Jun 3, 2024 9:15 pm
This is an interest check only; I am not ready to start this game, but I may be in a few weeks if there is interest. If I do start the game, it must be understood that the posting rate will not be fast. I lead a hectic life since my wife is blind and I serve as her eyes and her driver. I shoot for two moves a week, but as anyone in one of my games can tell you, we move a) at the speed of the slowest player, and b) there may be unforeseen delays.
THE HOOK
In the year 2019 AD, scientists used an experimental quantum technology to beam a message into space. The message spoke of humanity’s desire for peace, friendship, and understanding. On Saturday, June 13, 2020, Humanity’s message was answered. A fleet of dozens of city-sized starships arrived and entered Earth’s orbit. Scientists marveled at the technology that must have been required to build and move these Goliath Ships, and to decelerate them at speeds that seemed to ignore the known laws of physics.
The visitors did not seek out our leaders or communicate with our scientists. They did not provide information about life beyond our solar system, nor did they gift us with extraterrestrial technology. Instead, after three days in orbit, the alien fleet bombarded Earth with a cascade of high-altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks. This attack destroyed power grids and electronic devices worldwide, plunging humankind into chaos.
Even most of the world’s ‘hardened’ power systems and communication arrays were disabled by the EMP attack. Without electricity, food and medical supplies could not be distributed to cities, fuel could not be pumped from underground tanks, and water could not be easily purified. Without communication, law and order quickly broke down. Within a week, panic and deprivation spawned mass violence in urban centers all around the world. Authorities, rendered nearly powerless to communicate across distance, struggled to contain the madness.
A month after the lights went out, the invaders landed. Their Goliath fleet sent forth huge dropships that became known as Harvester ships. They thundered to the surface, billowing immense trails of smoke that darkened the skies over the major cities where they landed: Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, New York City, Cairo, Moscow, and many more.
The starving, terrified populaces soon found that the smoke emitted as the Harvester Ships landed was something more sinister, which could later be known as the GenBomb: a lingering cloud that combined mutagenic particulate matter with swarms of insidious, invasive nanites. While their ships settled into place, creaking and groaning from the stresses of Earth gravity, the invaders’ GenBomb visited immediatebhorror upon millions.
The nanites dispersed by the GenBomb were attracted to both technology and flesh. Manufactured items infiltrated by the nanites immediately became unreliable, often failing to function altogether. The GenBomb’s effect on living creatures was even more destructive: creatures infected with the nanites found themselves changing in awful and unpredictable ways, as alien mutagenic particles were deliberately introduced to their DNA.
Each landing ship seemed to disgorge a different ‘flavor’ of GenBomb, resulting in different effects being visited on the various regions where they landed. In Mexico City, many citizens were overcome with bestial madness, tearing each other apart; in Chicago, human bodies swelled until a majority of the population were fleshy cubes, unable to move.
While the GenBomb wreaked havoc on Earth, the Harvester Ships opened, and spat forth the aliens - who we would call the Butchers - and their armies. Alongside each of the titanically powerful Butchers scrabbled hundreds of biomechanical horrors - twisted amalgams of flesh and technology. These armies marched into the cities and struck down what resistance the locals could muster. While the biomechanical servitors were dangerous, they could be slain by concentrated fire or a well-placed explosive. Their alien masters, however, stepped into the gaps wherever their servants were turned aside. A Butcher’s armor seemed near impregnable and their weapons were unstoppable. No military unit ever reported scoring a confirmed kill against a Butcher.
Both flesh and metal became raw materials as the Butchers’ Harvester Ships were converted into nightmarish industrial facilities. Day and night, victims were devoured, consumed as fuel, or converted into insane slaves through the use of gene-twisting and hideous biotechnological implantation.
Throughout all the horror, the Butchers never communicated with humanity. We never discovered the invaders’ motivations, learned their language, or had the opportunity to negotiate for mercy. The Butchers systematically dismantled human civilization, with utter disregard for humanity. We came to call this process The Harvest. Major cities were depopulated within ten years, with the survivors scattered into the countryside.
By the end of AD 2030, organized resistance to the Butchers had been completely crushed worldwide. No organized army remained in fighting condition. For decades, the Harvest continued, with the Butchers taking an almost leisurely approach to the final destruction of Earth. Then, in AD 2065, the skies of Earth were torn apart in dozens of places, and giant orbs of shimmering energy thrummed through the breaches. As best as the few human survivors could determine, the Butchers had an enemy: a race that we came to call the Ghosts. They were bizarre beings of sickening radiance, that seemed to exist partially outside our own reality.
The Ghosts, just as the Butchers before them, did not communicate with the few survivors of humankind. They focused entirely on exterminating the Butchers, engaging them in merciless combat around the globe, heedless of the effects their Breach technology had on our planet. It remains uncertain whether the Ghosts were even aware of humankind’s presence.
By AD 2072, the Butchers and Ghosts had spread throughout the solar system, still fighting, while the few human survivors struggled to survive the new hazards of Breach Zones and endure the hordes of hideous biomechanical creatures that the Butchers had left behind. During this time, most enclaves of survivors were wiped out by plague, starvation, or violence.
In April 2090, a titanic impact or explosion cracked the Moon. The Breaking resulted in further destruction for the remnants of mankind, as debris from the explosion crashed to Earth in a series of horrific impacts, leaving immense craters. However, this disaster also ushered in a new phase of the War between Butchers and Ghosts. Both races vanished from Earth’s surface, shifting their conflict into the far reaches of our solar system - and perhaps even farther!
More than a century after the Butchers’ arrival on Earth, there is no longer any functioning form of worldwide communication. Human society has been reduced to a pre-industrial level, a smattering of isolated communities struggling for resources and shelter amid the ruins of their great-grandparents’ cities. Many regions are utterly devoid of human presence.
While the Butchers have been chased back into space, their servants remain. From decaying facilities, biomechanical warbeasts still lumber forth to wreak havoc. Though their masters are not present to give orders, their genetic programming persists. These horrors still seek to slay and gather, to feed and terrorize. No one is sure if, deep in the abandoned Butcher facilities, captured victims are still being twisted into fresh horrors.
Many plants and animals are Changed in unpredictable ways. These anomalies are modified to become more resilient, more dangerous, and more aggressive. Some of these Changes have become permanent additions to a local population’s genetic line - in that the new DNA breeds true. This is also true among humans. Gen-bomb infection breaks down forged metal, infests plastics, and interferes with physical and chemical reactions - rendering technology that was once proven fact tenuous and unreliable. Throughout the world, Breach Zones defy all logic and reason. Within, incongruous and alien landscapes await intrepid explorers, and the previously-known laws of physics are often bent or broken.
Aside from the Breach Zones, Wind River is relatively untouched by the Harvest and the War. While Ferals and Changed animals roam, and the GenBomb’s infestation still infects manufactured goods and living creatures, it’s nonetheless true that the Valley is lush. There is ample clean water and healthy soil. It’s as far from a blasted wasteland as one could imagine. Farms and herds have space to thrive, and wildlife abounds.
In the face of all the new dangers of The After, the people of Wind River compete to explore the ruins of the time before The Harvest, hoping to uncover working bits of Old World technology. They delve into Breach zones, hoping to bring out bizarre Remnant technologies that might change the face of the world with their strange powers. They forge trade routes, battle twisted beasts, and frighten off bandits. They farm and herd and hunt.
They survive.
The After is a Savage Worlds campaign setting from Fainting Goat Games and Jade Monkey Studios. It is a post-apocalyptic setting in a ruined world decimated by alien invasion.
THE HOOK
In the year 2019 AD, scientists used an experimental quantum technology to beam a message into space. The message spoke of humanity’s desire for peace, friendship, and understanding. On Saturday, June 13, 2020, Humanity’s message was answered. A fleet of dozens of city-sized starships arrived and entered Earth’s orbit. Scientists marveled at the technology that must have been required to build and move these Goliath Ships, and to decelerate them at speeds that seemed to ignore the known laws of physics.
The visitors did not seek out our leaders or communicate with our scientists. They did not provide information about life beyond our solar system, nor did they gift us with extraterrestrial technology. Instead, after three days in orbit, the alien fleet bombarded Earth with a cascade of high-altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks. This attack destroyed power grids and electronic devices worldwide, plunging humankind into chaos.
Even most of the world’s ‘hardened’ power systems and communication arrays were disabled by the EMP attack. Without electricity, food and medical supplies could not be distributed to cities, fuel could not be pumped from underground tanks, and water could not be easily purified. Without communication, law and order quickly broke down. Within a week, panic and deprivation spawned mass violence in urban centers all around the world. Authorities, rendered nearly powerless to communicate across distance, struggled to contain the madness.
A month after the lights went out, the invaders landed. Their Goliath fleet sent forth huge dropships that became known as Harvester ships. They thundered to the surface, billowing immense trails of smoke that darkened the skies over the major cities where they landed: Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, New York City, Cairo, Moscow, and many more.
The starving, terrified populaces soon found that the smoke emitted as the Harvester Ships landed was something more sinister, which could later be known as the GenBomb: a lingering cloud that combined mutagenic particulate matter with swarms of insidious, invasive nanites. While their ships settled into place, creaking and groaning from the stresses of Earth gravity, the invaders’ GenBomb visited immediatebhorror upon millions.
The nanites dispersed by the GenBomb were attracted to both technology and flesh. Manufactured items infiltrated by the nanites immediately became unreliable, often failing to function altogether. The GenBomb’s effect on living creatures was even more destructive: creatures infected with the nanites found themselves changing in awful and unpredictable ways, as alien mutagenic particles were deliberately introduced to their DNA.
Each landing ship seemed to disgorge a different ‘flavor’ of GenBomb, resulting in different effects being visited on the various regions where they landed. In Mexico City, many citizens were overcome with bestial madness, tearing each other apart; in Chicago, human bodies swelled until a majority of the population were fleshy cubes, unable to move.
While the GenBomb wreaked havoc on Earth, the Harvester Ships opened, and spat forth the aliens - who we would call the Butchers - and their armies. Alongside each of the titanically powerful Butchers scrabbled hundreds of biomechanical horrors - twisted amalgams of flesh and technology. These armies marched into the cities and struck down what resistance the locals could muster. While the biomechanical servitors were dangerous, they could be slain by concentrated fire or a well-placed explosive. Their alien masters, however, stepped into the gaps wherever their servants were turned aside. A Butcher’s armor seemed near impregnable and their weapons were unstoppable. No military unit ever reported scoring a confirmed kill against a Butcher.
Both flesh and metal became raw materials as the Butchers’ Harvester Ships were converted into nightmarish industrial facilities. Day and night, victims were devoured, consumed as fuel, or converted into insane slaves through the use of gene-twisting and hideous biotechnological implantation.
Throughout all the horror, the Butchers never communicated with humanity. We never discovered the invaders’ motivations, learned their language, or had the opportunity to negotiate for mercy. The Butchers systematically dismantled human civilization, with utter disregard for humanity. We came to call this process The Harvest. Major cities were depopulated within ten years, with the survivors scattered into the countryside.
By the end of AD 2030, organized resistance to the Butchers had been completely crushed worldwide. No organized army remained in fighting condition. For decades, the Harvest continued, with the Butchers taking an almost leisurely approach to the final destruction of Earth. Then, in AD 2065, the skies of Earth were torn apart in dozens of places, and giant orbs of shimmering energy thrummed through the breaches. As best as the few human survivors could determine, the Butchers had an enemy: a race that we came to call the Ghosts. They were bizarre beings of sickening radiance, that seemed to exist partially outside our own reality.
The Ghosts, just as the Butchers before them, did not communicate with the few survivors of humankind. They focused entirely on exterminating the Butchers, engaging them in merciless combat around the globe, heedless of the effects their Breach technology had on our planet. It remains uncertain whether the Ghosts were even aware of humankind’s presence.
By AD 2072, the Butchers and Ghosts had spread throughout the solar system, still fighting, while the few human survivors struggled to survive the new hazards of Breach Zones and endure the hordes of hideous biomechanical creatures that the Butchers had left behind. During this time, most enclaves of survivors were wiped out by plague, starvation, or violence.
In April 2090, a titanic impact or explosion cracked the Moon. The Breaking resulted in further destruction for the remnants of mankind, as debris from the explosion crashed to Earth in a series of horrific impacts, leaving immense craters. However, this disaster also ushered in a new phase of the War between Butchers and Ghosts. Both races vanished from Earth’s surface, shifting their conflict into the far reaches of our solar system - and perhaps even farther!
More than a century after the Butchers’ arrival on Earth, there is no longer any functioning form of worldwide communication. Human society has been reduced to a pre-industrial level, a smattering of isolated communities struggling for resources and shelter amid the ruins of their great-grandparents’ cities. Many regions are utterly devoid of human presence.
While the Butchers have been chased back into space, their servants remain. From decaying facilities, biomechanical warbeasts still lumber forth to wreak havoc. Though their masters are not present to give orders, their genetic programming persists. These horrors still seek to slay and gather, to feed and terrorize. No one is sure if, deep in the abandoned Butcher facilities, captured victims are still being twisted into fresh horrors.
Many plants and animals are Changed in unpredictable ways. These anomalies are modified to become more resilient, more dangerous, and more aggressive. Some of these Changes have become permanent additions to a local population’s genetic line - in that the new DNA breeds true. This is also true among humans. Gen-bomb infection breaks down forged metal, infests plastics, and interferes with physical and chemical reactions - rendering technology that was once proven fact tenuous and unreliable. Throughout the world, Breach Zones defy all logic and reason. Within, incongruous and alien landscapes await intrepid explorers, and the previously-known laws of physics are often bent or broken.
Aside from the Breach Zones, Wind River is relatively untouched by the Harvest and the War. While Ferals and Changed animals roam, and the GenBomb’s infestation still infects manufactured goods and living creatures, it’s nonetheless true that the Valley is lush. There is ample clean water and healthy soil. It’s as far from a blasted wasteland as one could imagine. Farms and herds have space to thrive, and wildlife abounds.
In the face of all the new dangers of The After, the people of Wind River compete to explore the ruins of the time before The Harvest, hoping to uncover working bits of Old World technology. They delve into Breach zones, hoping to bring out bizarre Remnant technologies that might change the face of the world with their strange powers. They forge trade routes, battle twisted beasts, and frighten off bandits. They farm and herd and hunt.
They survive.
The After is a Savage Worlds campaign setting from Fainting Goat Games and Jade Monkey Studios. It is a post-apocalyptic setting in a ruined world decimated by alien invasion.
Last edited June 3, 2024 9:17 pm
