Tuesday 17 November 2015

Gloomlight

Since I announced it earlier, I've decided to get a brief over view of my Savage Worlds RPG project.

'Gloomlight' is set starting in 2150 and makes the assumption that trade deals like TTIP go through in 2010, giving corporations the power to throw every single regulation that harms their profit out of the window.  About one hundred and fifty years later the smog cloud is global and things that fear the sun are coming out of the shadows.

First up are the Nostropho.  Think all vampires are attractive?  Think again, these things are seriously ugly.  Hairless, dirt stained and with barely enough mind left to form their animalistic hives.  The first of the monsters to take advantage of the sunlight no longer being strong enough to burn them, these things are basically man sized locusts and are a seriously dangerous pest.  The first signs that a city has a building Nostropho infestation is when the homeless start disappearing.  Since the corporations have no interest in the homeless and jobless these early signs are often missed.  The next stage is when reports of attacks on the lower class habitations are reported.  Again the corporations often don't care as long as it does not mean that they have to fill the positions of a large proportion of the work force, but at this stage communities often start up bounties for every Nostropho head brought in.  If the corporations do decide to use some of their hirer guns to clear out the Nest then sometimes this merely forces the hive out into the open, where upon they go into a feeding frenzy.

This is what happened towards the start of the 2100s and it was then that the more refined monsters stepped out on to the stage.  The thirteen tribes of vampires cut a swath through the Nostropho and received a mixed reaction for their efforts.  However, by the time 2150 rolls round many have accepted the vampires as part of the new social order, after all the corporations are not interest in law and order, its too damn expensive, so the vampires have formed their own style of order enforcement.

Though the vampires are the major players on the world stage there are other creatures making an appearance, with werewolves showing up the vast tracks of Russia and demons showing up all over the world.  There are also the dhampyrs.  These half breeds are the result of a union between vampire and human and though rare because of the low birth rate, their numbers are also on the rise.  Bless and cursed with the strengths and weaknesses of both races, the dhampyrs inhabit an uneasy half way point between the two.

There are also the mutants that are showing up in the cursed earth beyond the city walls.  This is the industrial poisoned wasteland that is left behind after the corporations decide that an area no longer has anything of value.  Mother nature is always an opportunist and with take over any gap permitted.  There are even people here, those desperate enough to have a go at forming their own, hell on earth communities away from the eye of the corporations.  Life in the cursed earth is harsh, hard and often short but at least you don't have the corporations bleeding you dry.  Those that have the brains and the brawn to survive in the curse earth are a hardy people that don't suffer fools gladly.

There are also the naughty men and women who flit around the edges of society.  These are the smugglers and outlaws who ship in food when the job market in an area bottoms out, transport the 'bare-foot' doctors to the people who need them and in some cases, even clear out the Nostropho hives for the price of a restock and a damn good knees up afterwards, instead of taking every piece of coin a community has.  Though the corporations call them criminals, they are normally pretty safe from the vampires, the Undying Lords understand that while society has its 'Robin Hoods' it works.  Take those away, dam up the outlet for the masses anger and something will have to give.  Having survived through centuries of persecution, the vampires have no wish to be at the top of the house of cards when the bottom level falls to pieces.

No comments:

Post a Comment