A Future Imperfect

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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

Game mechanics

A copy from the recruitment list. If you have the .pdf, you have thses already. Game Mechanics

How skills work

Your skill would normally be written up as 20 [16] to indicate that you have skill mastery (20) with a control of 16.

Control is used to:

  • Delete negative modifiers to success [no tools, vision conditions] and still allow you to roll with your full skill. In your case, theres no effect as there's enough tools about for you to use to do an assesment.
  • It also generates automatic adds to effect die; +1 for every four points of the skill above 20. In your case, any effect die you roll adds 4 to the result.
  • In this case, though, I was looking for an Effect number, how well under your skill [20] you could roll. You rolled 13 which means you get a success in the 7-9 range, which is pretty good. You can bump this to 10+ [the best non critical success] by throwing your control points in.
  • There are some other little effects, unique to combat or social skills or whatever, but basically, even before tapping into your change, you have a pretty succinct analysis of the trucks needs in about two minutes.
  • If you roll your base passive psi [In your case Psi+Mechanical] you can add those effects in to improve your roll further...

How Psychic powers work

  • Elisavetta: Has a psi rating of 4. You only need this for techanalysis and your combat sense.
  • Alex Hampton: Has a psi rating of 4 [though she doesn't know it]
  • 'Stretch' Taylor Has a psi rating of 5
  • Lex Has a psi rating of 6

How does this work? when you want to focus your particular talents to do something, you need to make an attribute roll on Psi.

The particular power has a talent attached, so add Psi+talent. This is your base roll on d20 to focus your talent. It allows you to make simple uses of the power. A roll above your chance means you either lack focus or need to concentrate by adding your psi to the roll chance. This temporarily lowers your psi by 1 [you may add multiple psi scores to your roll, but each time it is 1 lower and you use a point of psi up.]

Any roll above this relies on multiples of Psi to determine a level of effect. An easy roll [psi x5] gets you a base effect. you increase the level of effect by rolling lower, Psi x 3 gives level 2, psi x 1 level 3. In situations where you are attempting to force greater levels of success, you can use the method above, scrificing temporary Psi score for decreases on your rolls.

[Example. Elisavetta has a psi of 4 and a mech talent of 8. Her base chance to focus her techanalysis on a task quickly and with little effort is 12 or less on a d20. If she attempts to 'read' an unusual piece of black box technology and rolls 12 or less, she is in. If she blows the roll, she can always try again after a brief break [a minute or so]. However, she is in a hurry as she is trying to divert a guided missile controlled by the unit she is analysing. If she had rolled 16 or less on her focus roll, she could temporarily 'burn'a point of psi to make the connection. Now she is in, and needs to not only understand the system, but the operating software and security protocols to shut down the missile. The GM rules this a level 3 task [as he is nasty like that]. Elisavetta's player rolls 9 on the d20 - Psi x 3, enough for level 2. she curses and focuses her mind. Losing 2 points of psi power, she reduces her roll to a 2 [9 -4-3] - level three, and shes in control of the complete system. Scratch one missile. now, the aftereffects...

Each time you burn psi on a power, you will need to roll for the aftereffects. These happen once the psychic adrenalin wears out, so to speak, and do not impede your psi tasks at the time. Rol a health Att check for every psi point used, and add the total used to each roll.

Failing health x 3 means you are fatigued and dazed. failing health x 5 means you are exhausted and stunned. Health x 1 means you are unaffected.

The game so far

[3]

A picture is worth a thousand words...

An overhead view of the current Uni 2067 style... [4]

The NPC's

From the Marsh Mob

  • 3 Paddock guards [16M, 16F, 15M]
    • Ebon -Black skin and hair, yellow eyes [near UV], fangs, claws [cosmetic]. Minor Quick
    • Poss [green eyes] - Prehensile feet, prehensile tail [body mass supporting], wrist lock [skeletal].
    • Laker - No physical changes, hatred in eyes.
  • Family 1 Ross [23], three kids - Jedda, Megan and Damian [12, 10, 8] [All have webbed hands, feet. Skin is moist] Marshwarden Wife dead a year ago.
  • Family 2 Papa [63] Mother - Kate [38] 2 kids Anja and Reece [14, 9] Uncle Sid [26] 14 yo is nearly 6 foot tall, strong. 9 yo is dappled skin colour, hair mane like, quick runner.
  • Family 3 Jessie [27f] and Jess [26m] Both have furred skin. two kids Krysta and Misty [6 and 4]
  • The sisters of Mercy Jean [38] minor strong tough. Alice [26] Albino, smart.

6 kids [13, 11,10, 6, 5, 5,] All physically changed, usually disfigured.

Stragglers

  • Grahamn Doone from the Greens - herbalist. Male [22]
  • Bikers from 'out West' [colors are Jesters] Tonya 'Big T',female[32]; and Marlie 'Clank' , female [28]. Have a reasonable rep locally - not a vermin gang.
  • Trader 'Bushrat',Male [36] and bodyguard 'Macca' male [32]. Guard has mottled skin. From North of here.

Screeners Male [19], female [17], male [16], male [22] 19 yo is a quick, with modified feet. 17 yo is a 'pure' - looks like idealised human. 16 yo has night eyes and minor hair changes [more of a pelt] 22 yo has sockets for two extra eyes in temple...they are sewn shut and scarred.


SecureCard access and levels

Card access details are under the breakdown for Operation Lazarus and the Kingmaker protocol, both of which Morpheus is hiding behind [or next to, in this case].

White: Visitor access, must be escorted when in any area above red. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Levels of security access. These are coded, often by level - blue access to level 4 isn't blue access to lvl 5, unless the room types are the same [Science, Medical, Stores, Security, etc]. Red is the default security level for on site personnel. Black: Override card for the entire system.

Tin, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Silver, Gold. Platimum. Federal officer cards, which in theory allow access to and override on the level they are created for. The Government actually had their crap together on this system and it was hard to abuse [mainly because cards above Bronze are rarely issued]. The Bronze and Argent cards issued to the lads seem pretty high up the food chain. Brendans kind of makes sense in that it is a re-issue of the card Clarence gave him. Stretch should have received copper at the most [as a senior NCO], unless you follow a very bizzare chain of logic which would leave him as the commanding officer of his old unit [Argent or Silver card]

Similarly, the civ card currently issued to those in the system seem inordinately high up - Aiden gets an Orange, normal only for department heads or senior admin - which by a peice of tortured logic he could be.

Following this logic, you and the doctor should be due something out of the sec station - both having had various level of government clearances in the past.

Note that none of the Operation Morpheus doors or security protocols have used the keycard system so far.

Timelines

A future timeline

Having read through this, you can assume anything up to about 2040 is happening tech. same with general world situation. http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm

The local situation in 2066

The Local situation in 2066 [16 years after the Change Plague]

In terms of deaths in 2051, assume anyone who was 'through' puberty and human growth died [unless in some kind of cryocapsule or immune].

What this left in 2051 was a population composed largely of children and teenagers [75%] with a smaller number of young adults [20%]. About 5% of the survivor population was adult when the Change hit.

This makes people with true training and experience from before the ruin rare. It also means that post ruin, the world was filled with teenagers and young adults. Cue chaos.

Any sleeper PC was an immune prime, your blood used to create vaccines. You are located in medical research facilities centred at the University of NSW complex [ much expanded and bio-domed in the mid 30's]

You are in medical suspension as it was deemed necessary to keep some of you out of the chaos of the oncoming virus. Some of you may also be members of the military, research groups or civilian/government organisations, as these recieved priority at the end.

There were extensice facilities in and under the Uni complex. Anyone military will know that this involved other cryogenic projects. Some will know more...

Any survivors are going to be from local Sydney communities - seeing as we've introduced the Domain, that will be your default. Your Common knowledge will be lucky to stretch to the Blue mountains or more than 50 k's up and down the coast. You pretty much know your own little world and thats it.

You will be present because of a man...an old man who's the last of a trio of NightWatchmen, security guards at the uni. He has always told a story to his little community, that he has a card you can use to summon help - but only when the need is as dire as the end of the world. You have to put it in a hidden door undeer the old ruins... The semi-barbaric small clan he is part of lives near the Uni and is a trade partner of the Domain. They hunt the grounds [where it is safe to] and make a scary ínitiation of being led to 'the door' when they are 13 or so. It is buried away under heavy growth in the bottom of a partially collapsed car park. It is the great secret of this tiny group and their sacred duty.

So that is the setup...the card is about to be used because of slaver raids from over the mountains, which have destroyed several small communities.


Local maps - Then and now

Communities

Russians

  • There are Russians at HMAS Platypus, but they're the survivors of a Russian fishing fleet and escorts. They trade very good fish and vodka.

North Head

North Heads/Manly - The Rainbow Alliance.

North Head.

By the year 2040, North Head and Manly were very different. The old barracks had been reactivated to house federal security personnel, mainly those who administered the camps, overcrowded housing for refugees from 30 different Island nations. These were scattered along the harbour bay, mostly reactivated barracks, quarantine stations and schools. A massive part of this effort was funded and coordinated through the St Johns organisation, Red Cross, Red Crescent and Medicine Sans Frontieres who reactivated old St Johns facilities in the 30's to provide administration and coordinate relief efforts. North Heads quarantine station became camp Alpha, first port of call for new refugees and a disease screening centre.

As older survivors will know, fashionable Manly, with its microdomed main streets and green housing initiatives, was in stark contrast to the overcrowded conditions on the head. Both the media and the Federal government put pressure on local authorities to improve the situation, but by 2038 there was little anyone could do. The Army had reactivated some of its land and facilities to house new local SenseOps and drone/antidrone targetting facilities, and this being butted up against almost 5000 refugees was seen as less than desirable.

Then the Change hit, and 95% of the local population died...

North Head now [2066].

North head is known to be the Headquarters of the Knights [of the Southern Cross]. They follow a fairly simple creed, based around the idealised notions of both the Armed Forces and the ethical codes of the relief organisations. They are founded around a core of care workers from the Manly Hospital, the St John quarters, military survivors and locals. Their political structure is deliberately dual...there is the military side of things and the civil/medical. A governing council is made up of equal representatives from both 'orders'. It is important to understand that, while many outsiders see the Knights as a christian order, it is actually a fairly open philosophy. There are Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Pagans in fairly large numbers in the knights, but that is seperate to the aims of the Knights, which are to restore a decent and safe standard of living to all humans.

Through Mitchell, you'll know that there are various small farming/salvage communities based along the north shore streams and dams. These are pretty much the protectorate of the Knights, who ensure they aren't trouble by gangs and bandits. In return, they provide crops and recuits to the order. In Manly itself is an intricate community made up largely of survivors from the camps and a few locals. They have used the remnants of the once high class green housing Homiciles and biomed streets to create a diverse agriculture of small gardens, ponds, pools and living areas. This area is heavily invested with the Knights presence, but it is also a trade community and produces a plethora of local crafts. It is known locally as the Rainbow and the community is a hodge-podge of people from over 40 nations and backgrounds.

The reputation of the Knights is odd. They will treat the vilest slaver lord as equably as they treat Free communities...as long as they may open their hospices within their community. This is the work of the medical orders [The knights of the Hospital] and they teach hygeine, first aid and practical medicine to anyone who will listen. They also provide medical services. Those communities that have turned on or destroyed a hospice have met the other arm of the Knights - the militant order [the knights of the Southern Cross]. These are the folk that provide the protective role of the Knights and they are well trained and well armed, even though most are trained in medical arts. The knights also seem to have pretty good intel on what is happening around Sydney - they are famous for providing early warning to over a dozen communities caught in the great bushfire of 2055. They are a solid trade partner of the Domain. Mitchell knows how they do this, but probably wouldn't mention it.

Mitchell would also know that the Knights sit on a couple of caches of old Military equipment - including two of the new Kookaburra triphibian vehicles introduced in 2036.

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

  • Specific Tech, which will grow as the game goes on.
  • 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.


None can doubt the veracity of this arcitle.

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...


A morning in Sydney, 2066.

They wake up in a shelter, probably permanent, in one of the several small groups clustered through the Suburbs, hills, bays and valleys of the old city. They probably share with at least an informal family. Living alone is dangerous now.

The sun or insticnt wakes them up, to whatever food the time of year and supplies allow. They assess the weather, check their possessions and get about whatever useful thing they can do to keep their place in their community. for most, this means getting food, by farming or hunting or herding or fishing or gathering or all of the above. If, like our sydneysider here, they're lucky, one of the useful class, they'll use a rare or valuable skill instead to make a living...rebuilding electronics, smelting steel, mining, repairing making. The rich now are the ones who control the communities, through consensus or domination.

She climbs to her feet and heads out to the jerry rigged microcell car, waiting for the four others she shares it with. They'll use it to move cargo, not each other.




OOC
IC
Recruitment

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