Attached are initial setting notes followed by the Power 19.

Setting Notes:

Fractured Kingdom <Working Title>

The world has grown colder over the last decades; huge multinationals rising in power while government restrictions have become almost stilling. Knowledge is a privilege of the wealthy who can afford corporate schools. To survive many have fled to the urban centers of power living in the shadows of these monolithic empires.

Amid the squalled decay there is another world.

Rumors of conspiracy and government plots abound on the streets while the news reports only what they’ve been paid for. One such rumor is that of the five kingdoms divided by war and struggling to reunite. The Church of Unua has spread the tale through everything from websites to underground meetings. Five Realms interwoven The Slumber, The Verdant, The Dark, The Grave and The Unbound, once part of a greater whole the Unuas preach that through awareness these Realms can become unified once more and humanity transcend the blight of the Unbound Realm.

Through dream I have seen the Slumber.

Through nightmare I have been cast into the Dark.

Through life I have found the Verdant.

Through death I have known the Grave.

I am Unbound. I am one of the Lucid.

Characters play as one of the Lucid: those who have crossed through a Gateway accepting one of the Four Realms. Tainted by the experience; Character s find themselves infused by the Realm, gifted with new and strange abilities and thrust into a world of mystery. Their eyes open they have become attuned to the hidden forces of the world and drawn to one another and torn between powerful Enclaves seeking to control them.

Tainted: One who has truly experienced one of the Four Realms. The most common Tainted have either experienced the Grave through a near death experience or have seen the Slumber through lucid dreaming. Although there are numerous other ways to enter the Realms, know as Gateways, several of the Enclaves seek to create permanent Bridges between them allowing them to physically cross between the Realms. Not all who stand at a Gateway have the will or the strength to step through it is this that sets the Tainted apart from mortals. Enclave’s such as the Watchtower are known for their Baptisms forcing followers into a Gateway testing their resolve.

The Lucid: Having traveled to one of the four other Realms the Lucid are those outside of the Enclaves. Once a mortal becomes Lucid they become aware of others like themselves and can perceive the overlapping Realms with the Unbound World. The Lucid become Tainted with the essence of the First Realm they experience outside the Unbound World and can learn to draw on its power. Once Tainted the Lucid may enter the other Realms but they will never cause another bond like that of the First Realm.

The Four Outer Realms:

The Slumber: The Realm of the idolized body, mind and imagination. The Realm is a shifting landscape of thoughts and ideas codified only by one’s perceptions of it; nothing is stable in the Slumber save the most powerful of ideas and wills.

Abilities: Those Tainted by the Slumber manifest paranormal physical and mental abilities becoming fast enough to dodge a bullet, strong enough to hammer through a brick wall or being able to read the thoughts of others.

Taint: The Slumber’s Taint often manifests as a wild unkempt appearance or as a strange rigidity as if always holding back.

Common Gateways: Dreams, Hypnosis and Meditation

The Verdant: The Realm of harmony and renewal. Filled with lush glens, forests, and soaring mountain ranges, in every ounce of soil is the foundations for life and the blessing of nature.

Abilities: To be infused with the essence of the Verdant is to be blessed with the gifts of life itself the tainted manifest powers of healing and regeneration as well control over the very elements.

Taint: The mark of the Verdant often appears as an inner peace or animal like qualities.

Common Gateways: Crossroads, Dragon Line/ Ley Line Nexus, Fasting/Starvation

The Dark: Truly tainting those entering the Realm it is a place of nightmares unhinging the mind as shadow surge and recede with a pulsing life of their own. Here there be monsters, the vile constructs of demons and nightmares flourish in the gloom.

Abilities: Releasing the Dark essence reveals the Tainted’s monstrous inner nature granting control over shadows and darkness.

Taint: The Dark Taint almost always leads to emotional swings, fits of rage and silence. Of those Tainted by the Realms it is often The Dark Ones who are most skilled at hiding themselves.

Common Gateways: Caves/Tunnels, Places of Ritual Sacrifice, Self Mutilation

The Grave collects all things destroyed and forgotten, sprawling wastelands frame bleak necropolis, repositories for the detritus of the Unbound World.

Abilities: Those tainted by the Grave learn to control decay summon spirits.

Taint: The Grave Tainted have an unnatural presence to both mortal and Tainted. The essence of Death radiates out around them.

Common Gateways: Battlefields/Graveyards, Near Death Esperance, Sex

The Church of Unua: Weakest of the major Enclaves and some say thankfully so, the Church believes that the Five Realms were once a single whole. Members of the Church seek the Untrained; those with visions they cannot understand voices others cannot hear. They see these men and woman as natural channels to the Realms hoping to use their energies to craft permanent bridges between the Realms.

Common Members Taint: Any

Green Ones: There are those who have touched the Verdant World and those who have embraced it. The Green Ones see the Verdant as the wellspring of life seeking to bridge the Unbound Realm to renew a dying planet. Technology is a blight that the Green ones hope to erase remaking the world in natural harmonic perfection.

Common Members Taint: Verdant

Harbingers: Mystics who have forged alliances with the monsters who stalk the Dark. Trading their humanity for power the Harbingers manipulate the Unbound Realm luring it into the eternal night of the Dark. Corrupting the faithful, breaking down communication the Harbingers masters seem to feed of the chaos.

Common Members Taint: Dark

Keepers of the Unbound World: If there were to be a secret society within a secret society they would be controlled by the Keepers. It is the Keepers who first used the word tainted when speaking of the Lucid and it is the Keepers who keep the other Enclave’s at bay. The Realms beyond the Unbound World are both dreamlike and full of nightmares waiting to be born. The Keepers fear the destruction bridges between the Realms would unleash and have vowed to purge any who seek this goal.

Common Members Taint: Any

Spirit Callers: They are the voice of the dead and of the never born. Spirit Callers are drawn by the Spirits of the Verdant and the Ghosts of the Grave. They understand the connection between the Realms and look to unseal the locks preventing the Lucid from traveling between them and freeing the Spirits of both Realms allowing them to pass through into the Unbound World easily.

Common Members Taint: Verdant, Grave

The Templar: The Enclave of peace, the Templar have learned to tap into the forces of the Slumber and Dark. They believe that the cycle of conflict cannot be stopped though any one show of force. Infiltrating the world’s militaries the Bursars engineer wars and topples nations hoping to bring forth The Last Conflict; the war that can never be won, the war so great it forces all armies to lay down their arms.

Common Members Taint: Slumber, Dark

The Watchtower: They have seen the perfected world and they felt the touch of the forgotten beyond. Those of the Watchtower seek to purify the Unbound World to ready it for the Final Slumber. The Watchtower believe whole heartedly that though discipline they may devoice the Grave and enter the Slumber eternally. Outside the Church of Unua the Watchtower are the closest of the Enclaves to acting openly using religious trappings to draw followers. The Watchtower lure and control their followers through targeted radio and television broadcasts along with print media. Unlike the Church of Unua they avoid the internet seeing it as too easy to slip from the path of Discipline.

Common Member Taint: Slumber, Grave

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Power 19

1.) What is your game about? Exploring the hidden worlds and powers that have influenced and crafted a dark future. Mixing action and intrigue with mysticism and martial arts. 

2.) What do the characters do? Characters are Lucids those how have been Tainted by the Four Outer Realms. Able to sense one another Lucids are pulled by powerful Enclaves who seek to control them, each with their own views, motivations and secrets.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do? Players and GM take traditional roles for a tabletop game play. 

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? The setting hangs on conspiracies and a lack of knowledge. By their nature Lucids have gained access to knowledge beyond most peoples understanding this makes them targets.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about? Character Creation is designed around narrative ideas Players telling each other how their Character came to be Lucid, this can include details of their life before and what they have done since but should always include the Gateway they passed through. (What experience took them to one of the Four Outer Realms.) Additionally, Character Creation may include how the Players came together.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)? Each of the Four Realms offers a mix of martial abilities and mystic powers. Characters can focus on one or the other or blend the two together. Note: Characters can only be Tainted by one Realm, each realm has its own feel and bailiwick. Game play itself lends itself to quick action and cinematic recovery allowing players to act larger than life.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game? Quick recovery helps to support action oriented play while stagnation and waiting draw the attention of the Enclaves. Due to their nature it is hard for the Tainted to hide from one another.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game? The GM sets the Scenes while players describe their actions.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?) The setting places characters in a hunted position along with the systems quick resolution mechanics.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like? Characters have Descriptive Words divided against various Characteristic Trees. Each Characteristic has a value. Characters add the values of appropriate Characteristics and roll 1-6 d6 based on the type of Characteristics used.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about? The Characteristics are all descriptive words for character abilities. When taking an action the names of the characteristics use help to form what the action may look and feel like.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how? At the end of each Session, Chapter or Story the GM assigns Experience, typically between 2-5. The GM controls how quickly the characters advance by how often experience awards are given and the value of the rewards. Experience can be spent like Character Creation Points or saved and used to modify events in a story.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? Character advancement allows them to obtain new and more fantastic abilities based on their Realms Taint. As the Characters progress Storylines also escalate in scope.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players? A mix of chase, exploration and feeling like they have just seen their favorite martial arts or action movie for the first time.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why? Atmosphere and the background world, this is done to emphasize how different the characters are from average people and to lend intrigue as to why the world has become such a dark place.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why? How each of the Enclaves interact with one another and manipulate the Lucid. The focus on the Enclaves distracts the Characters from what else may be inside each of the Realms. As the game expands I hope to answer those questions with their own power structures and incarnations of Lucid.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t? The game explores a kind of grey morality and the price of independence and freedom.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game? Soft cover and PDF release.

19.) Who is your target audience? Anime/Wuxia fans, Goths, D20 Modern Burnouts 

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