A Future Imperfect

This will be the wiki page for A future Imperfect, a Post Apocalypse/Future Earth game set on the East coast of Australia.

Player Characters

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Background

The big changes in 30 years.

This is the future history of the game. Of course, I can't cover everything, but am going to nail some salient points. If you want to riff off this and write some of your own ideas for more particular areas or focuses, go ahead.

Part 1: The world stage.

China is the acknowledged 'second superpower', though in reality, the EU represents a third. India is nudging the envelope as a potential fourth. Australia has many ties with China, mostly along trade and mutual defence treaty lines. The 'new'China is far less corrupt than it used to be, but still presents itself as a socialist utopia. The United States is far more involved in the UN on a national level and has rebuilt itself from the economic collapse of the 20's. It is now considered to be more 'right wing' conservative than it was pre collapse, but there is a strong liberal streak that runs through issues of human rights, equality and social welfare.

Australia itself is still a resource dependent nation, but has diversified into a broader agriculture and infrastructure development [largely due to overseas investment] based economy. The population has increased to 34million, nearly 90% of whom still live East of the Great Dividing range. Australia has links with all three superpowers and has held neutral in three conflicts between the EU and China in the last ten years. The US military presence in Australia has grown, especially with the establishment of a UN space station at Cape York.

The main points of political wrangling are largely over resources and maritime rights in the 30's. With the breaking of the Petroleum industry in the 20's during the World Economic Collapse, most oil producing countries took serious economic steps backward and the political climate refocused on other, more important resources [like fish stocks, rivers and slowly exposed arctic and antarctic lands].

Rising sea levels have destroyed many small island nations. The UN now has actual countries [ a small collection of island nations] as well as 'citizens' [generally displaced citizens of small countries that have no nation that will accept them]. There is a rising movement amongst the youth of richer countries to renounce their national status and become citizens of the UN.

Biotechnology and agribusiness are almost as huge as medical companies and materials and resources on the stock exchanges. The advances in synthetic materials through long chain carbon fullerene/nanotube technologies has created a million spin offs into industry.

Technology

• Non allergic cybernetic parts and regeneration therapies allow most of the limbless in rich countries to have them restored.
• Metals are being phased out of industrial applications, in favour of new carbon 'plastics'.
• Fusion power is possible, but is currently confined to large reactors.
• Hydrogen fuel cells and 'eternabatteries' have become the portable power of choice.
• An originally minor spin off of materials technology was artificial supermagnets. Within ten years it had created the mag-lev transport technology and artificial A.I. [magnetic colloidal suspension brains, mimicking human structure] allowing for the first true intelligent Automotons.
• Carbon nerve surrogate bundling allowed for exoskeletal advances that led to walker based industry and military technologies.
• Medical advances led to 'healing'drugs, capable of supplementing and triggering the natural healing process through massive endorphin rushes. The slowing of the aging process became possible.

There are over a dozen habitats in Earth orbit, the largest having a rotating crew of 122. Three of these are commercial ventures, the rest belong to the UN, the US or the Chinese pacific region alliance. Humans have reached Mars...once. Politics has held up the permanent Lunar base project for over 20 years.

Recycling of resources is a worldwide focus and the people of developed countries are far more aware of the need. Most of it is dumped on third world nations for 'reprocessing'.

The last ten years of the old world

In 2038, as a result of steadily more ridiculous political wrangling over diminishing fish stocks, North Korea's military Junta launched a single tactical nuclear warhead at the Liancourt Rocks, killing the civilian population of 5, the local coast guard garrison of four, and the lighthouse keeper. This was the first time a nuclear device had been used in anger since WWII - and the world came as close to WWIII as possible, until a joint operation from the UN and China ended North Korea as an independent entity. A rather disturbing array of military 'secret' technology was in part responsible for the 'Twelve day war', including particle beam technology.

It seemed a minor footnote that a smallish meteor coming out of Jupiters gravitational pull made irregular movements before beginning a long arc that would take it close to Earth's orbit. This was put down to gravitatinal lensing effects by the establishment when the usual crackpots began talking aliens. apart from a few samples that contained amino acids from the Mars trip, humanity had still found no sign of alien life.

Said comet passed closest to earth in 2041, doing nothing disturbing at all. There were an unusual number of meteor showers in the months after, but 90% of them fell over the worlds oceans and we unobserved.

In the early 2040's, the ongoing algal blooming in the worlds denuded oceans took on a twist. Amongst the toxins released was a Viroid rNa eventually found to have been produced in a form of phytoplankton and through there entered the zooplankton population. Said unknown viroid was transmitted via aerosol vectors along the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam into the vertebrate population.

People and animals became ill in these areas, and about 1% died. Cue world panic. Over the next three years, variants of this viroid [including a viral form] appear in coastal blooms, then freshwater ones. Toxicity grows, survivors are fewer and the world comes to a slow halt as all resources are turned to fight it. Vaccines from survivors turn out to be exremely robust.

Over the next four years, there is a calmer response to the blooms as massive vaccine production extends even to animals.

Then everything changes as reports begin to hit the papers of permanent genetic alterations occurring in vaccinated humans. The full extent of the widespread incorporation of these viroid/viral variants into the foodchain begins to surface. The world gets very...tense [I'm thinking brushfire wars here] but politics takes a back foot to reports from the East Coast of the US and Mexico of another outbreak...only this one is a killer.

The infection spreads from the coast via wind patterns. Massive cellular structural degeneration begins in 70-80% of the population within 24 hours of infection. By then, carriers are already spreading it to Europe, The pacific rim...

No one is immune. Everybody gets it. 95% don't survive. The ones that do are....different.

The Changed

The effect is, essentially, as if someone reset certain portions of the genetic memory of human DNA. The 'changes' look, generally on the surface as if people have thrown back to specific homo sapiens subspecies, or even further back.

For example, there are 'Strongs', folk much stronger than normal without increased muscle mass. The most common accompanying mutation is fused wristbones. Similarly, 'smarts often have underdeveloped physiques due to the glycogen demands of their enhanced brains.

But what about the people with photosynthetic hair, or the ones who's melanin goes from albino white [at night] through to deep black at midday? What about the people who see the future or can read your feelings?

There are two popular pseudoscientific beliefs

• Whatever this genetic coding unlocks, it is not only from our past, but our genetically potential future
• Human ancestors were a lot more complicated than archaeology has managed to discover.

As has been noted, these two ideas are not contradictory.

A morning in Sydney, 2040.

As I have half an hour to spare and like to paint pictures with words, here is an average morning and worktrip for a middle class Sydneysider of 2040.

They wake up in a Homicile, one of the new cluster housing approaches to solve the rising population of the cities along the East Coast. While families still tend to own individual homes in Sydney, these are slowly being replaced by Homicile clusters.

Their iCom [the portable portion of their ihomenet] wakes them up, assesses weather and transport options for the morning and relays any important comms from the night. They are heading to an actual work location, something only slightly 50% of the employed do now. Many work from home or by SenseOps. Breakfast is a mishmash of gengrown foodstuffs, preprepped and only needing a few seconds in the microwave [or mag cooker if you're better off]. It is summer, the weather is good, so they decide to fly to work.

Clothing is still natural organics, except for protective gear - like a streetsuit, the Synthsilk one piece that has become as popular as jeans for weatherproff clothing. Our flier wears one over her office clothing, cotton and synthetics rendered wrinkle free by nanotube fabric enhancers.

Her iSys registers intent and location and the local trafficnet spits back a flightpath. She engages her parasail, the cheapest flight option available to the up and coming - a self inflating sail with a podseat and prop combination. solar cells in the sail help power the minaiturized Hydrogen cell batteries that power the electric motor.

She climbs slowly into the traffic stream, a colorful array of parasails, microlites and gyros headed in a thin stream toward the landing parks of the city. Here and there, traffic cops zoom by on extremely expensive maglev powered vehicles, monitoring flow and safety. Ballons mark stationary flightpath junctions. Down below, the stream of cars, trucks and other vehicles is as heavy as ever...

Changes

The Change. When the last of the great plagues effectively ended human civilisation, it also left its genetic marker in every survivor. In general terms, about half the population born since the change [it varies from area to area] manifests some physical change in form from baseline Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Very few people from before [people who survived the plague] have physical manifestations and they are mostly minor.

Game mechanics

Age groups born since the change use the Post Ruin table below. Older characters use the pre ruin one - unless they were undergoing puberty while contracting the virus, in which case they roll on post ruin results.

Every PC is changed. Roll once on the tables below - twice if born after the event.

Change results [on D20]. Minor change: No visible sign and would need specialist equipment to determine. [Pre ruin: 1-10, Post Ruin 1]

Coloration/Melanin change: This varies from purely random blotching to elaborate patterning to a skin tone change to the truly odd. [Pre 11-14, Post 2-3] Skeletal modification: Ranges from extra or fewer fingers and toes through to complete skeletal change [gigantism, dwarfism], including different physiological typing. Increased or decreased blood/white ellproduction, weaker or more flexible, etc. [Pre 15 Post 4-5]

Hair modifications: From amount and type through to complete hairlessness. [Pre 16, post 6-7]

Features modification. From nonhuman placement of facial features, odd skull or head structure through to working jaws, physically enhanced features for senses, etc. Also covers 'úncanny valley' type features and inhuman beauty. [Pre -, post 8-9]

Limb modification: From nonfunctional/underdeveloped extras to extra joints, increased or decreased usage, functioning extra limbs, length, etc. [Pre-, post 10]

Complete physical mutation. One or a combination of the Changes below.

Inner changes.

• Immunes: 1-10
• Ears: 11-12
• Eyes: 13-15
• Balancers:16-17
• Sensors: 18
• Smarts: 19-20

Add +5 if post ruin [Pre17-18, post 11-13]

Obvious changes

• Strongs: 1-5
• Quicks: 6-10
• Toughs: 11-15
• Blends: 16-20

[Pre -, post 14-15]

Complete mental Mutation

• Telepathy 1-4
• ESP 5-10
• Psychokinesis 11-15
• Precognition 16-18
• Wild Card. 19-20

[Pre 19-20, post 16-20]

Change strength

• Minor. Change is a weak version of a normal change. Roll again, if you roll minor your change is latent.

[Pre 1-10, post 1-2]

• Normal. You have a normal version of whatever you roll. If you are post ruin, it will trigger 1 to 3 minor changes that supplement your major change.

[Pre 11-15, post 3-10]

• Minor combination [Pre 16-18, post 11-15] You have a number of minor mutations that are complementary to each other. [Pre 1d3+1, post 2d3].
• Major combination [Pre 19-20, post 16-20] You have a number of normal and minor mutations that are complementary to each other. [Pre ruin 1major+1d3+1 minor, post 1d3+1major and 2d3 minor.]

Usefulness

• 1: Major debilitation.
• 2-5: Minor debilitation
• 6-10 normal with drawbacks
• 11-15 normal
• 16-19 Normal with bonus
• 20 Wild card. [expanded]

PC's may choose to add +5 to the roll if they reroll 15-20.

This will apply to everyone. You roll the dice if you like, But as GM I get to fashion the particulars of your change[s] to fit the world setting. discussion, of course, is always good.

OOC IC Recruitment