We're a bunch of persons from the ForgeSonges association (http://www.forgesonges.org) and we're working on one of the official settings for the oncoming new version of the HeroQuest system. The problem is we are all French native speakers. So we write it all in English but we'd like to have a few native english-speakers to read through it in order to get something that doesn't sound too "frenchy". If you're interested, please contact me directly...
Just to get you more interested, here's a hook for the game :
We're at the far end of the known space... of the actually known
space. A few decades from now, The United Worlds Community was ruling
over a huge number of planets and colonies. But a harsh conflict with
the Great Kenth'uin Empire made it withdrawing from a certain number
of their territories. It sealed the destiny of the cast-away mining
colony know as ExtReM_37 (Extreme Reaches Mine n°37). It became an
independent planet, whose incomes were still brought by the extracted
mining material. Located at extreme ranges of the galaxy, caught in
between several different territories and civilizations, the planet
also became a connecting node, where people from many different places
came to discuss in a free and independent environment.
The surface of ExtReM_37 is no suitable for organic life: deadly and
poisonous air, very hard winds and permanent storms sweep the
landscape. And as it is the inside that always has interested people
here, the city was built under the surface, into huge vaults and some
now abandoned mining tunnels. It's the place where anybody can live a
life of its own, far from the great societies, freed from previous
criminal records or tedious administrations. Here, under the
artificial light and into this artificial atmosphere, a city grows and
lives.
If you are wealthy enough, you can visit High Vault, where inverted
buildings hang from the ceiling of a very large cave over a
subterranean lake, in which the reflection of millions of lights
creates a new sky. For the more common people with less money, there
is Downtown, the first vault built by the inhabitants, a long cylinder
plunging down and down into the depth of the planet. The Astroport is
one of the most important locations as anybody that arrives in or
leaves ExtReM_37 passes here. The Old Mines are abandoned conducts
where nothing can be extracted anymore and where the poorest of the
locals try to make a living out of despair and of a non-fully-treated
air. These are only some of the locations in ExtReM_37. And there's
also this recently discovered place full of mysteries called The
Ancient City; as for what the government said about it, there seems to
be the evidence of the existence of an ancient civilization having
lived here, into this planet. But no one has spoken aloud about it for
now. All the caves are linked by a complex system of roads, called
Tubes, as they are straight cylinders running into the soil of the planet.
With this game, enter the subterranean city of ExtReM_37, take the
role of a local or a newcomer, and discover the different locations
and all the factions living here. You can try to stop terrorists and
criminals physically enhanced through biological modifications or
neuro-science. You can plunge into the diplomatic schemes going on
behind the scenes in this place where independence is the most
elementary element. You can try to solve the mysteries of the ancients
and long-forgotten first inhabitants of the planet. You can use the
recently developed semi-IA's to help you in your day-to-day
activities. You can choose darker and less legal ways to earn your
living in these often dark alleys.
In this world of technology, nano-things can repair in seconds the
skin in which you just shot a bullet. Many cars can drive you safely
home without you touching the wheel. Communication is immediate and
easy wherever you are. Hear the permanent noise of the air recyclers,
see the never-natural light that comes from the ceilings, you are now
in ExtReM_37, a doomed place to live where anyone can make his
fortune... or find his fate.
And some influences : William Gibson, Strange Days, Redrobe, Running Man, Dune, Existenz, Gattaca, P.K. Dick, Ghost in the Shell, Days, Equilibrium, Akira, Battlestar Galactica, and so on...
Best regards
Fred
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