Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)
I found this old file on my computers, which was a setting idea for a
post-apocalyptic Mage game. Reading it, it seems quite good by my
standards... Enjoy.
Picks-at-Flies
Tall buildings, stretching higher than a man could see, blocked out the sun
light. A blanket of black fog smothered what light could be seen from the
windows of the New Future buildings. A continuous stream of a fatal liquid
ebbed down the blackened remains of the road. Then there was a flicker of
light and, yes!, there was light again as the forgotten people below were
shown the wonder of D5, the New Improved Drill from Tech1 that is Guaranteed
to Drill Through Anything Even “Renew”, from the advertising screen on the
side of New Future 37.
Most people in the corporations would not remember the last time they had
actually touched the ground. Concerns about the starving are overruled by
those about marketing ploys, fighting rival companies and making the
deadline to avoid being fired. Clever employees keep contacts in other
companies so they always have a place to go if something goes wrong; the
rest hit the dirt, through the door or a high window.
The people on the streets, the Dwellers, survive from day to day, waging
wars against hunger, cold, disease and any other biproducts of corporation
waste, muggers and corporation “police”. A large proportion earn money from
the corporations one way or another; others use theft and coercion; an
unworthy few slave to one of these groups for a pittance; some scrounge
where they can, not normally for long; and a few brave soles break into the
corporations and steal from the source. Whatever happens, though, the money
always returns to the corporations.
The corporations give employment in a variety of forms. There are the
cleaners and workmen (although some companies now have machines to do the
work); security guards are instilled with a sense of duty, and tend to be
highly unsympathetic to anyone without the right pass. The police are also
recruited from the Dwellers, and the qualifications are that you like
hitting things; in return you are given fancy weaponry and the option of
physical upgrade. There are also infiltrators, sent to stir up problems for
rival companies or to defuse their own problems. These latter are normally
promised a handsome reward; however, the life expectancy of infiltrators is
practically zero, and the company keeps posthumous pay. Frequently, the pay
of corporation is in corporation goods, given before going home; if they
can make it home intact, they frequently have to barter for food.
Criminals are rarely clamped down on by any corporation, and in fact
frequently make it into the police force. Petty criminals pickpocket, some
mug passing Workers while organised gangs set up large extortion rackets,
fighting over territory.
As the corporations look upon the Dwellers, so the Dwellers look upon the
slaves. A slave can be asked to do practically everything, and normally
will since his master is his only source of life. Similarly scroungers go
where no one else will to find food and warmth, and even if they survive
pestilence and polution, they are avoided by all except their own.
Finally, there are small groups of rebels who gather, frequently under
pretence as a gang. While they do their best to fight back at the
corporations, the corporations try to disable them – frequently by
manipulating them against another company. Some are in for noble reasons,
some in it in a vain hope of money.
The apocalypse has arrived: the werewolves were right. They are also now
very dead. Was it triggered by Gehenna, the elder vampires tearing up their
childer and the world around them? Well the vampires are now all gone too.
Last time anyone looked, the shroud was barely inhabited, and as for
faeries – poof! So who is left?
Well, you see, it’s the technocracy who now rule the place. They finally
won the ascension war – advertising you see. Now everytime they bring out
new technology, the world believes them you see. Except it is not as simple
as that. No, even the tecnocracy is at war with itself, fighting trade
battles as much as ascension battles. Mage lives are rarely at stake
anymore, and old warriors are pushed aside for acquisative youth.
But these mages rarely suffer. After the precedent of Microsoft, other
companies grew in size, until they outgrew governments. Governments had no
choice but to acceed to the corporations wishes. When apocalypse rose, the
only people to withstand the blistering effects of the vampire elders and
the mad werewolves were the corporations, and with the now complete
destruction of most governments, they took over.
The corporations built specially protected buildings on the rubble. South
America, defended against the elders by the Sabbat, and defended
successfully by the Bastet, Garou and Mokolé there was tactically nuked, and
bitter disputes within the technocracy split the formerly allied
corporations and so a lot of the USA was nuked; the French aggressors were
devasted; literally. When the tensions eased, the world was a mess.
Corporation buildings using new, liberated, technology were built higher and
higher. Food could now be created artificially. Resources, formerly ripped
from the Earth could now be made to appear at will. Nature was now
redundant. In its place, the now competitive corporations.
Against these odds, remnent of the traditions survive. Rarely doing much
more than looking after themselves, certainly not doing anything in the
open, these women and men inevitably keep alive some of those sharing their
troubles, if only for their company. Among them are a few true paladins who
fight for a cause greater than themselves, and occasionally they join
together.
I found this old file on my computers, which was a setting idea for a
post-apocalyptic Mage game. Reading it, it seems quite good by my
standards... Enjoy.
Picks-at-Flies
Tall buildings, stretching higher than a man could see, blocked out the sun
light. A blanket of black fog smothered what light could be seen from the
windows of the New Future buildings. A continuous stream of a fatal liquid
ebbed down the blackened remains of the road. Then there was a flicker of
light and, yes!, there was light again as the forgotten people below were
shown the wonder of D5, the New Improved Drill from Tech1 that is Guaranteed
to Drill Through Anything Even “Renew”, from the advertising screen on the
side of New Future 37.
Most people in the corporations would not remember the last time they had
actually touched the ground. Concerns about the starving are overruled by
those about marketing ploys, fighting rival companies and making the
deadline to avoid being fired. Clever employees keep contacts in other
companies so they always have a place to go if something goes wrong; the
rest hit the dirt, through the door or a high window.
The people on the streets, the Dwellers, survive from day to day, waging
wars against hunger, cold, disease and any other biproducts of corporation
waste, muggers and corporation “police”. A large proportion earn money from
the corporations one way or another; others use theft and coercion; an
unworthy few slave to one of these groups for a pittance; some scrounge
where they can, not normally for long; and a few brave soles break into the
corporations and steal from the source. Whatever happens, though, the money
always returns to the corporations.
The corporations give employment in a variety of forms. There are the
cleaners and workmen (although some companies now have machines to do the
work); security guards are instilled with a sense of duty, and tend to be
highly unsympathetic to anyone without the right pass. The police are also
recruited from the Dwellers, and the qualifications are that you like
hitting things; in return you are given fancy weaponry and the option of
physical upgrade. There are also infiltrators, sent to stir up problems for
rival companies or to defuse their own problems. These latter are normally
promised a handsome reward; however, the life expectancy of infiltrators is
practically zero, and the company keeps posthumous pay. Frequently, the pay
of corporation is in corporation goods, given before going home; if they
can make it home intact, they frequently have to barter for food.
Criminals are rarely clamped down on by any corporation, and in fact
frequently make it into the police force. Petty criminals pickpocket, some
mug passing Workers while organised gangs set up large extortion rackets,
fighting over territory.
As the corporations look upon the Dwellers, so the Dwellers look upon the
slaves. A slave can be asked to do practically everything, and normally
will since his master is his only source of life. Similarly scroungers go
where no one else will to find food and warmth, and even if they survive
pestilence and polution, they are avoided by all except their own.
Finally, there are small groups of rebels who gather, frequently under
pretence as a gang. While they do their best to fight back at the
corporations, the corporations try to disable them – frequently by
manipulating them against another company. Some are in for noble reasons,
some in it in a vain hope of money.
The apocalypse has arrived: the werewolves were right. They are also now
very dead. Was it triggered by Gehenna, the elder vampires tearing up their
childer and the world around them? Well the vampires are now all gone too.
Last time anyone looked, the shroud was barely inhabited, and as for
faeries – poof! So who is left?
Well, you see, it’s the technocracy who now rule the place. They finally
won the ascension war – advertising you see. Now everytime they bring out
new technology, the world believes them you see. Except it is not as simple
as that. No, even the tecnocracy is at war with itself, fighting trade
battles as much as ascension battles. Mage lives are rarely at stake
anymore, and old warriors are pushed aside for acquisative youth.
But these mages rarely suffer. After the precedent of Microsoft, other
companies grew in size, until they outgrew governments. Governments had no
choice but to acceed to the corporations wishes. When apocalypse rose, the
only people to withstand the blistering effects of the vampire elders and
the mad werewolves were the corporations, and with the now complete
destruction of most governments, they took over.
The corporations built specially protected buildings on the rubble. South
America, defended against the elders by the Sabbat, and defended
successfully by the Bastet, Garou and Mokolé there was tactically nuked, and
bitter disputes within the technocracy split the formerly allied
corporations and so a lot of the USA was nuked; the French aggressors were
devasted; literally. When the tensions eased, the world was a mess.
Corporation buildings using new, liberated, technology were built higher and
higher. Food could now be created artificially. Resources, formerly ripped
from the Earth could now be made to appear at will. Nature was now
redundant. In its place, the now competitive corporations.
Against these odds, remnent of the traditions survive. Rarely doing much
more than looking after themselves, certainly not doing anything in the
open, these women and men inevitably keep alive some of those sharing their
troubles, if only for their company. Among them are a few true paladins who
fight for a cause greater than themselves, and occasionally they join
together.
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