America, about only 200,000 people survived.  Most people simply vanished during the SuperImposing, but some people "bled through."

Books have mostly disappeared through unexplained scientific stuff that I (a middle class non-scientist) am not aware of.  Still, books were eliminated to create the mystery and- therefore -a major element of the game.

The memories of the survivors are similar to those with severe amnesia.  They remember how to tie their shoes, they remember to eat, they remember how to use a door, but have no recollection of themselves or their past.  Imagine receiving amnesia and then waking up in a world such as this.  Why would anyone have any reason to think this world should be anything other than it is.

Everyone with amnesia knew only a few basic things.  They needed food.  They needed water.  And (being January 1) they needed shelter.  With no reason to dislike eachother, the worked together to survive, bonding them quickly.

As for the birth rate, I agree... it would be low.  The birth rate might be drastically different from that of today, but 284,000 is drastically different from 284,000,000.

Perhaps children (and their survival) could be targets turning war and, therefore, plot points?

Tell me if this is making any sense, of if I should abandon this idea...