Monsters! Monsters! Monsters!
Today I'm seriously thinking about making the game setting wilder. Add more unexplained weirdness. More monsters. Fewer Breeds. More conflict.
Y'see, one sort-of problem with the basic Nuclear Beasts setting is that it isn't necessarily fun. Even games like Fallout had unexplained weirdness mixed in and mutant horrors that didn't necessarily make sense. In my current setting, the major sources of danger are killer robots and evil people. That's pretty much it. The monsters are few and far between.
One alternate possibility is to make the setting more twisted and allow for lots of weird, alien lifeforms. They might even be alien lifeforms, unleashed into the shattered ecosystem to remake it.
Let's say that I were going to use the Gamma World system for this game. I'd stat out a handful of Low Beast Breeds as potential PC races and give them appropriate abilities. Then they'd fight hideous and twisted monstrosities in the wastes. The Beast cities could still exist, but they'd be more isolated and clannish. The Verde might even be a protected region, where there is some sort of working defense system that keeps most of the monsters out.
I originally wanted to do a hard-SF setting with no powers and no weirdness. But, honestly, would I ever run a campaign in such a world? Have I ever had interest in running a game in such a world? Ever?
I think the answer is "not really". I've always preferred settings that added weird elements and then had the rest of the setting adjust to it realistically. A mix of realism and fantasy. A game that allows you to justify the occasional mutant monster or psychic entity while not descending into utter silliness.
This is a totally different approach from what I've been trying. The novelty is causing ideas to spring up... I may keep some of them even if I don't go with this direction.
- The "safe" zones like the Verde and the Southern Kingdoms are protected by Sentinels... they patrol the edges and kill both monsters and Beasts who approach them too carelessly.
- High Beasts wearing ID cards on cords around their necks as amulets. The Sentinels don't kill creatures with IDs or those that seem to be under their protection. The struggle to find new IDs in the ruins is one of the biggest motivations of the scavengers. The Verde always needs more.
- Hideous mutants coming from the south. Twisted, hairless things with rubbery skin, fungal-looking body growths and no visible sensory organs. Are they the products of some alien ecology unleashed on earth? The end-product of a genetic engineering project gone horribly awry? Let your GM figure it out.
- Caretakers are often unaware of their own nature. They have cybernetic implants that influence their thoughts, record their experiences, and ensure their loyalty. There's an A.I. that is slowly trying to take over the world using these enslaved creatures.
- The A.I.s have been at war for a long time. Some of them manufacture killer robots. Others genetically engineer monsters. At least one of them enslaves existing creatures by implanting cybernetic controllers into them. The Beasts were originally intended to be such a weapon, but broke free.
- Large portions of the ecosystem have become strange. Beasts who range too far from the protected zones will find themselves worrying about whether or not these weird pods and mushroom-thingies are edible or dangerous. The Scavenger gift becomes really useful.
- If the Beasts were intended as weapons, there will be a limited set with a range of abilities that match what they were expected to do. Wolf and Lion infantry. Otter water-scouts. Squirrel forest-scouts. Humanoid Bears, Elephants and Rhinos as shock troops. Harpy (Vulture) air-scouts. Burrowing Mouse engineers. Swift Horse messengers. Minor Breeds could still exist, of course, but it might take some tweaking to justify that.
- This is a very different approach. There wouldn't be that many Low Beasts. We might even get rid of the distinction in some cases (e.g.- Squirrels, Raccoons and Mice may look more like Low Beasts than High, but their hands have been altered to give them opposable thumbs). There might be a third category, or we could go back to just one sort and remove the High/Low divide.
Posted by Kiz at June 7, 2004 04:20 PM