A Sense of Time and Place
Aug. 13th, 2006 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzu
Is what I'm gunning for in the Gamma World game, should it ever happen. The idea is to make the world feel alien and foreign without making it impossible for the players to wrap their brains around in a short session or two. That, but to hew pretty closely to the 2E Gamma World rules. (Honestly, they're not that bad, and I'm starting to groove on their simplicity - if it weren't for what I feared would be endless combat I'd be all set.)
Snapshot images of the community: Sedulitas (the name is Latin for 'industry', thank you GURPS New Sun) exists inside a gorge carved by a high and potent waterfall. The steep walls are riddled with caves that provide storage spaces, and with stilted hits clinging to them that are an array of short to longer term living quarters. The waterfall is channeled and diverted by a myriad of water wheels bolted to the cliff, shifting drinking and water through the tunnels, irrigation waters across the tiers of plants scrabbling to exist in the limited hours of direct sunlight, and electricity to the critical pieces of old world technology repaired and overseen by the Fulgerators Guild. That band of worthies also maintains and draws power from the vertical wind turbines that surround the top of the, which also convert the endless boreal winds into precious power.
Like all other communities in this area, Sedulitas is autochthonous - its residents appear to spring from the earth as the town is not visible from the surface until you are nearly upon it. Unlike the others, its presence is well marked by the wind turbines, and rather than hide from their neighbors, Sedultas has chosen to mark its presence with flags fluttering from atop the turbines. While the Badders & Dabbers (mutated badgers and raccoons for those not in the know) might keep their burrows entirely hidden, the Consejeros of Sedultas see their city as the formation point of a new larger community, and therefore while they must defend it, they must also advertise it.
Fifteen summers ago the town became the furthest north outpost of the Ranks of the Fit, the cryptic alliance formed around the Bear Emperor Napoleon near Pitz Burke. The Ranks brought language, technology, law and a social order that, while it heavily favored mutated animals, was mostly just. With Napoleon's death three summers past those most loyal to the Ranks returned south, but many changed their loyalty to the community of Sedultas as a whole. The Consejeros were formed as a leadership counsel, and the Armigers and Dimarchii who remained took up new positions in whose nucleus had to be the technology and trade that Sedultas possessed, rather than the force of arms that it did not. To that end, Optimates are stretching out their, er, manipulative appendages in search of new trade and alliance possibilities, and Thaumaturges are being courted to make the city of industry their home in hopes that their unlocking of ancient technology will yield valuable advantages.
The Ranks' tradition of a Rite of Passage before one is fully a member of the community continues, but the Consejeros have changed the ritual somewhat - now each group must contain members of as many social orders as possible rather than being all Armigers, all Dimarchii etc. The goal is to make all of the orders part of the larger community. While it's not clear how well this will work in the long run, it does make sure that as GM I can insist on a wide range of character types on the first adventure.
I expect they'll be more blather on this later, but for now this out to give a good idea of the setting.
Snapshot images of the community: Sedulitas (the name is Latin for 'industry', thank you GURPS New Sun) exists inside a gorge carved by a high and potent waterfall. The steep walls are riddled with caves that provide storage spaces, and with stilted hits clinging to them that are an array of short to longer term living quarters. The waterfall is channeled and diverted by a myriad of water wheels bolted to the cliff, shifting drinking and water through the tunnels, irrigation waters across the tiers of plants scrabbling to exist in the limited hours of direct sunlight, and electricity to the critical pieces of old world technology repaired and overseen by the Fulgerators Guild. That band of worthies also maintains and draws power from the vertical wind turbines that surround the top of the, which also convert the endless boreal winds into precious power.
Like all other communities in this area, Sedulitas is autochthonous - its residents appear to spring from the earth as the town is not visible from the surface until you are nearly upon it. Unlike the others, its presence is well marked by the wind turbines, and rather than hide from their neighbors, Sedultas has chosen to mark its presence with flags fluttering from atop the turbines. While the Badders & Dabbers (mutated badgers and raccoons for those not in the know) might keep their burrows entirely hidden, the Consejeros of Sedultas see their city as the formation point of a new larger community, and therefore while they must defend it, they must also advertise it.
Fifteen summers ago the town became the furthest north outpost of the Ranks of the Fit, the cryptic alliance formed around the Bear Emperor Napoleon near Pitz Burke. The Ranks brought language, technology, law and a social order that, while it heavily favored mutated animals, was mostly just. With Napoleon's death three summers past those most loyal to the Ranks returned south, but many changed their loyalty to the community of Sedultas as a whole. The Consejeros were formed as a leadership counsel, and the Armigers and Dimarchii who remained took up new positions in whose nucleus had to be the technology and trade that Sedultas possessed, rather than the force of arms that it did not. To that end, Optimates are stretching out their, er, manipulative appendages in search of new trade and alliance possibilities, and Thaumaturges are being courted to make the city of industry their home in hopes that their unlocking of ancient technology will yield valuable advantages.
The Ranks' tradition of a Rite of Passage before one is fully a member of the community continues, but the Consejeros have changed the ritual somewhat - now each group must contain members of as many social orders as possible rather than being all Armigers, all Dimarchii etc. The goal is to make all of the orders part of the larger community. While it's not clear how well this will work in the long run, it does make sure that as GM I can insist on a wide range of character types on the first adventure.
I expect they'll be more blather on this later, but for now this out to give a good idea of the setting.
